The Rook Wrote:
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> Nightmask,
>
> That seems a bit confusing and contradictory,
> since if you're going by the worse of the two's
> Ranks you really aren't marrying them, one's
> penalizing the other. Considering as the Doom set
> notes you require a yellow feat or better on your
> magic rank to use it to improve your construction
> abilities you could be a Monstrous rank magic user
> and still fail 50% of the time (and if a GM
> determines no karma use one would probably be
> lucky to ever succeed on the feat roll considering
> how fickle dice are). Odds are as a 2-slot cost a
> player isn't likely to even buy at Amazing rank,
> making the odds of improving any construction with
> magic even worse.
>
> I would disagree with the assertion that it
> doesn't marry the two Ranks; actually, it marrys
> them completely. I daresay that your argument
> seems to be more that you feel that it marries
> them too closely, penalizing the character for
> being weak in one discipline. And that's exactly
> what the system is meant to do. What it is meant
> to reflect is the notion that one must have
> mastery over both sciences in order to marry
> them.
I think you're looking at them as being more contrary than they should be, after all we don't see Dr. Doom suffering such difficulties even though his magic rank is considerably less than his Reason rank even if you don't include Doom's Hyper-Invention and talents into the mix. Just as Dr. Strange says there is no real difference between science and magic then it makes sense with the original consideration that you simply check against the magic rank to let it compliment your building skills, but the end decision in your campaign is of course yours.
> If you do allow for karma to improve the chance of
> being able to successfully use magic in building
> something the player has a serious karma vacuum to
> drain him and reduce how many new spells he lerans
> as well.
>
> I do allow for Karma expenditures for such die
> rolls. And as for the "Karma Vacuum"
> notion...well, it is what it is. It's never been
> a secret to any mage that has used the "Magic as a
> Single Power" variant of play that Karma is more
> precious than gold. This does up the ante
> somewhat, true, but not so much as to be over the
> top, IMHO. Also, take into account that the
> number of mages that this rule would affect is
> actually quite small (as you noted such
> individuals as Forge and Doom are rare in
> extremis).
True, but it's still significant as after a point the difficulty levels are so high an otherwise cool character gets left out because it's just impossible to play it where it ever succeeds.
> Hmmm, so if a character is at least partially a
> mage who creates the mentor, the Player while
> designing the PC or the GM?
>
> The Judge will create the Mentor, unless the
> character chooses a pre-established Mentor (such
> as Doctor Strange; don't forget to spend the
> points for taking him as a Contact, either). Of
> course, if the Player submits a good idea for the
> Mentor, I'm certainly amenable to reviewing it for
> use. I never turn down good ideas frivolously.
I guess that'd require you to make a list of available Mentor mages in your campaign then if they want a greater tie to the game by going with an established mentor instead of home-brewed, since no one has any idea what range of characters are available to mentor them unless they create the mentor themselves.
> The Rook
"A shared universe, like any fictional construct, hinges on suspension of disbelief. When continuity is tossed away, it tatters the construct. Undermines it."
-- Peter David
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