Offensive Arcana uses & targeted activator glyph

The usage of arcane glyphs and diagrams to power a wide variety of occult rituals.
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Ephemeralis
Posts: 87
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2020 10:29 am

Offensive Arcana uses & targeted activator glyph

Post by Ephemeralis »

It would be nice to have some ways to deal damage with Arcana specifically, for those who might want to make characters that go hard in on the whole occult thing.

Here's a few suggestions to get the ball rolling:
  • An entry level glyph arrangement that allows for the sustained manipulation of light, throwable objects (bricks, pellets, small knives, etc) which the Arcane user can command to be flung at an appropriate target to deal minor damage. This would scale in potency and accuracy purely (or mostly) off Arcana, but would cap in overall effectiveness at a far earlier point than learning to throw or use such weapons normally. This works as an enhancive effect, stepping into a diagram with this active starts an effect that steadily consumes energy over time, but allows use of special syntax like HURL or DIRECT to attempt to throw any bit of gear you specify at a target like a normal thrown weapon, factoring in Arcana as above.
  • Rias mentioned this in Discord himself, but Arcana-empowered fisticuffs. Punching people with force, anyone?
  • Rias has also mentioned arcana-enhanced firearms as a possibility.
I've also got a bigger, more finnicky suggestion that I've wanted to share for a while, so bear with me here:

A new 'triangle' glyph is added. It is considerably more complex than the 'line' glyph shape, and allows for a glyph to be temporarily held in an occult "channel" of sorts, kind of like a prepared spell from other games. Think of it as a 'external target' diagram.

Occult channels are similar to normal channeling attempts in that they require energy to keep open. Occult channels don't incur the stacking energy cost of other channels to keep open and can be held open indefinitely if you can feed their energy requirements.

Any glyph held inside a person's occult channel by them walking into a triangle-drawn diagram can be discharged at a given target of their choice (or themselves) simply by CHANNEL OCCULT. If multiple occult channels are open on a person, it uses a FIFO approach to determine what glyph is used (could be interesting to have an ability tree for arcanists to possibly have full control over what ones they use on themselves). Once the glyph has been channeled a certain number of times (usually 1), it expires from the affected person and the occult channel is closed. If the person wishes to channel the occult again in the same manner, they'll need to make (or have made for them) an appropriate triangle-drawn glyph diagram.

Here's some examples of what existing glyphs could do inside triangle diagrams:
  • Dorun - applies a temporary warding sphere affect to the target for a length of time, or immediately refreshes the strength of the sphere (removes its current cooldown) if they channel it on a target already under the effect. Can be used as an 'oh shit' button to potentially protect from sudden, deadly hits.
  • Terlu - temporarily silences the target by muffling all sound coming out of them. This applies a guaranteed Silent Walking effect in addition to making the target temporarily unable to speak by most means.
  • Iquaj - can be targeted at an item to make it more difficult to find for a reasonable length of time. Can be targeted at a player to hinder their sight for a few precious moments.
  • Uyto - makes the target painfully aware of all incoming sounds, hindering their perception significantly. It does however, give them a considerable bonus towards detecting whether they're being STALKED or snuck up on, but only them. Good uses for this would be to disorient a target to try and sneak by.
  • Solca - the target makes a LOT more noise for a short while, making it very difficult for them to hide or sneak around until the effect expires. Players in adjacent rooms also get messaging of them making a racket whenever they do anything particularly noisy.
  • Shaol - briefly applies a mild levitating force the gear the target is wearing (not enough to levitate it directly), messing up their sense of balance and giving them a penalty to their Armor Use skill for a short while. However, it reduces their overall encumbrance by making their load slightly lighter.
This adds a lot of extra functionality to Arcana, chiefly useful in manners of conflict. Having an Arcanist friend able to briefly embed a bunch of targeted glyphs in you for you to use against your rivals or when fighting an extra angry wechuge could make all the difference. Of course, non-Arcanist arcana users could do this kind of thing if they're willing to invest hard enough at it. A good differentiator could be to make Arcanist very good at passively holding occult channels in themselves, giving them a larger pool of "prepared" glyphs using this system to pull upon if they need to.
Acarin
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2020 10:49 pm

Re: Offensive Arcana uses & targeted activator glyph

Post by Acarin »

What about drawing a glyph on the knuckles or palm of special gloves. The gloves retain the chalk but transfer an activated glyph to the target upon successful strike. They then activate upon transfer. The chall wears down after each strike and then you have to redraw over time.

You could use force glyph and other effects... could also do this on armor pieces so that they activate upon being struck but you need to redraw them after a couple hits. So hitting a cuirass with the glyph would blow back the striker, for example... but then you have to draw it again where it remains unless struck or you clean your armor piece. Could also have glyphs on armored vambraces that activate on successful parry or block.
You reach toward ((DEV Rias)) ... Pull(d225([1]x)):214 vs Mark(d1100):714 = -500 (-222%)
You notice ((DEV Rias)) glance your way, causing you to quickly withdraw your hand from his wool
drawstring pouch (open).
Roundtime: 5 seconds.
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