Indomitable Will

[Mobius]

I've seen a bit of conversation on the proposed Fighter Defensive Capstone Indomitable Will (copied below).

The general argument I've seen against the skill is: unlimited is Over Powered. This seems off to me.

Yes, it is not Per-Day, but it still requires a sizeable resource investment, namely 20 Body. This in itself is a limit on use as even High Level Fighters could only use it a handful of times in rapid succession without the need for external Healing. And even then, they would be a damage-spike away from being dropped.

"Healing is everywhere" goes the next part of the argument; yes, I would agree. However, that Healing is still a resource. Whether the Fighter is drinking Potions or begging Spells / Channeling Pool from a Scholar, resources are still being expended. The resources of a crafter or Scholar is being transferred into the Fighter and then transferred into Indomitable Will. These external resources are not only limited by coin and Exp but by their partners' patience and good-will.

Certain Rituals offer Bonus Body which could be used as a resource for Indomitable Will, but that's also a power-transfer. Rituals costs Scrolls and Components to fuel and Skills to cast (or CP for the new Crafting equivalent) which still amounts to Exp and treasure burned. Even using a "hard" Mettle to drop the Body-cost to 10 is resource intensive as that requires additional Exp on top of the Indomitable Will expense.

Initially, I saw the words "unlimited uses" and my eyes bulged too, but upon reflection I'm not sure it will be overbalanced. I think that in-practice, it won't be as powerful as it seems in-principle.

I'm interested to hear other folks' interpretation.

 

[tieran]

Fantastic assessment!

I definitely think there need to be some playtest abuse of this in combination with armored mettle, and hopefully as much body as someone can stomach to have. I, for one, would love to see this abused to the greatest extent that it could be.

There is a tremendous amount of value in the playtesting of it, even if the only thing we learn is that it should not be combined with other things.

 

[Mobius]

Armored Mettle (AM) is another Ability which has caused a row but, to me, doesn't seem over-the-top. I've played armour-based characters since the '90s, and I am almost never at full points. Any dent in armour whatsoever and the 3CP spent in AM is totally inert and useless.

I can see AM being a nice bonus for helping with that cheeky Spell [effect] tossed at the beginning of a fight before the sides have engaged, or for the random Spell you catch just after refit, but otherwise it doesn't seem a large enough window of opportunity to be abused. It's also totally ineffective against Carrier Effects which, at least in the MW, is a sizeable percentage of the NPC toolkit.

 

[tieran]

Armored Mettle (AM) is another Ability which has caused a row but, to me, doesn't seem over-the-top. I've played armour-based characters since the '90s, and I am almost never at full points. Any dent in armour whatsoever and the 3CP spent in AM is totally inert and useless.

I don't disagree that it is more common to have damaged armor than full, there's also not currently a mechanism that strongly encourages you to ensure you are at max armor, and the addition of one will surely encourage that. Along with the inclusion of another way (and another route to access) easy armor repair, in the form of armor patches, I think it'll see a lot of play.

I can see AM being a nice bonus for helping with that cheeky Spell [effect] tossed at the beginning of a fight before the sides have engaged, or for the random Spell you catch just after refit, but otherwise it doesn't seem a large enough window of opportunity to be abused. It's also totally ineffective against Carrier Effects which, at least in the MW, is a sizeable percentage of the NPC toolkit.

It will definitely see a lot of stand off situation extended I think, but given that its a single armor damaging spell potentially ruins it, I agree that its not perhaps as bang on amazing as it reads in print, but I am still very interested in seeing where it falls in playtest.