Flexible abilities for low level characters

[jt]

In this thread Foxwarrior and I (and maybe MGuy?) think RPGs should try to give everyone the tools to do something memorable each session, and that a good way to do this is giving people flexible abilities. Foxwarrior adds that flexible limitations can accomplish this just as well as useful abilities. MGuy adds that your special spotlight-hogging moment should be quick, and not an extended sequence. I add that you can generate a lot of these by converting D&D utility spells to at-will abilities.

So I'd like to start a thread collecting flexible abilities that a low-level character could use to occasionally steal the spotlight. Take something you think can work this way, give some examples of ways to apply it, list any problems the ability might generate, abilities that pair well, whatever else you think is relevant. You're both the player and the designer here, so if you want an ability to have a specific mechanic, you can apply it. Don't worry so much about balance, or whether a character got this thing from their class or species or a curse: this is a resource for game designers to cobble together something they like.

Illusions. A stationary 5' cube hologram, at will. Can be used to distract, hide the path you took, hide inside, bluff having a wide variety of other spells for intimidation / area denial purposes, and give presentations. The fact that so many of its creative applications still boil down to "does the target fall for this" is a weakness.

Mimicry. Perfectly repeat sounds you've heard. Dupe people into thinking you're someone else, distract guards with a lion's roar, act as a courier, replay unknown languages next to an interpreter. Everyone said this was good but I've been surprised just how nice it is in practice.

Flight. You fly. Automatically beats a variety of simple traps and obstacles, but this isn't so bad as long as you can't carry a party member. Great scouting tool (but this can encourage extended solo scenes). Tactically interesting on a melee character, tactically problematic combined with a ranged attack.

Force fields. A 5' square Wall Of Force, at will. Can block a door, bridge a gap, jam a trap's functioning, provide a ledge to climb up. Nice little tactical tool to tighten a choke point, repair a hole in the front line, or cover a wounded party member.

Ooze. You're a slime person. Hide by turning into a puddle, squeeze through cracks in doors for scouting/escape/thievery/assassination purposes. Good excuse to have some sort of damage resistance.

Incorporeal. You can move up to 5' deep into a surface, and through the other side if it's less than that thick. Hide inside the floor, ignore walls for scouting/escape/thievery/assassination purposes. Good excuse to have some sort of damage resistance. Generally just the same thing as being an ooze, but better. People may expect it to also come with flight and/or invisibility. Pairs well with not being able to move things.

Can't talk. Can't speak human language for whatever reason. Improvising communication is fun and often funny, but can wear thin quickly. Attaching it to a temporary ability (like Wild Shape) works to give it less time to wear out its welcome. I'd also consider a "can only talk to party members" (shy? mute with private sign language?) version, which still has a lot of the drawback but eliminates the most repetitive parts.

Can't move self. You're a potted plant. Presumably a party member carries you around and sets you down when the combat music starts. Tactically fairly interesting (I assume you have a ranged attack). Makes a lot of simple obstacles more interesting (cross the broken rope bridge... carrying a plant!). Complicates retreats a lot.

Can't move things. You can't move physical objects, maybe you're a ghost or something. Surprisingly not that debilitating (I assume you have a magic attack of some sort), since a party member can usually cover for you. More limiting in solo situations (you can't sneak up and steal the guard's keys). Complicates wounded/unconscious/dead party members a lot.

I'll be back later to add more, but I'm hoping someone has already added everything I'd think of by then.

[Foxwarrior]

Well, I bet if you challenged me to write an entire 20-level character's worth of powers inspired by any one D&D spell I could do it, albeit with considerable overlap with many of the other possible random D&D spells, so I won't go over that, except to mention that time modification, portals, and Garry's Mod physics tools are kinda underrepresented.

So I'll just mention a few that can be more mundane:

Knows a guy. Having contacts can get you an in in places. Being already familiar with some random mook in any situation might be good for a lot of larks.

Is small. If you can fit into someone else's trenchcoat or mind, you can sneak into a lot of places. Also makes you vulnerable to being stuffed into someone's trenchcoat.

Has muscles. Being able to exert notably above-average forces on things is pretty handy sometimes.

[The Adventurer's Almanac]

Let's see...

Disguises. You can look like other people. Eventually you can look like monsters. If you go far enough, you can basically turn the disguises into Scooby Doo-esque contraptions that somehow let you fly and swim underwater while looking like a fishman or whatever. Becomes exponentially more useful if your disguises can be applied to other party members, too. Probably pairs best with things like mimicry, illusions, and psionics (depending on how subtle yours are).

Memories. This one might be a little vague, but you'd probably want to start with something simple like perfect recall and you could branch out into things like stealing other people's memories, copying your own and implanting them into others, or many such shenanigans that I'm too uncreative to think of. It could be useful in combat as a way of debuffing enemies while allowing for more complex fuckery on a roleplaying level.

Telekinesis. I don't know why this hasn't been mentioned, since it seems a bit obvious. It's like, one of the most useful tools the Jedi have, and can easily be expanded as a character levels to do some bonkers shit, especially if they're allowed to start applying it to surpass their own bodily limitations. You know what'd be really cool? Telekinetic grappling hook. Hell yeah.

[Harshax]

We just talking spells?

intercept once per scene/session/spotlight counter/combat, a fighter can intercept an attack after it has hit and ally and damage is rolled.

riposte and at a higher level, the fighter can retaliate.

revenge or a fighter can respond with ferocity rolling damage with the weapon in hand and distributing damage to foes around his ally, possibly killing several rabble or injuring the bbeg.

[Pedantic]

Clairvoyance/Clairaudience: on the limited but interesting side, being able to see/hear around corners, through doors, into sealed boxes and so on has lots of cute little ways to steal a moment.

Playing dead: this one is a little specific and overlaps with the disguise idea, but being able to convincingly fake death can be a useful escape/information gathering power. It's one of the more interesting/fair ways to have a "the party gets captured" plot, when the resolution can just be "and the one they thought they killed grabs the keys and opens the door, then they all escape together."

[Harshax]

throw-anything the ability to hit objects, shut doors, push buttons, cut chandelier cables with any object in hand.

[Harshax]

Would this work? you have the ability to produce ersatz tools that allow you a skill attempt at a minor penalty, when you otherwise don’t have proper equipment. Could be a spell too, with reduced efficacy. Like, knowing “Somebody else’s problem,” which technically doesn’t make you invisible but very hard to notice.

[jt]

Great work folks! Good thread, I think. Keep it up.

Well, I bet if you challenged me to write an entire 20-level character's worth of powers inspired by any one D&D spell I could do it, albeit with considerable overlap with many of the other possible random D&D spells.

I think some spells work better than others for this, so it's useful to identify the good ones. Fighter stats plus an increasing surface area of at-will Wall Of Force is an entire character progression. Fireball on the other hand would require the designer to come up with a bunch of ways to expand the scope and keep it fresh, probably cannibalizing all the other fire spells on the way. That signals to me that Wall Of Force Guy is going to have a better time of generating memorable moments than Fireball Guy.

We just talking spells?

Nope! A lot of the good abilities are locked up in spells in D&D, so I find it a useful place to get ideas. But precisely because that's easier means that anything not sourced from a spell is more valuable, because it saves more work for any future designer who wants to source ideas from this thread.

[jt]

Anyblade. You possess the Anyblade, a magical sword that, with a thought, can be transformed into any bladed weapon, and which is too lenient. Handy for suddenly having reach, a dagger, a giant honking sword, as appropriate. But also can be a sudden pole for pole vaulting, a sword too big for you to lift for smashing, or a toothpick for concealing your weapon. (Stolen from Worth The Candle, yes. It could be an ability that lets someone use any sword as an Anyblade, instead of a specific item.)

Jedi Mind Trick. When you make bluff check, you ignore any situational penalties relating to immediately observable evidence. (Almanac, how could you consider Jedi abilities obvious without doing this one.)

Vine Control. You can summon vines from your hands and have them do ropey things. It's a ranged attack that pulls, that's frequently handy. It's also a free source of rope, and a grappling hook.

Voice caries. When you shout, you can choose to have your voice carry an additional five miles. Useful for calling reinforcements, confusing people, communicating (publicly). I have seen someone use this with "Knows a guy" before and it was hilarious.

Large. You're like, 20' tall. Skip over human-sized obstacles and carry your friends over them. You're probably also strong. Frequently a limitation.

Size control. You can become mouse-sized, 20' tall, or anything in between at will. The small end allows lots of sneaking possibilities. The tall end allows you to bypass obstacles, carry friends around, and so forth, but doesn't work that well in cramped spaces. The large size version may be paired with a strength ability.

Portals. You can place 6' diameter portals on any flat surface you touch; making a third one means you must dismiss an old one, as long as there are two they're linked, momentum is conserved. You can make a very powerful (but slow and hard to aim) weapon by portalling something into freefall. It's a good escape tool, usable for making traps, and means your party can bypass any obstacle that they can get you across on your own. (I made it touch because it curtails a lot of the shenanigans a full Portal Gun allows.)

X Ray Vision. You can see through up to 5' of solid material, though lead blocks it for some reason. Good for scouting and ambushes, and really nasty if you have any sort of wall-ignoring attack.

See Around Corners. You can see anything you'd be able to see with one well-placed mirror. Good for scouting, ambushes, ignoring enemy cover when doing archery.

[Josh_Kablack]

It Happened Like This

The ability to reconstruct a major event that previously happened at a specific location from clues at that location. At low levels, this is just basic tracking, but as levels increase it gives more details, and can solve mysteries and reveal origins of curses, artifacts and such.

[jt]

I like that one so much, Josh Kablack. Also, since Return Of The Obra Dinn has a specific concrete implementation of that...

Memento mortem. If you touch a dead person, you can see the moment they died. You can hear five seconds prior to their death (from their perspective) plus explore a full 3D still image of everything around them in a 10 meter radius, at the moment of death. Good for investigation, of course, but I've also seen people figure out how to turn it into a portable library.

[Harshax]

It feels like you could run all day by googling movie quotes and extrapolating how to apply that as an ability.

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." - Free resist to compulsion.
"You're gonna need a bigger boat." - Your encumbrance capacity is increased.
"I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse." - Free successful intimidation.
"I'll have what she's having." - You can use someone else's die result.

I know these are silly. I'm tired. Off to bed.

[MGuy]

Meta abilities I think are a good way to not only allow players to get the spotlight but also allows for greater input than normal from the players. They also can be used by all the players and wouldn't be locked away behind an ability. Because a player invokes them and likely has to then explain how the thing happened with relevance to whatever situation they are in you get easy spotlight time that might stick out more than usual. Especially given some unique circumstances. So flashbacks that allow players to imagineer something happening differently. Turning an NPC into a former acquaintance. Things like that.

[pragma]

Touched down gently above, but

Lockdown / Antimagic Being able to deny enemy actions (eg: by wrestling) seems narrowly useful in combat. Maybe expand it to include counterscrying or antimagic at higher levels.

Anything You Can Do ... Being able to temporarily copy abilities of enemies gives you a tremendous range of versatility, but forces you to make do with the tools at hand. Making it somewhat harmful means you don't just get to copy all your party members abilities for free.

[Thaluikhain]

Erm...how about being able to act when none of the other PCs are? Briefly, to avoid hogging the spotlight, but if everyone else was stunned and surprised for a round or two, and you had one PC that had to stop the monsters from eating them too much until they can defend themselves?

Not sure about that, though.

[OgreBattle]

As a joke a decade ago I wrote something like "Make a Roleplay check vs appropriate DC to have the effects of a level appropriate spell play out", as the spell list seems to be the pillar all balance revolves around.

[Pedantic]

Oh, a particularly fun penalty one I recall from a campaign years ago:

Specific perception failure: One of our characters was very specifically cursed to be unable to see drow, which was particularly fun because they were a very rare enemy type and disappeared from the pool of opponents for levels at a time. The callback and coming up with workarounds was also fun.[/b]