Efficient Advantage

[Lord_Amadeus_Rahl]

So, I've seen this in a lot of CADs on the boards and I have no idea where it came from or what it is. Someone please enlighten me

[Silentking Alpha]

It is a house rule advantage. I forgot the cost, but it allows you 1 free stone per 2 spent. Some people think that means that it allows you to go beyond the AN, but it doesn't. If you have a close combat of 7 then you will only have 7 stones in close combat as the max whether you have Efficient or not. Efficient just means you don't have to spend as much energy as most people would without the advantage.

Actually, I think it might be +1 or 2 to CL. I'm someone will come by to say how much it costs.

[Hoots Rowlet]

Efficient is only +1CS (for every 2 stones you spend you get 1 free stone to use up to your max AN (Including any ability bonuses)

Super efficient is +2CS but works on a 1/1 ratio

and Action to Modifier is +3CS and makes the action cost no stones to use at all

[Lord_Amadeus_Rahl]

Thanks guys. BTW, where in the books are the rules on ability bonuses?

[Brainstem]

How do you mean "rules on ability bonuses?"

And, with regards to Efficient, it was something we swiped a while back from an interview with one of the game designers. They intended to include it into one of the splatbooks, but it never made it past playtesting.

[Silentking Alpha]

Oh cool! I always thought it was something that someone on the site made up and everyone else liked it.

[Brainstem]

Yeah, it's a great little Advantage and a much more balanced alternative to Action to Modifier, which isn't even technically legal, iirc.

[Lord_Amadeus_Rahl]

By that i meant how they play into using actions, in both combat and non-combat situations

[Brainstem]

You can add your Ability's worth of stones to an Action without using up an extra Action for the Panel. For example...

I have Black Ops: 3 and Intelligence: 6. I want to be able to use my guile and wits to seek out good hiding spots and use that to get the sneak on my opponents. I can use one Action to use Black Ops and another Action to use my Intelligence Ability, then combine stones from these; I now have no more Actions left. Alternatively, if I purchased Black Ops with the +5 CL "Ability Modifier" Advantage, I could use Black Ops and Intelligence in one Action, leaving my second Action free.

[Manah]

I personally believe +5 CL for that is horribly overpriced, but just my 2 cents. My house rules place it at +3. I find it stupid that an Attack VS Durability (ignoring all and any defenses) is a +6 (a price I think is fair) while adding an Ability bonus, which you still pay for when using and which doesn't ignore anything more than usual except by putting out more stones (possibly not that much, not everybody has crazy high ability scores), costs +5.

...Just an opinion.

[Silentking Alpha]

The rule book says that if the ability is less than 5 than you should lower the cost. For example, if you have an ability of 2, it will be +2 CL instead of +5. +5 is meant for abilities that 5 and beyond.

[Brainstem]

+5 is fair to avoid stacking low AN Actions with one high Ability and the rule Silentking mentioned balances things well on the lower end. 10 Durability (45w) isn't so bad when you're paying 4w or less for everything else. Of course, the balance issues in the game aren't centered on what your character pays for, it's what you don't have to pay for, which is why Efficient is a much more balanced alternative than AtM, although it could probably stand to get an extra +1 CL for good measure.

Also why is THIS stuff in my brain, after having not looked at the book in years, but I couldn't tell you about things that matter?

[WildKnight]

Aug 24, 2014 23:45:05 GMT -5 Manah said:

I personally believe +5 CL for that is horribly overpriced, but just my 2 cents. My house rules place it at +3. I find it stupid that an Attack VS Durability (ignoring all and any defenses) is a +6 (a price I think is fair) while adding an Ability bonus, which you still pay for when using and which doesn't ignore anything more than usual except by putting out more stones (possibly not that much, not everybody has crazy high ability scores), costs +5.

...Just an opinion.

I actually agree with this. The +5 never made any sense.

For me personally, the "super efficient" (or whatever it's called) Advantage that someone created is WAY underpriced at +2, and AtoM is ridiculous at +3.

Basically, things that let you use more stones that still have to come from your pool and be regenerated should be priced FAR more generously than things that let you make effects without using stones at all, or while using fewer stones. The basic "mechanic" of the game is managing an energy pool.

[WildKnight]

Aug 25, 2014 8:07:41 GMT -5 Brainstem said:

Also why is THIS stuff in my brain, after having not looked at the book in years, but I couldn't tell you about things that matter?

... because at one time you were fairly invested in balancing out this system, like a lot of the rest of us old timey users?

I can still remember a good number of the house rules I used for AD&D2nd edition, and that was a lot longer ago than me joining this board LOL

[Hoots Rowlet]

Yeah... The whole point of resource management is you have a finite amount of resources but some people on this board (not naming any names) can not or simply refuse to understand that.