- Location
- Liverpool
Included back-up jutsus for each move if they aren't available. Pretty flexible on the back-ups though, if people feel strongly or have suggestions.
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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest
- Thread starter eaglejarl
- Start date
-
- Tags
- naruto rationalist romance armageddon is looking better and better damn you kishimoto explosions everywhere explosives solve everyone if in doubt surrender to the mercy of zabuza it seemed like a good idea at the time looks like a really bad case of being a jōnin my god. where does the lore end? precommitting is the winning plan screaming in kagome screw the rules i have explosives something bad might still happen sometimes you gotta sociopath stabby zabby subsection c of paragraph 9 should include we can weaponize this so hard
Might want to swap the speed of the storm backup of Magnetic Release The Dogs of War from an RW buff for a "Reactive Supplemental Defensive Buff".
As things stand I think people who want RW for Kei over that are gonna vote for option 2 while if option 1 does not get Speed of the Storm (or a similiar lightning buff), then it would be left without a reactive supplemental or really any defensive buff at all, which I get the impression is top priority.
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- Location
- how about no
(all underlines added)
Blind reaction time:
Happy !!!!FREEDOM!!!! noises!
Sad !!!!FREEDOM!!!! noises...
Come on girl, you partially lead the Konoha Enlightenment Initiative, not Kei's Enslavement Institution. If she really does not want to have a binding free election she can still openly truthfully poll all of the KEI ninja and then make her decisions for leadership positions after 'listening to and considering their opinions'. Lying to her historically under-privileged clanless organization members as a clan ninja will not be a good look when, not if, this underhandedness leaks out to the public.
There is no need to overpromise while planning to nefariously underdeliver when a small, legitimate promise will suffice to satisfy the KEI masses who have never expected to have bindingly meaningful voting power in the first place.
We need Kei to learn some clan-leading lessons from Choza so that she plans for the longer, decades-after-your-own-death term. Convincing the majority of people that her optimal future is correct is absolutely necessary to ensure the public carries on her policies long after she is no longer enforcing their compliance.
Kei wants to make a triumvirate with one of the positions being a total farce? What happens when one of the plotting duo becomes incapacitated and a new one needs to be selected from an "election"? Will they have set successors in case of tragedies and have three new rulers selected for election at set intervals? Will Hanta, and anyone else who later inherits her position, always be left in the dark about how the KEI really operates? Those people will get suspicious eventually and with enough time the pattern of their effective disenfranchisement will become blatantly obvious.
If Hanta Kei is officially in a position of equal power she has the potential to destroy the KEI by revealing the deceptions/lies Kei Nara and Ruri Kei want to establish. There is no need for deception in the first place: if Hanta Kei is so disagreeable that she cannot be reconciled with Kei Nara and the more "enlightened" members of the nascent cabal Hanta should be given the opportunity to show her ineffectiveness through action. Then when she fails Kei Nara and Ruri Kei can come in to rectify Hanta's mistakes while explaining to the KEI masses why Hanta's beliefs led to her failure.
When a troublesome person exists in one's organization it is better to let them prove themselves to be a cancer on the whole body so that when they are cut out no other members in the organization object to the surgery. Without that crucial first step people become rightfully concerned about public executions of character decided by private, secret judges.
How does the legitimization of securing a place on the triumverate not engender public support for the political position? Winning any spot emboldens the supporters of fringe positions: the higher the position the more gratifying it feels for them.
That choice of animal is either sublimely poignant to make an IRL political statement for USA readers (RINO) or an absolutely tragic coincidence. For the record I am fine with the former but if it is the latter changing the animal to, say, a warthog, sloth, etc. would preserve the message while eliminating any possibilities of IRL political allusions.
I recognize that Kei is a traumatized-by-committing-genocide-by-proxy (twice, Condors and Isan), angsty 16 year old child relentlessly trying to set the world right after she inadvertently caused so many people so much harm. Be that as it may, her current plot will cause Leaf more dire problems than it solves because disenfranchised people, whether justified or not, become more liable to defect. Ideology and Ego are key tenets in MICE (motives to betray one's country: Money, Ideology, Coercion, and Ego) and Akatsuki would use them to subvert those shunned people in Leaf to inform, either consciously or accidentally, on our and Leaf's activities to "understanding" AMITY (official or unofficial) personnel.
We absolutely cannot allow this to happen and I hope Kei runs this idea by Hazou first before annoucing the election so we can help her create a better governing system for the KEI before it is too late.
P.S. The chapter was overall enjoyable as a reading experience to better comprehend how well intentioned people like Kei can unintentionally spell doom for their communities. My "AHHHHHHH!" reaction is genuine and I do not want my critique of Kei's actions to take away from the quality of the writing: only skilled writing can evoke such strong responses.
Blind reaction time:
Happy !!!!FREEDOM!!!! noises!
Sad !!!!FREEDOM!!!! noises...
Come on girl, you partially lead the Konoha Enlightenment Initiative, not Kei's Enslavement Institution. If she really does not want to have a binding free election she can still openly truthfully poll all of the KEI ninja and then make her decisions for leadership positions after 'listening to and considering their opinions'. Lying to her historically under-privileged clanless organization members as a clan ninja will not be a good look when, not if, this underhandedness leaks out to the public.
There is no need to overpromise while planning to nefariously underdeliver when a small, legitimate promise will suffice to satisfy the KEI masses who have never expected to have bindingly meaningful voting power in the first place.
We need Kei to learn some clan-leading lessons from Choza so that she plans for the longer, decades-after-your-own-death term. Convincing the majority of people that her optimal future is correct is absolutely necessary to ensure the public carries on her policies long after she is no longer enforcing their compliance.
Kei wants to make a triumvirate with one of the positions being a total farce? What happens when one of the plotting duo becomes incapacitated and a new one needs to be selected from an "election"? Will they have set successors in case of tragedies and have three new rulers selected for election at set intervals? Will Hanta, and anyone else who later inherits her position, always be left in the dark about how the KEI really operates? Those people will get suspicious eventually and with enough time the pattern of their effective disenfranchisement will become blatantly obvious.
If Hanta Kei is officially in a position of equal power she has the potential to destroy the KEI by revealing the deceptions/lies Kei Nara and Ruri Kei want to establish. There is no need for deception in the first place: if Hanta Kei is so disagreeable that she cannot be reconciled with Kei Nara and the more "enlightened" members of the nascent cabal Hanta should be given the opportunity to show her ineffectiveness through action. Then when she fails Kei Nara and Ruri Kei can come in to rectify Hanta's mistakes while explaining to the KEI masses why Hanta's beliefs led to her failure.
When a troublesome person exists in one's organization it is better to let them prove themselves to be a cancer on the whole body so that when they are cut out no other members in the organization object to the surgery. Without that crucial first step people become rightfully concerned about public executions of character decided by private, secret judges.
How does the legitimization of securing a place on the triumverate not engender public support for the political position? Winning any spot emboldens the supporters of fringe positions: the higher the position the more gratifying it feels for them.
That choice of animal is either sublimely poignant to make an IRL political statement for USA readers (RINO) or an absolutely tragic coincidence. For the record I am fine with the former but if it is the latter changing the animal to, say, a warthog, sloth, etc. would preserve the message while eliminating any possibilities of IRL political allusions.
I recognize that Kei is a traumatized-by-committing-genocide-by-proxy (twice, Condors and Isan), angsty 16 year old child relentlessly trying to set the world right after she inadvertently caused so many people so much harm. Be that as it may, her current plot will cause Leaf more dire problems than it solves because disenfranchised people, whether justified or not, become more liable to defect. Ideology and Ego are key tenets in MICE (motives to betray one's country: Money, Ideology, Coercion, and Ego) and Akatsuki would use them to subvert those shunned people in Leaf to inform, either consciously or accidentally, on our and Leaf's activities to "understanding" AMITY (official or unofficial) personnel.
We absolutely cannot allow this to happen and I hope Kei runs this idea by Hazou first before annoucing the election so we can help her create a better governing system for the KEI before it is too late.
P.S. The chapter was overall enjoyable as a reading experience to better comprehend how well intentioned people like Kei can unintentionally spell doom for their communities. My "AHHHHHHH!" reaction is genuine and I do not want my critique of Kei's actions to take away from the quality of the writing: only skilled writing can evoke such strong responses.
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- Location
- United States
Geode Coffin
A beautiful formation of crystalline spikes encloses your target, both trapping and protecting them. You can choose to explode the shards outwards, freeing the captive and maiming anyone nearby, or crush the spikes inwards to mangle your helpless foe.
| Type | Attack | Strain |
| Element | Earth | |
| Effect | 1 to 2*AB | |
| Duration | Half a Minute | +30 |
| Durability | Effect | +6, +21, +47,+82, +127, +183... |
| Range | Effect/2 Zones | +0, +20, +20, +40, +40, +60... |
| Cast Speed | 1 Standard | +0 |
| AOE | Melee(Capture), 1 Zone(Explosion) | +40 |
| Disadvantage | Breaks Very Painfully | -40 |
| Disadvantage | Requires Apprentice Earthshaper | -30 |
| "Disadvantage" | Conducts 1/2 of stress from Lightning to caster | -20 |
| Advantage | Weapons:1 | +30 |
| Advantage | Attack Bonus: +2xAB | +60 |
| Advantage | Conditional Permanence | +10 |
| Advantage | Multi-Mode Attack (capture, then explode or crush) | +30 |
| Advantage | Restricted Reflexive Cast | +20 |
| Totals | Strain: 136, 171, 197, 252, 298, 373, 439, 534, 620, 735, 841, 976... | CP: 28, 35, 40, 51, 60, 75, 88, 107, 124, 147, 169, 196... -2 CP if there is a source of the element (earth) nearby. |
The chakra connection between the cater and Geode is abnormally intense(somewhat similar to ES). As a result, earth-penetrating ninjutsu(such as HlaM or BRI) must roll against the user's Geode Coffin skill to pass through the Geode, unless their chakra is approved for substitution with the user. This connection does serve as a conduit for Lightning energy, and any Lightning-based stress to the Geode is split 50/50 with the caster.
If the Geode is destroyed(or the caster exceeds the jutsu range), the Geode explodes outward as if the user had terminated the jutsu prematurely, and the user suffers (30+5*Durability) mental backlash as the connection breaks, defending with Resolve.
Geode Coffin can be used to trap a target(or small cluster) within (Effect/2) zones as a standard action, rolling (Geode Coffin + [2xAB]) vs Athletics.
Geode Coffin can also be used to defend the user as a reflexive supplemental action. Doing so adds [Geode Coffin/2] to Athletics(incompatible with substitution), and leaves the user trapped in their own Geode Coffin. Anyone in Melee with the caster may roll athletics to escape before the Geode Coffin's formation, but a melee attacker who succeeds in their attack takes -(2*AB) to this roll. A melee attacker who fails their attack is left outside the Geode.
The caster may crush the spikes inward as a standard action, making a devastating attack on anyone stuck within. This crush attack uses (Geode Coffin) at Weapons:1, but conventional defenses like Ath/MW/Tai can only defend at 1/3 value. defences not based on avoiding the crush(such as force fields?) may be rolled normally.
The caster can also prematurely and violently end the technique as a supplemental action, exploding the Geode outward as spiky shrapnel. This is a (Geode Coffin + [2xAB]) attack at Weapons:1 against everyone in the zone who was not in the Geode, and causes (30+2*Durability) backlash, defending with resolve.
Similar to MEW, the Geode is predominantly composed of quartz crystal if it was formed in contact with the ground, and is a quartzlike chakra construct if not. Once the jutsu duration ends naturally, a Chakra-construct would crumble and fade to nothingness, while real quartz would remain(potentially trapping its victims). As leftover quartz is no longer connected to the caster, it does not resist jutsu, does not conduct Lightning energy, and does not cause backlash or explode when destroyed.
Changelog:
Max Effect is 2*AB
Durability is equal to Effect
Backlash is (30+[5*Effect]), Making high-level use less prohibitive.
Lightning attack on the Geode split stress 50/50 with the caster. this is a "weakness" because lightning is bypassing a defensive technique to attack the user, but in practice it actually improves the Jutsu, both as a shield and a kill/capture tool.
Changelog 2: electric boogalo
Cleaned up the writing(as best I could), hopefully it's easier to read now and the chakra-connection thing is clearer.
The jutsu breaks if the caster leaves the range, causing backlash. (seems like how it should work.)
The Ath penalty for a successful melee-attacker escaping the Geode is now -(2*AB), instead of a flat -15.
Clarified how defending against melee attackers works.
Ending the jutsu prematurely now has minor backlash. Hazou will ~never care, but penalizes spamming "block-then 'splod" strategies for
Because last-minute edits are inherently risky, the previous text is preserved HERE for posterity, just in case I made some horrible mistake and somehow substantially changed the jutsu from what was voted for, and nobody had a chance to yell at me.
It gives a big reactive defensive bonus, then sticks us in a seriously tough bunker. It also has devastating offensive power against anyone who can't escape within one turn. And it can explode open in a dramatic AOE. very versatile.
The main drawback is that if the Geode is destroyed, the casters brain melts. Hazou's stupidly high Resolve lets him cast it at 59(Effect 12, Durability 12) and walk away with only 2 milds if it somehow breaks. And breaking out of it in one turn takes an attack of 156(or an attack of 120 with weapon 12)
The other "weakness", conducting lightning, actually works the jutsu's advantage; the Geode has a better defence than Hazou does, and splitting the damage 50/50 keeps it up for way longer, and makes it very hard to escape quickly by doing the sensible thing of Lightning-ing the wall. Sure, Hazou gets burned, but who cares if we get to crush an Essie who's lost 2/3rds of their defence,
Offensively, The roll to capture is the weak link. skill+2xAB looks big, but it's threatening-looking enough that people will pull out all their tricks to not get trapped. It's done with some setup, to take advantage of debuffs or tags/invokes when capturing sufficiently dangerous targets. Once you've caught someone, they're pretty fucked unless they have another Essie trick to escape, and several of the obvious-seeming responces are actualy traps(HlaM, Lighting jutsu).
The Jutsu has a good reason to exist in-universe, as some capture-specialist Jounin's signature technique before Orochimaru stole it and killed him. It also makes sense that we haven't seen the Sanin throwing it around - without Hazou's absurd resolve, casting it at high Effect against someone who might break out risks debilitating yourself with mental consequences. And against weaker targets, they just don't need it. So it's been moldering unused in Orochimaru's jutsu library, and now he can use it to pay off Hazou without even leaking a technique he relies on.
I estimate the current power to be either on-level or a bit high. If it did need to be tuned down(fair!), I'd recommend ONE of the following two tweaks:
Reduce Effect from 2*AB to 1.5*AB. The jutsu works the same, but the high-end durability isn't quite as nuts, making escape easier.
Make the Crush attack less lethal(flat stress: Effect/2?). Getting captured is a desperate extended contest to escape or be rescued, and takes 2-3 turns to kill a target.
EDIT:
Also, it has a lot of fun details! I keep thinking of fun ways for it to play out:
The main drawback is that if the Geode is destroyed, the casters brain melts. Hazou's stupidly high Resolve lets him cast it at 59(Effect 12, Durability 12) and walk away with only 2 milds if it somehow breaks. And breaking out of it in one turn takes an attack of 156(or an attack of 120 with weapon 12)
The other "weakness", conducting lightning, actually works the jutsu's advantage; the Geode has a better defence than Hazou does, and splitting the damage 50/50 keeps it up for way longer, and makes it very hard to escape quickly by doing the sensible thing of Lightning-ing the wall. Sure, Hazou gets burned, but who cares if we get to crush an Essie who's lost 2/3rds of their defence,
Offensively, The roll to capture is the weak link. skill+2xAB looks big, but it's threatening-looking enough that people will pull out all their tricks to not get trapped. It's done with some setup, to take advantage of debuffs or tags/invokes when capturing sufficiently dangerous targets. Once you've caught someone, they're pretty fucked unless they have another Essie trick to escape, and several of the obvious-seeming responces are actualy traps(HlaM, Lighting jutsu).
The Jutsu has a good reason to exist in-universe, as some capture-specialist Jounin's signature technique before Orochimaru stole it and killed him. It also makes sense that we haven't seen the Sanin throwing it around - without Hazou's absurd resolve, casting it at high Effect against someone who might break out risks debilitating yourself with mental consequences. And against weaker targets, they just don't need it. So it's been moldering unused in Orochimaru's jutsu library, and now he can use it to pay off Hazou without even leaking a technique he relies on.
I estimate the current power to be either on-level or a bit high. If it did need to be tuned down(fair!), I'd recommend ONE of the following two tweaks:
Reduce Effect from 2*AB to 1.5*AB. The jutsu works the same, but the high-end durability isn't quite as nuts, making escape easier.
Make the Crush attack less lethal(flat stress: Effect/2?). Getting captured is a desperate extended contest to escape or be rescued, and takes 2-3 turns to kill a target.
EDIT:
Also, it has a lot of fun details! I keep thinking of fun ways for it to play out:
- If you use it reflexively, you may not know who's in your zone by the time your turn comes up, so exploding is a little risky. interesting!
- If a captured target is likely to bust out, you want to stand back, because the explosion may work in *their* favour.
- There's also fun to be had trapping a melee attacker inside with you, then HlaM out the bottom, leaving them stuck inside. Maybe even drop a goo bomb or exploding tag first?
- Hazou could spend his first round on reflexive Geode Coffin and PEA, then explode onto the battlefield on the second round fully armoured and finally ready to fight.
- Or he could stay is his safety rock and use Living Roots to sense targets and attack with Bleeding River Impalement or another Geode Coffin!
- You can even use it to protect adjacent allies reflexively! I want to see Hazou protecting Honoka in with him.
- Hazou+Noburi could sit inside together and dump a *ton* of chakra into echolocation-targeted ninjutsu.
- Cast it defensively at low Effect, to get a more chakra-efficient dodge bonus, and then let the attack break the fragile Geode, hurting the attacker with the explosion.
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It'd probably make the QMs' lives a bit easier if you specified what material, crystal is only a specific substance when referring to glass. Is it quartz? Silicon dioxide's probably the least problematic material to generate for a crystal. Any particular type or purity or just whatever matches the local composition? Mechanically I like it, it's a very cool concept with a lot of possible uses. About the bit where punching the walls hurts the attacker, is that from the inside only or from both directions?
Probably quartz. I'd planned to research and think through the options, then forgot and left it unspecified. oops.
It's spiky in both directions, I'll clarify that. thanks.
Makes sense. For some preemptive math about how much of whatever crystal this is making, currently quartz, if made in contact with real ground... I'm going to assume ~a hemisphere when in contact with solid ground. From your description, the size of the jutsu should be more or less consistent, with negligible adjustment to situation rather than scaling with Effect or whatever. the volume for a hollow hemisphere is straightforwardly a hemisphere of the outer radius minus a hemisphere of the inner radius. Let's call it roughly a foot/30 cm thick and enclosing... melee range could be theoretically pretty far but I'm assuming melee combat involves standing closer than the theoretical maximum of stretching your arm out to the max and poking the tip of your enemy's weapon with your own. Call it the full armspan of an average person, to model multiple people locked in combat plus their weapons. Armspan tends to be ~height, so call it 170 cm/67 inches for ease of working with it. That gives us an inner radius of ~170 cm and an outer radius of ~200 cm (67/79 inches respectively). The volume of a hemisphere's 2/3*pi*r^3, so here ((2/3*pi*(200^3))-(2/3*pi*(170^3)) works out to ~6,465,400 cubic centimeters of quartz at a density of 2.65g/cc giving us 17,133,304 grams of quartz.
The details of the math will vary but the orders of magnitude shouldn't be far off, so in regards to how much of a concern quartz generation would be, it seems like we'd be getting high four digits-low five digits in kilograms of quartz per casting of this jutsu.
After some thought, it seems like a lot but silicon and silicon dioxide specifically are so common and the range of ES so large that I think casting ES basically anywhere with solid ground would produce significantly more. ES would be slower to cast but not as chakra-intensive. I think that as far as generating usable material goes this should be fine.
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Should be +0
Optional reflexive cast I should have the +75 (conditional). Look at MEW from the Known Jutsu doc for an example.
Does the jutsu roll to encase the attacker or is the caster encased to help them dodge better? Basically, who gets encased here?
Breaks painfully is usually more of a physical stress thing.
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I assume the mental backlash is so you don't dodge the consequences just by being inside the geode or outside the range, and it's a bit weirder to explain taking physical stress because someone broke your rock dome 100 feet away from you. If you happen to be within the normal range of the geode's explosion I think you take both that attack and the mental backlash.
Thanks
I did reference MEW? MEW says standard action, then has this advantage that I literally copypasted.
Paying the full +75 would imply that it could entomb foes as a supplemental. which would be awesome and I would love, but is probably to broken?
It's encasing the caster. A fast melee attacker could stay close enough to finish their attack and get sealed in as well. a really fast melee attacker could hit them and then dodge away.
I was going for and ES-like thing where your mind and chakra are actively connected to the jutsu, which I thought was mental stress?
I definitely also wanted to exploit Hazou's stupid high Resolve, and explain why we hadn't seen the technique in broader use.
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- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Eh, I'm largely indifferent.
Kei did a Bad Thing[tm], certainly, but she also didn't collaborate with Hazou to get his thoughts on it, before pushing her idea through (which, for better or worse, is consistent with her characterization, to be honest).
We have enough on our plate right now, prepping for going Missing, that I'm content to leave it be, unless Kei decides to approach us of her own volition.
She's a big girl, and has been a leader of KEI for a year or so. If she wants our advice, she can ask, otherwise... time to buckle down and work on preparing for going out into the wild.
So at Level 60 (Effect 7) this technique would have Durability : 10, or 100... but the Stress Blocks beyond that arent mentioned? I assume also 3+Effect, so 10, meaning a 140 hit or two 120 hits would pop it?
Also, at TN 100 its already 100 vs Resolve for Mental Stress and with 60 Resolve that is 14 Stress so you almost die, pretty much? Seems too brutal, at that point you are better off just eating the attack in the face, it will over-roll you by less.
I dont see why the jutsu has to provide separate Athletics bonuses etc, instead of just having the attack roll against its Durability TN. Overall I like it but a lot of its mechanics look overcomplicated and it could have just as much depth to it with more concise wording.
Currently its a strictly worse Whirlwind Barrier that is far less sturdy, does not maintain line of sight to cast through, has lightning weakness instead of immunity and probably kills you if it ever breaks. Sure Hazou can use earth jutsu to sense through it which is nice synergy - but so can enemies. I hope HlaM doesnt allow someone to just enter it haha.
Anyway, this seems firmly a B-rank jutsu as things stand - not an "S-rank" from a Sannin's forbidden library. Understandable given what its based on but it would barely be useful to any degree by Level 60 and even then just not that much. I dont think Hazou would ever want to level this, in comparison to the Kraken or lightning element. Especially when Whirlwind Barrier is almost exact same but better. So, I'd suggest bigger numbers, wording tweaks to make it less contrived rule wise - and a smaller downside.
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- Location
- Book Fort
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Pretty likely, honestly. Orochimaru is a 50+ year old S-ranker, a THer, who trained under Hiruzen (who was also an S-rank THer, who, in turn, was taught by Hashirama AND Tobirama), and who (like Jiraiya) plundered lesser clans/ninja for their Good Shit^TM.
Orochimaru may not have learned every jutsu he has access to, for build-synergy reasons, but I can fully believe that he has a hoard of awesome jutsu, some of which may be of particular use to Hazou, specifically.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Seems reasonable to me.
- Location
- United States
The best stuff he'll have will be the things that fit his particular build or fill a common niche, like 'melee buff.'
Getting a great jutsu perfect for Hazō means giving up an amazing jutsu for everyone else.
@eaglejarl @Velorien @Paperclipped
Can we get a rough temperature read on the power level?
Could this jutsu be pushed even further? walked back a little? is it just right?
Even an offhanded assessment would help me orient. Thanks.
Oh no, you're right. That's bizarre, the way I would do it is have you pay the additional +75 Strain if you're casting it as a Reflexive action. And you need to buy the Advantage for +20 Strain also.
I could have sworn that ES caused physical stress rather than mental, from the chakra going out of control and damaging your coils. But the Rules Doc doesn't specify. I thought there was a post on Discord about it somewhere, but I can't seem to find it.
@Paperclipped @Velorien
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This is how the jutsu Reo gave us works, except that you can skywalk out of his version - seems reasonable for an S Rank tech to not have that issue
I think it has a lot of things that don't matter attached to it that artificially raise its cost - like the Weapons : 2 (No one who Hazou fights is going to care about 2 Stress spikes that only work on unarmed attacks), or the Conditional Permanence - if Hazou wants to make a small dome of mundane rock, he can just Earthshape one or use another jutsu. The Range scaling with Effect also seems unnecessary, its not long enough to engage in long distance combat anyway, so I believe just making it a static Range 1 (Adjacent Zone) would be better.
My point is that if we are going to level something for combat, I'd rather it actually spend more of its power budget on the combat options it provides that we can't get anywhere else. The Durability part especially needs a boost for it to be viable in S-rank combat against the numbers being thrown around, but it could also get another combat effect that we would care about (like draining chakra from the caster / any target trapped inside at will to reinforce and/or mend itself).
To be able to afford maximum power level, I'd propose adding an extra disadvantage to the jutsu in preventing the use of Athletics while maintaining it (the user's movements are sluggish while using the Geode Coffin). Between that (-40 Strain) and removing the Weapon : 2 (60 Strain), the Variable Range (60 Strain at Level 50) and Conditional Permanence (10 Strain), far more durability and another edge can both be afforded - especially if willing to bump the CP cost up, which I don't see a reason why we would not be given how Hazou's combat toolkit isn't particularly CP intensive.
My point is that if we are going to level something for combat, I'd rather it actually spend more of its power budget on the combat options it provides that we can't get anywhere else. The Durability part especially needs a boost for it to be viable in S-rank combat against the numbers being thrown around, but it could also get another combat effect that we would care about (like draining chakra from the caster / any target trapped inside at will to reinforce and/or mend itself).
To be able to afford maximum power level, I'd propose adding an extra disadvantage to the jutsu in preventing the use of Athletics while maintaining it (the user's movements are sluggish while using the Geode Coffin). Between that (-40 Strain) and removing the Weapon : 2 (60 Strain), the Variable Range (60 Strain at Level 50) and Conditional Permanence (10 Strain), far more durability and another edge can both be afforded - especially if willing to bump the CP cost up, which I don't see a reason why we would not be given how Hazou's combat toolkit isn't particularly CP intensive.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
There's also something to be said about not asking for the same thing multiple times - if we already have a good melee buff PCs can learn the element to grab that one instead of using two requests for two different melee buffs
But this is part of why I'm insistent we get something for Kei. We just straight up don't have anything regarding RW ninjutsu. Even melee we technically already have access to the excellent Flame Aura (though I do still think that given we have multiple lighting/melee users we should request a lightning melee buff as well.)
Initiative Changes, Jutsu Reworks, and Capped-Bonus Stunts
- Location
- USA
Greetings players, we come in peace, bearing many minor mechanical modifications.
Accordingly, a number of jutsu and seal effects need to change.
Feedback on this decision is appreciated.
Prerequisites: Athletics 20, Alertness 20, Level 20 in one of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons)
Select one skill of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons) as your Primary, the remainder are secondaries. Add a bonus of ⅕ Primary to your secondaries, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
E.g. If you have level 35 Taijutsu as your primary (bonus of +7):
Prerequisites: Genin Combat Training, Athletics 40, Alertness 40, Level 40 in one of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons)
Select one skill of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons) as your Primary, the remainder are secondaries. Add a bonus of ¼ Primary to your secondaries, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
E.g. If you have level 52 Taijutsu as your primary (bonus of +13):
Prerequisites: Chūnin Combat Training, Athletics 60, Alertness 60, Level 60 in one of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons)
Select one skill of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons) as your Primary, the remainder are secondaries. Add a bonus of ⅓ Primary to your secondaries, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
E.g. If you have level 66 Taijutsu as your primary (bonus of +22):
Two notes:
Prerequisites: 3x techniques above level 20 or above in your chosen element.
Designate your highest leveled ninjutsu in your chosen Element as Primary. Add a bonus of +⅕ Primary when making rolls with other ninjutsu in the Element, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
When you have the Elemental Advantage (i.e. Water > Fire > Wind > Lightning > Earth > Water) with this element, add +2*AB instead of +AB.
Prerequisites: 3x techniques above level 40 or above in your chosen element.
Designate your highest leveled ninjutsu in your chosen Element as Primary. Add a bonus of +¼ Primary when making rolls with other ninjutsu in the Element, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
When you have the Elemental Advantage (i.e. Water > Fire > Wind > Lightning > Earth > Water) with this element, add +3*AB instead of +AB.
Prerequisites: 3x techniques above level 60 or above in your chosen element.
Designate your highest leveled ninjutsu in your chosen Element as Primary. Add a bonus of +⅓ Primary when making rolls with other ninjutsu in the Element, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
When you have the Elemental Advantage (i.e. Water > Fire > Wind > Lightning > Earth > Water) with this element, add +4*AB instead of +AB.
Prerequisites: 3x techniques above level 80 or above in your chosen element.
Designate your highest leveled ninjutsu in your chosen Element as Primary. Add a bonus of +½ Primary when making rolls with other ninjutsu in the Element, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
When you have the Elemental Advantage (i.e. Water > Fire > Wind > Lightning > Earth > Water) with this element, add +5*AB instead of +AB.
Finally, we're considering adding the following rule for Elemental Specializations. Discussion on this topic would be helpful, but do not get attached to the rule – we could well decide not to add it.
Feedback on all these mechanical changes would be greatly appreciated.
Variable Initiative
After a valiant crusade by @Shrooms, we've been convinced to drop the variable initiative system. Initiative will now remain constant throughout an encounter. The following rule will be added to the rulebook:- When initiative is determined at the beginning of an encounter, combatants may use any reflexive actions they have available to change their initiative. Once the initiative order is determined, the same initiative order is used for all subsequent rounds – effects that increase or decrease initiative have no further effect.
Accordingly, a number of jutsu and seal effects need to change.
- Earth Element: Living Roots – This technique is not Reflexive, and cannot be used at the start of an encounter. However, if it is active at the start of an encounter, it will grant +(Effect) to initiative (rather than the +3*(Effect) bonus granted while the user is immobile, as the user will generally be assumed to be moving throughout an encounter). This has been clarified in the jutsu's specification.
- Lightning Element: Pangolin Flash – While we could give this the same treatment as Living Roots, it would be substantially weaker, as there's basically no reason to have it active before a fight starts. Additionally, the decaying-bonus would have no effect, so the jutsu needs to be reworked. Accordingly, we're substantially buffing Pangolin Flash – it is now a Reflexive Supplemental technique that buffs Alertness and initiative by +2*(Effect). Full details are available in the jutsu doc.
- Chakdar – Previously, this granted +AB for the first round of initiative, but no bonus thereafter. Chakdar is being buffed. It will now grant +AB to initiative throughout the entire combat (provided combat starts in the appropriate range).
Feedback on this decision is appreciated.
Minor Buff for Ninjutsu Specs
The following rule will be added to the rulebook:- When rolling a ninjutsu's level, the user may use the AB of the highest-leveled ninjutsu in its element, rather than the ninjutsu's AB.
- For example: Noburi attacks with Water Dragon Bullet (L30). It has an innate +AB, so would normally roll at +4 (34 total). Instead, with his Water Whip's +6 AB (L50), he would roll at +6 (36 total). If he invokes "Star of the Show", he would add another +6, and roll at +12 (42 total) rather than at +8 (38 total).
- This doesn't affect the ninjutsu's maximum Effect, or any ninjutsu-mechanics that aren't rolling its own level (e.g. Flame Aura's bonus to other rolls is still based on its own AB, rather than the highest Fire-Element technique's AB).
Capped Bonus Stunts
After a couple months with access to the Primordial Sealing rules and no game-breaking exploits found with its capped-bonus interaction with Sealing, we're adding the following stunts, which will be accessible to all characters.General Combat Training
In truth, ninja skills are closely related, and exceptional skill in one can transfer to passable ability in another.Genin Combat Training
XP Cost: 25 XPPrerequisites: Athletics 20, Alertness 20, Level 20 in one of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons)
Select one skill of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons) as your Primary, the remainder are secondaries. Add a bonus of ⅕ Primary to your secondaries, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
E.g. If you have level 35 Taijutsu as your primary (bonus of +7):
- Your level 20 Melee Weapons is buffed to level 27
- Your level 30 Ranged Weapons is buffed to level 35 (cannot exceed level 35)
Chūnin Combat Training
XP Cost: 50 XPPrerequisites: Genin Combat Training, Athletics 40, Alertness 40, Level 40 in one of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons)
Select one skill of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons) as your Primary, the remainder are secondaries. Add a bonus of ¼ Primary to your secondaries, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
E.g. If you have level 52 Taijutsu as your primary (bonus of +13):
- Your level 30 Melee Weapons is buffed to level 43
- Your level 44 Ranged Weapons is buffed to level 52 (cannot exceed level 52)
Jōnin Combat Training
XP Cost: 75 XPPrerequisites: Chūnin Combat Training, Athletics 60, Alertness 60, Level 60 in one of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons)
Select one skill of (Taijutsu, Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons) as your Primary, the remainder are secondaries. Add a bonus of ⅓ Primary to your secondaries, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
E.g. If you have level 66 Taijutsu as your primary (bonus of +22):
- Your level 40 Melee Weapons is buffed to level 62
- Your level 50 Ranged Weapons is buffed to level 66 (cannot exceed level 66)
Elemental Specializations
Mastery of a single element of ninjutsu may allow a wielder to reap incredible rewards.Two notes:
- For all stunts here, the Elemental Advantage bonus counts as a buff.
- For every additional Element you have, the requirements to acquire one of these stunts drops by 5 levels.
- E.g. with 4 Elements, the requirements would drop by 15 levels, so you could learn Elemental Master with 3x level 45 skills in a given Element.
Elemental Apprentice
XP Cost: 25 XPPrerequisites: 3x techniques above level 20 or above in your chosen element.
Designate your highest leveled ninjutsu in your chosen Element as Primary. Add a bonus of +⅕ Primary when making rolls with other ninjutsu in the Element, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
When you have the Elemental Advantage (i.e. Water > Fire > Wind > Lightning > Earth > Water) with this element, add +2*AB instead of +AB.
Elemental Journeyman
XP Cost: 50 XPPrerequisites: 3x techniques above level 40 or above in your chosen element.
Designate your highest leveled ninjutsu in your chosen Element as Primary. Add a bonus of +¼ Primary when making rolls with other ninjutsu in the Element, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
When you have the Elemental Advantage (i.e. Water > Fire > Wind > Lightning > Earth > Water) with this element, add +3*AB instead of +AB.
Elemental Master
XP Cost: 75 XPPrerequisites: 3x techniques above level 60 or above in your chosen element.
Designate your highest leveled ninjutsu in your chosen Element as Primary. Add a bonus of +⅓ Primary when making rolls with other ninjutsu in the Element, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
When you have the Elemental Advantage (i.e. Water > Fire > Wind > Lightning > Earth > Water) with this element, add +4*AB instead of +AB.
Elemental Grandmaster
XP Cost: 100 XPPrerequisites: 3x techniques above level 80 or above in your chosen element.
Designate your highest leveled ninjutsu in your chosen Element as Primary. Add a bonus of +½ Primary when making rolls with other ninjutsu in the Element, capped by your level in Primary. This does not affect AB.
When you have the Elemental Advantage (i.e. Water > Fire > Wind > Lightning > Earth > Water) with this element, add +5*AB instead of +AB.
Considerations for the Elemental Specializations
Hazō's "Apprentice Stoneshaper" stunt is currently nonfunctional apart from permitting him to cast Multiple Earth Wall. If he satisfies the pre-requisites for Earth-Element Apprentice, he will be able to swap his Apprentice Stoneshaper stunt for Earth-Element Apprentice, which will also function to permit him to cast MEW.Finally, we're considering adding the following rule for Elemental Specializations. Discussion on this topic would be helpful, but do not get attached to the rule – we could well decide not to add it.
- If you have Elemental (Apprentice/Journeyman/Master/Grandmaster) in (2/3/4/5) Elements, you may increase the cast by (1/2/3/4) Effects without paying additional chakra. This cannot increase the Effect above maximum allowable by your level in the ninjutsu.
- E.g. ninjutsu-spec jounin with 3x Elemental Journeyman stunts, max Earth Element 52, Earth Wall 40. They cast Earth Wall at Effect: 1 (31 CP), and the Earth Wall would take effect with Effect: 3 (71 CP).
- This would let the user defend with min(52, 40 + ¼*52) = 52, plus Earth Walls +(Effect*AB): 52 + (3 * 6) = 70.
- With Elemental Advantage (against a Water ninjutsu), the user gets an additional +3*AB, and defends at = 88.
- They save 40 CP.
- If the ninjutsu-spec jounin instead had Earth Wall 30 (max Effect: 2), they could only increase the Effect to 2.
- E.g. ninjutsu-spec jounin with 3x Elemental Journeyman stunts, max Earth Element 52, Earth Wall 40. They cast Earth Wall at Effect: 1 (31 CP), and the Earth Wall would take effect with Effect: 3 (71 CP).
Feedback on all these mechanical changes would be greatly appreciated.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOO