Ciphers: Inspirations and their mechanics

[Cain42]

So Cipher gathering his power  from what ? From souls/lifeforce from broken enemies other ppl and friendly alies ?

 

Supporting skills should have opposite effect on alied target , when Cipher is disturbed and do not pass concentration check.

[Cain42]

Pyrokinesis through telekinesis - You could ligh up torch and use that fire. But you can not expand it or creat fire element from thin air. It would be same as you would throw that torch at enemy :D

[Sabotin]

Here's some ideas:

 

Cyphers are entirely mind based - I don not agree that this would be too narrow as the mind basically governs everything for a certain person. The explanation could be that mages are doing mostly thoughts->reality gymnastics, but cyphers are are simply operating with thoughts. Perhaps mages are limited in power by this (think energy transformations/ and thermodynamics) and cyphers have a higher "limit" (albeit different use of it)? Now from this I'd derive some mechanics:

 

Single target - I'd keep the vast majority of their buffs/debuffs single target, for obvious reasons that they would be strong and resulting from the cypher actively focusing on someone. And you can have some added fluff function - all the meetings/negotiations/etc. can happen with groups, as a simple way to avoid mind controlling.

 

No health damage - Again, bar some high level abilities, if something does damage it should be stamina, since it's all in the target's mind. Unconsciousness from pain sounds pretty plausible for example. Though I suppose mind controlling/depressing someone to the point of suicide could be possible, too. Speaking of nonlethal take-down, that could be useful in law enforcement in an advanced society. Wasn't there some concept art of an orlan, which people have speculated is a cypher policeman?

 

Progressive complexity - Low level cyphers could have just simple abilities, like causing pain, fatigue, anger, while higher level could be more complex, providing hallucinations, complex feelings, communication, domination, etc...

 

Situational buffs - Well, they can invade enemy minds, why couldn't allies allow them to manipulate theirs and perhaps remove some fear on improve morale and so on? The emotion line of buffs/debuffs from IWD seem right up their alley. To differentiate a bit from other classes there could be some negative side effects - they would function as both buffs or debuffs, depending on the target and situation. Maybe allies would be forced to use a saving throw, too.

 

Added cost mechanics - Strong skills deserve some added cost to them I think, to prevent them from being the go-to in every situation. For cyphers, perhaps their per-encounter pool could be smaller or the stronger abilities could have a fatigue cost. Their beginning skill seems to note that perhaps they'll have some scaling over time mechanics as their primary concern. It could be interesting to make these vary by race and enemy intelligence - it would take more time to manipulate the thoughts of a different race and less time for simpler brains.

[Lephys]

@ Sabotin:

 

It seems their "cost" is going to be the time-sensitive building of their abilities to full potency. Not that they couldn't have others. But, that defeats the need to have some kind of other pre-requisite in place (like some form of "mana" or something, specifically for Ciphers) in exchange for the power/usefulness of their abilities, as the pre-requisite for potency is cast/sustain time.

[Greydragon]

@ Sabotin:

 

It seems their "cost" is going to be the time-sensitive building of their abilities to full potency. Not that they couldn't have others. But, that defeats the need to have some kind of other pre-requisite in place (like some form of "mana" or something, specifically for Ciphers) in exchange for the power/usefulness of their abilities, as the pre-requisite for potency is cast/sustain time.

This was my assumption too.

 

Also in light of the new update on combat mechanics I'd like to propose a few more abilities based upon the 'sticky' melee combat the game is confirmed to include.

 

As a Cipher is unlikely to be in close combat unless specifically developed in that way, either specializing or perhaps adding a bit of utility for the foreseeable close combat scenarios that must occur would be useful.

 

You don't remember me: The Cipher is able to break free of melee combat by wiping the last few moments of memories from the minds of enemies engaging them in extreme close range. This results in a turn of unhindered escape from the affected opponents. This ability is limited to a handful of uses per combat.

 

Stop there!: Utilizing a hypnotic pulse the Cipher temporarily paralyses a single opponent at moderate range. This lasts for only a turn however it leaves the enemy open to any attacks that take advantage of paralysis. Useful against a lone enemy advancing on a helpless Cipher, for a trap or to control the flow of combat/help other weak character escape melee. Also limited use ability. 

 

Get away!: Telekinesis knocks down enemies in an arc causing minor damage, fortitude to avoid effects.  Useful as crowd control when being swarmed by weak melee attackers. Single turn ability. 

 

Your weakness is ... here!: For the close combat focused Cipher who wants to be able to threaten two opponents at once like a fighter there is this ability; using prognostication the Cipher learns where these opponents weak points will be and attacks there, keeping two enemies threatened simultaneously. Turn limited ability. Activating another ability cancels the effect.

Edited February 27, 2013 by Greydragon

[Greydragon]

It has been a while since I last added any ideas so here are a few more for a proposed (by me) prestige class for Ciphers, assuming that the vanilla format of a Cipher is a telepath and/or telekinetic. 

 

Time Manipulation/Seer 

 

This is a very different class from the other prestige classes as it is not good at large scale destruction. Instead it excels at controlling the battlefield and neutralizing active effects/abilities.

 

Congeal Time: As an active ability the Cipher may permanently slow a creature for as long as they are focused upon it and doing nothing else. 

 

Time Bends: The Cipher may activate a one use per day ability that confers a haste effect. As they increase in level so does their movement speed.

 

Accelerated Magic: The Cipher can with a turn halve the time limit of any magical spell or spell like ability, with opponents this affects the top most spell however for allies this can be used selectively to target harmful magic or if there is a regenerative spell or ability active double the effectiveness of the spell as well as halve the time limit. 

 

High level ability: Skirt the Present. The Cipher becomes adept at manipulating time so well that they are able to step back to a point where the past becomes the present and straddle this line for a few seconds which correlates to several minutes where the world literally freezes. Using this they are able to act in any way they wish for several turns as both enemies and allies remain paralysed. It costs an obscene amount of stamina and can only be performed once a day with two turns of preparation necessary. 

 

Butterfly's Revenge: With a glance at the random probabilities of your actions you hurl a pebble and trigger a chain of events so unlikely they border on miraculous. Random status effect and the possibility of light to heavy damage from a variety of freak occurrences, from startling a venomous snake at the foe's foot to causing a sink hole to pop out of nowhere or a tree to fall. There are a multitude of random results, ranging from merely humiliating to potentially lethal. All that you know is that it isn't a positive outcome for the opponent.  

 

See Through Them: Know where attacks are going to be; even if you cannot avoid them you can still avoid the worst case scenarios. All attacks are downgraded by one; True hits become merely hits. Hits become glancing blows and so on. Active ability that cannot be used with other abilities as it requires total focus. It does however grant a hefty attack bonus against enemies.

 

Temporal Flux: Attack an enemy by changing their body and knowledge in relation to the present. Reflex to avoid. Two turn ability that randomly causes the opponent to either age or become younger; resulting in a loss of primary martial skill but temporarily increased health (for youth) or a general weakening of strength and constitution but an increase in attack due to experience (for old age). A risky move as the enemy is healed by this ability but also weakened significantly in a key area. 

Edited March 29, 2013 by Greydragon

[mokona]

Old School: http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Psionics-Handbook-Supplement/dp/1560760540/ - AD&D 2nd Edition Complete Psionics Handbook

[Failion]

If they going to have telepathy, psychics and cat people they ought to explore the storytelling possibilities. Just imagine, a powerful cipher evil cat alluring adventures to their doom with her cryptic gaze and with her telepathic piercing soothing meows driving them mad.

[Nonek]

Touch of spring cleaning today, stumbled upon an old video in the loft, inspiration for high level/antagonistic Cipher powers perhaps?