The Great Power Roundup.

K · Post by K » Sat Oct 04, 2008 12:46 am

So, for TNE I've been doing research for cool power names and the like. Mostly, I've been looking at L5R cards and Magic cards.

The criteria is this: the power must have a name that describes what is does in a poetic, funny, or interesting way. No 4e "insert random nouns and verbs to get power names."

Any suggestions?

An exam\ple would be something like Rain of Tears, a Black spell that destroys a land. I was thinking of using that for a high-end Necromancy power that destroys the land around the Necromancer.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 1:22 am

What are powers *doing* that we're supposed to be describing?

I mean, I can cull examples from various books and video games...Offhand...

Monk/Unarmed Specialist

Swallow Kick--a powerful jumping kick that lets you travel several spaces and then kick the enemy in the ear.

Swallow Dance--Like Swallow Kick, but multiple kicks.

Withering Touch-- Successful hit disables an enemy's limb of your choice. A leg slows them down, an arm is useless. Limited duration.

Iron Skull--Headbutt ignores hardness, does devastating damage.

Mirage--Dart around an enemy in a swift motion. Catch them off-guard when you attack.

Snake Hand--A quick shot across the throat, reduces practically any appropriately-sized enemy to gasping and choking.

Archery/Ranged

Gale Shot--Shoot a crapton of arrows.

Deadeye--One shot at an increased attack and critical chance.

One Big Weapon

FORE!--Knock an enemy flying and prone if you hit.

En Garde--Stance gives you bonus to defense this round and attack this round.

Beast--A powerful attack that breaks an opponent's guard, knocks their ass flat, and hurts like the dickens.

I could think of some more, but, eh...I just ran out of steam.

Cielingcat · Post by **Cielingcat** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 1:43 am

Assuming we're still going with all five Magic colors like I think I recall...

Mind Wipe, a blue spell that clears someone's mind of recent memories, causing him to forget what he was doing

Green Thumb, a green spell that hurts a single target by causing massive growth in a touched part of his body. May cause cancer.

I forget what changes were made to Red; as I recall, it was no longer all about fire and setting things on fire?

Blood of the Martyr, a white spell that hurts the caster to heal his allies and hurt his enemies.

K · Post by K » Sat Oct 04, 2008 7:13 am

For now, we'll take anything with or without colors.

Keep 'em coming!

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 7:25 am

I like the more anime or death metal take on special power names, usually screamed at the top of ones lungs. Bad Engrish and odd variations of otherwise common words somehow sounding awesome.. or unique at least.

Red magic:

Century Hatred

Explosion Explode; the explosions explode after exploding.

Herzfire

Coronal Glare

Axetar Blade; it's a conjured guitar... that's also an axe. On fire.

Solicution; kill with sunlight, might be White as well

Murderbite

Muscleclap; create shockwaves by flexing muscles and grunting.

Kerberoar (of Cerberus)

Blue magic:

Stab of Mirrors

Lethe Mist

Invershock

Graviton

Fartheft

Glass Gate

Plotmentum

Failure Fate

White magic:

Lumen

Rapture

Ironjoin

Aurumate; aurum is Latin for gold, maybe reflective power

Sympathy Eclipse; synchronize damage taken briefly

Boneset

Saint Mourn; emulate a higher being of good

Accord

Hymn Null; dispelling effect

Cureal; basic healing effect

Black magic:

Essence Putrid

Bloodmortem

Betrayal of Death; either a death effect in small portions or protection from death

Abominate (Obaminate? har har)

Euthanigaze

Shine Psychotic

Marrowblend

Faunaruin

Victimal

Necrowar

Umshradow; darkness even darker.

Vioclaw

Triple Witch Retribute

fliprushman · Post by **fliprushman** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 7:34 am

Discombobulate
Necropotence
Feast or Famine
Counterspell(Simple but effective)
Plague Spewer

Just some of the things I can think off the top of my head. I'll look through my cards and stuff later.

Murtak · Post by **Murtak** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 10:53 am

If you are willing to wade through a lot of stuff: http://lucy.allakhazam.com/index.html

Examples (taken from the Bard, Berserker, Druid, Mage, Necromancer, Ranger, Shadowknight, Wizard, Beastlord, Cleric, Enchanter, Monk, Paladin, Rogue, Shaman, Warrior and NPC lists, respectively) :
Dirge of Devastation, Cry Havoc, Mask of the Forest, Pyroclasm, Reaper's Call, Devastating Blades, Dark Bargain, Garrison's Superior Sundering, Vicious Ferocity, Solemn Light, Voice of Prescience, Moment of Calm, Righteous Fury, Waylay, Rancor of Agony, Maelstrom Blade, Burning Retaliation

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 2:06 pm

Oo! Oo!

I remembered where some random generators are!

The Martial Arts Move Generator

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate. ... ame=mamove

Some highlights from my turning the output up to fifty:

Attack of the Crystal Bird
Badger's Avalanche of Unnammableed Sins
Block of the Ghost
Buddha's Imperial Strike
Celestial Throw
Clap of the Defensive Guardian
Dance of Danger
Destroyer's Underhook
One Hundred Ghosts Leg
Peaceful Boar's Claw of Bone
Peaceful Queen's Knuckle
Sweep of the Star
Touch of the Bandits

Oh, and they have an anime attack generator...I suggest you set it to two or three words, and then experiment with the themes. You can get some interesting-sounding names out of it, like, "Luminous Touch"

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate. ... animepower

As a side note, I'd recommend Seventh Sanctum as an amusement that's occasionally productive. I was messing with the Random Sword Generator and got a description that I wrote up as an artifact and suggested to a friend for one of his games. He says people still remember it, and he makes it a point to throw it into the occasional game.

Edit: Found a spell Generator...

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate. ... name=spell

Some highlights:

Envenomed Guyser
Enlarge Doors
Spears of Lawful Power

Extra-Edit: Let's see...Green Powers...

Seed Bomb--throw it down, explosive growth at your command!

Wallbreaking Vines--takes some time to work, but you could use them to level a castle.

Allergy--make a plant produce pollen to reduce a target or targets to helplessness.

Grappling Vines--Remember Black Tentacles? Make 'em green.

Vine Whip

Death Seed--sow a seed into someone. Once it's had time to work, it blooms with very fatal results.

The Green Man's Arm--form plants into a immensely strong giant green arm that does your bidding.

Acid Sap--An acid spray, Biollante-style.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 5:25 pm

Maxus wrote: Edit: Found a spell Generator...

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate. ... name=spell

"""
Demons' Tiara of Mud
Mystical Rune of the Adamantine Moons
Nothing Control
"""

This was on the very first run. Pretty amazing.

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 6:59 pm

Arrows of Splendid Terror

Earth Gush

Ease Transformation

Gray Ring

Light Absorbtion

Ring of Gold

Screaming Orb

Zones of Instant Fire

...

Actually, I like Zones of Instant Fire. Sorta suggests that you cast it at the start of a fight, and whoever steps on a square gets flamed, like those barriers in the Fire Temple in Ocarina of Time.

Edit: I turned up the complexity. Some of this sounds like books you'd find...

Rite of Call Savior

The Illuminated Hex of the Wonderful Fighter

The Ninety Evocations of Wind Conjuration

The One Hundred Hexes of Bear Control

The Seventy Divinations of Spirit Seduction

The Twenty Wondrous Glamours of Drunkenness

The Two Sigils of the Golden Grail

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:20 pm

Hurp.
Way to slap some random generator outputs up rather than think of them yourself.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:59 pm

Here's a power name (from D&D) and a classification question:

Fearsome Charge
Hardened warriors tremble in their boots as you rush forward with a terrific war cry!
You charge into melee range of your target. All enemies within close range of (but excluding) the target are subject to fear. The target can choose to stand her ground, in which case she is subjected to a standard attack. Otherwise she yields to the same fear as her comrades,and moves away from you to close range.

Is this ability control, mobility, blasting, cursing, or something else entirely?

Maxus · Post by **Maxus** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 9:16 pm

sigma999 wrote:Hurp.
Way to slap some random generator outputs up rather than think of them yourself.

I have a tough time being creative from a cold start, especially since when I got on the board and saw this thread, I was going over Radiolarians and Foramnifera in my head.

But if I'm ever in the need for some quick-and-dirty inspiration, a good random generator will turn out something that kick-starts me. For example, I really like the idea suggested by Zones of Instant Fire. Sounds like a good trap/terrain spell. I'm even going through the SRD, looking at spell levels to try to find a comparison so's I can take a stab at writing that particular spell. Screaming Orb likewise sounds intriguing, and I have that turning over the back of my head.

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 3:29 am

That's fine if it's a valid problem, we all have our moments or sometimes just an Achilles heal for particular areas of creativity.

... but as a graphic design teacher told me, "You gotta put your own stink on it."
"It's a touch of the human element that makes art attractive."

So rather than simply port recombinant table results, throw in an adjective, noun, element, color, or verb to make it more original.

Catharz: IMO the Fearsome Charge is a Control ability as defined by D&D, but it really depends on how "Fear" is defined in TNE.
I have a doubt that it's not the same; it's probably a numeric yet stacking effect, and therefore more like Curse.

Judging__Eagle · Post by **Judging__Eagle** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 4:20 am

Using the Elaborate mode for the above Gen to give me ideas:

Black
Evocation of Spectral Slaying: You create a ghostly horde of allies, enemies moving through this horde are affected by some effect (fear? slowed? i dunno?)

[Battlefield Control]

Blue
Rite of the Compassionate Monster: ... you make a monster have good feelings for you.
[... aka, charm monster of some kind; probably a Blue spell]

Other
Curse of Slyness: Target creature must hide from everyone allies included. This makes the creature take up space on the field, and they can attack and move, but they often can get in the way of allies. (Have the caster of the spell get to move or attack; the person that controls the creature normally gets to do the opposite that the caster did)

Glorious Incatation of Becoming: Change into something good?

Vile Incantaction of Becoming: Change into something evil?

Elemental Rune: A trap/battlefield control spell; one location will do elemental (or just 'special', since all 'elemental' damage is supposed to be 'fire', right?) damage to those that enter it.

The Golden Bone: you temporarily and magically turn a creature's bones to gold; they can't move while the spell is active on them, but it heals them of anything, b/c Gold is awesome that way.
[both a form of CC and a repair ability]

Rite of Kill Snakes: A spell that makes any creatures automatically have to grapple a swarm of snakes that bite before vanishing.
(or... just make it the "snakes on a plane" spell; where any flying creatures in an area are grappled by snakes and have to fall)

Happy Spectres' Evocation of Sludge: .... you summon slimer. He pukes on your target, then shakes their hand and vanishes.

Jagged Grail of Heat: you turn any metal object into a spike-covered goblet; it is full of some hot fluid (lava) and burns and rips people when you hit them with it. Alternately, you can end the ability and shoot a gout of fire (single shot, cone, line, AoE, whatever).

Ruthless Golem's Exorcism of Magic: Target creature is not able to be affected by any spell/ability; but cannot use any themselves. Or something. It's either a protection or a debuff/curse.

Touch of Dwarven Measure: Target gets drunk.

here's the actual list(s)

Accursed Divination of Slay Berserker
Amazons' Witchery of Spikes and Sadness
Benevolent Gibberer's Rune of Venom
Blasphemous Conjuration of Conjure Acid
Compassionate Lizards' Curse of Slyness
Cunning Sea Serpents' Sigil of Cruelty
Elemental Rune of the Purple Helmet
Evocation of Slay Spectral Undead
Exorcism of Control Blessed Gravedigger
Glorious Incatation of Become Wolf
Good Conjuration of Telepathy and Virtue
Lawful Evocation of Scent and Charisma
Rite of Kill Snakes
Rune of Summon Vicious Viper
Sadistic Haunt's Conjuration of Telepathy
Sadistic Monk's Chant of Kindness
Spectre's Ritual of Cold and Necromancy
The Elemental Rite of the Compassionate Monster
The Infinite Blessed Castings of Corruption
The Infinite Charms of Mud Control
The One Thousand Spells of the Golden Bone
The Savage Witchery of the Compassionate Cats
The Uncountable Evocations of Venom Deflection
Unholy Rite of Conjure Water
Working of Become Mystical Undead

Abjuration of Slay Rulers
Barrier of Stone and Opening
Celestial Rune of Deflect Wind
Charm of Call Dire Necromancer
Cloud of Foul Seeing
Conjuration of Seduce Crazed Speakers
Eternal Conjuration of Slay Arch-angel
Feline's Conjuration of Venom and Simplicity
Golem's Charm of Law and Innocence
Happy Spectres' Evocation of Sludge
Hypnotise Sagely Lizard
Insects' Illusion of Absorbtion
Jagged Grail of Heat
Lawful Circles of Mud
Marvelous Stars of Sapphire
Perfected Exorcism of Sludge and Viciousness
Ruthless Golem's Exorcism of Magic
Sorcery of Slay Serene Ghosts
Sylvan Dungeons of Ruby
The Callings of Villainous Flame
The One Hundred Hexes of Savior Seeking
The One Hundred Sigils of Angel Seeking
The Uncountable Sorceries of Ooze Deflection
Touch of Dwarven Measure
Ultimate Evocation of Infertility and Hatefulness

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:24 am

Catharz, I think it obvious that an ability that moves you, damages an opponent, and causes penalties to enemies is a Mobility power, a Blasting power, and a Cursing power. The key is that you really can't expect to get anywhere rationing out mobility slots or curse slots to people - because so many decent abilities will not fit easily into one category.

The idea then behind categorizing these abilities at all is to ration what exists on what lists. The mobility advantages of a power that merely moves you "kind of fast" in a straight line aren't terribly high, so an ability that does that can be thrown into an ability list that isn't mobility focused particularly or even at all. If instead it had been a dazzling display of teleporting behind someone and donkey punching them senseless it would probably want to go into an ability list that values mobility very highly.

When you pick up an ability list and note that it doesn't have a blasting theme, that doesn't mean that you can't give it abilities that do damage. It means that it shouldn't get impressive abilities whose sole purpose is the infliction of damage. Magic missiles, an ability that launches a series of attacks that selectively target enemies and can be fired eve into melee would be a bad match-up for a Healing/Summoning/Cursing list because it's a blasting power through and through. On the other hand, Chaos Hammer, an ability that throws some damage at a group of enemies and weakens them might go in just fine because it's largely a cursing power even though it has a blasting utility.

-Username17

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:03 am

FrankTrollman wrote: The idea then behind categorizing these abilities at all is to ration what exists on what lists. The mobility advantages of a power that merely moves you "kind of fast" in a straight line aren't terribly high, so an ability that does that can be thrown into an ability list that isn't mobility focused particularly or even at all. If instead it had been a dazzling display of teleporting behind someone and donkey punching them senseless it would probably want to go into an ability list that values mobility very highly.

So there's a priority when categorizing the main label for powers?

As in, some labels take priority over others.
"Attack" seems pretty low in priority for instance.

edit: Oh and K, please edit the title of this thread to add "TNE:" at the beginning, so's we know what it is better.

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 5:57 pm

FrankTrollman wrote:Catharz, I think it obvious that an ability that moves you, damages an opponent, and causes penalties to enemies is a Mobility power, a Blasting power, and a Cursing power. The key is that you really can't expect to get anywhere rationing out mobility slots or curse slots to people - because so many decent abilities will not fit easily into one category.

Provided that it takes up the user's move action, I don't think it would really be considered 'mobility'. The damaging effect is optional, as is the control effect. It does an area debuff, which I think makes it a fairly strong curse.

But the fact that there could be differences of opinion show that classification of any sort is by no means fool proof. I think it would be quite easy to get into a situation where two people create abilities for the same class at significantly differing power levels because there isn't agreement on exactly what constitutes to a primary, secondary, or tertiary factor.

baduin · Post by **baduin** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:52 pm

Some more mundane attacks:

http://www.thearma.org/essays/DOTC.htm

Coup de Jarnac - a crippling blow to the back of the opponent’s exposed knee or calve, hamstringing. This usually ends with the opponent falling to the ground unable to continue to fight.

http://www.higginssword.org/guild/study/glossary/
http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/talhoffer.htm

Murder-Stroke, Mortschlag: A technique in which the sword is held in both hands by the blade, and a blow delivered with the crossbar or pommel.

Unicorn guard, Ox guard, High guard, Fool guard, Plow guard, Guard of Wrath(Zornhut), Iron Gate

Wrath Cut (Zornhauw) Squinting Cut, Half-Sword

Italian terms:

http://www.cs.unc.edu/~hudson/saviolo/glossary.html

imbroccata: a thrust with the hand pronated (knuckles forward, palm outward) passing over the opponent's hand and downward; also foin

inquartata: a sideways or backwards step with the rear foot together with a lowering of the body underneath the incoming blade, dropping the left hand to the ground for support, followed by a counterattack with line; also passata sotto.

mandritta: a horizontal cut delivered with the palm upward and the knuckles leading, from right to left

punta riversa: a thrust with the hand in supination (knuckles down, palm inward), delivered from the inside line, passing on either side of the opponent's ward, usually delivered on a step

riversi: a horizontal cut delivered with the palm downward and the knuckles leading, from left to right

stoccata: a thrust with the hand supinated (knuckles down, palm inward) rising from underneath the opponent's ward; also thrust

stramazone: a vertical cut to the head, palm to the left

Some typical miracles of Christian, Jewish and Islamic saints:

"Bilocation, or sometimes multilocation, is a term used to describe the ability/instances in which an individual or object is said to be, or appears to be, located in two distinct places at the same instant in time."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilocation
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02568a.htm

"Regarding the absolute possibility of a body being present circumscriptively in more than one place, St. Thomas, Vasquez, Silv. Maurus, and many others deny such possibility. The instances of bilocation narrated in lives of the saints can be explained, they hold, by phantasmal replications or by aerial materializations. Scotus, Bellarmine, Francisco Suárez, DeLugo, Franzelin, and many others defend the possibility of circumscriptive replication"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_al-Ard

"Arabic: طيّ الأرض - literally "folding up of the earth") is the name for thaumaturgical teleportation in the mystical form of Islamic religious and philosophical tradition. The concept has been expressed as "traversing the earth without moving"; some have termed it "moving by the earth being displaced under one's feet"."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefitzat_Haderech

"Kefitzat Haderech (Hebrew: קְפִיצַת הַדֶּרֶךְ, Standard Qəfiẓat haDéreḫ or Kfitzat haDérech Tiberian Qəp̄îṣáṯ hadDéreḵ) and means, verbatim, "jumping of the path/road/way", a Hebrew equivalent of the English expression "short cut".

In Torah study and Jewish folklore, kefitzat haderech is the ability to jump instantaneously from one place to another or travel with unnatural speed."

CatharzGodfoot · Post by **CatharzGodfoot** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 9:02 pm

baduin wrote:"Kefitzat Haderech (Hebrew: קְפִיצַת הַדֶּרֶךְ, Standard Qəfiẓat haDéreḫ or Kfitzat haDérech Tiberian Qəp̄îṣáṯ hadDéreḵ) and means, verbatim, "jumping of the path/road/way", a Hebrew equivalent of the English expression "short cut".

In Torah study and Jewish folklore, kefitzat haderech is the ability to jump instantaneously from one place to another or travel with unnatural speed."

So that's where Frank Herbert got it. Cool.

JonSetanta · Post by **JonSetanta** » Sun Oct 05, 2008 10:20 pm

Abrahamic teleportation? Hot damn.

Does Shiva's third eye disintegration beam, the one that destroys universes, have a name?