Designers Note

[Asch]

(Preview) More Rule Testing

SP Actions

Based on the feedback from Red Fever and in the past week about how SP's low values feel bad to use. I want to try something to make it feel better to use.

The goals for these changes:

1. Boost the SP damage value to make it feel more impactful.
2. Make it possible for a character to specialize in dealing SP damage. This means that in a small group, all you might need is one SP specialist and possibly a backup, essentially freeing up action slots for other team members.

Changes

• Hinder and Ultra Hinder will now exclusively deal SP damage.
• Alter Hinder will now allow you to: distribute HP and SP damage how ever you like (great for finishing off an SP bar without wasting the rest of the damage)
• Damage buff will affect these actions as normal.
• Prototype-A Ultra Hinder: 3d100 at A-rank+ (similar to 1.1 Prototype Reckless Attack)
• Prototype-B. Another direction to go with Hinder is to actually make it more stable, to help DM set SP appropriately.
  • Prototype-B Hinder: 1d100+25 as the base
  • Prototype-B Ultra Hinder: 2d100+50 as the base
  • The downside of making Hinder too reliable is that it really removes the drama that comes from failures that we often see on TS.

Niche Support Actions

Some actions are very niche and as a result might not come into play in specific battle. I'm still figuring out a way to make them more flexible so the following draft might help prevent players from taking actions that won't be used.

Below are two versions that are being considered:

1. Inspire, Haste, Carry, Reposition can now be swapped out with any actions once per battle.
2. Inspire, Haste, Carry, Reposition can now be swapped out with any of the ones listed at any time.

But aaaaasch, why isn't Extension included? It applies to all grid battles and I also use it in non-grid battles. Plus, you can just straight up ask the DM of the thread if it's okay to swap it out if it's not used.

These are just my thoughts for the time being, what do you think?

 

[Asch]

Eureka!

Got a better idea for Alter Hinder.

Alter Hinder will now allow you to: distribute HP and SP damage how ever you like (great for finishing off an SP bar without wasting the rest of the damage)

 

[Asch]

In today's musing. We have something that is somewhat of a fun thought experiment.

What if heals are more consistent and slightly stronger? There were feedbacks of heals feeling bad, particularly because of low rolls, so let's see if we can dwarf-hammer some stuff together as a mechanic designing exercise. The ideas listed here are based on convos in #build-chat and on alpha's temp HP mechanics.

Overheal

• Shield. Everyone may now be healed up to a max of 25 HP above their max HP from any healing source. This shield stays until it is damaged.

This means that overheal can be effectively used as pre-emptive damage mitigation and things like Regeneration can help you build a small amount of defense over time.

The 25HP here isn't the biggest deal in the world but can really help players out in smaller content where each action is super important, so overhealing or pre-emptive healing would help build up some defense.

Shield does open up some designing space if alters were to be worked on at some point in the future.

Stable Heal

• Heal is now 2d20 + all other mods per normal, OR just heal for 20 HP instead of rolling 2d20.
• Power Heal is 4d20 + all other mods. Dice explode on a nat-20.

The fact that regular heal allows players to take the average should help lower-ranked healers from feeling like they aren't adding anything to a battle.

Damage can be adjusted on the DM side, but Heal can't be adjusted by players, so we opt to make actions feel good to use since DMs can always scale challenge and difficulty.

Feel free to post in this thread if you'd like to add to the convo.

 

[Asch]

In this post, we're going to explore some showerthoughts again! This time, I'm going to muse about Sneak Attack, Massive Attack, and Ultra Counter. Aside from Sneak, the other two are just fun ideas and in no way something that is going to be added (yet).

Sneak

• Sneak is crappier than Heavy for certain. You have to get in range to execute it (same space as the target) and if you fail, no extra damage and a disadv save. It's far too swingy for a standard action.
• We can make it a lot better by letting the +30 always go through, and allow range mechanics to affect it, and instead, the failure condition is a disadv in all saves until the end of the cycle's damage phase.
• There was a private conversation somewhere where I had to answer the question of why Counter doesn't have a downside like Heavy or Sneak, where its damage and reduction are the only thing you lose. Well, if someone intends on reducing their damage with Counter because they need to, that's taking away another action they could have used to mitigate that damage, and there's where the penalty comes in.
• With this change Sneak bonus will always count (like in Heavy attack's case) so they won't have the same opportunity cost that Counter has.

Ultra Counter

• The idea behind this action is a riskier version of Counter, but with higher reward. The flavor is basically just timing your attack to counter an attack and perform a hard clapp back.
• The mechanics are the same as Counter, but when you succeed. 1d100+75+mods and -25 to the next incoming damage. When you fail, no bonus damage or damage reduction. You are vulnerable.
• At S-rank, you're expected to fail 25% of the time, making it a very high risk, high reward action.
• Interesting thing about Ultra Counter is that you can give someone else in the same zone the damage mitigation part of it.

Massive Attack

• Do you ever just attack so hard that you can't move? An attack where you go vulnerable, unload your stuff and just sit there and be a liability to your team? Well, that's an massive attack.
• 1d100+100+mods and the condition is that you cannot move until the following cycle.
• This attack makes it so people have to interact with you to pull you out of danger and all that, giving carry and reposition builds more to do.
• This attack is pretty powerful in non-battle map scenario, but DMs can always disable it if they would like.

Misc

• Why no special sneak attack? Crit attack addresses that flavor really well already.

 

[Asch]

This is the last designers note today, I swear. Wanted to put my thoughts down because almost everything is blocked on work's laptop. Anyways, let's gooooo.

Prototype Critical

• On a nat-100, multiply your result by 4.

Prototype Burst

• At S-rank, burst become 20d20. Buffed not just for mechanical reason, but whole numbers are just a heck of a lot easier to remember.

Gambito Reckless

• The idea of reckless is a TS addict looking for their next highs, but instead, just becomes Sad Keanu. This one is for you, choomie.
• Base 2d100. Modifiers are not added to the dice roll. Instead, for every 50 modifier you get, you gain a 1d100.
• In this version of reckless, you are at the complete mercy of RNG and must work to give yourself more d100s, triggering nats more than an average crit enjoyer.

Prototype Carry

• No more +1 extra movement. Carry is already very useful, it shouldn't make you faster.

Prototype Extension

• Awareness +5 (C) +10 (A), possibly?

Prototype Instability

• With the new Hinder specialist, this could use a little bump up.
• 10 SP damage to your target (D), 15 (C), 20 (B), 25 (A), 40 (S)

Prototype Reposition

• Same as before, but now works with Support AND Protect actions (including AoE), allowing you and your target(s) to move out of your zone. (Ashi's idea)

Prototype Regeneration

• This passive allows you to start battle with max shielding (25 HP)

 

[Asch]

Avenger is very awkward to use and doesn't activate all that often. So here's something more appropriate for Battle Spirits, speed let you move fast so you can get into danger, get hit, get angry, and deal a bunch of damage. Enjoy.

Berserk

• Get hit, get angry
• Gain an X damage buff if you lose at least X HP last cycle. X = 10 (E), 15 (D) 20 (C), 25 (B), 30 (A), 40 (S).

Better Written Berserk

• Receiving damage increases your own.
  Gain a damage buff based on the amount of HP lost last cycle (after all forms of damage reductions). The amount of damage gained is capped per rank: 10 (E), 15 (D) 20 (C), 25 (B), 30 (A), 40 (S). Self-inflicted damage does not count toward this passive.

There's got to be a better way to write this, but I don't have it in me.