Converting Metallic Arts into D&D

[Metalmapper]

So I'm trying to include the Metallic Arts into my D&D campaign. I know @Trusk'our is doing something similar to this, but since they're working on 3.5 and I'm using 5th Edition, I thought I'd better make a new thread. Feruchemy is going to be the most accessible to the players, because they'll eventually discover that they're all Ferrings, so I'm making that one first. My biggest hurdle so far is figuring out how many charges can be fit in what amount of metal. (For reference, I have right now that one charge of gold gives you three HP). I'm also having trouble figuring out how long it should take to put one charge into a metalmind. Anyone have any thoughts?

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 hour ago, Metalmapper said:

So I'm trying to include the Metallic Arts into my D&D campaign. I know @Trusk'our is doing something similar to this, but since they're working on 3.5 and I'm using 5th Edition, I thought I'd better make a new thread. Feruchemy is going to be the most accessible to the players, because they'll eventually discover that they're all Ferrings, so I'm making that one first. My biggest hurdle so far is figuring out how many charges can be fit in what amount of metal. (For reference, I have right now that one charge of gold gives you three HP). I'm also having trouble figuring out how long it should take to put one charge into a metalmind. Anyone have any thoughts?

Sounds like a lot of fun!

How much time do you have before your campaign?

Because if you have a bit (maybe a couple of weeks) I plan on posting my second draft for the 3.5 Mistborn homebrew. You could take a lot of the stuff there and modify it (such as reducing the numerical bonuses on some metals) to better fit 5e.

As for filling Metalminds specifically, it's going to depend on the metal. Pewter, steel, and gold are the most straightforward, where you can store a base amount plus any ability score modifiers as charges per long rest (I may tweak it a little, but that's the main gist). I would also recommend making it get exponentially more expensive to Tap Feruchemical charges, meaning for example that you could get 10 turns in combat of getting a +2 to strength, or 2 rounds of having a +6.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

3 hours ago, Metalmapper said:

So I'm trying to include the Metallic Arts into my D&D campaign. I know @Trusk'our is doing something similar to this, but since they're working on 3.5 and I'm using 5th Edition, I thought I'd better make a new thread. Feruchemy is going to be the most accessible to the players, because they'll eventually discover that they're all Ferrings, so I'm making that one first. My biggest hurdle so far is figuring out how many charges can be fit in what amount of metal. (For reference, I have right now that one charge of gold gives you three HP). I'm also having trouble figuring out how long it should take to put one charge into a metalmind. Anyone have any thoughts?

Gold is tricky because HP can be such a wide swing. 

You could make it based on con since that is where most of your hp is coming from anyways. The higher your modifier the more you can store at once. The more you can tap.  

If you make the cap for storing over a rest something like con modifier x3 or con modifier x5 or whatever (adjust to your flavor).   

[Metalmapper]

10 hours ago, Trusk'our said:

Sounds like a lot of fun!

How much time do you have before your campaign?

Because if you have a bit (maybe a couple of weeks) I plan on posting my second draft for the 3.5 Mistborn homebrew. You could take a lot of the stuff there and modify it (such as reducing the numerical bonuses on some metals) to better fit 5e.

As for filling Metalminds specifically, it's going to depend on the metal. Pewter, steel, and gold are the most straightforward, where you can store a base amount plus any ability score modifiers as charges per long rest (I may tweak it a little, but that's the main gist). I would also recommend making it get exponentially more expensive to Tap Feruchemical charges, meaning for example that you could get 10 turns in combat of getting a +2 to strength, or 2 rounds of having a +6.

It has been fun!

My campaign has already started. We've had a ton of party turnover due to life stuff, so the plot's a little screwed up anyway and I figured I might add this element I really like to compensate for it with cool factor. It might not work, but we've been having a lot of fun so far.

It makes sense for metalmind fill rate to depend a lot on metal, just from a balance perspective. Filling Copper might be an action, while filling Gold takes an hour.

The Ferrings I have in my party are an Archivist, who's metal is super easy. 1 charge = 1 page of text, once I figure out how many charges can fit into a single piece of metal I'm home free. Then I have a Bloodmaker. For her metal, I was thinking you can stop adding your CON mod to your hit point maximum for a period of time, and then spend charges to heal for your CON mod. Fairly straightforward, once I know how long it takes to store one charge. Then I have a Trueself. I honestly have no idea what to do for him. The dungeon I've made for the party to use as a base used to be a stronghold for Keepers, and so I'll let him use aluminum to mess with the Identity Locks in there. Otherwise I've got nothing. I also have either a Soulbearer or a Mistdrinker. Mistdrinker is the title for Adamantine Ferrings, because I made adamantine a God Metal. I'll probably make Nicrosilminds function as a ring of spell storing, but I'm not entirely sure what to do for adamantine. I want it to be similar to Nicrosil, but not the same. Maybe it can store spell slots or sorcery points? (The Soulbearer/Mistdrinker is a Wild Magic sorcerer, for reference.) My last party member is either a Windwhisper or a Skimmer. My struggle is that I'm having a hard time not making iron underpowered, but I'm also having a hard time not making tin overpowered (so far it works like a limited use Elven accuracy. The player I'm giving it to is very much a power gamer, so I'm worried he might find a way to abuse it.). Those are the metals I really need ideas for. Helmalurgy comes next. Allomancy is fairly unimportant to the plot, and someone else has already made Mistborn a D&D 5e class, so I'll probably borrow a lot from them. Thank you for responding!

8 hours ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

Gold is tricky because HP can be such a wide swing. 

You could make it based on con since that is where most of your hp is coming from anyways. The higher your modifier the more you can store at once. The more you can tap.  

If you make the cap for storing over a rest something like con modifier x3 or con modifier x5 or whatever (adjust to your flavor).   

I like limiting storage based on your relevant ability scores. I was doing it like Mistborn Adventure Game, but the system that it uses has easy exploits that make Bloodmakers and Steelrunners immortal without compounding, which isn't something I want. Especially because I have the amount that gold heals be based on CON, I like that the cap for storing is based on CON. Maybe Feruchemy could finally be something in D&D that cares about your raw score, not just your modifier!

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 hour ago, Metalmapper said:

It has been fun!

My campaign has already started. We've had a ton of party turnover due to life stuff, so the plot's a little screwed up anyway and I figured I might add this element I really like to compensate for it with cool factor. It might not work, but we've been having a lot of fun so far.

Nice!

I once added Nightblood to my campaign. . . things were. . . interesting, to say the least.

I will say, if you're planning on adding the Metallic Arts to a previously existing campaign, I think that @Tamriel Wolfsbaine's idea of having a maximum number of Feruchemical charges you can Store is a good one. Otherwise, you risk making Feruchemy too OP.

1 hour ago, Metalmapper said:

It makes sense for metalmind fill rate to depend a lot on metal, just from a balance perspective. Filling Copper might be an action, while filling Gold takes an hour.

Seems useful. You could also say that gold has to take a short or long rest to fill their Metalmind, perhaps with some extra benefit for the long rest. That way they can get a little more effect out of it, but they can't abuse it so easily.

Quote

I like limiting storage based on your relevant ability scores. I was doing it like Mistborn Adventure Game, but the system that it uses has easy exploits that make Bloodmakers and Steelrunners immortal without compounding, which isn't something I want. Especially because I have the amount that gold heals be based on CON, I like that the cap for storing is based on CON. Maybe Feruchemy could finally be something in D&D that cares about your raw score, not just your modifier!

I'm curious; how are they immortal? I'm not disagreeing (those are two of the most overpowered Feruchemical powers, after all), I just haven't read the whole MAG handbook before, only the free PDF.

Edited February 7 by Trusk'our

[Metalmapper]

36 minutes ago, Trusk'our said:

I'm curious; how are they immortal? I'm not disagreeing (those are two of the most overpowered Feruchemical powers, after all), I just haven't read the whole MAG handbook before, only the free PDF.

I'll be honest, that's not something I know, it's just something I've read. I only have access to the Alloy of Law book, so I haven't read entirely how Feruchemy works in the system. I just know that people think that MAG magic is wildly unbalanced, and I've heard people say that it's way too easy to fill Steelminds and Goldminds, which you can use to ignore attacks. I mostly mentioned it to make a point about how I don't want Bloodmakers to be OP.

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

40 minutes ago, Metalmapper said:

I'll be honest, that's not something I know, it's just something I've read. I only have access to the Alloy of Law book, so I haven't read entirely how Feruchemy works in the system. I just know that people think that MAG magic is wildly unbalanced, and I've heard people say that it's way too easy to fill Steelminds and Goldminds, which you can use to ignore attacks. I mostly mentioned it to make a point about how I don't want Bloodmakers to be OP.

 

1 hour ago, Trusk'our said:

Nice!

I once added Nightblood to my campaign. . . things were. . . interesting, to say the least.

I will say, if you're planning on adding the Metallic Arts to a previously existing campaign, I think that @Tamriel Wolfsbaine's idea of having a maximum number of Feruchemical charges you can Store is a good one. Otherwise, you risk making Feruchemy too OP.

Seems useful. You could also say that gold has to take a short or long rest to fill their Metalmind, perhaps with some extra benefit for the long rest. That way they can get a little more effect out of it, but they can't abuse it so easily.

I'm curious; how are they immortal? I'm not disagreeing (those are two of the most overpowered Feruchemical powers, after all), I just haven't read the whole MAG handbook before, only the free PDF.

Yes. As someone who has lots of MAG experience the feruchemy system can feel quite broken. The ability to store on "breathers" same as rests really makes it quite powerful.  

When you use many charges you not only get the dice bonus because instead of 1 d20 you stack up to 10 d6 dice to try to fish for doubles. The problem is that nat 6s are not counted for doubles. You could technically roll 10 6s and still fail that roll.  In fact part of what is fun is that in MAG rules you can never get the maximum outcome... unless you are a feruchemist. When tapping many multiples of a metalmind in increments of 10 you increase your outcome automatically. In D&D terms it would be like adding 5 to your result for each increment of 10 charges you spend. This can get outrageous quickly. A base feruchemist starts with a rating of 3 allowing for a maximum of 30 charges to be used in a single turn. Imagine if every character at level 1 in your campaign could add 15 to their results? For a ferring alone it is a rating of 5 allowing for 50 charges to be spent at once. Which would be the equivalent to adding 25 to the result of a roll. In D&D you could have level 1s landing hits against dragons with ease.  

The balancing act comes from storage. Per the laws of feruchemy you would naturally store during your downtime and rests.  In the MAG a short rest allows someone to store 10x their rating and a long rest allows them to store 30x their rating. Meaning a level 1 feruchemist could start the game with 90 charges in each metal. Allowing for up to 3 total uses of the maximum effectiveness (the +15 to a result in D&D terms) for each metal they have. 

Tapping individual charges is sometimes more powerful as you can increase your dice pool to the maximum of 10 many times over this one. If 1 charge equals 1 dice and you are starting with 5 dice and use 5 charges to give you 10 then you can stretch that a lot more. If you think like D&D it would be like out your stats to a cap 18 times per long rest.  However maxed stats to a cap in D&D do more for your chance of winning a roll than in the MAG. 

Difficulty: 
CHANCE OF SUCCESS, BY DIFFICULTY
Dice Pool 1.     2.    3.    4.      5
2 dice.     14% 11%  8%   6%   3%
3 dice.     37% 30% 22% 15% 7%
4 dice.     61% 50% 38% 26% 13%
5 dice.     80% 68% 53% 37% 20%
6 dice.     91% 81% 66% 48% 26%
7 dice.     97% 89% 78% 58% 33%
8 dice.     99% 94% 84% 67% 40%
9 dice.     99% 97% 90% 74% 46%
10 dice.   99% 98% 93% 80% 52%

As you can see in the MAG matching a difficulty 5 roll is only 52% likely with the maximum amount of dice. So being able to boost your end result is much more powerful in this system than in D&D where your stats and modifiers can really walk you up to near 100% success all the time. (Looking at the cheese min max builds).  

Basically feruchemy is the 1 stop shop for the cheese in the MAG. The only other mechanic that boosts over all success rate is allomantic duralumin. Which boosts results but costs all of the metal you are burning at the time. 

 

So there lies the issues people have with feruchemy in the MAG. It is very powerful and storing on breathers is a necessity for it to work. But a ferruchemist using the magic to its fullest basically plays with maxed stats all the time.

In D&D terms its like having a full inventory of potions from the start of every new day. 

[Quantus he/him]

My Feruchemy suggestion for @Trusk'our was intended for 5e, so I would recommend the same idea: A relevant Storing roll with a PC determined penalty, that banks the Charge to be added later on as an equivalent Bonus.  For Gold, that would be the Short Rest Hit Die roll, adding Charges representing an increase to the Con Bonus that translate directly to HP earned.  You mostly let the bonuses come into play wherever an associated Stat bonus is already being added to the roll, so the numeric balance takes care of itself.  

[Trusk'our he/him]

1 hour ago, Metalmapper said:

I'll be honest, that's not something I know, it's just something I've read. I only have access to the Alloy of Law book, so I haven't read entirely how Feruchemy works in the system. I just know that people think that MAG magic is wildly unbalanced, and I've heard people say that it's way too easy to fill Steelminds and Goldminds, which you can use to ignore attacks. I mostly mentioned it to make a point about how I don't want Bloodmakers to be OP.

Ah, I see.

I would say that a mechanism you could use for gold Feruchemy is to make it less efficient the more you Tap.

So you could, for instance, get 1 HP for every 1 health charge you Tap- but only when Tapping at a rate of 1 charge per round. If you want to heal 5 HP a round, maybe it's more like 10 charges. That sort of thing.

I can also say from experience playing D&D that fast healing (basically regeneration in 5e terms) 5 - 10 HP per round doesn't do as much as one would think, at least not once you get to 5th level or higher. Vampires usually have such regenerative abilities, and unless they have some minions to take the heat for a few rounds and let them heal up the vamp always gets smoked by the players in 2 - 3 rounds.

That actually reminds me of a time where I was playing Curse of Strahd with my cousins. . .

Curse of Strahd spoilers: 

Spoiler

Basically, we were 5th level, and I was a monk of the open hand (this is 5e, by the way). 

There was a CR 13 witch that could probably have killed us in one round easily. However, I managed to sneak up on her and get a surprise attack. I used my stunning strike and succeeded, then used my subclass ability to knock her prone. We then curb stomped the rest of her 150 - 200 something hit points in three rounds, none of which she could act in due to my continued use of stunning strike.

My DM was really surprised. I think he was expecting a TPK, just not in the direction it actually went. . .

Basically, as Wayne once said, "you can beat anyone, so long as you don't let them fight back properly." 

 

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

4 minutes ago, Quantus said:

My Feruchemy suggestion for @Trusk'our was intended for 5e, so I would recommend the same idea: A relevant Storing roll with a PC determined penalty, that banks the Charge to be added later on as an equivalent Bonus.  For Gold, that would be the Short Rest Hit Die roll, adding Charges representing an increase to the Con Bonus that translate directly to HP earned.  You mostly let the bonuses come into play wherever an associated Stat bonus is already being added to the roll, so the numeric balance takes care of itself.  

And I strongly suggest making a feruchemist choose to tap before a roll as well. If you allow them to tap after seeing a result they will naturally meta game that to death. This would also help balance the charge economy. (At least for the rolls happening in time sensitive moments.) 

Building in negative effects from a failed roll turned into a secondary roll would help balance as well. 

 

Random idea for chromium: advantage / disadvantage dice per breakpoint of charges spent. 

 

I guess gold would need to be used reactively. Is it a free action each time it is used or will action economy limit gold use? 

[Quantus he/him]

4 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

And I strongly suggest making a feruchemist choose to tap before a roll as well. If you allow them to tap after seeing a result they will naturally meta game that to death. This would also help balance the charge economy. (At least for the rolls happening in time sensitive moments.) 

Building in negative effects from a failed roll turned into a secondary roll would help balance as well. 

 

Random idea for chromium: advantage / disadvantage dice per breakpoint of charges spent. 

 

I guess gold would need to be used reactively. Is it a free action each time it is used or will action economy limit gold use? 

I entirely agreed, Tapping has to be elected before the outcome is known, with the possible exception of Chromium, and the negative effects should more often than not cascade into additional roles and consequences (allowing for wide DM creativity much like with Nat1's) unless the DM feels they were sufficiently strategic to avoid them.  

For Gold Healing, I dont think it needs to be reactive any more than traditional Healing Magics, since it's not necessarily faster than any normal voluntary action.  The big difference would be that  you can tap it even when incapacitated, unconscious, or when you drop below 0.  In fact, it could make some fun scenarios if a Ferring is unable to Stop themselves from Tapping while incapacitated, making it possible for others to forcefully exhaust their Metalminds.  

[Tamriel Wolfsbaine]

5 minutes ago, Quantus said:

I entirely agreed, Tapping has to be elected before the outcome is known, with the possible exception of Chromium, and the negative effects should more often than not cascade into additional roles and consequences (allowing for wide DM creativity much like with Nat1's) unless the DM feels they were sufficiently strategic to avoid them.  

For Gold Healing, I dont think it needs to be reactive any more than traditional Healing Magics, since it's not necessarily faster than any normal voluntary action.  The big difference would be that  you can tap it even when incapacitated, unconscious, or when you drop below 0.  In fact, it could make some fun scenarios if a Ferring is unable to Stop themselves from Tapping while incapacitated, making it possible for others to forcefully exhaust their Metalminds.  

I like that. Instinctive use of the systems being exploitable!  Because Brandon has so often illustrated that the spiritual self is capable of doing it when the physical is unable too. And the spiritual self does not know nor care about what is happening in the physical realm.  

Another limiting factor tied to MAG is "props" vs equipment. Everyone has a limited amount of props and they are assumed to always be there. But any extra equipment is lost after long breathers. 

If there was a more strict limit, based on wealth or whatever, of the amount of metalminds allowed it would likely help with that economy. Having a feruchemist who spends very little over the span of many sessions and ends up with a suit of armor filled to the brim would be a nightmare to challenge at later levels. 

Although lets be honest. Sazed was fighting inquisitors and knocking koloss heads clean off and he had zero combat training so... feruchemy is supposed to be OP when its being used. 

Allowing for some narrative liberties to show the storing process via @Quantus ideas of rolling for charges honestly sounds like a solid fix to the ease of storage in the MAG. There is deeper implications that way and if played out right the characters could have some added depth.  Not everyone can afford to be Wayne and lay in bed with self inflicted multi-organ failure for a week or two between big story lines and quests.  

 

[Quantus he/him]

30 minutes ago, Tamriel Wolfsbaine said:

I like that. Instinctive use of the systems being exploitable!  Because Brandon has so often illustrated that the spiritual self is capable of doing it when the physical is unable too. And the spiritual self does not know nor care about what is happening in the physical realm.  

Another limiting factor tied to MAG is "props" vs equipment. Everyone has a limited amount of props and they are assumed to always be there. But any extra equipment is lost after long breathers. 

If there was a more strict limit, based on wealth or whatever, of the amount of metalminds allowed it would likely help with that economy. Having a feruchemist who spends very little over the span of many sessions and ends up with a suit of armor filled to the brim would be a nightmare to challenge at later levels. 

Although lets be honest. Sazed was fighting inquisitors and knocking koloss heads clean off and he had zero combat training so... feruchemy is supposed to be OP when its being used. 

Allowing for some narrative liberties to show the storing process via @Quantus ideas of rolling for charges honestly sounds like a solid fix to the ease of storage in the MAG. There is deeper implications that way and if played out right the characters could have some added depth.  Not everyone can afford to be Wayne and lay in bed with self inflicted multi-organ failure for a week or two between big story lines and quests.  

 

Im not sure how I feel about the metal economy side of it, but especially for Feruchemy (where the metal is not consumed) I think I would treat them like props that you just Have unless the Story itself conspires to take them away.  But even for Allomancy, it might honestly fall more in the category of Arrow Consumption, where I generally just dont bother unless there are specific/unusual  circumstances that limit the recourse. Wayne wasnt (obviously) rich but he was given Bendalloy rations by the police force which let him use his powers without too much worry about the monetary cost. 

I might use something like the old White Wolf method of Weath, where you had rating that represented your general lifestyle, and costs within it could be ignored but cost of the next order of magnitude would incur more lasting Cost/penalty.   So an average person could buy rations and a room for the night without consequence but would have to spend narrative effort to get a new Horse and carriage, while the Noble could buy horses all day long but would need to spend narrative effort to buy a Keep, and the barbarian raised by wolves would need to spend narrative effort just to get a Clean pair of pants.      

[Returned]

I'll take a slightly different angle in pointing out a couple of things I've observed in 5e and thought about Feruchemy:

1. D&D 5e is just not well balanced in any number of ways. Many options are simply better than others, and the relevant design imperative seems to be that the less-good options shouldn't be fatally worse-- players can still succeed with a non-optimal build.

2. Due to (1), among other factors, power gamers will always radically outshine non-power gamers. This is unavoidable without some rigid, top-down, arbitrary limitations.

3. D&D has historically (and very much in 5e) emphasized combat over everything else. If you're playing anything like the way the core books suggest then a combat-related ability is probably going to have more utility and be more effective more often than one that is geared towards non-combat situations. That's not to say that non-combat abilities and non-combat builds are useless, but they won't shine as consistently as combat-oriented abilities and builds will. This is very relevant for Feruchemy.

Because of these features, aiming for tight balance in 5e (and mods for it) is usually a design mistake. Mechanical balance, even if you can achieve it, is likely to leave some players disappointed while others have more potential with their powers than they know what to do with. My personal experience is that it's much more valuable to design and manage the plot and narrative situations in ways that give lots of opportunities for the "less good" choices to shine even though mechanical balance doesn't favor them. Situations the characters can't bull through with pewter-fueled strength or absorbing damage via gold will do vastly more than asserting rules that make pewter or gold Feruchemy less useful than they "should" be, no matter what powers the other characters have.

 

As for Feruchemy (and the Metallic Arts generally, and superpowers more broadly still), a key element is the limitations of those abilities and how characters might deal with them. It's the same reason that D&D characters don't just start at level 20: dealing with limitations and looking forward to when you'll be strong enough to not have to worry about them any more is engaging.

I appreciate the expedience of abstracting some of this away, like assuming that the characters have enough metalminds to store as much as they want, having discrete "charges" of Feruchemy to draw on, etc. But having resources which replenish costlessly and on a fixed, predictable schedule tends to produce indiscriminate superhero-ing punctuated by leisurely breaks, and the breaks' only purpose is to ensure that the next bout of superheroics will happen.

I, personally, don't like that for Feruchemy, as the Art is about tradeoffs and having extreme benefits be costly to prepare. Getting a big boost of power on demand is more what Allomancy does. Having easy-to-replace Feruchemical charges is fun but also makes the powers kind of bland and inflexible. Feruchemists get to choose how debilitated they are as they store attributes and how much they need to draw in a given situation; that's really what distinguishes it from Allomancy. As a player I would prefer having to choose tradeoffs for my powers, and Feruchemical tradeoffs aren't linear. When Wayne has to spend weeks feeling sick and miserable to store health it makes his choice to attempt Spoiled Tomato a big deal. When he's low on stored health and in a dangerous situation he has to really change how he approaches things. Otherwise he's just functionally immortal, or tough like a Koloss-blooded person.

So a Bloodmaker can store X HP in their goldmind at a rate of their choosing, being mildly inconvenienced at a slow rate and nearly debilitated at the high end. And then when injured they could heal some fixed HP per round (or six-second period) with perfect efficiency. Or they could heal more in a round, but at the cost of "losing" some of their stored HP to gain that speed. That provides a lot of the flavor of Feruchemy for me: I can choose how prepared I want to be with the amount of prep time I have available, how well I can bear the cost of that preparation, and I can choose how much of that prep should be burned based on how badly I need the healing. If I'm just getting a flat bonus (or stacked bonus) to my AC or HP, then how is my Bloodmaking different from a worse version of A-pewter?

That's the context in which I think about Metallic Arts and 5e, and without those sorts of limitations and options I, personally, would probably not feel like I was playing a Feruchemist. There are also issues around character progression: a Ferring should not be as capable at level 1 as they are at level 10.

The way that I would approach interpreting Feruchemy in 5e would require time tracking during play and little riskless downtime during specific parts of storylines. The best analogue for that is probably the idea of the Adventuring Day, though it's not perfect. Maybe with some random events that break up downtime (otherwise players will always abuse downtime to maximize attribute storage without dealing with the attendant penalties). But a defined timespan in which there isn't a reliable break in potential action makes the storage/tapping tradeoff a part of the game. The rules provide a few things which can simulate storage, like attribute/skill penalties, disadvantage, or exhaustion, and of course the details in how and when they apply will matter. But without players needing to spend more time storing than they get to spend tapping, the flavor of Feruchemy is in danger of being lost.

Getting more out of Feruchemy, or getting better at it, seems like a natural fit for gaining class and/or character levels, specific class features, and feats relevant to each type of Ferring. Those represent practicing and improving Feruchemy, and I would much prefer to have things to strive for and develop towards than a flat system which attempts "balance" right out of the box. Being able to store a trait more quickly, or tap a lot of it more efficiently, or use it more skillfully are all things that would appeal to a developing Feruchemist and would make them think differently about how to use their powers at different points in the game.

Other options to control abuse of Feruchemy could include rarity of high-quality metals for metalminds (iron swords are everywhere, but is it iron that's good for holding a Feruchemical charge?), risk of the metalminds being taken away, specific situations where storing attributes is a dangerous or risky option, and other narrative (rather than mechanical) elements that influence how Feruchemy can be used, and how well.

Edited February 7 by Returned