Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Innate Attack: Ki Blasts/Kamehameha

A friend that I am playing a Dungeon Fantasy campaign with asked for something similar for his Martial Artist character. This is probably a straightforward attack. He really likes Dragon Ball Z but I've never watched it. The key elements for describing the attack seem to be:

  1. It's a launched projectile
  2. It's got a moderate ability to modify the power level
  3. It specifically calls out the need to use both hands
  4. It has knockback
  5. It depends on a longer charging time
So let's see how to stat this out.

First Pass

First off at the base, it is obviously a projectile innate attack that does burning damage. This is 5 points a level for damage. The biggest drawback and reason the attack isn't used repeatedly is because it requires a long preparation. The most appropriate of all the modifiers is Takes Extra Time which adds a requirement for immediate ready maneuvers. 3 levels add 4 ready maneuvers before attacking. The characters seem vulnerable after such an ultimate attack, so we can further give a discount for requiring an all out attack described in Powers. I can't find a modifier for requiring a user to have two empty hands, so I'll call it a -5% Nuisance effect because the martial arts practitioners that would use this are usually bare-handed fighters anyway. Because this ability is usually pretty accurate, even though martial artists don't have innate attack, I'll add 1 level of accurate to the attack so that the user can potentially aim at 1 level of DX. I think the preparation required to use this attack makes it unnecessary to add fatigue cost, but the users do seem a little tired after using it, so I'll throw in a costs FP. Finally, let's throw on variable because users often temper the strength to the size of the threat.

So for this version of the ability we have:
Ki Blast (-35%): Innate Attack (Crushing) 4 (Takes Extra Time, 4 Seconds, -30%; All Out Attack -25%; Nuisance Effect (Requires Unarmed) -5%;Accurate +5%; Requires FP 1 -5%; Variable +5%, Chi Power -10%; Incendiary +10%; Double Knock Back +20%) [13].

Second Pass

The first attack is 3.25 points per level. at 4 levels, it costs 13 points even. If we want, we could make a slightly weaker version as an alternate ability to this attack that doesn't require as much time, let's make a weak level 1 or level 2 innate attack as an alternate ability.

Ki Blast (Weaker) (+10%): Innate Attack (Crushing)  1 (Nuisance Effect (Requires Unarmed) -5%; Requires FP 1 -5%; Chi Power -10%; Incendiary +10%; Double Knock Back +20%) [6].

This ability as an alternate ability to the first is 2 points, and makes the Ki Blast a total of 15 points. It takes 1 second to switch between strong form and weak form. They can be used with Innate Attack (Beam) DX/Easy. The weaker form is harder to aim accurately, but doesn't take as much time. It is also a Chi Power, so Chi Talent bonuses apply.

Other Ideas

For an attack that simulates shooting several fireballs in a short period, a weak attack with high rate of fire could be appropriate. A GM might allow leveling this advantage, but if it were up to me, I'd make a player by a new stronger version of the attack with a longer charge time, and reconfigure the alternate ability setup so that these 2 abilities are alternate abilities of that one because allowing a martial artist to have crazy amounts of power with a projectile could encroach on a magic user's niche.

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