Tome of Radiance: Mastering the Power of Love and Justice

[sreservoir]

Flare [Empath, Stargazer]
There is a limit to the radiant power a mortal body can hold. Evokers are capable of regulating their personal flow of luminescence almost instinctively, but other creatures are far less fortunate. A blast with this foundation rolls damage as usual, dealing 1d8 damage for each mote of the illumination's cost. However, targets do not take this damage immediately. Instead, the blast lies dormant within them, discharging as soon as the target takes damage from another source. If the target does not take any damage within a number of minutes equal to the number of motes in this illumination's final cost, the latent energy dissipates harmlessly. Latent damage from multiple application of Flare blasts stacks. Any damage dealt with the same action as the blast, such as the weapon damage of an Assault illumination, does not trigger this effect. If the latent damage on a target is about to discharge, the evoker may choose to prevent the discharge as an immediate action.

do additional applications remain separate (and thus require one immediate action per blast), or does the damage stack (and only one immediate action is needed to prevent the whole stack from discharging)? if the latter, how do flare blasts by multiple evokers on the same target interact — can any of them stop the discharge, all of them, one of them with the consent of the others, they remain separate, or ??

(I'd suggest that the same flare blast stacks with itself, but multiple flare blasts stack separately, but)

Bombs [Stargazer]
[Mote Cost: 2m/rank]
Radiant power is inherently unstable - it can be channeled, refined, and redirected, but its eventual eruption is all but inevitable. The illumination no longer requires an attack roll, instead allowing the magical girl to scatter a number of energy bundles equal to [2 * ranks] anywhere within a base range of 20'. Energy bundles may only be placed in unoccupied squares, and no more than one bundle may be placed in any given square. Whenever a creature enters an energy bundle's square, that bundle detonates with a blast radius of 5'. Targets within the area of effect can attempt a reflex save for half damage. At the beginning of the evoker's next turn, all remaining energy bundles detonate. Creatures caught in multiple simultaneous detonations only make a single saving throw, and only take the illumination's damage once, but the reflex save DC increases by +2 for every overlapping explosion beyond the first.

objects caught in simultaneous detonations, though, do they take the damage multiple times or also just once. (the text explicitly specifies "creatures" for an exception.)

Eruption [Champion, Empath, Stargazer]
[Mote Cost: 2m/rank]
Calling upon the maelstrom of radiant energy in a magical girl’s soul, this component converts a blast into a raw, unbridled eruption of power. The illumination gains a blast radius of 10’ per rank of this component, centered on you. The illumination no longer can be used at range, no longer requires an attack roll, and allows its targets the opportunity to make a Reflex save. On a successful save, the blast deals half damage.

out of curiosity, is there a reason it's 2m/rank for 10’/rank, and not 1m/5’/rank? the other explosion shape goes by 5’ increments, after all.

Chains, Cascade

given the limitation to one jump per rank, I can't imagine a situation (they might be exist, but they'd have to be kind of esoteric) where k ranks of chain is not inferior to k+1 ranks of cascade and k ranks of horizon. k ranks of chain has a maximum range of (30+15k) ft. and can hit k+1 targets, with some limitations on how much damage and how the targets are placed, whereas k+1 ranks of cascade with k ranks of horizon has a maximum range of (60×2^k) ft. (which is strictly greater and grows really fast), hits the same number of targets, and isn't as restricted in their arrangement and the damage each takes. both fail if the first attack roll you roll is terrible, but hitting a thing with a cascade blast isn't contingent on hitting everything before it.

Vile [Champion, Empath, Stargazer]
[Mote Cost: 5m]
Not all light is clean - the fires of Hell and the Abyss bear their own sickly radiance, and less scrupulous evokers can tap into that light to bright forth blasts of a terrible potency. Damage dealt by blast augmented with this effect is considered to be both evil-aligned and vile damage in addition to any other damage types it may possess. Non-evil evokers may make use of this component, but such a horrendous tool must be used with great care if they wish to carry on long with their alignment intact.

what, no cross-ref or explanationt for the special properties of vile damage?

Barricades [Champion, Empath, Stargazer]
A powerful tool in the hands of those that know how to use it, the component of Barricades allows a tactician to partition a battlefield as she pleases – or a warrior to prevent the escape of her prey.

I actually really like this component, I think I've mentioned, but it's ... ambiguous and strange.

So long as the barrier's mote cost is at least 1m, the edge of the barrier is a quasi-solid object capable of blocking movement.

under what circumstances would it be less than 1m? wouldn't that be a not-valid illumination?

Moving through this edge costs 10 feet of movement, though this cost can be ignored with a successful strength check against a DC equal to the save DC of the evoker's illuminations.

okay, so, it blocks movement, except it only kind of impedes movement. so: if you're thrown at the barrier, does the edge count as 10 ft. of intervening space? if so, do you get halfway through if you run out of distance to be thrown 5 ft. in?

if you're falling, does the barrier count as 10 ft. of intervening space to slow your fall (but also as space for you to accelerate ??)?

(also that DC is already kind of high, but that's probably not unintentional.)

Alternately, a creature may force their way through the barrier regardless of speed or strength with a full-round action.

this option isn't useful for anyone with no less than a 5 ft. speed at the 10 ft. mark, so maybe move it down a few sentences?

If a creatures does not wish to pass through the barrier, they may interact with it as they would any solid surface, including climbing or standing on top of it.

under what circumstances are you allowed to decide whether you want to pass the barrier? if you're unconscious, it's just a 10-ft. intevening space, yes? does that mean you can't be dragged across a barricades barrier if you're not conscious? if you don't know it's there, can you still interact with it if you'd have wanted there to be a wall there?

(note that, as long as it's necessary for the creature to think about it, you either can't drag someone unconscious through it, or you can't drag them over it.)

(I'd prefer "it's solid unless you take the action to walk through.")

For every 3m of this barrier's cost, movement through the edge of the barrier costs an additional 5 feet and the DC to force through it increases by +2.

the DC becomes ridiculous really fast -- it's already 10 + stat + EL/2; after this, it becomes 10 + stat + EL/2 + 2*(EL/3), which comes out to about 10 + stat + 7/6EL, which [i]scales faster than 1:1 with evoker level[i] (without even trying) and is opposed by strength bonus, which scales at maybe about 2/5 of level if you're dedicating as much of resources as possible. keeping in mind that your evoker stat has no reason not to improve just as fast as an adversary's strength. so at 1st level, it's str+d20 vs your 10+stat (opponent forces through on a 10, 55%); at 6th level, it's already str+d20 vs 17+stat (opponent forces through on a 17, 20%); by 10th level, you have 21+stat, and if the opponent has been keeping up with strength at the same rate as you have on your evoker stat, that's success only on a natural 21 (i.e. that's not even possible) or they have to spend a full round. (and keep in mind that your evoker stat bonus can scale at +1/3 EL due to might surges, in place of the usual enhancement bonuses, and that's with a sane interpretation of the might component, which is poorly worded (see below).

If the barrier costs at least 12m, it is impassable without use of a strength check or a full-round action.

by the time you have a 12m barrier, the strength check is p much impossible anyway -- your base DC is 16, you have an additional +8 for the 12m, so the evoker stat is going to have be be at least 4 less than the strength.

I'm not convinced that's not intentional, though, so eh.

Despite its seeming solidity, a barrier with this component does not affect targeting or line of effect in any way.

Tempests [Empath, Stargazer]
Not all great barriers in the world are forged of brick and mortar. A mighty storm of ice and snow can bar passage for thousands, and no sane sailor would cast off when the seas are roused. Crafting her power in emulation of such might wardens, a magical girl can engulf a battlefield in a tempest of her own devising. So long as the barrier's mote cost is at least 1m, the interior of the barrier experiences torrential precipitation that inflicts a -4 penalty on Spot and Search checks to find anything contained within. Traditionally, this takes the form of snowflakes, and act as such - but almost any replacement is theoretically possible. If the barrier costs at least 5m, heaps and drifts of material begin to pile up, and the movement cost to enter any space contained within the barrier doubles. If the barrier costs at least 10m, any creature within the barrier must make a reflex save whenever they move more than half their speed to avoid falling prone in the final square of their movement. If the barrier costs at least 15m, movement costs within the barrier are quadrupled, rather than doubled.

does this interact with barricades?

Pilgrimage [Champion, Empath, Stargazer]
[Mote Cost: 1m/rank]
Boosting the cohesion and longevity of a barrier, this component allows the range of an illumination to be dramatically increased. For each rank of the Pilgrimage component applied to an illumination, its base range doubles. This does not affect the radius, length, or other measurements of any potential Shape effects, and does not benefit illuminations whose Shape does not specify a base range.

all existing shapes specify a base range, but okay, future-proofing, I guess.

Radiance [Champion, Empath, Stargazer]
[Mote Cost: 1m/rank]
Where evokers walk, light follows. One of the simplest of all components, the power of radiance allows an evoker to bring light into the dark places of the world. The interior of her barrier becomes brightly lit, and sheds bright light 10' beyond its borders, and shadowy illumination for twice that distance. For each rank of this component beyond the first, the radius of bright light (and consequently, shadowy illumination) doubles. Multiple doublings stack as usual - for example, a barrier with three ranks of this component sheds bright light in a radius of 30', and shadowy illumination for 30' beyond that. This effect counters or dispels any darkness spell with a spell level equal to or less than half the number of ranks in this component.

not seeing how that example relates to multiple doublings -- there's really only one doubling in this component anyway, though.

Might [Champion, Empath, Stargazer]
The ideal warrior has no weakness, but even the most rigorous training will leave sometimes leave one cursing that their skills are hindered by their own feeble body. Unsurprisingly, given how young many evokers are when they first begin to wield their power, one of the most common surge components is one to reinforce and fortify natural potential. The recipient of the surge receives a +2 Enhancement bonus to an ability score chosen when the illumination is crafted. For every 3m of the illumination's cost, the evoker may add a +2 Enhancement bonus to another ability score. The same ability score can be chosen for this boost multiple times, and its effects stack.

the last line is problematic: it implies that, say, if we extend the duration through echoes, and then we use the illumination twice, we get double the enhancement bonus. intention is probably only once, but it stacks with the rest of the +2.

[I'm stopping here because I need to sleep]

Enhanced Armaments
Whenever an evoker gains a rank of the Enhanced Armaments class feature and chooses to improve her costume, she may choose from the following effects. Unless otherwise noted, a single enhancement can be taken multiple times.

Device Archetypes

?? the enhanced armaments lists disappeared, it looks like.