Sean Waters Posted November 18, 2005 Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 Re: When Aid Cost Went Up..... I posted on the poll thread, but, briefly, no one seems to have mentioned team buffs. Yes, aid is improved in utility of you effect more than one power/characteristic, but also very much so if you improve several people - say your team. A relatively modest aid could increase everyone's str by 12 and dex by 4. That is at least +1 OCV/DCV and +2d6 damage for melee monsters, all for a power, if bought selective AoE, that takes one phase to activate. And, hell, you can do far scarier things than that..... Oddly, team synergy is something that is rarely considered in Champions - even the name suggests a group of individuals, and we all (myself included) tend to build characters comlpete in themselves, rather than characters that NEED a team but that are greater than the sum of the parts. Someone mentioned City of Heroes. Having played that, I am now well aware of the enourmous advantage to having one or two team members who don't fight but just keep everyone else in the fight, and fighting at greater than normal efficiency. I think Aid as (just) a self-buff is pretty pointless, but then it always was: that is not what the power is about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted November 18, 2005 Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 Re: When Aid Cost Went Up..... I posted on the poll thread, but, briefly, no one seems to have mentioned team buffs. Yes, aid is improved in utility of you effect more than one power/characteristic, but also very much so if you improve several people - say your team. A relatively modest aid could increase everyone's str by 12 and dex by 4. That is at least +1 OCV/DCV and +2d6 damage for melee monsters, all for a power, if bought selective AoE, that takes one phase to activate. And, hell, you can do far scarier things than that..... Oddly, team synergy is something that is rarely considered in Champions - even the name suggests a group of individuals, and we all (myself included) tend to build characters comlpete in themselves, rather than characters that NEED a team but that are greater than the sum of the parts. Someone mentioned City of Heroes. Having played that, I am now well aware of the enourmous advantage to having one or two team members who don't fight but just keep everyone else in the fight, and fighting at greater than normal efficiency. I think Aid as (just) a self-buff is pretty pointless, but then it always was: that is not what the power is about. Very true. One of my nastiest character uses of Aids in 4th edition was with my galdor-vitki norseman character (started off as an undead hunting ranger type, had a "radiation accident" with 40 or so accumulated exp after the inital big campaign arc was over... as a result of almost being killed by his own magic sword, he had a long period of downtime and learned runecraft). His #1 most useful Spell was a triggered variable effect Aid. Given a few hours of dedicated downtime, he could runecraft the heck out of everything from weapons to armor to bodies... I actually had to rein things in because he was WAY too good at making an otherwise competent party nigh-unbeatable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted November 19, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 When Aid Cost Went Up..... Very true. One of my nastiest character uses of Aids in 4th edition was with my galdor-vitki norseman character (started off as an undead hunting ranger type, had a "radiation accident" with 40 or so accumulated exp after the inital big campaign arc was over... as a result of almost being killed by his own magic sword, he had a long period of downtime and learned runecraft). His #1 most useful Spell was a triggered variable effect Aid. Given a few hours of dedicated downtime, he could runecraft the heck out of everything from weapons to armor to bodies... I actually had to rein things in because he was WAY too good at making an otherwise competent party nigh-unbeatable. I've heard most vitki have a lot of rune for improvement... Lucius Alexander The palindromedary thinks Lucius is being a pain in the Asatru, and should get ready to rune for cover..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 Re: When Aid Cost Went Up..... I've heard most vitki have a lot of rune for improvement... Lucius Alexander The palindromedary thinks Lucius is being a pain in the Asatru, and should get ready to rune for cover..... Well.... I wasn't sure if I should pummel you stoutly or rep you. Then I remembered the runic script in Rome that reads something to the effect of "Snorri's wife is a good woman, if you know what I mean" and realized that ancient Norse warriors probably dig bad puns, so Rep it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted November 22, 2005 Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 Re: When Aid Cost Went Up..... Well.... I wasn't sure if I should pummel you stoutly or rep you. Then I remembered the runic script in Rome that reads something to the effect of "Snorri's wife is a good woman, if you know what I mean" and realized that ancient Norse warriors probably dig bad puns, so Rep it is. Why 'or'? **rep** **pummell** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ockham's Spoon Posted November 22, 2005 Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 Re: When Aid Cost Went Up..... When I played 4e rules, I frequently had to rein in over-ambitious use of the Aid, both from a boosting-a-mediocre-character-into-a-melee-monster standpoint and a support-character-constantly-restoring-fallen-comrades standpoint. When 5e came out, it was generally agreed that Aid had been better priced. Now it is used less, but not infrequently (although Succor definitely is used more than a regular Aid). The bigger complaint in my group was the separation of Aid from Healing, which seemed unnecessary with the appropriate limitations on an Aid, and stymied some previous power constructs (the one that comes immediately to mind was a Fantasy Hero spell "Life Tap" which allowed a Druid to draw life force from the surrounding ecosystem to boost BDY, END, & STN to keep him from going down in the first place, but also to quickly restore him or his comrades if injured). ___________________________________________________________ "The fiction in her family was that she was never nice. I'd say she was very, I just did not see the price." - S. Vega Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Waters Posted November 23, 2005 Report Share Posted November 23, 2005 Re: When Aid Cost Went Up..... I suppose that they did not want anyone having an AID without a fade - which is what differrentiates the specific case of healing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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