High Circle Preview: Nethermancer

[The Undying]

I'm definitely keen to hear this, too. I could easily see upgrading the last Standard to an Armored at the Warden level. However, at the Master level, it would be really nice if it is an OPTION to change the Enhanced to a Shared. Shared is versatile and cool, but it hurts giving up that pre-woven thread. And, as I think Panda mentioned in the original ED4 anatomy articles, it's POSSIBLE (I can't imagine it but still ) a magician isn't picking up any/all the option matrices, so the free ones become even more important.

You know what would be cool but might be too much bookkeeping? At Warden, magicians get a new ability akin to: "Once per day, the Adept can spend 30 minutes restructuring one of their free matrices to transform it to another one of the matrices types. An Adept may only have one of each matrices types among their two free matrices (e.g., 1x Armored &1x Enhanced, but not 2x Armored).

[Mataxes]

There are no additional free matrices, or changes to existing ones, that happen at higher Circles for magicians.

(Except Wizard, who get the Split Matrix ability at Circle 9 -- though it now makes the split matrix a Shared matrix, rather than limit it to just 2 spells and costs Blood Magic instead of Strain. So kind of like the ability mentioned by The Undying in the previous post.)

[The Undying]

I'd be interested to hear what the thought on that was. I can easily see why you wouldn't want to offer both free matrices as Enhanced + Armored; that would make the 'cost' of spells with base thread 1 much less punitive. However, if matrix-damaging Talents/Spells/Abilities are a bit more common in ED4, it'd be nice if the one free Enhanced matrix were upgraded to Armored.

[Mataxes]

I'd be interested to hear what the thought on that was. I can easily see why you wouldn't want to offer both free matrices as Enhanced + Armored; that would make the 'cost' of spells with base thread 1 much less punitive. However, if matrix-damaging Talents/Spells/Abilities are a bit more common in ED4, it'd be nice if the one free Enhanced matrix were upgraded to Armored.

It's a matter of balance. That is, free defense vs paid offense.

To successfully attack a spell matrix, an attacker must have two abilities: one that can see the matrix (like Matrix Sight), and one that can actually target something in astral space (like Ethereal Weapon). I'm fairly sure that, outside of magicians, this requires a character to use at least one (if not two) talent options, and pay Legend to raise them. Certainly doable, but there's an opportunity cost in addition to the Legend -- slots devoted to that are slots not devoted to something else.

Giving magicians a free Armored Matrix means they don't have to pay anything for added defense, and it means matrix attack talents need to be even higher to effectively get through it, meaning more expense for the attacker at no cost to the magician.

[Tattered Rags]

Based on the Troubadour's Unnatural Charm being permanent, I'm guessing the Nethermancer's Otherworldly Willpower is, too?

[The Undying]

@Rags

This could be a wording re-adjustment based on the feedback they've gotten here. If that's the case, I think the things that are still missing is (A) whether this is optional [who wouldn't, but still] as implied by the "Adept can" start, and (B) must it be done immediately at Advancement?

[Mataxes]

@Rags

This could be a wording re-adjustment based on the feedback they've gotten here. If that's the case, I think the things that are still missing is (A) whether this is optional [who wouldn't, but still] as implied by the "Adept can" start, and (B) must it be done immediately at Advancement?

Yes, the additional verbiage was based on the feedback from the Nethermancer. In fact, since I wrote up the preview that went live today, we've had a more expansive description put into place:

"Unnatural Charm: The adept performs an eight hour ritual to heighten their senses to mystically enhance their appeal. The ritual is unique to each adept, but tends to be a product of their instruction and personal philosophy, and commonly performed as the final act in becoming a Warden. Some may summon spirits, trading a piece of their Pattern, while others commune with the ghosts of Master Troubadours before them, earning their approval and boon. At the end of the ritual, the adept takes 1 Blood Magic damage and adds +3 to their Charisma Value. Once performed this ritual is permanent."

All of the Disciplines with these powers have a similar description.

[The Undying]

Thanks for the clarification. I think it still isn't clear when this MAY be done. The new text says " commonly performed as the final act in becoming a Warden" but CAN it be done later?

Also, while I like the fluff, it's gonna be kinda burdensome to write that EVERY TIME. May be too late to be screwing with content if things are going into layout, but my personal recommendation would be to do something like:

[Somewhere in the chapter talking about higher-Circles but before the actual per-Discipline breakdowns]

Advancement Ritual (or whatever you want to label it)

Once achieving Warden, each Adept is instructed in the rites of a one-time Blood Ritual that further refines the Discipline within their Pattern. While there are common elements to the ritual for all Adepts of a shared Discipline, the actual ritual is unique to each individual, drawing up personal experiences, philosophies, and ideals. Some may summon spirits, trading a piece of their Pattern, while others commune with the ghosts of Discipline Masters that have passed into the Nether before them, earning their approval and boon. Regardless of the ritual specifics, it requires eight hours of dedicated time. At the conclusion of the ritual, the Adept takes one permanent point of Blood Damage and receives the Discipline-specific bonus. This Blood Damage is permanent, it cannot be healed, and the Discipline-specific bonus is permanent. An Adept can only perform this ritual once, and while the ritual can be performed at any time once Warden status of the Discipline is achieved, it is commonly performed as the final act in becoming a Warden.

Then, for each actual Discipline, we end up with something like (for Troubadour):

Unnatural Charm: (Advancement Ritual) The Adept gains +3 to their Charisma value.

[Tattered Rags]

Advancement Ritual (or whatever you want to label it)

Once achieving Warden, each Adept is instructed in the rites of a one-time Blood Ritual that further refines the Discipline within their Pattern. While there are common elements to the ritual for all Adepts of a shared Discipline, the actual ritual is unique to each individual, drawing up personal experiences, philosophies, and ideals. Some may summon spirits, trading a piece of their Pattern, while others commune with the ghosts of Discipline Masters that have passed into the Nether before them, earning their approval and boon. Regardless of the ritual specifics, it requires eight hours of dedicated time. At the conclusion of the ritual, the Adept takes one permanent point of Blood Damage and receives the Discipline-specific bonus. This Blood Damage is permanent, it cannot be healed, and the Discipline-specific bonus is permanent. An Adept can only perform this ritual once, and while the ritual can be performed at any time once Warden status of the Discipline is achieved, it is commonly performed as the final act in becoming a Warden.

Blood Bound Bow for the Archer isn't permanent, but I otherwise agree with this idea (if it isn't too late for it to be implemented).

[Mataxes]

Yes, it can be done later, if the character wishes. (Not sure why you would wait... I mean... 1 Blood Magic for +1 Step to a key Attribute? Kind of a no-brainer.)

Thing is, not every Discipline gets one of those bonuses. (For example, the Archer doesn't -- they get Blood Bound Bow.) So having some kind of generic description at the start of the section really doesn't apply. It's kind of a coincidence that two of the three Disciplines previewed have those bonuses.

Here's the ones that do:

Beastmaster - +3 Toughness
Nethermancer - +3 Willpower
Scout - +3 Perception
Sky Raider - +3 Strength
Troubadour - +3 Charisma

So only 1/3 of the core Disciplines get a straight Attribute bonus. And not every Discipline gets a blood magic powered ability at C9 -- Thief, for example, simply ignores darkness penalties (including those imposed by spells or other powers). Elementalist and Illusionist get abilities powered by Strain. (That's not all of them, just the ones I can remember offhand.) So a blanket statement doesn't really apply, and we'd end up using just as much text for the exceptions to the general rule.

I appreciate the contributions, but when you don't have the full picture... they may not be applicable.