As Smokefish just suggested in the shoutbox, maybe add a category for "heavy" weapons like sniper rifles, machineguns and stuff, which should need additional support to fire properly. Maybe something like 22 points, with -20 penalty to attack if it's not braced properly. Bracing would either take the move or the entire round, I guess(plus you'll be prone if enemy gets close, obviously).
And, uh, there probably should be some sort of bonus to firing a two-handed firearm from prone/otherwise bracing the weapon(and maybe lesser bonus if you kneel), since it's so much easier to aim that way. Maybe +10 to attack rolls and, since the ranges for stuff like sniper rifles are and will be ridiculously low otherwise, double or triple range (and +5 attack bonus while crouching).
Edit: Now that I think of it, the current reload times are pretty fast, since 18 seconds to switch magazine is pretty good time. Not saying that they need to be changed, just food for thought. Though magazine size of one is pretty shitty, in those conditions.
Edit 2: Also, not sure if Rapid Shot should be allowed with bolt-action weapons.
I caught part of that conversation, but didn't have time or opportunity to respond to it. A point of note on it though: DG's ranges are not meant to be completely realistic. At one point I wanted to change the measurement of the system to meters to make it a little bit more sensible, but that idea was opposed by pretty much everyone. Now, to address your assorted issues and ideas one at a time:
The basic sniper rifle isn't heavy or powerful enough to require bracing. There aren't any machine guns. There aren't even any automatic weapons. The gattling gun hasn't even been invented yet in DG canon. I'm not opposed to the idea of allowing custom made weaponry to have special functions, I let Garg do it after all, but I haven't made any of them explicit since I also haven't technically added the range weapons template to the rules thread.
Also, to all who point out the words "assault rife" appearing in the name of one of the ranged weapons, in this case it's being used in the description without any influence by our modern perception of the term. It's a rifle made for close quarters combat, and fluff wise the catfolk called it an assault rifle because that was it's purpose. It was used when they were assaulting things, like castle walls or ships at sea. It's a semi-auotmatic rifle with a short barrel. That's all.
As for going prone to provide attack bonuses, that I would allow. +10 bonus to attack while firing a gun from Prone, and a +5 bonus if kneeling, with kneeling requiring that the character use their move action to stand back up. As for adding range: No. Range in DG isn't particularly realistic, as I stated above, and few encounters that the character doesn't plan/start themselves are likely to begin with enemies further than 60 feet away.
@Edit 1: 15 seconds. Rounds in DG are 5 seconds long unless sex is happening.
@Edit 2: It works in Fallout, so I'll let it slide in DG.
Just remembered something. The slavers in Eleanor's thread used grenades, any chance of them being added to the item list? And if so, would we be able to create a grenade launcher to fire them as well as throw them normally?
Favored enemy(target): Against your favored enemy, you gain +6 attack, +6 damage, +6 perception and +6 stealth, but -6 dodge. Requires Hatred with the same target.
Defender: You may increase the dodge of an adjacent ally by trading points of your own dodge on 1 per 1 basis up to maximum 10 points. Requires Idealistic
The brood slime aka massive slime had the six eggs that held the creatures in question. The creatures are a result of alchemical, magical, and other forms of pollution that drained into the sewers. This pollution caused the meager lonely Spitter slime to mutate into the brood slime. The eggs formed from the human/aliens the brood slime managed to catch and devour. They were completed with the generous donations of Grace and Karen which finally solidified their forms (Angel being the smallest and baby like took on more of her human form due to age/development). Angel's sisters are more jelly fish like being far more solid than their slime host and have the ability to shapeshift instead of the malleable form. They are humanoid in shape and apparently female in form. They have semi-transparent skin that glows with strange lights and each of them have tendrils they can extend from their bodies which they use to feed (they are not strong enough to assist in grapple). The creatures feed of magical energy and blood absorbing both through their tendrils which are slightly coated with aphrodisiac (left over trait from the aliens/slime woman). They have genetic memories which does not grant skills or talents. Despite their mostly human facial and body structure their glowing skin and Right now there are 6 fully grown while the 7th (angel) is being cared for by Sister Karen.
Although at present there are six to be known from the thread, not counting the PC Angel, there could always e more massive slimes in sewers and such somewhere
Since you suggested that Spirited Defender and Spirited Attacker are a little weak and, in fairness, Smite is a little weak, too, I was thinking that maybe a small buff is in order. Specifically, allow skills that require EP to be used even if the character is sealed or otherwise couldn't cast.
Right now, they have the advantage of being usable on the same turn as an attack, meaning there's no initial-round cast necessary. Which means they're more or less good as backups where a character doesn't feel they have that round to spend on using battle aura/fell might/dark armor/whatever. But, admittedly, with innate caps of 10 this isn't much of an advantage. So, if they could be used while sealed they would, at least, have another small advantage over the big spirit buff skills and mage +stat buffs. This also distinguishes spirited defender from desperate avoidance.
If you wanted to go real crazy on buffing, might also allow skills that cost EP to ignore the spirit ceiling, since they have built-in caps anyway that limit their application as alpha strikes (though this was not always the case for smite, as I recall very well >.>). Although I understand why this might not be so appealing from a simplicity standpoint and why it might be even less appealing from a fluff standpoint.
Ritual Name: Kitsune Rebirth
Ritual Cost: A single kitsune tail containing a soul
Ritual Time: One hour of meditation before mating with the host
Ritual Requirements: A fertile host able to carry a child
Description: The kitsune takes one of its captured souls and places it into a child at the moment of conception, effectively bringing a person who they've absorbed back to life as a kitsune. The kitsune loses the tail containing the soul at the moment of conception, as well as all bonuses gained from that tail. They cannot lose their original tail. The mother of the child can be the kitsune itself or a woman being impregnated, but regardless the mother must be able to bear children and not already pregnant.
Add 1 or 2 EP upkeep to wind armor. It is probably not a spell which should be infinitely sustainable.
Just remembered something. The slavers in Eleanor's thread used grenades, any chance of them being added to the item list? And if so, would we be able to create a grenade launcher to fire them as well as throw them normally?
I forgot the actual stats I made up for those, so have this instead:
Grenade: Costs 25 denarii. All creatures within a 10 foot radius of where this item is thrown take 3d10 + 10 damage. This damage is half slashing and half fire. This item is treated as a throwing weapon with a range of 10 feet that cannot be recovered.
I propose a couple of talents that increases the amount of targets certain spirit powers/spells can target at one time and one that increases the area for an AoE. These are subject to change however Tass wants if he accepts them as talents. They can be taken by either Spirit users or Mages.
Extended Spirit – Pay an extra 10 EP and Double the AoE of any spirit power or spell that has an AoE way of targeting.
Double Vision – Pay an extra 5 EP for an additional target with Spirit powers and spells that specify you can only target a specific number of enemies with.
I'm not opposed to the idea, and was actually intending to come up with something sort of like these at some point anyway. Gotta change 'em a bit though, as they'd be spirit wielder exclusives.
Widened Burst - Pay an additional 4 EP to double the area of effect of a damage dealing power.
Split Blast - When using a power that targets a single creature, the character may pay 2 EP in order to target two creatures and split their expended EP between each of the two targets however they like.
Favored enemy(target): Against your favored enemy, you gain +6 attack, +6 damage, +6 perception and +6 stealth, but -6 dodge. Requires Hatred with the same target.
Defender: You may increase the dodge of an adjacent ally by trading points of your own dodge on 1 per 1 basis up to maximum 10 points. Requires Idealistic
Defender, as RJ said, is already sort of possible (it just costs the character Attack rather than Dodge.) I will, however, include it anyway if there is no outcry against it, which there doesn't seem to be.
Favored Enemy I like, and will include as is.
Other things to do with Spirit Powers:
1) Rolling Dragon's Wings into Draconic Transformation is a good plan, as is slightly increasing the Speed of the flight Powers. As it stands currently, Flight, Aspect of Spirit, Draconic Transformation, and Dark Armor can all grant a character the ability to fly. Increasing Greater Wings and the ones that grant flight as a secondary ability to 2X Speed and Flight to 5X Speed sound good to everyone? Good, that's what I thought.
2) No one bit on the idea of fixing Gorgon's Gaze, so I'm just going to change it on my own.
Old Gorgon’s Gaze
The character lets their gaze linger on one creature within line of sight. A brief focusing of their energies and the targeted creature can be turned to stone and instantly killed.
-The character pays 2 + X EP.
-The creature must win a Resistance check against a DC equal to 5X or be turned to stone. This DC does not get a d20 roll.
New Gorgon’s Gaze
The character lets their gaze linger on one creature within line of sight. A brief focusing of their energies and the targeted creature can be turned to stone and instantly killed.
-The character pays 5 EP.
-The creature must win a Resistance check against the character or be turned to stone.
3) Dragon's Ferocity is in! Dragon's Wings is out!
The character gains fangs, a set of talons, or a tail durable and deadly enough to rival those of a dragon and is filled with vim and vigor after every kill.
-The character pays 1 + X EP. In addition, they must pay 1 EP every round.
-The details of transformation are entirely up to the character to decide, but for mechanical purposes the weapons can reach no further than standard attack range. Successful attacks deal (1d10 + 3) * X + Spirit/4 damage.
-Every killing blow made with the summoned weapon heals the user for X HP.
-The character can attack in the same turn that this power is activated, but only using this power. If the character has the Duelist Talent, they can use this power as their weapon. If the character has the Two Weapon Fighting Talent, this power can be used as one (or both if they conjure two) of their weapons. If the character has the Unarmed Fighter Talent, this power counts as unarmed even if it is used to attack rather than that character's unarmed attack. The weapon conjured by this power counts as unarmed and gets the attack bonus if the character has the Skill with Unarmed Talent.
4) This wasn't suggested or anything, but its something that I've meant to do for a while in order to have the summoned dragons be in line with their natural counterparts: All Dragon summons gain the Massive Talent, which doubles their HP.
5) Cudgel of the Blessed was meddled with slightly to make it more powerful. The language of Holy Wall, Grenade, Mine, Reshape, Transformation, Fey Servant, and Seal were changed a bit in order to make room. Increased Binding's DC by one. Changed Chemical Splash a little bit too.
Since you suggested that Spirited Defender and Spirited Attacker are a little weak and, in fairness, Smite is a little weak, too, I was thinking that maybe a small buff is in order. Specifically, allow skills that require EP to be used even if the character is sealed or otherwise couldn't cast.
Right now, they have the advantage of being usable on the same turn as an attack, meaning there's no initial-round cast necessary. Which means they're more or less good as backups where a character doesn't feel they have that round to spend on using battle aura/fell might/dark armor/whatever. But, admittedly, with innate caps of 10 this isn't much of an advantage. So, if they could be used while sealed they would, at least, have another small advantage over the big spirit buff skills and mage +stat buffs. This also distinguishes spirited defender from desperate avoidance.
If you wanted to go real crazy on buffing, might also allow skills that cost EP to ignore the spirit ceiling, since they have built-in caps anyway that limit their application as alpha strikes (though this was not always the case for smite, as I recall very well >.>). Although I understand why this might not be so appealing from a simplicity standpoint and why it might be even less appealing from a fluff standpoint.
This actually isn't a bad idea. Having Smite and the two new ones ignore Spirit Ceiling (or not affect it if buffs are active) isn't much of a problem since they have hard caps anyway, and allowing them to work while sealed wouldn't be too much of a problem either since that sort of situation doesn't come up too often.
Haf's skills just for easy reference:
Bloodbath (Activated): While in a rage, a character can pay 4 EP in order to regain HP on successful attacks for that round. When active, any successful attack for the round heals the character for 2d6 + 6 HP. The +6 modifier is reduced by 2 for every additional attack on a round for all attacks on that round to a minimum of 2d6 + 0. EP expended on this skill does not trigger a character's Spirit ceiling, and this skill can still be used while Sealed or wearing a Sealing collar. Requires Rage.
Spirited Attacker (Activated): The character can pay EP in order to increase their attack modifier for the round. For every point of EP spent, they gain an additional point of attack for the round. More than 10 EP cannot be spent with this ability per round. EP expended on this skill does not trigger a character's Spirit ceiling, and this skill can still be used while Sealed or wearing a Sealing collar.
Spirited Defender (Activated): The character can pay EP in order to improve their defense for the round. For every point of EP spent, they gain an additional point of dodge and armor until their next round. More than 10 EP cannot be spent with this ability per round. EP expended on this skill does not trigger a character's Spirit ceiling, and this skill can still be used while Sealed or wearing a Sealing collar.
Also: Move Earth and Animate water spells had their effective DC increased from Mind/8 to Mind/6. Also also: Rage now requires the character to attack every round. Alsoalsoalso: Reworded Spunky and Knowledgeable.
I'm not opposed to the idea, and was actually intending to come up with something sort of like these at some point anyway. Gotta change 'em a bit though, as they'd be spirit wielder exclusives.
Widened Burst - Pay an additional 4 EP to double the area of effect of a damage dealing power.
Split Blast - When using a power that targets a single creature, the character may pay 2 EP in order to target two creatures and split their expended EP between each of the two targets however they like.
Well the reason I didn't specify it as a spirit wielder exclusive is because I didn't know whether or not mage powers worked in the same manner when I wrote those up. But I figured you'd have to change them around some to make them work, so no worries. I rather like the way they were changed around.
Heavy Metal (Activated) - The character delays their attack until the end of the round. Targets hit by the character's attack must win a resistance check against the user or they become stunned. In addition, every attack made against the character until the end of the round, whether the attacks hit or miss, grants the user a cumulative +2 resistance bonus to the stun check, along with a cumulative +6 attack and +4 damage bonus until the character's next action. Requires Heavy Weapons Specialist.
