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The Artificer Destiny

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Post  glacialchill Sat Oct 01, 2016 11:48 pm

After a few sessions of playing with a character ported to the Pony tales system, my friend realised that the inventor destiny was almost perfect. Almost, except that his character was a blacksmith, not an inventor. the associated abilities and flavor just didn't fit.

So instead, We tossed together the Artificer destiny for those who would like to use their creativity and skill to make a mark on the world, but in a way that fit a different sort of approach. This is the result.

Feel free to make suggestions, and such. This is the first game I've DM'd, admittedly. So I may be grossly over or underestimating how powerful these items should be.

Destiny

Artificer
To you, your creations are not just pieces of metal or wood to be used without thought. The products of your imagination and experience are pieces of art, as beautiful as they are functional. Each is unique and irreplaceable,and brings you one step closer to creating the piece that everyone will remember you by.

Level 4 – Arts and Crafts
You attain a reasonable knowledge of your craft. You may create up to 3 new items with non-combat uses, and up to 3 new items for use in combat. (The combat items must be 1 weapon, 1 armor, and 1 trinket, but the noncombat items may be whatever you like.) You must be in a friendly area in order to do so, and you must have the proper materials for such a creation. You or your allies may only equip 1 of the artificed noncombat items and 1 of the artificed combat items at a time, but you can give the other items away just like any loot, or switch which ones you are using during an extended rest. All 6 of these items can do anything as long as the DM approves of it-- The out of combat items should be about equivalent in usefulness to a 6-point Ability, while the combat items should be about equivalent in usefulness to an item worth 4000 gold.

Level 7 – Masterwork
You improve your crafting skills. You may now create 3 additional noncombat items and 3 additional combat items. They should be equivalent in usefulness to a 9-point Ability and an item worth 9000 gold, respectively. The same rules apply to crafting and using these items, (the DM must approve of them as they are created, you must have the correct materials in a friendly location, the 3 combat items must fit into different equipment slots, allies may be given the items, each character may only equip one at a time) but, you and your allies can each equip one tier 7 item alongside a tier 4 item.


Level 10 – I Built That
You’ve done it. You're ready.
You may now create your magnum opus; one unique item (or set of related items, like a matching sword, shield, and suit of armor) of legendary power, like the Alicorn Amulet, The Elements of Harmony, Excalibur, or Pandora's box. You have no limitations beyond what your DM will allow, so feel free to create whatever you want. This item will be the stuff of legend for centuries to come. You are the only one who knows how to recreate your masterpiece, and nobody else will ever be able to figure it out on their own. You can always try to teach others, though... Perhaps you should take on an apprentice to learn your ways, even if it is very unlikely that they will ever create something of such magnificence.

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Post  Paper Shadow Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:15 pm

Yeah, your Artificer destiny is far too powerful compared to other destinies. For comparison, at Level 4, Self-Discovery gives the player with the destiny up to two abilities with a combined total cost of up to six ability points, while the Artificer (depending on how you read it, it isn't clear if by equivalent you mean each item is equivalent or all the items combined are equivalent, but here I'm assuming its all the items combined because the each item way is just insane) gives six ability points spread over up to three items and 4000 gold spread over up to three items. If I keep it all on one item each, that's a Changeling Trickery / Phase Step plus a Training Diploma. The Level 7 suffers the same problem, but even moreso because 9000 is more than twice the amount of Gold the player has at that level. The Level 10 is a variant of the Inventor Level 10 where the invention isn't spread around the world, so I don't see that being a problem unless it also carries out combat advantages...

The main thing that I feel pushes this destiny into being stronger than other destinies is that it gives about the same equivalent in ability point strength that other destinies do, it also provides combat bonuses in addition to the ability point count. Not only does that push its strength higher than other destinies, it also makes it the only destiny to provide combat bonuses, which means that players with it are stronger in combat than players without, meaning players with the extra gold perform better than others without, which make balancing combat trickier for the DM (how do you make it challenging towards to players with the extra gold without making the players without feel useless or less effective?). It also has the unique strength that any otherwise wasted resource can be used to buff allies, which just makes it even stronger and can lead to debates on who should get the extra power. I would hate to run a game where every player has that destiny...

And this is assuming that all items combined are equivalent to the limits for each level. If every individual item can be up to the level limit, the power level goes through the roof...

(P.S. Welcome to the forums...)
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Post  glacialchill Sun Oct 02, 2016 7:40 pm

Those are pretty reasonable arguments. I suppose I created this to cater toward the style of game I'm more used to, where there and no more than 2 or 3 players other than the DM, and said players are more focused on telling the story and developing their characters than creating the strongest character possible. In these conditions, the artificer destiny is balanced in such a way that each party member benifits equally by the one artificer's creations, the DM can still balance battle fairly easily to the new conditions, and trim the chosen item's abilities to not be too powerful for what fits the RP. I had intended the four points and 9 points to be considered for each item individually as well. and yes, I do understand that it is very powerful is that sense. however, if you are considering the same small-group conditions I had mentioned before, it essentially equates to the artificer being a huge help for the entire team, and if the players work together to decide what the items will do, open up more interesting play options without any single one of them outstepping the others. I think of it as being about the same as the planeshaper destiny, the person who has it can simply bring their group out of a dire situation for an extended rest whenever they like, refreshing magic points, x/day limits, and so forth. The only thing I'd really change after reading your reply is requiring that the group be below a certain size for this destiny to be chosen, and possibly removing the combat items.

That being said... I do have some things that I would like to bring up in argument about things being more powerful than other things. The conjurer combat set is immensely powerful when compared to other builds. That, and the previously mentioned planeshaper destiny thing.

[edit:] I've just had another look at the planeshaper destiny. I didn't notice the note at the end about having to wait for another extended rest, so nevermind about what I said.

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Post  Paper Shadow Sun Oct 16, 2016 12:19 am

Well, if this destiny is designed for your group and your players are having fun, that's great, and I'm sure that the players will understand if you decide the numbers need tweaking in some way should something crop up during sessions. But my arguments and criticisms need to keep in mind other possible games, ones with bigger player counts, min-maxing players, or less experienced GMs who stumble upon this thread/destiny, stuff like that. Gotta keep an eye out for situations that might crop up...

(Also, if Conjuration Builds have got you down, I suggest using AoE attacks that damage or affect all enemies to deal with the increased target numbers and squishier summons, rushing down the conjuror so they can't summon anymore and current conjurations need to make saving throws to exist, or plan a shorter combat encounter (three or four turns) so the conjurer can't get an army going...)
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