Immortals Handbook - ASCENSION

[Cheiromancer]

A question about Escapologist. Well a question and a comment.

First, why is it a divine ability? A ring of freedom of movement costs 40,000 gp. Slotless it would be 80K. As a feat the ability would be appropriate about when a level's difference in wealth is 160K. Making it cost six feat slots seems like a lot. Does changing something to an extraordinary ability boost its value that much?

And the comment: It should reference freedom of movement, not free action.

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

A question about Escapologist. Well a question and a comment.

First, why is it a divine ability? A ring of freedom of movement costs 40,000 gp. Slotless it would be 80K. As a feat the ability would be appropriate about when a level's difference in wealth is 160K. Making it cost six feat slots seems like a lot. Does changing something to an extraordinary ability boost its value that much?

And the comment: It should reference freedom of movement, not free action.

Well, think of all the things it would be immune to as an extraordinary power:
Antimagic, Dispelling, Epic spells with the Seeds dispel and destroy, Disjunction, Deadmagic, theft of the ring, wouldn't register to magical detection.
And think of the benifit; It makes you near-immune to grappling. Not a common form of attack, but for those that use it, it nerfs them as much as, say, Immunity to Fire damage nerfs Red Dragons or Immunity to Swords hurts a Weapons master of the Longsword.

 

[Servitor of Wrath]

it nerfs them as much as, say, Immunity to Fire damage nerfs Red Dragons or Immunity to Swords hurts a Weapons master of the Longsword.

I know what you mean, but the dragon definitely gets the better deal there. It still has a half-dozen natural weapons and heavy spellslinging ability.

 

[WarDragon]

And incidentally, the third highest Grapple check in the SRD. I once saw a Great Red Wyrm, no advancement beyond what's listed, grapple a 50th level Fighter/Legendary Dreadnought to death. The human couldn't escape, even rolling a 20 when the wyrm rolled a 1.

 

[BSF]

So how close to completion is Ascension? A few more updates? Several more updates? How usable is it at this point? Is there enough of a framework to allow a PC to begin pursuing divinity?

 

[Cheiromancer]

Well, think of all the things it would be immune to as an extraordinary power:
Antimagic, Dispelling, Epic spells with the Seeds dispel and destroy, Disjunction, Dead magic, theft of the ring, wouldn't register to magical detection.
And think of the benefit; It makes you near-immune to grappling. Not a common form of attack, but for those that use it, it nerfs them as much as, say, Immunity to Fire damage nerfs Red Dragons or Immunity to Swords hurts a Weapons master of the Longsword.

I guess I'm wondering if any of the following are true:

• A ring of freedom of movement is badly underpriced.
• If Escapologist were a Supernatural power, it would be worth much less (a feat or two).
• Escapologist is a rather weak divine ability.
• When you price a feat as a magic item, you have to multiply it by...(insert value here).

Just trying to get a handle on how feat/items should work.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey all!

About ten minutes ago my anti-virus software blocked an outside attempt to change my registry. However, my computer ground to a halt (effectively crashed) and I was forced to switch off at the mains and then start up again. While everything currenly seems okay, their is an icon on my desktop toolbar I don't immediately recognise. So, better safe than sorry, I am going to go offline until I can get it checked out (which will probably be tomorrow evening).

Obviously I don't want to update anything if there is even a remote risk of infection.

I don't know whether this is a throwback from the mother of all viruses a few weeks back, something new or just a false alarm (it seemed to happen shortly after my anti-virus software auto updated). Hopefully the latter.

Apologies for the delay two nights running now.

I had the stat blocks for the first ten immortals about 99% complete, although I didn't have all the Avatar/Aspect stats up to the same standard (although I may have been able to get those ready within an hour or two?).

Like I said earlier, the computer appears fine (fingers crossed) at the moment, so I'll be working offline until I can get things checked out. Hopefully I can get the stat blocks and a bit more done for tomorrow. So for what its worth, there shouldn't be any delay to progress, only a delay to the next update.

I'm probably worrying over nothing, but the last virus attack left me shaken (and even a bit stirred), so I will err on the side of caution for the sake of 24 hours.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hi there BSF!

So how close to completion is Ascension? A few more updates? Several more updates?

In terms of text, yes (hopefully only one or two more updates). I definately expect a full text version before Christmas. With a further few updates for the interior illustrations.

How usable is it at this point? Is there enough of a framework to allow a PC to begin pursuing divinity?

I'll let the others answer this.

Although I think the main sticking point at the minute (with regards running a PC with the current iteration of Ascension) is that the Portfolios chapter still needs finishing. Once I get that done you should be able to run everything okay.

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

So how close to completion is Ascension? A few more updates? Several more updates? How usable is it at this point? Is there enough of a framework to allow a PC to begin pursuing divinity?

As U_K said, once the portfolios are finished, the divinity rules are 97% useable. A few of the divine powers are worded oddly and need clarification, and some require one of the future IH books, (6 or 7 powers at most, but most are pretty basic) and there is a whole subset of Quintessence rules U_K hasn't touched on yet. (Resonance)

Everything *should* be useable in game. Some might require a bit of rule - 0 - ing for now, and as always epic level players should excersice Gentlemen's rules and not "try" to break the system, but for the most part all the things you need to run an Immortal's campaine, or incorporate immortal's rules into a current game, is done. The rules for now are written in a manner that allows DMs to interperate them in whatever manner they feel comfortable with.

As for PCs pursuing divinity; It is do-able now, just without the portfolio rules. U_K provides several ideas and rules for gaining divinity. (though one isn't finished)

 

[Ltheb Silverfrond]

Hey all!

About ten minutes ago my anti-virus software blocked an outside attempt to change my registry. However, my computer ground to a halt (effectively crashed) and I was forced to switch off at the mains and then start up again. While everything currenly seems okay, their is an icon on my desktop toolbar I don't immediately recognise. So, better safe than sorry, I am going to go offline until I can get it checked out (which will probably be tomorrow evening).

Obviously I don't want to update anything if there is even a remote risk of infection.

I don't know whether this is a throwback from the mother of all viruses a few weeks back, something new or just a false alarm (it seemed to happen shortly after my anti-virus software auto updated). Hopefully the latter.

Apologies for the delay two nights running now.

I had the stat blocks for the first ten immortals about 99% complete, although I didn't have all the Avatar/Aspect stats up to the same standard (although I may have been able to get those ready within an hour or two?).

Like I said earlier, the computer appears fine (fingers crossed) at the moment, so I'll be working offline until I can get things checked out. Hopefully I can get the stat blocks and a bit more done for tomorrow. So for what its worth, there shouldn't be any delay to progress, only a delay to the next update.

I'm probably worrying over nothing, but the last virus attack left me shaken (and even a bit stirred), so I will err on the side of caution for the sake of 24 hours.

Bummer, but hopefully nothing serious. The good news is that if the virus 'reveals' itself on your task bar, it probably isn't too serious. (bad spyware, etc) From what I understand, most of the serious virusii go undetected and just corrupt/re-write system files.

Hope things go well.