Cybermages need a rework
Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2024 7:39 pm
I love cybermages from Through the Glass Darkly but man do they need an official errrata or something. Their abilities while powerful, are also nonsensical past a certain point. The whole scaling process really doesn't make sense as written because each level of spell you want to craft for requires a device of exponentially greater weight and cost which works for a simple outline but falls apart when you think about it. If you're not familiar the scaling for the class works like this.
At level 1 a device costs 1 dollar, weighs 1 lb., and requires an hour worth of work.
At level 2 that rises to 10 dollars, 10 lbs., and 10 hours.
At level 3 that's 100 dollars, 100 lbs., and 100 hours.
and
At level 6 that's 100,000 dollars, 100,000 lbs., and 100,000 hours.
The scaling itself really only works to level 3 and then becomes so insane as to be unusable.
I myself had to modify the rules because even their own example items break this scaling, with one item, an electric eel cannon that's meant to be mounted on a truck, having just under the same amount of weight on its own as a whole M-1 Abrams Tank. The cannon by the way does a whole 9d6 damage. Good, but I think I'd rather just have the tank at that point. Also, the value scaling breaks entirely when this class goes to other worlds. How do you convert 1 USD worth of value for building materials on phase world. What is the rough USD value of a Wilk's Portable Laser Torch on the Nightbane world for proper scaling.
I myself just made the scale go up as a doubling process, but then also allowed the rules that allow for micronization of cybermagic devices to be stackable. Hence, increase cost and build time drops weight to a tenth of the normal amount and you can keep doing this. There's a little more to it than that when I actually use it in game but yeah, that's roughly how I handle it. That being said, I'd really like to see this class redone as I think it's a really cool alternative to the Technowizard but currently its rules are just too janky.
At level 1 a device costs 1 dollar, weighs 1 lb., and requires an hour worth of work.
At level 2 that rises to 10 dollars, 10 lbs., and 10 hours.
At level 3 that's 100 dollars, 100 lbs., and 100 hours.
and
At level 6 that's 100,000 dollars, 100,000 lbs., and 100,000 hours.
The scaling itself really only works to level 3 and then becomes so insane as to be unusable.
I myself had to modify the rules because even their own example items break this scaling, with one item, an electric eel cannon that's meant to be mounted on a truck, having just under the same amount of weight on its own as a whole M-1 Abrams Tank. The cannon by the way does a whole 9d6 damage. Good, but I think I'd rather just have the tank at that point. Also, the value scaling breaks entirely when this class goes to other worlds. How do you convert 1 USD worth of value for building materials on phase world. What is the rough USD value of a Wilk's Portable Laser Torch on the Nightbane world for proper scaling.
I myself just made the scale go up as a doubling process, but then also allowed the rules that allow for micronization of cybermagic devices to be stackable. Hence, increase cost and build time drops weight to a tenth of the normal amount and you can keep doing this. There's a little more to it than that when I actually use it in game but yeah, that's roughly how I handle it. That being said, I'd really like to see this class redone as I think it's a really cool alternative to the Technowizard but currently its rules are just too janky.