SangoProduction
2021-01-23, 02:02 PM
I've been trying to contrive a way to make Full Metal Alchemist alchemy circles work. Or as SoP calls it, Diagram Magic. Fair enough, as it has nothing to do with actual alchemy except in name.
But Diagram Magic is quite limiting.
In order to perform any magical effect, either you or your target must be entirely contained within the boundaries of a special diagram. Creating this diagram requires a full-round action for every 5-foot square contained within the diagram. Once the circle has been drawn, attempt a Spellcraft check as part of the full-round action to draw the final part of the circle against DC 15 + the maximum caster level of any effect to be performed within the circle to determine if it was done correctly. You may take 10 on this check even if in combat or stressed. You can increase the speed at which you draw the diagram but at greater risk of making a mistake. Doing so prevents you from taking 10 on the check, and for every step by which you reduce the time required to draw the diagram, increase the spellcraft DC by +5 to a maximum of +20 to draw the circle as a free action.
The diagram need not be drawn with any special materials, and can be done with sprinkled salt, paint, blood, a finger in sand, or anything else that may be on hand so long as it is clearly visible. Permanent portable diagrams are usually not possible (as any scuff to the diagram disrupts the magic), but a diagram may be made out of fixed, permanent material such as metal. If a diagram is disrupted (any amount of damage dealt to the surface it is carved upon, or sufficient force from water, wind, or any other effect that might disperse the material the diagram was created with) then any magic currently being maintained by concentration via the diagram immediately ends, and no further magic may be used until a new circle is drawn. Spells and effects created by magic within the diagram (including summoned creatures) never disrupt it even if they would otherwise.
So, obviously, normally it's rather inconvenient to make use of these circles which are excessively fragile (by design).
Any damage will negate the magic viability. So, we engrave the diagram into adamantine. Just to start us off, this will provide a damage buffer of 20 vs most things, plus sonic energy, and 40 against most elemental damage.
The problem is definitely going to be anything that ignores hardness. Or adamantine weapons. Or a really angry man with a big stick.
Of course, nothing says that the diagram needs to be on the surface of whatever medium you're using. So "laminate" the adamantine with even more adamantine. Continue until you have sufficient buffer hp.
By most concepts, any such item would be attended by you, and so they'd need to make a sunder attempt, which does provoke, letting you try and trip most anyone trying to target it. Improved Sunder's hardly a common feat.
CMD stacking would be particularly difficult. Which is truly the great irony of combat maneuvers - monsters are particularly good with them, while requiring massive investment from PCs to get anything from it.
We will definitely want to then come up with ways to keep it from taking damage - particularly from magic. Preferably with relatively minimal investment. But let's move on for now.
-
Now, we've got a 25 sq ft sheet of adamantine. A 1 inch thick, 25 sq ft block of steel, by my google fu, weighs around 50 lbs. That's not trivial. Certainly not for a caster. (Note: I wrote most of the following assuming it was 50 lbs. The presumed real weight is 1020 lbs, which is... much more.)
Tenser's Floating Disk (or equivalent) would allow you to have it float behind you, and you just take a 5 ft step (or move action, depending) to start casting. That certainly does make it much more trivial.
How to get such equivalents is another question entirely. If D&D sources are ported over, you can get 9 hours of it every day with 3 Talisman of the Disk for just 1,500 gp. Awesome. Perfect.
Using custom magic items are much, much more expensive. But by the time you have money to spend on 40+ lbs of adamantine, probably not too much so.
But another option is perhaps to use the Telekinesis sphere, as much as I deride it for being absolutely terrible - because it is. The weight fits on the low end of the medium size category, which is achievable by level 5 with 2 talents. That's not absolutely impossible to get, and you can have it fly for concentration without consequence.
However, Extra Dimensional Storage, via Warp Sphere is accessible for 1 talent by level 4, and 2 talents by level 2. But it still takes a full round action unless you use the 2 talent option - at which point it'd be a move action. Obviously, trading out a full round action in order to make a full round action isn't the best win.
Shadow Stash from Dark sphere is only 5 lbs per level, but with 1 talent, you can pull it out as a move action, and with 2 talents, it's a free action.
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So...actually, Shadow Stash creates a very interesting opportunity. An incredibly liberal interpretation means that you can create a very light diagram, and have your shadow carry it under you. It can't be destroyed by all but the most exceptional attempts, and is perfectly mobile.
A less liberal interpretation still allows you to pull out premade Diagram blocks. It's a move action if your shadow is holding it, and a full round action from its backpack. With 2 talents, all that goes to free action. Which is not a hindrance, even if everyone repeatedly destroys your magic circles.
Which comes to the issues of finding light enough materials to keep at least 1, if not more, 25 sq ft, 1 inch thick plates of material.
Even Bamboo of those dimensions is around 40 ish pounds... which makes me heavily question my google foo on the block of steel. But details.
(And end the part where I was under preconceptions of the adamantine block being at all being portable.)
So, Bamboo is probably not typically common place, but it shouldn't be extremely expensive, if available. However, anything lighter probably will be rather expensive in sufficient quantities to make such blocks of material. Mithril would still weight 500 lbs, and cost an absurd amount.
The most obvious solution is to have much thinner slices of whatever you're wanting to carry. A 1/8 inch block of wood is not an insane measurement, by real world terms, and you could carry one in your shadow per level. And the paints you'd use to adorn such plates would be of trivial weight.
Of course, every material seems to have its HP given per inch, and not fractions of an inch - so without an inch of material, it has 0 hp, and is destroyed. Although extrapolations to fractions of an inch wouldn't be difficult.
So... hmm... not sure what value this post will have. Probably less than a block of adamantine. But... I was really bored during a game, and was writing this anyway, so... here you go.
But Diagram Magic is quite limiting.
In order to perform any magical effect, either you or your target must be entirely contained within the boundaries of a special diagram. Creating this diagram requires a full-round action for every 5-foot square contained within the diagram. Once the circle has been drawn, attempt a Spellcraft check as part of the full-round action to draw the final part of the circle against DC 15 + the maximum caster level of any effect to be performed within the circle to determine if it was done correctly. You may take 10 on this check even if in combat or stressed. You can increase the speed at which you draw the diagram but at greater risk of making a mistake. Doing so prevents you from taking 10 on the check, and for every step by which you reduce the time required to draw the diagram, increase the spellcraft DC by +5 to a maximum of +20 to draw the circle as a free action.
The diagram need not be drawn with any special materials, and can be done with sprinkled salt, paint, blood, a finger in sand, or anything else that may be on hand so long as it is clearly visible. Permanent portable diagrams are usually not possible (as any scuff to the diagram disrupts the magic), but a diagram may be made out of fixed, permanent material such as metal. If a diagram is disrupted (any amount of damage dealt to the surface it is carved upon, or sufficient force from water, wind, or any other effect that might disperse the material the diagram was created with) then any magic currently being maintained by concentration via the diagram immediately ends, and no further magic may be used until a new circle is drawn. Spells and effects created by magic within the diagram (including summoned creatures) never disrupt it even if they would otherwise.
So, obviously, normally it's rather inconvenient to make use of these circles which are excessively fragile (by design).
Any damage will negate the magic viability. So, we engrave the diagram into adamantine. Just to start us off, this will provide a damage buffer of 20 vs most things, plus sonic energy, and 40 against most elemental damage.
The problem is definitely going to be anything that ignores hardness. Or adamantine weapons. Or a really angry man with a big stick.
Of course, nothing says that the diagram needs to be on the surface of whatever medium you're using. So "laminate" the adamantine with even more adamantine. Continue until you have sufficient buffer hp.
By most concepts, any such item would be attended by you, and so they'd need to make a sunder attempt, which does provoke, letting you try and trip most anyone trying to target it. Improved Sunder's hardly a common feat.
CMD stacking would be particularly difficult. Which is truly the great irony of combat maneuvers - monsters are particularly good with them, while requiring massive investment from PCs to get anything from it.
We will definitely want to then come up with ways to keep it from taking damage - particularly from magic. Preferably with relatively minimal investment. But let's move on for now.
-
Now, we've got a 25 sq ft sheet of adamantine. A 1 inch thick, 25 sq ft block of steel, by my google fu, weighs around 50 lbs. That's not trivial. Certainly not for a caster. (Note: I wrote most of the following assuming it was 50 lbs. The presumed real weight is 1020 lbs, which is... much more.)
Tenser's Floating Disk (or equivalent) would allow you to have it float behind you, and you just take a 5 ft step (or move action, depending) to start casting. That certainly does make it much more trivial.
How to get such equivalents is another question entirely. If D&D sources are ported over, you can get 9 hours of it every day with 3 Talisman of the Disk for just 1,500 gp. Awesome. Perfect.
Using custom magic items are much, much more expensive. But by the time you have money to spend on 40+ lbs of adamantine, probably not too much so.
But another option is perhaps to use the Telekinesis sphere, as much as I deride it for being absolutely terrible - because it is. The weight fits on the low end of the medium size category, which is achievable by level 5 with 2 talents. That's not absolutely impossible to get, and you can have it fly for concentration without consequence.
However, Extra Dimensional Storage, via Warp Sphere is accessible for 1 talent by level 4, and 2 talents by level 2. But it still takes a full round action unless you use the 2 talent option - at which point it'd be a move action. Obviously, trading out a full round action in order to make a full round action isn't the best win.
Shadow Stash from Dark sphere is only 5 lbs per level, but with 1 talent, you can pull it out as a move action, and with 2 talents, it's a free action.
-
So...actually, Shadow Stash creates a very interesting opportunity. An incredibly liberal interpretation means that you can create a very light diagram, and have your shadow carry it under you. It can't be destroyed by all but the most exceptional attempts, and is perfectly mobile.
A less liberal interpretation still allows you to pull out premade Diagram blocks. It's a move action if your shadow is holding it, and a full round action from its backpack. With 2 talents, all that goes to free action. Which is not a hindrance, even if everyone repeatedly destroys your magic circles.
Which comes to the issues of finding light enough materials to keep at least 1, if not more, 25 sq ft, 1 inch thick plates of material.
Even Bamboo of those dimensions is around 40 ish pounds... which makes me heavily question my google foo on the block of steel. But details.
(And end the part where I was under preconceptions of the adamantine block being at all being portable.)
So, Bamboo is probably not typically common place, but it shouldn't be extremely expensive, if available. However, anything lighter probably will be rather expensive in sufficient quantities to make such blocks of material. Mithril would still weight 500 lbs, and cost an absurd amount.
The most obvious solution is to have much thinner slices of whatever you're wanting to carry. A 1/8 inch block of wood is not an insane measurement, by real world terms, and you could carry one in your shadow per level. And the paints you'd use to adorn such plates would be of trivial weight.
Of course, every material seems to have its HP given per inch, and not fractions of an inch - so without an inch of material, it has 0 hp, and is destroyed. Although extrapolations to fractions of an inch wouldn't be difficult.
So... hmm... not sure what value this post will have. Probably less than a block of adamantine. But... I was really bored during a game, and was writing this anyway, so... here you go.