Rereading some of the game mechanics, would a prayer/feat that decreases the amount of Hama/armor that degrades with every hit taken possible?
Actually, are there any Prayers/feats that can increase or utilize rebuke?
Probably not that precisely. The mechanics get...weird, for that. Something that adds some additional Hama Field might be possible, though. And anything that effects Hama would be a Feat.
Now for my much anticipated *cough* post on Web Shape ideas.
Now I have a lot of ideas based around the concept of first passively entangling other combatants in threads of the Web over time. Just wrapping more and more around limbs and necks and torsos and objects without actually letting them hinder those people.
And then we follow it up with one or more of the following:
-Just straight up immobilizing someone with the sheer number of threads wound around them
Slowing someone as they have to fight through the web is definitely possible...full immobilization is not. Not vs. an actual cultivator, anyway. Remember, this is not strong enough to lift a person, even a small one...expecting it to actually stop someone superhumanly strong for any length of time is not a reasonable expectation.
-Pulling on limbs to create openings or throw off enemy attacks, including in nearby fights to help allies.
This is probably possible, the web breaks so it's momentary, but yanking people off-balance is possible. Sort of redundant with Faulty Ground a lot of the time, but possible.
-Pulling objects away or towards you, I guess (I don't think this is a great Prayer but I want to ask about it for completion's sake)
This would work for relatively light objects, yes. Ground can basically do this too, as has been mentioned.
-If straight up immobilizing someone isn't possible, momentarily halting them.
You can slow a person or maybe halt a limb for a moment, but stopping a whole person entirely is probably not super viable.
-Doing the same to yourself if you're thrown or pushed or the like.
This runs into the 'not strong enough to lift you' factor pretty rapidly. Like, maybe for a quick tug to get you standing, but even that seems likely to break unpredictably.
-A straight up decapitation attempt using threads wrapped around someone's neck.
This sort of works, but rarely for actual beheading. You could do a piano wire style damaging effect (since you can make the web sharp), but it'd be very low damage as the web breaks so easily, though it could have a pretty big AoE if you wanted, and could be set up in advance as a trap if you do it right.
Catching ranged projectiles before they hit us. These threads aren't super strong but for light projectiles it should work, no?
If they have enough momentum behind them to be dangerous weight is a secondary concern. But more importantly, using a web to stop an arrow is like using something like a net to stop an arrow...it doesn't really work, as there are enough holes for the arrow to go through, and even if it hits a strand, they aren't individually durable enough to slow it much.
Iirc one of the authors said illusions might be within the abilities of Hard-Fall Style. Could I get a confirmation or denial on that?
That was me, and I think it heavily depends on what you mean by 'illusions'...making a target miss spotting something or making one thing look like another for a moment to them are probably within its scope, depending on details, larger scale illusions are not.
In terms of web feats, one that I think would be cool is an attack that extends an opening if you use it while an opponent is open, like by restricting their movements momentarily so they can't get their guard back up.
I think this one would be cool because it's kind of versatile. Do we keep chaining it so that we are really likely to keep hitting with this low damage attack or do we use it as a set up for something silly like two giant killing blows in a row.
Extending an existing opening is probably possible if you have the web set up ahead of time. Not for super long, but it's likely a thing you can do via the same general mechanisms as the suggested option for creating openings mentioned previously. You'd probably need to pre-set this one earlier in the fight (or using it would use up the original opening, making it kinda meaningless), but that's pretty doable.
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To expand on Web for a moment, Web inherently spreads out your Hama over a wider area than Ground due to being spread through the air as well as along the ground, and that inherently makes it kind of diaphanous rather than big thick strands (those would more fall under Rope Shape). You got this from Head On A Swivel, remember, so it's great for sensory effects since you can (with the right Feats) feel people through the web, but while restraining people is possible, it's not really the primary use. All effects could also potentially be set up in advance, making it viable for certain sorts of traps.
