ooc Salem University OOC (Open)

[Denim&Venöm 18,963]

@Duality 

I guess while we're held up, I guess now would be a good time to mention I'm changing Mindy's magic. Shouldn't be an issue since she hasn't shown her powers off at all. 

I was thinking she could have the power to transform her body into whatever surface she's touching.  Ex: she touches stone she can turn her whole body to stone. She can also copy the attributes, like if she copies ice, she'll be cold and not just water. If she touches lava she'll be hot and not just the rock it was before melting. If she touches uranium she'll be radioactive, etc. 

Also she'd be able to merge with the same material. She copies a bolder, she can merge with the bolder, hiding inside it or walking through the other side. Or she can add the boulder's mass to her own, making her even bigger.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

1 hour ago, Denim&Venom said:

@Duality 

I guess while we're held up, I guess now would be a good time to mention I'm changing Mindy's magic. Shouldn't be an issue since she hasn't shown her powers off at all. 

I was thinking she could have the power to transform her body into whatever surface she's touching.  Ex: she touches stone she can turn her whole body to stone. She can also copy the attributes, like if she copies ice, she'll be cold and not just water. If she touches lava she'll be hot and not just the rock it was before melting. If she touches uranium she'll be radioactive, etc. 

Also she'd be able to merge with the same material. She copies a bolder, she can merge with the bolder, hiding inside it or walking through the other side. Or she can add the boulder's mass to her own, making her even bigger.

Oooh I like it. Absorption Man powers are neat.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

@Denim&Venom I could even see your character learning to use magic through this overarching theme of absorbing and taking on the properties of things around her. The way I see Dru's power is The Plant Manipulation is the baseline ability. Without training she'd be able to use that power. However training with magic allows her to both make her plant manipulation more effective and layer effects on top of it. She understands and uses magic of all types as it is funneled THROUGH her baseline ability. The Absorption Man ability could be seen in a similar light. She could use the ability without training, but learning magic will make that power not only more effective but allow her to use all kinds of specialized magic that maybe others wouldn't be able too in the same way. It's got my brain buzzing with ideas lol. 

[Passion 3,484]

Aight, will finally have some time to type something up tomorrow and next week is much calmer as well.

[Duality 10,740]

7 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

@Duality 

I guess while we're held up, I guess now would be a good time to mention I'm changing Mindy's magic. Shouldn't be an issue since she hasn't shown her powers off at all. 

I was thinking she could have the power to transform her body into whatever surface she's touching.  Ex: she touches stone she can turn her whole body to stone. She can also copy the attributes, like if she copies ice, she'll be cold and not just water. If she touches lava she'll be hot and not just the rock it was before melting. If she touches uranium she'll be radioactive, etc. 

Also she'd be able to merge with the same material. She copies a bolder, she can merge with the bolder, hiding inside it or walking through the other side. Or she can add the boulder's mass to her own, making her even bigger.

Some questions regarding this:

Assuming magical attributes from an object are also possible to copy, is there anything stopping her from carrying around a chunk of tungsten enchanted to absorb and channel local environmental/magical energy into the school's power grid (much like a more powerful version of Druantia's necklace), thereby transforming herself into a physically and magically nigh-invincible being at will?

Would touching uranium to become radioactive actually harm her as her body slowly decayed?

Would she be able to touch a human body to take on certain psychological, intellectual, or magical attributes of the person?

By way of extension, would she be able to mimic a human body well enough to 'merge' with it as with the example boulder?

Does she need a certain quantity of a material to take on a certain quantity of its attributes? (Can she take on all the attributes of a thimbleful of gold, clip her fingernails, and become rich?)

Does she need a certain quality of material to take on a certain quality of its attributes? (Is her physical durability exactly equal to the physical durability of the material she's mimicking?)

Mostly they're questions about the limitations of what attributes she can mimic and of what objects (inanimate objects only? plants? animals? humans? physical attributes only? magical attributes? cognitive attributes?) and how the qualitative and quantitative aspects of attribute-mimicking work.

[dragon4111 914]

@Duality

I could see Ghalan doing his rounds then oops he had accidentally opened a door for a boiling spaghetti door. During the break I mean.

[Denim&Venöm 18,963]

15 hours ago, Duality said:

Assuming magical attributes from an object are also possible to copy, is there anything stopping her from carrying around a chunk of tungsten enchanted to absorb and channel local environmental/magical energy into the school's power grid (much like a more powerful version of Druantia's necklace), thereby transforming herself into a physically and magically nigh-invincible being at will?

No. Thanks for giving me the idea. 

 

15 hours ago, Duality said:

 Would touching uranium to become radioactive actually harm her as her body slowly decayed?

Uranium can't harm itself. 

 

15 hours ago, Duality said:

Would she be able to touch a human body to take on certain psychological, intellectual, or magical attributes of the person?

No. Only the physical.  And even then, it's the physical qualities of their flesh. 

15 hours ago, Duality said:

 

By way of extension, would she be able to mimic a human body well enough to 'merge' with it as with the example boulder?

Not really. Attempting that would result in a gruesome death for the person, essentially they'd be flayed alive and all that would be accomplished is Mindy becoming a wolf shaped meat sculpture. 

15 hours ago, Duality said:

 

Does she need a certain quantity of a material to take on a certain quantity of its attributes? (Can she take on all the attributes of a thimbleful of gold, clip her fingernails, and become rich?)

Not really. A speck will get the job done. Hence why she needs direct contact, other wise she'd assume the characteristics of any dirt or dust on the surface. Anything bigger than the tip of her claw will suffice. And she could, but once she reverts back, so do the nails. 

15 hours ago, Duality said:

Does she need a certain quality of material to take on a certain quality of its attributes? (Is her physical durability exactly equal to the physical durability of the material she's mimicking?)

She does. If she touches bronze that acquired a patina, she'll become a green tinted bronze sculpture rather than bronze fresh from the forge. 

15 hours ago, Duality said:

 

Mostly they're questions about the limitations of what attributes she can mimic and of what objects (inanimate objects only? plants? animals? humans? physical attributes only? magical attributes? cognitive attributes?) and how the qualitative and quantitative aspects of attribute-mimicking work.

She can copy the physical attributes of anything she touches. I consider magic to be a physical attribute. She could copy plants and animals but it would be unwise as she'd be a flesh sculpture or a 300 lbs wolf shaped leaf. She won't absorb memories or personality traits. She can touch it, she can copy it and become it. 

 

I do have other ideas, though they'll depend on what abilities and attributes are allowed for Mindy and by extension all other wolf pelijae. 

 

[Passion 3,484]

I demand to know the exact location of the boiling spaghetti room. ......for scientific reasons of course. Nothing else, nope, nothing suspicious about this request.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

1 hour ago, Passion said:

I demand to know the exact location of the boiling spaghetti room. ......for scientific reasons of course. Nothing else, nope, nothing suspicious about this request.

I TO WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE LOCATION OF THIS ROOM, FOR PURELY UNDEMONIC REASONS

[Denim&Venöm 18,963]

This spaghetti room may or may not be one of Miko's long game contingency plans back when she was a brooding anarchist orchestrating a militant student revolt against Salem itself. 

[Duality 10,740]

On 3/24/2019 at 1:17 AM, Denim&Venom said:

No. Thanks for giving me the idea. 

So in combat she'd be an invulnerable juggernaut with superfluous extra powers? That single ability seems like it would eclipse the usefulness of turning into anything else.

On 3/24/2019 at 1:17 AM, Denim&Venom said:

Uranium can't harm itself. 

I don't mean being harmed by the radiation, I mean being harmed as her body gradually radioactively decayed (that is, as the matter making up her morphed body physically deteriorated over time).

On 3/24/2019 at 1:17 AM, Denim&Venom said:

Not really. A speck will get the job done. Hence why she needs direct contact, other wise she'd assume the characteristics of any dirt or dust on the surface. Anything bigger than the tip of her claw will suffice. And she could, but once she reverts back, so do the nails. 

[...]

If she touches bronze that acquired a patina, she'll become a green tinted bronze sculpture rather than bronze fresh from the forge. 

If she has to touch the material directly to copy it, wouldn't she become a sculpture made fully from patina? The patina is to bronze what rust is to iron, so she wouldn't be anywhere near as durable.

EDIT: Hold on, what if she turns into a certain element (let's say gold), clips her nails, allows her golden nail clippings to react with another substance to form a compound, and then turns back? What would happen to this hypothetical compound during the reversion of her transmutation? Would the gold remain intact in the compound and thus be freely harvestable for money, or would the compound undergo some sort of exotic and dramatic explosive destabilisation as the atoms formerly bonded with the gold suddenly found themselves sharing electrons with a chemically incompatible fingernail protein? I may be overthinking this just a tad, but I try to make a habit of never underestimating the potential proclivity of any close associate of a character like Miko for monetising and/or weaponising any and all aspects of their power. 

On 3/24/2019 at 1:17 AM, Denim&Venom said:

She can copy the physical attributes of anything she touches. I consider magic to be a physical attribute.

What of the cases where copied enchantments are specific to the object? For example, the walls of the school's corridors are enchanted to absorb and redirect magic, but to save on needless complexity they're only enchanted to redirect the magic through the runic conduits engraved into their surface specifically for that purpose. Would her copying that magical attribute result in nonfunctional conduit-analogues running across her skin that redirect magical energy in circles around the surface of her body?  What happens in cases when an object is enchanted via runes engraved inside it (engraved on the surface of the object which was later coated with another layer of material), so that she can't directly 'touch' the source of the magical attribute in question?

Also, does the idea of magic being a copyable physical attribute apply to people, too? You mentioned that she could only copy attributes she could touch, but what if the person's magic was actively flowing from them as she made contact with their skin?

On 3/24/2019 at 1:17 AM, Denim&Venom said:

She could copy plants and animals but it would be unwise as she'd be a flesh sculpture or a 300 lbs wolf shaped leaf.

Unwise as in pointless or unwise as in it could result in some damage? I'm working under the assumption that her mind remains intact and unharmed regardless of her physical state. If she turned into water or similar, she'd be able to move around and/or reform in the same way that she'd be able to move around if she was made of stone, right? If so, does that mean that her power grants control over all the metamatter(?) that her body is made up of? Would she also be able to turn into air at will and thereby avoid pretty much any attack anyone could throw at her?

Incidentally, and this is the engineering side of my mind talking, if she took on the mass of whatever she was mimicking, and changing from one form to the other took minimal energy, then she'd be able to set up an infinite-energy generator consisting of a see-saw with her on one side and a weight on the other side. At the top of the see-saw, she could transform into lead (heavier than the weight), thus causing the see-saw to tip downwards very quickly, and at the bottom she could transform back into herself (lighter than the weight), thus causing the see-saw to tip back upwards just as quickly. With a pseudo-turbine setup, that mechanism would provide an arbitrarily high quantity of clean power (the amount of energy depending on how long the see-saw is made), grossly violating energy conservation and also meaning she could singlehandedly power cities if a large enough see-saw device was made. Perhaps not a major logistical issue, but certainly food for thought.

On 3/24/2019 at 1:17 AM, Denim&Venom said:

I do have other ideas, though they'll depend on what abilities and attributes are allowed for Mindy and by extension all other wolf pelijae. 

I'm listening. 

 

 

 

On 3/24/2019 at 9:46 AM, Passion said:

I demand to know the exact location of the boiling spaghetti room. ......for scientific reasons of course. Nothing else, nope, nothing suspicious about this request.

On 3/24/2019 at 11:19 AM, Buck Testa said:

I TOO WOULD LIKE TO KNOW THE LOCATION OF THIS ROOM, FOR PURELY UNDEMONIC REASONS

Sadly for most scientific and demonic purposes, the boiling is past tense. Only spaghetti now.

If you really want the location, though, just take your first right after coming out of the southeast library entrance and look for the door with the buzzing ravioli glyphs. Or ask around the student body; the bravest among them regularly risk life and limb to harvest their fraternity's monthly supply of ramen. 

On 3/24/2019 at 11:48 AM, Denim&Venom said:

This spaghetti room may or may not be one of Miko's long game contingency plans back when she was a brooding anarchist orchestrating a militant student revolt against Salem itself. 

Perhaps with the added bonus that she could play the part of the legendary student hero showering ramen upon the devoted masses. I suspect most students would readily attempt conquest of their educational facility to get that much free food. Plus, she automatically gets the allegiance of the Pastafarians.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Duality

[Buck Testa 5,505]

@Denim&Venom @Duality Both raise interesting questions. I'd like to throw my hat in the ring here. 

This power is divided up into two things right? The ability to take attributes from a surface she touches, and the ability to TURN INTO an object she chooses. I think the power balancing would be in differentiating what those two things can do. Also narrowing down what Mindy would be compatible with mimicking could also help balance. I've kept Dru focused with Plants and Plant byproducts. If you locked her in a metal prison, fed her only meat, and made sure to screen any plant material from entering her field of effect she'd be severely hampered in her ability to act. Same with any kind of situation where there is absolutely no plant material to manipulate. Similar idea to Magneto in a plastic prison. 

Restriction #1 I'd personally use: This character can only absorb attributes and transform into materials that she understands. The more she knows about the material in her mind, the more she grasps how it works and what it's made of, maybe even to the periodic table level, the more she is able to utilize that material. She wants to absorb the power of that rock over there? Well what kind of rock is it? What is its tensile strength? What are its weaknesses? This also applies to things like magic. If your character hasn't learned the 10th level super mega spell on the wall, and would need years to learn what it even means, then you can't really use it properly. You might be able to copy lesser qualities of it, but nothing like the real thing. Magic is traditionally a very mental focused art, so being able to understand and visualize what you are handling and gaining attributes would be a good way to both give her characterization but also to balance it a bit. 

Restriction #2 I'd personally use: Have a theme on what she can absorb: Metal would be a good choice for this cause there's a wide variety of metal you can choose from. You could even have the hot and cold idea with it. Touch superheated metal and gain the power to be super hot, touch freezing metal and ditto. Have it be Specifically metal, or maybe even specific types of metal like metal that are magnetic. The more you focus in on the theme, the more interesting and creative you can get with your powers. Maybe your character keeps metal orbs on her person that she can pull out and use cause she's learned how to manipulate those, but as she trains at the school she can expand what she can do. Remember you're not creating the FINAL FORM of your character, you're making the beginner version of her. Maybe she only has a few metals she's learned how to use (or whatever you decide on using... I think metal is a good option though) 

Restriction #3 I'd personally use: Taking attributes is less powerful, but less RISKY, than transforming completely: Gaining the attribute of being tough like steel would not yield the same results as actually becoming organic steel. The organic steel body would most certainly be stronger. HOWEVER, what if you dent? What if you rust? What does that translate on your physical form when you change back? These are questions to ask. You turn to Concrete, but someone hits your arm in the wrong way and now it's cracked off of you. What do you do with that? Transforming into the material can lead to advantages as well as life threatening risks if you're up against the wrong opponent. If you take an attribute, it yields less effectiveness, but you'll still only get conventionally injured instead of horrifically injured like being something that could shatter would result in. Maybe being stone is unsafe for this very reason. Statues break all the time after all cause they have weaknesses and their structure isn't as sound everywhere on it's form. It's only until you learn magic that you can mitigate this issues properly. 

Just some thoughts. 

 

 

[Duality 10,740]

On 3/24/2019 at 4:53 PM, Buck Testa said:

This power is divided up into two things right? The ability to take attributes from a surface she touches, and the ability to TURN INTO an object she chooses. I think the power balancing would be in differentiating what those two things can do. Also narrowing down what Mindy would be compatible with mimicking could also help balance.

The latter restriction (narrowing down what she's compatible with mimicking) can be swept up into that power-balancing differentiation if you consider her power to have an additional aspect, making a total of three mimicry-centric components:

1. Altering the attributes of the material that constitutes her body,
2. Altering the composition of the material that constitutes her body, and
3. Maintaining control over the material that constitutes her body.

Within this framework, Restriction 1 (understanding of a substance makes it easier to take attributes from it or transmute herself into it) is simply a mental ease-of-use restriction on the 1st and 2nd components. Restriction 2 (a limited range of substances possible for transmutation) could be tweaked to be based on the consideration that transmuting into gases, liquids or similar materials would mean your body matter would be extremely hard to control (since gas/liquid isn't easy to keep in a given shape), thus being a mental ease-of-use restriction on the 3rd component. Restriction 3 (full transmutation means that you have to take care to keep your body exactly in the form it should be) may then be interpreted as a danger-level distinction between components 1 and 2 based on how they affect component 3. Of course, Mindy is a teacher, so while she may not be at her final form she's probably well on her way and these restrictions thus would likely be quite flexible.

Not to push alien restrictions onto your character, of course, Denim. These are all just ideas; the frankly terrifying logistics of this power make it fun to speculate ways to make it better-behaved. 

 

EDIT: By way of disclaimer, these restrictions still leave unaddressed the dual anomalies of the free energy see-saw and the dilemma of the nail-clipping compound. I fear that the intrinsic nature of this power type means that such physical peculiarities are impossible to resolve in any satisfying form.

Edited March 25, 2019 by Duality

[Buck Testa 5,505]

@Mentis Soliloquy is your character saying this stuff while my post is going on? I actually forgot your character was in the class and I rped the segment in my post. Could you have your character react to what is going on in your post? The refusal to play along is perfectly fine of course but it would seem a bit weird if your character was saying this during my rather active and hard to ignore post. 

[Mentis Soliloquy 3,025]

I'll have a re-read and adjust my post @Buck Testa

[Buck Testa 5,505]

@dragon4111 @Passion 

Um, Dragon? I think you might want to read Passions post again cause your character's reaction really doesn't make sense. Ley was in the middle of a rant at him sure, but then she had what would look like from the outside as a panic attack before she was sucked into a portal. She was screaming and everything. Having your characters reaction to her freaking out and being sucked into a portal be "Kids these days geddaf mah lawn" is very confusing. 

[dragon4111 914]

@Buck Testa

Yeah sorry been having some trouble at home so my mind is elsewhere.

[Passion 3,484]

About that.

No, this is not a Deus Ex machina I am going to use. I wish this to be simply a side plot for Ley personally.

No, rift walking  (ergo a form of teleportation) is not a spell she can cast. It was a special occassion for I couldn't let others see she actually caused any form of damage around herself just yet. She might learn it one day, maybe even in the course of RP. But for now I do not want her to have it.

As for her aura, if anyone wonders if they could feel it, you can say it was only localized manifestation until it suddenly spiked, and you can have your character experience it as a ripple, one time awkward feel if you consider your character was close enough. But the nature of the aura is purely her own, ergo it's just her distinctive energy.

 

And yeah sure I know post can raise questions and I'm fine with them.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

9 hours ago, Passion said:

About that.

No, this is not a Deus Ex machina I am going to use. I wish this to be simply a side plot for Ley personally.

No, rift walking  (ergo a form of teleportation) is not a spell she can cast. It was a special occassion for I couldn't let others see she actually caused any form of damage around herself just yet. She might learn it one day, maybe even in the course of RP. But for now I do not want her to have it.

As for her aura, if anyone wonders if they could feel it, you can say it was only localized manifestation until it suddenly spiked, and you can have your character experience it as a ripple, one time awkward feel if you consider your character was close enough. But the nature of the aura is purely her own, ergo it's just her distinctive energy.

 

And yeah sure I know post can raise questions and I'm fine with them.

Oh it was pretty clear from the post that this was an abnormal situation. I trust you know where You're going with it. I have a whole slew of developments lined up for Dru. 

[Denim&Venöm 18,963]

On 3/23/2019 at 8:47 PM, Duality said:

So in combat she'd be an invulnerable juggernaut with superfluous extra powers? That single ability seems like it would eclipse the usefulness of turning into anything else.

She'd become an invulnerable juggernaut who limited to close quarters combat and will suffer penalties to her movement the heavier the material she copies. The heaviest material, Osmium, would cut her speed and agility by half.

On 3/23/2019 at 8:47 PM, Duality said:

I don't mean being harmed by the radiation, I mean being harmed as her body gradually radioactively decayed (that is, as the matter making up her morphed body physically deteriorated over time).

It would, just as rusting as iron or melting as ice would harm her and why she wouldn't remain that way for long enough to cause harm. 

On 3/23/2019 at 8:47 PM, Duality said:

If she has to touch the material directly to copy it, wouldn't she become a sculpture made fully from patina? The patina is to bronze what rust is to iron, so she wouldn't be anywhere near as durable.

Right, she would be the patina instead. Hence, direct contact with quality material. 

On 3/23/2019 at 8:47 PM, Duality said:

Hold on, what if she turns into a certain element (let's say gold), clips her nails, allows her golden nail clippings to react with another substance to form a compound, and then turns back? What would happen to this hypothetical compound during the reversion of her transmutation? Would the gold remain intact in the compound and thus be freely harvestable for money, or would the compound undergo some sort of exotic and dramatic explosive destabilisation as the atoms formerly bonded with the gold suddenly found themselves sharing electrons with a chemically incompatible fingernail protein? I may be overthinking this just a tad, but I try to make a habit of never underestimating the potential proclivity of any close associate of a character like Miko for monetising and/or weaponising any and all aspects of their power. 

So if part of her as the substance reacted with something else and then reverted back once her spell was done? I guess it'd have to be case by case. All I know is that once she transforms back, so does whatever was part of her. That also means it won't change with her if she turns to something else. Her magic won't reattach itself to her mail clippings. Which is also why if she say, has a limb severed, she'll have to maintain her spell until she gets it reattached. She does another spell, it won't work on that limb.

On 3/23/2019 at 8:47 PM, Duality said:

What of the cases where copied enchantments are specific to the object? For example, the walls of the school's corridors are enchanted to absorb and redirect magic, but to save on needless complexity they're only enchanted to redirect the magic through the runic conduits engraved into their surface specifically for that purpose. Would her copying that magical attribute result in nonfunctional conduit-analogues running across her skin that redirect magical energy in circles around the surface of her body?  What happens in cases when an object is enchanted via runes engraved inside it (engraved on the surface of the object which was later coated with another layer of material), so that she can't directly 'touch' the source of the magical attribute in question?

Also, does the idea of magic being a copyable physical attribute apply to people, too? You mentioned that she could only copy attributes she could touch, but what if the person's magic was actively flowing from them as she made contact with their skin?

If the magical part is within contact, she'll copy it. No it won't function 100% as intended. Throwing an iron rod into the sky may attract lightning, but only when it's actually grounded will it work as a lightning rod. Same with Mindy copying rune enhanced metals. I also consider something like runes to permeate throughout metals and alter their properties. if the magic is coated in something else, then Mindy copies the coating, unless she can break through to the magical metal. 

On 3/23/2019 at 8:47 PM, Duality said:

Unwise as in pointless or unwise as in it could result in some damage? I'm working under the assumption that her mind remains intact and unharmed regardless of her physical state. If she turned into water or similar, she'd be able to move around and/or reform in the same way that she'd be able to move around if she was made of stone, right? If so, does that mean that her power grants control over all the metamatter(?) that her body is made up of? Would she also be able to turn into air at will and thereby avoid pretty much any attack anyone could throw at her?

For that scenario, pointless. But for water and air, dangerous. No she can't maintain control of her body if it's anything other than a solid. She doesn't have a magical field or force of gravity to keep her coherent. She'll still obey the natural laws surrounding the material. Just like she can't stop herself from melting if she's ice, cooling down if she's molten rock or rusting if she's iron. Heck, if she's water or air, or even any melted down metals, if she's mixed with more than her volume in something else, she'll die. That parts that distinctively make Mindy still Mindy, are essentially torn apart and separated. Yes, she could assimilate water or pure oxygen, but she couldn't really do anything with it. but if she's mixed with salt water or hydrogen, she dies. 

Theoretically she could. One day. But she is not at that level yet. 

 

On 3/23/2019 at 8:47 PM, Duality said:

ncidentally, and this is the engineering side of my mind talking, if she took on the mass of whatever she was mimicking, and changing from one form to the other took minimal energy, then she'd be able to set up an infinite-energy generator consisting of a see-saw with her on one side and a weight on the other side. At the top of the see-saw, she could transform into lead (heavier than the weight), thus causing the see-saw to tip downwards very quickly, and at the bottom she could transform back into herself (lighter than the weight), thus causing the see-saw to tip back upwards just as quickly. With a pseudo-turbine setup, that mechanism would provide an arbitrarily high quantity of clean power (the amount of energy depending on how long the see-saw is made), grossly violating energy conservation and also meaning she could singlehandedly power cities if a large enough see-saw device was made. Perhaps not a major logistical issue, but certainly food for thought.

Good idea. Glad you helped me think of it. And yes, this is how Miko skimps out on her electric bills. 

On 3/23/2019 at 10:53 PM, Buck Testa said:

The ability to take attributes from a surface she touches, and the ability to TURN INTO an object she chooses.

I maybe reading into this wrong, but the second part is inaccurate. If she touches a rock, she doesn't turn into a copy of that rock. Her body becomes rock. 

On 3/23/2019 at 10:53 PM, Buck Testa said:

estriction #1 I'd personally use: This character can only absorb attributes and transform into materials that she understands. The more she knows about the material in her mind, the more she grasps how it works and what it's made of, maybe even to the periodic table level, the more she is able to utilize that material. She wants to absorb the power of that rock over there? Well what kind of rock is it? What is its tensile strength? What are its weaknesses? This also applies to things like magic. If your character hasn't learned the 10th level super mega spell on the wall, and would need years to learn what it even means, then you can't really use it properly. You might be able to copy lesser qualities of it, but nothing like the real thing. Magic is traditionally a very mental focused art, so being able to understand and visualize what you are handling and gaining attributes would be a good way to both give her characterization but also to balance it a bit. 

Problem with that is to what degree does Mindy need to know the thing? Visual recognition? Atomic weight? Actual size and weight? It's scientific name? Proportionate strengths and weaknesses? It's age? The exact percentage of it being one material vs. another? If she thinks she's touching gold and instead it's iron pyrite, then how does that change things? The specifics are pretty ambiguous. 

On 3/23/2019 at 10:53 PM, Buck Testa said:

Restriction #3 I'd personally use: Taking attributes is less powerful, but less RISKY, than transforming completely: Gaining the attribute of being tough like steel would not yield the same results as actually becoming organic steel. The organic steel body would most certainly be stronger. HOWEVER, what if you dent? What if you rust? What does that translate on your physical form when you change back? These are questions to ask. You turn to Concrete, but someone hits your arm in the wrong way and now it's cracked off of you. What do you do with that? Transforming into the material can lead to advantages as well as life threatening risks if you're up against the wrong opponent. If you take an attribute, it yields less effectiveness, but you'll still only get conventionally injured instead of horrifically injured like being something that could shatter would result in. Maybe being stone is unsafe for this very reason. Statues break all the time after all cause they have weaknesses and their structure isn't as sound everywhere on it's form. It's only until you learn magic that you can mitigate this issues properly. 

So basically she adjusts how hard and soft her body is? Kinda defeats the purpose of what to specifically touch. What does it matter if she touches diamond or carbon steel? Her body become neither and acts like neither, yet she'll be just as hard as either.

Might consider the second as a sort of 'safe zone' idea. Metals are what she's most comfortable with.  

On 3/23/2019 at 8:47 PM, Duality said:

I'm listening.

Kay, so I'm interpreting lupine pelijae not exactly as fursona style OCs, but more halfway between that and what we consider werewolves. It doesn't make much sense for all these different species to be around the height of an average human. So like werewolves, they'd be big, tall, fast and powerful. 

I'm thinking wolves already posses:

• Superhuman strength (10x peak human)
• Superhuman speed (2x peak human. So equivalent to actual wolf speed)
• Accelerated healing (injuries heal up in a mater of days as opposed to weeks or months)

So with all this, Mindy having long range and devastating AoE spells through weather manipulation would be too OP. Having a set of powers that compliment her existing strengths makes more sense. Which also got me thinking, what if she avoids the issues of things like cracks in her stone facade or tears in her steal by having her still heal, even in altered form. This could effectively make her immortal. She could be flattened to tin foil and still bend herself back to shape in theory.  Though I imagine that process would take months or even years. Best to just melt her down and recast her just to speed up the process. Though as mentioned, she can still die if she's diluted or torn/ broken apart. 

There are other things in terms of lore and culture, like how they identify more as tribes/ packs than as people of nations or ethnicity. How they have the traditional alpha/ omega hierarchy. Value concepts like honor and renown. Are rather spiritual, partaking in very nature oriented beliefs. Things of that sort.

And this doesn't make wolves the end all be all. There are species that outclass them in certain regards. Bear and equine pelijae would be stronger. Cat and fox pelijae would be faster. Dragons would be much tougher. Humans are far more numerous and resourceful. Just that wolves have a better balance.

Also we can't keep calling everyone by their animal term. I imagine each species has it's own name. Miko isn't a fox pelijae. She's a kitsune. So i'm thinking Mindy would be either a Garou or a Vargar (from w.o.d. & traveler respectively). 

[Passion 3,484]

1 hour ago, Denim&Venom said:

I'm thinking wolves already posses:

• Superhuman strength (10x peak human)
• Superhuman speed (2x peak human. So equivalent to actual wolf speed)
• Accelerated healing (injuries heal up in a mater of days as opposed to weeks or months)

 

I don't have time to read into everything since I want to go to bed to get some sleep, but what's with the sudden racial passives of sort?

How old is pelijae race again? Wouldn't living with humanity and using the tech dull their instincts?

Also, if we go with equivalents to actual wolf speeds, a typical wolf is usually physically weaker than a human male from majority of eastern countries in jobs based on physical work, so why is their strenght suddenly 10 times peak humanity? Even two times is unachievable for a wolf. If wolven kind is supposed to have such abilities, I will want to petition to have Ira's species changed then. Oh, and we'll need to come up with what are the advantages of being a human. And I need to come up with racial passives for Ley.

You mention at the beginning she would suffer penalties to speed and agility should she decide to become an unstoppable juggernaut, but then you attempt to boost these very stats by giving her racial passives. That's not complimentary set of skills, that's nullification based on contradictive abilities.

We literally had a brawl IC already between Rouen and Ira. And Ira, a human female, was more or less keeping up with his agility but was falling to his physical strenght, but not to a point where a single strike would knock her out instantly. I fear that ship has sailed.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

Gonna have to agree with @Passion on that one @Denim&Venom@Duality , those passives are kind of ridiculous. In fact a lot of it is putting your character and by extention all Pelijae into OP territory. I don't know how humans and Pelijae could have coexisted so long if their races were THAT much stronger than humans, especially before magic was a thing. Think D&D races. They don't vary THAT much in terms of raw stats. If there was a d&d race that was 10 times stronger than everything else you'd have no reason to BE anything else. It's entirely unbalanced. 

 I would not recommend okaying this change in the character until a more balanced version of both the power and the differences between humans and pelijae are established. I think there is a good idea there, and maybe after a LOT Of rping and learning the character could even get closer to that level, but for right now it's pretty out of curve with the rest of the game. 

Edited March 26, 2019 by Buck Testa

[Duality 10,740]

6 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

She'd become an invulnerable juggernaut who limited to close quarters combat and will suffer penalties to her movement the heavier the material she copies. The heaviest material, Osmium, would cut her speed and agility by half.

So she could just wait out a duel? Regardless of agility and speed, defensive/offensive abilities that strong would basically guarantee a win every time. All you'd need is the right situation-specific enchantments scaled down to fit onto a few talismans worth of tungsten and she could just switch her abilities on the fly. Wants to shoot lasers out of her eyes? Sure, there's a piece of enchanted metal for that. Wants to convert her mental energy into sonic pulses? Hey, here's another piece of enchanted metal. Wants to decrease physical inertia/weight? Why not have another piece of enchanted metal? It may not be easy to fit suitable power sources into a talisman, but there are plenty of enchantments to convert one's natural magical energy into other forms, and plenty of others to enable one to take advantage of those other forms. The versatility of enchanting is usually balanced by the fact that large ones can't channel much power unless a lot of concentration goes into creating them, but if Mindy can automatically scale them up from tiny-amulet-size to full-human-body-size then there's not much stopping her from circumventing that limitation entirely.

6 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

So if part of her as the substance reacted with something else and then reverted back once her spell was done? I guess it'd have to be case by case. All I know is that once she transforms back, so does whatever was part of her. That also means it won't change with her if she turns to something else. Her magic won't reattach itself to her mail clippings. Which is also why if she say, has a limb severed, she'll have to maintain her spell until she gets it reattached. She does another spell, it won't work on that limb.

So disconnected parts of her don't transform with her if she changes into some other substance, but they do transform with her if she changes back into her natural substance? If 'her magic won't reattach itself to her nail clippings', how do her nail clippings 'know' that she's changed back into her normal state?

I propose that, to avoid this dilemma entirely, any part of her that becomes disconnected reverts to its normal state instantly. No time to react with anything else and mess around with the natural order of things. Thoughts?

6 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

Good idea. Glad you helped me think of it. And yes, this is how Miko skimps out on her electric bills. 

With a see-saw that moves a total distance of five meters vertically from the bottom of its motion to its top, she could power 45 houses constantly for free if she changed between osmium and silicon. The conservation-breaking power output scales roughly with the square root of the see-saw height, so if you give her a bigger one it only gets more unrealistic. It's an unpleasant flaw in the power premise, and exploiting it would only make it more so.

6 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

Problem with that is to what degree does Mindy need to know the thing? Visual recognition? Atomic weight? Actual size and weight? It's scientific name? Proportionate strengths and weaknesses? It's age? The exact percentage of it being one material vs. another? If she thinks she's touching gold and instead it's iron pyrite, then how does that change things? The specifics are pretty ambiguous. 

They're not too ambiguous, actually; the better the overall idea she has in her head of what the substance/property is and what it does (i.e., the more familiar she is with it and its properties) the better she can copy it. All of those things can factor in, weighted however seems most realistically relevant at the time. Otherwise she'd be able to copy any given substance or spell she laid eyes on with just as much ease as if she'd studied the substance/spell for years, and that seems peculiarly premised. Plus, this gives space for Mindy to have screeds of potential materials science knowledge that Miko would definitely have plenty of use for. It could perhaps even form part of how they became friends, if that hasn't been established or decided yet.

6 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

So basically she adjusts how hard and soft her body is? Kinda defeats the purpose of what to specifically touch. What does it matter if she touches diamond or carbon steel? Her body become neither and acts like neither, yet she'll be just as hard as either.

No, what he's saying is that taking on the attribute of hardness from iron wouldn't necessarily be as effective as transforming into iron and thus gaining the totality of its hardness. But, on the other hand, transforming into iron would risk dents, which could be more harmful on the reverse transformation than mere bruises would be if she'd only taken on the attribute of hardness from iron. It's a balance between effectiveness and risk that he's describing.

6 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

Kay, so I'm interpreting lupine pelijae not exactly as fursona style OCs, but more halfway between that and what we consider werewolves. It doesn't make much sense for all these different species to be around the height of an average human. So like werewolves, they'd be big, tall, fast and powerful. 

I'm thinking wolves already posses:

• Superhuman strength (10x peak human)
• Superhuman speed (2x peak human. So equivalent to actual wolf speed)
• Accelerated healing (injuries heal up in a mater of days as opposed to weeks or months)

Absolutely not.

Wolves aren't even close to being that strong, and bipedal wolves wouldn't be that fast, since their running motion wouldn't be anything near as fluid due to vastly different muscular anatomy. Accelerated healing also has no association with wolves. They heal as slowly as we do.

Bigger than average, I can grant ten pounds or so. Taller than average, maybe by a couple of inches. Faster than average, not so much. More powerful than average, no. Pelajae display a variation in body mass, height, and speed roughly the same as that of humans, albeit distributed a bit more narrowly over particular species as appropriate for the species type. Power level has no correlation with species, and they have to exercise to get anywhere near peak human. Animals are only fit because if they're not fit they die. This does not apply to Pelajae any more than it does to humans.

6 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

Which also got me thinking, what if she avoids the issues of things like cracks in her stone facade or tears in her steal by having her still heal, even in altered form. This could effectively make her immortal. She could be flattened to tin foil and still bend herself back to shape in theory.  Though I imagine that process would take months or even years. Best to just melt her down and recast her just to speed up the process. Though as mentioned, she can still die if she's diluted or torn/ broken apart. 

Magic isn't supposed to grant effective immortality. This feature would mean that she could be crushed in a car compacter, melted to slag, frozen in liquid nitrogen, pummelled by a variety of bullets and explosive charges, and still survive, because the only practical way she can be killed is by ripping her apart piece by piece. Nobody in this RP has anywhere near that level of defensive capability, even without taking into consideration the offensive side of her abilities. I think I've mentioned this in reply to someone else, but in Salem, if you take a grenade to the face point blank, the best-case scenario is still permanent disfigurement - not turn to metal, recast your face, and move on.

6 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

There are other things in terms of lore and culture, like how they identify more as tribes/ packs than as people of nations or ethnicity. How they have the traditional alpha/ omega hierarchy. Value concepts like honor and renown. Are rather spiritual, partaking in very nature oriented beliefs. Things of that sort.

I have no objections here, but I think it may be relevant to note that entire countries worth of humans did all of these things up until a mere few centuries ago when Europe barged into America. Did the Pelajae just do a better job of retaining their culture and history than we rapidly-Westernising humans did? Would the more modern among us call them traditionalists stuck in the past? I suspect this would be an upside in terms of security of cultural identity, but a downside in that they could be easily ridiculed and even dehumanised for it, much as many, many real-Earth human tribes and cultures have been to this day (mostly to advance the cause of colonialism/capitalism). RP-Earth's culture blend and colonial history would be at least slightly altered from ours, though, so it probably wouldn't be quite as terrible as we've had.

6 hours ago, Denim&Venom said:

And this doesn't make wolves the end all be all. There are species that outclass them in certain regards. Bear and equine pelijae would be stronger. Cat and fox pelijae would be faster. Dragons would be much tougher. Humans are far more numerous and resourceful. Just that wolves have a better balance.

So humans have no redeeming physical traits? They would have died out long ago if they hadn't been so good at breeding and making weapons? Ten humans die to a single wolf in combat? Humans need guns to even approach the fighting prowess of Pelajae?

I'm not introducing decisive systematic race differentials. It is hereby DM-ruled that it is possible for one slightly-above-average human to defeat one average Pelajae, even if they're both mundanes. Being not-quite-human in just the right ways isn't a free ticket to victory in physical combat. If you want to win, exercise like everyone else.

Edited March 26, 2019 by Duality

[Duality 10,740]

4 hours ago, Buck Testa said:

 I would not recommend okaying this change in the character until a more balanced version of both the power and the differences between humans and pelijae are established. I think there is a good idea there, and maybe after a LOT Of rping and learning the character could even get closer to that level, but for right now it's pretty out of curve with the rest of the game. 

^ This, too. There's space for racial advantages (hence the undefined magnitude of the 'slightly' in the sentence 'a slightly-above-average human can beat an average Pelajae'), but not in a 'ten times human strength twice their speed and also heal insanely fast' sort of way. Humans aren't going to be the quick-breeding nerd species; that leaves no room for any personal advantage in combat, since breeding isn't a practical combat advantage (please don't try to prove me wrong) and nerdiness is inapplicable for the humans who aren't born prodigies. Similarly with the power. Ain't nobody going through a car crusher and just needing to be melted and recast to come out perfectly fine unless they have some serious limitations and/or downsides to that ability.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

@Denim&Venom You have to understand we're not trying to pick on you here. I was initially even on board with the idea. However you're trying to make a character that is SO far out of the curve of power with the rest of the game that no GM who was paying attention would ever allow it. Passively many times stronger than humans, and a powerset so numerous you might as well audition to be a DC Comics superhero. I like the INITIAL concept of the idea, transmutation of your body into local materials in the area. It's a neat idea. However you have to balance it within the context of the game it's in. It's like having a fighting videogame where one of the characters can make themselves permanently invulnerable and can one shot everyone else in the roster. It's broken to the point of making every other character nonviable. 

I would either greatly narrow the focus of the power so you can have interesting limitations on it or go back to the drawing board entirely if you want new powers. My initial version of dru was rejected as well, I had to go back to the drawing board myself with @Duality and come up with something that would fit into the game.