[UA] Archetype: The Eternal Soldier

[Gregory Paul Stolze]

At 12:04 PM 2/9/99 EST, Michael D. Mearls 97 wrote:

Generally speaking, this looks like a groovy idea (personally, I'd tweak it
into a positive/negative thing, with the upside being the honorable Eternal
Soldier and the downside being the Coward).  However...

>Channels:
>1-50%: The avatar may flip flop any dodge skill test. He may also always
dodge
>first in a combat round, irregardless of his speed score or initiative roll,
>unless he is physically bound or restrained.

Danger Will Robinson!  Game break alert!  Munchkins off the starbord bow!
"You mean all I have to do is spend one lousy Soul point on this weirdo
skills, and my Dodge skill not only gets radically improved, but
effectively doubled?  Kewl!"  The option to dodge first in a combat round
is pretty damn slick, even without the ability to flip it.

One thing I constantly had to do when building Avatar skills was keep them
balanced.  Yeah, it should be pretty durn useful: but I always ask myself
"Is it substantially more useful than having a Guns skill at that level?"
If the answer is a glaring yes, I usually re-examine.  For low level avatar
skills, I like to put some sort of number-specific limit on it: either you
have to roll, or some result has to be under the skill.  If it's something
that automatically works without a roll, there's really no reason to get
the skill above 1%.

I hope I'm not going to inhibit anyone's creativity here, but I've seen
some very nice games get all hypertrophic and distorted because each
supplement has to supply newer, better, funkier powers.  

-G.
1899 Phrenologist: Your son has the sloping forehead of a sexual deviant:
better put him in an asylum.
1999 Gene Therapist: Your fetus has the "date rape" gene.  Better abort.