Karma - My two cents

[Draven]

This ritual is one of the few rituals I've been excited about, but I finally had to admit to myself that this ritual is utterly gamebreaking as is.

It doesn't sound like it at first glance. Especially with Bane rits going away, y'know. But, as written, this ritual will absolutely be too powerful because of its insane synergy with the following two words:

"Racial Dodge."

Dodge is going to become the biggest kyn skill ever. Any kyn built for skill efficiency will have it. Resists are cheaper, but niche. Some things -can't- be Resisted, but Dodge cares not. There's a reason that the most popular skill store is Dodge. Dodge is love. Dodge is life.

This ritual pairs -far too well- with Dodge. It increases the value of a skill that already has arguably too much value.

Recommended fixes:

1) Prohibit Racial and Stored abilities from being able to power a Karma. This is my preferred solution, as the ritual would care only about the skills you have, or the spell protections your buddy gave you. This seems more in line with the intentions of the playtest.

2) Prohibit Dodge from being used to power a Karma. This would also fix the ultrapower of a Karma Dodge, though I feel that Rogues should have a slight edge.

3) Delete this ritual so it doesn't further increase the value of Dodge. I dislike this option, but I like choices.

 

[Draven]

Edit: Whoops, nevermind. I can fix it.

 

[mikestrauss]

First, I want to make a point about your first suggested fix. Stored racial skills only last for an event. Since there is no way to infinitely store them now, that still means that you are spending the build from a character at the weekend to power the Karma. I honestly don't have a problem with someone spending their build (10 build if I correctly remember the cost of Racial Dodge) and two different magic items just to give someone else a near universal bane once during a weekend.

Second, I also don't have a significant problem with someone spending 10 build + a magic item (something that can be stolen or lost and that eventually expires) in order to have a near universal Bane once per day. It isn't quite universal, because Dodge doesn't work while constrained and doesn't work on traps (unlike some other racials that do work in those circumstances). Additionally, with the addition of the Counteract skill (something that three different classes will take as many as they can get), there is a new trick for blocking returned attacks. Finally, most classes (and monsters) have easy access to the types of defenses that block the types of attacks they make, meaning that a Karma Dodge often isn't particularly game breaking.

-MS