[Avatar d20 Project] Bending System and Bending Classes - Thread II

[AstralFire]

I'm not terribly familiar with the non-bender rules, but unless the monks can wear armor now, that doesn't quite work. I don't think the Kyoshi Warriors' armor was all decorative.

[Zak Crimsonleaf]

Hm. Perhaps what you should do is make the Kyoshi warriors' armor a special type that is able to be worn by martial artists of their style. Oh, and I'm still interested in getting something done with sandbending. I'm working on a list of possible forms, but it's difficult. And this may be a foolish question, but was lavabending ever resolved? I figure it's half earth and half fire, so either one should be able to bend it, but at a penalty.

[Darkkwalker]

If I recall correctly, lavabending was never resolved, however, I think someone did say that Nick said that it was fire-bending.

[Pirate_King]

Lavabending, read as manipulating lava it as a waterbender manipulates water, is never done in the show. Avatar Roku suppressed explosions and did other awesome avatar things, other benders seem to have caused explosions of pyroclastic magnitude, and even melted rock in such a way that indirectly affected lava flow, but as of the end of the show, LAVABENDING HAS NEVER BEEN DONE.

[Zak Crimsonleaf]

You're sure? I mean, at the Fire Temple, Roku lifts his hand and lava erupts into fountains. Seemed like he was doing it to me. I just want to make sure you're right, because if you are, that solves lavabending rather nicely. Anyway, here's a few sandbender seeds. The first four are from earlier in the sandbending discussion, and the last three are obviously reworked waterbending seeds. If anybody can think of more (realistic ones, please, and any corrections to these ones you can see would be good too. No sand coffin seeds. A form might be possible, but no seed like that.) Here they are.

Spoiler

Sand Shield
Base DC: 15
As a move action, this technique creates several thin bands of sand that swirl and twist around the Earthbender, helping to deflect incoming attacks. The sand does not make it harder to see the Earthbender, but it grants her a +4 deflection bonus to her AC. Maintaining the Sand Shield for more than two rounds gives a -4 penalty to all Earthbending checks until the Earthbender ends the seed, increasing by -1 every two turns. If this penalty actually causes an Earthbender to fail a Earthbending check, she may choose to end the seed and remove the penalty at that time. An Earthbender can concentrate on maintaining this seed as a Swift action. Their must be at least a handful of sand within the Earthbender's bending range for this technique to be accomplished.

Dust Devil
Base DC: 20
By manipulating the sand the Earthbender creates a whirlwind made entirely of sand and loose dirt. The Dust Devil is 5 feet in radius and 5 feet in height. 5 feet may be added to the height or width by adding +4 to the DC. Anytime a Dust Devil enters a creatures square, that creature takes 2d6 damage, Reflex save half.The movement of the swirl sand is equal to the Earthbender's base movement with good maneuverability and may move it as a swift action. The Swirl Sand’s base must always be touching the ground. The Sandbender must concentrate on a Dust Devil to keep it active. The Sandbender must make a Concentration check (DC 10+damage taken) whenever he takes damage from an attack. If the Sandbender is unable to maintain Concentration for any reason the Dust Devil collapses into normal sand. Creatures within the Swirl Sand have concealment, while those on the other side have total concealment.The Dust Devil is also used to power the Sand Skids sailed by Sandbenders.

Wall of Sand
Base DC: 15

The Sandbender causes a small wall of churning sand to shoot out of any large amount of sand within her bending range as a standard action. The wall is 1 inch thick, plus one more inch per every 2 points by which the Earthbending check exceeds the DC. The wall’s area is one five-foot square, but the Earthbender can add another such square by increasing the Earthbending DC by +4. Or, you may double the walls area by halving its thickness. The wall may be moved with another Earthbending check at the base DC. The Earthbender pushes the wall back 20 ft in a straight line, plus another 5 ft for every 4 points by which the Earthbending check exceeds the DC. The Sandbender must maintain Concentration to keep the churning wall of sand active. The Sandbender must make a Concentration check (DC 10+damage taken) whenever he takes damage from an attack. If the Sandbender is unable to maintain Concentration for any reason the Wall of Sand collapses into normal sand.The wall cannot be made so that it occupies the same space as a creature. No form of attack can be made to harm a Wall of Sand directly, but each 5ft section has 2 hit points per inch of thickness for determining whether an attack passes through it. It essentially absorbs damage, so attacks must deal more damage than the wall has hit points to have any effect on a target on the other side of the wall.
Breaches in the wall close immediately after the attack that passes through. The sand blocks line of effect, and creatures on opposite sides have total concealment from one another. Moving through the wall requires a strength check (DC 10+ creators Earthbender levels). Those who fail must stop in the space from which they attempted to enter the wall. Any creature that attempts to pass through a Wall of Sand must also make a Reflex save (DC 15) or be blinded for 1d4+1 rounds. A creature passing through the roiling wall does not leave a usable breach for others. All flames are extinguished if carried through the wall.

Control Sand
Base DC: 10
Area: Dust or sand in a volume of 10
ft./level wide by 10 ft./level long
by 2 ft./level deep
Duration: Concentration
Saving Throw: None; see text

Depending on the version you choose, control sand raises or lowers fine particles of material, such as dust or sand. For either version, the Sandbender can reduce one horizontal dimension by half and double

the other horizontal dimension.
Lower Sand: This effect causes sand to reduce its depth by as much as 2 feet per caster level, to a minimum depth of 1 inch. The dust and sand is lowered within a square-shaped depression whose sides are up to 10 feet long per caster level. In extremely large and deep sand piles, such as a sand dune, the spell creates a pit that sweeps creatures downward (without dealing damage), putting them at risk and rendering them unable to leave by normal movement for the duration of the spell.
Raise Sand: This effect causes dust and sand to rise in height, just as the lower sand version causes it to lower. Creatures and objects on top of the dust or sand are raised along with the top level of sand.

Flaywind Blast
Base DC: 25?
The Earth Bender can cause a fistful of sand to spray with enough force to strip flesh from bone and scour surfaces in a 20ft cone shaped burst. Any one within the area takes 1d8 points of damage per 2 Earthbender levels (Maximum 10d8) with a Reflex save for Half damage (DC 16+ Wisdom Modifier). Do not divide damage from Flaywind Blast by four when applying it to objects.

Wave of Sand (Base DC: 15)

Breaker: The wave created by this seed travels in a straight line from within the earthbender’s bending range as a standard action, and can move 10 ft per level of the earthbender. The wave initiates a bull rush against any creatures in its path, counting as a Large creature (with a 10-foot face) with a Strength score equal to the bender’s Wisdom score+2 for the purposes of resolving bull rush attempts. The earthbender may increase the wave’s size to Huge (Giving an additional +4 size bonus and a 15-foot face) by adding +10 to the DC. A earthbender may try to turn the wave 45 degrees two times during its motion, but because of the great mass of sand used; each requires another Earthbending check at the same DC as the one to make the wave turn. Any creature pushed back more than 10 feet by the wave is also knocked prone. The earthbender may move with the wave at its crest, ending her movement wherever the wave moves.

Transport: Rather than make a destructive force against her opponent, an earthbender may make a smaller wave to carry her quickly from one place to another as a standard action. This wave moves at 10 ft per earthbender level and can make four 45 degree turns during its motion without requiring additional Earthbending checks.

Earthen Whirlwind Base DC 10:

As a move action you lift sand in a swirling, spiraling pattern with yourself at the top. This allows you to move straight up or down at a rate of up to 20 ft per round. An Earthen Whirlwind lasts as long as you concentrate (a swift action, up to a maximum number of rounds equal to your class level), and you can move up or down as you desire. Your maximum speed increase by 5 ft for every 5 by which your Earthbending check exceeds the base DC

[phoenixcire]

You're sure? I mean, at the Fire Temple, Roku lifts his hand and lava erupts into fountains.

That can be explained away as Roku creating a violent change in temperature that caused more pressure to build up, creating bigger spurts than would be normal.

[Pirate_King]

Originally Posted by phoenixcire

That can be explained away as Roku creating a violent change in temperature that caused more pressure to build up, creating bigger spurts than would be normal.

exactly. As I stated before, we've seen them cause volcanic explosions and eruptions, as well as suppress them, but actual direct manipulation of Lava isn't something that's been done by anyone.

EDIT: except, of course, on that chibi-short, but that's hardly canon.

[Rogue 7]

Heya. I'm running an Avatar D20 game and we had our first real session tonight that wasn't just character building, so I'll make a few comments.

1. My party is very silly and very violent. Our firebender has been given the designation of "omnicidal". Firebender+Alcohol= hilarity and flaming shots. We've got a rogue, a firebender (she's got a glaive and likes to light it on fire), an earthbender, and an airbender (crazy maxed-out bending check on him.)

2. I ran them up against 5 level 2 warriors and a level 4 rogue. An amusing battle, which ended fairly well for the party. The rogue was complaining he couldn't do much, but that was in large part because of the fact that he acted like a fighter, and just charged in the door. Two guys got sent smashing through the ceiling thanks to the earthbender, and two guys got smashed off the roof (earthbender and airbender each. The airbender nailed the leader.)

Comments: The column seed indoors is ridiculously powerful. I ruled that they couldn't do it from the ceiling, but even then, decently high reflex save to avoid an attack that put them out of the battle for a turn or 2 (and I ruled that it only did 2d6 smashing through the ceiling and didn't pin them down like in the rules) for a DC 10...excessive. I bumped it up to 15.

I ruled that if you're going to empower a technique for more damage or the like, as the airbender was doing with his "air thrust" technique, you couldn't take 10- seems a fair tradeoff for an otherwise pretty doggone powerful ability. The airbender only failed on a 4 or lower, so he went for it, but it seemed a bit more balanced to me.

[Ekeralos]

Why is it possible for a waterbender to deal 1d6 additional damage with ice shards (only a DC 10 seed) by increasing the DC by 4, but a firebender has to use a template (DC +20) that increases the damage by 1d6 for every +10 at which they increase the DC?

Edit: Hm, I seem to be using the Avatar d20 site variant. The standard Intensity is as powerful as the Ice Shards seed. Nevermind then.

[Pirate_King]

well, iceshards is it's own seed that has damage increases built into it, and intensity can be applied to any seed to increase damage, including the basic fireblast. Although, I remember it having a lower DC... did it get upped, or have I not been here in a while.

EDIT: just checked the old PDF, intensity used to be a base 10. Why is it base 20 now? raising it to 20 just to add a single d6 seems pretty high. the additional d6 per x by which the bender beats the DC could have been higher than 4, but 10 as a base DC seems fair, considering the waterbender's ease in adding damage.

[Mephibosheth]

I think the main balancing factor is that Ice Shards is a standard action, area-of-effect seed whereas, as a template seed, Intensity can be applied to every Fire Blast in a full attack. So, while Ice Shards could potentially deal more damage as a single attack, a firebender using Intensity with his Fire Blasts would ultimately be able to do more damage. Also remember that Ice Shards is capped whereas Intensity is not. We wanted to give firebenders a way to bump the damage of their Fire Blasts without things getting out of hand. Finally, it should be noted that, in this setting, almost everyone has good Reflex saves or methods of compensating therefore, so area-of-effect abilities are in general less powerful than normal.

I hope that helps somewhat. If people think this is a real problem, I'd be willing to revisit the issue.

Mephibosheth

[Pirate_King]

that makes sense. So is intensity no longer capped at the firebender's blast die?

[Mephibosheth]

Originally Posted by Pirate_King

that makes sense. So is intensity no longer capped at the firebender's blast die?

Nope, though any more than one or two extra d6's will probably end up being pretty difficult to achieve (though definitely possible) in most circumstances.

[Ekeralos]

Quick question. Is it possible to use a masterwork item to increase Bending checks? I could see that getting out of hand... but I was unable to find a specific place where it was forbidden.

[Pirate_King]

non-canon, I don't think so, but there aren't any items that grant bonuses within the setting...except warfans and airbending staffs. hm. if an airbender staff is a higher masterwork quality, does it increase the bonus to the airbending check, or is it still just +1?

[Achilles]

I was wondering if anyone made a Swamp Bender class. If it was talked about, sorry, but I'm not going through over 35 pages to find that. If not, someone should! I won't, I'm lazy....

[Froogleyboy]

Originally Posted by Achilles

I was wondering if anyone made a Swamp Bender class. If it was talked about, sorry, but I'm not going through over 35 pages to find that. If not, someone should! I won't, I'm lazy....

Just be a water bender who hails from a swamp

[felinoel]

Originally Posted by Achilles

I was wondering if anyone made a Swamp Bender class. If it was talked about, sorry, but I'm not going through over 35 pages to find that. If not, someone should! I won't, I'm lazy....

I believe the was a variant class made of the water bender, same for the sand benders and earth bending

[Wishfire]

I don't know what if this was resolved, I just found this site when I was planning on creating my own Avatar tabletop , but can earthbenders use their climb speed to move laterally? At level 20, an earthbender climbs at 60 ft per move action. Since it is a climbing speed, they can use the run option. that is 240 feet in a round. If he uses Earthstride, he moves at 30 feet (base) + 20 feet (for achieving a result of 40) x 5 (for run) = 250 feet in a round. That is not much of a difference for a form that requires a swift action to maintain. Additionally, if the earthbender isn't maxed out for bending, they would not be able to consistently make 40, meaning the speed is reduced by 10 feet, and speed by running is now only 200 feet. Why would they want to use Earthstride's running snail ability? I think you can climb horizontally, because you do a climb check of surfaces at more than a 45 degree angle, and you could also just put your hands on the ground.

And if you can earthstride with climb speed, that comes out to a possible 400 feet in a round. This just seems a little fast to me. An airbender can fly at 280 ft/rnd while using the run option, run at the same speed by using Run Like the Wind, or combine them for 440 ft/rnd. This is not much difference between the bender known for speed and its polar opposite.

My question is whether earthbenders can use their climb speed on the ground and is it too fast? Has this already been resolved?

[Vaynor]

The Red Towel: Thread necromancy.