Utility Upgrades

Apparently people like large skill bonuses. =)

And also, don't forget that the arcane eye exists to scout out castles and such from a safe distance. So just seeing from a distance with a high perception check wouldn't be able to see through stone.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:Apparently people like large skill bonuses. =)

And also, don't forget that the arcane eye exists to scout out castles and such from a safe distance. So just seeing from a distance with a high perception check wouldn't be able to see through stone.

I guess. I know it goes through walls though, but I guess it's a good point. A utility talent which allows you to see though walls with Arcane Eye, if only for a very short time, is also a possible option to explore as well...

No, no - the point is that extending the range of the eye to a mile allows it to explore a castle or town while a mile away when you usually couldn't do this.

I think we're both getting confused by something here. Because I think we both know all these things.

I think I get what you were saying now. Since it moves up to a mile away with such an upgrade, you can scout the inside of the castle from a mile away, because currently you won't be able to see through the stone. I think I got confused because you said the purpose of Arcane Eye was for scouting out castles, but I thought that, since it has a low range, you had to be in the caslte, so when you bring up the point about being unable to see through walls, I thought the situation was still taking place inside the castle, when it was actually taking place outside a mile away. It's confusing to explain, but it's clear in my head...

How fast does Arcane Eye travel anyway?

Awesome.

It travels at DM discretion - but it should be able to cover its whole range if it's moving around quickly. If a creature spends a long time closely examining a room, the spell will expire while they're examining it.

Paper Shadow wrote:

Philadelphus wrote:While I'm afraid I don't have any ideas of my own to add to this thread, I do like Paper Shadow's Personal Cloud idea and wanted to offer some critiques.

I don't really mind the changes you've made, so I guess I'll add your updated version to the first post as well...

Really? Sweet! If this gets official sanction "soon" (after possible future balance changes), I'll probably take it for my weather-crafter pegasus in the game I'm in right now.

Oh, also, I'm assuming since Ten Seconds Flat is the prerequisite for it that the preparation time is 10 seconds, but it might not hurt to put it in the description for clarity's sake. Now if only I could think of some good ideas of my own for this thread...

Sorry for the double post, but the new boons inspired me to create a talent that I'd been toying with for a while but never thought of a good way to balance (and probably still haven't):

Teleport Tether – 1/day
Prerequisite: Teleportation
Preparation Time: 3/hours
You may spend 3 hours of uninterrupted concentration to mark a location as your Beacon. Once you mark a location as your Beacon, it remains your Beacon until you use this talent again. Once you have a Beacon, you may use the following talent:

Word of Recall – 1/session
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Upon using this talent, you teleport to the location of your Beacon. If there are any magical effects interfering with your teleportation, you may make an Arcana check with a +10 bonus to overcome them.

Thoughts?

That's really interesting. Reminds me of my beloved Gate spell in Everquest. I'm not sure it's great for the play experience, because it splits the party and makes it harder for DMs to contain players - but Phase Step has never seemed to cause problems and that's much wackier. This could work very well.

Oh, and don't worry about double posting in these forums. It's totally fine. I know most forums are severely against it, but I don't see anyone posting 10x in a row minutes apart from the other posts or anything, so it's totally cool.

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:That's really interesting. Reminds me of my beloved Gate spell in Everquest. I'm not sure it's great for the play experience, because it splits the party and makes it harder for DMs to contain players - but Phase Step has never seemed to cause problems and that's much wackier. This could work very well.

Yeah, I can see how it's a potentially problematic talent, which is why I hadn't proposed it before until I saw how it was done in the boons. It's a potential "get-out-jail-free" card (perhaps literally), BUT, it can only be used by one party member, which carries risks associated with splitting the party. On the other hand, if players (and GMs) are willing to split the party, it could be quite powerful for a tentative scouting mission, or any scenario where you need to pull someone back quickly, which makes balancing the prep time for the return power important: too short and it's too powerful, offering a risk-free way to get out of danger, too long and it becomes useless to actually use for that purpose. With 5 minutes I'm erring (I hope) on the side of caution, but looking at it some more, perhaps that time could be reduced? A minute, or even 30 seconds maybe (like its prerequisite Teleportation), or would that be too powerful?

It would definitely need a notable prep time (1 minute might actually be okay), but the fact being locked in a dungeon would not being an issue for that member of the party could be a problem. Choosing a boon requires a full group commitment and keeps the party more together, so it can be weightier. Level 4 boons are also worth about 4 utility talents, while level 6 boons are worth about 5 and level 9 boons are worth about 8.

However, it's definitely cool and doable. Just got to handle those issues.

I'm a little worried that if it's too easy a GTFO that it will encourage reckless play on the part of that player. But that's a minor worry.

Perhaps it should be like Wisp's Relocate, making you return back to the place you teleported from after, say, ten minutes?

Also, more upgrades, which I'll post here instead of directly adding to the opening post because this topic is a bit more popular now (I'll add them if people like them)...

Chloroform - 3/Day
Prerequisite: Stealth Mode
While in Stealth Mode, if you can sneak up to a creature, you may attempt to make the creature unconscious. If you do, the target rolls an Athletics check (DC 30 + Your Level) to wrestle you off. If the target is unsuccessful, it is knocked unconscious. If the target is successful, it immediately notices you.

Dream Shepard
Prerequisite: Dream Stride
You gain the following utility talent while under the effects of Dream Stride. You do not lose Dream Shepard or Dream With Me while in Dream Stride like you do other utility talents.
Dream With Me - 1/Day
Target sleeping creature is put under the effects of Dream Stride. This lasts until you are no longer under the effects of Dream Stride yourself.

Dream Bigger
Prerequisite: Dream Shepard
When you enter Dream Stride, you may choose two utility talents. You keep those utility talents while in Dream Stride, and your projection may use them.

My two bits:

Freaky Knowledge:

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:It would definitely need a notable prep time (1 minute might actually be okay), but the fact being locked in a dungeon would not being an issue for that member of the party could be a problem. Choosing a boon requires a full group commitment and keeps the party more together, so it can be weightier.

Another thing to balance it is how long it takes to set your return point. If it's "long enough," people would be forced to carefully consider when to use it, and if you're, say, out exploring an ancient dungeon but your spawn point is way back in Canterlot because the rest of the party couldn't be bothered to wait for you to set it, then it could give you more incentive not to split the party. I'm not sure how long is "long enough," though; 3 hours might be too short. It has to long enough to keep people from just setting it every day without thinking.

And for the two other posts above mine:

Chloroform is interesting. It's very similar to the grappling rules supplement Hayate and I came up with, and if our current playtest campaign is any indication they're pretty popular for the way they can let you avoid potentially lengthy combat in a stealthy manner. My only issue with it as it stands is that it's pretty much impossible to fail without blatant GM fudging. At level 1, it's a DC 31 Athletics check to notice you, which would require at minimum 11 in Athletics and a natural 20 for the target creature (assuming no stat-boosting talents, which I don't think most GMs bother statting random NPCs with). I would suggest dropping it to DC 25 + Your Level, which introduces a slightly larger chance of failure at lower levels, while quickly becoming better and better as you level up.

I don't really have anything to say about the Dream Stride ones because I haven't used Dream Stride...

Uncanny Knowledge doesn't seem like a very good deal, to me. It only gives you a total of +4 potential bonus, while Freaky Knowledge itself gives you +10. Considered individually, going from +5 to +7 – even in two different specialized areas – just doesn't seem worth the cost of a utility talent for me. This suggestion might stray too far in the opposite direction, but what if it gave +5 to two different areas – basically doubling your Freaky Knowledge – but could only be taken one time?

I kinda like I Remember Now!; it's like a free Magic Point in your area of expertise. I'm not entirely sure that Freaky Whining is really that useful, especially given that it requires two prerequisites and a Magic Point; I'd personally rather just take Awesomeness! and the ability to reroll all natural 1's, even if it doesn't give you a natural 20 (I'd also rather take Awesomeness! over This is Whining!). However, I could certainly be persuaded otherwise, and other people might like it.

One thing to consider with these upgrades is that, since you're locking into a particular path, and you need prerequisites for them, they could probably be slightly stronger than talents without prerequisites. Given that This is Whining! is 1/day you could certainly make Freaky Whining that, if not even 2/day.

Teleportation:

Rapid Teleport:

Allows the teleport spamming that Twilight Sparkle and a few of the G1 unicorns could do but still has limits due to the 30 foot range.

I support this one, considering this exact issue is what drove me to create my Talent Specialization System in the first place. It seems to be a pretty popular upgrade in that system, too.

I like it too!

Then again, although the instantaneous prep time is undoubtedly useful, is it really worth a full utility talent? Perhaps it could also do something like grant an additional 3 uses per day, increase the range by 10 feet, etc., and then just call it Advanced Teleportation.

I think it could definitely be more powerful than just instantaneous.