ALL NOVEL Issue 10 – Acknowledge the Assay
Masteries, Soft Metas/1 and /2: Merciful Spell and Of The Invulnerable World. Not doing lethal damage and not harming the environment, both +0 Metas, and basically tailor-made for non-lethal combat and a world of supers.
The spell variations I was looking at had incredible requirements for manual dexterity and coordination, not just mental manipulation, truly weaving spells together. The style of Casting was MUCH more physically dependent...
The Valence II would be fixed at Improved Shards until I reached Three Caster... but I had a Ki Pool.
The third Mastery was Recover Energy: Spend ki = ½ Valence (round up) to regain an expended Spell or Slot.
Two Skill Points... both went into Weaving, patterns and styles of interchanging threads physical and metaphysical began to make some sense to me...
Strands of webbing began to fill in my Wizard Valences, too, but there were no Spell Engrams there to store the power. I noted, however, that the Ring Domain spell of Force Armor was up and functional. Yesssssss...
I still had four Spell Engrams I could fill in.
I didn’t have a lot to pick through. Two Shields and two Force Armors congealed in the already existing patterns for my Wizard Valences. My Caster Level was crap, so neither would last overly long, but one minute and one hour respectively were enough to do the job if I needed them... and who knew how powerful they would be here?
I also had seven floating ki I could use to get them back, which was very nice.
I wiped the Cantrips of the Wizardry Spell Engrams clean. When I learned more of them, I could fill them back in. That probably wouldn’t happen until Five, and Exemplar Surge.
UNLESS I got myself access to a library that actually had information about how to weave spells in this style/tradition. Until then, I was on a very limited selection, and my Wizard Valences were just there to supplement my Sorcerer ones.
Testing...
No, it wasn’t letting me take another Level. I could take all the Masteries and Feats I was allowed to, but that was the extent of it.
Fine, that was enough for now.
But I could Assay now!
In a different section of the park, it was time to do some internal investigating, and find out what the heck was going on here...
------
Assessment time. I popped the Assay Self and put it up in my Visual File.
==========
Dynamo
Female Human/1; Spider Totem Warlock*
Vizard/3*; Wizard/1 Sorcerer/1 (Learned Sage); Monk/1 (Arcane Fist)
Strength: 6 (16/26) Height: 5’2”
Dexterity: 16 (26/36) Weight: 85 lbs.
Constitution: 12 (16/26) Hair: Black
Intellect: 22 Eyes: Green
Wisdom: 14 Age: 14
Charisma: 14
Health: 11
Soak: 32
Movement: 50’
Talent: Naturally Focused
Templated Powers: Enhanced Might; Enhanced Reflexes; Increased Fortitude and Stamina; Poison Resistance and Acquired Immunity; Radiation Immunity; Danger Sense; Perfect Balance; Bio-Electric Generation*; Enhanced Speed and Jumping; Impact Resistance; Covalent Bonding/Repulsion; Healing Factor; Enhanced Climbing
Warlock Powers: Strength Increase; Dexterity Increase; Constitution Increase; Speed Increase; Reaction Time Increase; Damage Reduction Increase; Increased Healing Factor
Acquired Powers: Immune to Fire and Cold extremes, affinity for Fire and Cold Magic; Spellcaster (Weaver Magic)
...
--------
Huh. It actually gave me a name... and wasn’t my hair brown? Sure looked like it...
Well, wasn’t this not a Stat format for a budding spellcaster. This was more a template for a tank... no, the Dexterity increase was the biggest. A finesse or speed fighter. There was a rather large lack of electrical-related control stuff, so I definitely wasn’t being set up as an electrokinetic...
My Vizard Levels were broken off separately, and seemed fixed once I retrained them and filled them in. Or perhaps they represented a separate division of Skill-focused Classes?
Wizard and Sorcerer had stacked. That was marginally bad, but I’d take it. I had something I could do tomorrow. Give ye not up Caster Levels and such stuff...
Arcane Fist had also broken off into its own category. I assumed that was a division for combat Classes.
So, two, MAYBE three categories of Classes, stacking within them. I wouldn’t know if there was a Primary/Secondary rule until I got there, but given how superheroes were trope-dominated, I considered it likely.
I looked at the Assay sharply as I realized something, and slowly and carefully Wove up Detect 0, Evil, and then swapped in Law, Chaos, and Good one by one.
Only then did Alignment: Neutral Good appear on the Assay.
I wasn’t sure what that meant. Maybe they found it difficult to measure the Alignments here? Or the magic worked on a subjective basis for them, not the absolute basis of the Alignments themselves?
Too much thinking...
Template powers. Okay, that was how it was reporting superheroic stuff, which made sense. You received x abilities and then improved them from there. A Science hero would probably have a maxed out set of bonuses to Gear creation and knowledge skills, while a detective-type would max out normal investigative abilities and personal combat, most likely.
What did magic fall into? A true superpower ability? Combat skills and knowledge-type skills were both mundane things that could be magnified into something more.
Ahg, too much thought...
Let’s focus, focus, too much shit running through my head, too many things I need to know, and know like right now...
Enhanced Might. This gave me a flat +20 bonus to Might, or roughly x16 normal strength. It was why I felt so light, as I was sixteen times stronger than I should be.
However, it was being overwritten by Strength Increase, which was giving me +5 to true Strength per level of Warlock Blast. One was lifting and brute force, the other was Power. So, I looked as skinny as a rail, but I could bench literally a ton.
As my Wrath increased, the one would build, and the other would be overwritten. So, the +20 was like a minimum effect that would be exceeded in time and was not dependent on Wrath.
Which could be quite important at later Levels.
Dexterity was working the same way, except my base was higher. The fixed buff was to reflexes and reaction time, but the Wrath-bonus included aiming and coordination, not just evasive ability and response time.
The Fortitude and Stamina buff was actually stacking on the increased Constitution, basically providing increased resistance to poison and Fortitude save stuff, like endurance, health, and physical resistance, but the actual Constitution buff per Wrath die was small.
The Poison Resistance was impressive, and Acquired Immunity meant that as soon as I made a save against a poison, I started to mend any effects of the poison quickly and would never be susceptible to it again.
Looked like I was going to have to expose myself to a bunch of poisons preemptively. Diseases should also qualify, from that standpoint... and given I’d just been splattered with vampire blood, that should include anything vampiric...
Immunity to Radiation was also very nice, although I wasn’t planning on going into hot zones frequently. I eyed my pale complexion, and realized why my skin was that way. I was immune to UV, so there was no tanning effect taking place. I could sun myself all day and it would make no difference.
Huh.
Danger Sense. The eight bright Red Eyes flared up in my backbrain, and the strands of webbing on my soul seemed to pulse and jerk.
This was a Fate effect, and effectively Timesight. It gave me an Insight Bonus to my Initiative, Reflex saves, and AC against attacks, since I was basically pre-warned about attacks coming from different vectors, and the equivalent of Uncanny Dodge and Evasion came with them.
I could probably adapt it to a bonus to hit and maybe damage, too, avoiding those circumstances where I might miss or hit a strong point, as such would drag out a fight, which was more dangerous to me...
The damn eyeballs were manifesting as fear, probably because if I’d failed to acknowledge them, I’d have died, and that was pretty damn motivating. I hadn’t been equipped to deal with that level of fear in the beginning, and as I got tougher, my response was acclimating accordingly.
These vampires were dangerous because I was weak, not because they were too strong. If I hadn’t taken all those Levels and Masteries abruptly, one hit getting through could have done for me.
Favored by Fate meant the Red Eyes were even more potent than they should have been. Great danger could impel me to act faster and sooner, as it had when it had chased me out of the complex I had woken up in. But in an active combat setting, the effect of it was based on my Wrath, as the conflict of combat was much harder to find a way through...
It was also the primary Warlock Whim power of this Pact.
Perfect Balance gave me a flat +20 bonus to all Balance checks, and allowed me to Take 10 on them, regardless of the stress of the situation. I had the balance of a master acrobat and literally could not get dizzy or have my sense of balance thrown off. A default 33 with no other bonuses would have made me among the finest human acrobats in the world. Superhuman Dexterity and developing the skill at all would only make it even more unreal.
Bio-electric Generation. This was naturally tied to my Warlock Wrath, except the Wrath didn’t manifest as eldritch bolts, it constantly circulated through my body and provided all the other benefits going on concurrently. Basically, it enhanced my cells and linked them up, enabling me to generate extra juice, a completely ‘natural’ effect that was not magical.
So, I wasn’t generating magical lightning, technically...
The default Wrath attack here was unleashing it by touch, of all things. The Warlock Blast Masteries allowed me to unleash them with full-force melee attacks, and then shove them out of myself to short range, although my accuracy probably had something to be desired, given I had no electrokinesis.
That meant I would be better off powering up a tool or something for my ranged punch. I filed that away.
Enhanced Speed and Athleticism. This was a straight +10 increase to base foot speed per Wrath level, the ability to make a running jump from a standstill with full explosive power, and using the Repulsion effect of the covalent bond manipulation to get some real height if I wanted it.
I could already do a ten-foot vertical hop without much effort. Also, I thought I was taking Acrobatics, but I was taking Athletics, which was Acrobatics, Swim, Climb, and Jump all together.
No, no, this wasn’t a physical enhancement Template at all, nope, nope. It was certainly not trying to turn me into a super-soldier of some kind, nuh-uh!