Ciphers: Inspirations and their mechanics

[TRX850]

If a wizard runs out of spells, they can still fight with weapons. So I imagine that's a simple alternative for a Cipher too.

[TRX850]

What about a Cipher Rage ability? Like Akira. Build up to Cipher+ status for a short duration, followed by fatigue.

 

I can't find the right image, but the bit where he becomes "Migraine Boy" in a corridor and his enemies explode into bloody soup.

 

[Nonek]

The Price of Pleasure - Knowing the mind, the cunning Cipher can choose far more subtle methods than a blunt attack that crushes the mind or severs the soul. He can give pleasure, at first but a small thing, a fine mood and a feeling of strength, but as it grows the waves of pleasure overwhelm the mind and the body. Eventually the target will writhe upon the floor, shuddering in spasms of orgasmic delight.

 

There are tales however of Ciphers selling this gift to the rich and powerful, but such utter pleasure is addictive and what would one not do to have it? Thus we hear of great men enslaved to their pursuit of this sensation, and Ciphers ruling great states as hidden puppet masters.

[rjshae]

I could see the opposite being true as well, where the advanced cipher knows techniques for repairing what is broken in the mind. Over the course of several treatments he may be able to repair an addiction, or at least counter the addiction with a powerful revulsion. Depressed nobles may seek the cipher's aid to alleviate their misery, or a child with a bad habit can be taught to control it. But, even with the self-discipline and mental defenses, dealing with people who have mental issues may be detrimental to the cipher as well, requiring stress relief or even psychic surgery to forget the painful memories.

[TRX850]

Psychogenic Inversion

- Target one creature.

- Temporarily swap highest and lowest ability scores.

 

[AGX-17]

This is on the Rogue but will be related to this Cipher thread:

While rogues are known for their stealthy nature both in and out of battle, many of them are quite talented with machines and contraptions of all sorts

 

1. Does that mean Steampunk?

 

The on-topic question:

2. Could a Cipher use some experimental "machine" or "contraption" to enhance their Ciphering?

 

 

It's from the Rogue page. It's about Rogues. It is not related to this Cipher thread.

 

It's not Steampunk. P:E is not a Steampunk setting. They have never said P:E is Steampunk.

 

Honestly, how do you manage to see one word and turn it into another before it reaches your visual cortex? And then make a thread about it every time it happens?

Edited February 1, 2013 by AGX-17

[TRX850]

Mindsight
- Cipher level 5. Even while blinded, the Cipher has normal acuity of vision.
- Cipher level 10. (All-Around Vision) Flanking enemies do not gain combat advantage.
 

[Nonek]

I Seeeeeee You - The Cipher suspicious and wary stops in his tracks, squints his eyes, puts his head to one side and looks beyond. Thieves in shadow and those hiding within a cloak of invisibility are not revealed to his eyes, but he senses their minds and souls as clearly as if they were shouting. At higher levels he may reveal the location of said hidden opponents by creating illusions of their presence in his allies eyes, thus making far more viable targets. If the Cipher has no reason to be suspicious however he will not use this ability, as it necessitates a good deal of immobility and concentration.

 

My Lord the Ciphers are Revolting - A Cipher attacked by opponents whom he believes are too great in number too defeat through other mind magics may use this repulse technique, he slams his palm forward towards his foes and cloaks himself in a sickening aura of stink, sickness and plague. He will appear as something horrible to all who behold him, so that if they fail to bolster their willpower, they may gladly let him walk free. At higher levels he may appear so grotesque and wrong as to cause vomitting and unconsciousness, or even prompt the onlookers to flee.

[rjshae]

Mindsight

- Cipher level 5. Even while blinded, the Cipher has normal acuity of vision.

- Cipher level 10. (All-Around Vision) Flanking enemies do not gain combat advantage.

 

I like the general concept, but think that the sight should be picked up from vision traces drawn from other living creatures. If everybody else is blind, then the cipher should probably be blind as well. (That might be a difficult mechanic to code though.)

Edited February 1, 2013 by rjshae

[Lephys]

Mindsight

- Cipher level 5. Even while blinded, the Cipher has normal acuity of vision.

- Cipher level 10. (All-Around Vision) Flanking enemies do not gain combat advantage.

It immediately made me think of scouting abilities. Either a limited-use (per rest, maybe) "ping" type skill (to reveal enemy minds at a decently long range), OR a potential passive skill with a much shorter range (meaning you could see enemies on the other side of walls and such, sometimes, but not entire rooms or enemies that were more distant but had line of sight).

 

Either way, skeletons and maybe golems and such (anything that didn't possess its own mind) would remain undetected, even by the Cipher.

[Oner]

Random Cipher ideas:

 

Walking animation: A casual stroll, with hands behind their backs.

Like this:

After all, who gives a fork if the puny unter-creatures want to shout and wave their compensators around? Cipher are too chill for that.

(Maybe floating at higher levels? )

 

Enhance physique/Transcend Your Limitations/However Fancy You Like To Name Your Abilities: Boost a physical Stat. Always useful!

 

United Minds/Souls: As long as the Cipher maintains this power, the party members use his/her magical and otherwise supernatural resistances instead of their own. Or the highest one in the party, whichever.

 

Force of Will: Enemies make a Strength or whatever check or fly backwards. With this cheap and reliable pwer, rodent problems are in the past!

 

Mind Control (I saw this one in the thread earlier, but I'll just write down my version instead of making vague references to that one): Cipher focuses, gains control of one "mook" (think regular ork). At later levels, maybe more than one mook or one elite (~ork chieftain bodyguard) and can mentally harass bosses (ork chieftain). Like, I dunno, make casting harder, or a small stun for one turn, something like that.

[Lurky]

Many of these suggestions sound pretty nice and pretty fun

 

Reading some of them, I was reminded of the Auspex, Dominate and Dementation disciplines from Vampire: The Masquerade, and I think that some of them would be pretty nice abilities for a Cipher. I'm not sure if they could be feasibly implemented in a computer game though, but the part of being able to see through invisibility or illusions, to control the actions of an enemy, or to confuse them with hallucinations sounds easy enough.

 

Additionally, how about the ability to project mind illusions? It doesn't have to be the same as mage spells, but it could use different skill checks to be successful, which could give it another degree of strategy. And another reason to bring a cipher with you, since their class could give them better saves against this kind of attacks.

[TRX850]

A few more...

 

Spell Drain
- Target one spellcaster.
- The Cipher removes one prepared spell from the target's spell pool. The highest spell level affected is determined by the equivalent Cipher level, and is randomly chosen.
- Using 3E rules, a 5th level Cipher targeting a 5th level Wizard could drain one third level spell. Or if the Cipher were 4th level, he/she could drain one second level spell.
- For every five character levels higher than the target, the Cipher can drain one additional spell.

Spell Bounce
- As Spell Drain, but the Cipher may store stolen spells for the duration of the encounter, and cast them at will. Once the encounter is over, all unused spells are lost.

Nullify Resistance
- Target one enemy.
- For a short duration, the Cipher lowers any or all elemental damage resistance to zero.
 

[Lephys]

Inspired by update #41:

 

Phantom Breach:

 

The Cipher psychokinetically "kicks" in a door, drawing the immediate attention of all hostiles in the room.

 

It could be used on a different door than the one through which you plan on entering the room, thereby causing all enemy backs (or at least most of them) to be toward you for an ambush, ^_^

[TRX850]

Translocate [Telekinetic Ability]

- Target one enemy
- On a failed Will save, the enemy and cipher swap physical locations on the battlefield.
- Useful for transporting enemies into harms way (ground traps the party has set, raging barbarian, rogue backstab, wizard touch attack etc).
 

[Lephys]

^ Yes!

 

Also, what if you had a mind/soul swap? (Basically, a body swap)? You get to take over a bandit, for example (after the appropriate save fails), and he would occupy your Cipher's body. He'd be very confused, and he wouldn't have any of the skills or knowledge your Cipher has (those would be in the other body). It would probably have to last only a short while, or be limited in some other way, depending on how you want to handle the "that body dies while your Cipher is still in it" situation. 8P

[TRX850]

Frostburn [Psycho-Molecular Ability]
- Target one enemy
- Primary weapon becomes too hot (or too cold) to handle.
- If a Will save is failed, the weapon is swapped out for a secondary weapon.
- If no secondary weapon exists, the enemy may resort to unarmed combat, or spellcasting, or may flee, or some other tactic dependent on AI/scripting behaviour.
- Enemies with Fire or Cold resistance will have the most appropriate opposing effect applied. Damage inflicted = 1d2 per Cipher level.
- Frostburn will only apply if the damage exceeds the enemy's Fire/Cold resistance.

 

 

[SpaceHamsterBoo]

What if ciphers were in an "awakened" state of mind when compared to mages?

I see the typical mage as a book rat, someone who studies formulas and incantations and just reproduces them without any knowledge of how their soul is providing energy to be transformed in a way that it perform the effect the spell is tasked for.

I view a cipher as someone who "feels" the connexion, or the flow of energy from his soul and mind and manages to shape that energy to do his/her bidding.

 

This could lead up to many different types of ciphers!

For example, a cipher who, through concentration and focus, becomes sensitive to surrounding minds and souls. He could even feel their "flow" and thus predict the movement of an oponent in combat, allowing the cipher to plunge a blade through a weak point of his foe.

Another type of cipher could specialize in using his mind as a weapon (leading to many abilities mentioned in previous posts)

And maybe some ciphers would use their minds to spend time in an alternate reality, shifting fate and manipulating events to come by influencing other people through their subconscience.

Edited February 8, 2013 by SpaceHamsterBoo

[TRX850]

^^ A bit like Ciphers specialising in certain "schools" of psionics?  That could work.

 

Telekinesis

Psychobehavioural

Psychometabolic

Clairsentience

etc.

[SpaceHamsterBoo]

I don't like the idea of classifying the types of abilities. I see the ciphers similarly to the sorcerers of Baldur's Gate 2. Each cipher would have his own personal background, and reasons for developping specific abilities. This would mean that  a cipher would have his own "school" which could not be reproduced, even by other ciphers. As in Baldur's Gate 2, the player had to chose most of the sorcerer's spells before the game. In a roleplaying context, this could reveal part of the sorcerer's own personal background and natural talents.

[AGX-17]

It just occurred to me. Cipher. Psyker. Derp. "Just a coincidence," i'm sure.

I'm expecting.... psylocke style mind blades.

Made out of what? Unless it's meant to stab people in the brain and **** up their thoughts.

 

Also, as appealing as the costume is, not very effective in terms of armor. Should have responded to this a long time ago.

Inspired by update #41:

 

Phantom Breach:

 

The Cipher psychokinetically "kicks" in a door, drawing the immediate attention of all hostiles in the room.

 

It could be used on a different door than the one through which you plan on entering the room, thereby causing all enemy backs (or at least most of them) to be toward you for an ambush, ^_^

So you attract the attention of enemies by opening the door that you need to get through? Doesn't sound helpful. You'd already attract the attention by opening it normally, and you'd still get the advantage of using it as a chokepoint, assuming the enemy AI is smart enough not to charge toward the door (which you imply they will as a result of this psychic version of something you can do without wasting a cast.) Edited February 8, 2013 by AGX-17

[IndiraLightfoot]

Now this is a first: I just added this entire thread to the thread "Ideas not to be forgotten" in General Discussion!

 

You guys rock, so many great ideas here. Obsidian would be wise to read this thread carefully. Now I'll go on and lovebomb this thread with likes!

[Lephys]

 

 

>

Inspired by update #41:

 

Phantom Breach:

 

The Cipher psychokinetically "kicks" in a door, drawing the immediate attention of all hostiles in the room.

 

It could be used on a different door than the one through which you plan on entering the room, thereby causing all enemy backs (or at least most of them) to be toward you for an ambush, ^_^

So you attract the attention of enemies by opening the door that you need to get through? Doesn't sound helpful. You'd already attract the attention by opening it normally, and you'd still get the advantage of using it as a chokepoint, assuming the enemy AI is smart enough not to charge toward the door (which you imply they will as a result of this psychic version of something you can do without wasting a cast.)

 

 

 

When did I ever say it was the door you wanted to get through? In fact, I even said "It could be used on a different door than the one through which you plan on entering the room," right there. You quoted me on it.

 

I don't understand your need to be so judgemental, but if you're going to do it, at LEAST be constructive with it. Jeez. Just plain unnecessary...

 

And, to save you the trouble of pointing it out, obviously you would need some means of deciding which doors the Cipher had access to, and I don't know if you'll be able to peek through door cracks (or those little "Who's there" trapdoor things that I think were the early form of peepholes) in any/many doors in the game, since I'm not the one behind the game's design. Which is precisely why this is a discussion of potential useful/interesting abilities for Ciphers.

Edited February 9, 2013 by Lephys

[Nonek]

The Gift of Fury - The enraged Cipher summons the roiling flames of hatred that scorch his gut, engulfing his comrades in their fierce embrace. The party gains a steadily building bonus to strength and damage, but at the cost of focus and reasoning, if held too long there may be a chance of members falling into a berserker rage.

 

My Little Eye - The Cipher locks eyes with an opponent and rips all the light from their world, the enemy is at first merely disquieted and minorly affected by the spreading gloom, but eventually the well of darkness in the Ciphers eye swallow all light so that he is functionally blind. This quite powerful illusion sometimes induces panic or fear in the target, but these are uncontrolled side effects.

[TRX850]

Unbinding

- Target one Construct
- On a failed Will save, the construct is Slowed (45% chance) or Enfeebled (45% chance) or both (10% chance) for 10 seconds per Cipher level or until concentration is lost.
- The effect represents a temporary dislodging of limbs and joints.