Nightbane Talents
Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 9:50 am
Has anyone tried using powers found in other books, e.g. super powers, or spells as a talent?
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drewkitty ~..~ wrote:The NBSG has rules to convert spells into talents.
Rogerd wrote:Has anyone tried using powers found in other books, e.g. super powers, or spells as a talent?
Warwolf wrote:It's actually the Dark Designs sourcebook that has the guidelines mentioned above. Relatively simple to use them to go in reverse as well and make Talents into spells, psionics, etc.
Most of the feedback I have gotten regarding them has been overwhelmingly positive. Just remember that they are not "hard and fast rules" but rather guidelines, allowing G.M.s to make adjustments in the name of game balance, fun, etc. I really just tried to pull back the curtain a little on the mental calculus we game designers use when creating new abilities. It may not get you to the exact product you had in mind, but it should at least get you in the ballpark where you can find the rest of the way yourself.
When a Nightbane makes a talent that is based on a spell there is some difference between how the talent will act and cost. I've run into the situation where I wanted to make a talent that was close to a spell that was on the books, and the gm had ruled that the cost to use it would of been equal to that of the spell. But this would of made a talent that was out proportion of the rest of the other talents on the lists. Has this ever happened to you? This is why I came up with this system to calculate the P.P.E. costs, both permanent to buy costs and the to use costs.
The first thing you do is find the P.P.E. cost of the spell and the level of the spell. The level of the spell is the base permanent cost of the talent. The you take the spell P.P.E. cost and that is your base to use cost for same range and duration as the spell. However, most of the time the spell give the rang and duration in feet per level or minutes per level while talents, for the most part have a set range and duration. To lessen the to use costs you can do few things, such as decreases the range, decreases the duration, put limitations on the usage. Increasing the permanent cost of the talent can also be raised to lower the usage costs. By raising the permanent cost by 1 point will decrease the usage cost by at least 2 but no more then 4 (GM discretion). Dropping the per level increases of range and duration each will lessen the usage cost by 20% each.
The usage costs is equal to the base usage cost of the spell being mimicked minus the modifications and limitations to be included into the talent.
activation P.P.E. = Spell P.P.E. - range modifications - duration modifications - other limitations
The permanent cost is equal to the Spell level and the additional desired amount of usage costs reduction.
Acquiring P.P.E. = Spell level + any additional reduction of the activation P.P.E.
Here is a example of how a spell such as Mute can be mimicked by a talent.
Base spell costs: mute L9 (50) 30 feet
Base talent cost with out any modifications: 9 perm , 50 temp....5min per L...30 feet
Finished Talent
Shadow Hand of Gagging--this talent is an extension of the Bane's will, at first this talent will appear at a time of great annoyance by a person. The SHoG appears as a shadowy hand that flys out from the Bane's own hand to the source of annoyance and clamps onto the annoyer's mouth causing him to be unable to speak. This talent can not dose not affect the annoyer's breathing in any way. So it can't be used to suffocate them. This talent can be used on mages to stop them from casting spells.
limitations--can only be used in morphius, and the Bane must be in Line of Sight of the annoyer when used, to use SHoG the Bane must make a gasping gesture at the annoyer, range 20 feet per Level. can only be dodged, and only if the annoyer has seen SHoG in use before hand.
costs--perm ppe cost--10 , cost to activate--10 per 10 min.(up front or maintained)
Note--The LOS also means that the user need to be able to see the target area...the mouth..so it has to be used in plane sight of the target.