Author Topic: A "force sword"?  (Read 6179 times)

Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #15 on: December 03, 2010, 09:01:59 PM »
Actually it was less Percy Jackson and more "the pen is mightier than the sword" - which is probably the inspiration for the Percy Jackson pen/sword.

Speaking of Percy Jackson - that movie (and the books that inspired it) is full of scion concepts.  Most of the main characters have "Son of..." or "Daughter of..." as their high concepts, and you can almost see the compells when it come to the daughters of Aphrodite and some of the other characters who act like their divine parents.

It could easily be adapted to a high powered Dresden game.

Richard   

Offline Nyarlathotep5150

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #16 on: December 03, 2010, 09:10:13 PM »
Speaking of Percy Jackson - that movie (and the books that inspired it) is full of scion concepts.  Most of the main characters have "Son of..." or "Daughter of..." as their high concepts, and you can almost see the compells when it come to the daughters of Aphrodite and some of the other characters who act like their divine parents.

    Absolutely. Plus the books are pretty good. Way better than Harry Potter. They're also a good basis for ideas if you want to use greek mythology in a Dresden game. I personally didn't care for the movie though. It was kinda weak.

Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #17 on: December 03, 2010, 09:15:33 PM »
It was weak and it aged the characters.  In the movie the characters start off as "High schoolers / old enough to drive" when the books they start off more or less where Harry Potter did.  The stuff they skipped over means they can't milk the books for movies the way Harry Potter books were milked because:
a) the characters would quickly be too old for most of it make sense, and
b) most of the elements that point to the end were cut from the movie.

But as a "eat popcorn cheer for the good guys" type movie it was okay.  Especially if you tried to pretend that it wasn't actually based on any book.

Richard

Offline Nyarlathotep5150

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #18 on: December 03, 2010, 10:20:56 PM »
It was weak and it aged the characters.  In the movie the characters start off as "High schoolers / old enough to drive" when the books they start off more or less where Harry Potter did.

 Mostly I didn't like how they 1) Disneyfied it by cutting out all the "More Mature" content. I actually wouldn't have minded them being older in the movie if they had left in the stuff about him being a troubled kid, and how abusive hos stepdad was.
   And 2) They cut out all the depth of the first books story, and replaced it with scenes from the later books.
   And 3) They made the underworld into Hell, and Hades into Satan (I hate when people do that, because in the myths Hades was actually one of the more benign gods).

   Anyway, I like Riordans work. He really knew what he was talking about, the movie just kinda did whatever it wanted.

Offline Valarian

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #19 on: December 03, 2010, 10:40:34 PM »
And 3) They made the underworld into Hell, and Hades into Satan (I hate when people do that, because in the myths Hades was actually one of the more benign gods).
I agree, what most Christians like to think of as hell is Tartarus in Greek myth.
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Offline Haru

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #20 on: December 04, 2010, 12:20:05 AM »
That is way overpriced. Compare with Incite Emotion with the Lasting Emotion upgrade for a -2 cost. Whoever has that ability can attack, maneuver and block at skill+2, with a melee weapon 2 effect that does mental damage (thus ignoring toughness and most armor).

Why is it overpriced? It is exactly what Breath Weapon does, except it can only be used in the zone you are in instead of up to 1 zone away, which is 0.5 refresh at most. I tried to put that into a stunt that is tied to the power and fits the melee theme. Maybe you can add a bonus to the parry if the effect type of the weapon resonates with what you want to parry. Remember, that it is a power:2 attack spell with no stress cost, so you can throw those around as much as you like while any wizard without that power would be drained of his resources pretty fast. I think -2 refresh is absolutely fair. As zerogain said, you could think about a discount if you already have evocation or at least channeling for the element you chose for the weapon, but other than that I think it is fine.
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Offline WillH

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #21 on: December 04, 2010, 02:24:51 AM »
Why is it overpriced?

Because it is nothing but claws, a -1 power, with different color.

Offline Belial666

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #22 on: December 04, 2010, 08:59:18 AM »
And because unlike Breath Weapon, Incite Emotion can be used for attacks, maneuvers and blocks at skill+2. The full potential of Incite Emotion is summarized below;

Someone with Superb Intimidate and Incite Fear + Lasting Fear can rip your mind to shreds, doing Epic attacks at Weapon 2. Or they can make you cower in terror, unable to think of anything to do - that's an Epic offensive Block against your Discipline - or make themselves so terrifying you fear to attack them - that's an Epic defensive block against your attacks. Even a wizard with superb discipline is going to get mauled by something like that. And don't forget all the aspects they can apply to others - and themselves. They can do maneuvers that very nearly automatically succeed against most people to apply sticky aspects like "cowering", "fleeing in terror", "fainted", and any other nasty, fear-related thing you can think of as well as put on themselves sticky aspects like "frightening", "intimidating", "dreadful presence" and so on, which they can tag on social rolls (duh), defense rolls (you fear to attack them), attack rolls (your fear of them is a weakness), and of course further uses of the Incite Emotion power itself since an emotion-related aspect that matches the emotion of the Incite power is only going to help.

Same thing can be done with pretty much any emotion - though Despair is more offensive than Fear in general, while Lust is more socially oriented and defensive. After all, who would want to attack the sex-goddess they are busy drooling over? That their inability to attack (or socially engage, depending on the situation) comes from a Legendary+1 block made by tagging an "unnaturally attractive" aspect she'd previously created on herself via maneuver in order to enhance her use if Incite Emotion to create said block is kind of lost on them; you can't read the fine print when you're busy making a fool of yourself.




There's a reason Incite Emotion + Lasting Emotion is priced as much as Channeling.

Offline Parad0x

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #23 on: December 04, 2010, 03:39:56 PM »
Quote
Since any thaumaturgy rite can be put into an item the easiest way to make a sword appear is an enchanted item that conjures one.  Say a sword hilt - that way you can walk around unarmed until you need it, then use one of its daily uses or (if they've all been used) take a mental stress to conjure the sword.

 ;D I like the idea... kind of like a lightsaber style hilt that runs off magic vs tech.
Grab the hilt - poof - nice force blade, lightning blade, fire blade... sweet!

I had this thought for a character ive been dreaming of... but im still a n00b.

How would this work / be created and or invoked?

Offline sinker

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #24 on: December 04, 2010, 05:31:29 PM »
Of note, If you want to just cast an attack spell with additional duration, one way to make it more versatile is to mold the attack spell around an actual weapon. One of my friends was playing a blind winter emissary and he liked to wield a sword coated in an aura of decay. It worked quite well if a little overpowered, but then my problem lies less with the versatility and more with the concept of sustaining a 6 shift weapon.

Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #25 on: December 04, 2010, 09:26:24 PM »
;D I like the idea... kind of like a lightsaber style hilt that runs off magic vs tech.
Grab the hilt - poof - nice force blade, lightning blade, fire blade... sweet!

I had this thought for a character ive been dreaming of... but im still a n00b.

How would this work / be created and or invoked?

Check out YS 275 for the rules on conjuring a normal sword.  If memory serves it's 3 shifts to do it.

To do a light saber type thing... 
Looking at the Shape Magical Energies into Physical Forms heading "The complexity of one of these spells is
similar to the shift requirements for an equivalent evocation (block for wards, attack for magical traps, etc.) with additional shifts added for duration."

Problem: those attacks are one offs, which would mean re-activating the sword after every attack.

So maybe:
+ 3 base for conjuring a sword
+ 2 give it the aspect "energy sword" - tagged for a +1 damage.
+ 5 duration (15 minutes per use)

If the math is right you would need Lore 5 to make an enchanted item to conjure your sword.

And if the math isn't right then I'm sure someone will point that out.

Yes, it does look high, but it explains why Dresden doesn't have his own light saber.

Richard


Offline Nyarlathotep5150

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #26 on: December 04, 2010, 09:40:37 PM »
   Make the Enchanted Item Light sabre. Take Channeling (force), and Ritual (mind magic) and you have a Jedi.


   Or if you just want a guy with a badass energy sword, you might just make it an Item of Power.

Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: A "force sword"?
« Reply #27 on: December 04, 2010, 10:02:16 PM »
An Item of Power might be the best way to stat out an energy sword like the ones from the movies...

Thinking about it, that trick that Luccio does with fire is basically an invocation energy sword with reach.  The trick is to stat it as a thaumaturgy spell that:
a) isn't impossible to put into an enchanted item, and
b) is useful.

Part of me wants to make it a conjured sword with an aspect that makes it look kewl, but leaves it with the stats of a basic sword.  That would be much easier to do but you'd lose out on being able to cut things in two.

Then again, it might be worth it just for the "watch this" factor as you activate it.

Richard