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PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:39 am 
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Perhaps a kineticist is simply a profession that can leverage and redirect forces that are already around?

One example of how this might work is in one of the discworld novels (forget which one). A wizard needs to fly out a window or something but to do that he needs to knock down a piece of a neigbouring tower and utilise a bit of the gravitational energy from it falling to fling himself in the air. To all intents and purposes the "spell" in that case is just like a big seesaw with him on one end and the falling tower on the other.

It would all be about momentum and energy, with several modes:

Store (delay the expenditure of energy or momentum; hovering rather than falling when stepping off a ledge would be an example)
Machine (create an invisible magical version of a lever, inclined plane, pulley etc) example as above
Expend (release previously stored energy) Burn a candle all night but store the energy (so the candle goes down but doesn't produce heat or light) and then release the entire thing in one blast. Note that a 100 gram candle, when burnt in air, has about the same amount of energy as 1kg of TNT!

This could be a fun, and hopefully rules-light magic using profession. It would certainly encourage creative roleplaying.

Cheers,

-Kyle


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2018 11:52 am 
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Another Pratchett magic thing: hydrophobes. They fly by powering vehicles with water in the bottom but despise water so much that they levitate away from and control it through sheer force of will. Not DW, but still fun.


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PostPosted: Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:16 pm 
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I'll make the Kinteticist another side project then - it'll be up on the Fan Projects subforum at some point.


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PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2018 5:50 pm 
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Here's what I've got so far for the Kineticist - it needs an advancement summary and some way of MP-ing the Magicks. I think it might be a bit powerful so balancing help would be appreciated.

Kineticist

Requirements

Intelligence 11+, Psychic Talent 11+

Secondary Stats

Attack 12
Defence 6
Magical Attack 14
Magical Defence 5
Evasion 5
Stealth 13
Perception 6
HP 1d6 + 5
MP 3

Equipment

Mail hauberk, dagger, staff, sword, miscellaneous equipment, florins TBC

Kineticists and Armour

Kineticists can wear up to a mail hauberk, and are at -2 ATTACK & DEFENCE in full mail, and at -4 ATTACK & DEFENCE in plate.

Magicks

Affect: Gained at 1st Rank. Allows user to create a magical lever or similar, e.g. dropping a rock off a cliff and being propelled upwards.

Redirect: Gained at 2nd Rank. Change a force’s direction, e.g. deflecting a sword strike. MP cost increases with angle changed by.

Store: Gained at 3rd Rank. Store energy within a person (including self) or object, e.g. absorb then redirect a Shadowbolt. If person is noncompliant, Magical Attack vs Magical Defence needed.

Convert: Convert one energy type to another, e.g. kinetic to heat to disperse a sword blow.


Spells

Kineticists regain MP by cancelling like Sorcerors, but cancelling is not a discrete action.

1.1 Augment Blow: Caster’s next blow is at +1 to ABR and DAMAGE.
1.2 Lessen Blow: Deduct 1d2 damage from next physical blow taken. (2d6 expiry)

2.1 Absorb Blow: Deduct 1d3+2 damage from next physical blow taken. (2d6 expiry)
2.2 Dissipate Energy: Deduct 1d6+2 damage from next flame/energy based attack taken. (2d6 expiry)

3.1 Phantom Fist: Caster’s next unarmed blow does 8 damage (less AF) and pushes target back 1d4m. (2d6 expiry)
3.2 Negate Blow: Deduct 6 damage from next physical blow struck against caster. (2d6 expiry)

4.1 Force Blast: All characters in a 45 degree cone in front of the caster take 1d6 + 3 damage, are pushed back 5m and fall over unless they roll under STRENGTH in d20.
4.2 Telekinesis: Affects 1 object up to 5kg. Can be moved at 15m/CR. Dagger may be wielded at -3 ATTACK and -1 DAMAGE. Can also be used to defend. Incoming blows are at -2 ATTACK, -1 ABR and -1 DAMAGE. (2d6 expiry)

5.1 Shield: Absorbs 20 HP of physical damage then collapses. (2d6 expiry)
5.2 Enhance Blow: Caster’s next blow is at +2 ATTACK, +2 ABR and +1 DAMAGE. One subsequent blow is at +1 ABR and DAMAGE. (2d6 expiry)

6.1 Armour: +2 AF (d20 expiry)
6.2 Bend Weapon: Caster’s MAGICAL ATTACK vs the MAGICAL DEFENCE* of the material. If successful, the weapon is bent/crushed and is useless. Does not always have or be used on weapons.

7.1 Redirect Energy: Next flame/energy-based attack on the caster is redirected at original attacker at -2 SPEED and -1 DAMAGE. Caster takes 1d3 HP damage. (2d6 expiry)
7.2 Burden: Affects an area 10m across and causes gravity to be so strong that characters (including flying creatures up to 5m above) fall to the ground and cannot move. Sorcerors, Warlocks and Elementalists are unable to cast spells, but Mystics can and Elementalists can channel raw power. The SPEED of the spell is 16. (2d6 expiry)

8.1 Levitation: Caster can cause himself or others to fly through the air at twice normal movement speed up to an altitude of 10m for exactly 1 hour. A MAGICAL ATTACK vs MAGICAL DEFENCE roll is required if the target is not consensual.
8.2 Impregnable Sphere: The caster is surrounded by an invisible force bubble that blocks all physical attacks. Objects lighter that 20kg fired at the bubble will be redirected towards the original assailant at -2 SPEED (resulting in a SPEED of 19 for conventional missile weapons). Expires when caster moves.



9.1 Spin: See Darkness version of air spell but 1d8 HP damage rather than 1d6 HP. (2d6 expiry)
9.2 Crush: Caster’s MAGICAL ATTACK vs target’s STRENGTH divided by 2. If successful, target takes 4d6+10 HP damage (armour doesn’t protect). Target takes 1d3+4 HP damage even if resisted.

10.1 Crush Skull: Caster’s MAGICAL ATTACK vs target’s MAGICAL DEFENCE. If successful, the target’s head explodes and death is instant. If unsuccessful, target takes 2d4+5 HP damage anyway.
10.2 Summon Lightning: Three bolts of lightning fork down from the sky to strike 1-3 targets. The bolts have SPEEDS of 20 and deal 13 HP damage each, and anyone hit must roll under remaining HP on d20 or die from electric shock.

*
Material MAGICAL DEFENCE
Wood 1
Bronze 2
Silver 3
Flint/Stone 4
Steel 6
Crescentium Steel 7
Enchanted Steel 6 + 2 x magical bonus
Enchanted Wood 1 + 2 x magical bonus

Thoughts?


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 23, 2018 9:07 pm 
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Acoma wrote:
Thoughts?

I'd start with the role a profession plays in Legend, how it plays thematically with the rest of Dragon Warriors, and how you'd see the profession working in an adventuring party before deciding on numbers and powers. I'm not really all that fussed about whether the profession balances with others because the canon DW professions don't really work like that - after all, all "game balance" typically means is who can beat up whom in a fight, which is not what an RPG is all about. What I am always interested in when considering introducing a new profession is whether it "fits" with DW.

Onto some more general notes:
  • Any spell that manipulates or creates an intermediary force would not use Magical Attack, so to maintain the concept of force-manipulation magic, I'd look to figure out a way for your spells to make Strength checks or use Evasion to determine their effects rather than trying to cludge the MA vs. MD mechanic to work with inanimate objects - for example, if wooden doors now have a Magical Defence, can I use other direct attack spells on them? Maybe I'd want to petrify a door to wedge it in place. There'd be a lot of worms escaping their cans if you could do that.
  • Similarly, whilst I know there's a precedent for instant-death spells, I'd think *VERY* hard about whether you (or your players) would be comfortable having their character killed on the roll of a single die - DW is a gritty death-filled game at the best of times but arbitrary and whimsical deaths are the least palatable to players. To the point that if you're going to introduce new rules, introduce ones that remove the instant-death effects rather than adding more.
  • Lastly, I think your spell mechanics should be consistent within the profession - for example, use a 2d6 or 1d20 spell expiry roll throughout. Having to look up which spell expiry roll applies to each spell is just going to slow things down, especially if the Kineticist is a rarely used profession. It's bad enough that Attack vs. Defence and Magical Attack vs. Magical Defence have different mechanics in DW...

It's no secret that I typically take a pretty tough stance on new professions (including the new canon professions...) - especially the more fantastical ones - so, whilst the above may come across as unduly critical, hopefully this now puts my comments into a more palatable context.

If you do end up playing the Kineticist in a campaign, I'd be very interested to hear how it goes - the work I've done on my own professions to keep them thematically consistent and interesting to play has been the most challenging part of my DW campaigns so I'm always keen to benefit from how others have got on.

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 3:26 am 
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Cobwebbed Dragon wrote:
Any spell that manipulates or creates an intermediary force would not use Magical Attack, so to maintain the concept of force-manipulation magic, I'd look to figure out a way for your spells to make Strength checks or use Evasion to determine their effects rather than trying to cludge the MA vs. MD mechanic to work with inanimate objects - for example, if wooden doors now have a Magical Defence, can I use other direct attack spells on them? Maybe I'd want to petrify a door to wedge it in place. There'd be a lot of worms escaping their cans if you could do that.


This.

Direct Attack magic clearly has no effect on inanimate objects; only living and undead (or infernal etc) are affected by it. Apart from the fact that there are no canonical examples of Direct Attack magic affecting tables and chairs (etc), for proof of this you need look no further than the automaton, which (as a mechanical construct) cannot be affected by Direct Attack magic.

Cheers,

-Kyle


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 4:02 am 
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Hm... how about some fluff? Its always good to know that these guys originate from Emphidor, or maybe far away lands like some lost mountains of Khitai. Experiences of peasants being rescued from ogres who seemed to somehow attract sharp pointy objects that were discarded or rocks that materalized from seemingly nowhere? Perhaps there is a school of kineticists who held off the selentine legions until the sappers came along and kicked their ass / neutralized them by overwhelming brute force.

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PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 2:13 pm 
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I was thinking more Warrior-Magi-type things from Krarth, but Emphidor might work too. Maybe tomb-robbers who have stumbled across books of Kaikuhuran lore?


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 24, 2018 4:42 pm 
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Kaikhuran... got an idea there. Maybe thats why they were able to create massive stone structures. The Selentine wondered why or how they managed to build massive tombs and rock carvings, projects that would've taken decades of selentine sapper time, but completed through Kaikhuran ingenuity. Although the 'history' books say they were built by summoning demons, the truth could've been something totally different and command of other forces in nature...

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