subsystems question

[lunar2]

so, for a setting i have been building on and off for a long time now, i want a distinct split between those with natural magic talent and those who must learn magic. i'll be using 4 limited list casting classes for those born with talent, but wanted to use other subsystems for learned magic.

specifically, i want to include the shape soulmeld/open x chakra feats, martial study/martial stance, and the feats to learn utterances.

incarnum: with the limitation that you can only have one soulmeld shaped at a time, no matter how many you know, would it be unbalancing to treat that soulmeld as if it was fully invested with essentia?

initiating: would it be unbalancing to remove the limit on the number of times you can take these feats? so you could, at least theoretically, pick up every maneuver of 5th level or lower.

truenaming: i think i would drop the truespeech skill entirely, and make the abilities at will, subject to the law of sequence. the truespeech training feat would make speak language a class skill, and would be a prereq for the other feats, which would have a number of languages known prereq instead of a truespeech rank prereq.

notes on all of these. this would be an E20 game. it's like E6, but the cap on class levels is 20 instead of 6. so theoretically, you can have infinite feats and skill points if you spend the exp to buy them.

[Morcleon]

incarnum: with the limitation that you can only have one soulmeld shaped at a time, no matter how many you know, would it be unbalancing to treat that soulmeld as if it was fully invested with essentia?

Yes, but not in the way you're thinking. Limiting it to one soulmeld at a time basically makes incarnum very bad, even with the full investment. If you raised the limit to something like 1+Con modifier, it wouldn't be unbalanced.


initiating: would it be unbalancing to remove the limit on the number of times you can take these feats? so you could, at least theoretically, pick up every maneuver of 5th level or lower.

Not at all. It's a bit of an arbitrary restriction, and rather stupid.

[Keld Denar]

For the incarnum...thats fine. I can't think of a single one that would be so outrageous with just the base number of essentia you get from HP. I'd disallow any feats or items that increase essentia capacity. And remember, chakras ARE magic items, so if you shape Spellward Shirt, for example, you couldn't wear a vest.

As far as the initiating goes, no, that doesn't unbalance it. Nobody will be able to recover maneuvers in combat since noone will have a recovery mechanic. Its fine.

For the Truenaming one, I'd make it a bit more accessable to classes that get very few skill points. Leave the bonus as HD+3+Int. Classes that don't favor Int can still use a few utterances (especially the non-direct ones) a few times per day before the Law of Sequence starts to become a problem. Great for a fighter type who wants to be able to Haste himself a few times per day, or cure his own wounds, or whatever for a feat.

[Kelb_Panthera]

For the incarnum...thats fine. I can't think of a single one that would be so outrageous with just the base number of essentia you get from HP. I'd disallow any feats or items that increase essentia capacity. And remember, chakras ARE magic items, so if you shape Spellward Shirt, for example, you couldn't wear a vest.

As far as the initiating goes, no, that doesn't unbalance it. Nobody will be able to recover maneuvers in combat since noone will have a recovery mechanic. Its fine.

For the Truenaming one, I'd make it a bit more accessable to classes that get very few skill points. Leave the bonus as HD+3+Int. Classes that don't favor Int can still use a few utterances (especially the non-direct ones) a few times per day before the Law of Sequence starts to become a problem. Great for a fighter type who wants to be able to Haste himself a few times per day, or cure his own wounds, or whatever for a feat.

underlined statement is untrue. You have to bind the soulmeld to the chakra to close it off to magic items. Simply shaping soulmelds doesn't interfere with magic items in anyway.

[Keld Denar]

I said CHAKRA.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I said CHAKRA.

Chakras are just the slots the soulmelds (and magic items) go in. Chakra Binds are what close the chakra to magic items. You can have a spellward shirt shaped to the heart chakra and a magic vest in that same chakra, but if you bind the spellward shirt to the chakra (meaning you're a high-level incarnate or an epic <something else>) its power will increase and the vest will stop functioning.

If this is what you were trying to convey, your post was lacking in clarity.

Also note that you can bind magic items to the chakras too. This generally results in a trivial benefit and closes off the chakra to binding (but not shaping) a soulmeld to that same chakra.

[KillianHawkeye]

Kelb Panthera is correct. All soul melds occupy a chakra, but only those that are bound to the chakra disallow the usage of magic items in that body slot.

[lunar2]

@incarnum. ok, so disallow feats/items that increase essentia capacity. that's fine.

as for the restriction to 1 soulmeld at a time. that's all most characters using the shape soulmeld feat are going to be using anyway.

the restriction is based in the fluff of the setting, anyway. you aren't shaping random soulstuff that happens to be floating around. you are shaping your own soul, so obviously you can only have one soulmeld because you only have one soul.

@initiating. so this is fine? good.

@truenaming. Law of sequence is the one that says you can only have a particular utterance in effect once at any given point in time. you can't give someone fast healing, and then the very next round do it again on someone else. you have to wait for the first one to expire.

the abilities would be at will, because there is no skill check to activate them. you simply have to have gathered enough bits of truespeech (know enough languages) to say that utterance.

[Fouredged Sword]

The shape soulmeld feat will allow some classes to get very high skill checks. Just be aware that this can happen.

A rogue with thief's gloves can disarm just about anything.

I would allow for the changing of what melds you have shaped after 1 min of meditation though. Otherwise, everyone will burn one feat on a single meld and move on.

[Keld Denar]

Ah, I was confused with the Law of Impedance, or whatever it is, that increases the DC by +2 every time you utter it. Again, for someone not focused on it, not something you really want to mess with, but for self buffing or non-targetted abilities (like the Solid Fog one), certainly a very decent option.