Islebreaker

[Smeggedoff]

Ithink this should go here, an artifact of this calibur is something a storyteller woul enquire about


if I'm wrong I'm sure someon'll move it to game mechanics.


anyhoo, to the point


Has anyone Statted out Islebreaker? I don't think it's been officially statted, but there's bound to be at least one interpretation.


and if it hasn't, what do you think it should to? how powerful should it be? (5 dots or N/A IMHO)


I'm really interested in this lately


incidentally, but not specifically related, what would be harder, sneaking into Sperimin and stealing the book of 3 circles, or sneaking into Luthe and stealing Islebreaker?

 

[Sherwood]

I think that stealing Islebreaker would be harder.  You have to add the difficulty of functioning underwater, plus, Leviathan has several species of whale-men at his disposal, and is one of the few First Age Lunars in existance.  He's got to have some ass-kicking levels of Essence, and custom charms that are not in the book.  THEN you have what ever defenses are left behind in Luthe, in addition to what has since been placed there by Leviathan to protect the city from Water-Aspect Dynasts and upstart Lunars that want to loot his stuff.

 

[Arthur]

I hope it's harder to steal from Luthe. Leviathan's concept is infinitely more interesting than Raksi's.

 

[Smeggedoff]

I'd have to agree, but the thing is, does Leviathan guard Islebreaker as Jealously as Raksi covets the Book of three circles?


as far as I know Islebreaker is described as lying forgotten on the throne in Luthe


it would be tricky functioning underwater


I'm creating a Twilight who's concept is going to be stealing knowledge, thus eventually, once I learn of it's existence I'm going to be attempting the BoTC heist


and then as a challenge to myself I might try to get hold of islebreaker too


but I'm going to be pumping EXP into craft as well, so a device to function  underwater should be no problem, armour of aquatic puissance, but stripped down so it's lighter and not armour, with some extra dex powers could be useful. (might take a while though, I'll have to build an anima dampener first seeing as how I'm not  night caste)


I'd only be borrowing it anyway, honest guv


of course when I return it I'll hopefully have a pretty good Idea of how to make my own  


thus, stealing it to reverse engineer it = stealing knowledge...hopefully my ST will buy that argument

 

[fhgwdads05]

Islebreaker is statted out in the West book as a 5-dot artifact.  Its pretty shitty though.  BTW, if you're not Kendik Arkadi or Leviathan or an incarnation of one of the two, you need a Strength + Athletics of 60 to wield Islebreaker.

 

[Sherwood]

:shock:   Holy shit.  What does it do for a 5 dot rating if it's not that great but still has a Str requirement that high?

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

The real question with these goals is simple. Where have you actually heard of either the Book of Three Circles or Isle Breaker? And how do you know where they are? Since the recasteing of the western Lunars Leviathan's mostly sat on his REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BIG behind...not something that tends to tell people much about him. If anything, outside of Lunar circles, about all that's likely known is that there's a big sea monster out that way that has been known to sink ships... with maps having 'There be monsters here' written on them at that general area.


As for stealing Raksi's book...just hope you don't have the misfortune of being her first age mate...wait, just being a Solar in her hands is likely bad enough...she may not be able to wield Solar Circle Sorcery...but she's quite capable of enslaving you through Celestial Circle Sorcery and quite possibly her own charms outside that...and then you get to be someone's little pet wand...I mean Solar Circle Sorceror. And odds are good, in time she can make you like it too. Break your will fully, mold your motivation into Serve Raksi... Of course, again, this is assuming you somehow actually heard of her toy...more likely you may have heard of the ancient city of Spearmin and its schools of Sorcery...which while it may be a good reason to go exploring in the Mahalanka region...isn't likely having you looking for the Book of Three Circles. Though I suppose if you have a good reason you know of such, like say connections with Gold Faction Sidereals and/or being part of the Cult of the Illuminated...such isn't impossible.

 

[Persell]

If a Sidereal suggests you go try to get the BoTB, I'm gonna bet he's a Bronze faction Siddy, not Gold. Heading against Raksi is gonna be the last thing most Solars do in this incarnation.

 

[fhgwdads05]

:shock:   Holy shit.  What does it do for a 5 dot rating if it's not that great but still has a Str requirement that high?

The strength requirement is actually only 3.  The Strength + Athletics of 60 just makes it so no one can wield it except for Arkadi, Leviathan, or an incarnation of one of the two (they are immune to the magic that creates that requirement).  Stat/Power-wise, Islebreaker is pretty much a standard Dire Lance with the Disarming Tag.  It has one special ability: During step one of combat, you can spend up to 60 motes to raise presoak damage against an object by 1L per 1 mote spent.  While the ability to raise presoak damage by up to 60L is pretty powerful, I honestly don't think that this alone really makes the weapon a 5-dot artifact.


As far as Raksi and the Book of Three Circles, I'm with Ledaal Kajiri on this one.  Good luck.  On a semi-related note, I have a character who is Raksi's Solar bond.  He's a Twilight in humor game I'm playing, and he's as crazy as his wife.  

 

[Persell]

Easy, walk up to the big whale and say "lo, I am Kendak reborn and I need to fix some things around here... dragon blooded running around and stuff, can you give me my toys?". Then the big whale will probably test you if you are worthy and if you are he is very likely to hand you over your stuff. He has solar bond 3 after all which means a starting social oriented solar can probably just walk over him in social combat.


You only need a submarine and a way of telling him to not eat the whole submarine before you speak a word.


Islebreaker itself is poorly guarded btw the internal defenses of luthe are mostly inoperational iirc and the octopus and sharkmen are not even permitted into the room where the artifact lies. And they don't have any exalts among them, which means a single circle can probably just conquer the thing or sneak in.


The book of three circles on the other hand... it is her precious I doubt it is ever unguarded or far away from the queen of fangs.

 

[Solfi]

... Of course, that approach is dependent on the character actually *being* Kendak.

 

[Persell]

Of course. Not being Kendak would get you eaten or something similar unpleasant ^^.

 

[Smeggedoff]

The real question with these goals is simple. Where have you actually heard of either the Book of Three Circles or Isle Breaker? And how do you know where they are? Since the recasteing of the western Lunars Leviathan's mostly sat on his REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BIG behind...not something that tends to tell people much about him. If anything, outside of Lunar circles, about all that's likely known is that there's a big sea monster out that way that has been known to sink ships... with maps having 'There be monsters here' written on them at that general area.
As for stealing Raksi's book...just hope you don't have the misfortune of being her first age mate...wait, just being a Solar in her hands is likely bad enough...she may not be able to wield Solar Circle Sorcery...but she's quite capable of enslaving you through Celestial Circle Sorcery and quite possibly her own charms outside that...and then you get to be someone's little pet wand...I mean Solar Circle Sorceror. And odds are good, in time she can make you like it too. Break your will fully, mold your motivation into Serve Raksi... Of course, again, this is assuming you somehow actually heard of her toy...more likely you may have heard of the ancient city of Spearmin and its schools of Sorcery...which while it may be a good reason to go exploring in the Mahalanka region...isn't likely having you looking for the Book of Three Circles. Though I suppose if you have a good reason you know of such, like say connections with Gold Faction Sidereals and/or being part of the Cult of the Illuminated...such isn't impossible.

knowing is half the battle *brick'd*


yeah, I've thought of this stuff, strength plus ath of 60 huh?


hmm, that could be tricky, oh well.


so essentially it's a giant slayer katar, that's unimpressive, very unimpressive

 

[cyl]

Maaaaaaan... Islebreaker sucks !  :?


60L to damage against inanimate object... ow ok you can break big walls... but islands... come on !


I would make it an 4-dot artifact max... but 5... no way.


I'm very upset... Islebreaker is legendary, you can't just screw it like that (well... unless you consider legends being exagerated distorted facts)...

 

[Smeggedoff]

if I ever do use it as an ST, I'll be upgading it, prolly to something like this


Islebreaker


Spd+12 Acc+5* Dam+18L** Def+3 Rate 3 Commitment 10m


*This includes the Moonsilver bonus


**You can keep the piercing effect OR change the effect to the one listed below.


-When ever Ilsebreaker strikes an opponent a gale force builds up between the prongs and strikes him with hurricane force winds and lightning. The target must soak the base damage of Islebreaker (18L) as a secondary effect of each attack. Even if the original attack is blocked, the auxillary effect must be soaked or blocked, but only a perfect defense (such as HDG) will stop this. If the original attack is dodged then there is no fear of being struck with the wind and lightning.


-Tsunami summons: For the cost of 40m 2wp the character can summon an Island consuming Tsunami. This wave has dimensions equal to Half the user's Essence miles tall and twice his Essence in miles wide. This wave basically kills all extras and deals 200 health levels of damage to all buildings in the area. PCs suffer 10L health levels of damage unless the succeed at a Strength+Athletics roll, difficulty of 4, then they suffer only 5L and this is soaked with stamina as well. The wave travels (Essence x 2)Miles accross the waves and over small islands, but only travels (Essence/2) Miles over solid earth. This power can be used once a day and if it is, then the secondary effect of Islebreaker's attack doesn't work for the rest of the day.


-Bolts of Lightning: As a dice action (and one of Islebreaker's attacks that count's towards its rate) the Character can summon lightning to strike a target up to (Essence x 50) yards away. The attack pool is the Character's Perception + Awareness with a number of bonus dice equal to his Essence. The damage of this attack is 20L plus successes.


-Strength of the Waves:When standing in a body of water the Character gains more strength and stamina depending on the size of the body. A pool is +1str, a small lake or river or light rain is +1str +1sta, a large Lake or big river or standing in torental downpour is +2str +2sta, standing in a body of water that is enclosed in land but is huge +3str +3sta, The Yellow, Yanaze, or a similar river is +4str +4Sta, standing in the Inland sea is +6str +6sta, Standing or swimming in the far west gives +8str +8sta. These do not count as bonus dice, but do not count as attribute dots either.


-Essence Wavence ever third turn the CHaracter can wave Islebreaker in front of him and make a single melee attack (including all charms) against all opponents within his Essence x 10 yards.


-Elemental Summons: For 15m 1wp the Character can summon a wave, storm, or ocean elemental to his aid for up to a day. This elemental is always prepped for combat or travel, and able to aid in either. Assume that the elemental has either Str 10, dex 4, Sta 10 or Str 4 Dex 8 Sta 5. It has a number of health levels equal to twice it's stamina and can travel at it's dexterity x 5 yards a turn and carry up to its dexterity in people with it. All attacks are lethal and it has a brawl of 5 dodge of 4 and a thrown of 4 (only the Dex 8 version has lightning, that deals base damage of 8L and can only be dodged). At the end of the day the elemental returns to where it came. The only limit on this ability is the character's willpower and half his Essence rating.


(BTW, I didn't write this, some dude called Jester7789 did, if ound it by googling islebreaker)

 

[Lord Ben]

It's artifact 5 because it has effects capable of doing what nothing else can.  And they can be powerful depending on the story.


Maybe you leave it wherever you want and people can't steal it.  Want to take a walk around town, just stick it in the dirt and walk around.  It'll be there when you get back...


Or maybe there some gate holding riches beyond compare, only it's impervious to damage from anything... except Islebreaker.  Enter quest to retrieve islebreaker.


Not everything artifact 4-5 needs to do extra damage with good accuracy/def bonus's.  Sometimes a normal dire lance with one or two powerful abilities added onto it is fine.

 

[fhgwdads05]

Ya know, I'd agree with you if it weren't for the fact that the raw damage upgrade was so inefficient.  +1L/1m spent is not very Artifact 5ish, IMO.  Now if it were something like Sledgehammer Fist Punch (doubles raw damage vs objects for 3m) or Pounding Hammer of Devastation Technique (deal (4 x Essence) damage levels (automatic, the no-rolling kind) for 7m), then it MIGHT be closer to a 5 dot artifact.  I'd probably boost one of those two, and then in my mind would it be worthy of a 5 dot rating.   Otherwise, no, its an Artifact 4, and only because of that huge ass Strength + Athletics requirement for those who aren't incarnations of Kendik or Leviathan.  For a plot-sort of deal, I can understand sort of, but still.  As it is this weapon is NOT a 5 dot artifact, and that's the truth.

 

[Lord Ben]

The mote cost is plenty fine.  Plut it probably could be combined so for 63motes it does 120L to a structure.


It's not useful during combat, but to sunder a tomb or a city gates it has it's incredible uses.   It's 5 because it's also unique and Leviathans.  Nobody is able to buy it as a starting artifact or anything so the difference is slightly less.   And if the DM lets you buy it then it means Leviathan comes attached for free.. sort of.

 

[fhgwdads05]

The mote cost is plenty fine.  Plut it probably could be combined so for 63motes it does 120L to a structure.

Too bad you're wrong on that one.  The damage from the ability is added after all other modifications to raw damage.  

It's not useful during combat' date=' but to sunder a tomb or a city gates it has it's incredible uses. [/quote']
I never said that I wanted it to be useful in combat, or outside (even though both in its current and modified states it would be so... ever consider combat engineering?)  Its inefficient in those uses because you'll easily spend half or more of your Essence pools destroying those structures, while you could  get so much more efficient use out of some simple charms.  Oedanol's Codex states that 5-dot Artifacts replicate High Essence Solar Charms (5-6+) and Celestial/Solar Circle Sorcery.  This weapon does not do so in its current form.

It's 5 because it's also unique and Leviathans.

That is a terrible excuse, no offense. You can find unique items at the 3-dot level, even lower sometimes.  Uniqueness has nothing to do with power.  The scaling for Artifacts shows power and influence, not "I have a toy none of the rest of you have."

Nobody is able to buy it as a starting artifact or anything so the difference is slightly less.   And if the DM lets you buy it then it means Leviathan comes attached for free.. sort of.

I never argued this either.  Where are you pulling all this from?  I haven't said a single thing about buying it as a starting artifact.  I'm simply talking mechanics, and that's it.  


The truth is, for a 5-dot artifact this is weak by comparison to ANY other one out there.  It's a poorly designed representation of what was supposed to be an artifact of legend. Any one who's ever spent any time designing their own artifacts and analyzing the ones listed in most of the books out there could tell you that.

 

[Lord Ben]

Any one who's ever spent any time designing their own artifacts and analyzing the ones listed in most of the books out there could tell you that.

No need to get snippy.  Just because you don't find it useful on an artifact 5 level doesn't mean I don't.


I find it preferable to a Quicksilver Aegis Talisman or Glorious Scythe to name two artifacts.   Or if you compare Islebreaker to charms then Superheavy Plate certainly is comparable to mid level Lunar soak charms instead of level 5-6 charms or celestial level sorcery.


If you're ever going to smite the main gate to the Imperial City in a dramatic single blow to demoralize the enemies before your legion of Tiger Warriors rushes through the gate the Islebreaker is your best friend.

Oedanol's Codex states that 5-dot Artifacts replicate High Essence Solar Charms (5-6+) and Celestial/Solar Circle Sorcery.  This weapon does not do so in its current form.

And sledgehammer fist punch will be very effective and at a low cost, but it'll never add even close to +60 to the damage rating unless it's very very unusual circumstances.


The Crumbling Walls costs 25m+2wp and takes 5 days to cast during which you can't defend yourself.


Geyser of Corrosion is 30m+2wp and likely will take several minutes to complete it's work on a good sized structure.  And do no damage against properly hardened structures.


Princes of the Fallen Tower is 30m+2wp and are easily killed if the defenders have Exalts.


You may not  think Islebreaker is worthy of being a 5, but that'd put a lot of other 5's into play too.  IMHO, it's perfectly fine where it is.

 

[fhgwdads05]

I find it preferable to a Quicksilver Aegis Talisman or Glorious Scythe to name two artifacts.   Or if you compare Islebreaker to charms then Superheavy Plate certainly is comparable to mid level Lunar soak charms instead of level 5-6 charms or celestial level sorcery.

Those are all pretty crappy comparisons, btw.  Superheavy Plate is a sad excuse for a 5-dot, and anyone who's dumb enough to waste the Background dots/BP on that one should be smacked.  A Glorious Scythe is RIDICULOUSLY powerful in its chosen field (its a siege weapon meant to annihilate armies, and it does QUITE well at that) as compared to Islebreaker, as is the Quicksilver Aegis Talisman (concealed weapon/defense/automaton attacker; quite adaptable to whatever use is needed in the situation, and does a damn good job at any of it).I have no idea what you are smoking, but whatever it is, I'd like some please.

If you're ever going to smite the main gate to the Imperial City in a dramatic single blow to demoralize the enemies before your legion of Tiger Warriors rushes through the gate the Islebreaker is your best friend.

Sure, and blow through your entire Essence Pool while you're at it.  I'm sure that the DB commanders of the defending legions will thank you for such a wasteful expenditure, one that could've easily been replicated with simple siege weapons.

And sledgehammer fist punch will be very effective and at a low cost' date=' but it'll never add even close to +60 to the damage rating unless it's very very unusual circumstances.[/quote']
See above about essence expenditures.  Even Leviathan would have less than a third of his total pools remaining after something like that, and he wouldn't be that stupid as to do that.

The Crumbling Walls costs 25m+2wp and takes 5 days to cast during which you can't defend yourself.

This is a crappy comparison.  This spell drops the ENTIRE defensive fortification surrounding the city, as compared to one wall.  Its mote cost and casting time is worth its power, while Islebreaker's is not.

Geyser of Corrosion is 30m+2wp and likely will take several minutes to complete it's work on a good sized structure.  And do no damage against properly hardened structures.

This does environmental damage against EVERYTHING.  Not just walls. And it does AUTOMATIC lethal levels vs structures, and 3A every 5 ticks at Trauma 3 to any living thing in the AOE.  This is BY FAR more useful than "LOL I CAN DO +60L TO A WALL LOL," and is therefore worth its cost.

Princes of the Fallen Tower is 30m+2wp and are easily killed if the defenders have Exalts.

So they're easily killed?  You get eight of them at minimum to start with (Essence 4), and nowhere does it say that they have to remain together.  You could easily have them scatter them across a city and lay waste to it much faster than you could with that one big attack from Islebreaker.  This Spell is EASILY worth its cost.

You may not  think Islebreaker is worthy of being a 5' date=' but that'd put a lot of other 5's into play too.  IMHO, it's perfectly fine where it is.[/quote']
Sure, I'd be glad to do so.  I doubt there are as many in that state as you'd hope to believe though.

 

[Lord Ben]

We have different opinions on the usefulness.  No need to be a jackass.

 

[Samiel]

Something unnecessarily belittling and insulting

No need to be unfriendly, this is a discussion. I happen to agree with you, that Islebreaker is pretty poor as artifact 5 goes, but it's no reason to accuse others of being stoned or stupid for not agreeing.


Please let this discussion go unless you're ready to be civil.

 

[cyl]

Be careful before El Presidente finds "your lack of faith... disturbing"  :lol:

 

[Samiel]

I don't think I've had to use the force-choke in a long time... might be out of practice..