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Comparisons of Crypt Bolt and Spirit Weapons

Out of boredom, I started to figure out what various Spirit Weapons would look like, especially as compared to Crypt Bolt.

So, Spirit Weapons can be broken down as follows:

Spirit weapons cost 2m each, and last a scene. Crypt Bolts cost a flat 4m for the scene.

Spirit weapons are excessively modular. Each weapon created can follow its own stats, as long as it is Resources 2. This means a Perfect Resources 0 weapon, an exceptional Resources 1 item, or a Resources 2 item. Exceptional items have +1 in three of the following four traits: Accuracy, Damage, Range, and Rate. Perfect items have +2 to one, and +1 to the others. The following traits assume the following: A Rate 1 or 2 weapon is boosted to Rate 2 or 3 and its Range is not boosted, a Rate 3 weapon has its Range boosted. Perfect items add their extra +1 to Accuracy.

|| Weapon || Speed || Accuracy || Damage || Rate || Range || || Ax || 5 || +1 || +4L || 3 || 10 || || Chakram || 4 || +1 || +2L || 3 || 30 || || Club || 5 || +2 || +4B || 3 || 10 || || Javelin || 4 || +1 || +3L || 2 || 30 || || Knife || 5 || +2 || +3L || 3 || 25 || || Needle || 5 || +0 || 2L || 3 || 20 || || Sling || 5 || +0 || +3L || 2 || 100 || || Boomerang || 5 || +1 || +4L || 3 || 20 ||

The results seem to indicate that the following weapons should not be Spirit Weaponed: Axes and needles The best weapons overall are knives, clubs and war boomerangs. Slings are best for range. Javelins and chakrams are best for speed.

Now, the Crypt Bolt is not modular. Most of its traits are flat, but range and damage are based on Thrown and Essence, making it scalable. With Speed 5, Accuracy +0, and Rate 2, Crypt Bolts start off behind Spirit Weapons, all of which have better Accuracy, and most of which have better Rate, Speed, or both. Their Range of 40-50 yards gives them an edge, however. Their damage starts at 4L, and climbs to 10L at Essence 5; on the other hand, they do not add Strength the way Spirit Weapons do. Spirit Weapons thus have a damage of 4L to 9L, assuming Strength 2-5. A Strength 3 character using most weapons matches or beats an Essence 3 Abyssal, but not an Essence 4 one.

Spirit Weapons thus have the following advantages: Better accuracy, equal or better speed, and equal or better rate. They are also far more modular in nature. They have lower range, and start with better damage only to gradually lose out. Finally, two spirit weapons cost the same as Crypt Bolt, but it will take trickery and cunning to only use two spirit weapons in a fight. With stunts, a character can create and dissolve spirit weapons and run even, but only if they aren't using a lot of Essence elsewhere.

(Also, Crypt Bolts gain a much larger benefit from elemental lenses than spirit weapons.)

Comments

Given this...would you say they are balanced? -Azurelight

To begin with, yes. As Essence rises, though, the Crypt Bolt pulls ahead fast. I would say that at Essence 2, Spirit Weapons are stronger, and at 3-4 they're more or less equal. By Essence 5, the Crypt Bolt has a clear edge, and Essence 6+ just makes it wider. - FrivYeti

do you think this needs to be "fixed" -Azurelight

There's also the questions of charm applicability and support. In particular, spirit weapons are, by their nature, weapons. Can you throw them? Can you melee with them? All charms discussing weapons explicitly support them. Bolts are not weapons, so stunting must happen to do many things. Additionally, not everything must be per-item balanced. A follow-up might be a less well-known version of the elemental lens, for use with spirit weapons, or an additional Solar charm that adds scaling factors to spirit weapons - some sort of "Permanent: Your spirit weapons now have an additional (Essence) points to distribute among damage and accuracy, and their range is multiplied by your (Essence). These weapons now do Holy damage, and can strike dematerialized spirits. Once per action, you may reflexively call a spirit weapon back to your hand for no cost." Suddenly, it's looking not so bad, and can clearly pull past in many ways. If the Abyssal followup isn't that great, it works out in the end. -- GreenLantern