Ability Tips! Read & Share
Howdy all, I’ve been meaning to post something like this for a week or so and listening to the podcast pushed me further along. Here are some tips on how to make your character’s abilities more awesome. What do I mean by awesome?? Well, I don’t mean stronger, I mean more useful and fun to use.
I’ve seen heaps of characters, and sometimes I think ‘damn that character has a fantastic set of abilities’ and sometimes ‘all these abilities do the same thing’. Now, this is an opinion and should be treated as such, etc etc so if you enjoy doing it your way then keep doing it.
1. Pick a mix of offensive and defensive abilities!
Character IMO should have a strategy to their abilities and how they fight. For some that might mean confusing or hiding from your enemy. For others it may be direct attacks and damage. The characters that seem the most well put together in threads tend to be the ones that have a theme running through them. If we take for example a ‘fire’ character level 3:
Fire attack – Mid-range medium damage
Explosive Crystals – short to long range, low accuracy, high damage
Lava Breath – Short range high damage attack
Rage (boost to strength & speed)
Fiery Soul – High endurance
Fire Jump – blasts of fire to move quickly
So this unnamed fire man’s strategy is to close the distance quickly using his rage and fire jump and then use short range / high damage attacks. As a bonus he can endure more attacks than normal to increase survivability as he closes the distance.
Some things to thinks about:
What are my long range attacks?
What are my short range attacks?
Can I blind/confuse my enemies?
Can I hide/conceal myself?
How do I defend myself?
Can I dodge?
Am I using weapons? Do my abilities improve how I use them?
Creating a theme and then running through these questions can help you get your head around where you want to go. During battles and quests you’ll also find out what works and what doesn’t. If you stuff up and an ability doesn’t work, then drop it next update.
Another good thing to remember is that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one ability type. Having two or three ways of fighting is a must once you hit level 3 or 4. This is one reason having defensive abilities is important. If you go up against someone who is geared against your abilities then it’s good to have enough variations that can still do something. Take the fire guy above. By adding a sword or axe, then even if he came up against someone who could negate his direct fire attacks he can still use his fire jump, endurance and rage to fight physically. Likewise, he can use his fire jump to evade and attack, or even fire jump into a physical attack for more damage.
2. Abilities Don’t need to be magic!
Too often I see people say ‘I don’t want a magic character, therefore I’ll just throw everything into speed/strength/etc. Abilities are actions your character can take that have a direct effect on a(nother) character. Throwing a fireball can be switched with throwing a smoke bomb. For example:
Quote:
Smoke Bomb:
Remedy always keeps thee smoke bombs on her all the time. By throwing on the ground, or any hard surface, they admit a sudden burst of smoke that can fill a 20 by 20 metre area with thick dark smoke.
Quote:
Zap Glove:
An invention of Sylus, this glove connects to a small copper winding mechanism. When wound it produces an electrical charge held in a small quartz battery. The glove can admit this electrical charge with enough force to shock a person, temporarily numbing the effected limb and making it difficult to use. Lasts a short (two posts) amount of time before the effects wear off and can be channelled through a small amount of metal, although this does dissipate the effect somewhat. The glove holds enough charge for two strikes, but if Remy spends enough time (one post) winding the cogs she can restore a charge.
This can include natural weapons (eg. Claws), technology and the like. If your character is going to carry around a bunch of ninja tools, then some of them can be abilities that you can upgrade as you level. Smoke bombs, choking powder, poisoned throwing knives and healing wraps can all be used instead of magic.
3. Schools
Using schools is awesome. Why? Because you can start creating a ‘spell book’ of attacks that are versatile enough for your character to use during fights/quests. If you have an ability like a fire ball, then you can broaden this out and add additional parts without blowing out your number of abilities. For example;
Quote:
Fire Control: John Fire-Fingers can create flames to attack with.
- Fire Ball: A standard fire ball, about the size of an apple, does decent burns and can heat up metal. Four uses a day.
- Great Fire Ball: A larger melon sized ball that takes a few seconds to cast and flies a bit slower than a normal thrown object. Does large burns when it strikes and can be used three times a day.
- Flame Thrower: John creates a stream of fire for three seconds, setting fire to whatever is caught within three metres. Does decent burns, but mostly sets the targets alight. Two uses a day.
As you can see above, the entire ability is about creating flames and dealing damage. Here is another example of a school which is about creating a sticky, hardening substance.
Quote:
Bubblegum
Condensing energy from a plane of existence that overlaps with the material world and the shadow realm, Talen is able to create a very sticky substance that expands and hardens. The hardened bubblegum has similar properties to stone, being able to be shattered by blunt force but resistant to slash/stab damage. Given how sticky it is, it tends to absorb for force of whatever is passing through before hardening. The effective range for these is 150 metres, or 300 in rifle mode.
- Gum: Pistol or Rifle; 1 shot
Two shots are fired, each will expand on contact to about the size of a watermelon and harden in about three seconds. - Amber: Pistol or Rifle; 2 shots
A special round is shot that expands outwards from where it contacts to form a column a foot wide and thick and six feet high. This hardens in 2 seconds, but cannot be used on someone offensively. (Though it could make something to block a door, passage, etc.) - Resinous Entrapment: Pistol or Rifle; 4 shots
Five shots of bubble gum are tied together, and explode after a set distance or on contact. This released five times (five watermelon equivalent) the amount as Gum, and hardens in 6 seconds. This can be used by shooting above people and have it fall on them.
Now, you don’t have to write your school like that, it just is how I do it. You can also keep it broader, for example:
Fire Control: John Fire-Fingers can create flames to attack with. These can range for strong fire attacks doing serious burns to unprotected flesh and setting things alight, though to small attacks doing light burns. John can use six weak attacks, four strong or two very strong before exhausting his built up magic.
I hope that gives people some food for thought. Please post any tips or questions you have here as well ^_^
