User talk:FiddleSticks96/FS96 Sandbox:Classes

Flavor Costs Should be More Delicious

I couldn't help but notice that the higher-level summonings of the Path of Calling cost more Constitution and last a greater number of days. But ability damage stops being a long-term cost once people can start tossing out lesser restorations like candy, at maybe somewhere from level 5 to 8.

...Oh I see, the price doesn't have to be paid by anyone important. Just keep some dogs/people, lobotomize them a bit until they can't comprehend the concept of being unwilling, and have them pay the price. If it's really just a flavor cost, shouldn't it be high enough that while you prepare to terrorize the city with your 40 foot spider, the plucky adventurers can be investigating the mysterious nightly disappearances? Bind Minions 9 should really cost at least 5 Deaths. --Foxwarrior 19:58, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for pointing this out. The class is far from complete as you can see, but I hadn't thought of this. I will make the costs more severe and harder to circumvent. It wasn't my intention to make it "just a flavor cost." The price of the ritual is the life force paid by the caster or others in order to fuel the blood magic, and the price should not be so mundane that lesser restoration makes it go away. I'll also add costs other than ability damage as well. To start, do you think I should make a rule that says animals cannot contribute to the cost? Perhaps I could make it so that each spell will only accept Con damage from certain kinds of sources, like "only humanoids" or "only good aligned creatures", although the latter would make it more difficult to play as a non-evil Sangromancer. I won't make the price as ambiguous as "a life", since this class is supposed to work with my vampire overhaul. A fixed and unambiguous price is required so it can have an equivalent Vitae cost (blood points in my overhaul). With that said, "a life" can be turned into something like 16+ Con damage (depending on the number of "lives"). 5 Con damage may not be crippling, but 16 Con damage will kill most non-martial oriented players, forcing them to sacrifice a few lives or get a lot of willing helpers, especially for the really powerful rituals that should cost something like 50 Con damage. Any suggestions are welcome. To be honest, I'm not very focused on this class right now, as I am working on my vampire sourcebook and running a campaign at the same time. That gets really time consuming. FiddleSticks96 06:09, 21 June 2012 (UTC)

I guess you can just use large Con damage numbers if you want, but keep in mind that even making the cost larger and more specific, like "1000 Constitution, drawn from elven basketweavers" doesn't really make it more expensive, just more awkward; a level 17 character can singlehandedly capture and oppress entire cities of level 1 characters of basically any race or creed. You can change it from Constitution damage to Constitution burn in order to cut out the restoration, but that only punishes good guys. --Foxwarrior 19:27, 21 June 2012 (UTC)