Some Everypony Talents

Zarhon wrote:This one sounds like an Earth pony talent, but both Spike, Discord and Pinkie Pie have done it.

Pass the Popcorn
Whenever you witness a creature critically fail or critically succeed a skill check (And it is not otherwise prevented from happening), you gain a bucket of popcorn, and watch the resulting "show". Allies or creatures that aren't involved in the check can join you, sharing the popcorn (There's always enough for everypony). This renders any such "spectators" immune to any negative effects the critical failure might have. In addition, the caster gains a "temporary" magic point. "Temporary" magic points do not transfer through sessions. You lose 1 "temporary" magic point for any skill check failures, or all of them for any critical failures (You do NOT lose your regular magic points). You can have a maximum of 4 "temporary" magic points at any given time. The popcorn prevents starvation when eaten, and is treated like any other object in the players possession (not conjured).

Optional extra effect: If a hostile creature shares popcorn with you, roll an effect from the "Tons of Fun" list, instead of gaining a temporary magic point.

Examples:
- Your ally critically succeeds at a skill check. You gain a bucket of popcorn and a temporary magic point.
- Your ally critically fails a bomb defusal check. You use "Pass the Popcorn" to prevent the resulting explosion from affecting you, as well as gain a bucket of popcorn and a temporary magic point.
- An enemy critically fails in a persuasion check against another ally. You gain a bucket of popcorn and a temporary magic point.
- Your ally and another helping him critically fail at a bomb defusal check. You and any other ally not helping with the check share a bucket of popcorn and are undamaged by the resulting explosion. You gain a temporary magic point.

Zarhon wrote:

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:Regaining magic points is really huge, they're shatteringly powerful. I'd lean more towards the first implementation than the second.

Is there another reward besides magic points you could come up with too?

A few come to mind.

A) Instead of magic points, they could trigger a free "Tons of fun" effect. To prevent completely game-breaking / campaign shattering situations, they and/or the DM could choose whether the effect actually happens or not.

B) Caster gains a pair of "special" glasses. They are discarded after 10 minutes, or if "pass the popcorn" triggers again before they are used.
- 3-D glasses: Break fourth wall for 2 minutes (real-time), allowing that player to use Out-Of-Character knowledge as In-Character knowledge.
- X-ray glasses: Sees skeletons of creatures, sees through clothing (revealing concealed objects) and thin walls. Lasts 5 minutes.
- Sunglasses: Player must be acknowledged as 20% cooler by the other players (Either in or out of character). Player gains a +8 bonus to his next skill check if they can think of a cheesy one-liner for the skill check that triggered "Pass the popcorn"
- Hypno-glasses: Improves persuasion checks to manipulate intelligent creatures by +10, or allows you to give orders (within reason) to animals for 3 minutes.
- Gag glasses: Hides your identity with a cunning disguise for 5 minutes. DC 25 perception check pierces the cunning disguise.

C) Casters next utility talent requires no preparation time.

D) Caster recovers a single charge from one of his "X/day" utility talents (Cannot recover "daily" talents, can only recover charges, not gain extras). If none are available, they gain +5 to their next skill check instead.

E) Next utility that requires magic points costs no points instead. (This might be overpowered)

I agree that this shouldn't regain Magic Points. I like the free Tons of Fun effect suggested. I also have to wonder why a hostile would share popcorn with you...

Philadelphus wrote:

The Magic of Friendship – Immediate Reaction
Trigger: One or more people spend a Magic Point to help you with a skill check (including the effects of the Element of Generosity).
Effect: Regardless of the outcome of the check, you may roll a d20. If the result is a natural 20, you and everyone helping you each gain one Magic Point.

You're All My Very Best Friends – Daily
Upon spending a Magic Point to help somepony else with a skill check (including the effects of the Element of Generosity), you may flip a coin. If you win the flip, you regain a Magic Point.

BRILLIANT! I love these!

Prof. Charles Hoofington wrote:The most dependable of ponies. 3/day
When you next assist another pony on a skil check, you gain a +1 to the assist bonus, so unicorns and pegasus grant a +3 bonus and earth ponies grant a +5 bonus.

Insomina- requires nightwatch
If you rest durring the day and are active durring the night, you may begin the night with an additional magic point. PH are encouraged to come up with RP penalties for sleeping durrimg the day, i.e shops are closed, everypony else is asleep etc. there is no penalty to sleeping during the night and being awake during the day.

Chosen of Luna - requires Insomnia. Magic
You may cloak yourself in the night sky, becoming invisible for the next 10 minutes. Whilst invisible you can not be seen, and other ponies have a -10 to detect you. Even if you are detected, you can not be identified. You may use this during the day as well as the night, but durring the day there is only a -5 modifer to detect you.

I like Dependable a lot! Simple, but... well, dependable! Much to recommend it here. I'm not so sure about Insomnia, but I really like Chosen of Luna. I'd want that!

Zarhon wrote:Shipping goggles
Choose two allies at the beginning of each session. For the rest of the session, you consider the pair to be soul-mates, destined to fall in love (Regardless of gender or actual feelings for each other) and make it your personal mission to ensure love blooms between them. Every time the two chosen allies attempt to assist each other with a skill check, flip a coin. If its heads, the assisting pony auto-succeeds their assist confirmation roll. If its tails, the confirmation roll for the assist treats a natural 1 as a natural 20.

(Example: Player A chooses players B & C as his ship. Whenever player B assists player C, or player C assists player B, player A tosses a coin.)

Love triangle
Prerequisite: Shipping goggles
Your decide to spice up your OTP's relationship. "Shipping goggles" now affects up to three allies of your choice. Whenever all three of them are involved in a skill check (they all must succeed their assist rolls), you double each of their assist bonuses.

NOW KISS - Daily
Prerequisite: Shipping goggles
You take extreme measures to ensure your ships hold fast. Make opposing skill check of your choice against any allies you chose for "Shipping goggles". If you win two checks, the next time the pair/trio make a skill check together, it is an automatic critical success. If you win at least one check, you automatically succeed in assisting their next three checks, even when it should not be possible.

Shmoopy-doo! - daily
Range: 100 yards
You may use this ability when one of your allies fails or critically fails an opposing skill check. You make an unstoppable charge at double your running speed towards them, ignoring, knocking away, or demolishing any obstacle in the way. This interrupts the check and prevents any negative consequences to the ally. You must know their rough location to use this ability.

...what. Mechanically speaking, they look good, but... what.

Zarhon wrote:Got more silly talents!

Innocuous intimidation - 3 / day
You describe perfectly innocent intentions towards another creature in such a threatening way, that it is interpreted as vague threats and hints of dark intentions, allowing you to intimidate them without any repercussion from the target or others (e.g. bodyguards will ignore threats made this way against their charge). You gain a bonus of +5 against persuasion checks against them. In addition, if you roll a critical success, you may request two small favors from them, which they will try to grant, motivated by fear of your character. The favors cannot be something the targeted creature would never do willingly.

Example of use: Ponies want to intimidate a diamond dog, guarded by a pair of big bodyguards. They use this skill to have the bodyguards ignore the intimidation attempts, and to assist the check.



Intimidating introduction - Daily
Prerequisite: Innocuous intimidation
You can choose to trigger this ability when an ally succeeds an opposing persuasion check against another creature. They will offhandedly "warn" the target about your character, with "vague details" of a horrifying incident that was never persecuted. That creature is no longer able to make opposing persuasion checks while within sight of you. In addition, whenever that creature is left alone with you (allies and any other creatures), they gain a -15 penalty for all persuasion checks against you, critical failures are converted to critical successes, and they are pacified.

Silly they may be, but these are also fun and effective! I like these a lot!

Jason Shadow wrote:I've come up with an idea for a talent. Here's two variations on it.

Variante à une:
Worth Fighting For - Daily
Preparation Time: 2 minutes
You give a rousing pep talk or inspiring speech to your allies. For the next hour, each ally gains a Morale bonus to all skill checks equal to half your Persuasion score.

Variante à deux:
Worth Fighting For - Daily
Preparation Time: 2 minutes
You give a rousing pep talk or inspiring speech to your allies. For the next hour, each ally gains a +2 Morale bonus to all skill checks. If you actually make a speech in-character that lasts two minutes or longer, then the DM should apply a further bonus (or penalty) for how good (or bad) that speech was.

Any thoughts?

I like variant 2 better: inspires more roleplaying, in my opinion. Still, I like the basic idea.

Zarhon wrote:Comedic/dramatic effect - At will
You can cause a comedic/dramatic effect to occur for any event. This can be almost anything, but are usually a manifestation of a minor event, a "special effect", or you pulling a random (useless) object out of thin air and using it for whatever its meant to, then discarding it. The player then gets +1, +2, or +3 to their next skill check, judged by the DM for their effect. After ten such effects, you can choose to roll a free effect from the "Tons of fun" table, at will. The DM has final say for any effect. Examples of effects include:
- Lightning cracking out of an otherwise clear sky to someone's speech, or evil laugh.
- Birds being rustled out of their tree, foals crying, and somepony whinnying at the mention of a villains name.
- Flying pigs, after someone denies the existence of such creatures.
- Fireworks for cool (or uncool) actions.
- An object breaking from being lightly touched.
- A fragile object falling in slow motion, as someone tries to catch it.
- A couch for you to faint on, appearing out of nowhere.
- Pulling a a live chicken out of a random container.
- A dramatic chord being heard after a plot twist.
- Time slowing down for a cool scene.
- Bright light shining during a rousing speech, with you holding the reflectors.
- Steam coming out of an angry pony's ears.
- Playing a "sad trombone" tune for a critical failure, using an actual trombone.
- Burping loud enough to shake a building.
- A pony leaping dramatically in slow motion, whilst others are unaffected.
- Inspirational music playing, during a race.
- Crying a literal river during a sad scene.

(Show examples: Pinkie Pie trombone, Fireworks for Iron Will, Pinkie Pie head-twisting, Fireworks for Trixie, Pinkie Pie eye-bulging, Reflector lights for Gustave, dramatic lightning for crazy Fluttershy, Derpy breaking everything, Pinkie Pie suspending a jump-rope, Twilight getting attacked by bees, Pinkie Pie sneezing confetti, Sweetie Belle burning juice, Pinkie PIe, Rarity and her drama couch, Pinkie Pie...)

I like the basic ideas here, but it seems a little overpowered for an at-will ability with those skill check bonuses.

Zarhon wrote:Mind of madness - 3/Day
Your mind is a jumbled, chaotic mess, unable for anyone (apart from yourself) to understand in any way, shape or form. You can use this ability to:
- Ignore any orders given to you by mind controlling spells in favor of looking at shiny objects, causing the controller to gain a -2 stacking penalty to skill checks, for each minute of attempting to control you.
- Cause mind-altering effects to reverse targets, causing you to cast the effect against them instead.
- Cause anyone listening in to your thoughts to be deafened for 3 hours.
- Interrupt and completely confuse anyone trying to determine your motives, goals, or motivations.
- Cause object sensitive to thoughts, or otherwise thought-affecting, to malfunction or explode.
- Cause creatures that rely on sensing brain-waves to operate (e.g. Illithid brains) to be blinded, deafened and confused for 12 hours.

I love this one! But I have to wonder why it's 3/day; your brain's chaotic all the time, no? Maybe make it more automatic, but with a Persuasion check?

Jason Shadow wrote:Animal Magnetism
Prerequisites - Animal Speech, Call Animal
Within the animal kingdom, you are akin to nobility; perhaps a baron or an earl. Pick one family from below. All animals within that family that you meet are automatically friendly towards you, and while they will not move far from their natural territory to help you, they will do everything else that they can to aid you (unless compelled act otherwise by a more powerful force). The families are as follows: Bats, Bears, Canines, Cats, Fish, Lizards (which includes all nonsentient reptiles with legs), Raptors, Rodents, Serpents, Simians, and Vermin (which includes all nonsentient insects and arachnids). This talent can be taken more than once; for each time it is taken, it applies to a different family.

Love it, love it, love it! The pun in the title made me grin, and the talent itself is great.

Zarhon wrote:Villainous laughter - 2/Day
You perform the most devilish laugh imaginable as proof your "sinister intent", complete with cracking thunder. Roll a persuasion check against inherently evil/evil aligned/demonic or other similar creatures that can hear you. If successful, they will consider you an ally of similar "evil" motivations, and might offer a business deal, trust you more, reveal information, or temporarily refrain from attacking you. This effect only counts for you, allies don't benefit from it. In addition, when you perform the laugh, you cause a few bolts of lightning to manifest, which will scare nearby animals or strike nearby metallic/magic-powered objects.

You come up with the best talents, Zarhon! I totally want this!

Picture worth a thousand words - At will
You pull a sign out of nowhere and can wave it around for others to see. The sign is wooden, but very frail, breaking instantly if used to hit something. Ponies cannot be hurt by it. It is discarded after 60 seconds pass. You cannot pull another sign for at least two minutes. It can contain:
- A two-word phrase (e.g. "shut up", "not now", "be quiet"") of maximum 15 letters.
- A number of up to 6 digits, or an equation of up to 10 symbols/numbers/letters.
- A single detailed picture
- Any combination of up to three simple icons(Similar to cutie marks), symbols, single letters or single-digit numbers, arranged into a rebus.
- Other miscellaneous stuff, at the DM's discretion.

Zarhon wrote:Picture worth a thousand words - At will
You pull a sign out of nowhere and can wave it around for others to see. The sign is wooden, but very frail, breaking instantly if used to hit something. Ponies cannot be hurt by it. It is discarded after 60 seconds pass. You cannot pull another sign for at least two minutes. It can contain:
- A two-word phrase (e.g. "shut up", "not now", "be quiet"") of maximum 15 letters.
- A number of up to 6 digits, or an equation of up to 10 symbols/numbers/letters.
- A single detailed picture
- Any combination of up to three simple icons(Similar to cutie marks), symbols, single letters or single-digit numbers, arranged into a rebus.
- Other miscellaneous stuff, at the DM's discretion.

This looks good! Plenty of uses in terms of communication, but not so much that it needs limitation in how often it's used.

Zarhon wrote:Picture worth a thousand words - At will
You pull a sign out of nowhere and can wave it around for others to see. The sign is wooden, but very frail, breaking instantly if used to hit something. Ponies cannot be hurt by it. It is discarded after 60 seconds pass. You cannot pull another sign for at least two minutes. It can contain:
- A two-word phrase (e.g. "shut up", "not now", "be quiet"") of maximum 15 letters.
- A number of up to 6 digits, or an equation of up to 10 symbols/numbers/letters.
- A single detailed picture
- Any combination of up to three simple icons(Similar to cutie marks), symbols, single letters or single-digit numbers, arranged into a rebus.
- Other miscellaneous stuff, at the DM's discretion.

Shouldn't this be an Earth Pony talent? Signs from nowhere seems like something Pinkie would do, and I can't think of an instance where any other creature has done this.

Edit: Before I forget (again), here's a talent I came up with a while ago:

Fast Talker - Daily

Hooking your mouth to a metaphorical motor, you distract every non-ally creature with a lengthy, coherent, and ideally dramatic speech. This forces all affected creatures to drop what they're doing and focus on you; more specifically it forces them to focus on what you're saying. All affected creatures gain a -10 penalty to any perception check on anything other than yourself, and a perception check is required to notice that you've performed some minor action (like flipping a switch). This effect lasts for 2d3/2 minutes, with no rounding on the result (edit2: with bonuses awarded at the GM's discretion for roleplaying the speech). This power will prevent any hostile action from being taken against the user and their allies, but will stop if any hostile action is taken against the targets.

The way I see this working is mainly as a distracting maneuver, either to buy time for yourself or allies to accomplish some goal, or for you to accomplish something while everyone's distracted by what you're saying to notice what you're doing.

There's a good example I'm about to link. A fair warning, though, it has significant spoilers for Series 6 of Doctor Who: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCnXBD8TKJg&feature=player_detailpage#t=418s

Videocrazy wrote:Shouldn't this be an Earth Pony talent? Signs from nowhere seems like something Pinkie would do, and I can't think of an instance where any other creature has done this.

Nah. We've seen other ponies, and even some non-ponies pull objects out of nowhere, including: Iron will (Grocery basket), Gustave (Reflector lights for his eclairs), Rarity (An entire couch, from the background), Applebloom (Various stuff, during her cutie pox), Fluttershy (Bucket of water, whilst discorded), Applejack (Lassos and ropes, her hat).

Besides, the talent is meant to be versatile, as it allows any race to be viable for a mute/deaf/illiterate/non-talking character, not just earth ponies.

Videocrazy wrote:
Edit: Before I forget (again), here's a talent I came up with a while ago:

Fast Talker - Daily

Hooking your mouth to a metaphorical motor, you distract every non-ally creature with a lengthy speech. This forces all affected creatures to focus on you; more specifically it forces them to focus on what you're saying. All affected creatures gain a -10 penalty to any perception check on anything other than yourself, and a perception check is required to notice that you've performed some minor action (like flipping a switch). This effect lasts (until there is a significant stutter in your speech, or a non-dramatic pause longer than period length that isn't prompting a response from the targets / for 2d3/2 minutes, with no rounding on the result).

The way I see this working is mainly as a distracting maneuver, either to buy time for yourself or allies to accomplish some goal, or for you to accomplish something while everyone's distracted by what you're saying to notice what you're doing.

There's a good example I'm about to link. A fair warning, though, it has significant spoilers for Series 6 of Doctor Who: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCnXBD8TKJg&feature=player_detailpage#t=418s

This sounds a lot like Pinkie Pie jabbering at Applejack. Shouldn't that distract from doing actual skill checks, as well? (Applejack couldn't stand Pinkie Pie and stopped doing cherry bucking)

Nah. We've seen other ponies, and even some non-ponies pull objects out of nowhere, including: Iron will (Grocery basket), Gustave (Reflector lights for his eclairs), Rarity (An entire couch, from the background), Applebloom (Various stuff, during her cutie pox), Fluttershy (Bucket of water, whilst discorded), Applejack (Lassos and ropes, her hat).

Perhaps, but all of those would fall under your "Comedic/Dramatic Effect" or "Unheralded Utensil" talents, from what I understand. Normally, so would this, but you've chosen to make a talent specific to this.

This sounds a lot like Pinkie Pie jabbering at Applejack. Shouldn't that distract from doing actual skill checks, as well? (Applejack couldn't stand Pinkie Pie and stopped doing cherry bucking)

The incident you were referring to wouldn't actually count. What Pinkie did was annoying, more than anything. I forgot to mention that it needs to be a coherent speech, and what Pinkie did was insane rambling. Ideally, the speech should be as dramatic as possible. But you are correct in that it'd stop the targets from making any hostile action towards the talent user (edit: and the user's allies, but ceases immediately if hostile action is taken against the targets). I'll edit the talent to reflect this.

Videocrazy wrote:
Fast Talker - Daily

Hooking your mouth to a metaphorical motor, you distract every non-ally creature with a lengthy, coherent, and ideally dramatic speech. This forces all affected creatures to drop what they're doing andfocus on you; more specifically it forces them to focus on what you're saying. All affected creatures gain a -10 penalty to any perception check on anything other than yourself, and a perception check is required to notice that you've performed some minor action (like flipping a switch). This effect lasts (until there is a significant stutter in your speech, or a non-dramatic pause longer than period length that isn't prompting a response from the targets / for 2d3/2 minutes, with no rounding on the result). This power will prevent any hostile action from being taken against the user and their allies, but will stop if any hostile action is taken against the targets.

Sounds good to me! Elaboration on what exactly makes a minor action would help; I know flipping a switch counts, but what about positioning yourself between a foe and an ally, or between an ally and a foe? What about reading something while you stall for time with Fast Talker? My personal suggestion is that a minor action should be whatever a normal pony could reasonably do while still talking. Note the normal part; Deadpool and the Doctor don't count, because they're so good at talking that they could do it under practically any circumstance short of having their mouths removed.

Another question: does the player have to actually make the speech?

The Warrior of Many Faces wrote:Sounds good to me! Elaboration on what exactly makes a minor action would help; I know flipping a switch counts, but what about positioning yourself between a foe and an ally, or between an ally and a foe? What about reading something while you stall for time with Fast Talker? My personal suggestion is that a minor action should be whatever a normal pony could reasonably do while still talking. Note the normal part; Deadpool and the Doctor don't count, because they're so good at talking that they could do it under practically any circumstance short of having their mouths removed.

Another question: does the player have to actually make the speech?

1: I agree. So long as you're not making a spectacle out of it (offhandedly pacing yourself into a deliberate spot as opposed to dancing a jig as you move), it should be fine.

2: I'm not sure. That's what the part in brackets is for. Since this is a system that runs on voice chat, if the former duration is used then the answer is yes. If the latter definition of the duration is used, then no. Not everyone can speak like the Doctor can, which is why I'd probably go with the latter, but the GM could give a bonus if the player actually does it.

Videocrazy wrote:

The Warrior of Many Faces wrote:Sounds good to me! Elaboration on what exactly makes a minor action would help; I know flipping a switch counts, but what about positioning yourself between a foe and an ally, or between an ally and a foe? What about reading something while you stall for time with Fast Talker? My personal suggestion is that a minor action should be whatever a normal pony could reasonably do while still talking. Note the normal part; Deadpool and the Doctor don't count, because they're so good at talking that they could do it under practically any circumstance short of having their mouths removed.

Another question: does the player have to actually make the speech?

1: I agree. So long as you're not making a spectacle out of it (offhandedly pacing yourself into a deliberate spot as opposed to dancing a jig as you move), it should be fine.

2: I'm not sure. That's what the part in brackets is for. Since this is a system that runs on voice chat, if the former duration is used then the answer is yes. If the latter definition of the duration is used, then no. Not everyone can speak like the Doctor can, which is why I'd probably go with the latter, but the GM could give a bonus if the player actually does it.

1. Fair point. No jig-dancing during use.

2. The latter option also looks fair: no punishments for not being able to make the speech, but a bonus if you can. Depending on the Faust, of course, but what Faust wouldn't give a bonus for all that extra effort?

Zarhon wrote:Comedic/dramatic effect - At will
You can cause a comedic/dramatic effect to occur for any event. This can be almost anything, but are usually a manifestation of a minor event, a "special effect", or you pulling a random (useless) object out of thin air and using it for whatever its meant to, then discarding it. The player then gets +1, +2, or +3 to their next skill check, judged by the DM for their effect. After ten such effects, you can choose to roll a free effect from the "Tons of fun" table, at will. The DM has final say for any effect. Examples of effects include:
- Lightning cracking out of an otherwise clear sky to someone's speech, or evil laugh.
- Birds being rustled out of their tree, foals crying, and somepony whinnying at the mention of a villains name.
- Flying pigs, after someone denies the existence of such creatures.
- Fireworks for cool (or uncool) actions.
- An object breaking from being lightly touched.
- A fragile object falling in slow motion, as someone tries to catch it.
- A couch for you to faint on, appearing out of nowhere.
- Pulling a a live chicken out of a random container.
- A dramatic chord being heard after a plot twist.
- Time slowing down for a cool scene.
- Bright light shining during a rousing speech, with you holding the reflectors.
- Steam coming out of an angry pony's ears.
- Playing a "sad trombone" tune for a critical failure, using an actual trombone.
- Burping loud enough to shake a building.
- A pony leaping dramatically in slow motion, whilst others are unaffected.
- Inspirational music playing, during a race.
- Crying a literal river during a sad scene.

I'd take this even without the skill bonuses! :Lol:

Hope to see more Everypony ideas! The chances of an Everypony talent getting into the system are like... 4x that of a racial utility talent. I want Everypony talents a lot more than Racial talents.

Yay. -Daily
You are a finely tuned cheering machine. You may roll a d20 when an ally rolls a skill check; whatever you roll, apply a bonus to that skill check equal to half the roll (rounded down) unless you roll a Critical Success or a Critical Failure; Crit Successes grant a +20 bonus as a result of simply awesome cheering, while Crit Failures grant a -10 due to less-than-enthusiastic cheering.

The Warrior of Many Faces wrote:Yay. -Daily
You are a finely tuned cheering machine. You may roll a d20 when an ally rolls a skill check; whatever you roll, apply a bonus to that skill check equal to half the roll (rounded down) unless you roll a Critical Success or a Critical Failure; Crit Successes grant a +20 bonus as a result of simply awesome cheering, while Crit Failures grant a -10 due to less-than-enthusiastic cheering.

That sounds pretty good. How about a re-write for clarity?
~Yay – Daily
You are a finely tuned cheering machine. When rolling to assist an ally with a skill check you may apply half your roll (rounded down) as a bonus to that check. On a roll of 20 you instead add +20; on a 1 you instead add -10.

(Though -10 might be a bit harsh. In my opinion it's bad enough that they just blew a daily power without actually helping their ally. But I'd like to hear what other people think.)

There's been a major rules change to utility talents. Check out the Errata.

Philadelphus wrote:

The Warrior of Many Faces wrote:Yay. -Daily
You are a finely tuned cheering machine. You may roll a d20 when an ally rolls a skill check; whatever you roll, apply a bonus to that skill check equal to half the roll (rounded down) unless you roll a Critical Success or a Critical Failure; Crit Successes grant a +20 bonus as a result of simply awesome cheering, while Crit Failures grant a -10 due to less-than-enthusiastic cheering.

That sounds pretty good. How about a re-write for clarity?
~Yay – Daily
You are a finely tuned cheering machine. When rolling to assist an ally with a skill check you may apply half your roll (rounded down) as a bonus to that check. On a roll of 20 you instead add +20; on a 1 you instead add -10.

(Though -10 might be a bit harsh. In my opinion it's bad enough that they just blew a daily power without actually helping their ally. But I'd like to hear what other people think.)

This rewrite looks good for the most part, but I specifically called them Crit Successes and Failures because of Derp and Epic Pwny. So...

~Yay – Daily
You are a finely tuned cheering machine. When rolling to assist an ally with a skill check you may apply half your roll (rounded down) as a bonus to that check instead of the normal bonus. On a Critical Success you instead add +20; on a Critical Failure you instead add -5.

EDIT: Upon reflection, you have a point on the -10 thing, so I'm lowering it to -5.

Make It or Break It - Daily
You may only activate this ability immediately before you or an ally rolls for a skill check. If they succeed, then the roll is treated as a Critical Success, but if they fail, then it is treated as a Critical Failure.

Wow, a lot of great ideas! Keep em coming.

The main thing I'd suggest is to see if you can come up with more utility talents that don't modify skill checks in some way. We've got a lot of skill-check-modifiers, I'd like to see more utility talents that let you do additional, special things - like Art of the Dress, Twitchy Tail, Pinkie Promise and similar. Or you can develop existing ideas further, since there's a lot of cool thoughts already.

Misfortune Magnet - Daily
You summon misfortune to all those around you. For the next 7 minutes, all creatures (including allies) and objects that you can perceive will suffer from incredibly bad luck: Gamblers will lose, machines will spontaneously stop working at the worst possible moment, professional athletes will trip, rain will turn into hail, meteors will strike priceless objects, big speakers etc... Treat any skills check attempted as automatic critical failures. This ability does NOT affect the caster for his own checks.

Jinx - Daily
Requires "Misfortune Magnet"
Choose a creature you can see or hear. For the next 10 minutes, that target is completely unable to do anything other than the most mundane, simple, minor actions (Walking, talking, moving, pushing, pulling, and such), without failing catastrophically, terrible luck preventing said actions (e.g. attempting to carry a object will result in dropping it repeatedly, running will result in tripping, eating may result in choking...), or otherwise suffering from humiliating cosmic punishment. At the DMs discretion, any action it takes can require d20 to see if it succeeds, or it can critically fail without a roll. If the target intentionally/accidentally avoids actions for the full duration, it gets cosmically punished at the last possible second (e.g. a meteor demolishing the house they are in).

Big Cheeks - At Will
You can quickly stuff any object smaller than yourself into your mouth, allowing you to either eat it or keep it concealed within your cheeks. The object is impossible to find normally, but anyone hearing or seeing you talk can roll a minimum DC20 (DMs discretion, depending on the size of object) perception check to discover it. Having an object concealed this way causes a -10 penalty to persuasion checks.

Big Eater
You cannot be poisoned or suffer any negative effects (such as sickness, stomach cramps...) from consuming anything, other than foods that your race wouldn't eat normally (like meat for herbivores). You can eat any amount of food instantly as a minor action. This effect does not allow you to safely consume objects that would harm you by touching them (e.g. a burning piece of coal, a ball of needles...). Indigestible objects are... recovered... at the end of a day, or the player can try to forcibly regurgitate all such objects at once (DC25 or less).

Zarhon wrote:Misfortune Magnet - Daily
You summon misfortune to all those around you. For the next 7 minutes, all creatures (including allies) and objects that you can perceive will suffer from incredibly bad luck: Gamblers will lose, machines will spontaneously stop working at the worst possible moment, professional athletes will trip, rain will turn into hail, meteors will strike priceless objects, big speakers etc... Treat any skills check attempted as automatic critical failures. This ability does NOT affect the caster for his own checks.

Jinx - Daily
Requires "Misfortune Magnet"
Choose a creature you can see or hear. For the next 10 minutes, that target is completely unable to do anything other than the most mundane, simple, minor actions (Walking, talking, moving, pushing, pulling, and such), without failing catastrophically, terrible luck preventing said actions (e.g. attempting to carry a object will result in dropping it repeatedly, running will result in tripping, eating may result in choking...), or otherwise suffering from humiliating cosmic punishment. At the DMs discretion, any action it takes can require d20 to see if it succeeds, or it can critically fail without a roll. If the target intentionally/accidentally avoids actions for the full duration, it gets cosmically punished at the last possible second (e.g. a meteor demolishing the house they are in).

Big Cheeks - At Will
You can quickly stuff any object smaller than yourself into your mouth, allowing you to either eat it or keep it concealed within your cheeks. The object is impossible to find normally, but anyone hearing or seeing you talk can roll a minimum DC20 (DMs discretion, depending on the size of object) perception check to discover it. Having an object concealed this way causes a -10 penalty to persuasion checks.

Big Eater
You cannot be poisoned or suffer any negative effects (such as sickness, stomach cramps...) from consuming anything, other than foods that your race wouldn't eat normally (like meat for herbivores). You can eat any amount of food instantly as a minor action. This effect does not allow you to safely consume objects that would harm you by touching them (e.g. a burning piece of coal, a ball of needles...). Indigestible objects are... recovered... at the end of a day, or the player can try to forcibly regurgitate all such objects at once (DC25 or less).

Oh, I would have so much fun with Misfortune Magnet and Jinx! I love Big Eater as well (I'm pretty sure Pinkie took that utility). Not a bad way to hide important MacGuffins as well, which was probably part of the intention. However, this does make Big Cheeks kinda redundant, and even with pony physics, I cannot for the life of me picture someone stuffing a pillow or something into their cheeks without anypony noticing. I'm not sure Big Cheeks works, in other words, although the rest all look great.

The Warrior of Many Faces wrote:Oh, I would have so much fun with Misfortune Magnet and Jinx! I love Big Eater as well (I'm pretty sure Pinkie took that utility). Not a bad way to hide important MacGuffins as well, which was probably part of the intention. However, this does make Big Cheeks kinda redundant, and even with pony physics, I cannot for the life of me picture someone stuffing a pillow or something into their cheeks without anypony noticing. I'm not sure Big Cheeks works, in other words, although the rest all look great.

Well, I could combine big eater and big cheeks, or give big cheeks a size limitation (no bigger than your head), but that might make it "overpowered".

Big Cheeky Eater - At will
You cannot be poisoned or suffer any negative effects (such as sickness, stomach cramps...) from consuming anything and can eat any amount of food as a minor action, other than foods that your race wouldn't eat normally (like meat for herbivores). Indigestible objects are... recovered... at the end of a day, or the player can try to forcibly regurgitate all such objects at once (DC25, or less for vomit-inducing stuff). In addition, you can hide objects inside your cheeks, making them impossible to find with normal checks. Anyone hearing or seeing you talk rolls a minimum DC20 (DMs discretion, depending on the object) perception check to discover the object. Having an object concealed this way causes a -10 penalty to persuasion checks. This effect does not allow you to safely consume/hide objects that would harm you by touching them (e.g. a burning piece of coal, a ball of needles...).

The Warrior of Many Faces wrote:

Philadelphus wrote:

The Warrior of Many Faces wrote:Yay. -Daily
You are a finely tuned cheering machine. You may roll a d20 when an ally rolls a skill check; whatever you roll, apply a bonus to that skill check equal to half the roll (rounded down) unless you roll a Critical Success or a Critical Failure; Crit Successes grant a +20 bonus as a result of simply awesome cheering, while Crit Failures grant a -10 due to less-than-enthusiastic cheering.

That sounds pretty good. How about a re-write for clarity?
~Yay – Daily
You are a finely tuned cheering machine. When rolling to assist an ally with a skill check you may apply half your roll (rounded down) as a bonus to that check. On a roll of 20 you instead add +20; on a 1 you instead add -10.

(Though -10 might be a bit harsh. In my opinion it's bad enough that they just blew a daily power without actually helping their ally. But I'd like to hear what other people think.)

This rewrite looks good for the most part, but I specifically called them Crit Successes and Failures because of Derp. So...

~Yay – Daily
You are a finely tuned cheering machine. When rolling to assist an ally with a skill check you may apply half your roll (rounded down) as a bonus to that check. On a Critical Success you instead add +20; on a Critical Failure you instead add -5.

EDIT: Upon reflection, you have a point on the -10 thing, so I'm lowering it to -5.

Maybe add that you can't also be assisting the ally while using Yay, that's the only thing that I find needs clarification. and -5 seems like a good penalty, it adds keeps a solid risk factor, but it won't be the end of the world.

Tempt Fate - Daily
Make a factoid statement that confirms a well-established fact (e.g. "Rain doesn't come at the snap of a finger!", "Attractive earth ponies don't just fall out of the sky!", "It's not like Pinkie has a infinite supply of cakes!"). Through cosmic forces, incredibly improbable series of events, or Pinkie Intervention, that statement will be proven wrong (e.g. Derpy brings a raincloud, a earth pony might falls out of a blimp near the party, Pinkie does have an infinite supply of cakes). The events can be influenced or suggested by the caster, do not need to be justified (as long as they are funny enough), but are ultimately under the DM's discretion. The chosen "factoid statement" can be vetoed by the DM.

Reject Reality - Magic
Make a factoid statement that is plain wrong (e.g. "Cupcakes can cure poison!", or "Fire can't hurt you if you're wet!"). For the next ten minutes (real-time), you, the DM and anything you perceive that the statement applies to will treat that statement as though it were a scientifically correct fact. (e.g. Cupcakes will cure poison, fire won't harm anything that's wet)

Soul Gaze - Daily
Preparation time: 30 seconds
Does not affect blind/sightless/eyeless creatures
You gaze deeply into a creature's eyes, discovering hidden, secret facts about them as a pony. You can choose to "learn" up to three things about the creature, with include (but are not limited to, at DM's discretion):
- Full name
- Surface thoughts within the last minute
- The last "bad deed" they've done and the amount of guilt they feel over it
- Where the creature lives
- Whether the creature plans on lying (with specifics), or already has lied to you.
- What date their birthday is and how old they are
- Cutie Mark talent, if any
- How "good" a pony they are, from either a general or personal moral standpoint
- Concealed affections for towards a specific pony (love, hate, jealousy...)
- Identity of close relatives, if any
- Favorite food
To perform the gaze, you must look into the creature's eyes for the full preparation time (short-term "blinking" does not interrupt the effect). Friendly creatures can easily be persuaded to do so, but hostile or neutral creatures may refuse, requiring them to be tricked, challenged, or forced into doing it. When successful, the creature will instinctively know what information was learned, is permanently immune to the ability from that point onwards, and the caster permanently suffers a -10 persuasion penalty against them if the gaze was done unwillingly or without informing them what it would entail. They also develop a deep phobia of the caster, affecting the way they treat the caster, in such cases.

Zarhon wrote:Soul Gaze - Daily
Preparation time: 30 seconds
Does not affect blind/sightless/eyeless creatures
You gaze deeply into a creature's eyes, discovering hidden, secret facts about them as a pony. You can choose to "learn" up to three things about the creature, with include (but are not limited to, at DM's discretion):
- Full name
- Surface thoughts within the last minute
- The last "bad deed" they've done and the amount of guilt they feel over it
- Where the creature lives
- Whether the creature plans on lying (with specifics), or already has lied to you.
- What date their birthday is and how old they are
- Cutie Mark talent, if any
- How "good" a pony they are, from either a general or personal moral standpoint
- Concealed affections for towards a specific pony (love, hate, jealousy...)
- Identity of close relatives, if any
- Favorite food
To perform the gaze, you must look into the creature's eyes for the full preparation time (short-term "blinking" does not interrupt the effect). Friendly creatures can easily be persuaded to do so, but hostile or neutral creatures may refuse, requiring them to be tricked, challenged, or forced into doing it. When successful, the creature will instinctively know what information was learned, is permanently immune to the ability from that point onwards, and the caster permanently suffers a -10 persuasion penalty against them if the gaze was done unwillingly or without informing them what it would entail. They also develop a deep phobia of the caster, affecting the way they treat the caster, in such cases.

An interesting idea. But if it's based off of what I think it is, then shouldn't the target of the Soul Gaze also learn similar details about the caster?

Zarhon wrote:Tempt Fate - Daily
Make a factoid statement that confirms a well-established fact (e.g. "Rain doesn't come at the snap of a finger!", "Attractive earth ponies don't just fall out of the sky!", "It's not like Pinkie has a infinite supply of cakes!"). Through cosmic forces, incredibly improbable series of events, or Pinkie Intervention, that statement will be proven wrong (e.g. Derpy brings a raincloud, a earth pony might falls out of a blimp near the party, Pinkie does have an infinite supply of cakes). The events can be influenced or suggested by the caster, do not need to be justified (as long as they are funny enough), but are ultimately under the DM's discretion. The chosen "factoid statement" can be vetoed by the DM.

Reject Reality - Magic
Make a factoid statement that is plain wrong (e.g. "Cupcakes can cure poison!", or "Fire can't hurt you if you're wet!"). For the next ten minutes (real-time), you, the DM and anything you perceive that the statement applies to will treat that statement as though it were a scientifically correct fact. (e.g. Cupcakes will cure poison, fire won't harm anything that's wet)

I like these two, they're funny. I'd personally have named the second talent "Reject Reality, Substitute Own", but that's just me.

Reject Reality is very cool. But wouldn't it kind of... You know...

"The big bad guy is bound and helpless!"

Ten minutes later,

"Dude... That guy had a lot of blood."