Peter Knutsen (usenet) wrote:
> Andrew Sayman wrote:
>> Peter Knutsen (usenet) wrote:
>>
<snip>Perception</snip>
>(unless you buy
> your Magic up to 6 during character creation - but why would you?).
To gain more powers, especially the ones you're *not* talking about and
that
can't be replicated. Killing Hands, Critical Strike, Kinesics, Mystic
Armor, and
Natural Immunity are good ones.
>>> I'm not sure about Great Leap. It seems to me that you're better off
>>> paying for a Gymnastics specialization in Jumping. That costs 2 points
>>> and gives you a +2 bonus on Jumping rolls. Great Leap costs 2.5 points
>>> and gives you only a +1 bonus to Jumping. But of course, if you want
>>> more than your +2 specialiation, go ahead and take levels in Great
Leap.
>>
>> The specialization only applies when trying to make the role. Great
>> Leap adds
>> the dice, and increases the maximum distance you can jump. A great
>> roll will
>> never get you farther than your max distance.
>
> So Great Leap does let you do more?
Great leap does a bit more. It gives you half the bonus of a
specialization on a
test, but also gives you +1 to your distance attribute without having to
pay the
cost for a raised Attribute (either at CC or with Karma).
>>> Improved Ability (i.e. skill) is worth taking for non-combat skills.
To
>>> improve a non-combat skill the normal way costs 4 points per +1,
whereas
>>> improving a non-combat skill via Adept Powers costs 2.5 points per +1.
>>> In many cases, you're better off starting with a Specialization on
your
>>> skill (2 points buys you +2 to skill, specialized), but if you want
more
>>> than that, you should go for the Adept Power.
>>>
>>> However, for combat skills, Improved Ability costs 5 points per +1,
>>> whereas if you buy the skill the mundane way it only costs 4 points
per
>>> +1. Hence there's never any point in doing this. It's a waste of
points.
>>
>> Two things here:
>>
>> 1] It's not a waste of points since this will let you roll more dice
>> than you
>> normally could. Think about the max you can buy for the Ability, you
>> can then
>> continue to buy the Improved Ability for a larger dice pool. Also, if
>> you don't
>
> Sure, but with so precious few character creation points, few PCs will
> start the game out with just a single maxed skill.
>
>> plan on gaining more magic rating, you can get Improved Ability to
>> reduce the
>> experience costs you'll have for the skill later.
>>
>> 2] There are ways to raise your magic rating, so these powers aren't
>> only for
>> character creation. If you have an adept that has reached 7 in
>> Longarms and
>> needs some edge, this is worth it.
>
> Well, yes, I get the impression that Adepts should probably wait until
> they've played for a number of sessions and gained some experience
> points, before they start buying Powers.
>
> But that's kinda silly too. You pay 45 points to get a Magic rating of
> 5, which then does nothing for the first 10 sessions?
It doesn't do *nothing*. What's the advantage to waiting to spend your
points?
If you save your magic rating points, the cost for those abilities is the
same
in the future. More on this below.
>
> That's a bit like AD&D, as in wrong.
>
>>> Adept Powers are at once a license to optimize (up to your Magic limit
-
>>> but from what I've skimmed you can get more Magic points later on, and
>>> thus optimize further) *and* a trap for unwary players who may end up
>>> paying more points than they should (specifically for Improved Ability
>>> with combat skills, or if they waste their Magic on Improved Physical
>>> Attribute).
>>
>> I disagree here. There's a significant XP break by getting magical
>> enhancements
>> at character creation. It increases the max dice you'll get to roll for
a
>> situation long-term.
>
> But there's no need to buy those Adept Powers during character creation,
> then.
As I said above, the cost for these powers is identical at any time, even
if you
save the points. The cost for the attributes is not.
I'll concede something, if you just make characters with the build point
system
and never intend to grow them, then the ability enhancing powers aren't
very
useful. They weren't intended with this in mind though, because they don't
increase the rating. The reason to not increase the rating is two-fold:
You can
beat the cap, and you don't pay a bunch more karma while you're
developing.
Now, let's look at the whole progression.
Improved Ability for Combat skills costs .5 per level. You may not take it
higher than the associated skill. The cost for a Magic point is 10bp, so
Improved Ability for combat skills costs 5bp. That's one more than to just
buy
more Unarmed Combat.
Let's do a walk-through. Firstly, I'll buy Unarmed Combat to 4. That costs
40bp.
Secondly, I'll buy Unarmed Combat to 2 and Improved Ability to 2. That
costs
30bp for the same dice pool. Buying a specialization gives both a dice
pool of 6
for both, but (1) costs 42bp and (2) costs 32bp. If you add the cost of
being an
Adept, the total pointage here is (1) 42bp (2) 37bp.
As far as I can tell, you're completely wrong about Improved Ability even
before
we get to gameplay.
Once game actually starts, (1) has an Unarmed Combat of 4. To raise that
to a
five and get a 5 dice pool, he must pay 10 Karma. For (2), he need only
spend 6.
That's about 1-game session faster to get the same dice pool.
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