First character (for practice), did I miss anything?

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Clay
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Re: First character (for practice), did I miss anything?

Post by Clay »

I'd love to write a post on the concepts used in Danmachi sometime, but one quick and dirty way to handle Levels is just to assign every character a level. When two characters (be they adventurers, monsters, or a combination thereof) make opposed rolls, always add the difference between their levels to all rolls.

For example, a Level 3 Minotaur fighting a Level 1 Adventurer would get +2 to all its attacks against that adventurer, and +2 to all Defense Rolls against that adventurer. Likewise, when a Level 5 beautiful sword princess gets the drop on the minotaur, she adds 2 dice to HER rolls.

Or something like that. :)
Belisarion
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Re: First character (for practice), did I miss anything?

Post by Belisarion »

Saga, the Wandering Warmage
Defense (5), Health (30), Endurance (70), Threat (19)

Abilities
Agile (+2), Attack: War-magic (+3), Evasive (+2), Intimidating (+1), Iron-willed (+3), Knowledge: Magic (+1), Knowledge: War-magic (+3), Magic: Arcane (+2; Self Only), Quick (+1), Smart (+2), Vigorous (+3)

Weaknesses
Amnesia (-1), Awkward Size (-1, Short), Bizarre Appearance (-1, Half-drow), Emotionless (-1), Fear (-2, Drow), Focus (-1, Arcane Magic requires spellbook), Frail (-1), Fussy (-1), Hatred (-2, Drow), Mute (-1), Outcast (-2, Elves), Sensitivity (-1, Drow heritage), Shy (-2), Wanted (-2, Drow assassins), Weak (-2)

Attacks
Quarterstaff: (Roll 4, DX 0, End 0); Defensive; Weapon
Magic Missile: (Roll 8, DX 4, End 0); Aff. (Force); Accurate, Ranged, Redirectable; Feather Blow, Low Penetration
Flash Frost: (Roll 7, DX 6, End 15); Aff. (Ice); Area Effect, Effective x2, Ranged; Delayed
Fire Bolt: (Roll 7, DX 6, End 15); Aff. (Fire); Continued Effect, Effective x2, Ranged; Delayed
Thunder Storm: (Roll 7, DX 6, End 15); Aff. (Lightning); Multiple Targets x2, Ranged; Delayed

Ultimate Attack
Missile Massacre: (Roll 8, DX 9, End 30); Aff. (Force); Accurate, Armor Piercing x2, Barrier Buster, Effective x5, Redirectable, Strike Through, Area Effect x2, Overwhelming; Ammunition x3, Concentration, Open to Attack
Just to be sure I got the maths right, the high rolls for the attack spells derive from:

Base +2, arcane magic +2, knowledge(war-magic) +3 = +7

?

And for non-damage spells knowledge(magic) +1 instead of knowledge(war-magic) +3 would apply?

So for example flight would be calculated as followed:

Base +2, arcane magic +2, knowledge(magic) +1 = +5

?

And would a spell granting the Attack or Agile ability count as a war-spell and thus knowledge(war-magic) would apply or as normal magic thus knowledge(magic) would apply?

If I compare this fine char with Auren in the book on p. 39, Aurens knowledge(magic) seems not to be applied on Wings of Dezantis or do I get this somehow very wrong?
Example:
If Auren wants to cast flight on level 4 he would have to roll to see if the spell succeeds, needing to roll against difficulty 10 (2 + 2x4). Would he get his knowledge(magic) +4 in addition to his magic, arcane +3 and thus rolling 9 dice (Base 2 included)?
Malancthon
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Re: First character (for practice), did I miss anything?

Post by Malancthon »

Belisarion wrote:Just to be sure I got the maths right, the high rolls for the attack spells derive from:

Base +2, arcane magic +2, knowledge(war-magic) +3 = +7

?

And for non-damage spells knowledge(magic) +1 instead of knowledge(war-magic) +3 would apply?

So for example flight would be calculated as followed:

Base +2, arcane magic +2, knowledge(magic) +1 = +5

?

And would a spell granting the Attack or Agile ability count as a war-spell and thus knowledge(war-magic) would apply or as normal magic thus knowledge(magic) would apply?

If I compare this fine char with Auren in the book on p. 39, Aurens knowledge(magic) seems not to be applied on Wings of Dezantis or do I get this somehow very wrong?
Example:
If Auren wants to cast flight on level 4 he would have to roll to see if the spell succeeds, needing to roll against difficulty 10 (2 + 2x4). Would he get his knowledge(magic) +4 in addition to his magic, arcane +3 and thus rolling 9 dice (Base 2 included)?
While it'd probably be GM's call (due to the wording), in most cases Knowledge should not add to to the attack roll.

As you can see in Auren, despite having Knowledge: Magic +4, his spell attack rolls are the same as his sword attack rolls (Base 2 plus Combat Expert 3; Thunder Godspell has Accurate +2, so it's modified to roll 7).

So Saga's various attacks should be Roll 4 (plus any Accurate or Inaccurate): Base 2 plus Agile 2. By the book, Smart doesn't add to Attack Rolls, even for spell attacks. I could see a GM ruling it does in place of Agile, though.

For non-attacking spells, which are mostly applications of Abilities cast by use of Magic: Arcane, to succeed you have to roll against a target number 2+ twice the Ability level. For example, Flight 4 would have a target number of 10. Auren, then, would roll base21 plus Magic 3 plus Smart 2 plus Knowledge: Magic 4 for a total of 11 dice to succeed.

However, if the level of the Ability is less than or equal to the character's Magic Level, then it succeeds automatically. Since Auren's various spells are defaulted to level 2 and he has Magic 3, then he doesn't need to roll to succeed in casting them, just pay the Endurance cost.
Belisarion
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Re: First character (for practice), did I miss anything?

Post by Belisarion »

Malancthon wrote:So Saga's various attacks should be Roll 4 (plus any Accurate or Inaccurate): Base 2 plus Agile 2. By the book, Smart doesn't add to Attack Rolls, even for spell attacks. I could see a GM ruling it does in place of Agile, though.
Ah okay, so for damage spells Agile is the ability to use and not Magic, Arcane.
Malancthon wrote:For non-attacking spells, which are mostly applications of Abilities cast by use of Magic: Arcane, to succeed you have to roll against a target number 2+ twice the Ability level. For example, Flight 4 would have a target number of 10. Auren, then, would roll base21 plus Magic 3 plus Smart 2 plus Knowledge: Magic 4 for a total of 11 dice to succeed.
So for non-combat spells, Knowledge: Magic could be applied?
Malancthon
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Re: First character (for practice), did I miss anything?

Post by Malancthon »

Agile and Combat Expert are the only two Abilities that increases your Attack Rolls, regardless of the type of attacks (magic, mental, physical). Although I could see making a house rule that Smart replaces Agile for mental/magic attacks.

Actually, I take that back. There is the Will Attack perk that changes the nature of the attack to mental. In that case, Iron Willed replaces Agile. That'd most likely be the best option.

Magic: Arcane, Knowledge(Magic or the like), and Smart adds dice to casting non-combat spells, for the purpose of beating the Target Number of the spell level. You're correct in that one.
Belisarion
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Re: First character (for practice), did I miss anything?

Post by Belisarion »

Malancthon wrote:Actually, I take that back. There is the Will Attack perk that changes the nature of the attack to mental. In that case, Iron Willed replaces Agile. That'd most likely be the best option.
Indeed, the Will Attack perk looks ideal.
Malancthon
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Re: First character (for practice), did I miss anything?

Post by Malancthon »

As I thought about it, something is a bit weird with Will Attack.

Normally, there is a separate Ability for Attack and Defense: Agile and Combat Mastery, Quick and Evasive. With Will Attack, it replaces both the Attack and Defense with Iron Will.

I'd propose to house rule Will Attack to use Smart for the Attack and Iron Will for Defense, and Dense and Weak Willed as the Weaknesses for Attack and Defense rolls.
Belisarion
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Re: First character (for practice), did I miss anything?

Post by Belisarion »

Malancthon wrote:As I thought about it, something is a bit weird with Will Attack.

Normally, there is a separate Ability for Attack and Defense: Agile and Combat Mastery, Quick and Evasive. With Will Attack, it replaces both the Attack and Defense with Iron Will.

I'd propose to house rule Will Attack to use Smart for the Attack and Iron Will for Defense, and Dense and Weak Willed as the Weaknesses for Attack and Defense rolls.
Makes definately sense for arcane magic. If "divine" magic is used, will would fit.

Regarding "divine magic", there is no ability for that, except for the healer ability, which only covers healing, though. What would be the best approach for a cleric type PC?

As Clay mentioned a fantasy supplement with a magic system, I am looking forward how he tackles this topic.
Clay
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Re: First character (for practice), did I miss anything?

Post by Clay »

While you’re free to come up with more complicated magic systems (The ones baked into OVA are intentionally as simple and broad as possible), you can get by with the rules as written. Just change the name of Magic, Arcane and Magic, Witchcraft to more appropriate versions (Magic, Divine Favor and Magic, Divine Damnation) and make sure to flavor them appropriately. If you have an abuse happy player, just make them take Unique Weakness (Spells must be approved by divine being)…AKA the GM. ;)
Belisarion
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Re: First character (for practice), did I miss anything?

Post by Belisarion »

Clay wrote:While you’re free to come up with more complicated magic systems (The ones baked into OVA are intentionally as simple and broad as possible), you can get by with the rules as written. Just change the name of Magic, Arcane and Magic, Witchcraft to more appropriate versions (Magic, Divine Favor and Magic, Divine Damnation) and make sure to flavor them appropriately. If you have an abuse happy player, just make them take Unique Weakness (Spells must be approved by divine being)…AKA the GM. ;)
Thanks for the advise. I always favour a system mechanics approach to massive house ruling, if possible. Sometimes house ruling tends to unbalance an otherwise finely honed system (besides, I am lazy :mrgreen: ).
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