New: Master Ability and Condition Lists

[Username17]

So we need a master ability list, and a master considition list. At this point we are brainstorming. We can cut things out later. Throw down any ideas, we'll stick them together and discuss. These are monster abilities and PC abilities.

Attack Abilities:

1. Petrifying Gaze
   
2. Doom Gaze
   
3. Death Gaze
   
4. Fire Breath
   
5. Poison Breath
   
6. Poison Cloud
   
7. Chill Cloud
   
8. Fire Cloud
   
9. Parlytic Touch
   
10. Poison Strike
    
11. Stunning Strike
    
12. Mind Blast
    
13. Curse
    
14. Terrifying Howl
    
15. Deadly Howl
    
16. Constricting Strike
    
17. Rampage
    
18. Precise Strike
    
19. Overwhelming Strike
    
20. Entangle
    
21. Death Strike

Conditions

1. Confused
   
2. Slowed
   
3. Afraid
   
4. On Fire
   
5. Weakened
   
6. Prone
   
7. Entangled
   
8. Cursed
   
9. Despair
   
10. Poisoned

-Username17

[Crissa]

On fire could be ice flames or heat flames or darkness, too. Be creative.

-Crissa

[Username17]

Another thing to keep track of is summoning abilities. These are battlefield control which may do damage. Potentially extraordinarily powerful. Here are some facets:

Summoning Tropes:

[*] Illusions - classically they pop when struck, come in potentially large numbers, and dish out damage that can be scary in aggragate.
AKA: Fire Elementals, Wasps, Skeletons

[*] Walls of Fire - classically they sit in one space and reactively attack things which come into their area. They don't move, but they impede attacks and deter movement. Make them near people as an attack.
AKA: Brambles, Traps, Poison Clouds

[*] Zombies - classically they are hard to take down, and individually not much of a threat. Slow and offensively anemic, they exist to purchase time - like a portable Brute.
AKA: Golems, Boars, Oozes

[*] Walls of Stone - They don't attack at all. They also don't move. It's just a pile of hit points which enemies have to take time to go through or around.
AKA: Ice, Iron, Bone[/list]

-Username17

[CatharzGodfoot]

Wow, I was thinking the exact same thing. 'On Fire' could be changed to 'Burning'; it could include 'covered in acid' and other ongoing caustic damage that can be washed off.

Or you could not deal with how you get rid of it in the effect, and have it include all ongoing damage. At the same time, "ice flames" might slow you and "darkness flames" might weaken you instead of burning.

I don't really get what 'cursed' would mean. Is it any different than being cursed with cowardice, confusion, slowness, weakness, or despair? I also see no reason why your poison can't be paralytic or narcotic.


More abilities:

• Song of madness (i. e. madness cloud -- songs and clouds are about the same)
  
• Five-pointed palm exploding heart technique (precise strike?)
  
• Burning strike
  
• Detonate
  
• Terrible yawp
  
• Possession

[angelfromanotherpin]

Shouldn't there be a negative condition for each Ability Score? I see Weakened (Str), Confused (Wis), and maybe Entangled (Dex). What about Befuddled, Sickened, and Autistic?

Paralyzed? Petrified? Crippled Arm? Crippled Leg?

[Aycarus]

It seems as though the condition list, in conjunction with the set of damage types (bash, slash, pierce, fire, cold, acid, electricity), determines the set of attack vectors.

The list of abilities then suggest the following additions to the list of conditions:
- dead
- paralyzed (and/or petrified)
- stunned

The following are some suggestions as well:
- diseased (subcategories?)
- crippled (single appendage no longer works...)

Although not conditions, the following are possible character "states":
- constricted
- pinned
- prone
- etc.

Also, I would suggest expanding on what you mean by "cursed"... the list of curses could potentially be very long... some possibilities are "Cursed: Bursts into flames every 10 minutes" and "Cursed: You, your children and your children's children are banned from entering historical buildings for 3 months."

[CatharzGodfoot]

1201884368[/unixtime]]
- dead

Yeah, although this is probably just the end state of the 'wounded' condition track.

1201884368[/unixtime]]
- paralyzed (and/or petrified)

Really weakened, really slowed.

1201884368[/unixtime]]
- stunned

That's another interesting one. What would it do?

1201884368[/unixtime]]
Although not conditions, the following are possible character "states":
- constricted
- pinned
- prone
- etc.

Constricted and pinned probably both include entanglement.

[the_taken]

The conditions on fire, ice fire, dark fire and poison can all be added together into a category called DoTs. The mechanics for this could be that they decrease your threshold for all attacks, since you keep getting hurt, unless you have resistance to the DoTs' element.

Cursed should be an absolute condition like "character cannot make critical hits" or "character's actions cannot cause wounds"

Pinned could mean you can't use physical action, while dizzy means you can't use magic actions. Paralyzed means you can't perform any actions. Petrified means you can't perform any actions, but you're also really tough. Dead means you're now an alchemical ingredient.

We could use some positive conditions:
Guarded
Warded
Blessed
Lucky
Hasted
Surging
Ethereal
Flying
Regenerating
Fuzzy

[Josh_Kablack]

Conditions:

Resistant to {x} Character takes half (or some other fraction} damage from type {x} damage

Vulnerable to {x} Character takes double (or some other multiple) damage from type {x} damage

Immune to {x} Character takes no damage from type {x} damage (possibly also effects)

Heals from {x} Character heals from type {x} damage.


Can be combined to form new compound conditions: such as

"Soaking Wet: character becomes resistant to fire, and also vulnerable to cold"

[the_taken]

Iron Body
Attack: Buff to self
Defense: None (Harmless)
Damage: None
Automatic: Apply Slowed, Dizzy, Resistance to Metal, Resistance to Wood, and Resistance to Stone conditions to self for ten rounds.
Secondary: None

[Aycarus]

Since we're throwing everything out there, may as well include ideas from D&D:
- Dazed
- Deafened
- Blinded
- Wounded (bloodied)
- Asphyxiated / drowning
- Hemorrhaging (like the "wounding" effect of 3e)

For each of the conditions presented here, it's also important to know how one obtained that condition and how one can remove it. For example, a "remove curse" ability removes curses. "Remove weakness" removes weakness. "Remove impaled device"... again, self-expanatory.

We could use some positive conditions:

Of course, one needs to be careful to avoid buffing as a pre-combat requirement... but that goes without saying.

Constricted and pinned probably both include entanglement.

Constricted and pinned are pretty much the same thing, except constricted implies that you're taking damage at the same time. Perhaps combine all three into "immobilized"?

Obviously, there are a lot of possible conditions one could have applied.

[the_taken]

I envision that buffs would have the same effects as boosts in Pokemon. That is, you sacrifice one turn to not affect your opponent in exchange for an advantage in the following round. Of course this raises the issue of how long buffs apply and what qualifies as during combat.

How about:

Iron Body
Attack: Buff to self
Defense: None (Harmless)
Damage: None
Automatic: At the begining of your nest turn, you apply the Slowed, Dizzy, Resistance to Metal, Resistance to Wood, and Resistance to Stone conditions to self for ten rounds.
Secondary: None

This means that for one whole turn, you are doing nothing.

[Crissa]

Cursed could be -2 to everything or negating a section of combat like the others...

...But it could also be used to be the 'insert your special effect which pops later' flag. Like werewolves etc.

-Crissa

[JonSetanta]

So, does Weakened cover Fatigued/Exhausted, and Afraid cover Shakened/Cowering?

Oh, and no 'double' or 'halves' in this game concept, please! yuck.

[Koumei]

Here's an essential ability:
Splash Attack

[Joy_Division]

I think curses should give penalties in the immediate and as curse wounds pile up you should probably turn into a frog

[Aycarus]

1201915158[/unixtime]]Here's an essential ability:
Splash Attack

I'm confused as to what this one does. It seems more like something to put under "Range" / "Area of Effect" than an attack type.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I assume most abilities will apply some {condition} in some {area of effect}. Hence you can mix and match the two to your heart's delight. Here {area of effect} is

• 
  
• Strike/Touch = touch
  
• Breath = cone
  
• Cloud = target/caster-centric burst, non-instantaneous duration
  
• Blast/Splash = target/caster-centric burst, instantaneous duration
  
• Howl = caster-centric burst, all non-deafened targets
  
• Gaze/Ray = single target
  

[Koumei]

I was just being stupid and making a Pokemon reference. "Splash Attack" is a move that does absolutely nothing. The Magikarp just... splashes about for a bit.

And yeah, curses should (at zero wounds) turn people into frogs. Or newts. They get better.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Why just amphibian transformation? Curse wounds should be how you drop effects like the aging curse from Howl's Moving Castle, or any of the terrible afflictions from Hart's Hope.

[rapanui]

In attack abilities, I would add knock-back for attacks that push the opponent to others squares or whatever.


Other possible conditions:
muted
numb
depressed (similar to despair, I guess)
drunk (as a subset of poisoned/intoxicated?)
enraged/infuriated/berserk

[ckafrica]

I posted this a while back in another thread, but it was considered relatively thorough:

Alter emotional state (fear, daze, courage, friendliness, confuse, calm, sleep)
Bind creature
Blast (various energy/elements/ferrets dropped on people for damage with possible secondary effects)
Compel creature
Create/shape material (I think this one would need major restrictions like you need pay in equal value to get something of added value)
Create magical barrier
Cure/Repair
Dispel Magic (reflect, antimagic)
Divination (detect x, learn history of something, translate languages, question the gods/spirits)
Grant AC
Grant DR
Grant Save bonus
Grant SR (?)
Grant Attributes
Grant attack or damage bonus
Grant bonus hit points
Grant extra action
Grant Movement type
Hide auras/alignment/thoughts
Illusions (all 5 senses)
Possession
Reduce AC
Reduce DR
Reduce Saves
Reduce SR
Reduce attribute
Reduce attack/damage bonus
Reduce actions
Reduce movement
Remote viewing
Special Vision
Summon critter (Personally I think this should be more like manifesting astral constructs only good. Keep people from diving through MMs for the perfect monster)
Teleport
Transform creature or object (again needs some major restrictions to work)

I think the big decision is which ones do we actually want.
As for conditions, lets make sure that they are unique. Do we need drunk when booze could give you the conditions: reduced dex, int, and Wis?

[MagnaSecuris]

Here's some possible conditions, along with what they mean.

Afraid: Won't attack, will try to retreat, can still defend
Confused: Won't attack, won't move, can still defend
Stuck Can attack, cannot move, can still defend
Frozen:* Cannot make any movements, effect ends when damaged.
Petrified: Cannot make any movements

Stunned: Won't attack, won't move, won't defend
Dazed: Take negatives to certain rolls
Blind / Deaf Take negatives to certain rolls, effect needs healing to end
Sick / Shivering: Take negatives to certain rolls, with a random chance to ignore condition for a round.
Entangled: Take negatives to certain rolls, chance to lose attack/movement each round.

All of them should have a duration (except where noted) that is determined by circumstances. IE: What move inflicted the condition, the character's defensive abilities, breaking free.

*As in frozen with fear, not with cold. Thus slapping your ally to unfreeze him is a legitimate tactic.

[JonSetanta]

OK. That's still bugging me.
What would 'fuzzy' do?
Improve random encounter social reactions by 1 step due to "Awwwwww" factor?

[Cielingcat]

These would likely be PC abilities. I'm under the assumption that Red and Blue were switched such that Blue is still water but it's not calm, and Red is fire but also mental stuff; if this is wrong, someone tell me. In fact, if anything I write is "outdated," please tell me.

Black
1. Disease (Touch/Strike/Cloud/Etc)
2. Insect Swarm (Cloud)
3. Mind Rip
4. Terrifying Visage (Buff)
5. Organ Failure (not heart)

Blue
6. Drown
7. Lighning Strike
8. Chaotic Rage (Debuff)
9. Ocean's Grasp (Slow Touch)
10. Blood Pressure (Hurty Touch)

Green
11. Thorn Spray
12. Animalism (Buff)
13. Vine Armor (Buff that entangles people, helps with grappling if we have it)
14. Oxidizing Touch
15. Growth (Buff)

Red
16. Gaze of Confusion
17. Mind Control
18. Fireball
19. Ignite
20. Tomb of Ice

White
21. Calming Touch
22. Ray of Light
23. Blinding Surge (Burst effect)
24. Inner Strength (Buff)
25. Ray of Disintegration*

*I feel White should have the abilities that reduce you to nothing.

And conditions for each ability score were mentioned? Here's a condition, and what happens if you bring that condition to the person being dead.

Strength: Weakened->Paralyzed
Dexterity: Slowed->Petrified
Constitution: Sickened->Organ failure (also dead?)
Intelligence: Confused->Insane
Wisdom: Afraid->Cowering (and unable to do anything)
Charisma: Depressed->Coma

[the_taken]

I like attribute based conditions, even though we'll need more.

Ripped<- Strength ->Weakened->Paralyzed
Hasted<- Dexterity ->Slowed->Petrified
Surging<- Constitution ->Sickened->Organ failure (also dead?)
Fuzzy<- Intelligence ->Confused->Insane
Zen<- Wisdom ->Afraid->Cowering (and unable to do anything)
Halo<- Charisma ->Depressed->Coma