how to make "hands of power"

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Poodle
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how to make "hands of power"

Post by Poodle »

I have a character I am building in 2e that is a magical brawler and I would like him to be able to choose different descriptors for his punching.
I know that variable description covers it but how many ranks does he need for say "holy silver flaming fists of the apocalypse" then " then changes it to "Shining necromantic icy knuckles of Iciness" these are just examples..
What does magic cover, what does elemental cover, what does material cover?
This is going to be a spell that he can activate that only works for his unarmed attack.

How would I build this power?
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination circles the world. -Albert Einstein.
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JDRook
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Re: how to make "hands of power"

Post by JDRook »

I know in 3e this would be a snap: Variable Descriptor 2 would cover a broad range of types for 2p and that's it. If you wanted it to use an Action to Activate it, it would be 1p minimum.

I'd have to dig in the 2e book to find it, but I would hope it doesn't cost much more than that.
FuzzyBoots
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Re: how to make "hands of power"

Post by FuzzyBoots »

One thing to keep in mind is that Descriptors traditionally are "all or nothing". If a target is vulnerable to one Descriptor, they're vulnerable to the attack. If they're Immune to one Descriptor, they're Immune to the attack. And it shouldn't be immediately obvious to the character who is affected by what (although there are reasonable guesses like the fire guy not being able to be burned).
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Poodle
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Re: how to make "hands of power"

Post by Poodle »

Yes, but a character with high knowedge:arcane might know that vampires are hurt by holy items, or that werewolves don't like silver and demons aren't fond of cold iron.
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination circles the world. -Albert Einstein.
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JDRook
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Re: how to make "hands of power"

Post by JDRook »

So if you have this PC with an unarmed attack that can change the desciptor of that attack, AND the process of changing that descriptor is anything more restrictive than a Free Action, it's going to cost 1p.

Beyond that, it might be something that you want to discuss with the GM as to how limited the transformation is. Something too easy and broad might be problematic to work with, or simply not work narratively. Using your example above, being able to turn fists into different metals is actually a pretty tight theme which wouldn't be hard to find a good supernatural reason that fits narratively, but having a "holiness" around the fists that you can turn on and off would likely need a different story. And while there's nothing technically wrong with stacking different power sources or story elements, it can be a little cheesy if it's both easy to do and overcomes a lot of obstacles.
Spectrum
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Re: how to make "hands of power"

Post by Spectrum »

If you want to get really fancy about it, you could play with an array of similar attacks. You could do things like trading off damage for levels of critical, or possibly spreading, or various afflictions all with different descriptors.
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