Question for tough skin ability

[Hysteria]

I am making a new character and wanted to check a skill I want to use, the character is part plant and I wanted to base most of her skills around biological manipulation or plant magic. One of the skills I wanted was to have Bark Skin, where her skin is naturally tougher than normal.

When I went to write the skill however, I wasn't sure what was allowed. The skill I had at the moment was something like:

Bark Skin:
Twig's (the characters name) skin is harder than normal, about the same strength as iron.

While it may be approved, I was more thinking long term, in the next update would it be as strong as steel? Then suddenly the character would be very hard to kill. So, whats the normal way of having these skills?

[Visla Eraclaire]

I don't know if that would be approved now that people have laid off a bit, but having skin as tough as (metal) in the past was generally disfavored vs wearing (metal) armor.

The thrust of the issue is, the skin generally doesn't slow the character down the way armor would, it heals back on its own unlike armor, and it doesn't have any openings to exploit.

I suspect that would not be approved, even at iron. If it's bark skin, make it as strong as a hard wood. That's still stronger than skin and it's more likely to get approved imo.

Later on (1 or 2) you might be able to get it and start upgrading it. I think that fact is a little funny since there are all these arguments for why it's unfair at lvl 0, but once you're higher, who cares about being unfair (see most profiles above level five or so)

[orphans]

If it's barkskin.... maybe attach a weakness to it? Susceptible to fire? Or maybe because it's a plant person... needs to consume x amount of water to stay fully functional or some abilities may be weaker? For example if your plant person was in the middle of the Fallien desert (though anyone would probably be weakened out there), probably not a good place for a plant.

Just some ideas though.

[Esmerelda]

Alternatively, you could follow the wood tiers, which would make more sense given the plant theme you have going on. Wood's still stronger than skin, and even if you upgraded all the way to liviol, you could still take damage from most weapons, provided their wielded properly, yet still have the protection of a solid defense. I assume Twig's going to move and not just stand in one place, so wood will still be as viable an option as metal.

[Taskmienster]

Metal skin wouldn't be approved, I would suggest that you could have strength of different types of hide strengths at first and then possibly woods later...

And as for higher leveled people (I'm not getting into a big discussion about it here) I am going to be going over profiles and fixing what's out of place and messed up by other people.

[SirArtemis]

it seems interesting to me for someone to have a barkskin ability. I wouldn't think that a novice "druid" would be able to use that, as I would think it would be more of an advanced technique.

On top of that, the idea of skin being more durable is fine, but at a certain point it just seems a bit extreme. If your skin is like metal... then... who can even hurt you? It's almost like you enter into a battle of "who has the most bad-assery" and wait for someone with a super enchanted adamantite weapon to slice through your flesh and kill you...

I dunno... having tougher skin is cool, but at some point i feel like its over kill...

"Hi, my skin is adamantite. I can make you die by waving at you. I'm immortal and don't age. But I'm weak to a woman's touch."

[Silence Sei]

Looks like you're all set to slay some bad asses bthen, Artie :P

Especially if you just have to touch em :D

[IvanOoze]

My skin is the strength of Iron, well my characters scales are. There are spots on his body which are weaker though, because they aren't covered by the scales

[Hysteria]

On top of that, the idea of skin being more durable is fine, but at a certain point it just seems a bit extreme. If your skin is like metal... then... who can even hurt you?

I know, thats why I asked. At the start it might be ok if it was iron strength skin and after two hits with a steel weapon it broke through, with most people armed with steal weapons it'd allow most most characters to battle fairly. Then when I'd upgrade it however it'd become say, steel strength and most new characters would be screwed.

The other option would be to have a time limit, so making her able to harden her skin for a short time. That might weaken the skill enough to make it fair. Duno though, I might just give her a different skill instead.

Thanks for the suggestions though ;)

[SirArtemis]

well thinking that two hits from steel breaks iron seems a bit extreme. usually the quality of the weapon determines such things as well as the material, but I wouldn't expect steel to break iron so easily. Though I'm not sure.

[orphans]

mmm, so it'd be more of a natural protection against slashing weapons. Piercing weaponry and crushing type would still be effective, depending on what it was.

Also, about steel breaking the "iron" skin. It just is that. It's skin. It's still pretty thin. Unless we're talking about also a thickening of the skin.

But I think Hysteria's question was more or less answered by now xD.... (or made more confusing anyways...)

[Hysteria]

Like orphans said, the skin wouldn't be very thick. I was just using two as an example too, if someone scored a direct hit straight on so that all the force was passed into the skin then it might break straight away.

Anyway, I am going to go for a skill to make a plant that shoots fire balls, Fire Lily XD