Archer

The way I judge physical disabilities is by looking at how they affect them. For example, Gancho's character has no arms. That severely limits his ability to fight. On the other hand*, if he had a shardprosthetic like Nohadon's character does, he can function pretty normally. I believe I scored those -30 and -10 respectively. I would have gone higher on Gancho's, but he indicated it didn't hinder him as much as I thought it would. I believe I docked Arith's blind guy 75 points for being blind, so I go with that again. A useless leg isn't as detrimental. I would probably put it at -25 to -35, depending on the coping mechanisms he has in place. The more normally he can function, the lower the amount of points that will be subtracted. *Yup, that was a pun.

Mace reacted as expected, lifting his shield arm to block the blow. Unfortunately for him, Detran’s sword caught the amberite at bad angle. Instead of blocking the hit, the shield shattered. The blade smashed through it like a pick through ice, embedding itself in Mace’s hand. As if watching the sequence of events in slow motion, Mace saw with perfect clarity the moment when the metal bounced slightly, then slid backwards – raking the aether on his palm. For a second it looked as if it would deflect off that too. Then, with a loud crack, it shattered. Tiny fragments flew like shrapnel in every direction as, instantly, the remaining handle of his shield began to crumble away. Throughout it all, Mace had hardly budged. Mutely, he stared with disbelief at his naked hand for a second, shocked. Then, as if jolted back to life, he felt a surge of anger rush through his veins. Growling primally, he pounced. His lunge had no finesse to it, but what he lacked in dexterity he made up for with rage. As if trying to give his attacker a hug, he thrust his arms forward, ready to crush the smaller man with his bare hands or squash him underneath his bulk. Squeeze him ‘til he pops, came a thought. In his enraged state, it seemed logical enough to him. Common sense did kick in however, and he threw up a coppercloud on the off-chance he was being rioted again. But as he fell forward to wrestle to the man to the ground, his thoughts were mostly dominated by plans of battery.

That's a significant improvement. I'd still judge him as being just a tad (10 points) OP. The exact amount of points the aviar is. But if you make those updates and throw one more weakness in/cut something it should come out as a non-OP character.

Meeker will post a government thread when the time comes. Era Three will mark the introduction of some new guidelines for behaviour, but otherwise the changes should be minimal.

In that case, I'll just direct you to where I scored your bio in the second post of this thread. The score for that specific section would become 30, down from whatever it is now. (I think plate is 40 regularly). EDIT: @Ark1002 In that case, -30 seems reasonable. That's less mighty than I was expecting.

I'd treat it like a spren. The way you've set it up here is fine. Good character, not OP. I'll add them. From my perspective, Shardblades do a lot of damage. But at least it's a set number you can hope to counter (with a shield, or other blade, or a variety of other means). The Epic power on the other hand is a straight up kill. There's no hope of countering it, making it pretty powerful. I don't think battle is the best time to use the power. It would be much more effective to teleport to where the victim is when they're not expecting it, kill them, then rest until you're strong enough to escape. Assuming your target doesn't have any friends nearby, you'd get away with it. Or you could just bring friends of your own to help carry you out. Either way, the damage is done. It's just a hard power to counter. At this point, I'm looking at taking 20 to 30 off. If it was a power that you needed to use constantly to be effective, it would be different, but you can be effective with this one even with the weakness. @JacobClaessen I'll look at it tomorrow. Nag me if I don't get back to you about it.

Thanks, Voidus. With that score, @Steel Inquisitive, your character comes to about 90 points, leaving you with room to add things if you would like. Give me a ping if you would. For now though, I'm going to add your most recently submitted bio on the list.

Because I interpreted your previous comments as a request to put his bio on the E3 list. If this is not the case, I can remove his bio from the Era Three list. I had placed it there because I believed it would be used in E3, and as such, people would be interested in having his bio available for reference. Under your name seemed to be the most logical place to put it. I can either leave it there, or remove him altogether. Your call. You chose two very powerful Epic abilities. I'm concerned that they might be OP, but as usual, I'll defer to Voidus. Thank you for your donation! Since this is an Epic (what's with all the Epic characters? We're turning into the Reckoners RP...) I'm going to leave the scoring to @Voidus. I see no problems with the rest of the bio though.

Mace was in the midst of mentally taking stock of what reserves he had left when he noticed Detran approaching him at a run. Cursing, he quickly downed his last vial of metal flakes and tuned to face him. He doesn’t look too tough, Mace thought as he sized his future opponent up. Wary of a trap, he looked around for snipers or accomplices of the man. There were others of his kind in the area, but none of them seemed interested in him. That left him with some room to maneuver. Mace tried to gauge how long it would take the man to reach him. No time to make an amberite pit trap with the hole. But I can make something else. Mace’s gauntlet had long since shattered, so he set about growing a small shield with his aether. On a whim, he made the bottom of it pointed so it could be used offensively if need be. Let’s see how he reacts to being stonewalled. Mace bent his legs, holding his shield out in front of his chest. His free arm he moved upwards to protect his face, using a modified boxing stance. He increased his weight by half, normally he would have doubled it, but he was trying to use it sparingly, and improved his stability by anchoring himself by Pushing and Pulling lightly on the metal pipes underneath his feet. He was applying one of his favourite techniques. He was already a hard man to move, but with enough preparation he could take a punch without flinching. That tended to surprise people who thought he would buckle under their assault, leaving them open to a counter-attack. He tried to guess what his opponent would do. Fake for the legs, then go for the head? Vice versa? Smash the shield? It had been a while since he had last fought a Dakhour monk. He had vague memories of them being strong and fast, but he couldn’t remember any specific tactics they used. He made a mental note to check his copperminds after the fight. As a precaution, he checked his gold reserves. He had been burning through them at an alarming rate due to all the times he hadn’t been able to swallow one in time to compound it, but he felt confident he had more than enough to heal himself if his attacker stabbed him or got in a good hit. Unless he has aluminum. Suddenly struck by a nagging doubt, Mace decided a backup plan wouldn’t hurt. If he makes it, I can take the hit, but why make it easy for him? So, as when the man got close, Mace Pulled on the few nearby sources of metal available. An assortment of knives, bent coins, and pieces of armour flew towards him. A few hit his skin and drew blood. Unperturbed, he then fired the dozen or so pieces of metal at Detran, hoping to drop him before he even got close. With satisfaction, he noted that only half of them immediately crashed into the ground or went horribly off course.

Mace heaved a charred corpse off his chest, pushing it aside so that he could stand up. The fire had caught him off-guard, but fortunately it had not killed him. The parshendi he had been fighting had not been so lucky. All around him, clothing and bodies alike lay on the ground, burning. A bright red cape lying on its own nearby caught his eye. It had obviously been wrested through violent means from its owner at some point, as it was tattered along the edges and had been cut in places. It would make a good blanket, he thought, unconsciously making it way towards it. I need a rest. In the distance, he heard someone scream in pain. Shaking his head, he fought down the urge to take a nap, drawing on some of his stored wakefulness. I’ve got a job to do. Focus on stopping them. With effort, he raised his head and scanned the vicinity. A pair of windrunners were engaged in a fight above him, but a coinshot was moving to join them, so Mace moved on to looking at the next closest target. It happened to be an armoured space marine. That was no good, he didn’t know whose side they were on today. His eyes panned away, and that’s when he saw her. She was decapitating a wolfhound with a shardblade when he saw her. He couldn’t see her face through the visor of her distinctly feminine shardplate, but he immediately fell in love nonetheless. She turned her head towards him and raised her sword in salute. In return, Mace grinned broadly, excreted sweat uncontrollably, then tripped over the parshendi body and fell on his face. When he looked up, she was racing towards him with her weapon raised. Mace checked over his shoulder to see what she was charging at. There was no one nearby. The woman yelled something. The red cape Mace had seen earlier suddenly wobbled, became impossibly rigid, and lunged at Mace’s head. It enveloped him, squeezing mercilessly. On top of all that, the rioter in the Shardplate chose that moment to change tack, enhancing his feelings of fear instead of those of love. Mace panicked. He thrashed, scratching at the cloth on his face. Instinctively, he drew everything he had from his chromium metalmind. For a few seconds he became incredibly lucky. He clearly felt the pencil he thought he had lost in his back pocket, realized he had more stored energy than he expected, and managed to get his hand underneath of the aggressive cape attacking his face. The cloth squeezed that too, trapping it next to his cheek, and his luck ran out before he had time to remove it. This is how I die, he thought forlornly. As his jaw broke under the relentless pressure, he heard the woman come to a stop next to him, presumably so she could pick the best place to stab him. Realizing he moments away from death, Mace did the only thing his frenzied mind could think to do. Everything. He cried out in pain as his senses heightened. His brain kicked into overdrive trying to make sense of the chaotic mess of sensory inputs he had coming in. His weight doubled, then tripled, then kept steadily increasing. With renewed strength, he managed to move his hand, ripping a hole in the red cloth. The cape started burning, as did Mace’s clothes as he began heating up exponentially. A random memory of a volcanic eruption started playing in his mind. Capping it all off, he felt the most awake he had in years. He was tapping all of his basic metalminds and it felt amazing. To her credit, Mace’s attacker reacted quickly, pushing her shardblade down towards his heart. But Mace wasn’t there anymore. With a great crash, he fell downwards, smashing through several feet of piping and concrete, landing in the sewer below. A massive burst of superheated steam rose up out of the hole, frightening the Shardbearer. She danced backwards out of the way. By the time she checked back, Mace was nowhere to be found. After a moment of peering into the darkness below, she shrugged, then left. Hugging the top of the sewer roof where he was Pulling on some exposed steel reinforcements, Mace breathed a sigh of relief. He’d stopped tapping anything but his gold and cadmium metalminds, but he still felt like he had been injected with adrenaline. That shouldn’t have happened, he reflected as he looked at the way he had come in. This section almost looks like it’s been weakened. Like some localized tremor or errant blast happened to hit this exact spot and made it possible for me to break through it, even only at mid-level heaviness. Pensive, he Pushed his way out of the hole, back up to ground-level. He consciously set off in the opposite direction than the one his attacker had gone in. That was horrible, he decided. But maybe I’m luckier than I thought I was.

Looks good, I'll add it. Your best options are cut, nerf, and counter. Looking at your bio, I've brainstormed some sections that those could be done to. Cut: The larkin, the aviar, investiture (leaving you with only training), some training (eg. projectile weapons) Nerf: Amount of training. 17 years puts him in the top range for projectile weapons and melee weapons (and hand to hand?). If you drop it to ten, he's in a lower slot. Those skills are what make him OP. Skill with investiture/flight. Counter: Combat skills: A physical weakness that holds them back, like a missing limb or sense. A code they follow that restricts them from taking certain actions. Non-combatant status. Pets: Increased unpredictability, decreased usefulness He's a very capable character. Additional weakness could be added as well. To be effective, they would need to decrease his power level, so keep that in mind. This can include physical (limiting his body's capabilities eg. missing eye), mental (limiting his mental capabilities eg. PTSD), and spiritual (I just wanted to make these three match the realms, so put all ethical and belief-related limitations here eg. code of honour) weaknesses.

We judge skills based on years of experience. You'd have to spend a significant amount of time RPing (months in-game) at Devaan's in greatly improve your skill score. Eras don't tend to last that long, nor do people tend to have the patience. You could still do a quick trip to get a crash course, but if you RP realistically, that shouldn't put you on par with, say, people who have indicated that they have spent months or years honing their skills. If the bodyguards are like a spren (basically NPCs who will tag-team with their boss and are usually with him) I would recommend mentioning them in the bio the same way you would a spren. Since you're adding three skill sets, that's going to increase the guy's score. The way you've described them, they're more tools than characters, so they should be treated as such, in my opinion.

That's good, but I'd like their new skills to be balanced with new weaknesses please. The previous version was right about where I'd like it, so all you need is something to detract as much as the skilled hand to hand combatant designation gives him (+25). (I already accounted for him being an amateur with guns in the previous one.)

This one comes down to what you meant by 'less than average with guns'. Is he actually worse than the average person, or just an amateur? And I should note that if you intend for him to have hand to hand skill (as is often the case with thugs) you should mention it. Right now, he's right where we want him (not OP), but I want to give you the chance to specify anything you need to. I appreciate that sentence. It's a very accurate description.

I give Voidus the final say on these, but from my perspective, the boosting ability is a bit like being a nicrosil misting, but for every magic system. On it's own, it would probably not be OP*. (Note: Depending on the mechanics of it, it could be used offensively too, by overloading sensory input etc.*). My main concern about the investiture removal power is that often investiture accounts for two thirds of a character's ability. Being able to take it away is a powerful skill, one that would likely make them OP since it's hard to fight. *layman's opinion

Chaos is hard to turn into a meme because his resting face is an annoyingly charismatic smile. But I did it, so expect me to get banhammered in the near future. This is a niche joke, made mostly for my own enjoyment, so I'm also using it as an opportunity to remind people not to put spoiler tags in their signatures (the text under your post). *cue the 'you were expecting a meme, but it was me, a signature restrictions reminder' meme.*

Thank you for all your submissions. Thank you Voidus for judging the Epics. Those of you who were tagged, please open the spoiler tags to see my comments. @King Taravangian: Power: 80 Points Looks good. I'll add it. @JacobClaessen: Tally: 40 points (Tracing), 30 points (Summoning / Wind Blades), 50 points (Healing)Total: 120 points I'd like to see a non-Epic weakness, listing of their level of skill with the weapons they have, and a backstory please. @Steel Inquisitive: I think what Voidus may be getting at is that Calamity doesn't know what investiture is. He'd have an understanding of Epic powers and how to change them, but the magics of the cosmere work using a different system that is has no knowledge of. @Darth Woodrack I believe that this character is OP for E3. Would you like Dusk, Zack, and Thel scored as well?

Itiah and Voidus were spot on with their comments, so I'll just address what they didn't cover. 0. Unless there is some magical reason that makes him universally despised, I do not consider that to be a weakness you could use on the bio. 1. I consider weaknesses to be a required field. 2. I will comment on Walker in the Alleyverse Character thread (I'm typing up a big post at the moment, to address every post made there since my last post, so I'll include you in that). I believe that would be a more appropriate place to do a full bio dissection, since it's not directly related to power level reform. EDIT: I believe that Walker is OP. 4. It depends on the nature of their relationship. If they are a true NPC, only appearing in the occasional post, then they don't need to be mentioned. If they are like a spren, appearing very regularly at their side, then they should be mentioned and attributed points for the amount they increase a character's power level.

Thank you. Have you seen my scoring of your previous bio that I put in the 2nd post of the thread? I don't see too many differences, so based on that, I'm afraid it might still be OP. It looks like you've skimmed down the suit a bit, but it's still too much to have it plus the investiture he has. This is a fun one. I like having the two separate bios, it makes things easier. That said, they should be scored together. I find it interesting that you chose to have two marks. I was under the impression that because essence marks needed to be re-applied regularly, you could just wait for it to fade if you wanted to switch back. Can someone born on Earth use a soulstamp to gain Forger powers? I'm not sure how place of birth requirement works in that scenario. I agree with your blacksmith score, so the points I'd allot for him having the essence marks amount to [(115-20)/2+20=] 65. He's going to have the fabrials regardless of what form he is in, so I would add them afterwards. I'd score the Epic as being at 40 plus whatever his Epic power gives him. If it's 45 or less, that would put him in an acceptable range, in my opinion. But that's without counting the fabrials. However, I noticed that you only have his Epic weakness in there, no significant normal flaws, so you've got room to adjust to get some fabrials in if Voidus thinks he's weak.

Archer quickly canonized the ghanderflaffle as actually being the long-lost 21st wall, so people wouldn't suspect anything was amiss. "Walls can touch walls," he said. "That's cool."

Guilty as charged. Sorry about that. A disembodied feminine voice could be heard speaking cheerfully from inside of the rift that had opened up between reality and in-game existence. "Your call is very important to us," it said. "Please hold." It cut off suddenly, replaced by a badly composed song. It was a familiar arrangement (due to blatant plagiarism) but it was sung by a then-unknown musician: Archer the Occasional Narrator. "Tikis! Yeah, they love me! But they're hiding/Say, they're ever clever thieves from outside, 'gree?/'Cause they'll haunt ya, in the weeds ya/AND CAUSE YOUR DOWNFA-A-A-ALL, YES!" Eventually the singing stopped. Having suitably expressed his annoyance, Archer called in the all clear. "I found the problem! I put some mimes to work patching the holes up, but while they do, you have to be very careful. Even the slightest strain on these walls could cause them to explode."

I would start with the base Forger score. Some of that point allotment covers the benefits of being able to make essence marks. I would like to give a base score for every mark you have, regardless of power, say 10. So if you have three, it's plus 30. Then, I like the suggestion of scoring based on the most powerful one. I don't think it would be fair to give them the full score for what someone would normally get with those skills, so I would half it. So if it makes them an expert in poison mixing and using melee weapons, normally 115, it would become 55. Then you subtract any points for weaknesses the new persona has from the amount of points it gives you. eg. 55-10=45. See if that works to make a non-OP character. If it doesn't, I'm open to changing it. I just made that up on the fly, so it's probably not perfect.

One of Mace's targets, a tall man in bland-coloured robes, burst into tears as he was rioted. Mace took pity on him and let him go. It was weird seeing a grown man cry in the middle of battle. I should stick to punching people, he thought. It's much fairer.

Hypothesis: success. Mace fell into a fencing stance, leading with his right leg, one hidden from view as it rested on his hip, the other pointing an amber-coloured pick at his opponent. The man he was squaring off against, a heavily armoured cadmium misting, twitched nervously. Twenty centimeters until he begins burning, Mace deduced. Mace had been studying the man as he had razed his way across the battlefield. His strategy was crude, but effective. The misting was bait. He lured people close enough to trap them in a slow bubble. Then his partner, the wiry man with a machine gun who was trying his best to look as if he had not noticed Mace as he pretending to reload his machine gun a short ways away, would open fire on them. Mace had to admit it was a good way to tag-team. Seemingly counter-intuitively the gunner would aim at his partner, but the bubble would disperse the bullets and ultimately some would find their way into the flesh of their true target. Some will hit him too. But hence the armour. Mace loved tapping his zincminds. It made everything seem so obvious. But now it’s time to fill one of my bands. Mace pulled his arm back, like a pitcher about to throw a baseball. He started growing an aether ball, making sure he left some weak spots so it would crack easily. As he did so, he began filling his steelmind. Almost immediately, man with the machine gun opened fire. But instead of dispersing like the man expected them to, most of his shots slammed into the back of his partner. He fell with a grunt. Capitalizing on the man’s shock, Mace stopped storing speed and threw the ball he had made at him. It hit him in the chest, shattering. While his opponent was dazed, Mace covered the distance between them and took him down with a hard right-hook. Result: hypothesis confirmed. Mace then swallowed his empty zincmind and got to work randomly messing with the emotions of the people around him. He had time to kill.