[Notebook] Getting you (razor sharp) Edge on

[Morgenstern]

Recouperating from some dental surgery has me curled up with some comfort gaming - fight games!

Wavebreaker Basics
The crashing waves wear down even mountains in time.
Prerequisites: Special Characters only, Edged forte
Benefit: You may wield a sheathed fencing blade or an empty fencing blade scabbard as if it were a sap (see Fantasycraft, page 177). One fencing blade on you person is considered armed at all times and you gain a stance.
Turning with the Tide (fencing blade/scabbard stance): If you make only 1 attack during a round, you gain a +1 bonus to the attack check and that attack inflicts an additional +5 damage. You gain 1 Edge each time you successfully feint an adversary.

Wavebreaker Mastery
The waters surge across the sands, drawing your enemies to their doom.
Prerequisites: Wavebreaker Basics
Benefit: Any opponent whose Dexterity is less than yours may not inflict melee or unarmed critical hits on you. You lose this benefit if you are held, helpless, pinned, sprawled, or unconscious. You also gain a trick.
Wave-splitter (fencing weapon attack trick): Spend 1 Edge. Your reach is increased by 10 ft. You may use this trick once per round.

Wavebreaker Supremacy
Day and night, the waves fall upon the shore endlessly.
Prerequisites: Wavebreaker Mastery
Benefit: As a full action, you may make 5 fencing blade attacks against a single adjacent opponent. The damage of each attack is reduced by 3 (minimum 1). If all 5 of these attacks hit an adversary in a single round, you gain 2 Edge. You also gain a trick.
Riptide-step (standard move trick): Spend 4 Edge. You may move past or through opponents, ignoring adjacency. At the end of your movement, 1 adjacent opponent of your choice becomes flat-footed. You must still end your movement in an empty square.

[Aldus Vertten]

Nice! Since your posts about videogame characters, i'm really eager to see more Edge-related feats and tricks...

[Daedalus]

More edge-oriented tricks for other weapon types would be nice to see.  I'm not yet comfortable to throw my hat in the ring for creating feat series, but the basic formula seems to be:

Basics: Benefit + Stance
Mastery: Benefit + Trick
Supremacy: Benefit + Trick

I do like the basic concept of Edge, and it seems that any weapon series that adds Edge would be appealing to any character that gets Chance feats as bonus feats (Sages, woohoo!) or any Species that points in the general direction of Chance. (Farstride Pech, woohoo!)  As it is, Edge seems to be one of those things that contribute to a lucky or suave character concept, like a fencer.

I really like what Morgenstern has done, and since he's an author, I wouldn't mind letting these feats into my game.  If this thread gets a little bigger, I'll probably try putting something out for one of the finesse-heavy weapon series, like Knives or possibly even Shields.

[Morgenstern]

I'm still having trouble with the editing window for posting on the boards, but I'll try to put together a few more detailed descriptions of my process and the frame works/considerations I'm working within in the next day or two.

Does anyone immediatly recognize which video game swordsman this was inspired by ?

[Morganti]

It reminds me of both Raphael from Soul Calibur, but I am probably wrong.

[Sletchman]

Setsuka, from soul calibur 4?  She used both sword and scabbard, and had moves called "Breaking Wave".

Also, cool feats.

[Morgenstern]

I can see similarities to both those characters, which is a plus . I was working from Tachibanna Ukyo and his protege (Samurai Showdown).

Things to note when doing a Edge feat chain:

There should be a stance, but it can be connected to the Basics or the Supremacy feat. Stances don't stack, so they are a good way to isolate chains from one another and generally restrain the power of the chain. Similarly tricks are non-cumulative, so they also limit the power of the chain.

Basics feat needs a "Special Characters only" entry (I forgot that the first time around). Edge is a special character thing.

The chain needs one Edge builder as part of the basics feat. A second edge builder is nice, but not required. Individual Edge builders should only allow you to gain 1 Edge per round each. Edge generation should only be triggered by interaction with adversaries - no stabbing stray chickens to build Edge.

Edge-based abilites should promote spending Edge rather than hording it. Some stances give a benefit based on current edge (see Lionheart Supremacy), but in general you want people building up and spending out at the earliest opportunity.

[Daedalus]

Would it be too weird to have an expert class that was based at least partially on Edge?

As it is, Sage can do pretty well at acquiring Edge through Chance feats, and the new available feats make it so that a Soldier could end up with a hefty sum as well, if he chooses Edge feats with his Career picks.

I'm imagining a class that uses Edge to gain temporary benefits akin to what already exists.  So far for Edge feats we have, in no particular order:

Wavebreaker Basics: Turning with the Tide (fencing blade/scabbard stance): If you make only 1 attack during a round, you gain a +1 bonus to the attack check and that attack inflicts an additional +5 damage. You gain 1 Edge each time you successfully feint an adversary.

Wavebreaker Mastery: Wave-splitter (fencing weapon attack trick): Spend 1 Edge. Your reach is increased by 10 ft. You may use this trick once per round.

Wavebreaker Supremacy:  Riptide-step (standard move trick): Spend 4 Edge. You may move past or through opponents, ignoring adjacency. At the end of your movement, 1 adjacent opponent of your choice becomes flat-footed. You must still end your movement in an empty square.

All In: You gain 1 Edge each time you roll a natural 20 on a skill check against an adversary. You may spend 4 Edge before making a skill check to increase both its threat and error ranges by 4.

Close Call: Benefit: You gain 1 Edge each time you spend an action die to boost a save. You may spend 3 Edge to automatically succeed with a failed save.

Lucky Break: Bonus: You gain 2 Edge at the beginning of each scene. Once per round when an attack hits you by 1 or less, you may spend 1 Edge to cause the attack to miss.

Lionheart Basics: Spend Edge for extra damage.  Condition for additional damage.  Gain Edge for successfully threatening.

Lionheart Mastery: Benefit: Gain Edge when attacked. Spend Edge to grant adjacent allies attacks.

Lionheart Supremacy: Benefit: Spend Edge to make enemies shaken. Stance with bonuses based on Edge and a penalty to Defense

That's all of them I know about for now, and the benefits seem to run the gamut.  Anyway, I'll be back when I have something more than a databae to contribute. 

EDIT:  Thanks Morgenstern.  I forget little things like the law and what people do with free information, apparently.

[Morgenstern]

You may want to streamline your descriptions of the Lionheart feats, as they are kinda the new hotness. You might also gain more insight by splitting the effects up into builders and spenders - they have very different roles in the process. Looks like a couple other Edge chains I posted disappeared with the work bench forum. I'm not at home, but I'll try to dig those out later.

At heart Edge is a timer. You gain up to around 1-2 Edge per round if your mojo is working, so anything that takes Edge to do has a certain amount of time spent charging up. Its a lot like how D&D dragons can only fire off their breath weapon every couple of rounds. If the Dragon had a benfit along the lines of "As a full action, you may spend 5 Edge to use your breath weapon." the results would be pretty similar (happens every 3-6 rounds) but the dragon would have to be doing something to actively charge up its big attack during the intervening rounds, and players could kinda cringe in anticipation as each point of Edge ticks up. "The Deathstar will fire in five Edge... The Deathstar will fire in four Edge..."

[esoclectica]

I just spent an hour looking through my pdf first edition for a definition of Special character.  There is no actual definition as near as I can tell, but it appears that anyone who can use Edge is a Special Character.  So, what is the definition of Special Character?  PC and some NPCs but not some others?
Thanks

[Mister Andersen]

A special character is basically an NPC who uses wounds/vitality instead of damage saves

[Crafty_Alex]

I just spent an hour looking through my pdf first edition for a definition of Special character.  There is no actual definition as near as I can tell, but it appears that anyone who can use Edge is a Special Character.  So, what is the definition of Special Character?  PC and some NPCs but not some others?
Thanks

Holy thread necromancy Batman!

Special characters are generally defined where they need to be (ie "If the target is a special character..."), as most rules work the same there. Doing a search in the PDF, the core definition comes at the beginning of page 224 (NPC basics), and there's another important distinction on page 206 (Injury and Death), which explains them in combat, and page 337 which explains what sort of XP they give up.

[Morgenstern]

Anyone copy these into the wiki yet?

Edit: Nevermind. Figured out how to do it myself finally .

[Nepenthe]

I just spent an hour looking through my pdf first edition for a definition of Special character.  There is no actual definition as near as I can tell, but it appears that anyone who can use Edge is a Special Character.  So, what is the definition of Special Character?  PC and some NPCs but not some others?
Thanks

Holy thread necromancy Batman!

Special characters are generally defined where they need to be (ie "If the target is a special character..."), as most rules work the same there. Doing a search in the PDF, the core definition comes at the beginning of page 224 (NPC basics), and there's another important distinction on page 206 (Injury and Death), which explains them in combat, and page 337 which explains what sort of XP they give up.

I think we have an example for the 'things that might be looked at for consolidation' discussion from Gencon!

[Morgenstern]

I'd swear special characters (and player characters being part of that group) are described in the first 15 pages of the book.