Benedict Wrote:
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> Except, if someone regards rolling 8 augments to gain a +W3 bonus to
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> be unbalancing and/or boring, is that person really likely to find
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> rolling 8 augments to gain a +120 edge OK? I think the heart of this
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> problems is not augments, or feats, its having *8* augments (or even
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> more, if the Narrator and players can stand the boredom) for free.
>
I don't know about anyone else, but this is my final word on the matter:
I'd only allow 4 "power up" augments for an initiate: 1 mundane augment and 3 affinity augments. A devotee may be able to manage a couple of further augments FOR THAT CONTEST using general feats, like [Weapon] Help. Don't forget, that all these augmentations are unlikely to be soley for bonuses: eg, Movement=Bonus, Death=Edge, Combat=either. If they are preparing themselves before a contest, all this is likely to take the form of some ritual, eg. Ohorlanth Devotee praying skyclad on a hill, Humakt Devotee consigning himself and all his enemies to the deathgod.
In addition to all of this, Devotees are able to use various feats as needed within a contest, either to give a one-off augmentation for THAT ACTION, or as a special move to try and finish the contest early (Initiates can do this too, but they must take an unrelated action and an improv. mod.). The way I do this (and I think someone else mentioned this as a possiblility earlier) is if, in a combat for example, a player character states that they wish to use a feat, they make a normal close combat roll. If that succeeds then they make a roll for that particlular feat, using their affinity target number against the opponents best affinity. If this also succeeds then the desired effect happens, including loss of AP's. I know this seems fiddley, but it is the only way I can reconcile people's generally low affinity ratings compared to the appropriate mundane ability, otherwise it would never work at all.
The whole reason for doing this is dramatic effect, which I think should be much more than a set of AP's. I would allow, for example, a Humakti to use the Decapitate Foe feat near the beginning of a combat, with the possiblility of cutting off his opponents head, even if the AP's wouldn't normally allow it. Of course, he'd have to make some mighty fine dice rolls to do this. This, I think, is the beauty of the Hero Wars rules, and part of it's difficulty. You should be able to do almost anything you want to do, within these rules, but sometimes the rules are so flexible that they encourage huge debates, like this one. Overall, the good outweighs the bad, which is why I like playing it.
I'm off now, to do some real vanquishing of foes in sword to sword combat. Have a good weekend everybody.
Terry
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