Psi Weapon 2.0

[takewithfood]

Hey gang,

So, I thought Psi Weapon was going to be a hell of a hard Action to balance, but that was before I'd really given WK's weapon-as-effect system a chance.

Now that weapons have been rebalanced, it seems pretty obvious to me how to keep Psi Weapon balanced too.

Psi Weapon +3 CL
Generate a weapon (sword, spear, bow and arrows, etc) from your own mental energy to be used as a Weapon Modifier for Close Combat or Ranged Combat.

Stones of effect determine the power of your Psi Weapon and it's Advantages. Weapon Bonuses cost 1 stone per point, and the maximum bonus is equal to one half your AN (rounded down).

Other stones of effect must go towards purchasing Advantages appropriate to the type of weapon (x2 damage, etc). 1 stone of effect is equivalent to 1 Cost Level of Advantages. Giving your Psi Weapon a Material Class costs 1 stone of effect per class. Creating a ranged weapon (ie, bow and arrow, thrown spear) costs 1 stone of effect and gives it a default Range of 3.

You may use this weapon in the same Panel you create it, and the duration is indefinite. Switching the allocations of your stones of effect for a different bonus or different advantages necessitates spending new stones of effect. Your Psi-Weapon may be used to stun instead of kill, in which case stones of damage = stun duration.

Example: Psylocke finds herself in a battle against a clan of hostile ninja and summons a Psi Weapon to aid her. She has an Action Number of 7, and she puts a full 7 stones into the box. She decides to create a katana, and gives it a weapon bonus of 3 (the maximum she can achieve), leaving her with 4 stones of effect to put towards Advantages. Because she is creating a katana she decides x2 damage is appropriate; this is a +2 CL advantage, and so it costs her 2 stones of effect. She notes that the ninja are wearing some kind of light body armor, so with her remaining 2 stones of effect she decides to make her katana a Class 2 Material - probably enough to bypass that armor, as long as its made of a mundane substance. Her psi-katana remains with her for the rest of the fight - though that won't be very long at this rate.

The way it's set up, the max weapon bonus you can achieve is +5, assuming you have AN 10. That's pretty major. Restricting the bonus to AN means that you can't be a cheapskate and buy AN 1 and a gigantic ability bonus and get away with it.

Another thing that's new is that it costs 1 stone of effect to create a ranged weapon. I feel this is important because there is no penalty for attacking in melee with a ranged weapon, and so there is no reason NOT to gear this action towards Ranged Combat instead of Close Combat. (In fact, you get a +2 sit mod for attacking with a ranged weapon point-blank!) Range is inherently more valuable than no-range, so it shouldn't be free.

I'm not sure about the cost.. it may still be necessary to bump it up to +4 CL. This is one of those Actions that is way too tempting to load up with silly Disadvantages such as Can't Improve By Lines (I'd love to get rid of that one altogether, or reduce it to -1 CL).

~TWF

[Dionon]

Don't worry about the cost... +3 is fine for what you have, and what we're working with. As for "Cannot Be Improved by Lines" It's overused, but when used properly it should signify something... Maybe dropping it from Cannot be improved by lines to just... Cannot be Improved... that would stop ALOT of people from using it.

As for the power itself... Bravo, I love it, don't change a thing.

[malice]

The weapon as-effect sounds alright, although I never allowed ability bonuses in Psi-Weapons anyway (A little idiotic imo), I see it less as a balance issue and more of a "Bang for your buck" thing. It allows the person to excercise more control over their weapon, which makes it a more interesting action. It MUST be interesting in order to merit the cost.

Also, there IS a penalty for attacking in melee with ranged weapons, it's just not under ranged combat. I don't have the books with me atm but it's in the appendix of the first one, opposite page to the +3 for action-to-modifier I think.

If you attack in melee with a ranged weapon, it's a +1 modifier no matter what it's ranged modifer (i.e. it becomes a basic club)

[Dionon]

Um... actually Malice, According to the Situational Modifier chart, firing from Point Blank Range (which is pretty much in Melee) gives you a +2 Bonus from the General Pool... You're thinking about physically bludgeoning someone, which gives no penalty, but reduces the Weapon Modifier to +1 (unless it's affixed with a Bayonet, then it's +2)

[malice]

I apologize if I misunderstood, I guess I read this:

Feb 16, 2009 17:58:25 GMT -5 takewithfood said:

I feel this is important because there is no penalty for attacking in melee with a ranged weapon...

...and thought he was talking about attacking in melee with a ranged weapon.

Attacking in melee is not the same as point blank range, at least not if you play your villains as smarter than dogs. If you pull a gun in melee and try to aim it at your foe, they're going to go for the gun, and you risk applying its weapon bonus to their close combat with they turn the gun around and shoot you (Because you don't have any stones in Close Combat, you're relying on your big targeting and Ranged Combat).

Point blank range is about range 1 and your shot is damn near guaranteed, hence the bonus. They're not really close enough to do anything about it though, so it's not range 0.

Attacking in melee is attempting to use a ranged weapon far closer than you should (closer than point blank range). You can use it as a club for +1 or you can try and shoot them while giving them a shot at getting your gun.

[takewithfood]

Sorry, all I meant by "in melee" was "somebody's all up in yo grill", to use the parlance of our times.

~TWF

[malice]

Feb 17, 2009 18:43:01 GMT -5 takewithfood said:

Sorry, all I meant by "in melee" was "somebody's all up in yo grill", to use the parlance of our times.

~TWF

In which case the GM should apply penalties or bonuses depending on how far up in the character's grill the enemy is. At point blank range I pity the guy without a gun, but in melee I imagine the gun will become the point of contention (As it does so often in movie battles. If your PC gets the upper hand you can even have the enemy crawling away from melee but TOWARD the gun that was previously knocked there) via melee.

If the gunless enemy has already closed to melee AND is quite good at melee, I pity the fool who attempts to get a shot off. Anyone with a Close Combat of 5ish could almost guarantee a disarm, and anyone with a close combat of 7+ could turn the gun around and put it in the shooter's chin.

Ack! We digress! I only wanted to point out that there was in fact a penalty for attacking in melee with a ranged weapon. I really think the weapon-as-effect is pretty nice, although I would like to add an advantage or option that the person can increase the weapon modifier above half AN.

For example:

+1 to cost level for each point above half AN the character can make the weapon's modifier. So if someone buys a Psi-Weapons action of 6 with this advantage, they pay 15 stones for the action and can create weapons with +4 modifiers.

If you really want to be stingy, you can graduate the cost based on the AN. So if they have an AN of 2 or less it's a +1 advantage, but an AN of 3-7 makes it a +2 advantage per MN increase.

[Dionon]

You're right, but I was just quoting from the book, which you said you didn't have, so that you would have the information you wanted... Geez... everyone's so temperamental lol

[malice]

Was I the only one that noticed this is almost exactly the way weapon enhancement bonuses work in D&D 3.5?

[Dionon]

Wait.. explain this?

[takewithfood]

Heh, yeah, it's quite similar now that you mention it.

In 3.5e D&D, the base costs for weapons was measured in +1 equivalent bonuses. So, if you make a +3 equivalent weapon you could give it an actual +1 bonus, and make it Holy (which counts as a +2). That sorta thing.

~TWF

[Dionon]

OH! God, my brain was mildly screwed up lol.. I get it now

[Neros]

Just got and idea for this, but havent run it through my head that much... A armor/protection option or something.. Where you can place stones and instead of creating a weapon, you can create an armor or similiar..
Imagen a character creating a sword (AN 4, so he makes it to a +2 sword with x2 Damage), swining it around using it as a sword is meant to be used.. But later he runs into a huge mob of opponents and decides to play it defensive and intead of creating a sword, he creates a armor out of his element instead (+2 armor and gives it Material class X)... This ofcourse means he can't create weapons until he either remove the armor or "frees" one of his action numbers (decreases his armor to +1 and makes a +1 sword..)
Thoughts?

Also, maybe we should make stun into a special discounted option for psi weapons, since it wont make that much sense that Fire Weapons (or other elements) has stun.. Or maybe give it 1 free advantage level (like force blast)?