Battle Skills.

Impsired by the new "optional rule" thingie and the Minor Actions stuff. This idea came to me. And I call them Battle Skills. They'd be an minor action, X per battle, combat talent that everyone get's ONE for free to take into battle.

Like for the optional rule being build into a Battle Skill:

[0] Flexible - Minor Utility [1/battle]
You may remove one combat talent you took into battle and gain one combat talent that you didn't take.


So... Any thoughts on this crazy idea?

I think this is a promising idea, though I wonder what other things would be available as other options.

Mostly because the initial one is actually a very good one, and any others would have a lot to live up to.

Wont disagree... It'd be hard to build these.

As a quick suggestion:

[+1] Free pip Minor Utility [1/battle]
Does nothing, but hey free pip.

Sounds like a fun optional supplement. However, as it's an extra rule to remember that isn't essential for the fun of combat (and the effects of these types of battle skills can be easily duplicated by items and traits which already are going to have many minor action triggers with limited uses per battle) we probably wouldn't make it part of the core rules. Definitely would steal all your good ideas for items or traits though. =)

Did you see anything saying it'd be for the core rules? I was thinking it'd be a cool little optional system or something. Cause it'd be hard enough to build these types of things to be balanced.

[0] In no hurry - Minor Utility [1/battle]
Your turn in initiative is now after target creature, starting next round.

Xel Unknown wrote:Did you see anything saying it'd be for the core rules? I was thinking it'd be a cool little optional system or something. Cause it'd be hard enough to build these types of things to be balanced.

Exactly. Glad we're on the same page. =)

And it's definitely possible to balance these types of powers. That's what we go through for items after all.

[0] Cast From HP - Minor Utility [1/battle]
On this turn you may spend X HP (10 HP Max) to use a X/2 pip costing combat talent as a free action.

thematthew wrote:As a quick suggestion:

[+1] Free pip Minor Utility [1/battle]
Does nothing, but hey free pip.

This is a good idea... But a bit too weak. I'd say it'd work as more a 3/battle move personally. The one per battle version would be a +2 pip move I'd think.

And on the topic of minor aciton pip givers:

[+4] Pip Care Package - Minor Utility [1/battle]
Lose 1d6 pips.

[-12] GODMODE - Minor Attack [1/battle]
Preform 4 [-] pip standard actions that have a total pip cost of 12 as a free action. Deal +1 damage to all attacks done. Also after this turn is over you are sent to having -10 HP.

((Yes you have to do four actions that total up to 12, this keeps it from being comboed with Royal Command, but allows use of at least -9 talents to be used with it. Also you got your fifth standard action, but you do get stunned after using that.

This talent is about as powerful then It's Over... If not STRONGER... Mixing this with Furious Rage, you'll get 8d10+4 base damage if non-bloodied, 12d12+4 if bloodied... And that's not counting what you do on your fifth standard action. Dam... But then again it It's Over still can do better to more targets. Still going to suggest it regardless. Cause it only becomes so powerful in solo-battles. And also you've gotta be bloodied as well... And the being KOed afterwards.

Totally is broken the more I think about this one... Will need help fixing. Or just go back to the drawing board with this... Mmm... Still totally feel this system needs a balanced -12 battle skill.))

[-6] Triple Play - Minor Attack [1/battle]
You may preform two extra standard actions on this turn.

((You also have the normal standard action you got to play with. Making it three total, in cause it's name confused you.))

[-3] Supermoves - Minor Attack [1/battle]
Preform upto three standard actions that have a total pip cost of three pips as a free action.

((Yeah, a totally balanced version of Godmode, I'll admit. Again with Furious Rage move, this could only at most allow you to do that one twice, if you got 6 pips... With no bonus damage. So that's something cool. Getting 4d10 or 6d12 damage out there is quite awesome. Bet there are also other cool combos to be made with this too.))

this one may be broken or under powdered

[0] Lucky straight minor action 1/battle
Roll 5D20 if a sequence of 5 consecutive numbers in any order are rolled activate all three levels of your special move.

It's an intresting idea... But not that good, cuase I think the odds of that happening with a d20 dice is quite unlikely and we already got Oversized Sword that got better odds then that to trigger all three specials at once... Maybe try to build it like something Yahtzee? That'd be kinda cool.

I'm guessing you want it to be a minor utility.

Also, what happen with double digit numbers? If I roll 11, 11, 13, does that count as 5 1s in a row, but 13,13,13,13,13 is also okay? Because that seems like it would make it slightly more powerful, just by increasing what is an incredibly low chance of activating a special ability.

What about this:
[0] Lucky Straight minor utility 1/battle
Roll 5D20. Any time you roll the same number twice, you may activate one of your special moves. You can activate each of your special moves only once per use of this ability.
If you roll 5 of the same number, activate all your special moves a second time.

There's a combinatorial setup I could try for this, but suffice to say that the chance of activating this once (which would presumably set off the d12 ability, the crown jewel of special move setups) is (1/20)*(1/20)*4=1/100=1%, which is pretty low. I'm guessing yours is even lower.

This idea is a combinatorics gold mine, so I should probably come back to this, but I have other work to do. In the meantime, what does everyone think a good % chance to activate all three of your special moves is? Because if we pick one of those it won't be to hard to set up a jackpot ability.

Oh, by the way, quick thing I want to share about game balance if you're interested. The way we balance a minor action power is that we tend to take any standard action power and add 3 pips to the cost (so a +2 Standard would be a -1 minor) as it takes about a full turn to gain 3 pips for almost no effect.

I say we first look to something that already does this "jackpot" type effect of triggering all three specials at once:

The Treasure Hoard wrote:Oversized Sword - 1500 Gold
Weapon
You may use the following combat talent.

[-4] Not Compensating For Something - Standard Attack
Deal 1d20+1d12 damage to target creature. If you roll a 19-20 on your d20, you may activate all three of your Special Move Features.

Now then going form there, it's rolling a 19-20 on a d20... I believe that's a 10% chance in and of itself...

So personally I again state that this talent should more be reworked into something like Yahtzee... IE: using five d6s.

So here's my take on the Lucky Stright talent, the wording's totally bad, but I hope you get what I'm going for here.

[-4] Lucky Dice - Minor Utility [1/battle]
Roll 5d6, for each pairing of the same number trigger one of your specials, if you get three of a kind, trigger two specials, four of a kind triggers all three. Can trigger upto all three specials by this talents one time max. If you roll five of a kind gain six pips as well as triggering all three specials..

I like the Lucky Die concept a lot!

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:Oh, by the way, quick thing I want to share about game balance if you're interested. The way we balance a minor action power is that we tend to take any standard action power and add 3 pips to the cost (so a +2 Standard would be a -1 minor) as it takes about a full turn to gain 3 pips for almost no effect.

This will be helpful with both building these battle skills and in building minor actions in general. In fact it gives me an idea!

[-3] Major to Minor - Minor Utility [1/battle]
Choose a standard action combat talent you brought into battle... On your next turn, you may use that Combat Talent as if it were a Minor Action.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:I like the Lucky Die concept a lot!

Do recall that it was tyger that started the idea. I just turned it from d20s and all about strights to d6 with effects off Yahtzee scoring... >.>

Absolutely recall it. It's a great concept and made even more fun with the Yahtzee reference.

Just wanted make sure that when that Lucky Dice gets into a book somewhere, that Tyger gets most of the credit. Unless he feels turning it into Yahtzee wasn't what he was going for.

You're a good man Charlie Brown. I'll definitely note it.