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DFRPG Resource Collection / Re: Custom Power List
« on: December 02, 2016, 05:41:57 AM »If you're gonna represent spell destruction as an attack, then I think attacks should do nothing until and unless they take out the target spell. That's how attacks work. Even consequences don't come into play unless the attack is capable of scoring a take-out. (Barring weird edge cases.)
Actually...thinking more about the attack model, I'm pretty sure I don't like it. It inherently adds complexity to spells, giving them stress tracks to pay attention to when previously they were dead simple. Rolling against a difficulty seems better.
I think the duration is probably more important than the power, when it comes to destroying a spell. Ending a spell that'll last for three more exchanges is a lot less impressive/useful than ending one that'll last for three more years. Even if the power is similar.
Oh holy heck, that's a great idea. Have the power work by moving the spell down the duration table in some fashion.
Compels can work however the GM wants. Just pick a number, that's the accuracy.
I don't think it's a good idea to make a high roll a bad thing, and I don't like the extra complexity of having attacks pass through like that. I suggest dropping the whole idea.
OK, I'll mull it over and decide how I will work that aspect - or drop it - later.
I think fallout is generally going to make more sense. Smashing a wall of fire ought to work more or less the same whether the creator is nearby or not, and intuitively it seems more reasonable for spells to burst chaotically rather than in a directed manner.
So if I were you I'd just not have backlash happen when spells are damaged/destroyed.
Hmm, I think I see where you are coming from. I think this is more a difference of goals of what we want the power to be able to do in the game world, really.
If the caster is present I would imagine them trying to bind up those energies and suck them away, use their will to prevent the energy from bursting loose in the same way as taking backlash is suffering extra stress to prevent energy from bursting loose. Or put another way, perhaps I should have it be the caster can take an action to perform a block to prevent the spell energy from being fallout, which entails a containing-spell which is the stress. Either way, the fallout should be preventable in some way if the caster is present, provided the caster has time to understand what just happened and react accordingly. This goes double if the caster already knows the enemy can tear spells apart, such as seeing their buddy's spell torn apart a moment before and having a second to brace.
I think the second approach is probably a good one. Keeps the power useful, but puts limits on its effectiveness.
Mmhm, I agree.
You've made healing pretty easy. If you can beat a stress box's value more reliably than the attacker can hit, you can heal forever and still make the occasional attack. And that's very feasible.
Reinforcements are just as likely to be on the healer's side.
And yes, stress is weariness and minor injuries. But it's also a plot shield - it's the right to say "that bullet didn't really hit me, at least not directly". Treating it entirely as a measure of exhaustion doesn't really work - your stress can be stripped away from you in a volley of gunfire without you moving a muscle, rendering you vulnerable to further shots. That's not how tiredness or injury works.
Why should stress healing be possible? It doesn't seem to add anything either narratively or mechanically.
I feel it does add something narratively. It washes away fatigue, reinforces the mind, etc. It represents preventing consequences by infusing the target with energy, or even luck in some cases. An infusion of luck from a minor luck-goddess could be represented as more "plot armour" as you describe stress here. The idea is that the mechanic, itself, can represent fluff and to me is thus valuable. I don't know how to actually make it workable and fair at this time, though.
I think the difference between healing light bursts and healing light vines is best represented through Aspects, rather than Powers. Bear in mind, a fire whip and a fire blast can be mechanically identical.
I can see some (narrow) uses for it with Area Healing, but I'm not sure Area Healing should even exist. Like I said, I think it'll generally be either useless or overpowered.
And the ability for Ranged Healing to hit the wrong person seems like unnecessary complexity.
I don't agree that an Aspect should be used to represent the difference between those two precisely because of the situation in which multiple potential targets are in one zone. That does happen rather frequently in my games, and could cause a lot of problems. That said, a person who wants whips of light to heal who doesn't buy selective would still get whips in my games; the difference is that the whips are hard to control, or too numerous, or otherwise fail to be selective. The selectivity itself is a Stunt in my games, which most powers with area effects can select if desired.
I could see Area Healing being overpowered, yeah. TBH I would most likely require a High Concept related to the Healing that properly represents it before allowing it in one of my own games. I trust each GM to decide how they want that sort of thing to work. *nods sagely*
Oh I represent hitting the wrong person with a scatter mechanic in pretty much all games, even games that don't have it. It's a group preference thing, really, so YMMV. XD