New [Effect] Type!
Disclaimer: this has not yet been tested in play, though we ran some numbers and liked the results enough to give it a shot.
One problem that came up when we converted to Ascension and began turning Epic characters into actual gods was that casters had fewer options available to them than fighting types, especially the "blaster/artillery" type casters which Sorcerers are so good for (and which, in fact, one of the characters in the first party to start ascending characters was tailored to be- from character creation all the way up into Epic). In particular, these players were feeling that the various [Effect] powers, while admittedly cool and flavorful for gods, were just about useless to them as characters because they'd specifically been built to do damage or cause effects with their magic. Why would the Sorceress spend Divine Ability slots on Fire Breath, for example, when she could just cast Fireball or Meteor Swarm (and given all her options for recharging spell slots, to say nothing of all the spell slots she suddenly has with Divine Wizardry, one casting uses up negligible resources)?
Last week, during discussions about how we were handling Metamagic in game, this problem was thrown into the argument almost as an afterthought- but in considering Metamagic we actually came up with a solution. In particular, we determined that the existence of the Energy Admixture feat (which adds 5 levels to the spell it's used upon, in standard rules) gave us a unique and cool way to make the [Effect] abilities interesting again. For those who don't know, the Admixture feat specifically works only on spells which deal energy damage, and what it does is to essentially double the dice of damage but make the second set another energy type. If a mage adds Electricity Admixture to a Fireball, for example, it'll deal 10d6 Fire and 10d6 Electricity damage to those in the blast.
We reasoned, why could a Divine ability not allow a deity to do this at will, much as a warrior god could use Fire Strike to add Fire damage to all of his attacks?
Thus was born the Godspell [Effect] type (the name we eventually settled on after trying and rejecting several others due to possible name confusion with other options already available to the characters). What it does is to "Admixture" whatever its Divine Ability says it does, into a spell dealing an effect which scales by level (or the number of points you put into it, in the case of spell-point or psionics systems) or uses a number of dice to determine its effect. Thus, a Fireball is eligible, as is Disintegrate, Heal, or even Cure Serious Wounds, but Charm Person, Summon Monster I or Teleport would not be. The deity decides whether to activate or deactivate the [Godspell] at will, just as the [Strike] works, and while active it applies to every spell that can have it applied, without any increase in casting time, spell level, or power points spent. Also, and very importantly, a Godspell does not apply to Epic spells, and will not work with them- just as normal Metamagic cannot be used with Epic spells.
The key difference between the [Godspell] and other [Effect] types is, the [Godspell] does not look at the deity's HD for determining how many "units" of itself to apply- instead, it looks at how many "units" the spell it is adding to has in it. Thus, a Fire Godspell attached to a Lightning Bolt which would normally be dealing 7d6 damage (because the deity felt like casting a weak one for some reason?) would add 7d6 Fire damage to the spell. But if the Lightning Bolt were dealing 10d6 damage, then so too would the Fire Godspell deal 10d6 Fire damage. This naturally extends to other Effects: for example, a Withering (CON) Godspell would deal 1 point of CON drain for each 10 dice of damage the base spell deals; the Lightning Bolt in the example above would deal no CON damage at all unless it were set to 10d6, whereupon it would deal 1 point of CON. Likewise, a deity attaching Thieving Godspell to a 10d6 Fireball would not only deal the Fire damage, but would also take 10d1000 gp from each target affected by the blast. Whatever save the spell uses also applies to the Godspell: the same save for half damage reduces the Godspell effect by half, and Evasion can negate it completely in the case of things like Fireball and Lightning Bolt.
Taking a Godspell ability more than once simply stacks the same amount of Godspell onto any spell it's used with; thus, attaching Superior Force Godspell (Force Godspell taken 3 times) to a 10d6 Fireball would end up dealing an extra 30d4 Force damage.
We immediately started seeing some interesting possibilities, such as the idea of the Entropic Magic goddess adding Negative Energy damage to every spell she casts, or even some form of Withering; the goddess of Diplomacy could use Emotional Godspell (using the Emotional [Effect] DA described elsewhere in this thread) along with Shout to essentially "yell at" combatants and get them to stop fighting and play nice, assuming they survive the Sonic damage. Using examples from outside the party, a suggestion was made that a god of Greed might use Thieving Godspell in conjunction with Healing magic to "collect medical insurance fees" (i.e. the Thieving) from "patients" (i.e. anybody he uses a Cure spell on). A Sky Goddess could add Wind Godspell to her Lightning Bolts to essentially make them "Thunderstorm blasts."
Comments? Questions? Rotten vegetables?
Disclaimer: this has not yet been tested in play, though we ran some numbers and liked the results enough to give it a shot.
One problem that came up when we converted to Ascension and began turning Epic characters into actual gods was that casters had fewer options available to them than fighting types, especially the "blaster/artillery" type casters which Sorcerers are so good for (and which, in fact, one of the characters in the first party to start ascending characters was tailored to be- from character creation all the way up into Epic). In particular, these players were feeling that the various [Effect] powers, while admittedly cool and flavorful for gods, were just about useless to them as characters because they'd specifically been built to do damage or cause effects with their magic. Why would the Sorceress spend Divine Ability slots on Fire Breath, for example, when she could just cast Fireball or Meteor Swarm (and given all her options for recharging spell slots, to say nothing of all the spell slots she suddenly has with Divine Wizardry, one casting uses up negligible resources)?
Last week, during discussions about how we were handling Metamagic in game, this problem was thrown into the argument almost as an afterthought- but in considering Metamagic we actually came up with a solution. In particular, we determined that the existence of the Energy Admixture feat (which adds 5 levels to the spell it's used upon, in standard rules) gave us a unique and cool way to make the [Effect] abilities interesting again. For those who don't know, the Admixture feat specifically works only on spells which deal energy damage, and what it does is to essentially double the dice of damage but make the second set another energy type. If a mage adds Electricity Admixture to a Fireball, for example, it'll deal 10d6 Fire and 10d6 Electricity damage to those in the blast.
We reasoned, why could a Divine ability not allow a deity to do this at will, much as a warrior god could use Fire Strike to add Fire damage to all of his attacks?
Thus was born the Godspell [Effect] type (the name we eventually settled on after trying and rejecting several others due to possible name confusion with other options already available to the characters). What it does is to "Admixture" whatever its Divine Ability says it does, into a spell dealing an effect which scales by level (or the number of points you put into it, in the case of spell-point or psionics systems) or uses a number of dice to determine its effect. Thus, a Fireball is eligible, as is Disintegrate, Heal, or even Cure Serious Wounds, but Charm Person, Summon Monster I or Teleport would not be. The deity decides whether to activate or deactivate the [Godspell] at will, just as the [Strike] works, and while active it applies to every spell that can have it applied, without any increase in casting time, spell level, or power points spent. Also, and very importantly, a Godspell does not apply to Epic spells, and will not work with them- just as normal Metamagic cannot be used with Epic spells.
The key difference between the [Godspell] and other [Effect] types is, the [Godspell] does not look at the deity's HD for determining how many "units" of itself to apply- instead, it looks at how many "units" the spell it is adding to has in it. Thus, a Fire Godspell attached to a Lightning Bolt which would normally be dealing 7d6 damage (because the deity felt like casting a weak one for some reason?) would add 7d6 Fire damage to the spell. But if the Lightning Bolt were dealing 10d6 damage, then so too would the Fire Godspell deal 10d6 Fire damage. This naturally extends to other Effects: for example, a Withering (CON) Godspell would deal 1 point of CON drain for each 10 dice of damage the base spell deals; the Lightning Bolt in the example above would deal no CON damage at all unless it were set to 10d6, whereupon it would deal 1 point of CON. Likewise, a deity attaching Thieving Godspell to a 10d6 Fireball would not only deal the Fire damage, but would also take 10d1000 gp from each target affected by the blast. Whatever save the spell uses also applies to the Godspell: the same save for half damage reduces the Godspell effect by half, and Evasion can negate it completely in the case of things like Fireball and Lightning Bolt.
Taking a Godspell ability more than once simply stacks the same amount of Godspell onto any spell it's used with; thus, attaching Superior Force Godspell (Force Godspell taken 3 times) to a 10d6 Fireball would end up dealing an extra 30d4 Force damage.
We immediately started seeing some interesting possibilities, such as the idea of the Entropic Magic goddess adding Negative Energy damage to every spell she casts, or even some form of Withering; the goddess of Diplomacy could use Emotional Godspell (using the Emotional [Effect] DA described elsewhere in this thread) along with Shout to essentially "yell at" combatants and get them to stop fighting and play nice, assuming they survive the Sonic damage. Using examples from outside the party, a suggestion was made that a god of Greed might use Thieving Godspell in conjunction with Healing magic to "collect medical insurance fees" (i.e. the Thieving) from "patients" (i.e. anybody he uses a Cure spell on). A Sky Goddess could add Wind Godspell to her Lightning Bolts to essentially make them "Thunderstorm blasts."
Comments? Questions? Rotten vegetables?
