How should I develop my character's powers?

[Kiero]

Alternatively you can stick with Weapons but go ranged with a IOP that gives a reskinned Breath Weapon (an IOP weapon with a Mjollnir-type return to thrower enchantment).

I like that idea a lot. To be honest the only thing I'd really want out of an IoP is the Unbreakable quality (no Supernatural Strength-based Compels for breakage!), but that would be a neat direction to take some additional powers to soak up the discounts.

I'm thinking simply Breath Weapon [-2], Good Arm (YS156) [-1] and the Discount [+2] for a simple [-1] Item of Power. Probably an axe, that makes sense for something that can be thrown.

Or perhaps instead of Good Arm it should have a 1-point Power which gives +1 to hit when thrown and +1 range?

EDIT: Actually I'm not sure Breath Weapon works so well, at least so far as it not allowing you to add Inhuman/Supernatural Strength to it. Any thrown weapon normally allows you to add that; so what we're really looking for is a "returns to hand" Power rather than a "strike at range" Power.

For three points of Refresh, shouldn't there be 4-6 Shifts worth of stuff in a Power? So how does this sound for a total -3 Refresh package:
[-1] Returns to hand
[-1] +1 to Weapons rolls when thrown, +1 Zone to range
[-1] Supernatural Senses - detects a particular sort of foe

I reckon between them the first two are a total 2-points and the last is for flavour. Perhaps it should be stored in a dedicatd "sword space" in the Nevernever or something? Is that worthy of a whole point of Refresh?

Your physical defenses are pretty good with respect to the Refresh level of your game, a straight up +5 with Weapons or a +4+1(with Inhuman Speed). Without knowing what house Powers there are in your game, I am assuming there aren't any magical Social attack vectors. From my view, your Mental stress track is vulnerable, which is why I suggested you get a stunt to boost your Discipline. Personally I'd go with defense over offense, but that is personal preference.

We'll see how the game goes as far as mental attacks go; I've just upped my track by one getting Conviction and my Good (+3) Discipline is the second best of any of the PCs in the game (the Wizard and WCV have Great (+4), but no one else has anything near that).

[Sanctaphrax]

I don't see the problem with breaking your weapon, actually. The FP ought to make it worth it.

Weapon Master is bland and a bit too powerful.

IoP looks mechanically decent but uninteresting. It doesn't even have a name.

Hm, I just had a stunt idea that I quite like. Not sure if you'd be interested, but I might as well post it here.

Weapons:

Blade-Shattering Force: Your strikes are so powerful that they sometimes destroy the weapons you use to make them. When you successfully hit someone with a close-combat Weapons attack, you may choose to have your weapon break. If you do so, the attack inflicts three additional stress.

Not entirely certain of balance here. But I like the idea enough to post it anyway.

[Tedronai]

It's basically Killer Blow translated to weapons, with the once/scene restriction replaced by the fact that it can only be 'paid' with the FP that would otherwise be generated by the compel of a broken weapon.
I think it should be reasonably balanced.

[Kiero]

I don't see the problem with breaking your weapon, actually. The FP ought to make it worth it.

As long as I have alternate weapon, it's fine. Otherwise I'm down to Fists (which is now the lesser of my two combat Skills). So that's a hit in both accuracy and damage.

Weapon Master is bland and a bit too powerful.

It's little different to other Stunts I've seen in SotC; +1 Stress isn't anywhere near as significant as +1 Skill, and +2 to Maneuvers is about equivalent to a +1 Stress. So not really too powerful.

Can't say I'm bothered about bland, "colour" comes from my Aspects, not my Stunts/Powers.

IoP looks mechanically decent but uninteresting. It doesn't even have a name.

Again I don't care about interesting, but useful. It doesn't have a name because I hadn't even gotten that far in my thinking about it, only as far as a collection of Powers that might make sense together.

Hm, I just had a stunt idea that I quite like. Not sure if you'd be interested, but I might as well post it here.

Weapons:

Blade-Shattering Force: Your strikes are so powerful that they sometimes destroy the weapons you use to make them. When you successfully hit someone with a close-combat Weapons attack, you may choose to have your weapon break. If you do so, the attack inflicts three additional stress.

Not entirely certain of balance here. But I like the idea enough to post it anyway.

It's balanced, insofar as it's very similar to Killer Blow. But it's also a poor trade, IMO, I'd rather have an FP than a measly extra point of Stress.

[Tedronai]

It's little different to other Stunts I've seen in SotC; +1 Stress isn't anywhere near as significant as +1 Skill, and +2 to Maneuvers is about equivalent to a +1 Stress. So not really too powerful.

It would, in my opinion, be reasonably balanced if it were to include some substantive restriction beyond 'with hand-held weapons / Weapons-based maneuvers'.
In the absence of such restrictions, however, I, too, must conclude that it is overpowered.

[toturi]

EDIT: Actually I'm not sure Breath Weapon works so well, at least so far as it not allowing you to add Inhuman/Supernatural Strength to it. Any thrown weapon normally allows you to add that; so what we're really looking for is a "returns to hand" Power rather than a "strike at range" Power.

I think Breath Weapon does allow you to add Inhuman/Supernatural Strength to it. It is how I run it in my game. If your GM runs the power differently, then maybe another Stunt/Power will be better.

I have a suggestion for an alternate Weapon Master.
Weapon Master : + 2 Stress with melee weapons against opponents with lower Weapon skill, +1 Stress with melee weapons against opponents with equal Weapon skill. There is no effect on opponents of greater skill. (modified and reskinned Lethal Weapon)

[Sanctaphrax]

The resemblance between Killer Blow and Blade-Shattering Force is superficial. Breaking your weapon isn't worth a FP when you have another weapon at hand, which you almost certainly will if you intend to use this stunt.

Combined with a stunt that lets you ignore supplemental penalties for drawing weapons, it's a fairly universal +3 stress. Which might be a bit too much. Hence my worry. I'm probably just being paranoid, though.

I quite like toturi's new version of Weapon Master, assuming that "Weapon skill" is expanded to include Guns and Fists. It's too broad otherwise.

It's still pretty broad after my proposed change, but not more so than I can accept.

[Kiero]

The resemblance between Killer Blow and Blade-Shattering Force is superficial. Breaking your weapon isn't worth a FP when you have another weapon at hand, which you almost certainly will if you intend to use this stunt.

Combined with a stunt that lets you ignore supplemental penalties for drawing weapons, it's a fairly universal +3 stress. Which might be a bit too much. Hence my worry. I'm probably just being paranoid, though.

Balanced or no, it sounds like a pretty much worthless expenditure of a point of Refresh. Pay Refresh for perhaps a one-off +3 Stress in a conflict. That's totally useless when I can get +2 to hit (better than a damage bonus and also additional Shifts which equal Stress) simply by spending an FP on a relevant Aspect. In other words, just as pointless as Killer Blow, but at least it doesn't also cost an FP to use.

I'd get better economy out of taking a Compel on my High Aspect for a weapon breaking and applying another FP to the roll in which it broke.

+1 Stress with melee weapons using the Weapons Skill is not powerful. There's a Stunt in LoA, Military Training, that does exactly that. For the same price, I could simply take Claws, have an un-disarm-able Weapon:2 available all the time and no longer need to use the Weapons Skill altogether.

It isn't much different from Off-hand Weapon Training, barring that it doesn't require a second weapon. Indeed, I could probably get more from Off-hand Weapon Training if I were using two huge weapons that required Inhuman Strength to swing one-handed in the first place, since it rounds up the damage of the second weapon.

A Stunt should be worth a Shift, maybe a Shift-and-a-half (because most of the base FATE games have very coarse grains to them). A general +1 Stress is half a Shift; +2 to maneuvers is one Shift. If we were really concerned about the combination, then +1 Stress and +1 to maneuvers would be 1-Shift's worth.

[toturi]

Killer Blow, IMO, is the bottom feeder of Stunts. It is nearly, in almost all circumstances, the worse choice. By comparison, nearly any other Stunt is better. If we are to make use of Killer Blow as a gauge, then I feel that it would be wise to use it as the lower bound of the power level of a Stunt. Any worse than Killer Blow will make the stunt absolutely craptacular.

[computerking]

I think I know what I don't like about Blade-Shattering Force: It lacks a proper triggering condition. Just successfully hitting with a melee weapon isn't specific enough. Combine that with the at-will utility of the stung and it's "Here, have +3." If the stunt were only usable if the GM has compelled your enhanced strength to break your weapon, it would be more stunt-y (Plus, you'd have gotten a Fate point to boot!)

So maybe this way:

Blade-Shattering Force: Your strikes are so powerful that they sometimes destroy the weapons you use to make them. When your weapon breaks due to a compel from the GM, . If you do so, the attack inflicts three additional stress.

...would work better. Any opinions?

[Kiero]

Killer Blow, IMO, is the bottom feeder of Stunts. It is nearly, in almost all circumstances, the worse choice. By comparison, nearly any other Stunt is better. If we are to make use of Killer Blow as a gauge, then I feel that it would be wise to use it as the lower bound of the power level of a Stunt. Any worse than Killer Blow will make the stunt absolutely craptacular.

True enough.

Were I to rehabilitate Killer Blow, I'd make it add 4 or even 5 Stress to a hit on the expenditure of an FP.

[Kiero]

I think I know what I don't like about Blade-Shattering Force: It lacks a proper triggering condition. Just successfully hitting with a melee weapon isn't specific enough. Combine that with the at-will utility of the stung and it's "Here, have +3." If the stunt were only usable if the GM has compelled your enhanced strength to break your weapon, it would be more stunt-y (Plus, you'd have gotten a Fate point to boot!)

So maybe this way:

...would work better. Any opinions?

It's now even more conditional; why would I spend a point of Refresh on it?

[Sanctaphrax]

No.

Look, BBF is totally underpowered if you aren't using it more or less every time you attack. So if you take it, you should be carrying more swords than a sword store. And you should use a new one every exchange.

The reason I was unsure of its balance is that it could be underpowered due to its big drawback or overpowered due to its universal applicability.

And yes, Killer Blow sucks.

PS: @Kiero: Have you read the stunt creation guidelines for DFRPG? It sounds as though you are working from the rules of other games here.

[Kiero]

No.

Look, BBF is totally underpowered if you aren't using it more or less every time you attack. So if you take it, you should be carrying more swords than a sword store. And you should use a new one every exchange.

The reason I was unsure of its balance is that it could be underpowered due to its big drawback or overpowered due to its universal applicability.

And yes, Killer Blow sucks.

I could see that working in a more humorous game, where the PC could have a "weapons caddy" who carries a big bag of arms around with them.

"Hmmm, the bastard sword this time, Manners."

"Sir, you broke the bastard sword when we fought that slime demon last week."

"Oh, I liked that sword. Alright, how about the Scottish broadsword?"

PS: @Kiero: Have you read the stunt creation guidelines for DFRPG? It sounds as though you are working from the rules of other games here.

Honestly, not in any real detail, I'm going off what I've done in other FATE games like SBA/LoA and SoF.

[benign]

An interesting discussion of stunt design by the makers of the FATE system can be found here. It's obviously a generic FATE thing and not expressly meant for DFRPG, but it's completely compatible with what is said in the book. It's a good read for someone developing stunts from scratch.