Difference between revisions of "HearthStones/GreenLantern"

Revision as of 13:55, 2 August 2006

So I've got some ideas regarding some hearthstones, but I don't know what level to put them at. Hence, I'm looking for advice. One thing I will note is that HearthStones in the game I play in tend to be on the more powerful side, as the PC's are allowed to pick any canonical hearthstone they'd like, and as such, we've got PC's with the Gem of Incomparable Wellness and such. As a note, please forgive me for the stone concepts that are nothing more than effect listings - I've got a finite number of points to spend on the stones, so I'm brainstorming for effect ideas, then worrying about detailing them out more. Anyway, on to the concepts:

• Solar Aspected: The Generally Excellent Stone - This 1.5 inch diameter truncated cuboctahedron [1] (26-sided polyhedron) appears to be made of Adamant, and for all intents and purposes, is perfect. Crystal clear, with edges so sharp that an unobservant owner will cut themselves on them, such a stone would sell for a fortune even to a mortal, merely due to its beauty and utility in jewelry. When attuned, the stone's innate qualities resonate with the bearer's Exaltation, subtly altering a small aspect of their charm usage. Anytime the character activates a 'generic' charm such as an (Ability) Excellency, or the Infinite (Ability) Mastery, the cost of that charm activation is reduced by 2 motes, to a minimum of zero motes. As the charm is released, one of the faces of the stone can be seen to shimmer with color. Depending on which (Ability) is being used at the time, this face changes, but there is always a one-to-one correspondence between faces of the stone and abilities. This stone was therefore a popular research tool among First Age occultists, as it helped define the 25 ability descriptions spoken of in the 1000 Actions of the Upright Soldier. Intriguigingly, not even the great First Age philosophers were ever able to cause the 26th face of the stone to activate, leading some to wonder if there is as yet an undiscovered ability to be harnessed, or if that particular ability was lost to Creation during the Primoridal war. When attuned to be the Terrestrial Exalted (or, more precisely, any non-Celestial Exalt), the stone's internal Solar workings are much less effective. The cost reduction is reduced to a single mote, with to a minimum of one mote.

• Earth Aspected?: Reduce all attunement costs by a factor of 2, to a minimum of 1m. This allows you to attune magical materials not of your type for normal cost, and makes attuning to materials of your type quite cheap. Perhaps also reduce the time it takes to attune by 2.

• Illuminated Cherubic Transformation (L5 Solar): Ovoid in nature, this translucent white stone is smooth to the touch, and can be compressed with a bit of effort. Laced throughout with veins of golden light, as if containing some sort of deific yolk, it is almost entirely unknown by the sages of the Second Age. To first determine how to activate the stone requires either an Intelligence+Lore roll at difficulty 4, or alternately, a very lucky circumstance (ST discretion) When activated, the veins within the stone begin to glow slightly, and then begin to spread from the stone at an alarming rate, growing up and into the bearer, his clothing, equipment, and any willing or non-living object he could reasonably carry. Less than a moment later, the character (and all associated clothing, carried items, etc) fade from the physical world, transforming into a being composed purely of light. The character is considered de-materialized for the purposes of effects that cannot harm or affect such beings, and materialized for the purposes of those that can only affect de-materialized beings. At the same time, he cannot interact with Creation in any meaningful fashion, able to barely discern his surroundings (+2 difficulty to Awareness or Perception rolls) due to the pervasive illumination from within his own eyes. If he attempts to move, he will find that he can move in any direction, ignorant of gravity or transient obstruction (such as a door, wagon, or guard, but not a wall, mountain, or tree), at an extremely high speed, acheiving over 800 miles an hour if traveling for long distances. Activating this stone normally requires a (Simple) speed 5 action, at the end of which the character vanishes, but this period can be reduced by one tick for every mote the character spends. Reducing the speed to 0 makes the transformation reflexive, where it can provide an interesting alternative to some defenses. At the same time, the re-formation process always takes a full 5 ticks, making it less than useful as a quick dodge method.

• Essence-Binding Clay (L X Earth-Aspect): Only loosely able to be called a hearthstone, this clay-like lump of ...something is often formed in Manses in muddy and clay-filled regions. While it provides a connection to it's Manse, almost no level of investigation or research will find that it has any additional powers, as most stones do. Instead, this lump of clay's special properties only shine when placed against (or formed around) another hearthstone. In such a situation, the clay sticks, binds, and adheres around the other heartstone, pulling the energy out of it. In such a situation, the 'victim' hearthstone provides no essence flow to the user (though any additional powers still function normally). Instead, the power flows through the clay, discoloring it slightly with veins appropriate to the color of the victim stone. This increases the amount of essence provided by the Essence-Binding Clay by an appropriate amount. Thus, a L4 Essence-Binding Clay, with a L5 victim stone inset, would provide a total of (4+5)*2 motes per hour to the bearer. This explicitly allows a character to benefit from the essence regeneration of multiple hearthstones at once. While it is possible to stretch and form the clay around multiple hearthstones at once, claiming multiple victims, there is not quite enough to go around. As such, for each additional stone so covered, the effective rate of essence regeneration contributed by the victim is reduced by one. Thus, covering a L5, an L3, and a L2 would provide only (5+3+2-2)*2 = 16 motes per hour above the rating of the Essence-Binding Clay. As such, adding additional L1 stones is quite nearly useless. Separating the Essence-Binding Clay from a victim stone is quite simple, requiring only a few seconds of time as the clay is peeled off.

• The Mimic Stone (L 3 Lunar-Aspect): Generally formed only at manses constructed almost entirely of moonsilver, the Mimic Stone is a nondescript mostly transparent lump when formed. While in the area of it's native manse, the stone has no discernable magical properties, providing no additional essence respiration, nor additional effects, even when socketed. Instead, the stone's true power only comes to light when it leaves the safety of its home, traveling to within the range of another Manse. In such a situation, the stone begins to shift, flow, and change over the course of approximately 5 minutes, eventually forming an identical copy of the stone that would be generated by the manse capping that region. This is an identical copy in every way, providing appropriate essence respiration, effects, powers, et cetera - if dropped into a bag with the 'real' stone, there would be no real way (short of taking both stones outside of the range of the generating manse) to tell them apart. Useful as a means of scouting long-forgotten manses, quickly determining what type of stone a freshly constructed manse will generate (in 30 days time), and as a way of copying powerful stones for limited uses, the mimic stone is completely useless outside of the region capped by a manse. Interestingly enough, there are quite of few of these stones still in existence, and held by the Realm - though as they've never left the safety of the family household or armory, the Dragon-Blooded are completely unaware of the tactical utility in their possession.

Commentage

Bump? No ideas on what level of stones these effects should require? -- GreenLantern

I'm not good with Hearthstone levels - offhand, I'd call the Solar stone a 4 and the Earth stone a high 3. Out of curiousity, though, why did you select the 0-mote minimum for the Solar stone? As I recall, cost-reducing effects typically reduce costs to a minimum of one mote (or, in the case of the really nice ones, a minimum of one mote in a single turn). What's your motivation for moving away from this pattern? - David.

If it's for 2nd ed, the paradigm there seems to be (solar) cost reducers work fine down to zero, at least the excellency one. That might be a special case, of course.
-- Darloth

Ah, I see. I haven't read 2e yet, so I wasn't aware that the system has moved away from the minimum-1 rule. - David.

Solar 4, Earth 3 seems about right. I would make make the Solar one reduce to a minimum of one, but I'm not sure. I would definatly make the Earth one reduct to a minimum of 1, just so you can't attune to an infinte number of small artifacts. -FlowsLikeBits

I'm curious how the Solar one would interact with Infinite (Ability) Mastery. Would you have a two mote discount on activating the persistent, then have an additional two mote discount on each activation? Hrm, must read Infinite (Ability) Mastery again... ~TzalFlameforge
Re-reading, Infinite Mastery is a mote-cost reducer, which can similarly be reduced. If you can apply the hearthstone twice (and I see no reason why you couldn't) it essentially reduces the cost of Infinite Mastery by six motes. That's a pretty nice effect, but honestly that doesn't seem like a level four hearthstone to me. It seems much more powerful when you aren't considering someone with Infinite Mastery, though. A Dragon Blooded can add four dice free with this, and it knocks the third excellency down to a mere two motes. That makes it seem powerful, until you consider that you can't use it unless you have charms. Specific charms. That in and of itself is a pretty serious drawback. I'd call it a three. ~TzalFlameforge

I think you're overstating the "drawback" of this stone's interactions with certain, extremely common, Charms. - David.

Hmmm.. I had forgotten the interaction with the already-cheap Terrestrial Excellencies. Given the essentially free four dice it gives a Terrestrial on dang near any activation, and since Terrestrials can activate reflexives like candy, they can stat-pump with this thing like crazy. That's real bad. Hence, new sentence added. For non-Celestials, it only drops cost by 1m, to a minimum of 1m. Keeps the Terrestrials from getting one of these and a Jade Hand and going hog-nuts. (L3 Jade Hand->Reduce in-element charm costs by 3, min 1mote. Then, for excellencies, drop it another 2, min 0. That's 5m, for 10 dice. Thus, you can max your die-cap at will. For free. As many times per turn as you want. That's bad.) -- GreenLantern

Well, the Jade Hand is severly broken anyway, so I wouldn't worry to much about compensating for a broken artifact. -FlowsLikeBits

I agree with FLB here. When writing Charms or artifacts for Exalted, trying to take into account every broken artifact or potential abuse. Just trust in the power of the Storyteller to say, "no". :) Anyway, even with the limitation for Terrestrials, I'd still call it a level four. Effects that manipulate Charm costs and such always seem kind of high-end to me. - David. who, incidentally, probably needs to talk to you, GL, regarding an IRC game.

Sweet! -- GL, now all a-twitter over the possibility of an IRC game with David.

Pop over to #wod if you get a chance, I should be around. - David.

Regarding the Jade Hand, while it's horribly broken, it's also a canon item in one of the games I play in. The same ST that allows you to pick your starting hearthstone (because after all, 99.87% of Manse owner's go Manse-shopping to pick just the right one), they also allow you to pick your artifacts. (Because hey - don't just raid any old First-Age tomb. Raid the one containing custom-made artifacts that work perfectly for you!). Now, there are no Terrestrials in-game, but still, as a crunch-demon, it's my job to make things as hole-proof as possible. -- GL