Author Topic: Avatar d20 fixes  (Read 61213 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Omen of Peace

  • Hong Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 1053
  • Wise Madman
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #20 on: July 27, 2008, 05:57:19 AM »
Welcome, AstralFire ! The 1/2 level progression for other classes seems good to me - but it will require careful evaluation (of course).

@AlterFrom: I like your idea ! I could be wrong, but I think dman was just reformulating it and looking at the numbers. My only concern is that the first feat (+1) could be a little weak - I'm not fond of situations where it's optimal to take another feat X, then a few levels later retrain X to Y (because another feat Z becomes available and Y is only interesting with Z). But it's not a big deal.

@dman: I already said it, but I'm in favor of the change. Only count this as 1/2 vote though since I'm much less knowledgeable about the system. :)
The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Steven Erikson

AstralFire

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 498
  • Up the Ante
    • The Anteheroes
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #21 on: July 27, 2008, 10:30:37 AM »
« Last Edit: July 27, 2008, 10:32:18 AM by AstralFire »


Avatar: The Last d20 Supplement
The Discussion Thread - Help!
Current Project: The Anteheroes System: 2nd Edition, a quick and tactical modern fantasy system.

Better to be stupid and humble than smart and arrogant. A humble man can change and improve. An arrogant man won't.

AlterFrom

  • Donkey Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 561
  • Super Special Awesome
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #22 on: July 27, 2008, 03:00:17 PM »
1: Are you thinking of having all templates adding bending range, or creating a "ranged" template that adds a certain (possibly scaling) amount of distance to your bending range?
2: Not sure what you mean here. I only found 2 references to touch attacks that weren't part of the Airbender (who it seems thematically appropriate for, in my opinion), both of which were in the Earthbender.
3: Agreed, but I think the AC problem is more of an issue with the variants used in the system. Defense Bonus and Armor as DR just don't play nicely when it comes to AC, and the system doesn't allow for supplementary AC boosters. At level 10, you might have AC 19 (10 base, 3 dex, 6 def) against an AB of +11 (7(bab)+4(stat)). It gets worse with the martial classes, who could easily wind up auto-hitting your AC. Letting the defense bonus and your armor bonus stack (AC 23ish at L10) would help, IMO.
4: Not sure on this one, but changing it to a class feature and giving bonuses over several levels would help fill out the classes.
Siggy
[spoiler]TIRED OF TRYING TO MANAGE FILES ACROSS SEVERAL COMPUTERS? GET DROPBOX AND SIMPLIFY THE PROCESS!


xkcd. It Rocks.

Tick, tock, Tick, tock...

FYI: I lose a couple years off my life anytime I see I have a PM.

Quote
We're ALL rules lawyers here. The BEST at what we do, too. It's like a Tom Grisham novel in which everybody at the top law firm is a dirty crook, but they all know the rules so well that TECHNICALLY speaking, they aren't breaking them...:eh

[/spoiler]

AstralFire

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 498
  • Up the Ante
    • The Anteheroes
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #23 on: July 27, 2008, 04:10:16 PM »
1: Are you thinking of having all templates adding bending range, or creating a "ranged" template that adds a certain (possibly scaling) amount of distance to your bending range?

A ranged template. I've made one-ish for Fire and Air, the DCs will obviously need editing to fit the new paradigm.
Farflame (Template)
Base DC: +15
Applications: Applying this template to a firebending form increases the firebender's effective range for the purpose of that form by 30 feet. If the form ordinarily does not have a range but is centered on the bender instead, he may choose a square up to 30 feet away as the origin point of the form.

For every 10 points the firebender increases the Base DC, he increases the range by another increment.[/spoiler]

The Four Winds (Template)
Base DC: +20
Applications: Using this template, an airbender can cause the selected airbending form to originate at any point within 60 ft. and proceed in any straight line he chooses, including vertical lines. This also effectively increases the airbender's range with such attacks by 60 ft.

For every 5 points that the bender increases the Base DC (after all template and quickening modifiers), he may cause the form to make one turn of up to 45 degrees. In this way he may airbend across corners, although any targeted attacks are treated as though the bender was blind.[/spoiler]

Quote
2: Not sure what you mean here. I only found 2 references to touch attacks that weren't part of the Airbender (who it seems thematically appropriate for, in my opinion), both of which were in the Earthbender.

The Airbender's attacks Bull Rush by default. I think you need to be hitting solidly to Bull Rush, or I'd agree.

Waterbending:
- The Circular Attack class feature is pretty cool, but I can't help but think it's a weird variation on Karmic Strike. Maybe ditch the Reflex Save but you make the attack as a penalty and it counts as an attack of opportunity. Reduces the number of dice being thrown.
- Dman's Water Whip: Can you only increase damage step once? Should either be a limit, or the DC should be high for a slow scale.
- Manipulate: I agree with AlterFrom's issue on movement. Manipulate itself is mostly fine, but the fact that not all waterbending powers tell you whether or not you need to transport water to a location or how much water you need is an issue. Shaping doesn't seem to be a power for anything but roleplay so it's not a balance issue, but could still use some touching up.
- Melt/Freeze needs a table and could probably afford to be more broadly applicable. Right now it looks like the creators were only concerned with one or two uses for it rather than actually making general purpose stuff.
- Octopus is b-r-o-k-e-n, not quite as bad as Air Shield, but still pretty bad. Pretty much anyone near the waterbender will get tripped and anyone fighting at range will have a hell of a time getting through it.
- Water Shield seems okay, but needs a duration since it's apparently maintained as a free. 'course, it doesn't have a casting time either.
- Steady Stance should clearly grant a bonus to avoid trip, grapple and bull rush attempts.
- Rise with the Tides needs to include a save DC or Balance DC to remain standing if you're attacked while on it. Seems to me that that'd be an unstable position to fight from.
- Pressure shouldn't make you give up damage. ...Also, 'slicing damage'? What?
- Water Walk looks redundant against Ski.
- Surf allows you to use the run action, but you have to use a move action to maintain it. And you can't quicken faster than a move. That needs fixing.
- Propel is totally useless, make it a feature of manipulate. Allow manipulate to adjust 'water speed' the same way I turned an airbending seed into "Control Wind".
- Ice/Water Armor need some reworking. Water could probably grant some FR, and I really, really hate the "slowly increasing penalty to checks" seed mechanic since if you run enough of them at once the math can really bog down a combat.
- Wave is a good idea and not totally out of whack, but Breaker - like a lot of others - just has weird wording that feels like jury rigging all over the place. Transport could use an augment.
- I'm of the general opinion that the Golem seeds, while decent, would be easier to work with as Astral Constructs with limited Trait selections. If not, golems definitely deserve their own write up or something to refer to - they're just too complex and a DM shouldn't have to flip through the MM/pull up d20 SRD and dance around with the stats.
- Feel the Flow: It's tremorsense in water, let's just call it that. If someone wants to hide from the waterbender, it's a Swim check opposed by the waterbender's skill check.
- Bend Plants should be fine with a little clean-up.
- I agree with AlterFrom on Blizzard, both points.
- Bloodbending could probably take a few pages out of Control Body. Or basically all of them, really. It's Control Body + TK on the victim, basically.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2008, 05:21:51 PM by AstralFire »


Avatar: The Last d20 Supplement
The Discussion Thread - Help!
Current Project: The Anteheroes System: 2nd Edition, a quick and tactical modern fantasy system.

Better to be stupid and humble than smart and arrogant. A humble man can change and improve. An arrogant man won't.

AstralFire

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 498
  • Up the Ante
    • The Anteheroes
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #24 on: July 27, 2008, 06:31:15 PM »
Okay, this is possibly the worst system I've seen for making tables in. No wonder you guys just C&P'ed in a screenshot. @_@

I rearranged/did some slight renaming of class features, other than that this is pretty much the same set of outlines and class features we saw previous... with the +8 to Bending checks dman suggested sprinkled over the class. I started out at 2 and doubled up to 8 since I figure we want to give more incentives to stay in later, and non-linear scaling's good for that. I attempted to minimize dead levels, so there are few instances of two levels with nothing (And both of those overlap with a feat level), and none of three. Hope this is agreeable to everyone.

The Airbender
[spoiler][/spoiler]

The Earthbender
[spoiler][/spoiler]

The Firebender
[spoiler][/spoiler]

The Waterbender
[spoiler][/spoiler]

I'd also like to clarify if we're going to use the feats they developed or if, for now, we're just going to assume blank slate on feats. Most of the feats aren't very well thought-out (Circle Walking is very powerful, most of the bending studies are meh) so I don't feel it'll be a great loss, and it limits things we have to take into consideration.
« Last Edit: July 27, 2008, 10:18:46 PM by AstralFire »


Avatar: The Last d20 Supplement
The Discussion Thread - Help!
Current Project: The Anteheroes System: 2nd Edition, a quick and tactical modern fantasy system.

Better to be stupid and humble than smart and arrogant. A humble man can change and improve. An arrogant man won't.

dman11235

  • Grape ape
  • *****
  • Posts: 1544
    • Email
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #25 on: July 27, 2008, 10:29:50 PM »
Looking over those tables, you need to fill some levels still.  And the progressions for advanced bending...?  3, 7, 12, 18?  What's with that?  Why not 3, 7, 11, 15, 19?  Logical progression (every 4 levels), and fills more dead levels.  Gets another one in, but that doesn't hurt too much the balance (over the way it is now no magic items that's -2, so now we won't even have to change the DCs probably).  Also, levels you CANNOT have dead: 13, 17, and 5.  Best levels to have dead: 6, 12, and 18.  I'll try working some table magic myself (just use those as a reference, I won't make them and take screen shots) in a little bit, first I'll touch on that other post AF.

Quote
- The Circular Attack class feature is pretty cool, but I can't help but think it's a weird variation on Karmic Strike. Maybe ditch the Reflex Save but you make the attack as a penalty and it counts as an attack of opportunity. Reduces the number of dice being thrown.

I like it, simplicity is usually a good thing.  "As an AoO, when you successfully deflect an opponents attack, you may make a water blast attack at that opponent".  I don't think there should be a penalty.  Waterblast isn't very powerful, so it's not a big deal.  I mean, it caps at 5d6, 8d6 if you dip monk and use Decisive Strike.

Quote
Dman's Water Whip: Can you only increase damage step once? Should either be a limit, or the DC should be high for a slow scale.

You would be able to increase it more than once.  But think about it, +4 DC for +1 effective size is +16 to make it 2d6.  After that (i.e., likely epic, since +10 for +5' reach is superior to a point), another +16 DC makes it a whole 8d6.  Overall not worth it, but since the whole idea of this seed is not damage, it doesn't matter.  Note as well that with my water whip that +30 DC gives you +15' reach (25' total).  Reach is superior to damage with battlefield control (waterbenders scream this), so that's that.

Quote
Melt/Freeze needs a table and could probably afford to be more broadly applicable. Right now it looks like the creators were only concerned with one or two uses for it rather than actually making general purpose stuff.

YES!  There are SO many applications in the show (and I can think of many more, I mean, (spoiler for Sozin's Comet)
[spoiler]Katara vs. Azula in Sozin's Comet alone was great use of this seed,[/spoiler]
and you can do things like stop bleeding, create hail, sail on a glacier, a bunch of stuff.

Quote
Octopus is b-r-o-k-e-n, not quite as bad as Air Shield, but still pretty bad. Pretty much anyone near the waterbender will get tripped and anyone fighting at range will have a hell of a time getting through it.

Not necessarily.  Keep in mind that doing this you turtle, and thus you aren't doing much.  The enemies have to be near you in order for you to be anything remotely effective.  Combined with Waterwhip (my version) then you have a good defensive battlefield controller.  But the DC for that is fairly high (first off, DC for all those tentacles is 15+3 for each additional attack you wish to block, so if you have to stop 11 attacks/round, that's DC 45 right there.  And you have to roll again as an action every round after round 3.  Though, if you have the ability to increase the tentacles beyond large, then it gets ridiculous.  But still, the DC hikes up REALLY fast, and you must have a tentacle for each attack you wish to negate AND an extra one to attack yourself.  Point is, as is I'd rather use Tentacle and keep the enemy on the ground than use this.  At least that way I can actually DO something.

Quote
Water Shield seems okay, but needs a duration since it's apparently maintained as a free. 'course, it doesn't have a casting time either.

It also needs an overhaul since shield bonuses aren't granted by cover.  Like, have it just act like a wall of water.  Instead of this massively complex system of bonuses and junk.  Possible augments instead of the deflection bonus (first off, attacking things through it suffer concealment, and lack LoE): up the concealment with an increase in DC (+5%/+4?), and the size thing, only better done: 10' square, arranged as you like (can create less if so desired), +5'/+3 DC.  Hemisphere will follow the same rules, but instead of being able to be placed anywhere, must be centered on you, and radius in increased as is.

Quote
Steady Stance should clearly grant a bonus to avoid trip, grapple and bull rush attempts.

Yes.  Same bonus to.

Quote
Rise with the Tides needs to include a save DC or Balance DC to remain standing if you're attacked while on it. Seems to me that that'd be an unstable position to fight from.

I disagree, since you are controlling the water, you should be able to fine tune it well enough to stay stable.  In the show they never had any problems.

Quote
Pressure shouldn't make you give up damage. ...Also, 'slicing damage'? What?

Agreed.  If it's a bonus it shouldn't be a penalty.  That's my problem with SR too...

Quote
Water Walk looks redundant against Ski.

Partially agree here.  Right now it is extremely redundant.  But...add in methods to make it faster (surf) and allow others to join you, and it quickly becomes a nifty travel seed.  Heck, combine it with some form of massive water movement, and you've got overland movement at a fairly rapid pace as well.  So, I suggest we keep it and make it useful.

Quote
Propel is totally useless, make it a feature of manipulate. Allow manipulate to adjust 'water speed' the same way I turned an airbending seed into "Control Wind".

As I suggested earlier.

Quote
Ice/Water Armor need some reworking. Water could probably grant some FR, and I really, really hate the "slowly increasing penalty to checks" seed mechanic since if you run enough of them at once the math can really bog down a combat.

I don't really like this seed at all.  It doesn't fit the theme, for one.  But, if you all wish to keep it, here are my suggested changes:

DC 10, +3 armor bonus (ice), +2 deflection (water).  Increase DC by 5 for +1 Ice, 10 for +1 water.  Ice also grants DR 3/bludgeoning, increased separately by +2/+3 (+2 DR for +3 DC).  Water is DR 3/S, same increase mechanics.  Duration of 10 minutes for ice (you can just remake it), with a lower duration in hotter than normal conditions.  Duration of - for water, it's always up, or if you prefer a free action check every round to keep the water there.  That can go for both if you want.

Quote
Wave is a good idea and not totally out of whack, but Breaker - like a lot of others - just has weird wording that feels like jury rigging all over the place. Transport could use an augment.

How about...initiates a bull rush as a large creature with a strength score equal to the waterbender's wisdom score.  For every 2 points that you beat the DC, the bonus increases by 1.  This also makes it better at doing what is supposed to do that Water Blast: Pressure.  Also: increase size by 1 (max colossal) for +6 DC.  This is slightly less than increasing the DC by 4 because size acts slightly different than just a DC increase.  It is better though, so increasing size is the go-to augment, what say you people?

Transport: I can't think of any augments to apply to it though...

Way I see it, this seed is mainly there to be combined with others (surf, freeze, tentacle, a lot actually).  If you can think of something that applies...great.

Quote
I'm of the general opinion that the Golem seeds, while decent, would be easier to work with as Astral Constructs with limited Trait selections. If not, golems definitely deserve their own write up or something to refer to - they're just too complex and a DM shouldn't have to flip through the MM/pull up d20 SRD and dance around with the stats.

Thing is, I have yet to see a simple golem creation spell/power/etc.  Personally, I think this is about the simplest things you'll be able to come up with.  Though referencing the Astral Constructs instead of Animated Object would be a good step, since those are actually designed to be made in combat.  Problem is: they are also designed to be augmented by powerpoints on a /day basis.  How about something new, we write the golems into the seeds?  It wouldn't be TOO hard to do, and would end up being better suited for this than any other golem already made.

Quote
Feel the Flow: It's tremorsense in water, let's just call it that. If someone wants to hide from the waterbender, it's a Swim check opposed by the waterbender's skill check.

Agreed.

Quote
I agree with AlterFrom on Blizzard, both points.

Which were...

They do need a boost in power, snow in particular.

On to the tables!

Changing the bonuses to 3 and then +4 each time eliminates dead levels at 19 and 15 for air.  We still need to fill 9 and 17.

Earth: fills 11.  We need to fill 17

Fire: fills 15 and 19.  We need to fill 17.

Water: fills 11.  We need to fill 17.

So, other than air which also needs 9 filled, my new extra bonus to checks only leaves 17 on every class to be filled.  Options:

1) Mess with it some more and try and fill it with existing ones.

2) Insert bonus feats at 5, 9, 13, and 17 on each class, or 9 and 17 on each class ( I prefer the first one: easier to recognize pattern).

pros for each:
1) doesn't require random insertions.

2) fills it well
easy to do

cons:
1) hard to do
might not have the right number of abilities

2) is random insertion of bonus feats: tacky
My sig's Handy Haversack: Need help?  Want to see what I've done?  Want to see what others have done well?  Check it out.

AlterFrom

  • Donkey Kong
  • ****
  • Posts: 561
  • Super Special Awesome
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #26 on: July 27, 2008, 10:56:47 PM »
My points on the Blizzard seed:

Snow needs what a lot of the seeds need: a defined amount of water required. Then in a specific case, if one used the mist seed to summon the "high humidity" required by the seed, would it consume the mist (leaving you with snow) or overlap the effects (snow and fog)?

Ice Storm just needs a quick note about whether or not its suggested use of Snow first results in Ice Storm dispersing the snow too much to be reused, or if you can just lay down one application of snow and repeatedly use Ice Storm.
Siggy
[spoiler]TIRED OF TRYING TO MANAGE FILES ACROSS SEVERAL COMPUTERS? GET DROPBOX AND SIMPLIFY THE PROCESS!


xkcd. It Rocks.

Tick, tock, Tick, tock...

FYI: I lose a couple years off my life anytime I see I have a PM.

Quote
We're ALL rules lawyers here. The BEST at what we do, too. It's like a Tom Grisham novel in which everybody at the top law firm is a dirty crook, but they all know the rules so well that TECHNICALLY speaking, they aren't breaking them...:eh

[/spoiler]

AstralFire

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 498
  • Up the Ante
    • The Anteheroes
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #27 on: July 28, 2008, 12:59:52 AM »
Phew, I usually am happy if a class is only half dead levels. These seem a little busy. I want to get these out of the way so we know exactly what and when the characters get bonuses to their bending, for the purposes of balance.

Anyway, Water has 2 dead levels (6 and 18) and Earth has 1 (18). I had to make up or add some new abilities to fit.

Airbender
[spoiler]

On the Walls lists the amount of time the airbender can traverse a vertical surface. He must begin and end his time on the vertical surface within the listed amount of actions, and must move at least 30 ft/round to remain there between rounds.[/spoiler]

Earthbender
[spoiler]

Added Mettle/Improved, they feel appropriate. Rock Steady is a bonus against all grapple, trip, and bull rush attempts as long as the Earthbender does not move more than five feet in a round and she's touching the ground.[/spoiler]

Firebender
[spoiler]

Burning Rush's land/jump bonus is no longer a seed. Swift action, boosts run and jump for three rounds. Can be used once an encounter.[/spoiler]

Waterbender
[spoiler]

Water Conservation: 25/50/75/100% of the water used in a bending attack can be immediately reused when the effect ends. I imagine some seeds like water whip do this inherently, but it'd be good for stuff like Blizzard.[/spoiler]

Hope this is more to your liking. I am slightly uncomfortable with this many live levels, though, as each seed is worth more (relatively) to a bender than the average spell is to a caster or even power to a manifester, so the levels where seeds are gained are joyous ones.
« Last Edit: July 28, 2008, 01:23:01 AM by AstralFire »


Avatar: The Last d20 Supplement
The Discussion Thread - Help!
Current Project: The Anteheroes System: 2nd Edition, a quick and tactical modern fantasy system.

Better to be stupid and humble than smart and arrogant. A humble man can change and improve. An arrogant man won't.

dman11235

  • Grape ape
  • *****
  • Posts: 1544
    • Email
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #28 on: July 28, 2008, 01:24:00 AM »
Improved Mettle gets shot.  Never, ever give a non-epic character improved mettle.  It makes you immune to death.  Since the group of spells evasion hits is very small comparatively (fireball and lightning bolt are the same spell for this purpose: they do damage and that's it) and not a good use of your spell slot, improved evasion is fine, but mettle...no.  You'll be fine just eliminating it, that class is getting pretty cluttered, and you already gain a seed at that level (thus it's not dead).

Other than that, these look really good.  And they do something else: gives them separation.  Now the differences between them are not just the seed list.  It's a good thing.

I really like these new layouts.

Now, these are far from overpowered now, I mean, they still don't hold world shattering power, so they aren't tier 2, but they are sitting nicely in tier 3.  Fire probably tier 4 still, but high tier 4.  So don't worry about "clutter"
My sig's Handy Haversack: Need help?  Want to see what I've done?  Want to see what others have done well?  Check it out.

AstralFire

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 498
  • Up the Ante
    • The Anteheroes
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #29 on: July 28, 2008, 01:45:27 AM »
Alright. That means that unless someone objects, we have a solid basis for DC numbers now. Tomorrow I'll look more closely at the seeds themselves.

Here's a fixed Average Bending Check Chart. The colors indicate when there's a 2 point bump due to the bender class, and a right-arrow indicates when someone might go up one step due to a stat bonus. I'm sure we can all figure out the numbers ourselves, but I like having handy things to reference quick.

Note this is the -Check-, not the -Modifier-, and already has 10 added in.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

What we have here is a system with numbers that are not variably crazy out of the box and are about as high as the original system by 20. Nice. When we get to Air and Fire, my seeds will need some retooling anyway, though, since I balanced them around how high it was to get the bending skill at low levels.

A crack at seeds. I'm going to be using the following format for them.

Example Seed Name
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: See Text if it varies by subapplication.
Components: Somatic indicates ACP, very few seeds will not have it. Meditation indicates that it provokes AoOs.
Activation Time: The time used. "See Text" if it varies.
Maintenance Action:
Range:
Area:
Target:
Effect:
Duration:
Saving Throw:
Flavor Text
This stance initiates two different forms. (If applicable)
Application:

Water/Earth Required:

Augment:
  • Option 1
  • Option 2

Application:

Water/Earth Required:

Augment:
  • Option 1
  • Option 2


[/spoiler]


The Code for the Above:
[spoiler]
Code: [Select]
[color=blue][b]Example Seed Name[/b][/color]
[spoiler][b]Difficulty Class:[/b] See Text if it varies by subapplication.
[b]Components:[/b] Somatic indicates ACP, very few seeds will not have it. Meditation indicates that it provokes AoOs.
[b]Activation Time:[/b] The time used. "See Text" if it varies.
[b]Maintenance Action:[/b]
[b]Range:[/b]
[b]Area:[/b]
[b]Target:[/b]
[b]Effect:[/b]
[b]Duration:[/b]
[b]Saving Throw:[/b]
[i]Flavor Text[/i]
This stance initiates two different forms. (If applicable)
[color=blue][u]Application[/u][/color]:

[i]Water/Earth Required:[/i]

[u]Augment[/u]:
[list][li]Option 1[/li]
[li]Option 2[/li][/list]

[color=blue][u]Application[/u][/color]:

[i]Water/Earth Required:[/i]

[u]Augment[/u]:
[list][li]Option 1[/li]
[li]Option 2[/li][/list][hr]

[/spoiler]
[hr]
[/spoiler]
« Last Edit: July 29, 2008, 12:56:27 PM by AstralFire »


Avatar: The Last d20 Supplement
The Discussion Thread - Help!
Current Project: The Anteheroes System: 2nd Edition, a quick and tactical modern fantasy system.

Better to be stupid and humble than smart and arrogant. A humble man can change and improve. An arrogant man won't.

AstralFire

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 498
  • Up the Ante
    • The Anteheroes
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #30 on: July 28, 2008, 06:38:27 PM »
Forms with the Somatic component require precise, coordinated motion. Bending checks made to activate a form with a somatic component incur double the usual armor check penalty as a result, even if you have proficiency in the armor. If you do not at least have two limbs free, grappling, are prone, or otherwise hindered in a significant way, you must take a -10 penalty on your bending check in order to activate a form with a somatic component. Attempting to activate a form with the Somatic component while you are completely helpless, pinned, or otherwise immobile is impossible even for the most skilled benders.

Activating or maintaining forms with the Meditation component provokes an attack of opportunity unless done as a swift or free action. Forms with a Maintenance Action require you to spend at least that much effort a round focusing on the form to keep it from ending. Maintenance Actions can be quickened unless the form's description states they cannot, as you must make another bending check each time a form calls for a Maintenance Action. Augments can be added or removed while you are still maintaining a form; however, you must add +4 to the difficulty class that round in order to sustain your mental and physical balance while adjusting to a change. Templates, however, cannot be removed or added in this manner.

Most forms with an Activation Time of Full-Round or shorter can be quickened. For every ten points you increase the difficulty class of a form, you can reduce the activation time and maintenance time of any such form to the next smaller action, to a minimum of Swift. A full-round action becomes a standard action becomes a move action becomes a swift action. However, some forms have their own rules on quickening, either allowing you to quicken them at less of a cost, or sometimes not at all.

Getting struck in the midst of activating or while maintaining a bending form with a Meditation component and then subsequently failing your Concentration check causes you to lose the form, just like a spell.

900 Gallons = One 5-ft cube of water

Unless a seed otherwise states so, water must be within 10 feet of you to use as part of an attack. Move WaterWater Blast
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 5
Components: Somatic
Activation Time: Ranged attack
Range: 60 ft.
Target: Creature
Flavor Text
The first offensive ability you learn as a waterbender. Whenever you would be granted a ranged attack, you may use a Water Blast instead, including as part of a full attack action, or feats like Shot on the Run. Each Water Blast deals 1d6 piercing, slashing, or bludgeoning damage at your option, depending on the exact shape and composition of the water used. This attack increases in damage as you take more levels in the Waterbender class; some prestige classes may also increase this damage.

Water Required: 1 Pint, not immediately recoverable.

Augment:
[/spoiler]


Move Water (formerly part of Manipulate Water)
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 5
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: Move Action
Maintenance Action: Move Action
Range: 60 ft.
Area: A 5-ft cube of water, ice, or a 10-ft cube of water vapor.
Effect: Move 5 ft.
Duration: Concentration
Saving Throw: Fortitude Negates (Object)
Flavor Text
A 10-ft cube of water vapor can be broken up into or recombined from eight 5-ft cubes at will. You shunt each controlled cube of water up to five feet in any direction. At the end of your action, you can release the water, letting it fall or disperse, or you can hold it in place. Holding the water in place requires maintenance action.

A 5-ft cube of water or 10-ft cube of vapor holds approximately 900 gallons.

Appropriately sized water creatures such as elementals can be moved with use of this seed:


Taking water out of elementals or primarily water objects deals 1d6 damage per 5-ft cube of water you extract.

Augment:
  • For every five points that you exceed the base difficulty class (including all modifiers), you can move one additional cube.
  • For every five points that you exceed the base difficulty class (including all modifiers), the distance you can move the water increases by five feet.

I gave it specific combination rules since otherwise, forms which require water and are a swift action could never actually be performed as a swift action.

Note: This is a 'Starter Seed'. I'll come up with a better name for them in a bit, but every waterbender starts with them. Therefore, there won't be multiple forms on any of these so things are simpler.[/spoiler]


Shape Water (formerly part of Manipulate Water)
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 5
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: One minute per 5-ft cube to be affected.
Maintenance Action: Move Action
Range: 30 ft.
Target: A 5-ft cube of water or ice
Effect: Manipulate the water's shape as you wish.
Duration: Concentration (Water), Instantaneous (Ice)
Saving Throw: Fortitude Negates (Object, Harmless)
Flavor Text
You manipulate the basic shape of water or ice to look like something else (such as a sculpture), though specific detail is very hard. Craft (Sculpture) determines the exact quality of the object created if it's a statue.

When you stop concentrating on liquid water, it returns to its natural shape.

Sculpted ice has 15 Hardness and 5 Hit Points per inch of thickness.

Craft (Weaponsmithing) and Craft (Fletching) can be used with Shape Water to make weaponry and ammunition out of ice. This weaponry deals damage as a normal weapon of its kind, +1d4 cold damage, but is extremely brittle. Weaponry made out of ice has 20 Hardness and 1 HP, and breaks upon delivering a natural 20 critical hit. Ammunition and thrown weapons made of ice always break upon usage. Unless the ambient temperature is below freezing, the weaponry becomes useless in ten minutes, faster in hot conditions.

One 5-ft cube creates material for eight medium-sized weapons, or up to four hundred pieces of ammunition.

Appropriately sized water creatures such as elementals can be altered with use of this seed, though it does not hinder them in any way:


Augment:
  • For every five points that you exceed the base difficulty class (including all modifiers), you can shape one additional cube.


Note: This is a 'Starter Seed'. I'll come up with a better name for them in a bit, but every waterbender starts with them. Therefore, there won't be multiple forms on any of these so things are simpler.

Also, it ate the weapon usage of Ice Shards[/spoiler]


Phase Change (formerly Melt/Freeze)
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: See Text
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: Full-Round Action
Range: 30 ft.
Target: A 5-ft cube of water, ice, or a 10-ft cube of water vapor.
Effect: Change the water's temperature, or even its phase.
Duration: Instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw: Reflex or Fortitude Negates (Object)
Flavor Text
With precise focus and gestures, you suddenly cause a spike or fall in water temperature and pressure, with the appropriate results. While altering the condition of the water one step at a time is easy, a flash temperature change can be extremely difficult.





Normal air, except on very humid days, does not contain sufficient water to be affected. A 5-ft cube of liquid or solid water changes into a 10-ft cube of gaseous water, and vice-versa.

If you attempt to freeze a creature, surround a creature in boiling water or thick steam, or melt the ice out from underneath someone, they are allowed a Reflex Save to move to an adjacent clear space (including adjacent spaces directly above and below them). If they do not have sufficient movement to make it to an adjacent clear space (such as if their move speed is 0 ft, or the terrain in the space is difficult to pass through) but make their save, they end up prone in the adjacent space.

Boiling water or thick steam that completely surrounds a creature deals 1d6 fire damage on the first round, increasing by 1d6 a round to a maximum of 10d6. Fortitude negates.

Frozen creatures are considered helpless, take 1d4 non-lethal cold damage a round and can break out to an adjacent square with a DC 25 Strength or Escape Artist check as a full-round action in normal ice, or a DC 35 Strength or Escape Artist check in glacial ice.

Quickly created ice is exceptionally frail. Ice has hardness 5 and 1 HP per cube. Glacial Ice has hardness 10 and 5 HP. It is impossible to attack someone frozen in ice without destroying the ice around them.

Thin mist obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 120 feet. A creature from 60 to 120 feet away has concealment; any farther and they have total concealment. Fog and thick steam obscure all sight, including darkvision, beyond 30 feet. A creature from 15 to 30 feet away has concealment; any farther and they have total concealment.

Water phases that are inappropriate to the environment (such as hot steam or ice in a temperate area) return to normal. Every ten minutes, the water progresses one step back towards normal. A moderate wind (11+ mph) disperses vapor, mist and fog in 4 rounds; a strong wind disperses them in 1 round.

Appropriately sized water creatures and objects such as elementals can be altered with use of this seed:


Creatures are allowed a Fortitude Save against this effect. Affected creatures and rigid objects (such as a water tank) take 1d8 damage per step altered in this way. An elemental that is only partially targeted (if the bender cannot control enough 5-ft cubes of water to cover the whole elemental) quickly regains its normal form, however.

An elemental turned into a gaseous form, liquid form, or solid form when that is not its normal state is left helpless for 3 rounds as it attempts to reconstitute itself. One made gaseous is immune to any physical damage during this time period.

Augment:
  • By increasing the difficulty class by ten, you may perform Phase Change on or in a cube of water, ice or vapor which you are standing inside without the use of Somatic components; this is accomplished via exhaling and breath control.
  • By increasing the difficulty class by twenty, you can instead target 20-ft cubes of normal, dry air, treating them as 10-ft cubes of water vapor. Exceptionally arid air, such as that in a desert, is unaffected.
  • For every ten points that you exceed the base difficulty class (including all modifiers), you can affect one additional cube.


Note: This is a 'Starter Seed'. I'll come up with a better name for them in a bit, but every waterbender starts with them. Therefore, there won't be multiple forms on any of these so things are simpler.[/spoiler]




Steady Stance
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 10
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: Standard Action
Range: 20 ft.
Target: A creature standing on the ground.
Effect: Encase creatures' feet in solid ice.
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Flavor Text
You coat the creature's feet in solid ice, simultaneously stabilizing and trapping them. The target creature gains a +2 bonus to their reactive Trip, Bull Rush and Grapple checks, but must make a Strength or Escape Artist check (DC 15) to break free as a standard action. (Alternatively, they may spend a full-round action chipping the ice away with a light or one-handed weapon.) Waterbenders affected by this seed may simply dismiss the ice as a move action.

Water Required: 2 Gallons per Small or Medium leg. This water is immediately recoverable if it is in your space.

Augment:
  • For every five points that you increase the difficulty class, the creature gains an additional +2 bonus on those checks, and the Strength and Escape Artist DC increases by +2.


[/spoiler]


Water Whip
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 10
Components: Somatic
Activation Time: Move Action
Maintenance Action: Free Action
Range: 0 ft.
Effect: Whip-like tendril of water.
Duration: Concentration.
Flavor Text
You create a thick tendril of water that wraps itself around your arm and into your hand. You can use this cohesive water as a weapon, and are considered to be proficient with it. The Water Whip has all the features of a normal whip for your size category except that it deals lethal damage on a successful hit regardless of a target's armor class, only has a 10-ft reach, is a light weapon, and threatens its area. The Water Whip has 0 hardness, 10 HP, and takes non-lethal damage from physical attacks. It regenerates 10 points of non-lethal damage every round. The Water Whip lasts as long as you concentrate (a free action), or until it is destroyed or you let go of it.

Water Required: One gallon, or eight pints. This water is immediately recoverable.

Augment:
  • For every five points that you exceed the base difficulty class (including all modifiers), you gain an additional +2 bonus to trip or disarm attempts made with the whip.
  • For every four points that you increase the difficulty class, the whip deals damage as though it were a size larger.
  • For every ten points that you increase the difficulty class, the whip gains an additional 5' reach.

- At +4 per size, 12d6 damage per strike with the whip is within easy reach at 20.
- 15' reach around L5-6, 20' reach around 10-11, 25' reach around 17-18, 30' reach only possible in non-canon.[/spoiler]


Tentacle
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: See Text
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: Full-Round Action
Maintenance Action: Full-Round Action
Range: 60 ft. (Tentacle), 0 ft. (Octopus)
Area: One or more 5-ft squares
Effect: Create one or more 5-ft long tentacles
Duration: Three rounds + concentration.
Flavor Text
This stance initiates two different forms.
Tentacle (DC 10): You create a five-foot-long tentacle of water in the targeted square. This tentacle is a Medium-sized object with 0 Hardness and 25 hit points, and an Armor Class of 10. It takes non-lethal damage from slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing attacks, and regenerates 25 points of non-lethal damage a round.

The tentacle has a single Slam attack that deals 1d8 damage, with a Strength score equal to your Wisdom score, and uses your base attack bonus as its own. It has no other ability scores. It has no move speed, and uses your saves when necessary. It also can make trip and disarm attacks, gaining the benefit of any related feats you possess.

Maintaining the form and directing tentacles to attack is a full-round action. For every round past the third that you maintain this form, you take a -1 penalty to all bending checks as the water becomes more and more difficult to maneuver.

Water Required: 1 Gallon or 8 Pints per tentacle. This water is not immediately recoverable.

Augment:
  • For every four points that you increase the difficulty class, you can make and control another tentacle.
  • For every four points that you increase the difficulty class, you can make one tentacle Large size, granting it 10 ft. reach, 2d6 damage, and the appropriate size modifiers on attack (-1), armor class (-1) trip (+4), and disarm (+4). This requires an additional 3 Gallons of water per tentacle.
  • For every four points that you increase the difficulty class, you can increase the health and non-lethal regeneration of a single tentacle. Both scores raise by two points.

Octopus (DC 15): You create three tentacles around yourself, occupying your own square. These three tentacles have the same statistics as a normal tentacle, but in addition, for each Octopus Tentacle attack you opt to forego on your turn, you may attempt to use it to negate one attack made against you for the round; this ability works exactly like the Deflect Attack class ability, except that it does not require a use of your Immediate Action and may be applied against both melee and ranged attacks (including touch attacks).

Maintaining the form and directing tentacles to attack is a full-round action. For every round past the third that you maintain this form, you take a -1 penalty to all bending checks as the water becomes more and more difficult to maneuver.

Water Required: 1 Gallon or 8 Pints per tentacle. This water is not immediately recoverable.

Augment:
  • For every four points that you increase the difficulty class, you can make and control another tentacle when you activate this form.
  • For every four points that you increase the difficulty class, you can make one tentacle Large size when you activate this form, granting it 10 ft. reach, 2d6 damage, and the appropriate size modifiers on attack (-1), armor class (-1) trip (+4), and disarm (+4). This requires an additional 3 Gallons of water per tentacle.
  • For every four points that you increase the difficulty class, you can increase the health and non-lethal regeneration of a single tentacle when you activate this form. Both scores raise by two points.
  • By increasing the difficulty class by ten when you activate this form, you can grant Octopus Form the ability to grapple and the Improved Grab feat to all of your tentacles.


I'm not sure on anything involving attack of opportunity spam; I freely admit that for a COer, my sense of balance is a bit weak.

[/spoiler]


Ice Shards
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 10
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: Standard
Range: 90 ft. (Crystal Strike), 60 ft. (Crystal Rain, Orca's Maw)
Area: One 5-ft. square of ice (Orca's Maw)
Target: One creature (Crystal Strike, Crystal Rain)
Effect: Bladed ice
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Reflex Negates (Orca's Maw)
Flavor Text
This stance initiates three different forms.
Crystal Strike: You make a single blade of ice and fling it with deadly precision at the target. This seed deals 1d6 damage to a single creature as a ranged attack. Half of this damage is piercing and half is cold.

Water Required: One Pint. This water is not immediately recoverable.

Augment:
  • For every two points that you increase the difficulty class, this attack deals another 1d6 damage, to a maximum of number of die equal to your character level.

Crystal Rain: You strike at long range, creating a precise cloud of shards which outline your target and pin them to a nearby surface. The target must be within five feet of a tree or other surface in which a thrown weapon could stick, and must be wearing loose clothes or accessories. Make a ranged attack against the target and then win an opposed grapple check (size modifiers apply; feats like Improved Grapple do not. If you have the Ranged Pin feat, you gain a +4 bonus on this check). To break free, the victim must make a DC 15 Strength or Escape Artist check as a standard action. In temperate climes, ice melts sufficiently in 10 minutes.

Water Required: Four Pints. This water is not immediately recoverable.

Augment:
  • For every five points that you increase the difficulty class, you gain a +2 bonus to the grapple check.

Orca's Maw: Ice is a powerful weapon for you, and anyone standing on an icy surface stands on your turf. With a motion, you can cause powerful spikes to erupt through the surface. You fill one five-foot square of ice with protruding spikes - anyone standing in the square gets a Reflex Save to avoid the attack. People who pass through the square in later rounds must make move at quarter-speed to avoid stepping on the spikes. They can make a Balance check to move at half speed (DC 20), or full speed (DC 25). Anyone struck takes 1d4 piercing damage and loses speed as though they had stepped on a caltrop. Anyone that falls prone in a spiked square takes an additional 1d6 piercing damage.

Augment:
  • For every four points that you increase the difficulty class, you may affect one additional square with this activation.


Shape Water ate the weapon usage.[/spoiler]


Water Shield
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: Varies; see text.
Components: Somatic
Activation Time: Standard Action
Maintenance Action: Move Action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Effect: 10-ft.-radius dome or sphere centered on you (Aqua Shell)
Duration: Concentration
Flavor Text
This stance initiates two different forms.
Disk (DC 10): You create a thin but sturdy, tower shield-sized mobile disk of water in front of you. This disk grants you a +4 shield bonus to Armor Class, and does not impose an armor check penalty. Concentrating to maintain the disk is a move action.

Water Required: 3 Gallons, immediately recoverable.

Augment:
  • For every five points that you increase the difficulty class, the shield bonus to Armor Class increases by 1.
  • For every five points that you increase the difficulty class, the shield extends 5 feet in size, allowing one additional Medium or smaller creature to gain its benefits. This can be done twice.
  • By increasing the difficulty class by ten, you turn the shield to ice and you can use the shield for cover.

Aqua Shell (DC 25)Water Required: 20 Gallons. This water is not immediately recoverable.

Augment:
  • By increasing the difficulty class by five, you can increase the radius by five feet.
  • For every four points that you increase the difficulty class, the miss chance due to concealment increases by 5%, to a maximum of 50%.


[/spoiler]




Surf (formerly part of Water Walk)
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 15
Components: Somatic
Activation Time: Full-Round Action
Maintenance Action: Swift Action
Range: Personal
Effect: Surfboard
Duration: Concentration
HM03 is in the Safari Zone
You create a disk of ice attached to your feet that allows you to surf. You may make a Balance check every round to stay on your surfboard according to the current's DC (see table below); you gain a bonus to this check equal to your bending modifier. If successful, you ride the current at full speed in the direction it's going. You move this distance whether you want to or not.



While surfing, you may use your bending forms - however, if the form contains a Somatic component, you take a penalty to your bending check equal to the current's DC due to the unsteady and rapid nature of surfing. The Surf form itself does not take this penalty.

You can maintain this form as a swift action every round.

Water Required: 10 gallons, immediately recoverable.

[/spoiler]


Wave
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 15
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: Full-Round Action
Range: 60 ft.
Area: Eight adjacent 5-ft cubes of liquid water.
Effect: Send waves crashing forward
Duration: 1 round
Flavor TextWater Required: 900 Gallons per 5-ft cube, not immediately recoverable.

Augment:
  • For every two points that you exceed the difficulty class (including all modifiers), the distance you can move the wave increases by five feet.
  • For every six points that you exceed the difficulty class (including all modifiers), you deal an additional 1d6 damage.
  • For every fifteen points that you increase the difficulty class, you can increase the wave's size category by 1, moving eight times as many cubes of water.


[/spoiler]


Control Aqueous Creatures (Contains Golem and something else)
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: Varies; see text.
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: One round
Maintenance Action: Full-Round Action
Range: 30 ft.
Target: One Medium or smaller Water creature.
Effect: Create an aqueous creature (Golem)
Duration: Concentration
Saving Throw: Fortitude Negates (Puppet)
Flavor Text
This stance initiates two different forms.
Golem (DC 15): You create a giant, walking construct of water, snow, or ice, a level 1 bender golem. It appears where you designate and acts at your direction. The round that you cease maintenance, it collapses to the ground in a splash.

Golem statistics are listed here: http://theanteheroes.com/Avatar%20d20/BenderGolem.pdf

Golems are not summoned, but made. They are not subject to effects that hedge out or otherwise target outsiders; they are constructs.

Water Required:

This water is not immediately recoverable.


Augment:
  • For every four points that you exceed the difficulty class, the level of the Golem increases by one.

Puppet (DC 20)Augment:
  • For every four points that you increase the difficulty class, you can affect one creature one size category larger.
  • For every eight points that you increase the difficulty class, you can control an additional creature at once.


With many choices comes much harder balancing. I need to play test this one, but it's just an idea.

The fact that, unlike with summons, a struck bender has a good chance of losing his construct is a major balancing factor, though.
[/spoiler]


Bend Plants (Template)
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: +15
Target: Living plants
Flavor Text
You can apply this template to any seed which requires or targets water of a non-specific form. Forms which require an intrinsic quality of free water, such as the Wave, Healing Water or Illusionary Mist forms, cannot utilize this template. You may control, freeze, boil or drain water-rich plants of the appropriate size instead. Plants contain water as water vapor of the same size (an eighth that of a cube of water) and are moved at half speed compared to free water. The amount of volume you can affect is reduced to a quarter, rounded down. (If, for example, you could target four 5-ft cubes of water, you instead target one 5-ft cube of plants.)

Living plants used in the place of water have 3 Hardness, half the Regeneration value, and take lethal damage from physical attacks, and take non-lethal damage from energy attacks.

If the seed affects water creatures, it can now affect plant creatures instead.

Frozen plants have the same statistics as Ice.

[/spoiler]




Illusionary Mist (formerly known as Mist)
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 20
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: Standard Action
Range: 60 ft.
Area: 20-ft sphere of Fog, Thick Steam, or Mist
Effect: Creatures inside see what they want to see.
Duration: One hour, or until weather clears
Saving Throw: Will disbelief (if interacted with)
Flavor Text
The mist, fog or steam turns clumpier and hazier, taking shapes. The suggestible see what they want to see.

Creatures inside the affected area must make a Will Save on activation, and another every minute, or see creatures and objects that resemble whatever troubles them most or they most desire at the moment. These illusions are purely visual, and cannot mimic color, sound, smell, touch or taste - however, ambient noise and other environmental clues may be mistaken for unclear versions of these sensations, and unusually high levels of distress or emotion may cause the affected to receive more coherent 'visions' or 'dreams'. All of these figments of imagination are at least as far away as is necessary to have concealment, and no further than the edge of total concealment. You have no control over what they see, and you yourself are subject to the Illusionary Mist's effects if you are inside.

Creatures who are aware they are in such a mist gain a +4 to their Will Save, and creatures who see with other senses are not fooled.[/spoiler]


Spout (formerly known as Rise with the Tides)
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 20
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: Standard Action
Maintenance Action: Move Action
Range: 20 ft.
Area: Cylinder Burst (5-ft radius, 20 ft. long)
Target: 5-ft square.
Effect: Horizontal or vertical line of rushing water.
Duration: Concentration
Saving Throw: Reflex Negates
Flavor Text
Target a single square within range (including your own.) You shoot huge amounts of water in a swirling, spiraling geyser originating from that square. Creatures caught in the Spout are allowed a Reflex Save to move to an adjacent space safely. If they do not have sufficient movement to make it to an adjacent clear space (such as if their move speed is 0 ft, or the terrain in the space is difficult to pass through) but make their save, they end up prone in the adjacent space.

When fired and while maintained, Spout initiates a bull rush with every creature in its area; it is considered to be a creature of Medium size. You gain a +2 synergy bonus and an additional attempt for every additional Spout simultaneously trying to push the subject in that direction. If they are knocked back at least ten feet, they are knocked prone.

Subjects affected take 4d6 bludgeoning or piercing damage (your option) every round that they remain in the stream, and are considered checked (unable to move forward) against movement in that direction. If trapped against a wall or other solid surface by the Spout, they are considered to be checked against movement in all directions. Every round, they are granted a new Reflex Save to escape to an adjacent space.

You may instead opt for the Spout to fire at lower pressure; in this case, it deals no damage and creatures in the spout's path are gently pushed to the end of the line's effect. If you originate this attack from your square and shoot upwards, for example, you can propel yourself upwards twenty feet.

You can only move or bull rush a creature if at least half of the squares they occupy on one face are covered by water spouts. Attacking through a spout in either direction grants total concealment.

Water Required: 450 Gallons per 5 ft. segment. Not immediately recoverable.

Augment:
  • For every eight points that you increase the difficulty class, you deal an additional 1d6 damage with one cylinder.
  • For every ten points that you increase the difficulty class, you can create and maintain an additional cylinder.
  • For every ten points that you increase the difficulty class, the length of your cylinders increase by 10 ft.


[/spoiler]


Feel the Flow
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 20
Components: Meditation
Activation Time: Move Action
Maintenance Action: Move Action
Target: Self
Effect: Tremorsense
Duration: Concentration + 1 round.
Flavor Text
You gain Tremorsense (30 ft.) in water. Creatures attempting to hide from you while swimming can move at half-speed and make a Swim check opposed by your Bending check. Maintaining this form is a move action.

Augment:
  • By increasing the difficulty class by ten, you may quicken the maintenance time of this form to a swift action.  For an additional ten points that you increase the difficulty class, you can quicken it further to a free action.
  • For every ten points that you increase the difficulty class, you gain another 5-ft range to your tremorsense.


[/spoiler]


Continued next post of mine. Space limit reached.
« Last Edit: August 02, 2008, 10:43:53 PM by AstralFire »


Avatar: The Last d20 Supplement
The Discussion Thread - Help!
Current Project: The Anteheroes System: 2nd Edition, a quick and tactical modern fantasy system.

Better to be stupid and humble than smart and arrogant. A humble man can change and improve. An arrogant man won't.

Zuki

  • Ring-Tailed Lemur
  • **
  • Posts: 54
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #31 on: July 29, 2008, 12:02:17 PM »
Ladies and gentleman, this man is an unstoppable machine.

No, seriously. I've watched him crank these seeds out all day yesterday, for about 10 hours. I look forward to further discussion.

DetectiveJabsco

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 463
  • Here's To Life
    • Email
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #32 on: July 29, 2008, 04:07:57 PM »
I'm gonna Start working on Earth Bending seeds, or try to any ways. They seem way to limited Right now. I'll post when I have at least 15 complete.

AstralFire

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 498
  • Up the Ante
    • The Anteheroes
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #33 on: July 29, 2008, 04:26:05 PM »
I'm gonna Start working on Earth Bending seeds, or try to any ways. They seem way to limited Right now. I'll post when I have at least 15 complete.

Let's focus on one thing at a time, just because I'm putting a little polish on the Waterbender doesn't mean it's done yet.

Okay, I did every seed but Armor. *pants*



Healing Water
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: Varies; see text
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: Ten minutes
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will half (harmless); see text.
Flavor Text
This stance initiates two different forms.
Healing Wounds (DC 10): You lay your hands upon a living creature and channel positive energy to them via water. You heal them of 1d6 points of damage, and relieve them of the fatigue and exhaustion conditions. You must wait ten minutes before you or another waterbender can attempt another use of this form on the same target.

Water Required: 2 Pints, immediately recoverable.

Augment:
  • By increasing the difficulty class by ten, you may quicken the activation time of this form to one round. In return, it only heals 1 hit point. You may not use this augment in conjunction with any others, and you must still wait another ten minutes before you attempt another use of this form on that target. Waterbenders use this to quickly stabilize the wounded.
  • For every two points that you increase the difficulty class, you heal an additional 1d6 damage, to a maximum number of die equal to your character level.

Restore Body (DC 30): You lay your hands upon a living creature and channel positive energy to them via water, directing it specifically to where it is needed most. You heal the target of two points of ability damage and one point of ability drain, and relieve them of the fatigue and exhaustion conditions. This form only works on a target once per day.

Water Required: 2 Pints, immediately recoverable.

Augment:
  • For every ten points that you increase the difficulty class, you heal the target of two additional points of ability damage and one additional point of ability drain.
  • By increasing the difficulty class by ten, you heal the target of one negative level. For every additional ten points that you increase the difficulty class, you heal the target of one additional negative level.


[/spoiler]




Bloodbend (Template)
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: +30
Target: Living creatures
Flavor Text
You can apply this template to any seed which requires or targets water of a non-specific form. Forms which require an intrinsic quality of free water, such as the Wave, Healing Water or Illusionary Mist forms, cannot utilize this template. You may control, freeze, boil or drain any creature of the appropriate size instead. Creatures contain a sixteenth of the water that an appropriate number of 5-ft cubes their size would contain, and are moved at a quarter speed compared to free water. The amount of volume you can affect is reduced to an eighth of normal, rounded down. (If, for example, you could affect five 5-ft cubes of water, you cannot affect any cubes of creature mass.)

Exceptionally dry creatures, such as those with the [Fire] subtype, may be unaffected.
[/spoiler]




Riptide (formerly known as Propel)
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: See Text
Components: Meditation
Activation Time: One Round
Maintenance Action: Full-Round Action
Range: 60 ft.
Area: Cone-shaped spread of water
Duration: Concentration + one round
Flavor Text
You begin to change the currents in a 60-ft. cone in front of you, up to the maximum strength you can control (see table below). These currents act like wind of the corresponding strength, at half speed. (Table: Wind Effects in the Dungeon Master's Guide.) You may choose to make these currents as strong - or as gentle - as you are capable of controlling. If the currents already present in the area are stronger than the greatest currents you can control, this form fails.



At your option, you can let the reaction force from generating these strong currents push you backwards, though being moved in such a fashion requires you to make a Swim check equal to the bending difficulty class (as well as a Fortitude Save if one is required to move at that speed of current) in order to stay afloat and not shoot off in a random direction. You also must make Concentration checks at the current's DC in order to not lose the form. Waterbenders often use this ability more comfortably from boat or ship decks to propel the craft along, or to calm the currents ahead. Watercraft receive a certain percentage of the speed increase based on their size.



One round after you cease to focus on the currents, they begin returning to their natural state as the environment dictates.

Augment:
  • By increasing the difficulty class by ten, you can change this form's area to a 20-ft radius centered on you. You cannot propel yourself with this usage.


I know we talked about folding this into a starter seed, but I've already massively amplified those, and I can see this being an independent seed now that it has a little more general use.[/spoiler]


Precipitate
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 35
Components: Somatic, Meditation
Activation Time: Ten minutes (Weather Dance), One round (Ice Storm)
Maintenance Action: Full-round action.
Range: 0 ft.
Area: Cylinder (90-ft. radius, 40 ft. high)
Effect: Heavy Precipitation and Hail
Duration: Concentration + Ten minutes (Weather Dance), Concentration + one round (Ice Storm)
Flavor Text
This stance initiates two different forms.
Weather Dance Dungeon Master's Guide, 'Rain, Snow, Sleet and Hail').

Water Required: 30 gallons per minute, not immediately recoverable. This water may already be present in the air as vapor on a humid day, and does not need to be extracted and condensed first.

Augment:
  • For every five points that you exceed the difficulty class, you can increase the radius by 5-ft.
  • By increasing the difficulty class by ten, you may create Hail instead of Heavy Snow. This hail deals 1 bludgeoning damage per minute.

Ice StormWater Required: 60 gallons per round, not immediately recoverable.

[/spoiler]




Capture (formerly part of Water Whip)
[spoiler]Difficulty Class: 40
Components: Meditation
Activation Time: Swift
Maintenance Action: Move Action
Range: 60 ft.
Target: One Large (or smaller) creature or object.
Effect: Swirling ball of water that traps the target.
Duration: Concentration, minimum one round.
Saving Throw: Reflex negates
Flavor Text
As a swift action, you may attempt to engulf a target you have just damaged with a Waterbending form. The target must succeed on a Reflex Save or be trapped in a sphere of spinning water. While trapped in the sphere, the target is considered flat-footed, and all attacks passing in or out of the sphere are affected by concealment. The sphere has hardness 0 and 25 hitpoints, an AC of 10 modified by the size of the creature it holds, and takes non-lethal damage from slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing attacks. It regenerates 25 points of non-lethal damage a round, and fails all saves. It is impossible to strike the captured creature inside without also damaging the sphere.

Maintaining the sphere is a move action. The target may attempt a Strength, Swim or Escape Artist check (DC 35) every subsequent round to escape the sphere as a full-round action, or may attempt to break it.

Water Required:

The water you used in the attack which initiated this one can count towards this value. This water is not immediately recoverable.


Augment:
  • For every five points that you increase the difficulty class, the skill DC to escape the sphere also increases by five, and the sphere's HP and non-lethal regeneration increase by five.
  • For every four points that you exceed the base difficulty class (including all modifiers), you can affect creatures one size larger.


This seemed to be powerful enough, and general enough to make a seed in its own right.[/spoiler]

« Last Edit: August 02, 2008, 09:40:45 PM by AstralFire »


Avatar: The Last d20 Supplement
The Discussion Thread - Help!
Current Project: The Anteheroes System: 2nd Edition, a quick and tactical modern fantasy system.

Better to be stupid and humble than smart and arrogant. A humble man can change and improve. An arrogant man won't.

DetectiveJabsco

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 463
  • Here's To Life
    • Email
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #34 on: July 29, 2008, 06:06:08 PM »
I suppose I can put a hold on Earth. I look over all the Water and respond accordingly.

AstralFire

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 498
  • Up the Ante
    • The Anteheroes
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #35 on: July 29, 2008, 08:25:21 PM »
I suppose I can put a hold on Earth. I look over all the Water and respond accordingly.

Awesome, thanks.

I propose we switch the Waterbender skill list from:
Class SkillsClass SkillsSkill Points at 1st LevelSkill Points at Each Additional Level
  • Balance: Necessary in icy areas.
  • Handle Animal: Just strikes me as a 'waterbender thing', having to keep animals calm to heal them.
  • Knowledge (Local): No benders, by default, are really wanderers except for the Avatar.
  • Martial Lore: Can be used to identify bending forms as though they were martial maneuvers. The DC for identifying a bending form is equal to its base bending DC. This helps limit the number of growing and redundant skills that exist purely for identifying (Spellcraft, Psicraft, Martial Lore, who knows what else).

I'd also like to propose taking away waterbender armor proficiency and giving them an Armor Bonus as a monk, including Wis to AC. ACP won't stop -anyone- in a normal D&D game thanks to Mithral and Glassteel. Fire would get AC as a monk too. Perhaps a higher progression of AC for the Airbender (+6), and allowing Earth to get +Wis in light armor or +Wis and AC bonus as a choice at first level.

Benders are limited to fighting at a much closer range than true spellcasters. I'm fairly confident that this would be a good change. What I'm less sure about:
- Fire as a d8 HP, since they fight up-close often, a lot like the Swordsage. They still have more range than a Swordsage, but it's not like the Swordsage never fights from range either.
- Air and Water I'm pretty comfortable with leaving at d6, since Water is demonstrated to prefer staying back a bit, and Air's high AC, Reflex Defensive Roll and Imp. Evasion - in addition to all of its blasts bullrushing - should be enough.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2008, 01:09:26 PM by AstralFire »


Avatar: The Last d20 Supplement
The Discussion Thread - Help!
Current Project: The Anteheroes System: 2nd Edition, a quick and tactical modern fantasy system.

Better to be stupid and humble than smart and arrogant. A humble man can change and improve. An arrogant man won't.

Zuki

  • Ring-Tailed Lemur
  • **
  • Posts: 54
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #36 on: July 30, 2008, 01:58:08 AM »
I like the new list of Waterbender class skills--it's a wide selection that could suggest or augment a variety of different roles, or an incentive to play a higher Intelligence character. I'm tempted to suggest that Airbenders would also get Handle Animal, and Fire and Earthbenders could get Ride instead. They're not seen so much with the whole rapport-with-animals thing, but they nonetheless use Ostrich Horses, Komodo Rhinos, and so on, in a more utilitarian fashion.

I have mixed feelings about the idea of using Martial Lore to conserve the number of skills--it's a very workable idea, but there hasn't been all that much to indicate that benders are inclined to be familiar with the way non-bending martial artists fight or vice-versa. Using Martial Lore is more of a metagame choice from this point of view. Then again, it's an uncommon skill to take most of the time; perhaps Tai Li practices an obscure style that it was hard to make the DC for, or nobody bothered to roll for Martial Lore when first encountering her to guess at her fighting style. (Tai Li is picked as an example because that's the sort of encounter that would have gone very differently if the PCs had a chance to learn 'if she pokes you go all limp and can't fight'.)

What is everyone else's opinion on this compression?



I think that giving the bending classes +Wis and an accompanying Monk-like additional AC bonus is a fair idea. Allowing Earthbenders to wear light armor would more accurately mimic what we see in the show, and gives them the advantage that an armor can be enchanted with additional bonuses. Is the choice between armor proficiency or a class AC bonus meant to model Toph's preference for fighting unarmored?

Earthbenders might be shown as spending most of their time hanging back and hucking rocks at each other, but from a flavor and philosophical point of view I think a higher hit die for Earthbenders would not be inappropriate. Look at some of the training activities Toph has Aang do in 'Bitter Work'. There's a strong focus on building up physical endurance, resilience, and strength. Hung Gar, earthbending's martial art inspiration, was reputed to have similar long, arduous, training processes. I think there's a reasonable case for the Earthbender to have a d8 hit die.

On the other hand, if a d8 hit die is a Firebender's incentive to mix it up in melee range despite his weaker defenses, then I can see why it might be unbalanced for the Earthbender to also have that. They should have a several enticing defensive and protective forms to choose from.  Perhaps some additional incentive for players of Earthbenders with high Con scores could exist as a way to encourage up-close combat with this class. Besides the obvious. Everyone likes more hitpoints and a higher fort save, and between those two things and Mettle such an incentive may exist. But is it enough to talk Earthbenders into the front lines?

Edit: I jumped to a conclusion that wasn't there in Astralfire's last post, namely that the Earthbender hit die would be reduced in our project from GITP's value of a d8. I'll leave up what I posted about the subject anyways, for the sake of discussion. Personally, I like the symmetry implied by two d8s and two d6s. Earth and Fire are better adapted toward strong, up-close-and-personal combat styles.  Air and Water seem more inclined to hang back and be disruptive or wait for an opponent's mistake. Aang may end up closing with his opponent or having to deal with an attacker at such a range, but he stays evasive and tends not to attack in such circumstances.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2008, 02:33:16 AM by Zuki »

DetectiveJabsco

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 463
  • Here's To Life
    • Email
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #37 on: July 30, 2008, 03:36:11 AM »
I belive hit die should be as follows.

Earthbender-D10
Firebender-D8
Air/Waterbender-D6

AstralFire

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 498
  • Up the Ante
    • The Anteheroes
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #38 on: July 30, 2008, 12:43:59 PM »
I belive hit die should be as follows.

Earthbender-D10
Firebender-D8
Air/Waterbender-D6

So I've been looking at key ability scores.

So far key ability scores for the other three look like:
Water: Dex (Attacks of Opportunity, Attack Rolls, AC), Int (Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Improved Disarm), Wis (Save DCs). Higher save DCs are always nice, but water doesn't actually require too many of those. The high-statted waterbender will be improving Wis more than Int, though. But Dex more than both.
Air: Wis (Bull Rush), Dex (AC, Attack Rolls)
Fire: Dex (AC, Attack Rolls), Wis (Save DCs)

For the sake of variety, I'd like to see them all look like this:
Water: Dex & Int
Air: Wis & Dex
Fire: Str & Wis
Earth: Con & Str

Fire could very logically add Str to its ranged attack rolls. The emphasis is on strong precision, and it makes them less MAD for any Firebender who tries to match what we've seen all the show's firebenders sans Jeong-Jeong do when they're serious - get up in someone's face, athletically. Earth already does add Str to ranged attack rolls, but a quick once-over of Earthbenders does show that their seeds -are- in a really bad state. Giving Earth a d10 with the right selection of seeds would encourage tilting their stat selection towards Con & Str by making them the real frontline bruiser bender. The ability to wall the opponent in with you (while water would trap the opponent away from you), ruin the terrain, etc would make for an interestingly proactive tank.

The result would be something that's sort of like 3.0 Psionics tried and utterly failed to do well.
« Last Edit: July 30, 2008, 12:46:02 PM by AstralFire »


Avatar: The Last d20 Supplement
The Discussion Thread - Help!
Current Project: The Anteheroes System: 2nd Edition, a quick and tactical modern fantasy system.

Better to be stupid and humble than smart and arrogant. A humble man can change and improve. An arrogant man won't.

DetectiveJabsco

  • Bi-Curious George
  • ****
  • Posts: 463
  • Here's To Life
    • Email
Re: Avatar d20 fixes
« Reply #39 on: July 30, 2008, 12:54:32 PM »
Although I'm not sure I follow the last sentence of your post, I don't think that your Rationalization of there key stat breakdown, in anyway reminds me of 3.0 psionic. I never once broke down crying when reading your post, 3.0 psionics on the other hand...

Anyways, What you just explained to me was the exact Direction I went when thinking of Hit Die.

Although, with the Key stat breakdown like you have it would it not be smarter to use one of there key stats as there bender stat ie.

Earth-Con
Water-Int
Fire-Wis
Air-Dex

As opposed to all of the classes using Wis as the Bending Stat?