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A better place for us to discuss our interpretations of Magic and its schools and to ask questions and whatnot.
Mac- The way I see it (which is in now way necessarily the right way), Battlecraft is sort of a mix of transmutation, Earthbending, Elven Magic and Saiyan powers (FMA, Avatar, Obsidian Triology and DBZ respectively). I figure if it falls under the ideas in the pdf of strengthing/weakening something (like a shelf or door or such), "creating a castle out of sand", which is where I got my transmutation stuff, and "pull a lever", which I would say is a limited telekinesis sort of ability, almost like jedi using the force to push/pull and such.
Does that make sense?
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After looking over that section... I definitely agree with all that you've said.
My question is, does this transmutation only affect earth materials? By that I mean can a Battlecrafter transmute water?
Also, do these transmutations operate on the Alchemic law of equivalent exchange?
I think the weirdest part of Battlecraft is the seemingly random telekinetic power. Perhaps Mr. Brunner could expound on this when he has the time.
/*~Matthew Miller~*\
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I've been scanning through the Magic Styles...
Wow, some scary stuff in there!
Once question regarding Hearts. Is the middle column one complete column, or is that a break between Hearten and Suffering&Despair?
Also, has it been mentioned that there are no Grand Magic Styles while it says in the Wizard's advancement entry that he gains such things?
/*~Matthew Miller~*\
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For magic, what happens when you get Unsteadied? Is it considered a recast, or no? It's probably in the book somewhere but I didn't see it. Regarding hearts: 1. Should it be "Two hearts BEAT as one"? It says "beast" right now. 2. Does Sympathy need to hit both of its targets to link them? MacLeod wrote:Once question regarding Hearts. Is the middle column one complete column, or is that a break between Hearten and Suffering&Despair? That's a break (or at least looks like one). Similar to Five Seasons, you can't "jump across" Inner Life Flashback, it's separate from the rest of the style. MacLeod wrote:Also, has it been mentioned that there are no Grand Magic Styles while it says in the Wizard's advancement entry that he gains such things? Sure there are, they're just not labelled as such, if I'm right. Highcraft, Incandescence, Language of Stars, Maelstrom, and Weremagic are the grand styles I believe. It mentions it somewhere earlier in the book iirc.
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Quote:1. Should it be "Two hearts BEAT as one"? It says "beast" right now. I'm pretty sure that is a mistake. I've mentioned it the errata thread. =) Quote:2. Does Sympathy need to hit both of its targets to link them? Have to wait for official word on that... but I would think so. It makes thematic sense. Yo know, one of things we need is that gloss from the Combat Primer only expanded to cover all of the styles. Quote:That's a break (or at least looks like one). Similar to Five Seasons, you can't "jump across" Inner Life Flashback, it's separate from the rest of the style. I figured as much but the way that the text was placed, I wasn't sure. Quote:Sure there are, they're just not labelled as such, if I'm right. Highcraft, Incandescence, Language of Stars, Maelstrom, and Weremagic are the grand styles I believe. It mentions it somewhere earlier in the book iirc. Ah, I guess that is a piece of errata that needs handling then. =)
/*~Matthew Miller~*\
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MacLeod wrote:Yo know, one of things we need is that gloss from the Combat Primer only expanded to cover all of the styles. IIRC, Mr Brunner said they weren't put with it because he didn't have a lot of time and didn't think people wanted them that much. I personally like the flexibility of not having everything explicitly defined. Having to hit two targets with a d6 (in the same round?) seems rough but it's also an incredibly powerful spell (albeit you can't recast while it's up and thus cannot deal damage). I think this just needs a clarification, but an entire gloss would be overkill when there's only a question over like one maneuver.
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Totally forgot my 'u' there, makes me look really cool.
Personally, I'd like to have the gloss for each style printed on the back of it for tabletop accessibility...
Well, outside of an entire gloss... I'd at least like a standard format and terminology for the wording of each maneuver.
Take Twin Weapon's Masterful Feint, for instance. I know what "+1 atk & def next rnd" means... but it could be confused with something that it doesn't mean fairly easily. Attack Die could be AD, or AtD... Defense Die, DD, or DfD. Stuff like that.
/*~Matthew Miller~*\
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The lists of magic schools is on page 40-41
"Basic":Dramba, Druid, Battlecraft, Hearts, Incandesence, and LoS
Grand: Death Lore, Highcraft, Maelstrom, Spellsmith, Weremagic
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Hi Guys - sorry it's taken me a bit to get to this thread. Not sure if I'll have time to get to every question in here right now, but I'm going to try.
Battlecraft is in a lot of senses the school closest to the kings' hearts. The kings have helped to shape it over the past few centuries, and it has grown eclectic but pragmatic. It's a general school, touching on a lot of different aspects. It's a very physical school with physical manifestations: stone pincers, ribbons of acid-dripping dragon sinew (those Ribbons of Hessek), etc. If you want to look at that as transmutation, then yeah, you bet. I've only read the first volume of FMA, so I have limited knowledge, but I'd say that's a fair comparison from what I know. Battlecraft can work on more materials than just earth materials (for example, conjuring whiplashing tendrils of dragon sinew).
Yep, Two Hearts Beat as One is the correct spelling/typing.
If you're unsteadied as you re-cast, same thing happens as when you're fighting physically: you're limited next round to a maneuver one away from a rebalance-maneuver. Good question.
Hearts style does indeed have a break in the center. The only way to reach Suffering is from (on the left side) Hate, I think it is (Fear leads to Anger leads to Hate leads to Suffering, :) iirc) or from the maneuver on the right, which I can't remember as I don't have the sheet in front of me right now. But the four maneuvers on the bottom of the Hearts style are isolated. You can't get to the top from them.
On the style sheets, the "Grand" is missing from the styles that were pointed out upthread: Highcraft, Weremagic, Maelstrom, Death Lore, and Spellsmith.
As I mentioned in another thread, wizards and their familiars are like master & apprentice. Even though the familiar is spellbound, he doesn't interfere with his wizard.
Good point about Sympathy. Yes, it needs to hit both targets. I will make that clearer.
BTW we had some awesome play out of the Swashbuckler style in the game today... daredevil moves up zeppelin rigging, followed by spectacular strikes that boosted all his allies' mood... although he got rebalanced just before Death From Above. Really good narrative inspiration descriptions too. I wish you all were here to play!
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