![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinThis is a special ability, which occupies the same type of slot as Powers in 4E, with some of them being more static and more closely resembling feats. It's meant specifically for a "blaster mage" type character, though this game is less restrictive... where 4E has an entirely separate power tree for each character class/sub-class, this game (tentatively titled "Adventure Song", though it also has the working title of "EEEE") has the class equivalents give you a set of categories/keywords you can pick your special abilities from, so multiple character builds could take this ability.
Lightning Bolt (Spell)
Keywords: Ranged Magic Attack, Magic Blast, Electrical, Weather
Free: You call a bolt of lightning to strike the target from above. As an action, make a medium ranged attack doing electrical damage. Figure distance from the spell's origin, but the attack originates directly above the target. Any defense roll based on avoiding the spell goes down a die because of the unexpected angle and you can ignore any obstruction between the target and you, as long as you can see them.
1 MP: You shoot a line of lightning from your finger that jumps from target to target. As an action, make a short-ranged attack against any target, doing electrical damage. If it hits, then you can make the attack again against another target, using the first target as the point of origin for the spell. If the second attack hits, you can repeat it against a third using the second as your point of origin, though you cannot continue past that point or repeat the same target twice. You can use inanimate objects as a target of this spell in order to "bridge a gap" and hit a more distant or better protected enemy. Treat metal or highly conductive ones as having a defense roll of 1d2, and most other objects as having a defense roll of 1d4.
Tap: You shoot a bolt or fork of lightning from your fingertips. As an action, make a short ranged attack (electrical damage) against everyone standing within all squares in a rectangle of any proportions that occupies no more than 10 squares total, with at least one square adjacent to you. Enemies who occupy multiple squares may be struck multiple times. If only one enemy is targeted by this attack (even if they're targeted multiple times), both the attack and damage rolls go up a die.
Note the three different uses. Anybody who has this special ability can use all three them, though with differing frequencies. "Free" is the equivalent of an at-will power in D&D 4E. You can use it as often as you want. "1 MP" means you spend 1 Magic Point to use this version of the ability. Finite use, but flexible. "Tap" means you mark the ability as tapped when you use it. You can't tap an already tapped ability, so this most powerful use is out of commission until you can untap it. The previous uses don't require tapping, so they're still in play. You can still call down lightning or throw arcing bolts, but you can't do a wide-area blast until you've refreshed yourself.
One ability can be untapped per rest period that party takes, so if you take a rest after every major fight, you can tap one ability and get it back. If you end up tapping multiple abilities in the same stretch of adventuring, you're going to be slightly depleted until you take a longer rest.
The idea here is to have a slightly more satisfying version of D&D 4E's at-will/encounter/daily divide, where the sort of person who can summon up a mighty explosion of fire every once in a while can still do a small fireball when that's gone. (Or the archer who can pull off the incredible trick shot once in a while has the benefit of the accuracy that goes into that the rest of the time.)
This special ability exists on top of a generic "Elemental Energy Bolt" power where you choose the damage type when you take it. The reason for a separate Lightning Bolt spell is so it can capture some of the flavor of what lightning is. There's no reason someone couldn't re-theme this as an acid spell where acid falls from the sky, or sloshes from target to target, or explodes forth in a corrosive spray... but some parts of that would feel like a stretch compared to lightning, which naturally strikes from above and leaps in arcs. This is the advantage of exception based design. The generic energy bolt means that all elemental/magical themes are covered for a basic ranged attack, but more evocative ones can be written with specific rules that capture the flavor of them.
Lightning Bolt (Spell)
Keywords: Ranged Magic Attack, Magic Blast, Electrical, Weather
Free: You call a bolt of lightning to strike the target from above. As an action, make a medium ranged attack doing electrical damage. Figure distance from the spell's origin, but the attack originates directly above the target. Any defense roll based on avoiding the spell goes down a die because of the unexpected angle and you can ignore any obstruction between the target and you, as long as you can see them.
1 MP: You shoot a line of lightning from your finger that jumps from target to target. As an action, make a short-ranged attack against any target, doing electrical damage. If it hits, then you can make the attack again against another target, using the first target as the point of origin for the spell. If the second attack hits, you can repeat it against a third using the second as your point of origin, though you cannot continue past that point or repeat the same target twice. You can use inanimate objects as a target of this spell in order to "bridge a gap" and hit a more distant or better protected enemy. Treat metal or highly conductive ones as having a defense roll of 1d2, and most other objects as having a defense roll of 1d4.
Tap: You shoot a bolt or fork of lightning from your fingertips. As an action, make a short ranged attack (electrical damage) against everyone standing within all squares in a rectangle of any proportions that occupies no more than 10 squares total, with at least one square adjacent to you. Enemies who occupy multiple squares may be struck multiple times. If only one enemy is targeted by this attack (even if they're targeted multiple times), both the attack and damage rolls go up a die.
Note the three different uses. Anybody who has this special ability can use all three them, though with differing frequencies. "Free" is the equivalent of an at-will power in D&D 4E. You can use it as often as you want. "1 MP" means you spend 1 Magic Point to use this version of the ability. Finite use, but flexible. "Tap" means you mark the ability as tapped when you use it. You can't tap an already tapped ability, so this most powerful use is out of commission until you can untap it. The previous uses don't require tapping, so they're still in play. You can still call down lightning or throw arcing bolts, but you can't do a wide-area blast until you've refreshed yourself.
One ability can be untapped per rest period that party takes, so if you take a rest after every major fight, you can tap one ability and get it back. If you end up tapping multiple abilities in the same stretch of adventuring, you're going to be slightly depleted until you take a longer rest.
The idea here is to have a slightly more satisfying version of D&D 4E's at-will/encounter/daily divide, where the sort of person who can summon up a mighty explosion of fire every once in a while can still do a small fireball when that's gone. (Or the archer who can pull off the incredible trick shot once in a while has the benefit of the accuracy that goes into that the rest of the time.)
This special ability exists on top of a generic "Elemental Energy Bolt" power where you choose the damage type when you take it. The reason for a separate Lightning Bolt spell is so it can capture some of the flavor of what lightning is. There's no reason someone couldn't re-theme this as an acid spell where acid falls from the sky, or sloshes from target to target, or explodes forth in a corrosive spray... but some parts of that would feel like a stretch compared to lightning, which naturally strikes from above and leaps in arcs. This is the advantage of exception based design. The generic energy bolt means that all elemental/magical themes are covered for a basic ranged attack, but more evocative ones can be written with specific rules that capture the flavor of them.