Creating attacks

[Evil Genius Prime]

Some questions regarding Attacks.

Does it cost nothing to create an attack during character creation? You just add up any Perks and Flaws making sure the total cost is at Zero? Or are attacks created just like abilities? For example, I create an attack that is just Accurate (+5). Would I need to take a flaw to bring it's cost back down to zero, or would I just spend five levels at character creation to buy it as it's own Ability?

Do levels in the Attack Ability ONLY increase you Damage Multiplier?

I hope these questions make sense.

[Sabersonic]

I'll try to answer as best as I can.

They don't really cost anything, they're variations of the Attack Ability. It should be important to note that any character has a base DX of 1. It took me a while to put this though at the forefront to be perfectly honest

Anyway, all those Perks and Flaws just denounce how much Endurance it takes to use that particular Attack Variation, or Ability now that I think of it.....

From what I understand, it just increases the Base DX of a character. It doesn't add to any Attack Value of any kind.

Though I have questions of my own, courtesy of some of my players in my own campaign. One player asks if the Attack Variations have to be created when the character is or can they be created later on in a campaign? My default answer was that they have to be created when the character is, but I added that they may be changed at the end of an Adventure to show how much they have changed.

My second is that is there a maximum amount of Attack Variations any one character has? Again, from one of my players. From as far as I can tell, there's no explicit limit as to how many a single character could have, but as far as I can tell there's an average of four attack variations with Miho having the most at about five, though her fifth one is not so freely used since it's has the Requirement Flaw.

[Evil Genius Prime]

Yeah. I was a little confused. At first, I thought you need to purchase a level in Attack for each type of attack you wanted to be able to use. For example, say I wanted to have a character have an ice blast and a fire blast. Clearly they are both types of attacks but each one has a different affinity. But since the "Attack" ability only raises your DX, you don't spend levels to purchase the ice blast and fire blast. Am I correct?

[Sabersonic]

That is correct. Purchasing Attack only increases the DX your character has.

Of course, you're able to increase the DX of each individual Attack Variation, but that costs Endurance.

[Evil Genius Prime]

That is correct. Purchasing Attack only increases the DX your character has.

Of course, you're able to increase the DX of each individual Attack Variation, but that costs Endurance.

Ah. Okay. By taking the "Effective" perk. Gotcha.

I guess my only question then is what is the limit on characters creating attacks during character creation? If there even is one. I guess this is just up to the individual GM. Hopefully Clay will see this and offer some insight.

[Clay]

Basically, what the Attack Ability represents is your general power level, what your damage capacity is without any other outside factors (like Perks and Flaws). Attack +3 is pretty great, allowing a character a DX of 4 against most opponents. And you could leave it at that, using words and narrative to describe what makes your attacks special but just roll the same dice and deal the same damage every time.

Your Attack “moves” are just variations of this Attack Ability. They cost nothing, per se, they just allow you to tweak specific manisfestations of dealing damage. So instead of a DX 4 Attack, you could have an attack move that’s Accurate (+5 Endurance) and Ineffective (-5 Endurance), which improves the number of dice you roll but lowers DX to 3.

You can create an unlimited number of these variations. The only cost is potentially an Endurance cost if you have more Perks than Flaws. (For example, if you get Effective x2, your DX will now be 6 with this specific move, but it will cost 10 Endurance every time you use it.) Likewise, there’s no need to buy Attack twice to have both a fire blast and an ice blast. They’re just different “moves” of the same Attack.

There’s no explicit limitations on the number of moves you can have, but generally 3-4 is best. Too many and characters become a sort of swiss army knife, which is rarely dramatically appropriate.

Also, you can create Attack moves on the fly, but just make sure players A) make these Attacks thematically appropriate to their character and B) don’t spend too much time doing so. It’s not fun waiting for a player to hand-perfect his latest attack move, nor is it in good spirit to intentionally create moves to counteract enemy strengths without just cause story-wise.

Hope that helps!

[Evil Genius Prime]

Wow! I thought that might be the case, but wasn't sure. Thanks for response Clay!

[Sabersonic]

Appreciate the answer Clay, I'm sure my players'll find it useful in their own character creation.

Though one of my players did say something about picking up a weapon, I used a rule from another tabletop engine which basically states that such an action is temporary and isn't added to a character's profile. I'm assuming that this course of action is correct as well under OVA2e?

[hotaru]

I have two ideas for techniques for my character and I'm not sure which Perks and Flaws I can take to create those techniques.

One technique is inspired by a spell from Legend of the five Rings, the spells name is Heaven's Tears. The spells effect is that it cures everyone in a certain area but hurts those with Taint (some sort of corruption) or low honor.
I would like to have a similar effect as a technique for my character, but since there is no corrupting power or honor I would like to heal my allies and hurt the enemies.
My character has the heal ability, so I guess I could "equip" the heal ability with the following Perks: Area of Effect, Ranged, Effective and maybe Continued Effect. But if I do that, will I still be able to just heal someone, without the AoE-Stuff?

The other technique is inspired by a D&D spell called Spirit Guardians.The spells effect is that in a certain Area with the caster as the center, the caster can choose to except a few persons from the spells damage, which is dealt every round and the movement of the targets is halved.
So this would be an attack with the following Perks: Area of Effect/ Multiple Targets, Effective, Continued Effect, Reach, Stunning/Paralyzing. Or would you suggest other Perks for this attack?

Since my character is a Magical Girl and a descendant from Tennyou (japanese equivalent to angels) Elaborate Gestures is sort of a standard Flaw, and I think of using Concentration and Ammunition for those two techniques too.

Do you have any suggestions?

[Sabersonic]

Well I have limited experience with the Perks and Flaws for OVA2e even after all this time, but I think that I can offer a few suggestions.

1) Heaven's Tears - From what I can discern from your creation concept, I suggest that for the Healing Attribute I would add in the Flaw "Cancel" followed by a notation that it can't work with anyone with either Corruption or Low Honor. The only issue would be how common such individuals would be in the campaign setting.

For it to harm said indviduals, simply have it as an attack variation with similar Perks/Flaws as healing but instead of "Cancel" it should be "Requirement" with said requirement being that the Healing Attribute be activated beforehand for the Attack to occur. Not sure if it's considered multiple actions and thus incur the multiple action penalty or not. Better leave Clay to answer that one.

As for AoE, well it just allows for more than one individual to be effected so it's largely situational and depended upon the GM in question. Personally, I'd follow all the Perks and Flaws of the Attack/Ability unless someone notes otherwise during gameplay that the ability only affected a single individual.

2) Spirit Guardian - Area Effect sounds about right, though to you might want to add Multiple Targets to the Perks list with a notation saying that its for the number of people who aren't affected by the attack. As for halving a character's movement, I'd suggest a Unique Perk along the lines of "Slowed Complication" to show that the attack actually impairs the target with the Slow Weakness. The length of such Complication would depend upon the GM in question though I'd assume that it would be at least the length of the other Perk complications to be in effect.

Granted, I'm probably wrong so I'll leave it up to Clay or someone else more experienced than I to clarify my brain fart.

As for the Magical Girl concept idea, might I suggest Open to Attack to heavily suggest that such spells are finishers or at least powerful spells that are used as last resorts due to how vulnerable they make said Magical Girl after they are cast.

And while we're on the subject at hand, would the forum care to answer an inquiry of my own? It deals with a character I had built under a different RPG system for a campaign that is now defunct. I plan on publishing said PC onto the forum as an OVA2e character (abet, very expensive and potentially NPC-only material), but it's onto a little issue on Attack Variations and the Magic, Arcane Ability. Basically, if I derive an attack from Magic, Arcane and especially when I add in the Requirement Flaw of previous Ability Activation, do I list the Attack Variation under the spell profile or on the Character themselves?

[hotaru]

ad1)
Well we don't use Honor or some sort of corruption-mechanic in our OVA-Campaign, therefore I wanted to change this part of the spell from "unworthy of healing" to enemies.
But since "Legend of the five Rings" is a Samurai RPG it has Honor and there is a corrupting power called Taint, also there are some Samurai with rather low Honor, so the caster may end up hurting his own people.
That's one of the reasons I want to change this to enemies. Open t attack might be a nice idea for this one...like the Magical Girl uses this technique to heal her Allies, hurt the Enemies iwth "one last strike" and then tries to maintain this power, while her Allies have the possibility to finish of the bad guys.

heavenstears.JPG (41.66 KiB) Viewed 12188 times

ad2)
Well, actually the original spell invoces Spirits who attack everyone, except for the people the caster excluded from the effect, and since there are now Spirits all around who attack the targets they are hindered in their movement.

spiritguardians.JPG (49.16 KiB) Viewed 12188 times

So you think aking a Unique Perk is more fitting than using Stunning or Paralyzing?


Also I use Effective to negate the Weak-Weakness of my Magical Girl, she is not much of a damage-dealer and more the healer-supporter. So I my DX is 1/2 by default.


I added screenshots of the original spells, maybe this helps understanding what I want to emulate.


Regarding your question, I'd note it under the Attacks.

[Sabersonic]

1) Heaven's Tears - Well if that be the case, then my earlier suggestion would still apply, but instead of "Tainted or Low Honor" it'll be enemies. Again, the level of cancel would depend upon how frequent they appear each time a spell is cast and whatnots.

2) Spirit Guardian - Yeah, a Unique Perk would work if what I'm reading from the thumbnails is accurate since the only "movement penalties" are the Slow Weaknesses that would potentially make any speed-based dice checks falter.

[Clay]

While I realize the source game had Heaven’s Tears as a combined spell, it probably would be just easier to separate it between a Healing Ability and an Attack Ability, ESPECIALLY if you’re abandoning the whole Taint angle. If the attack affects any enemy, it really shouldn’t be linked to the Healing spell anyway. Heck, give them the same name if you want, but game-wise, they’re very distinct applications.

Spirit Guardians is a little more complicated because taken literally, it’s the combination of what are two very different Abilities in OVA, Witchcraft (inflicting with Slow) and an Attack (doing damage.)

But if you don’t take it quite so literally, one can make Spirit Guardians an Multiple Targets attack with the Impairing Flaw. Impairing isn’t slow, per se, but movement speed in OVA isn’t as much of a thing as it is in something like D&D. A broad -1 Penalty is much more in line with how most things in OVA work. I’d toss out the idea of the “save” entirely. Reduced damage is already accomplished by a good Defense roll.

Don’t forget there actually is a Flaw CALLED Finisher, if you want some of that Magical Girl fight-ending goodness.

Finally, keep in mind the Ranged Perk (which is free) negates the Weak Penalty. It might be a more cost effective way to keep your Damage up.

Sabersonic: I’d just list it with your Attacks for simplicity’s sake. (Or maybe both places). Just don’t forget to calculate Endurance as a spell and not as an Attack...or just make it an Attack and save yourself the Endurance every time. That’s how I made Auren.

[Sabersonic]

Thanks for the advise Clay, though allow me to clarify the intent just to be safe. If I do attach an attack variation to the Magic, Arcane ability via the Requirement Flaw, its base endurance cost would be theoretically zero (that is to say, the associated Perks and Flaws are balanced out) since said endurance cost is already paid through the Magic, Arcane ability. Any additional endurance cost to the attack would be due to there being more Perks than Flaw with that particular attack variation.

Am I correct in this assumption or did I miss something?

[hotaru]

True...it would be too powerfull if it would work for every enemy.
Since in our first session some Demons appeared I thought of narrowing "Heaven's Tears" down to demonic enemies.

And of course I would talk with my GM first before writing it down on my char-sheet...just wanted to have an atack which might help the group or rather our fighter...I can't really contribute in the fight up until now, since our fighter has a TV which is about three times the value of my Magical Girl...

That's why I first thought of Stunning or Paralyzing, since they are somewhat related to movement hindrances.
Also most of my attacks will be ranged, since my Magical Girl has the ability to fly and I use it to stay in the air and therefore keep the enemies at distance.

And regarding the Finisher-Flaw...I'm not sure if it makes sense to use it for Spirit Guardians, since I wanted it to last for a few rounds...but maybe it fits for Heaven's Tears...like the Magical Girl giving her last to heal her friends and do some damage to the enemies, so that her friends will be able to fight on, while she is out...or something...

Is it possible to build a technique/attack which activates when your character drops to X health and then leaves the character "unable to do anything else"?

(Sorry for asking "stupid questions" and bothering everyone with my crazy ideas )


@Sabersonic: I'd say you are correct.