Commentary on Limited END Reserve question form "Rules" Board

[TheEmerged]

Original Post Linked Here

 

The question is about partially limiting an END Reserve (more specifically, the "REC" part). Since we can't add comments there, I'm talking here.

 

It's my opinion, based on my experience, that you have to be very careful about allowing further limitations on an END Reserve. They are already experiencing a price cut, after all -- the END effectively has a -4 limitation, the REC a -1 limitation.

 

Perhaps this should be reflected by requiring any additional limitations into that paradigm -- for example, if you want to apply a -1/2 limitation to the REC, figure it as 2 pts per pip with a -1 1/2 limitation.

 

I've never tried this myself -- instead I require Darn Good Reasons for limits on END Reserves.

[tesuji]

i find limits on end reserves to be the most useful things for taking it away from the worrisome balance level and into the realm of manageable.

 

Imagine a mage who buys mana reserve as a bunch of end in a reserve and a recovery bought slower than per turn limited to "only while sleeping" so that it takes him about 6-8 hours sleep to recover his mana reserve. The total end becomes a de facto limit on his spell casting per "day".

 

That seems FAR MORE BALANCED than the same mage buying 1 point of recovery, leaving it unlimited and knowing that in the space of an hour every hour regardless he will recover 300 mana.

 

Its IMX the unlimited end reserves and recoveries that are more prone to dubious balance.

 

Of course, this goes without saying, but this does assume the limitation applied is actually limiting the recovery/power etc.

[Ndreare]

What I have done to efectivly limit the END reserves is to use the rules from the book about long term END loss and apply them to END reserves. Now a character with one recovery who uses 20 END in one turn will find he is recovering very slowly. (See Page: 286)

 

This is both reasonable and well defined.

[JmOz]

The character in question wanted this:

 

Rec 5

 

Rec +15 with appropriate sourse of Electrical energy

 

As pictured the 5 represented her absorbing static from the air, the 15 was more active drinking it in

[SkyKnight]

This has been done in published materials. One old power armored villain (Copperhead?) had an END reserve that only recharged while plugged in (-2 IIRC). This should be fine as long as you value the limitations reasonably. Don't let the PCs get away with 5 REC, +15 REC Activation 14- or something like that.

 

explantion

14- occurs ~90% of the time, so isn't worth a -1/2 on something that doesn't often matter.

[JmOz]

This is all Accademic, we decided on an absorbtion power instead to represent it (She decided she wanted to also become more powerful)

[tesuji]

Originally posted by JmOz

The character in question wanted this:

Rec 5

Rec +15 with appropriate sourse of Electrical energy

As pictured the 5 represented her absorbing static from the air, the 15 was more active drinking it in

 

FWIW... this does not seem like its abusive or even particularly efficient in terms of bang per buck design.

 

The 5 rec is for combat purposes almost irrelevent. The only reason i would see 5 rec would be if the character had a suite of powers that she wanted "on" all the time and her net speddxend cost per turn = 5. For example, maybe thats the price her flight takes so this rec allows her to fly around indefinitely.

 

The +15 rec seems like a decent 5-7 points spent on flavor more than anything else. It wont be a serious factor in combat unless the extension cord is very tough. :-) Out of combat it will reduce the time to fully recharge from 4 minutes to 1 minute or 10 minutes to 2 minutes and so forth.

 

I realize you weren't the one bringing up balance issues, but, if this is the example that sparked the issue, i dont get it.

 

Frankly, being me, I would tend very strongly to have the "extra recovery when plugged in" be just an FX perk. and only charge for the 5 recovery.

 

I mean, if that +15 rec requires attacjing to an appropriate power source and such, is it worth +5 cp? Would the character be better served with that +15 rec in the limited situations, saving her a little out of combat recharge time, or will she see better bang fer her buck from +1 OCV all attacks, one more d6 on her main attack, or 5 mental defense psi-training?