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Iron Warlock
Topic Started: Mar 28 2016, 10:44 PM (1,467 Views)
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Eisenritter
Mar 28 2016, 10:44 PM
Eldritch Trick
You learn, by hook, crook, or just plain luck, one of the following abilities. "Spending" raises to use this feat's effects prevents them from being counted toward inherent effects in the spell, but you can apply multiple instances of this feat as long as you have enough raises for all the effects used.

  • Evocation Mastery: You can spend 1 raise to add +1k0 to the damage of an Evocation spell, or 3 raises to add +0k1.
  • Duration Mastery: You can spend 2 raises to increase the duration of an effect from a round (or more) to "scene" or from "scene" to "indefinite."
  • Range Mastery: You can spend 1 raise to increase the range of the spell by 5m.
  • Area Mastery: You can spend 2 raises to increase the Blast radius of a spell by 1.
  • Counterspell Mastery: You can spend 1 raise to gain +1k1 on any opposed rolls that the spell involves, including saving throws and being on either side of a counter attempt.
  • Aura Mastery: You can spend 2 raises to gain Aura (1) for 1 round. If you already have such an Aura, it instead lasts an extra round.
  • Fatal Mastery: You can spend 3 raises to turn 1 damage that the spell would deal to Hit Points into Critical Damage.
  • Penetration Mastery: You can expend 2 raises to reduce the target's Aura against the spell by 1.

Alright, let's look at some of the other fancy tricks the class gets, part of the reason why we were discussing it being messed up.

Evocation mastery is mostly fine. It does lead to potential confusion though for the multi-hitting Evocation spells. Does the +1k0 or 0k1 add to all the attacks? That might be alright for a Magic Missile but for Energy Meteors it could be bad. In fact, Energy Meteors would probably need some Errata already since it is much of the reason why Evocation is so damn powerful.

Duration Mastery has a few issues I see. Round to scene is very powerful. Web for instance has no save, only a duration. Spending 2 raises on Web to make it last all scene is a bit excessive. Perhaps increasing the time by a set amount instead of just increasing it by such a jump. The same goes for Scene to indefinite. I'm going to interpret this that you can't make something go from rounds to scenes and then from scenes to indefinite for the sake of sanity. Even then it is a bit much since it lets you permanency many spells like Aura, Armor, Primal Power or Unluck. Getting +10 or more to all physical characteristics until someone dispels it is a bit much.

Range Mastery. It's okay. The most interesting thing is that it lets you use Touch range spells from a distance.

Area Mastery. Seems alright. I recommend making it increase or decrease, that's how we were using it in my campaign. The Warlock was making his Energyballs smaller so he wouldn't blow himself and the party up.

Counterspell mastery is... confusing? So do you spend 1 raise, reducing the focus power test by 1 and then roll 1d10 and add that back on to determine what needs to be opposed or saved against?

Aura Mastery isn't great but functional. Both the Aura feats have the issue of the Wizard Traditions doing them better, but hey.

Fatal Mastery is ridiculously powerful. 15 seems like a lot but a good wizard can easily get enough to make it easy. The secret is you pick an easy spell like Magic Missile, then blow off limbs with it.

Penetration mastery has the same issue I raised with Aura Mastery. There is a Wizard tradition that gives you up to 10 Aura penetration for free, and any good Evoker is going to take that if they can.
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Eisenritter
Mar 29 2016, 07:24 PM
...No, other way around. I see Poker Face as redundant, therefore my editing is based on that assumption. Also: Saving throw against mind reading is normally WIL-based, and non-magical deception assumes a FEL-based test.

Thinking about it now, I feel like I should strike out the fluffy-crap feats like this one for now in favor of focusing on the ones that give the Warlock its niche among casters. Also, probably needs a new set of names. :(
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Poker Face
Reading your face, allegiance or even alignment is completely impossible. Any attempts at reading your mind or figuring out your alignment or if you are lying are opposed by a Charisma + Arcana test instead of the normal – if any. If you succeed, they cannot detect the truth. This does not mean they believe you or not, just that you scramble up their results.


I see what you mean. It still seems useful since it lets you use existing skills in new ways, ways that a Warlock would probably excel at. It basically gives you a saving throw against normal Scrutiny. If you say something and someone tries to scrutinize it for falsehood, you then get to use your charisma magick to mess up their readings whether mundane or magical. Pretty handy.

And if that isn't good enough, better to make it better. Perhaps just make it impossible to discern your alignment at all, I know followers of Acerath/Acererak would love that.

Edited by Username, Mar 29 2016, 07:43 PM.
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Eisenritter
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Old Iron Knight
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Mar 29 2016, 07:33 PM
Evocation mastery is mostly fine. It does lead to potential confusion though for the multi-hitting Evocation spells. Does the +1k0 or 0k1 add to all the attacks? That might be alright for a Magic Missile but for Energy Meteors it could be bad. In fact, Energy Meteors would probably need some Errata already since it is much of the reason why Evocation is so damn powerful.

In fact, I do believe it may have been originally written on half-remembered assumptions, to wit "Magic Missile only gets copied for raises, which this eats, so the same must apply to all Evocation spells." While it might be a bit more complex, maybe a clause that checks for whether a copied spell has Blast before it decides how to apply?

Quote:
 
Duration Mastery has a few issues I see. Round to scene is very powerful. Web for instance has no save, only a duration. Spending 2 raises on Web to make it last all scene is a bit excessive. Perhaps increasing the time by a set amount instead of just increasing it by such a jump. The same goes for Scene to indefinite. I'm going to interpret this that you can't make something go from rounds to scenes and then from scenes to indefinite for the sake of sanity. Even then it is a bit much since it lets you permanency many spells like Aura, Armor, Primal Power or Unluck. Getting +10 or more to all physical characteristics until someone dispels it is a bit much.

So add one instance of the duration for each raise spent on it, then?

Quote:
 
Area Mastery. Seems alright. I recommend making it increase or decrease, that's how we were using it in my campaign. The Warlock was making his Energyballs smaller so he wouldn't blow himself and the party up.

Alright, look for it in the next edit cycle...

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Counterspell mastery is... confusing? So do you spend 1 raise, reducing the focus power test by 1 and then roll 1d10 and add that back on to determine what needs to be opposed or saved against?

No, "spending" raises on this feat only prevents them from being counted for the spell's effects. So this is locking out an increment of spell effect and getting +1k1 if your spell would be opposed. :(

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Aura Mastery isn't great but functional. Both the Aura feats have the issue of the Wizard Traditions doing them better, but hey.

Bleh...

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Fatal Mastery is ridiculously powerful. 15 seems like a lot but a good wizard can easily get enough to make it easy. The secret is you pick an easy spell like Magic Missile, then blow off limbs with it.

Eh, thought so, but I was thinking it might be salvageable somehow. Could strike it out, I guess.

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Penetration mastery has the same issue I raised with Aura Mastery. There is a Wizard tradition that gives you up to 10 Aura penetration for free, and any good Evoker is going to take that if they can.

At this point, probably better to give Wizard Tradition instead, then?
Edited by Eisenritter, Mar 29 2016, 07:50 PM.
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No, I like the idea of lowering the Focus Power test in exchange for cool things. It gives reason to get the focus power test as high as possible, and by spending the raises it makes it easier for enemies to dispel your magic so there is a risk reward tradeoff there. Helps separate the class more from the very solid Magic User classline as well.

Best to try and salvage the idea. Scrap some, fix others, add new to replace the old. Perhaps the ability to spend raises to make the Ballistics or Brawl test more accurate?
Edited by Username, Mar 29 2016, 07:52 PM.
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Eisenritter
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Old Iron Knight
No, I mean for the Aura/Penetration ones specifically. :(
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Eisenritter
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Old Iron Knight
Trimmed and revised Eldritch Trick options. Of note, less emphasis on schools, more on generally jacking up your own Focus Power tests just to have raises to fritter away no matter what you're casting.
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Eisenritter
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Old Iron Knight
Quick edit for Redirect the Hurricane...
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stellatedHexahedron
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Noneuclidean Polyhedron
A opposed test against whom?
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Eisenritter
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Old Iron Knight
The spell being cast.
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stellatedHexahedron
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Noneuclidean Polyhedron
You mean the FP test if the caster? That's not really clear. And what about the other things that cause psyphen, like Orgonne array?
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