Let's make some Flaws!

Appkes wrote:Doesn't seem to have enough kickback. It seems to just be FK with flavor.

I would assume that a general inability to communicate with the rest of the team would be enough of a flaw...

Also, Sub, I did have some inspiration. Something about a cat... XD

What he's getting at (I think) isn't that the penalty isn't sufficient, it's that the bonus doesn't offset it enough, since you can accomplish the same thing with Freaky Knowledge all on it's own.

I would suggest that it grants three subjects instead of two. It also needs a little bit of re-wording.
Here's how I'd write it:

Foreign Speaker (Take 2)
You do not speak normal Equestrian. You are unable to communicate normally with anyone who does not speak your chosen language. You gain a +5 bonus to three areas of knowledge (As per Freaky Knowledge) relating to your chosen language (subject to GM approval.)

How's that look?

Grey Pen wrote:What he's getting at (I think) isn't that the penalty isn't sufficient, it's that the bonus doesn't offset it enough, since you can accomplish the same thing with Freaky Knowledge all on it's own.

I would suggest that it grants three subjects instead of two. It also needs a little bit of re-wording.
Here's how I'd write it:

Foreign Speaker (Take 2)
You do not speak normal Equestrian. You are unable to communicate normally with anyone who does not speak your chosen language. You gain a +5 bonus to three areas of knowledge (As per Freaky Knowledge) relating to your chosen language (subject to GM approval.)

How's that look?

Ohhh, got it. Yeah, I get the idea. Adding an extra area of knowledge make it worth considering taking this over Freaky Knowledge whereas before it was Freaky Knowledge but worse.

Yeah, that does look a lot more streamlined than mine. I like!

<mrburns>Excellent...</mrburns>

Also, I thought your inspiration was a certain zebra?

What? Oh, no, it wasn't Halynn. I had always intended for Halynn to speak in an odd mixture of Equestrian and Prench. It was Kogu that inspired this idea (I was toying with the idea of a character who couldn't communicate at all with the rest of the party). I just used Prench as an example.

Oh.

Although, that would make a fun Poison Joke incident for her.

Admittedly, so would a lot of the other stuff on here...

Hehehe...

I can't remember if I said this before, but I think flaws work best if both the penalty and the bonus are something concrete and mechanical, rather than merely role-playing flavor. People who want the (concrete) bonuses could abuse or conveniently "forget" the role-playing penalties, which could cause strife and argument (and disharmony! and division! and strife! Oh wait, I said that).

Just a suggestion, but it's one reason I think Derp works as a flaw, because both it's penalty and its bonus are concrete and mechanical.

Maybe you could translate the bonus into a penalty on persuasion checks?
"Your speech is incomprehensible, and even if you can make your meaning clear, you take a -5 penalty to persuasion checks."
*This was built mechanically to precisely offset freaky knowledge, since that's what we're giving them. 3 subjects vs. one skill...I dunno if that's balance or not.*

Hrmm. Good point. Lemme see here...

Foreign Speaker (Take 3)
You do not speak normal Equestrian. You can not communicate normally with anyone who does not speak your language; you must try and use other means to communicate your meaning. Even if you do, you suffer a -5 to Persuasion checks made this way. You may chose three areas of study (as per Freaky Knowledge). You gain a +5 bonus to any checks having to do with those areas.

Will edit the main list to reflect this upon approval.

That poison joke thing gives me a great idea for DM'ing! Say, why don't we have a Poison Joke thread on here or something?

Wow, good to know!

Perhaps we should go necro it. It seems to me that this idea and that go hand in hand.

Necro?

Also, On the subject of that penalty I posted...I am wholly vacillatory on whether or not that's balanced, mathematically.

On the one hand, Freaky knowledge is a utility talent, and training in one skill is equivalent to a utility talent. 3 freaky knowledge domains=1.5 utility talents, and 1.5*(training)=+4.5 bonus, so a -5 or a -4+incomprehensibility seems balance.

On the other hand, Freaky knowledge as a racial is 1 point, and extra training is a 2 point racial, so this is the equivalent of +1.5 racial points (without the drawback), so we need to remove 3/4 of training with a penalty. ((3/4)*+3)*-1=-2.1=-2 to persuasion.

I think the first one works more accurately, as the racial cost of Freaky Knowledge was lowered to make it more accessible than other utility talents, but I'm not certain. Also, I think 4+incomprehensibility might be a slightly more accurate penalty than -5+incomprehensibility.

Grey Pen wrote:Hrmm. Good point. Lemme see here...

Foreign Speaker (Take 3)
You do not speak normal Equestrian. You can not communicate normally with anyone who does not speak your language; you must try and use other means to communicate your meaning. Even if you do, you suffer a -5 to Persuasion checks made this way. You may chose three areas of study (as per Freaky Knowledge). You gain a +5 bonus to any checks having to do with those areas.

Will edit the main list to reflect this upon approval.

Looks fine to me. Makes sense and reflects what I had in mind, so edit away.

SubZ: To "necro" a thread means to post in a thread that nobody else has even thought about for Luna-Knows-How-Long.

Sun: Mathmatically speaking, you'd be correct. But, from a practicality perspective, a -5 bonus is easier to remember.

The more you know!

Narcoleptic
Whenever you roll more than 30 or less than 10 on a skill check, roll 1D4. You fall asleep for that many hours, and can not be awakened by any force known to Pony Kind, with the exception of True Love... If you slept for 1 hour, you lose any Magic Points you might have had before. If you slept for 4 hours, you regain all of your Magic Points and any X/Day talents are restored as if you had an extended rest.

I'll wait for some thoughts before I edit this one in.

This kinda seems like a massive flaw compared to the small chance of a benefit. Perhaps a skill bonus in Endurance equal to Xd4 of the number of hours you slept to go with the rest of it, for the rest of the day.

Narcoleptic (Take 2)
Whenever you roll more than 30 or less than 10 on a skill check, roll 1D6. You fall asleep for that many hours, and can not be awakened by any force known to Pony Kind, with the exception of True Love...

If you slept for 1 hour, you lose any Magic Points you had.
If you slept for 2-5 hours, all of your Magic Points and X/Day abilities are restored, as though you had an extended rest.
If you slept for 6 hours, you wake as above, but with an additional Magic Point.

How's that?

That's a lot more balanced, IMO!

Adding it!

I think it's bad. I think it's really bad. In Shadowrun, there's this flaw called Flashbacks. Basically, if your character fails a willpower + intuition check after seeing a flashback trigger, they are incapacitated for 1d6 minutes. Although my only experience with Shadowrun itself is character creation and reading the popular Shadowrun Storytime, I've played enough D&D to know that a lot can happen in six minutes, since a round of combat is equal to six seconds in most systems, and to be unconscious for those minutes means that you are vulnerable to the enemy and your party has to carry you around or, at least, protect you for that time. If six minutes is bad for you and your team in general, an hour would be devastating! You'll basically have to sit out for who knows how long real time. It's not so much a problem if you are in a safe haven, but say your in enemy lines, and you roll a natural 1. Well, chances are, not only have you failed spectacularly, you are now asleep and useless for the rest of the adventure, unless your party waits, doing nothing, for up to six hours...

In addition, when the time for an extended rest does come, a player with this talent won't take it, but keep making a random, low bonus skill check which they don't require other people for (most likely Perception, but Stealth and History are good choices as well) until the fail and proc the talent. A quick rest instead of an extended rest? Yes please. In addition, they might end up with an extra magic point, and if they roll a 2 or 3, they are gonna use whatever talents they can before trying again to proc the talent (the best example I found was Magic Element into Hop Skip and Jump, but other talents could be used if you know what you want to do). And if they get a 1, oh well, that's one hour out of eight gone. They'll just keep trying. It's a Low-Risk High-Reward strategy which every other player has to wait for...

So, in a nutshell, Narcoleptic is game ruining if it happens in a dangerous or climatic area, and if it is taken, it's most likely taken by a munchkin who will abuse it every night...

All good points. Humm...

For the issue of time, it's easy enough to change it; call that lack of experience on my part. We can also eliminate the crit fail problem all together by striking the minimum skill check. We might also increase the maximum, making it harder to trigger, or change the nature of said maximum.

As for munchkinizing, we can either A) Lower the benefits (my choice), or B) Increase the risk. Not necessarily the time though.

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Narcoleptic (Take 3)
Whenever you roll more than 30 on a skill check, roll 2D6, and divide by two (round down). You fall asleep for that many minutes, and can not be awakened by any force known to Ponies.

If you slept for 1 minute, you lose any Magic Points you had.
If you slept for 2-5 minutes, nothing happens.
If you slept for 6 minutes, all of your Magic Points and X/Day abilities are restored, as though you had an extended rest. You can only restore this way once per day.

----

This way, the odds of succeeding decrease from 1/6 to 1/36, and can only be used once; the rest of the time it's merely inconvenient. That provides a pretty worthwhile bonus, without too abusable.

Or does it?