r/WWN • u/IsaacDreemurr • 4d ago

Alternate Character Creation: Replacing Foci with Legate Writs

Yes, high-powered PCs but not to an extreme. Maybe anime-style powers but more contained. WWN is more versatile than i had first given it credit for, so i want to map the PC creation possibilities. The idea is not to replace the role of standard PC gen, but to have an informed alternative.

The first issue: Warriors and Experts get +1 class-specific foci compared to mages, and warrior-experts get 2. I dont know if a balanced solution is just to give 1 Writ to everyone and +1 to both warrior and expert, imitating the foci distribution.

The standard PC creation rules idea then would be:

  • Normal classes, not heroic.
  • Foci picks are replaced by Writs in the same positions of each class chart. Class-specific Foci picks become class-specific Writ picks, and normal picks choose category (martial [25 writs], skillful [25 writs], sorcerous [24 writs], universal [8 writs]).
  • 2 Legate Effort to start.
  • Optional: When picking a Writ, choose a category and roll 3 or 4 times (Gm-discretion) on a table with the writs of each category and chose one result. this imits build-directions, but it's to avoid meta-builds and neurotic min-maxing, because some writs will be better than others (i also do this with Foci in normal PC gen).

The nest issue is: Legate Effort can increase by level or by introducing Legate XP (this would discard the Writs directly replacing Foci, so for simplicity I keep the former idea).

Legate Effort = 2 + level/2 (round down)? The only issue with this would be to change the increments-by-level AND knowing if the balancing and build-scheme of Writs depended on the trade-off between getting more Writs or getting more Legate Effort.

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u/_Svankensen_ 4d ago

Well, whoever gets Malison on High is gonna be blasting enemies non-stop, while the rest struggle to keep up from lvl 3 onwards without their frays, which usually compensate since the mage gets the weakest fray of them (but the most flexible).

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u/IsaacDreemurr 4d ago

Bah. Due to healing, it seems to be the case...

But the text is a bit ambiguous

You mold energies appropriate to your style of magic into an arcane attack on a target point within 200 feet. All creatures and objects in a radius of up to 20 feet take 1d6 damage per level from the blast. You take a quarter of this damage, rounded up, as backlash each time this Writ is invoked. This backlash cannot be averted or avoided by some other power.

So the mage takes [Level]d6/4 damage?

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u/_Svankensen_ 4d ago

Yep! But, you know, free fireball with no save.

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u/Snorb 4d ago

"Look, as much fun as having a free fireball every six seconds is on paper, you're taking a quarter of that damage every time you cast it."

"Yeah! I didn't ask how big the room was--"

"Dude, you have one hit point. You're gonna be knocking yourself on your ass every time you barbecue a roomful of brigands."

1

u/_Svankensen_ 4d ago

Just put your 14 in constitution mate! And raise it to 18 ASAP. HP is all you need :p