Alternate Core Documents

[Kkat]

Fair enough. I'm still not fond of it instantly shutting down a unicorn (especially after we took all that work to make sure that a pegaus who had a crippled wing wasn't instantly shut down) but maybe it just needs some testing.

There's a big difference between the "instant shutting down" of losing a spell (while possibly not even losing the strain) and the "instant shutting down" of being slaughtered.

[Kkat]

Unless I'm misremembering, weren't most of those instances where friends were interrupting other friends? I could see that easily argued away as simply being surprise, or that, when such disapproval was shown, they voluntarily decided to end the spell. There may well be examples I'm forgetting though.

Not even slightly accurate. And shame on you for forgetting an awesome Rarity scene. Go watch Ponyville Confidential again!

[Viewing_Glass]

Again, going for a unicorn's horn is difficult, and only stops them from casting spells. This doesn't stop them from attacking you with mundane means.

Mhm. At the same time, it also negates any perks that the unicorn has taken to augment their spells. Like I said, it probably just needs some testing and I'm happy to hold out and wait to see the results.

[TyrannisUmbra]

I'd like to suggest that while damage quota for interrupting spells may be bad, it may be good for shattering the horn, to prevent any old wimpy crit from dealing severe and long-lasting damage. Like I mentioned in my post in the first place, it should usually take a crit from a decently high-powered weapon to outright shatter a horn, not just any old smack with a hoof.

[Kkat]

Mhm. At the same time, it also negates any perks that the unicorn has taken to augment their spells. Like I said, it probably just needs some testing and I'm happy to hold out and wait to see the results.

Then you can see why we had to change the crippled wings rule... only interrupting spells is a "you lose your perks for a single action... of which you can possibly make several this turn" impediment and the crippling wings was, at best, "you lose all of your flight perks and racial specials for the rest of the combat, if not for several sessions until you can be healed" and was more often "roll a new character".

Really... not that comparable.

The penalties for hitting the horn keep this from being an issue at lower levels, but at higher levels I'm concerned about the balance. Being able to lock down a unicorn like this feels very similar to the mechanic of crippling a wing used to drop a flier from the sky, which we just removed for similar concerns.

See above. Not comparable.

I'd like to suggest that while damage quota for interrupting spells may be bad, it may be good for shattering the horn, to prevent any old wimpy crit from dealing severe and long-lasting damage. Like I mentioned in my post in the first place, it should usually take a crit from a decently high-powered weapon to outright shatter a horn, not just any old smack with a hoof.

Well, this would have to be a critical hit that is aimed at the horn, hits, and succeeds in crippling it. The rule is if the horn is "crippled through a critical hit", not merely struck.

[Viewing_Glass]

The penalties for hitting the horn keep this from being an issue at lower levels, but at higher levels I'm concerned about the balance. Being able to lock down a unicorn like this feels very similar to the mechanic of crippling a wing used to drop a flier from the sky, which we just removed for similar concerns.

Hrm...

What if Resilient Horn were altered with these new rules? Something like this:

Resilient Horn, 1 Rank, Level 8, Unicorn (insert other requirements here): Your horn is more resilient, allowing you to better keep a hold of your magic when someone would try and disrupt it. Your horn gains additional DT and DR equal to POT (now making the calculation POT x 2 DT and POT x 3 DR) and when another attempts to interrupt a spell by targeting your horn, you may roll an INT check at a penalty of 1 for every 10 full points of damage done, to a minimum of 1. A successful check means you keep the spell and cast as normal.

[Ragebrew]

This also brings to the table the fact that towards higher levels, anyone attacking a horn is most likely going to be doing so with a weapon that can damage the horn in some way, even if only for a few points. Any tier 2 weapons can bypass the DT, as could any armor piercing weapon (Unless they have a very tough horn through perks)

Having it take only a flick to stop someone from casting isn't going to mean someone set on killing you is going to flick your horn, when they could try to blow it clean off with a shotgun, and bash it with a lead pipe.

[Kkat]

If you want to stop your party member from casting Illusion of the Taste of Radroach on you, you shouldn't have to physically hurt her. Forcing a PC to do damage to another PC is bad.

True, but you're still forcing them to take an attack action, so you're already into a PvP situation. At that point, I'd say functional combat mechanics would trump that concern. Besides, much like I noted above, between two caring party members, such a show of disapproval would be akin to smacking someone to make them drop something - it might not hurt or even impede your ability to perform that action, but if you care about the person you're likely to stop.

Point one: As you admit with your "true", I'm right on this.
Point two: Your "much like above" was based on you not remembering the episode in question and being totally wrong.

Point three... the important one: If you force this attack to deal damage, then you make it an invitation for inter-party killing. If Sweet Tooth had been a unicorn, a show of disapproval from Red Button would not have been in any slight way a deterrent. A thwap on the horn for no damage might ended things with some soreness, but an attack that did even a single point would have ended in PCs murdering each other and possibly the disintegration of the game.

I'll agree the horn requires an extra level of detail, but I don't understand why a critical hit that cripples can shatter a horn whereas a critical hit that cripples can't sever an arm, which, given you're working with muscle and tendon rather than solid bone, should be much easier.

The purpose of the rule is to make shattering a horn hard and to prevent abuse by keeping people from confusing a "crippled horn" with a "shattered horn" which they absolutely would confuse without that rule. The rule is there to protect unicorn players. Please stop insisting that we then couple it with rules that would serve no purpose other than to make called shots more open to abuse by giving everyone a mechanically-guaranteed way to disintegrate legs. Let's not make one step forward to make three steps back.

[Viewing_Glass]

Alright folks, let's take a step back and get some testing done on this for now. Once we have some data on it, we can come back to it.

Kkat, what did you think of my revision to Resilient Horn? Do you think we should give it a shot?

[Kkat]

Alright folks, let's take a step back and get some testing done on this for now. Once we have some data on it, we can come back to it.

Kkat, what did you think of my revision to Resilient Horn? Do you think we should give it a shot?

Would that be in addition to the +30 Strain? Or replace it?