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View Full Version : "Reality" - Looking for help with an idea



Zerg Cookie
2011-07-18, 05:51 AM
Me and a friend from school are writing a Pathfinder campaign to run next year.
The world in which the campaign takes place is a world torn apart by an arcane war blah blah blah, quite classic.
Now the thing is, we don't want the spellcasters to be too much ahead of the rest of the group in combat, as is the case without homebrewing things in to boost martial classes.
I had an idea for a battlefield stat called "Reality".
Flavor-wise, you draw the power of reality itself and channel it into your abilities.
Mechanics-wise, the battlefield itself (Or parts of it individually in case the battlefield is very big) has a number of "Reality points" that do not belong to any one character. Said points are consumed during the course of a battle in order to boost the characters (PCs and NPCs alike).
You are allowed to consume as many points as you wish*, but doing so provokes a will save which is harder the more points you try consuming. In case you fail your will save, you suffer some backlash effect depending on how badly you failed your save, the amount of reality points you tried to consume, and the ability you tried to use*.
The use of reality points is done through feats, and I might write a class which focuses on that (Probably inspired by the monk). For example:
Reality Strike[General]

Prerequisites
Int 13, base attack bonus +6

Benefit
Add +1 to your attack roll for each reality point channeled into a single attack.

Reality Consumption DC: 10 + 3 per point

Special
A fighter may select Reality Strike as one of his fighter bonus feats.
Consuming reality is a free action.
In case there are not enough reality points on the part of the battlefield the character trying to consume is, the character fails the save automatically with increased backlash.
The reality stat is hidden and so are the will save rolls.

As a side-effect, consuming reality might provoke a reaction from the battlefield itself.

*Will probably get changed

Now here's the thing. I'm looking for general constructive criticism, and in case someone feels like writing some feats with this mechanic, I'd appriciate any help.

Edit: Before anyone says that this thing can't balance real spellcasting, let me say that it's not the only additional thing martials do in our world.

Yitzi
2011-07-18, 07:35 AM
In addition to strengthening martials, you might want to give thought to weakening casters.

Calliope121
2011-07-18, 07:40 AM
Very nice. You could even balance this through the levels by making there be less available points the lower level you are. Altogether a very nice idea.

erikun
2011-07-18, 08:07 AM
A DC 25 will save (+5 to hit) seems like it would be unusually difficult to reliably achieve, especially for someone with a low will save to begin with (Fighter).

Is there any way to identify how much Reality is still remaining in an area, without trying to use it?

Zerg Cookie
2011-07-18, 09:15 AM
In addition to strengthening martials, you might want to give thought to weakening casters.

In a world torn apart by magic, you better be careful about using your spells, as all sorts of screw-ups happen.
This is just one mechanic I'm homebrewing for this campaign. I'm pretty much happy with the rest of what I've made and just feel this one needs more work.


Very nice. You could even balance this through the levels by making there be less available points the lower level you are. Altogether a very nice idea.

That was the idea. It also works flavor-wise, as my group gets geographically closer to "The eye of the storm" as they advance in levels


A DC 25 will save (+5 to hit) seems like it would be unusually difficult to reliably achieve, especially for someone with a low will save to begin with (Fighter).

Is there any way to identify how much Reality is still remaining in an area, without trying to use it?

That was just an example. I thought about making it +2 per point originally, or just 3*points without the 10. Also, I believe we'll make feats to help with the will save (for example: you get a +4 for all reality consuming will saves)

As for identifyng the amount of remaining reality in the area, we'll probably allow an estimate for a successful knowledge(arcana) or knowledge(nature) check.


Thanks for the criticism so far.

Domriso
2011-07-18, 12:19 PM
I do like this idea. Are you looking specifically for normal sorts of abilities, like +1 to attacks, +1 to damage, and whatnot? Or are you also looking for more supernatural abilities, with a martial bent?

jiriku
2011-07-18, 02:52 PM
I assume this option is unavailable to casters? Because otherwise, it's a caster boost, since casters typically have better will saves than non-casters and would have an easier time making the saving throw.

In general, I think your choice of what you can do with reality points will determine whether this mechanic is helpful. If it's just used to gain linear bonuses to your existing stats and mechanics, the impact will be minimal and it won't really help (it may even hurt, as the non-casters will occasionally be stumbling around the battlefield suffering from backlash effects). OTOH, if you can spend reality points to gain new options, things you couldn't do before, and if these things are just as good as high-level spells, then you've got a promising mechanic here.

Zerg Cookie
2011-07-18, 04:11 PM
To be honest, we intended to give martials magic-like (not necessarily spell-like) abilities at higher levels before I thought of this mechanic.
I suppose we'll use this mechanic to do that.

So yes, this IS going to grant supernatural abilities at higher levels

Eloel
2011-07-18, 04:24 PM
Spells could also consume reality points when cast. Something like (spell level)^2 - character level, min 0? This is more 'you are hurting the reality' than 'you are using reality', but could achieve something. Meh, trying to help :smallsmile:

Zerg Cookie
2011-07-18, 04:37 PM
Spells could also consume reality points when cast. Something like (spell level)^2 - character level, min 0? This is more 'you are hurting the reality' than 'you are using reality', but could achieve something. Meh, trying to help :smallsmile:

Actually, I thought about it the other way around. Reality is feeding on magic, so using magic should produce reality points.
Which also allow martials to last in longer fights when casters are involved

Domriso
2011-07-18, 11:15 PM
Oohoo, I like that idea. So, in a way, "reality" is generated when magic is used, sort of like the world is trying to fight back against the presence of the magic? Another way of saying it would be, the world is spamming "antivirus" reality to fix the "wound" caused by magic?

In either case, it sounds cool. I like it.

The Time
2011-07-19, 06:43 PM
Ok, first time here, not very good with english, hello.

I am Tal's friend from school, and we are going to run this campain together, so the machanics can be a bit more complicated then the usual. After all we have two GMs on board all the time to handle things.

Anyway, there is very basic problem with the consept right now, and I think we need to solve before diving into the machanics. You see, we need the reality system to boots the martial classes, but we still don't have a good reason way spellcaster can't manipulate reality in that way and the martial classes can.

Now, Domriso's idea for natural "antivirus" against spellcasters can be good solution, but I can see how this consept will drive the campain into some sort of echo-friendly theme (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GreenAesop), with magic taking the role of science in the "incur Mother Nature's wrath (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Ptitle0b588116?from=Main.GaiasVengeance)" thing. Of course, it isn't a bad theme, not at all. But I personally prefer to find other main theme for the magic in the campain.

So, can you think of a good way to prevent spellcasters from manipulating reality in that way, but letting the martial classes do it less or more freely?