In our last session, I found some problems with the combat itself. To be frank, I am still new at this game and I have a hard time to balance things out.

In a battle at a snowy mountain, the four heroes faced off a Warrior Summoner witch thing with three of her summons. I thought the beasts would become a very troubling encounter considering their high ATs and powers. The trick was to aim at their weak spots in order to overcome them. The W-Summoner was a ki user as well and would unleash herself against the heroes with fury of powers. The heroes were still kind of inexperienced and such, so I think it would become quite a struggling but epic fight.

But alas, the session turned disastrous. The overcome the obstable, sure, but...

The game started off well. The heroes were in the tavern of Tiberias in Abel Province. Their goal was to get up in the mountain and investigate a mysterious huge tree, one similar they had found in the Forest of the Moon. So they hitched up with a old, goofy goldminer and went up. All went well, and the team role-played just nicely. But it came to a halt after they met an old guy who turned out to be one of the character's old mentor and master who had gone into exile (ok, more like after that, when they went ahead and faced off against a powerful witch summoner. They got beaten and retreated). The old master took them to his old hut and agreed to train them in the ways of Ki. This is where the roleplaying pretty much died off for the session and turned into leveling, picking Ki abilities, creating Dominion Techniques, yada-yada-yada...

There was simply no room for character development and everyone just wanted to get things dealt with. They remained there for a month, which seemed like no time at all, which is unfortunate. Training seemed to be nothing the people wanted to roleplay through and just wanted to pick the abilities and try them out on the enemy. @_@
But it's partially my fault as well, since I had intended to end the session by the witch's defeat and had to speed it up.

At the battle, the roleplaying was pretty much dead. It was all about standing still, accumulating ki or zeon, and roll dices. Battles have been so very boring and I have no idea how to spice it up. The heroes were also pimped up to hard, the enemy weren't as tough as I had expected them to be (later on this). The heroes dominated the battlefield both in terms of powerlevel, terrain and opportunism, and the whole thing felt anti-climatic in the end.

The Issues.

#1: The Role-playing.

How can I make the battles more dynamically interesting in terms of roleplaying?
The accumulation is super boring, both heroes and villains stand there like dumb, and the process of calculating damage, the initative and whatnot slowed the paced down so very much it quenched the epicness away. Is it possible to somehow free-form battles, rolling dice only when attacking? (Or something). Are villains and heroes supposed to brag/make long speeches/praise or taunt the foe when doing the accumulations like in typical anime?

#2. Ki & Magic... VS... Psychic Powers
A combatant in the hero party totally dominated the battlefield, and that was the Mentalist. He didn't need to bother accumulating like everyone else and could immedialy cast his über spells on the enemy warlock Lamia, who was forced to use up her zeon to shield, or roll her crappy dodge for massive damage. She got quickly obliterated.
Why is Psychic so overpowered compared to Ki and Magic? Do they have any penalties I am not aware of to compensate this immediate burst of power?

Also, is all Ki accumulated immediately un-accumulated when tossing a minor power, and meaning they have to restart accumulating again!? This seemed to be correct according to the book, and it doesn't help the game's feeling of awe.

#3. Balance in battle
Are there any particular rules or guidelines on how to balance a combat encounter? I had 4 enemies: a huge Hyena monster with damage resistance acting brawler & tank, a flying vampire bat shadow, and a warlock Lamia snake-lady. Commanding them was a Warrior Summoner with Ki and Invocations. I made them kinda high-leveled compared to the heroes, but yet the good guys didn't break any serious sweat after their leveling, and I am not even sure if that did matter.
-The Hero Summoner in the party drove the bat away in a 1-on-1 battle, and stalled it.
-The Mentalist practically raped Lamia with fire and electricity, nullifying her attempts to accumulate and do anything.
-Some of others dealt with the Hyena monster, which became more of a pushover. It's 8 AT seemed useless, and a hero managed to crit it for massive damage.
-The W-Summoner managed to hold out but got eventually overwhelmed by hundreds of attacks. Lamia was dead, the bat distracted, the Hyena far off, so she eventually fell without a good support.

I am not sure what to ask more than guidelines to build an encounter. This battle got one-sided and tame. x,(

SSB_Shadow said:

Thank you for putting so much detail in your post. These problems are not just with you, I've been experiencing them myself too. I made a post recently with some ideas (attempts) at balancing the aquisition of these powers, because I don't know how else to address the problems of Ki and Psychic.

If this were an MMO, the internet would be churning with terrible reviews about the lack of game balance, broken powers, and overpowered classes.

The only time I've seen a threatening battle is when there is an enemy that has thousands of Life Points and damage resistance, so its virtually impossible to crit the thing, and it can't be pwned in one round, even with Ki attacks. But, not every campaign should be filled with monstrous bosses everywhere - that is what console games are for.. which unfortunately some of this game seems to be modeled after (Ki abilities in particular).

Psychic has basically no balances built into it that are even comparable to Magic. You buy up a bunch of free PPs and crank your psi potential or projection to max. Then you're ready to spam any powers you want to with no buildup, no cost, no downtime. Powers that get better in more ways than damage the higher your open-rolls get.

If I was a power gamer I could make a Mentalist and take over the entirety of Gaia in under a year (or until the Powers in the Shadow recruited/killed me).

Sorry for the rant, but I do have something constructive to add. A few solutions that can be leveraged:

• Don't make any of your serious game challenges combat-related at all. There should never be a boss the characters can fight that will make any difference to the outcome of the adventure. The boss should always be many steps ahead of them, or far too clever to expose themselves to brutal force.
• Give your major foes power-gamer levels of Ki and Psychic powers. The bad-guys could always be a duo of a Ki Master and a Mentalist who are both tricked out with the best techniques and tons of PP. Then build out their empire from there - what would you do if you were a smart villain?
• Invent artifacts that have intelligence and can teleport (so they are never acquired by the characters) but which have defensive powers that nullify most of what the characters can dish out. (See Artifact Creation rules for some player-created guidelines on how to put these together)
• Put the characters up against one of the Organizations or the Powers in the Shadow so that they realize open use of those levels of power will make them targets of the real big fish out there. A powerful PC that gets gobbled by a psychic Inquisitor or a Cyborg should send the message home.

Basically, until all the supplements are available in English, the game cannot be balanced as its presented. With systems like AD&D, a character's power is balanced by level against other powers in the game, and against the plethora of creatures from a multitude of manuals and supplements. Anima has no such balance. As one person mentioned in a previous post - a level 1 Technician, if built right, could take down a level 15 monster.

The way I'm doing it with my campaign is, plot and storyline dictates what the characters can and can't do - its never solely about their fighting prowess, items, or even knowledge. Some chapters require investigation, some ingenuity, some patience, some good manners. And so on. Failing in the required measure will have its consequences.

SSB_Shadow said:

At its heart, Anima in combat is much like most RPGs. As such, I would ask you what did you do to make the battles dynamically interesting in terms of roleplaying? Did you give the PCs objectives beyond beating their opponent? Did you give positive modifers to encourage colorful narration or non-combat actions? Did you ensure the combat put matters at stake that the PCs really cared about, rather than just a hurdle to overcome?

These matters are not system matters. They are matters of general GMing. Figure out what result and behaviour you want and support it, showcase it and reward it.

edit: I really hate this forum at times. Sorry for double post but it killed my formatting

SSB_Shadow said:

1) This kind of surprised me, I found combat in Anima to be very dynamic and fluffy just based on what you can do. Now if everyone is just accumulating for x turns I can see it being very boring, I would try to throw in some basic fighters. Once you start losing turns because your taking damage and losing your accumulations because you failed the withstand pain checks combat becomes a lot more dyanmic as you need some people to tank while others accumulate at a time or use quick powers. There a ton of modifiers in Anima forcing players to be creative with their solutions. Heck I had a warrior in 1 game fighting a wizard that levitated to escape my melee range since it was getting annoyed at my constant interrupting of his accumulation. The wizard levitated higher than I could probaly do a vertical jump, unfortunately he levitated near a wall to his back. Just to spell out the scene better he was in a room near the back wall to give him more time to accumulate while we advanced on him. Anyways I had the ki weight elimination ability so on my turn I used full movement to run up the wall and jump horiziontally off it at the wizard. The wizard really didn't see that coming or survive the rear attack.

Still combat I found does lend itself to fluff. You can go like:

Roll attack, opponent rolls block, you hut but do no damage

Or

Your warrior makes a quick thrust with his sword at your opponents chest. He desperately tries to bring his own weapon to bare to block the attack. While he doesn't succeed in blocking your blade, his maneuver does force most of the strength out of your blow and his armour absorbs the rest.

2) Psychics are both very strong and very weak. They don't have anywhere near the amount of powers as a wizard will have in spells, nor do they get the utility of them. Though Psychics I don't see are overpowered. Let's assume the Psychic has 10PP. They need to spend 1PP to open any section they want, they need to spend PP on every power they want, they will probably spend 2 for some innate slots, raising potential quickly gets expensive (heck its 3PP just to boost your potential +20). You didn't list any PC stats but lets assume you have a kind of optimized Psychic with 10PP and willpower of 10.

PP used for

1 innate slots (2)

+20 potential (3)

Energy(1)

Energy discharge(1)

Energy Shield (1)

and keep 2 extra pp in case its needed

This gives me a potential of +80.

So to get my shield up will require a potential of at least 120. You have a 40% or so just rolling high enough, but since I have an innate slot it would be safer to concentrate outside combat and make sure I get the result and not have to worry about the shield until I need to recast it (hopefully outside combat just so I never fail that potential roll outside of a bad fumble). Now in combat without concentrating you need a 4+ on the dice to get the min potential to use energy discharge. Failing potential rolls with psychic powers tends to do very bad things to your character. If your lucky you will just lose your extra PP and a few fatigue points not really effecting your character. If your unlucky you will lose enough fatigure points you start suffering from exhaustion. If your really unlucky and have a terrible fumble while trying to do a risky power (ex one that you can fail the potential by 2 levels of difficulty) it is possible to kill your character from a bad potential test. Wizards and Ki users don't have that kind of risk using their powers (though they pay for that safty net by being a lot more limited on when they can use their powers).

So assume you made your potential the Psychic then needs to make a projection attack.

Another balacning thing with Psychic abilities is the different branches tend to have special rules that penalizes the Psychic. For example someone using the fire branch suffers negatives to their potential if using it in a cold environment. Opponents trying to resist a telepath get a huge bonus to their save if the psychic fails to hit them with his projection (granted blocking an invisible energy power is pretty hard to make the defense roll).

Personally I find Psychics hit hard, but lack utility compared to zeon and ki users and always have to worry about the possibility of a bad fumble killing them. Still not really having any downrtime is nice.

3) Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any guidelines for battles. Without seeing the characters it would be hard to say how to make combat more challenging. Though it sounds like there was some mistakes if the party was easily able to go through AT8 monsters. Heck the Hydra you said had damage resistance and AT8, so that means its defense roll is just a D100, but it doesn't suffer like any penalities to that roll (or get stopped unless it suffers a crit) and with AT8 that means players need to beat its roll by 80 just to hurt the creature. Assuming the party is level the highest you can get to your attack roll is going to be around: +95

Edit: Yeah also if your party is being very supernatural heavy eventually some organizations will take notice of them. As my party learnt even a very grateful villager might slip up. We saved some town from a supernatural beast. The villager while very uneasy we used some supernatural powers was stiill very thankful. Unfortunately one merchant when he stopped in a city confessed his sins to the local church (his sin being he witnessed supernatural elements). He didn't even realize he sold us out to the church when he told them what happened.

Hi,

First of all, I told my players beforehand that Anima is not a balanced system. Everyone, player and game master should always be keeping that in mind when playing the game.

As to the problem of combat: sometimes I created encounters that I personally didn't think that dangerous and I almost killed a character without even trying. On the other hand, I have created suitably powerful ( i thought) opponents that my players killed without breaking a sweat.

In the end, as in every other RPG, creating interesting combat scenes really comes down to - in my experience - the following points:

• First off, you have to know the capabilities of your group and how to counter or undermine them. If your problem is all of them standing there and accumulating for several turns, you need several fast opponents to disrupt their accumulation and give your main antagonist time to stand somewhere in the back, look ominous, make villainous speeches and accumulate some ki or zeon for major attacks himself
• another good tip for handling ki users is using weapon masters as antagonists. I have found that for all the special effects ki users can muster, they are lacking in the attack / defense categories for it, unless they can use dominion techniques on it. Weapon masters are always good in those field and can really hamper a Technician or Tao
• Same goes for acrobatic warriors and hit and run techniques, using lots of acrobatics. Also, acrobatic warriors usually act first in a round... give them a very high attack rating (and a lower defense rating, to make it worthwhile to target them first) and a decent damage (I created fire elementals in the form of lions and tigers as acrobatic warriors and always have my antagonist summoners have a few of them). They can act as one shot distraction / damage add that keep the characters off their guard and make them use fast tactics to overcome them, because they don't need high level attacks to damage them.
• also, use a lot of varied archetypes in any given combat. a mentalist, guarded by a Tao and a weapon master with a lot of low level fighters as cannon fodder. Or a necromancer using two or three leveled undead archetypes with powers according to the necromancy spell "Surpass death" and a lot of zombies and skeletons as cannon fodder.
• use ambushes and moral dilemmas in combat, such as hostages. in those cases, don't give the players a lot of time to think about their actions... tell everybody that takes longer than 10seconds to tell you what they want to do that their turn is forfeit.
• in turn, give the players opportunity to sneak up on some enemies and set up their attacks beforehand, that way combat should be going faster.

In addition, I use an excel sheet of my own making to no longer be dependent on the combat table... it speeds combat up a little. Some of the combat rules I try to play fast and loose, such as when pets of the PC summoner gang up on an opponent... I don't usually roll dice for that. Or when the party weapon master told the others to go ahead, he would hold up the incoming guards at the doorway. Also no dice, I just determined he would beat them in time.

Another thing is that if everybody really, really knows what their character can do and knows the combat rules, it also speeds up gameplay, like in every other RPG

One last thing... about the creating echniques: I don't let my players create their own dominion techniques. It takes too long and you really have to know the system for that. There are a lot of really cool schools that already fit into the game world in the basic book, the web addendums and, of course, Dominus Exxet. They can use those. In your case, the master could have taught them any of the things he himself knew, according to the rules in Dominus Exxet... and for newbie ki users, a month of learning stuff, even if under a master, is a really short time.

What I meran is, it's your own fault that things got out of hand there: players are like little kids. you can't let them off a short leash, because they'll be peeing all over the place. Tell them the old man can exactly what the old man can teach them, and if they don't like it, it's their bad luck.

I hope this helps a little (oh, and also... I'm not always able to follow my own advice. If that happens and they really wreck a nice encounter that you have worked hours for to make challenging, just roll with it and congratulate them on their efforts... then hit them where it hurts next time)

Thank you, and all of you, too, for your advices.

I am still not sure how to handle the Mentalist more than hope he fumbles and dies someday.

And yes, the AT 8 thing and Damage Resistance was dealt wrong by my side. I didn't quite understood back then how it worked. But I guess this is how you learn the game best, by mistakes.

I will try my best to make the game exciting and keep the pace onward. Ki Dominion is, just as you say, something exciting to make. My players kinda know how to make them but it takes time because they can't decide what to take. If they are not allowed to create their things, how should I handle it? Should I perhaps ask them what exactly they are looking for, and I build them for them?

And yes, I am aware of the apprenticeship rules in Dominion Exxet, and I am aware I gave them too much freedom and power to decide and level, and stuff. My decision of this was mostly because I wanted the team to find a reason to learn about Ki and then use them in the upcoming battle (instead of waiting until next session) but my mistake was to rush it. Also, one member of the party felt inferior to everyone else so I wanted to give him some boost in Ki powers so he could match up. The Mentalist was the one who got least stuff from his time there, but ironically, became the most powerful in the combat.

Anyway, I would actually love to have some feedback on how to handle the members. So, if its's ok, I will post in their stats on the next post.

SSB_Shadow said:

Well, I'd say fluffwise it makes sense that the "old master" only has very specific things to teach them: the stuff he himself knows. So you need to make up your mind which ki abilities and which dominion techniques (probably one whole path, such as Celeritas or Ignis and maybe parts of another) he has mastered (I usually create important NPC's beforehand so I know what exactly they are able to do). Keep in mind that in order to learn a level 2 technique of a school, you first have to know two level 1 techniques of that same school. In game, I would reserve the abilities to really "create" dominion techniques to Master Technicians or Taos, which also makes sense fluffwise - no way an absolute beginner would start off creating his own techniques, he would start by learnign stuff others have already learned before them.

And if your players aren't Technicians and have never before had contact with dominion techniques, it's clear why they take several rounds to charge up: they have no accumulation and even that is halved if you want to do anything else during the round (except for those who have the "Full accumulation" advantage from Dominus Exxet, which, in my opinion, is of paramount importance to every dominion user). But keep in mind that dominion techniques are not for most archetypes; only the Technician and the Tao can feasibly learn enough accumulation and ki points to really use them. The rest of the Warrior archetypes should rely on ki abilities and Ars Magnus because you don't need to accumulate for most of them. That is probably some of the reason your fights are slowing down: they are trying to use a skillset they are not really geared for but which they find "cool". But if you want to use dominion techniques (which are markedly different from ki abilities... I can't stress this enough, because it is a problem I've had for a long time with the system - basically every warrior can and should learn ki abilities at one time or another during his career, but only the Technician and the Tao are really geared towards learning dominion techniques.

As for the Mentalist, I can't really help you there without seeing the stats and - most of all - his Psi Powers and his corresponding stas like Psychic Projection, Psychic Potential and the amount of innate slots and free Psi Points that he has. A few Points, however:

• Even if a mentalist has a shield up, he usually won't be able to comfortably block / evade a trained warrior with it - he just doesn't have enough points to put into his Psychic Projection ability to really counter an attack - heavy true fighter.
• Not all mentalist shields are able to block all types of damage
• Mentalists, unlike wizards, can not choose whom to affect with their area powers; add this to the fact that the affected area is determined by his Psychic Potential roll when activating the power means that the party could be in deep **** if he rolls high enough to include them in the area.
• Mentalists are subejct to several canceling powers from the Nemesis list or spells from the Destruction school
• A summoner with the Chariot inversed invocation could teleport the Mentalist way out of combat range... if he wants to find his way back to the party, he should have to make a lot of Naigation tests.
• and so on...

Hope this helps a little.

Janus Galean

Level: 3
Life Points: 110
Class: Wizard
STR: 4, DEX: 9, AGI : 5, CON: 7, POW: 10, INT: 11, WP: 9, PER: 4
Resistances
PhR: 45, MR: 65, PsR: 50, VR: 45, DR : 35

Initiative: 65 Unarmed
Attack Ability: 0 Unarmed
Defense Ability: 33 Block
Damage: Unarmed damage - 5 (whatever that is)
AT: None

MA: 50
Zeon: 885
Magic Projection: 135 (no imbalance)
Level of Magic: 75 Darkness, 35 of 60 Earth

Essential Abilities
Advantages: Elan 1 (Uriel), Elan 1 (Erebus), The Gift, Natural Knowledge of a Path (Darkness), Superior Magic Recovery 2.
Disadvantages: Require Gestures, Serious Illness, Sickly

Elan
Uriel 26
-Instinct of Liberty
-Unnoticed

Erebus 30
-Supernatural Knowledge

Secondary Abilities
Composure 33, Withstand Pain 15, Notice 0, Memorize 25, History 45, Magic Appraisal 85, Medicine 40, Occult 120

Janus is some sort of an enigma. He is sometimes selfish and sometimes caring. His family had all died in a mysterious disease that seemed to have no cure, and it has started to show on him now. Altough fair and handsome, Janus is feeble in appearance and signs of sickness are apparant. He was visited by a pair of "angels of death", who motivates him to wander to make a significant mark on this land before he perish or find a cure before it's too late. The deeper he went in the knowledge of the occult, the more he feels safe. But he has his doubt of the these two angels' true motivation, and where they come from.

On his late adventure, he came across a strangle little pixie calling herself Illicia, and seemed to be a being called Sheele. He is not sure about her role, but her healing powers are useful to sustain himself. Maybe she could become an important asset to find the ever so elusive cure.

-----------------------------------------

Soifon Reid (Ebudan soul)

Level: 3
Life Points: 152
Class: Acrobatic Warrior
STR: 8, DEX: 9, AGI: 10, CON: 8, POW: 7, INT: 6, WP: 8, PER: 7
Resistances
PhR: 40, MR: 40, PsR: 45, VR: 40, DR: 40

Initiative: 75 enchanted katana
Attack Ability: 85 katana
Defense Ability: 80 dodge
Damage: 70 cut (and fire if activated)
AT: Chainmail

Ki
STR: 14 (3), AGI: 10 (2), DEX: 10 (1), CON: 10 (3), WP: 8 (1), POW: 11 (2)
Martial Knowledge: 150 spent. 5 points left
Ki Abilities: Use of Ki, Ki Control, Use of Necessary Energy
Dominion Techniques: Flaming Flash (20 MK), Radiant Wings (50 MK)

Essential Abilities
Advantages: Aptitude in a Field (Athletics), Hard to Kill (got under adventure for free), Martial Mastery 2, Quick Reflexes 1, Wealth 1
Disadvantages: Deep Sleeper, Severe Phobia (reptiles), Severe Allergy (shellfish)

Special Abilities & Modules
Batto / Iai Jutsu, Different Type (Sai), Precision Attack
-Or'inie, Fraction of Celestial Essence (immune to fire only), Seraphim Wings, Immortal Soul (-3 exp)

Secondary Abilities
Acrobatics 80, Athleticism 55, Climb 30, Jump 55, Ride 25, Swim 15, Composure 16, Feat of Strength 20, Withstand Pain 15, Notice 10, Style 50, Disguise 15, Hide 15, Art 10, Dance 25, Forging 23, Music (flute spec.) 51, Sleight of Hand 45

Soifon was a small girl who was found abandoned in the roads near Haruma, Kushistan. An old couple found her crying and discovered her black skin and white hair, the traits of a Daevar. Lacking a dark heart to simply abandon the baby girl, they took upon themselves to raise her. The family moved to Good Rest, Abel, where Soifon remained until she was 10. It didn't take them long to discover her strange runes she had covered in her body, and knew immediately she was special. With the chaos errupting everywhere by the Emperor's tyrannic rulership, the couple were afraid the Inquisition would find her and take her away from them. Using their last money, they sent their girl away to the island of Varjad in order to, seemingly, train with the masters there and most importantly hide from the Church's eyes. They knew the Church's influence there was weak. Following years, Soifon was trained in the ways of the samurai discipline but decided to return home when she turned 23. Her surrogate parents were poor by now but happy to have their girl back, and strong enough to defend herself and take care of their last years.

After the various incidents in the Forest of the Moon, Soifon discovered a strange brooch that latched onto her torso. She also woke up some of her inner powers and sprouted out wings. She was not sure, but she seemed attracted to this strange force. But even with these divine gifts, deep below, she felt like a monster, and is starting to doubt her reasons to fight for the Empire and it's people that hates her kind, whatever she is. Are these wings traits of an angel, or are they really the traits of a beast?

Note: Soifon is partially becoming complete, but not there quite yet. She has unlocked the seraphic wings and has an immunity of fire thanks to the brooch. The sword was infused in fire by a spirit they defeated.

-------------

Petronius "Pete" de Costa (Daimah soul)

Level: 3
Life Points: 110
Class: Shadow
STR: 9, DEX: 10, AGI: 10, CON: 7, POW: 9, INT: 7, WP: 8, PER: 10
Resistances
PhR : 45, MR: 50, PsR: 50, VR: 45, DR: 45

Initiative: 95 Short sword, 70 short bow
Attack Ability: 75 short sword or longbow
Defense Ability: 85 dodge
Damage: 50 shortsword (thrust or cut), 50 shortbow (thrust)
AT: complete leather and forehead protector

Ki
STR: 15 (2), AGI: 10 (2), DEX: 16 (3), CON: 8 (1), WP: 9 (1), POW: 15 (2)
Martial Knowledge: 150 spent. 5 points left
Ki Abilities: Use of Ki, Ki Control, Presene Extrusion, Energy Armor, Use of Necessary Energy
Dominion Techniques: Baby Roc Arrow (25 MK), Velocitas Ventus (25 MK) [name pending]

Essential Abilities
Advantages: Aptitude in a Field (Subterfuge), Animal Affinity, Danger Sense, Fortunate, See Supernatural
Disadvantages: Deep Sleeper, Severe Phobia (fire), Vulnerable to Heat

Special Abilities & Modules
Hunter Module
- See the Essence, Sense the Forest, Nature's Cure, Movement in the Forest, Small Size, Immortal Soul (-2 exp)

Secondary Abilities
Acrobatics 40, Climb 25, Jump 20, Notice 85, Search 85, Track 27, Animals 25, Disguise 45, Hide 70, Lock Picking 45, Poisons 30, Stealth 85, Trap Lore 40

At first glance, Pete is just a orphan kid from the forest who lacks civil manners and social skills. But his past is more darker than that. Petronius was one of the many sons of a family full of bandits. They were a mafia, so to speak, who had a strong name throughout Abel. They acted civil on the open but dwindled in illegal affairs in the underworld. The Father held religious contacs and the authority could not touch them. They seemed to always been one step ahead of the law in Archangel.
This life of corruption, illicit dealings and death sickened the poor boy Petronius. He was nothing like them, and felt ashamed and dishonored. So one day, he ran off from home and feld north, to Good Rest and disappeared into the Forest of the Moon. For many years he remained there, watching over the place. He wasn't quite sure but he felt safe and secure in the woods, and it became his new home.

Now traveling with his new companions, he tries to uncover the mystery of the evil trees, and to find out who he really was and what he was. He has some similar feelings like Soifon: does he belong in this world? If not, where else then?

---------------------------------------

Lady Cassandra Valentín

Level: 3
Life Points: 125
Class: Summoner
STR: 6, DEX: 8, AGI: 9, CON: 8, POW: 10, INT: 9, WP: 9 PER: 7
Resistances
PhR: 50, MR: 55, PsR : 50, VR: 50, DR: 50

Initiative: 75 Unarmed
Attack Ability: 0 Unarmed
Defense Ability: 0 either
Damage: unarmed damage
AT: none

MA: 30
Zeon: 700
Summon: 180
Control: 170
Bind: 79
Banish: 90

Summons
"Fire Salamander from Hell"
"Minor Marionette"

Familiar
-

Invocations
III The Empress
VIII The Strength
Hugin & Munin (no pact done yet)

Essential Abilities
Advantages: Aptitude in a Field (Social), Artifact (2), Charm, Seducer
Disadvantages: Severe Phobia (claustrophobic), Required Gestures

Secondary Abilities
Ride 20, Magic Appraisal 30, Occult 92, Leadership 77, Persuasion 84, Style 42

Lady Cassandra Valentín was a member of a noble house in Raverna, Bellafonte. The House Valentín were strong allies to the Church. The family, however, were in secret deeply tied to the occult and hidden enemies were out to get them. One day, the whole house was destroyed and burned down by unknown dissidents, and everyone but Cassandra was spared. She fled the attackers in her caravan, and tried to remain incognito. She had to find out who had assaulted her family and get her revenge. She suspects the Inquisition, who probably found out about their supernatural business, but she has no evidence. She seem to be followed, too, and hope she can lure the perpetrators out. On the meanwhile, she keeps looking for more mysterios from the depths of Hell and the Beyond, to satisfy her hunger for power.

Her travels has brought some insight of the dangers of toying with the occult, but it has yet to convince her to stop.

-----------------------------------------------

Julian Lothaire Gregorious de Lorme (Duk'zarist soul)

Level: 3
Life Points: 85
Class: Mentalist
STR: 4, DEX: 9, AGI: 8, CON: 5, POW: 7, INT: 7, WP: 11 PER: 9
Resistances
PhR: 60, MR: 60, PsR: 75, VR: 55, DR: 55

Initiative: 75 Unarmed
Attack Ability: 0 Unarmed
Defense Ability: 35 dodge
Damage: unarmed damage
AT: none

Psychic
Psychic Points: 6 free
Psychic Potential: 150
Psychic Projection: 100

Mental Powers
-FIRE -
Create Fire (1), Extinguish Fire (1), Control Fire (1), Immolate (1), Fire Immunity (2),
-Psychokinesis-
Minor Psychokinesis (1), Psychokinetic Shield (1), Psychokinetic Flight (2)
-Electricity-
Magnetic Manipulation (1), Magnetic Shield (2), Electric Arc (2)

Essential Abilities
Advantages: Disquieting, Focus, Free Access to Any Psychic Disciplines, Jack of all Trades, Learning (1)
Disadvantages: Powerful Enemy (2) [haven't decided who, yet], Unfortunate, Vulnerable to Cold

Secondary Abilities
Acrobatics 25, Athleticism 25, Ride 30, Notice 40, Search 30, Track 30, Animals 30, Memorize 30, Herbal Lore 20, Intimidate 50, Music 20
[NOTE: Unsure if he had accounted for the +10 from Jack of all Trades.]

Julian Lothaire is a mysterious character. His name implies he is of a noble heritage but it is unknown what he is doing wandering the world alone. He resides north of the Forest of he Moon and has quite a collection of many exotic animals throughout Gaïa. He likes to experiment and investigate the mysterious of life, and his wanderlust is even stronger. His reason to follow with the team seem to be only because to study the evil trees but maybe he has a hidden agenda behind the innocent exterior. He often disappears when no one is looking, and no one dares to ask him what he does.

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There is one character left, a Tao fighter, but his characterr sheet is currently missing... And he had to rebuild a little more.

I'm curious how your mentalist got a psychic potential of 150. You probably should ask your players to show how they spent DP and stuff and where.

Just looking over your mentalist though:

To get a projection of 100 I'm guessing he spent 180DP (gives 90projection and you get +10 from his dex).

For all the powers he knows he spent 11pp costing 110DP.

He has 6 free PP which would cost 60DP.

To get +80 to your potential would take 36pp (360DP).

So he spent: 710DP in his supernatural field which is 230 too much.

Also without any innate slots to use a shield or continious power he would be forced to make a new potential check every round.

Though with a projection of only 100 anyone with a good defense score and the ability to block/dodge energy should be giving him a hard time.

To be honest, I am a bit bad at Psychic, and I doubt my player knows it better.

Else, I use the excel file to calculate the levels and make sure it's accurately done. I have to re-read the Psychic chapter and that other forum, as well as ask the player, and fix this mess up.

While the psychic stuff can be devastating, it has a handful of drawbacks that "can" be worked around, just like any other supernatural power in the game.

Possibility of failure is actually slightly higher than most other powers, with failure hurting worse than most of the other powers. (fatigue sucks)

Incredibly hard to invest in, which it's not as "investment intensive" as ki or summoning, it's still up there.

Easy to counter with other powers. If the psychic is overpowering everything, take a look at the Nemesis powers from Dominus Exxet, they'll shut him down REAL quick.

I've actually found magic to be more destructive, and that's not even using destruction magic, it's creation.

There's a creation spell that can give you a Gnosis of 25 (allowing for high magic), and an extra 150 dp to invest in abilities, (which I have a question about, but i'll get to that later.) and a spell that lets you make a whole new "character" that you can level up and maintain for daily zeon. Granted, neither of these spells are easy to obtain (Chimera is lvl 80 and Create Being is 78) but they still are pretty powerful. In my game, the party is roughly lvl 6, and the mage has two beings following him around, one for a zeon battery, and the other as a front line fighter.

crazy, i know.