Space: Same as Gravity (Less powerful than it though) plus the ability to improve your flash steps (Making the distance between origin and destination shorter), create small black holes, summon small meteors and gives you Clairvoyance.
So, Space + Gravity is basically Elden Ring Gravity Sorceries? Seems like something that can eventually become a really powerful battlefield control and personal movement ability.
So, Space + Gravity is basically Elden Ring Gravity Sorceries? Seems like something that can eventually become a really powerful battlefield control and personal movement ability.
That said, if you focus on a single ability, it can be better.
For example, instead of trying to spread across the entire tree of abilities, you can just focus on a couple of things. Like just upgrading the meteor ability until the point where it's a better version of the DnD level 9 Meteor Swarm spell (I just did a rough calculation and that could be done as early as level 12 to level 15 for a Gaian, even with their slowed growth rate. it would mean ignoring most of the rest of the Space tree though)
Going back to the earlier point, Kiba basically poured all of his points into the "weigh down weapon" branch, ignoring the rest of the tree. He is a fairly low level example (as far as this system cares) though so who knows what it could of been as it continued to improve.
[X] Plan: Spend your Magic
-[X] You've both just about reached your limit, this next exchange might be the last. But, it's not over yet!
--[X] You aren't the same person he steamrolled in the past. Look Adamus in the eye, stare into his very soul, and make him acknowledge your hard earned skill. (Intimidate)
--[X] Give Adamus a nod of acknowledgment. You might not like him, but it's obvious that he's been working hard to get to his current level.
-[X] Soul Crush: 'Free'
--[X] Throw as much Reiatsu as you can into a Soul Crush until he's stunned
--[X] While he's reeling from the Soul Crush, go for a Deadly Touch: 'Max Power'
-[X] If it looks like he's going for an empowered strike, try to flash step out of the way.
Spend as much Reiatsu as possible to debuff him and while he's vulnerable go for the throat with Deadly Touch.
So for the soul crush, the plan is "Everything that doesn't need to be spent on Deadly touch?"
I'm actually going to give some hard numbers right here just so I can check your plan. (Should have done this earlier but didn't want to until someone voted for it properly)
You currently have 114 reiatsu (If you were to check your character sheet, you'd know that was 50.8% of your max). It costs 90 to do a full power deadly touch. That leaves 24. It costs 5 per +1 to an intimidate check (Soul crushes are fancy intimidate checks) so that would be a +4 with 4 reiatsu left over?
Also, for the earlier intimidate check... intimidate can't do debuffs, it's social manipulation. You need to soul crush to actually get debuffs.
...I might as well give you all of the hard numbers for reiatsu. I'll do that in a different post so I can threadmark it.
Only those that are spiritually aware can use these rules for Reiatsu. Normal humans and animals cannot use the skills presented below. A normal human is defined as a character without a racial feat. A Human that takes the feat Spiritually Aware negates this penalty. All uses of Reiatsu defined here are Supernatural Abilities.
By expending 4 points of Reiatsu as a swift action, you may increase your strength by 2 for lifting capacity. You may do this as long as you have reiatsu. The bonus to strength lasts until the end of your next turn. You may spend multiples of 4 to have greater effect on your strength. For effects that are limited to strength modifier, increasing your strength in this matter increases that threshold as well.
By expending 4 points of Reiatsu as a swift action, you may increase your land, fly, burrow, swim or climb speed by 10 feet. This bonus lasts till the end of your next turn. You may spend multiples of 4 to have greater effect on your speed. You may also spend multiples of 4 to increase multiple different speeds.
By expending 1 point of reiatsu as a swift action, you may increase a single jump check by 1 point. You may spend multiple reiatsu points to have a greater effect on your jump check.
By expending 5 points of reiatsu as an immediate action, you may increase a single intimidate check, including a soul crush attempt, by 1 point. You may spend multiple reiatsu points to have a greater effect on your intimidate check.
By spending 4 points of reiatsu as an immediate action, you may add 1 damage to a single damage roll. This bonus lasts for only one attack. You may spend in multiples of 4 to add additional damage to the roll.
By spending 6 points of reiatsu as an immediate action, you may add a +1 deflection bonus to either your next defense roll or fortitude, reflex or will save. You may spend in multiples of 6 to greater effect.
By spending 6 points of reiatsu as a swift action, you may add +1 to your chance to hit an opponent. This bonus lasts for one attack. This may be spent in multiples to get greater effect.
When you heal a character with reiatsu healing, they also recover an equal amount of Reiatsu as the amount of hit points you heal.
You may take a full-round action to recover your spellscore times 10 in reiatsu. This cannot go above your maximum reiatsu in this fashion. This can only be done once per encounter.
Should your reiatsu drop below 50% you are fatigued
Should your reiatsu drop below 25% you are exhausted
Should your reiatsu drop to 0 or below you become unconscious until you receive at least 8 hours of rest.
Should your reiatsu be below 0, you are sensed as having a reiatsu rating of none.
Reiatsu regenerates at a rate of 1 point per point of spell score per day times effective Reiatsu level.
If you receive full bedrest for that day your reiatsu regenerates at a rate of 2 points per point of spell score per day times effective Reiatsu level. If you eat during that day your results are doubled.
All beings exude an aura of reiatsu as they become more powerful. Divide your Reiatsu by 50 rounding up to the nearest whole. This is the Soul Crush check you automatically display when you are not hiding your reiatsu to those within 30 feet + 5 feet per level of you. Hiding your reiatsu to negate this does so on a 1 for 1 basis of the check (IE If you had a Reiatsu of 1,000 then you would automatically be exuding a 20 Soul Crush check against everyone within 30 feet. If you wanted to not have this automatic check, you could roll a Bluff check. Getting higher than a 20 on the bluff check would negate your Automatic Soul-Crush.)
Each day, you may cause wounds with a successful touch attack as a standard action. You can deal a total number of hit point damage equal to your character level x your charisma modifier. You may divide the damage up however you choose. The target may attempt a fortitude save (DC 15 + character level + charisma modifier) for half damage. Alternately, you may use this ability to heal those with undead traits.
Special: You may spend 30 Reiatsu to add 1d6 damage to the damage dealt. You cannot spend more than your Wisdom Modifier x 30 to add d6's of damage.
Yes, you read that right. Deadly touch isn't cost effective. Attacking normally and pouring the same amount of mana you would have into that attack that you would have with deadly touch will always do more damage. What is the point of deadly touch then? Well, to start with, it's a touch attack so for enemies with massive defense scores it can still hit them. Second, as it's an anti version of reiatsu healing, there should be feats to upgrade it. They aren't in any book I can find but I will homebrew them if I have to!
Very helpful, thanks! I was actually going to ask about these mechanics after the next chapter was done. I would appreciate if you could also include some clarification for the exact mechanics of Soul Crush (what the base DC is, how much an opponent is affected per four points of Reiatsu put into it, etc.) as the ability description in our character sheet only refers to it as a weaponized intimidate check.
Question though, we can spend four points to increase STR which in systems I'm most familiar with (Pathfinder 1.0, D&D 5.0) increases both hit-rate and damage for STR based weapons (which spears are usually counted as), or we can spend 6 to boost Hit-rate by+1. Doing the latter results in a net loss of points for less gain, though I suppose it would also affect out touch attacks and other attacks not covered by STR.
Actually, reading it again the description only refers to effects limited to the STR modifier, so it probably doesn't affect Hit and Dmg.
We want to be careful not to drop too low, so lets set 25% as our threshold. Our max is 224 so we can go to 56 without becoming exhausted. Let's try to save 12 so we can have a +2 deflection roll just in case, so we have 46 points to spend on other things. Let's spend 25 Reiatsu to give +6 to a Soul Crush (Intimidate) and 6,6, to grant +1 to two attacks.
OK, here's my revised plan:
[X] Plan: Last Stand Revised
-[X] You've both just about reached your limit, this next exchange might be the last. But, it's not over yet!
--[X] You aren't the same person he steamrolled in the past. Look Adamus in the eye, stare into his very soul, and make him acknowledge your hard earned skill.
--[X] Give Adamus a nod of acknowledgment. You might not like him, but it's obvious that he's been working hard to get to his current level.
-[X] Soul Crush
--[X] Spend 25 Reiatsu
-[X] Attack with your spear
--[X] Spend 6 Reiatsu to increase accuracy (up to two attacks).
-[X] If it looks like he's going for an empowered strike, try to flash step out of the way.
--[X] Spend 12 Reiatsu for a Deflection Bonus
Very helpful, thanks! I was actually going to ask about these mechanics after the next chapter was done. I would appreciate if you could also include some clarification for the exact mechanics of Soul Crush (what the base DC is, how much an opponent is affected per four points of Reiatsu put into it, etc.) as the ability description in our character sheet only refers to it as a weaponized intimidate check.
Question though, we can spend four points to increase STR which in systems I'm most familiar with (Pathfinder 1.0, D&D 5.0) increases both hit-rate and damage for STR based weapons (which spears are usually counted as), or we can spend 6 to boost Hit-rate by+1. Doing the latter results in a net loss of points for less gain, though I suppose it would also affect out touch attacks and other attacks not covered by STR.
Actually, reading it again the description only refers to effects limited to the STR modifier, so it probably doesn't affect Hit and Dmg.
Soul crush is an opposed roll. Intimidate vs Intimidate (Your target is technically allowed to roll their level as the modifier instead but it's really rare that that's better, even if you don't favour intimidate). Part of the point of the intimidate boosting is to make the difference.
The boost to STR is only for lifting capacity. Using 10 for Hit rate +1 and damage +1 is the most effective way to boost a weapon with reiatsu.
STR does still boost hit rate and damage of melee weapons in this system (But spending reiatsu increases the lifting capacity specifically so it doesn't modify attack rolls)
Strangely enough, this system uses Wisdom in basically the same role for ranged weapons (Increases hit rate and damage of ranged weapons)
Dex is used in a large number of things but no weapon defaults to using it. Precision weapons add it to attack rolls but they still use STR for damage. Unarmed combat is the same, Dex for the attack roll, STR for damage.
He put everything that was left into the contest of power. His feelings contested with yours. Your souls in conflict rebounded against each other throwing up sparks.
It seemed though that his will to win was greater than you had expected. The force of his will crashed against yours and you felt something give. What had happened? Wasn't he out of strength.
"This shouldn't of happened-"
He began striking even as you blinked, the backlash of your attempt having dazed you.
Not that it helped, either way, you were in position again. You'd wasted a large chunk of your reiatsu but you could still try to push towards victory.
You just weren't strong enough to hit very hard, even when you made contact.
Maybe… you'd thought about using reiatsu to block an empowered attack. But he couldn't launch one anymore, he'd just exhausted himself! You could use that reiatsu to increase the striking power of your next hit!
Kalina's High speed dodge: 14+6, pass
Adamus's strike
Attack:16+8
Your defence: 9+10+2 (HSD)
His spear cracked into you and you felt pain shoot through you. You were still conscious but you understood if you strained yourself, you'd pass out.
That was it then. You weren't strong enough to close that gap. You'd given your all and stumbled at the end. You hadn't been able to make him acknowledge you.
Adamus paused as you stumbled back.
"Give up." was all that he said. It seemed he didn't want to deal the last blow at this point. It was understandable in a way. You really did only have two choices. Either you surrendered the battle or you tried to launch one more attack that would see you pass out anyway.
You just stood there, ichor spilling onto the floor in large drops.
…No. You hadn't yet made him acknowledge you. You wouldn't give up.
A dreamless sleep was all that greeted you. And yet it felt like it took a while.
When you woke up in the academy's nurse's office you checked the clock. It was the evening.
You still felt sluggish. Your reiatsu hadn't all recovered yet. All your wounds were closed though, likely the product of reiatsu healing.
You climbed out of the bed and signed out of the office, a nurse confirming you were fit to move around.
Adamus was waiting for you in your class's common room. It seemed he was the only one here right now.
The two of you looked at each other.
He spoke first "I beat you, I will always beat you."
That was his view on all of this. That he was stronger, regardless of anything you tried to do.
In stories, there were tales of villains born strong who could be overcome with enough training. Training that they wouldn't do because as far as they saw, they were born perfect.
Adamus wasn't like that. You had seen it for yourself during the battle. He was born stronger than you, yes. But he did also train. Simply training hard wouldn't let you close that gap with him.
"I pushed you hard though." You noted, some confidence in your voice. He offered a shrug at that.
"Seoihilda pushes me hard too, you're not special. When I get my unique power, I bet I'll be able to beat the nobles too."
This… it wasn't meant to be like this. You were meant to prove your strength, your ability to improve.
You breathed harder, anger and shame filling you. You weren't meant to lose to this bully. It wasn't meant to happen like that.
You had wanted everyone to see your victory over him but…
You turned from him, feeling something warm run down your cheek. Without another word, you left the common room.
Finding your way to the roof of the school wasn't hard. You sat down on a bench up there and looked at the ceiling of the cavern. It was only around ten meters above you.
Was it like that then? The ceiling looked so close but it was made of unbreakable stone.
If there was a power out there that you could claim to overpower him, would you take it? Some miracle that could grant you infinite strength, the ability to do whatever you wanted. What stories call "the devil's bargain."
If that was your only way of beating him, would you take it?
It was the devil's bargain for a reason. If you sought out power at any price, you might lose yourself to it. You could become a monster, a tyrant, a person that could only be called a villain.
But not taking it would require a potentially more costly toll. It would mean submitting to Adamus. Not in everything of course, but he'd always hold a sway over your thoughts and actions.
What was your choice?
[ ] Power ("Power" becomes one of your Allegiances, you will be more swayed by social manipulation that relies on the promise of Power)
[ ] Adamus ("Adamus" becomes one of your Allegiances, any attempts to resist doing what Adamus wants you to do would be penalised)
[ ] Other (Write in, if you can give a good enough reason to reject both then i'll let you either ignore this choice or add an Allegiance of your choice, depending on the argument. However, if it's not convincing, I'll just default you to whichever of the default options it feels like you're rejecting less)
That's… really disappointing. If that soul crush had worked, it might not have won you the battle but it would have been far, far closer and could have gone the other way. But that poor luck on the dice…
Either way, Adamus doesn't accept that you're in any way special (As he compared you to Seoihilda, you're not unique)
Now this is the last vote of this arc. As a reminder, Allegiances are social "tools", they allow you to resist social manipulation that goes against them but when someone is arguing (to use your example of Lawful that you already have) arrest a villain instead of killing them, they get a bonus to convincing Kalina of that.
And I will be strict on the "Other" option. If I don't think it would be enough to actually change her mind, I will default to one of the others. If you want to take it, you're going to need to sell it really well. You'll have to show Kalina that there is a choice other than "Give up" or "Seek more power." And no, heroic willpower isn't enough. She's lost too many times at this point. The very point of this vote is that she's starting to doubt.
Well, it's not strictly a punishment. I'm trying to do some characterization. I gave you the out (The other option) if you think I'm missing something in my writing of her character.
[X] Power ("Power" becomes one of your Allegiances, you will be more swayed by social manipulation that relies on the promise of Power)
Well that rolls sucked and we didn't earn respect which sucks. But it makes sense that Kalina would start to value power more after loosing so much and seeing how important it is.
That's… really disappointing. If that soul crush had worked, it might not have won you the battle but it would have been far, far closer and could have gone the other way. But that poor luck on the dice…
Ouch, that kind of hurts. I can understand how this would be a turning point in her character. Good character's really aren't perfect, so having a flaw with a strong impact on her motivation. At this moment she wishes to become truly strong, but what does that mean really? Is strength just the power to defeat her enemies? How much strength is enough? Will she slow down once she finally overcomes Adamus, or will she continue seeking power for power's sake? these are interesting character questions that she, and we, will eventually need to address. And there's nothing to stop that motivation from eventually changing into something else, that's what they call character development, right?
[X] Power ("Power" becomes one of your Allegiances, you will be more swayed by social manipulation that relies on the promise of Power)
Even with three votes, I will give more time as it hasn't been that long since the chapter went up.
Plus, I am planning how I can write the timeskip.
(The time skip is needed because you are currently a few years before canon starts. It won't all be in one time skip, I'll jump a year at the end of each arc until we get to canon)
This part isn't a vote, but is there anything you want briefly talked about during a recap of the "last year's" events? Think of this as one really long study week. What lore do you want to learn about and who do you want to have talked to?
After everything that happened in those few short weeks, the rest of the year passed basically without incident.
You attended lessons, trained, learned, went to events with your friends and all the same sort of things you had done during your spare time.
Endymad developed a rivalry of sorts with each of the other male students.
He wasn't allowed to spar with any of those that hadn't awakened their unique abilities yet but they competed in other ways. It would become a contest to see who could master a specific move in spear fighting or who had the best control of their movement during a flash step.
To match her brother's competitiveness Mariannerie became the focal point for the class girls' social dynamics. She was the one who organised events.
There is a holiday that humans celebrate called "Christmas." Generally Gaian's didn't really acknowledge its passing but the princess got everyone into it this year and gave out small gifts to everyone.
Sigubert… you still didn't know exactly what his unique power did but it was likely linked in some way to why he went down to the stables at least once a week. He generally stayed to himself and was annoyed that Adamus had also been learning Blade Arts. He had been fine with you learning because you were to be his student in a way but now Adamus was using it too which got on his nerves in all sorts of ways. There was a yelling match between them at one point which eventually boiled down to "He's a massive dickbag, not anyone who should learn the noble blade arts."
…Wasn't there a blade arts style that was used in assassination? Was that really a noble art in his mind?
Frisob and Myrshai generally stuck together. They appeared to have become quick friends. They both covered each other's weaknesses in a way. You didn't really get to know that much about them though.
Neither did you learn much about Kryako. She generally stayed to herself, even ditching some lessons she didn't like. She stayed up later than the rest of you and on weekends, she always dressed like she was going to a funeral service. She did come to lessons to do with Reiatsu though and she was the only one who could really compete with you in those lectures.
You went to a few meetings of the duelling club that Seoihilda had joined and was not very good at it. They only allowed pure weapon skill to be used, your spearplay may be much better now than it was at the start of the first year but it still wasn't what you were best at.
Tuilendra… you still didn't know much about her. She always looked like she was searching for something. Much like, in a way, you now were.
You were still close to Helenria but were slowly drifting apart from Hesiodio. He just didn't travel in the same circles as you. Helenria you always saw at the princess's social events so you could keep up there when out of lessons.
And then came you. How did Kalina spend the year? Well, fairly normally.
Adamus hadn't caused any more problems, he seemed happy to know that you weren't pushing against him anymore.
Though to be clear, you hadn't given up. You just knew not to push against him. Not till you had an edge. A way to make yourself stronger.
The second year at the Academy began after a short break over the new year. Oh yes, unlike the human lands they were beneath, the school year started in the first month, not the… what was it again, ninth?
Who starts their educational year right at the end, it just seemed strange to you.
Mariannerie's party was only last month but now the second year began.
The next field trip was in the works, you hadn't heard much about it but apparently each field trip was meant to judge your ability in various positions you might be needed for once your trainings was complete.
That said, they could only be performed when there was an opportunity so they couldn't give you the easiest ones first. No. It was up to luck.
This year's trip hadn't been decided in detail yet so you had some time to do some things yourself if you wanted to.
A bit of an OOC vote this time.
Do you want to actually do the weeks in the academy or do you want to skip to the field trip. I'd advise you only to stay if you have specific goals there.
[ ] Don't skip the academy week.
[ ] Skip the academy week
And here we are, year two. The 3993rd year of the Gaian calendar.
What exciting adventures await this year.
I won't judge you for picking Power in the vote. It's the one I think is the most narratively interesting after all. It allows me to do fun things later.
Kalina will never decide something important without your input, but if someone's trying to manipulate her into something and you don't want to do it, action dice may need to be used up to make sure she succeeds her will save and that will leave you less options in a bad situation.
This part isn't a vote, but is there anything you want briefly talked about during a recap of the "last year's" events? Think of this as one really long study week. What lore do you want to learn about and who do you want to have talked to?
Sorry I'm late, meant to reply to this earlier but I rolled my ankle out in the field and then sat in the hospital for 3 hours only to be told that I just need to put ice on it. The Canadian Health Care system everyone! At least I don't have to pay for the consultation out of pocket. Though, to be fair, the emergency room was dealing with some other pretty serious cases while I was waiting.
For lore I'd like to see in future time skips, maybe things like exploring the history of the academy, or maybe some more information about the Gaian society as a whole. Blade Art Training with Siguebert (seems like he wants to smack that smug so-and-so just as much as we do). Maybe Kalina looking into the other factions of Gaians or seeing if there's anything about other races out there, besides humans.
As for today's vote, I don't think I have anything particularly pressing that needs to be addressed right now, (unless someone else has an idea that they want to look into) so I'll vote to skip.
[X] Skip the academy week
For lore I'd like to see in future time skips, maybe things like exploring the history of the academy, or maybe some more information about the Gaian society as a whole. Blade Art Training with Siguebert (seems like he wants to smack that smug so-and-so just as much as we do). Maybe Kalina looking into the other factions of Gaians or seeing if there's anything about other races out there, besides humans.
