Grim Theory, Ideas on off-limit or much-needed spells Options

[Herald of Verjig...]

[Siege]

[Herald of Verjig...]

[Siege]

GRRR.

"Why don't humans breathe Xenon or Argon as a substantial portion of their gas intake instead of Oxygen."

-Siege

[Herald of Verjig...]

[Siege]

[RangerJoe]

A neat high-level new adept power I'd like to see would be "disbelieve" (from Deadlands). At high enough levels (I'm thinking like 5-8 power points), the master can make a willpower(8-14) test to disbelieve in anything-- bullets flying towards him, an arrow in flight, that giant ant spirit. If the object is disbelieved in, it cannot harm the adept. Sure, this is game-breaking, but it's a nice mechanic for making a master adept one with the universe.

[Glyph]

If you want someone who dislikes magical "belief" systems but hasn't gimped himself with a limited view of what magic is capable of, play a chaos mage.

As far as the "why aren't shamans gimped?" question, I would answer - a lot of Totems are gimped, some of them (like Dove) so much so that you would rarely, if ever, see a player play one. You have ideals to follow (you won't see a Sun or Dragonslayer shaman kidnapping babies from an orphanage for a corporation to experiment on), Willpower tests at inconvenient times (like if your Fenrir shaman needs to run away from overwhelming odds, or your Gator shaman needs to stop trying to open the MagLock and run away), and odd restrictions or codes of conduct. Now, some of them have advantages to offset this, but they still have disadvantages, plus if you don't follow the overall credo of the Totem, you could lose all of your magic permanently.

I don't really see a Totem as an actual entity, more as a concept. When they show up, it is usually in a dream or a vision, and their advice is usually cryptic. GMs who play a Totem as this big being telling the shaman what to do all of the time is railroading in the worst manner possible. Shamans have a code of behavior, within which they have a lot of lattitude - a Dog shaman can be a gentle medic or a hardened fighter, but neither one of them would betray their group for a payoff.

[GunnerJ]

When I asked what the reason was, I thought that they had soem overwhelming power which their limited spell categories made up for. I understand the in-game reason why they're gimped, though.

That said, even if the thought form has no domain restriction and can be summoned anywhere, their very limited abilities and the fact that only one can be active at a time means that they don't make up for the limited spell categories. The thought form balances itself out with limited abilities.

Also, shamans are gimped by their totem restriction, but buffed in other ways to balance this. My idea about giving psionics free centering was an attempt on my part to buff for balance.

[hobgoblin]

about that adept "power" of mine, siege picked up on the one thing i forgot to cover, cost in power points. you will asllo see that i limited spells to touch and self only, so no spellslinging within los (remeber that a adept is focused on his body so its in a way a selflimiting focus). sure he could learn to toss a fireball but that would be a touch spell so maybe its not a good idea :)

as for cost, siege is right on it, .5 pr level for self only and 1 pr level for touch spells.

[Siege]

[hobgoblin]

if you want a adept that can toss a fireball then make a physical mage (or whatever its called). i just want a way to make spider-man :) (gecko crawl fits nicely here) without being tempted to take something that can potentialy not fit the image (like above said fireball)...

[hobgoblin]

-double post-

[Siege]