Rejuvenation items and crashing afterward

[Nepene]

That might well work, mechanically, based on the Paranet Papers' rules for shapeshifting (2 shifts of effect for every 1 refresh of power, and Beast Change -- which swaps skills -- is 1 refresh; plus consequences), but the idea behind the ring is to help her spellcasting reserves, which are on her mental track.

You also have the thing of letting them use the physical stress track to fight. So, one stunt to emulate Beast Change, a second to give her a stunt to let her use her endurance for mental stress. 4 shifts. Lasts a couple minutes, or one scene.

[potestas]

about a spell that transfers energy from one person to another, or drains it from someone else.If you drain enough you can even compensate for the casting of the spell. Use people like a battery. No need to worry about consequences to your character or aspects to make up for it. You might have other issues but at least you have the energy to keep fighting.What good is an ally if he isn't willing to give his all to you...i mean the fight.

[Mr. Death]

about a spell that transfers energy from one person to another, or drains it from someone else.If you drain enough you can even compensate for the casting of the spell. Use people like a battery. No need to worry about consequences to your character or aspects to make up for it. You might have other issues but at least you have the energy to keep fighting.What good is an ally if he isn't willing to give his all to you...i mean the fight.

That's not really something a doctor would do.

[Quantus]

That's not really something a doctor would do.

A White Court Doctor might... 

[Mr. Death]

A White Court Doctor might... 

Pretty sure sacrificing others for their own health is the opposite of what any doctor is supposed to do >.>

[Quantus]

Pretty sure sacrificing others for their own health is the opposite of what any doctor is supposed to do >.>

Nah, they're just sacrificing some livestock... 

This is actually a reasonable build for a Wampire Wizard.  Per a WOJ (unverified) they top out at lower power levels thatn pure mortals but they can use their hunger to juice spells in impressive ways.  Using kine as Ki batteries would make a lot of sense for that. 

(click to show/hide)

'Are there White Court vampire wizards?'
Yes, there are. Thomas is middle-of-the-road in power and [ed: think I'm remembering this correctly] the strongest don't get as strong as mortal wizards [/ed], but they can pull off some strong tricks with their Hunger.

[Fenix Wulfheart]

Hmm. Why not just have the belt grant +1 Mental Stress track length per Effect Strength and grant the Aspect Invigorated By Seemingly Endless Power? Effectively, have it grant 1 effective Refresh worth of powerup for the scene per 2 points of power, aka one half point of refresh per shift. That work out to 1 Stress Box per Effect Strength. Then at the end of the scene, those boxes go away but any incurred stress that was in those boxes remain. The stress hits in the boxes that no longer exist would then occur as stress hits that happen all at once; if the character gets taken out and then gets hit more times, inflict one Moderate or better Consequence and let the rest of the hits dissipate.

This has the side effect of making the character resistant to mental attacks, which they should be at this point - their mind becomes more awake and alive after using the invigoration, and while "high" on the power resisting such attacks seems like child's play. Too bad the GM can compel that new Aspect to make you not realize how limited your newfound power is....

[Mr. Death]

Like adding a consequence, I feel like adding stress boxes is the realm of powers and stunts, not spells. And there are reasons the stress track is as short as it is -- with this set up, I could just cast this spell a couple times, giving myself a dozen stress boxes, effectively unlimited spells, and then at the end go, "Oh, it takes me out. I wake up a couple hours later."

Also, once a character's taken out, they don't take more consequences. If you could take more consequences while taken out, why would you bother letting yourself be taken out?

[Quantus]

Like adding a consequence, I feel like adding stress boxes is the realm of powers and stunts, not spells. And there are reasons the stress track is as short as it is -- with this set up, I could just cast this spell a couple times, giving myself a dozen stress boxes, effectively unlimited spells, and then at the end go, "Oh, it takes me out. I wake up a couple hours later."

Also, once a character's taken out, they don't take more consequences. If you could take more consequences while taken out, why would you bother letting yourself be taken out?

Wouldnt the Once per Session and Single Scene durations prevent that particular kind of abuse?

[Mr. Death]

Wouldnt the Once per Session and Single Scene durations prevent that particular kind of abuse?

It's an enchanted item. If I add a slot to it, that's three uses.

Hell, even if it has no uses left, you can use an enchanted item again by spending a mental stress.

[Quantus]

It's an enchanted item. If I add a slot to it, that's three uses.

Hell, even if it has no uses left, you can use an enchanted item again by spending a mental stress.

Ah, kk Im with you now.  That's why I initially was thinking it needed some kind of active Charge Up as opposed to just assuming it happens off-screen.  If you take the force Rings as the enchanted Item example,  I'd always thought of the removal of the Per Session limit would be equivalent to when harry upgraded them to interlocking rings with multiple shots, he could use them much more often but they'd still require actual time and movement to recharge.  From a purely in-world practicality sense, no amount of Mental Stress would create a reservoir of energy from nothing, I think this particular item would simply need a hard limit.  Maybe call it once-per-session, but also once per lunar cycle in-game, as an example?  Maybe once per Sunrise if that's too restricting?

[Mr. Death]

Ah, kk Im with you now.  That's why I initially was thinking it needed some kind of active Charge Up as opposed to just assuming it happens off-screen.  If you take the force Rings as the enchanted Item example,  I'd always thought of the removal of the Per Session limit would be equivalent to when harry upgraded them to interlocking rings with multiple shots, he could use them much more often but they'd still require actual time and movement to recharge.  From a purely in-world practicality sense, no amount of Mental Stress would create a reservoir of energy from nothing, I think this particular item would simply need a hard limit.  Maybe call it once-per-session, but also once per lunar cycle in-game, as an example?  Maybe once per Sunrise if that's too restricting?

That's the thing -- that limit is what the slots are supposed to represent in the first place. The interlocking rings, as the RPG book states, is basically just Harry adding extra uses and slots to it.

And even then, if you made a character specializing in crafting, you could easily make an item double this strength (8 extra stress boxes?) for three or four times the amount of uses in one slot.

If you have to change everything about how enchanted items work to accommodate the idea, it's probably not a good idea.

... Now I'm leaning back toward the "suffer an attack at 2x the number of boxes cleared." While it might not be an insurmountable hit to use it once, it would heavily discourage using the item multiple times in a row -- if you used it twice, that's a 16 shift hit coming your way. Three times and it's 24.

[Quantus]

That's the thing -- that limit is what the slots are supposed to represent in the first place. The interlocking rings, as the RPG book states, is basically just Harry adding extra uses and slots to it.

And even then, if you made a character specializing in crafting, you could easily make an item double this strength (8 extra stress boxes?) for three or four times the amount of uses in one slot.

If you have to change everything about how enchanted items work to accommodate the idea, it's probably not a good idea.

... Now I'm leaning back toward the "suffer an attack at 2x the number of boxes cleared." While it might not be an insurmountable hit to use it once, it would heavily discourage using the item multiple times in a row -- if you used it twice, that's a 16 shift hit coming your way. Three times and it's 24.

You arent wrong that the Rules As Written allow it.  But that's only half the story, especially in a system as narrative driven as this one.  In a hard DnD system you'd have to rework a whole lot more, but in this one the narrative descriptions arent just supposed to be flavor wrappings, they are just as binding as the crunchy bits.  And in the case of Enchanted Items, they are all fundamentally a reservoir that has to be refilled. You can buy as many uses per session as you want, but it's still innately finite, and requires time between sessions to allow a refill.  I dont see that as reworking the system, just applying all implications and restrictions of the setting. 

[Mr. Death]

You arent wrong that the Rules As Written allow it.  But that's only half the story, especially in a system as narrative driven as this one.  In a hard DnD system you'd have to rework a whole lot more, but in this one the narrative descriptions arent just supposed to be flavor wrappings, they are just as binding as the crunchy bits.  And in the case of Enchanted Items, they are all fundamentally a reservoir that has to be refilled. You can buy as many uses per session as you want, but it's still innately finite, and requires time between sessions to allow a refill.  I dont see that as reworking the system, just applying all implications and restrictions of the setting.

I think I misunderstood you -- I thought you were suggesting that this particular item get a hard limit on uses -- i.e., that you wouldn't be allowed to apply the extra-slots-for-more-uses rule, or even the rule about getting an extra use out of it for a mental stress.

[Quantus]

I think I misunderstood you -- I thought you were suggesting that this particular item get a hard limit on uses -- i.e., that you wouldn't be allowed to apply the extra-slots-for-more-uses rule, or even the rule about getting an extra use out of it for a mental stress.

Most likely Im the one that's misunderstanding, this isnt my strongest part of the rules, and Ive been trying to review them as we go.

I dont want anyone to be able to recharge it on the fly, no.  If the item is crafted with multiple uses instead of 1 that would be fine, representing finite sub-reservoirs that can be independently tapped.  But it doesnt seem right to be able to grit your teeth and suddenly come up with more Chi to refill it, not unless you are burning some other resource.