Champions/Soulblade

Yendri wrote this

• Soulblade

As it stands, Soulblade is on par with a form of spiritwrack that one can cast without any form of delay between castings, small lag, no chance of backfiring, and a small (40) mana penalty. Other houses' ten stone powers cost, mana-wise, 75 (Locate Criminal), 100 (Consumption of the Silver Veil), and 140 (Pillage). In addition to the fact that they all cost more mana, none of these spells involve doing large amounts of damage and/or the possibility of instantly slaying a character. Instead, they foster roleplay in direct hinderance to anyone who is not of like-minded intent (save Pillage, which loads a bunch of relatively wimpy mobs).

While the Champions are supposed to be the type who are always willing to kick some evil booty, Soulblade is a bit much. In light of the fact that they have another skill, Scourge of Darkness, that also does large amounts of damage to evil people, Soulblade is redundant.

• Suggestion for replacements:

A number of suggestions have been made throughout the time for replacements to Soulblade that would foster the same sort of boons that the other house skills offer. Below are the ones I can remember, but please add to them if you know of any more.

• • Modify Soulblade as it is now.

Keep Soulblade as a skill that does a lot of damage, but add a larger lag penalty (3 pulses?), perhaps a delay between castings, and adjust the mana consumption to be in line with those of other house skills. Something on the order of 90-100 would be more appropriate. Perhaps in lieu of the lag penalty, the possibility for instant death could be removed.

• • Conjunction of Light

Champions cast this in an area and all workings of void and fire are rendered useless. Demons instantly vaporize, wards of fire fade away, etcetera. Fire spells cast on the good of heart (immolation, frenzy, etc) also disappear, but generic spells on void scholars (shield, protective shield, armor) do not. A delay of 75 hours would be effected between castings (this is the same as the delay between pillagings), and the spell itself would last approximately 24. Yes, it is a lame name. Something else can surely be devised. This is essentially the analogue to the Consumption of the Silver Veil, but doesn't involve that whole sacrifice thing, nor is it dependent on the number of Champions present at casting. This spell serves to hinder evil very much, thus providing the sort of roleplay/statistical advantage that each other house's 10 stone power offers.

I'm personally quite partial to option number two, but if anyone else has any suggestions/comments/criticisms, please add them below the line:

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• Iandir writes:

Discussion with Jolinn concluded that we didn't really feel there was a problem with soul blade's power level, since it's a 10-stone power.