Video Game character abilities

[Enforcer84]

So, I'm trying to round out the Edean professions.


Rogues commonly have an ability like this:

Thief!: Sleight Of Hand 15-, Trigger (Activating the Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action, Trigger requires a Full Phase to reset; Trigger is Successful Melee Attack on target; +1/4) (11 Active Points); Lockout Mug! (-1/2)

And it's Big Brother;

Mug!: Sleight Of Hand 17-, Trigger (Activating the Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action, Trigger requires a Full Phase to reset; Trigger is Successful Melee Attack on target; +1/4) (16 Active Points); Lockout: Thief! (-1/2)


Beyond this and some stealthy stealthy abilities, I'm kind of at a loss. I suppose "Evasive" would be nice, what else? Any ideas?

[Enforcer84]

alright, here's some more:
Active Defense: +4 with DCV (20 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-1/2)

Blend With Shadows: Invisibility to Sight Group , Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (30 Active Points); Chameleon (-1/2), Only When In Darkness/Shadows (-1/2), Requires A Stealth Roll (-1/2)

Can Hide Anything: Invisibility to Sight Group , No Fringe, Uncontrolled (lasts until found by someone; +1/2), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Usable As Attack (does not work on objects which are larget than 10 kg in weight and/or 10 cubic centimeters in size; +1) (90 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Minute, possibly longer; -1 1/2), Requires A Concealment Roll (-1/2)

Catch And Throw Back: Missile Deflection (Thrown Objects), Missile Reflection (25 Active Points); Requires A DEX Roll (assumes a DEX Roll of 12- or 13-; -3/4)

Evasive: Desolidification (affected by any area-affecting attack, or any attack if Skill Roll fails), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (60 Active Points); Character Must Abort To Use (-1), Only To Protect Against Attacks (-1/2), Requires A DEX Roll (Variable RSR; -1/2)

Follow-Through Attack: Naked Modifier: Trigger (Activating the Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action, Trigger requires a Turn or more to reset; for up to 4d6 HKA when character kills an opponent in battle; +1/4); OIF (weapons of opportunity; -1/2) for up to 60 Active Points (15 Active Points)

Quick-Change Artist: Cosmetic Transform 2d6 (one set of cloting into another) (10 Active Points); 1 Recoverable Charge (prepared clothes; -1 1/4), Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), No Range (-1/2), Requires A Sleight Of Hand Roll (-1/2), Self Only (-1/2)

Shadow Step: Invisibility to Sight and Hearing Groups , Costs END Only To Activate (+1/4) (31 Active Points); Can only move at half speed (-1/4), Extra Time (Full Phase, Only to Activate, -1/4)

Trackless Stride: Gliding 3" (3 Active Points); Ground Gliding (-1/4)

Ultimate Pickpocketing: Teleportation 1", Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Invisible Power Effects (Fully Invisible; +1), Usable As Attack (won't work against characters who have this power or Sleight Of Hand at 14- or better; +1) (7 Active Points); Only Versus Small, Pickpocketable Objects (-1), Requires A Sleight Of Hand Roll (-1/2)

[Enforcer84]

Thanks Dark Champions/Fantasy Hero!

[Shadowsoul]

I'm afraid I don't have the time to stat these up but I do have a few vague ideas which you might be able to develop into something useful.
Doppelganger. Shapeshift, (Cosmetic only), (Only to mimic target), (Must have seen target), (Expendable foci - paints, wigs costume), (requires acting roll), (Extended time 1 minute - Activation only). Although it might be easier to simply ask the player to make complimentary disguise and acting rolls.
Streetfighter. Combine power - Ambidexterity and Two Weapon fighting, (only with short weapons/only with daggers).
Roofrunner. Compound power, Leaping x" (Accurate), Acrobatics x levels (Only in terrain of which character has knowledge i.e. CK), (Noncombat only).
Alternatively you could allow certain 3 point Skill level packages such as Con Artist - Sleight of Hand, Acting and Persuasion.
Don't know if any of this helps but good luck anyway.

[Enforcer84]

Nice. Thanks for the help.

[Killer Shrike]

So, I'm trying to round out the Edean professions.


Rogues commonly have an ability like this:

Thief!: Sleight Of Hand 15-, Trigger (Activating the Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action, Trigger requires a Full Phase to reset; Trigger is Successful Melee Attack on target; +1/4) (11 Active Points); Lockout Mug! (-1/2)

And it's Big Brother;

Mug!: Sleight Of Hand 17-, Trigger (Activating the Trigger requires a Zero Phase Action, Trigger requires a Full Phase to reset; Trigger is Successful Melee Attack on target; +1/4) (16 Active Points); Lockout: Thief! (-1/2)

Huh? Why have both? One is just a better version of the other.




Beyond this and some stealthy stealthy abilities, I'm kind of at a loss. I suppose "Evasive" would be nice, what else? Any ideas?

You might be able to get some useful ideas here: Rogues (http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/Conversion3e/Class3e/Rogues.aspx)

[Enforcer84]

Huh? Why have both? One is just a better version of the other.



You might be able to get some useful ideas here: Rogues (http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/Conversion3e/Class3e/Rogues.aspx)
if only to better simulate the source material.


...Also, it appears my notes are cut off.

Thief allows you to take gold/coin, equal to damage done (max what the target was carrying)
Mug allows you to take a random object from the target (called objects on -5 to the roll) instead of coin.

Thanks for bringing that up.

[Thia Halmades]

Holy cats, dude. Which game do you want to go after? Shall I go dredge up a complete list of powers from Valkyrie Profile 2? Yumpin' yeeminy. Are we just going for Final Fantasy #? How about Tactics? How about Tactics Advance? Yeek. Can you give a brother a ball park? Shoot, I don't even need a field. I just wanna know which GAME I'm playing.

[Zeropoint]

How about the Inventory?

Basically, start with the Wizard's Sack writeup in Fantasy Hero, increase the capacity to effectively infinite, add Usable By Others . . . and a limitation that it can only hold 99 of any single type of item.

[Enforcer84]

Holy cats, dude. Which game do you want to go after? Shall I go dredge up a complete list of powers from Valkyrie Profile 2? Yumpin' yeeminy. Are we just going for Final Fantasy #? How about Tactics? How about Tactics Advance? Yeek. Can you give a brother a ball park? Shoot, I don't even need a field. I just wanna know which GAME I'm playing.
All of them. :)

Edean is supposed to be a VG inspired fantasy world. I don't discount any game as source material.

Give me your favorites.

[Thia Halmades]

OMG. I have two conversion projects going right now (H:CE & my own d20 conversion project). When one of those is finished or nearly finished, I'll take up the next one on my rack, Final Fantasy Tactics and then possibly Valkyrie Profile.

[Enforcer84]

I'll wait...

[Enforcer84]

...Done yet?

[Thia Halmades]

Look smartass. I told j00, I already have two projects going. I will try and ponder something for you -- I need to grab an online copy of the FFT:Advance or FFT guide.

Of course, I also don't even want to think about how to build the Calculator.

[Shadowsoul]

A little off topic but are you thinking of adding any more unusual professions/powers to this VG setting?
Just in case here's an amusing little character type. The Shadow Hearts series involves the adventures of people with the power of Fusion, (usually referred to as Harmonixers for some reason that probably seemed sensible at the time). These people can temporarily 'Fuse' themselves with demons or spirits that they have defeated and gain their abilities. For Hero purposes this power is basically a multiform and the need to defeat demons to Fuse with them can be taken care of either through background or actual adventuring, (a Fusionist's search for power or ability to contain a demon could be an interesting plot hook).
Each Demon has its own background, appearance and battle style. Although all would tend to be harder than the Harmonixer himself, be decent in close combat and possess energy or killing attacks.
In the games the different forms are based around six elements, the classical four alongside Light and Darkness. This theme would be fairly unimportant in Hero unless you are intending to build elemental vulnerabilities into this setting. Thus a Fusionist would not need the 7-8 Fusion Demons that their Shadow Heart's counterparts end up with but they should have several as the key element of this power is the flexibility it grants the wielder. Of course this also makes a Harmonixer an interesting opponent for an adventuring party, creeping up on them with his stealth form, attacking silently and then unleashing his smackdown form when the fight kicks off properly and when things start going badly for him switching to his support form and scampering away with his tail between his legs healing desperately.
One problem with Fusion is that it is meant to be draining. In Shadow Hearts it costs Sanity Points to activate and burns extra SP each turn. I guess 'costs end' and 'increased end cost only to activate' would kind of simulate this. I don't know if the Hero system has any optional rules for mental end or sanity, haven't read horror Hero. I suppose SP would be something like Ego + Presence. Running out of SP would result in going berserk, going catatonic or acting out a psy lim e.g. 'Spiders! They're all over meeeee!'
Hope all this rambling amused you. If you're interested I could post my write-up of Legacy of Kain/Soul Reaver vampires. If you're not familiar with the series they're very difficult to put down with normal combat, they regenerate everything except beheading and impalement and they regenerate pretty quickly, (although in fact the only one who was ever beheaded inexplicably turned up again in the next game), but water burns them like acid and fire also does a lot of damage. Usually you have to stun or KO them and then search around desperately for a big spear or a nice pond.
Cheers

[Thia Halmades]

Well, they aren't the first ones to do this; the Harmonizer (Yuri in games 1 & 2) is, as you say, a multiform. However, the same character exists in Chrono Cross (the crazy old lady), Final Fantasy VII (Vincent) and of course, FF also has Blue Magic, which are powers learned from monsters.

Not that I'm intentionally picking nits, I'm just saying there's a long & storied tradition in JRPGs of multiform. And don't even get me started on the MegaTen series. :D

[Shadowsoul]

Fair enough. And if multiform and stealing the power of monsters does have a distinguished history in VG's then all the more reason to include them, with or without Fusion's distinctive drain on sanity or some equivalent. (Of course what Enforcer84 does with his world is entirely up to him I'm just throwing out suggestions).

[Enforcer84]

And they are good suggestions. I'm just floating between projects. And playing Valkyrie Profile 2...
BTW

I'm somewhat disappointed that I am half way through the game and the Einharjar seemed to be divided along gender/class lines. No female mages or heavy fighters, no male light fighters or archers....
*sigh*
Also I was a bit disappointed to find that each Archer (save for Rufus) have the same special attack...
oh well.

[Thia Halmades]

Sorry, I didn't mean to come off as particularly jerk-heavy there; it seems to be a trend today. Lots of long built up stress now finally getting unlocked and being sprayed all over the place. So you have my apologies if you interpreted what was a good-natured jibish response as anything less than intended.

[Thia Halmades]

Each class has its own Special, so you tend to focus on which members of each class have the best innate abilities; one of the ones you find later has a rather amazing natural ability -- she heals completely after each fight.

How good is this? You don't even want to know. But yes, the limitations of the class system is a downer.

[Enforcer84]

Okay so I'm fussing with a possible House Rules mechanic for Edean.
Active Battle System!

For the most part, every character has a Power Skill to represent their Magic/Superskills/Whatever. I suppose you could create a completely vanilla fantasy character in Edean and not buy special attacks or abilities but what fun is that?

Since the bulk of the specials require a skill roll and have a penalty to said roll I've decided to use this penalty as a "Negative Lightning Relfexes". This is affected by how well you make your roll.

Example:
Bob the Troll, Boris the Fighter, and Beatrix the Mage are engaging in a wild three way (Battle, perverts).

Bob is Dex 16, +2 Lightning Reflexes, has "Hammer Tricks" Skills and a roll of 14-
Boris is Dex 20, +3 Ligthning Reflexes, has "Sword Skills" and a roll of 17-
Beatrix has Dex 17, Magic Skills (Elemental Fire) and a roll of 19-

Boris Declares first; he uses his "Twice Reigned Blade" ability on Bob; its got a skill roll penalty of -2 (20 Active Points); He rolls a 12 since he beat the target roll by 3 (it was 15- due to the penalty) he acts at Dex 23, or normally.

Bob, stung by the blow, decides to pick on the lady. He tries to hit Beatrix with his Mountain Hewing Strike (-4) it's a big attack. He rolls a 10 which is what he needed to get the attack off, but his attack will land at Dex 14 (16+2-4)

Beatrix has a few options, she can abort to dodge but Bob's good at hitting, she can try a block, again probably not going to happen. So she attempts to disrupt. She attacks with her Fire Burst Spell (40AP) -4; she rolls a 11; her fire spell hits on 17 (whew)

This is assuming they both hit.
She rolls the damage and Bob has to make a Hammer Skills roll at -7 (The body she did) to complete his attack he rolls a 13 and fails. His skill is wasted and he took damage.

This seems to work like the attack cancellation from games like Star Ocean...
wonky?


Just thinking out loud...on the internet.
Obviously this makes regular attacks faster and tactically more useful for the most part. Leaving special attacks for desperation moments, team ups, and such. The more potent the attack power the longer it takes to land.

[Blue Jogger]

This sounds about right. Usually, this sort of thing is resolved in phases rather than at the DEX level. Usually using Extra Time (Delayed Phase, Extra Segment), limitations on Lighting Reflexes, and the Haymaker manuever.

For low speed games, where everyone is speed 3 or 4 and 5 is fairly rare, this might be useful. For superheroic games, where it is more likely to be, say, 4 to 7, it might be more frustrating...

Bob: "Hey, nobody else goes on this phase, I'll use my Mountain Hewing Strike (-4) and I'll hit on Dex 14."
Betrix: "That's not fair, I can't abort to disrupt with my Fire Burst Spell!"
Bob: "That's not my fault, you could have waited until this phase."
Betrix: "If I could have waited, I would have haymakered my last attack, as it is, I pushed and I'm low on END."
Bob: "Well, that's too bad. I would have liked to go after Boris, but his high DEX and SPD makes hitting very difficult. But maybe Boris will use his action to... Oh wait, he already hit me this phase."
Betrix: "This sucks."
Bob: "MOUNTAIN HEWING STRIKE!!!!"

Then again, phase arthimatics is part of the game.

[Enforcer84]

This sounds about right. Usually, this sort of thing is resolved in phases rather than at the DEX level. Usually using Extra Time (Delayed Phase, Extra Segment), limitations on Lighting Reflexes, and the Haymaker manuever.

For low speed games, where everyone is speed 3 or 4 and 5 is fairly rare, this might be useful. For superheroic games, where it is more likely to be, say, 4 to 7, it might be more frustrating...

Bob: "Hey, nobody else goes on this phase, I'll use my Mountain Hewing Strike (-4) and I'll hit on Dex 14."
Betrix: "That's not fair, I can't abort to disrupt with my Fire Burst Spell!"
Bob: "That's not my fault, you could have waited until this phase."
Betrix: "If I could have waited, I would have haymakered my last attack, as it is, I pushed and I'm low on END."
Bob: "Well, that's too bad. I would have liked to go after Boris, but his high DEX and SPD makes hitting very difficult. But maybe Boris will use his action to... Oh wait, he already hit me this phase."
Betrix: "This sucks."
Bob: "MOUNTAIN HEWING STRIKE!!!!"

Then again, phase arthimatics is part of the game.
Correct, it is for a fantasy Hero game, where the cheacters are 3-4 sometimes 5 speed.

[Michael Hopcroft]

By the way, the weapon used by the heroine of Heavenly Sword -- just what is it? IS it something one can write up? Or is it just too, too out there even for HERO players? I don't even know how to coherently describe the bloody thing based on what I've seen in the ads -- but obviously you need very special skill not to decapitate yourself with it.