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Originally Posted by
Morphic tide
Depends on the flavoring of why it's used, with the Warblade's case being most leaning towards an exoskeleton as the nearest to typical armor. The Polymorph-like effect is vastly better fitting a cybernetics case, while the separate piloted creature works more for a Tony Stark sort of equipment dependence where the entire fighting routine stems from the armor.
Good point. They could all work; as always the question is about choosing the possibility that fits the project at hand best.
The cybernetic approach, on reflection, doesn't fit. It's not conducive to the idea of the suit breaking. Rather, it's a thing where you'd have a suite of multiple forms and modifications to choose from, which is beyond the scope of a simple variant. And granting special attacks doesn't fit since warblade already has a way of spending its actions (maneuvers). On the whole, that one seems like its own class.
Having the mech as a separate creature you pilot could be an interesting twist -- normal warblade is all about physical perfection; warframe warblade is about the perfection of your mecha. It's also conducive to the idea I mentioned that you can only use maneuvers while in your mecha, which provides a very simple incentive for not having it break.
Exoskeleton, yeah, would basically be a HP buffer. It would be pretty much an inverse of the barbarian "berserker" variant that grants you benefits while you're under half health. And it's easy to see how the mechanical transformation benefits from clockwork warrior could be shopped in. The problem is it feels like an extraneous addition. How would it connect to your initiating? That's my question.
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The thing is that a Warheart item can very much have the Desert Wind damage boosts, so why can't you go that small step to be permanently doing 1d6 Fire damage per hit?
I see what you're saying, but to add in a whole rubric of applicable benefits based on discipline is 1) tedious and long, and 2) adds extraneous incentives besides which maneuver you actually want to get.
As a compromise, maybe warheart weapons automatically count as a discipline weapon for the maneuver they're imbued with?
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This is ultimately the reason I want to move away from [Magitech] and towards clock/steam work.
You may be right, best not to pose at something that's a big space on its own.
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Tying [Magitech] primarily to a Discipline and thus sharing complexity "budget" on being fueled by slots is mostly just me really being interested in extending the subsystem transparencies to spellcasting.
Spellcasting transparency would be best to put in feats IMO. Don't want to lock theurges into a specific build or specific maneuver choices. If you want to write a couple of feats that do that, that would be a great addition.
Slot-maneuver transparency could be the basis of an alternative arcane PRC to Jade Phoenix Mage, but again, I would be cautious about upsetting the meta -- RKV/JPM theurge meta seems perfectly fine and it's what people are used to. Eg, I intentionally tried to make Seeker of Lost Swords an interesting niche alternative to, but not something that would supplant, either of those classes.
So feats is where I would be inclined to locate that.
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If we do have the Mechanist be an Artificer-alike, the functions should tend more towards improving use than improving creation, having it dependent on items in some capacity for its Initiating
I think its artificer-lite capabilities should have 2 components: as you say, creating items that are in some way linked to their initiating abilities, and being able to fulfill a basic item provider/item enhancer role for their party, though not as efficiently as an artificer. How much should be in maneuvers vs class features is always a question.
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Though having the Psionic Discipline Stances be a type of Psionic Focus could provide a big draw to the Psion dipping Initiator levels
Thus far I've been giving them benefits
while you're in them and psionically focused, which is pretty much the same thing but allows more flexibility.
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Of course, my own main thought is that since the Psychic Warrior's list is actually already extremely well suited to Initiator resource patterns, why not make a variant like Arcane Swordsage but with things actually properly spelled out for it to function properly (prune durations, keep effects level with Maneuvers, etc)? Then just directly use Powers as Maneuvers.
The problem is that, and I realized this when I skimmed the list, the psychic warrior powers are for the most part really boring. I don't think you would get a class that feels good if you just translated them as maneuvers.