Sky

[Arthur]

I'm designing a weapon for my First Age Solar for Tome's game. Any tips about its crunch? It's intended to be a Grand Daiklave with somewhat reduced damage and improved Defence and Accuracy (and possibly Speed), plus some powers. Its main MM is Adamant. It's supposed to be a high-end Artifact 5, with a reasonable drawback. Here's the background:

Sky
There was a Yozi cult in the North called The Order of the Forbidden Flame. They were destroyed long ago by the Solar armies, but there was a tale among them, and that tale survives among the whispers of forbidden gods and other creatures forsaken by Heaven. It was a story about a sword called Sky. According to it, the Unconquered Sun, in the first day after the end of the Primordial War, left Creation for a small Elsewhere realm he had created. There, he meditated on the existence. During one impossible second, the unimaginable happened: he shed a single, perfect, tear, filled with perfect regret. That tear fell to Creation, and, from that moment on, the destiny of the world was sealed. The powerful were doomed to always be overthrown by the weak, until the day Creation was a land of no magic and no power, ruled by mortals dependent on a soulless, grey society to exist.


Whether that will happen or not is yet to be known, but the tale goes on. The tear fell somewhere near the Imperial Mountain, and the elemental energies there crystalized it. There, an elder among the Mountain Folk found it, and mistook it for a mere crystal. Still, he sensed the magical power within the gem, and decided to forge it into a sword. He gathered the Adamant and the Orichalcum, and shaped the blade and the hilt. When it was ready, he put the tear over it, and stroke it once with his hammer. An explosion of Essence sent him away, and when he managed to get up and see his work again, he understood what the crystal was.


It was crystalized perfection.


The sword had received an ethereal blue color, and golden sparkles erupted around its blade once in a while. It was then sent to master artisans for evaluation, and even they couldn't find a single flaw within it. As far as any of them could tell, it was the sharpest, best-balanced sword they had ever seen. The sword remained with the Mountain Folk as a valued treasure, kept in the chambers of the Imperial Mountain. Then, the Solars came to Meru, and all of it was ruined. One of them, a Eclipse, gained knowledge about the sword, by now called Sky because of its coloration, and demanded it as a gift. The Jadeborn had no choice but to give it, constrained by their creator to help the Chosen, even after the Primordial War. And so, Sky fell in the hands of the Solar that would soon reincarnate as Kendik Arkadi.

I thought the stats could be something close to:


Speed 4, Accuracy +4, Damage +10L, Defense +2, Rate 3, Attune 6, Piercing


The effects should probably be related to Perfect Effects, righteousness and swashbuckling.

 

[Smeggedoff]

maybe it should bring out the inherent perfection in anyones swordsmanship, like provide some automatic successes. maybe make it piercing as it's perfectly sharp

 

[Arthur]

It's piercing because it's Adamant.


Adding successes is... nice, but I wanted something more awesome. The character who will use it is a paragon of swashbuckling combat and style. Something that helped him to look more awesome (he has a specialty towards that, by the way) would be very nice.


If it denied Perfect Defenses, say, [Valor] times per scene, for example, would it be too powerful?


What about allowing you to add Essence to any test once in a while?


The drawback could be related to the seed of regret in the tear used to craft it.

 

[Smeggedoff]

sorry, didn't notice it was already piercing.


denying perfect defenses? hmmm could be somewhat powerful, but it does seem to fit the bill of pissing awesome and farting kickass.


I'm trying not to suggest stupid stuff like theme music, but attempting to think of distilled awesome for a giant sword just makes me think of bleach.


slicing apart someones essence flows so you could get close enough to kick them in the face seems pretty awesome.


What you really want is a big flashy ability, like when you swing it really hard a vortex of golden essence rushes the enemy, angel feathers rain from the sky and when the light show fades the enemy's been Nailed to the wall by seven golden swords that just stay there keeping him stuck to the wall artfully arranged in a pattern of awesome significance.


while guitar music plays in the backgroun-DAMMIT!

 

[wordman]

The character who will use it is a paragon of swashbuckling combat and style.

Using a Grand Diaklaive?

 

[Smeggedoff]

I'm assuming he mean in the wisecracking flash bastard sense of swashbuckling and not the actyal, y'know, fighting on a ship

 

[Arthur]

The character who will use it is a paragon of swashbuckling combat and style.

Using a Grand Diaklaive?

It's a modified Wavecleaver now, for all effects. I thought that a "perfect" Grand Daiklave could be light enough, but you are right, it looks weird.


Edit: and munchkin, too.

 

[Jukashi]

You realize, it'll have to be tested against my Lunar's own Artifact 5 sword.

 

[Brickwall]

Some suggested effects:


All weapons weep of their shortcomings in the face of this sword. Sky can only be parried by bare hands that have been empowered to parry Lethal weapons, or with magic (PDs and such).


Weapons shudder and buckle under Sky's overwhelming perfection. When Sky is used to parry, its wielder may immediately launch a disarm counter attack if his opponent is wielding a melee weapon. If he succeeds, and the weapon is nonmagical, it is obliterated.


Sky is stronger than the skeins of fate, and channels skill into outright perfection. Its wielder may use all Melee Excellencies with it without a Charm use (as per Melee Essence Flow, but it is compatible with the Infinite Melee Mastery Charm). In addition, even if its wielder is out of Essence, or incapable of using Excellencies, they are still entitled to one Melee reroll every action (when applied to DVs, treat as the 3rd Excellency).


Just a few ideas.

 

[Arthur]

Thank you very much, that was rather useful. I believe the third one would be considered too powerful. Gonna try to use one of the first two, probably.

 

[Brickwall]

Too powerful for an A5? Come on, DBs can do it for free. The free reroll might be toned down to less frequency or eliminated alltogether, but I thought I should throw it out there.

 

[Arthur]

If you persuade Tome, I won't hesitate in using it. :mrgreen: It's just that I think the free reroll is a little too much. It automatically increases my PDV in 3 or 4, for example.

 

[Brickwall]

Not quite. Unless you pay essence, you get it once per action. That means it only applies to one single attack or parry. If you get flurried, it goes away. And the frequency can be toned down. It's not quite as powerful as it sounds and, really, raising your DV by 2? That's meager for an A5. Putting all the powers I proposed onto a GDK would still be an A4. I mean, there's a bow that gives auto-perfects, and it's only A4.

 

[Arthur]

I mean, there's a bow that gives auto-perfects, and it's only A4.

Oh?

 

[Smeggedoff]

Crimson Bow, Pg40 Oadenol's Codex


every shot fired hits what it was aimed at, but adds no succeses, the minimum of 1


plus you can spend 4 motes to hit immaterial targets with Agg Damage

 

[Brickwall]

Crimson Bow, Pg40 Oadenol's Codex
every shot fired hits what it was aimed at, but adds no succeses, the minimum of 1


plus you can spend 4 motes to hit immaterial targets with Agg Damage

And it's about equivalent to a long powerbow (+MM) in stats. So those powers solely comprise that fourth dot. If you go somewhere around tripling them in potency, you're probably at a mid-end A5.

 

[Beowulf89]

Fairly sure that the Crimson Bow gives "Fair Folk Perfects."


So, if you stunt or spend a mote of essence on a parry you're fine.

 

[Brickwall]

Note: Enemies can't stunt


Also note: that means they have to spend motes (and possibly their Charm use) every time you attack. Go full flurry (which is 3 attacks, unless you have some rate-add thing) every time. Yes, it's a technically defeatable perfect, but it's constant and free.

 

[FluffySquirrel]

They can't?.. always have in our games, many other people play with non stunting enemies?

 

[Smeggedoff]

to be honest it makes sense to me, it's a player advantage

 

[Arthur]

I was under the impression that I had seen some text in the books that encouraged STs to make stunts while controlling NPCs, to be honest.

 

[Brickwall]

STs are encouraged to be descriptive with NPCs. However, NPCs do not get the mechanical advantages of stunts. Because it sucks to be them.

 

[Smeggedoff]

STs are encouraged to be descriptive with NPCs. However, NPCs do not get the mechanical advantages of stunts. Because it sucks to be them.

Yeah, I was under this impression, especially since the ST is the one who judges how many dice a stunt is worth (to a certain degree anyway)

 

[Ledaal Kajiri]

Frankly, I think this idea that 'Enemies can't stunt' is stupid. Heroic characters can stunt, whether they be PC, NPC or whatever. Its an advantage of being heroic. Note that there is an Alchemical Procedure that creates a potion that...horrors, allows EXTRAS to manage to stunt, by turning them into heroic characters temporarily. Now, judging stunts for NPCs may be somewhat more difficult, however not very. If your players go 'Woah', then its likely a 3 Die stunt, otherwise, the rules are quite concrete on what is a 1 die stunt and what is a 2 die stunt. There are even Charms which have specific effects on stunts. Not allowing NPCs to use certain charms because they effect stunting is foolish.


Frankly, characters...are characters. Whether they be PC or NPC. Yes, NPCs are people too. Just because there is not a player other than the ST holding their sheet does not prevent them from being heroic.


Edit: Note, the rules even SPECIFICALLY state that important storyteller characters can in fact stunt, on Page 124, Core. Of course, it also says unimportant characters can't...but well, that's pretty much a given. Joe Extra...is Joe Extra. His life sucks.

 

[Smeggedoff]

a well written argument? on my Internet?


it's more likely than you'd think.


point well made Ledaal, I cede to your ability to reference relevant facts (curse youuuuuuu)