Cleaning Up The Stunt List

[Sanctaphrax]

No, of course not. It's a stunt. Stunts never require powers, even if they do nothing without them.

I don't think it needs to. Harry was able to fend off Bianca with his Faith and he has no Faith powers at all. Doing the same thing, but better, could easily justify this stunt.

I suppose you're right about the Discipline defense stunt. But actually, I think it could work in both skills. Maybe I'll duplicate it.

[Selrach]

Point. I suppose it is limited enough that I would be Ok if someone wanted to spend refresh on it. The situations you are describing sound more like declarations followed by compels to High Concepts  rather than Defense rolls  A very similar situation is described in the trappings of Holy Touch.

As for the the reactive Discipline stunt, I think that would be more like aligning defensive energy against magical attacks than really dodging. Plus a second stunt  could allow reactive defensive blocks or something similar.

[Sanctaphrax]

What could be modeled as a Declaration+Compel in one scenario could be a defense roll in another. It's a flexible system after all.

Discipline defense stunt input noted. But don't expect that upgrade stunt to be made again, since it is/would be worth much more than 1 refresh to many wizards.

[Sanctaphrax]

Alright, let's go over the red stunts. Plus Brutality, because of popular demand.

Shield Of Faith: Your faith protects you from harm. You may use your Conviction skill for physical defence.

becomes

Shield Of Faith: Your faith protects you from harm, repelling those evil beings that cannot tolerate its power. You may use your Conviction skill instead of your Athletics skill to defend against attacks from characters that have catches related to faith.

Master Manipulator: You can treat other people like chess pieces and make it work. At the beginning of each session, you may select one action for a certain character to carry out. You may use Deceit for social attacks intended to make that character perform that action.

Is eliminated because Deceit can already be used to make attacks and this stunt uses a lot of words in order to do nothing.

Instinctive Defence: Magic is the only defence you need. Whenever you would roll to defend yourself physically, you may instead cast an evocation and use the result of that evocation as your defence roll.

Is removed because implementing a houserule as a stunt is a bad idea. Also it becomes mandatory for wizards at high levels, which is very bad.

Backlash Absorber: You can take a lot of self-inflicted magical punishment. Choose one: either you may take two additional mild physical or mental consequences when facing magical backlash or you have a natural armour score of 1 against magical backlash.

Is removed because of an inconvenient sidebar.

Breath Control: Your breath is part of your body, just like your fists. Use your Fists skill to wield your Breath Weapon.

Is removed because its effect really shouldn't cost refresh.


Brutality: Your style of fighting verges upon the sadistic. You may use manoeuvres to inflict consequences. In order to do so, first state the name, level, and type of consequence that you would like to inflict. Then make an ordinary attack with the skill that you are using for the manoeuvre. If that attack hits and inflicts stress equal to or greater than the value of the consequence, then that consequence is inflicted. Extra stress is wasted, as is the entire manoeuvre if it misses or fails to inflict enough stress.

Extreme Brutality: (Requires Brutality) Your style of combat doesn’t just verge on the sadistic, it wallows in it. In order to use the Brutality stunt to inflict a consequence, you need only inflict stress equal to the value of the consequence minus two.

Removed because of popular consensus.

Prized Possession: You own something well above your income level. You may select a single item with a value up to your Resources skill +2 and add it to your starting gear.

Removed because it's a terrible idea.

Any objections?

[admiralducksauce]

Not from me.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

If you'd like to keep it around, Master Manipulator could be done as written but adding a stackable +1 to Deceit rolls fitting the predefined condition.  I think the requirement to predefine to that degree of specificity it is enough to warrant stackability.

[Sanctaphrax]

Yeah, you're right. It's probably salvageable. How about:

Master Manipulator: You can treat other people like chess pieces and make it work. Add one to your Deceit skill when using it to make an attack designed to trick your target into following a preset plan of yours.

It boosts pretty much all Deceit attacks, as long as nothing deviates from your plans. Which makes it pretty well balanced, I think.

Not sure about the wording, though.

[Silverblaze]

I feel that :

Shield Of Faith: Your faith protects you from harm. You may use your Conviction skill for physical defence.

Is overpowered but I feel that:


Shield Of Faith: Your faith protects you from harm, repelling those evil beings that cannot tolerate its power. You may use your Conviction skill instead of your Athletics skill to defend against attacks from characters that have catches related to faith.

Feels a little underpowered...

Could this stunt be turned into a power (feels more like a faith piower anyhow, to me...at least) and have it cost 2 refresh, allowing it to stay as originally built or closer to it?

Maion reason I ask is a character I play currently has use of that stunt and compared to the character using Endurance for defense and the character using athletics with supernatural speed soon to be mythic...it doesn't feel overpowered.

I figure changing it is possible and will happen, but as a player i'd like to be abkle to rectify the situation even if i can't grandfather the stunt/power in.

Open to suggestions from all, espeically my GM if he reads this.

I have little to no input regarding the other stunts

[Sanctaphrax]

I don't like the idea of turning it into a power. The separation between powers and stunts is important to me.

But if you were to stack a second a stunt onto the new Shield Of Faith to produce the effect of the old Shield Of Faith, it'd probably be balanced. Sort of like Conviction Footwork, you know?

I agree that the new Shield Of Faith is on the weaker side (in most games). But I'm not sure how to upgrade it without either damaging the flavour or making it too powerful.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Honestly, anything that produces the old SoF effect needs to be a Power.  I really don't care how much you believe something; if there's no mystical something happening, your faith isn't protecting you from gunshots or a pop in the nose.  If there is, it's a Power not a Stunt and you're not a Pure Mortal.

[ALurker]

Shield Of Faith: Your faith protects you from harm, repelling those evil beings that cannot tolerate its power. You may use your Conviction skill instead of your Athletics skill to defend against attacks from characters that have catches related to faith.

This is written so that it defends against ranged attacks as well and that makes no sense.

[Silverblaze]

Honestly, anything that produces the old SoF effect needs to be a Power.  I really don't care how much you believe something; if there's no mystical something happening, your faith isn't protecting you from gunshots or a pop in the nose.  If there is, it's a Power not a Stunt and you're not a Pure Mortal.

Agreed on all fronts here.

[ways and means]

I agree that the traditional shield of faith effect (conviction as a physical defense) should be a power given the effect seems to allow the impossible. The advise on custom power creation in the book seems to suggest it should be a -1 power.

When constructing new supernatural abilities,
simply use the stunt construction rules from page 147.
For each stunt’s worth of function (whether in shifts,
added trappings or scope, etc.) that the new
power provides, price that power at a cost of –1
refresh. Since taking a power means you get no
Pure Mortal refresh bonus (page 73), a –1 refresh
power is allowed to be a little more effective than
an otherwise equivalent stunt.

Your Story page 158

[Sanctaphrax]

Conviction as a universal physical defense is actually probably possible without Powers. See the canon stunt Blessed Words. (YS page 150). It lets you block attacks with Conviction. The fluff justification is basically that your saintliness makes people not want to attack you. (Would you punch Gandhi in the face?)

If it's possible to block, it should be possible to defend.

So Conviction Footwork is probably possible. But it should probably require Blessed Words in addition to Shield Of Faith.

Why should Shield Of Faith be limited to melee range? If your faith repels certain creatures within arm's reach, it can probably repel them from 10 feet away too. Or so goes my reasoning.

PS: @ways and means: No. We've been over this. Powers and stunts are different things. See my previous arguments on this point. Also, USE MY APEX SKILL TO DEFEND is not much less lame as a power.

[ways and means]

PS: @ways and means: No. We've been over this. Powers and stunts are different things. See my previous arguments on this point. Also, USE MY APEX SKILL TO DEFEND is not much less lame as a power.

Different but to quote above source equivalent, according to the Your Story 1 refresh powers should be equivalent too but slightly better than a stunt. A large number of 1 refresh powers in the game work like this for example Cloak of Shadows: +2 to stealth in a specific situation (so far so stunt) + see in the dark bonus, claws: +2 to weapons rating but with a weakness of visible claws, True Aim: +1 to weapons with a limit of use (beats comparable accuracy stunts by including defense etc), Second Ahead: Lore to roll all defense in social and physical (considerably better than Conviction just for physical) etc.