Modular Abilities Expanded

[Locnil]

I think he meant for use with the Catch/Limitation to reduce the cost to -1? Though I think that's explicitly against the RAW.

[Lavecki121]

I guess, but with that kind of power I would make you have a defined catch before hand. You shouldnt be changing your catch on the fly.

[Tedronai]

More likely, I would presume, was that he was referring to the Immunity rewrite created on this board.

More on-topic, catch-swapping is something I would be extremely leery of, as it could essentially result in the character having no catch at all, but nevertheless receiving the rebate of one (and likely a very large rebate, at that).
Are there any other problems that people can forsee stemming from a (heavily surcharged) 'almost-anything goes' Modular Abilities?

[Lavecki121]

Honestly I would make the character roleplay it. I would assume that a character like this would have a large ammount of magic/natural energies flowing through them. Maybe they were cursed for it or something. As long as they have an aspect relating to it (posibly thier high concept) I think it could work.

[Sanctaphrax]

Immunity =/= Physical Immunity. Talking about the custom Power here. I like my homebrew to be compatible with other homebrew.

Now, if you're not allowing custom Powers then you'll find that perfect Variable Abilities is less powerful. Which is actually a problem. It makes it essentially impossible to assign a fair Refresh cost to the list. Especially because the book actually encourages you to make more Powers.

How can you cost a list if you don't know what's on it?

And even if you redefine "any ability" to "any ability in YS" you still have a massive amount of Power from Stunts and spellcasting. That's +2 to pretty much any skill roll as long as you have a few seconds to prepare, and unlimited re-specialization in whatever field of magic you want.

Plus, being able to acquire any Item Of Power and any Sponsored Magic and any Marked By Power is thematically bizarre.

The more I think about the idea, the less I like it and the less confidence I have in the existence of a fair cost.

[Tedronai]

I wasn't aware that Modular Abilities allowed for the purchasing of stunts...
There really is only one Marked by Power.  The mechanical effects are identical regardless of who the patron is, and sufficient magic should really be able to deceive onlookers into believing that there is some patron protecting an individual, even if it's not capable of mimicing some particular patron's mark.
The primary issue I see with 'any sponsored magic' availability is one of roleplaying considerations related to actually receiving that power from that sponsor, and are thus avoidable by saying that the individual is capable of accessing 'self-sponsored magic' that produces essentially indistinguishable aptitudes.


Maybe I should rephrase this line of inquiry.  What would have to be excluded from the list of options for an 'everythin not on this list is fair game' Modular Abilities power to be reasonably costable?
What's the minimum 'exclusion list' that other members here would endorse simply for such a power to be acceptable at all (leaving the surcharge of the power off the table for now)?

[Lavecki121]

What if you made the traferrance time longer? It would force you be prepared ahead of time and would make it so you would have to really consider changing mid battle.

[Sanctaphrax]

I wasn't aware that Modular Abilities allowed for the purchasing of stunts...

The canon version may or may not, it's not totally clear. This version definitely does.

There really is only one Marked by Power
...
The primary issue I see with 'any sponsored magic' availability is one of roleplaying considerations related to actually receiving that power from that sponsor, and are thus avoidable by saying that the individual is capable of accessing 'self-sponsored magic' that produces essentially indistinguishable aptitudes.

Some of Sponsored Magic's effects are pretty intimately tied to its flavour. It doesn't refluff well.

I try to limit narrative as little as possible when I write crunch, as you know. But I really think that this idea is narratively unworkable.

Maybe I should rephrase this line of inquiry.  What would have to be excluded from the list of options for an 'everythin not on this list is fair game' Modular Abilities power to be reasonably costable?

You'd have to exclude all Powers and Stunts that have not yet been written. Plus Limitation, because it doesn't do anything if you can switch it out like that.

Apart from that I don't think there's anything you'd absolutely have to exclude, but keeping Immunity and Refinement and maybe one or two other things would kick the Refresh cost up to something absurd.

You'd probably have to exclude Lawbreaker and most Items Of Power and most Sponsored Magics, too. But that's a flavour thing, so it's up to individual groups.

What if you made the traferrance time longer? It would force you be prepared ahead of time and would make it so you would have to really consider changing mid battle.

It would help, but the issues would still be there.

[Tedronai]

What if you made the traferrance time longer? It would force you be prepared ahead of time and would make it so you would have to really consider changing mid battle.

Might want to try to work that into the end result of this rewrite as an option providing a discount of some indeterminate magnitude.

[Sanctaphrax]

Eh, maybe. I'm reluctant to add more complexity.