Anima is a mage dominated system (not that that is always a bad thing, high magic can be a blast). Sure, you can play however you want, in whatever type of campaign you want, but in ours some classes simply have it better. Magic (Magic, Mentalist, Ki, summoning) is clearly dominant which the combats we have which are a typical combat arena with light terrain/obstacles, fairly close quarters (10-30 hexes), 3-6 rounds, with 3-5 encounters a day during missions/quests. Unless the party has the support of magic, most non-magic characters can’t last many combats and the purer the caster the better it will do in its role. True hybrids (those not just using alternate methods of doing a single role) have their purpose but they will lose effectiveness simply because they try to wear too many hats.
You had me very surprised at first, until I realized you were lumping all supernatural abilities under magic.
A first consideration is the genre for Anima. Anima is designed for people who want to have heroic anime adventures. Anime heroes are more high powered than most fantasy heroes, and fall into a few different categories. Those who use magic (either directly or through summoned creatures), those who use psychic powers, those who use ki abilities, those who use powerful weapons, and those who use skill. Many will mix those characteristics.
Pure power manipulators can have significant issues in the scenario you present.
Mystics have a limited supply of zeon, so simply casting a magic shield 3-5 times in a day would be very draining. As an example; Shield of Light is a minimum 50 zeon to cast, and 5 per round to maintain. In your suggested scenario, a mage using just that would be going through 60-75 zeon per encounter, or 180-375 zeon per day
just defending themselves. Using CP's on advantages, most mages will still be recovering under 100 zeon per day, and most are likely to start with under 600 zeon total.
Psychics have it better on the long term power front. They are limited more within the round, as opposed to within the day. They are also designed more to use their abilities to support and enhance, without being direct combat powerhouses until they develop more. Their weakness is in having to conserve, or face significant issues with fatigue.
Melee classes have different considerations.
Most melee classes seem overshadowed by the power and versatility of the Technician class. The other pure melee or Melee/skill type classes all have a role but they less flexible and a properly planned Technician can contest them with properly placed CP and outperform them in combat due to their superior MK. The Shadow is the example in our group. A Technician can buy some stealth discounts and be sneaky like the shadow, but it will be better at combat and can shift into other roles by using different techniques and Ki abilities.
I added the emphasis, because that is all I have found. A
perception that the Technician is more powerful, when, in fact, they are not.
A Technician starts with 50MK. To gain access to Ki Dominion techniques requires Use of Ki and Ki Control. That's 70MK. To give a better chance of avoiding surprises, add Ki Detection for a total of 90MK. If you want to be able to block supernatural you need Presence Extrusion for 100MK, and up to 110MK if you want to use a weapon with Aura Extension. Making your stealthy Technician would require 20MK more for Use of Necessary Energy and Ki Concealment, and bring you up to a total of 130MK.
You've just spent two CP's on Martial Mastery to get here, and still have no special attack abilities except those granted by Presence Extrusion and Aura Extension.
Max out your options, and buy the third level of Martial Mastery and Tai Chi, and you’d have 70MK to buy more general options (Weight Elimination is fun, and Ki Transmission to allow Ki Healing is nice) and up to two basic Ki Dominion powers. Buying an increased recharge rate for ki would also be worthwhile for another CP or two.
Your Technician now has to decide how to use their DP’s. Going to maximize ki potential, take Tai Chi instead of an initial weapon for 25 DP’s, and whatever weapon you want to use as a Different Type Module for 20 DP’s. Take all relevant stats in the 8-9 point range for simplicity, and the Technician is generating 1 ki point in each of six attributes. If the Technician wants to do anything other than passively accumulate ki, they have to increase their rate to at least 3 for each stat, for 20 DP’s per stat increased.
While you may decide to increase them in a different configuration, buying past the 50% reduction still costs the same, so that’s 165 DP’s for six 2-point increases (6 additional accumulation per round, or six total per round when taking actions), Tai Chi (for 30 MK), and a weapon. Spend 3 DP for more ki, and that leaves 192 DP for attack and defense skills. Split those evenly, and with stat bonuses, you could have an attack of 63 and a block of 58 with class bonuses.
For comparison, take a katana as the weapon chosen. With Aura Extension and strength 10, your attack damage would be 70 (50+10+10), or 80 two handed, with a 0 initiative bonus from the weapon.
The Weapon Master and Freelance I really can’t see being viable choices as they currently are in the English rules, though Z tells me the Weapon Master will get more stuff in the DM’s Screen. Weapon Master is great at being a road bump but it lacks the ability to make itself a threat and draw the enemies’ attention, which is likely on casters or Technicians. The Freelance seems to simply be the class for non-combat utility but even other classes cut in on being the skill monkey, and CP gives anyone the ability to do a few skills well. Seems like a great cohort class, but not a good player one; though that seems like the class’ purpose. Other than really odd skill combos I can’t see and advantage of playing a Freelance. The Freelance also suffers from having to buy access to magic and mentalism in character development, limiting its versatility later.
Let’s look at a Weaponmaster:
Take those same CP’s used for the Technician, and buy See Supernatural (extreme combat senses), Artifact 3, and Starting Wealth 1.
Using the guidelines posted on the forums that AT said were fairly reasonable for artifact creation, I created Oni-kiri-maru, a 3CP artifact katana.
Oni-kiri-maru is a +15 Quality weapon, whose first power is the ability to Damage Energy (the equivalent of Aura Extension), next comes Supernatural Attack (unblockable unless able to block supernatural), and finally +60 damage.
Starting Wealth 1 would allow the purchase of both a +5 Quality Breastplate and a +5 Quality Armored Longcoat, along with a lot of other goodies. That would give AT6 against all physical attacks, and AT3-4 against environmental energy. For 25 DP’s, there would be no penalties for wearing both armors (None remain from the Longcoat, the Breastplate‘s are reduced to 35+10, and Class and Strength reduce that to 25).
Feeling extremely combative, the Weaponmaster choses to take the 335 DP’s remaining available for combat, put 35 DP’s toward Wear Armor for later, and split the 300 DP’s between attack and block. {Edit to correct maximum attack/defense allowance of 300 DP's} That gives attack and block ratings of 75, increased to 90 with stat and class bonuses, but further increased to 105 with Oni-kiri-maru’s bonuses. Note that also allows two attacks per round with an attack of 80.
With Oni-kiri-maru as the weapon chosen, your attack damage would be 150 (50+10+30+60), or 160 two handed, with an initiative bonus of +15 from the weapon, and a -3AT penalty for the target.
That’s a 42 point deficit for attacking, a 47 point deficit for defending, a 5 point bonus for initiative (due to the layered armor penalty), and a significant shift in the AT column used for combat. Without overcoming the Weaponmaster’s AT, the Technician would have to outscore the Weaponmaster by 112 points to score 10% damage (8 points two handed).
An average single attack roll would put the Weaponmaster ahead by 47 points, giving a result of 30% damage, or 45 delivered points attacking one handed, for a world of hurt and a possible critical after a second such hit. {Edit to correct maximum attack/defense allowance of 300 DP's}
As levels increase, the Technician needs to increase their ki and ki accumulation, while the Weaponmaster can simply widen the skill gap.
The Technician can develop dominion abilities to try and offset the difference, but has a significant lag to overcome that will continue growing. Until the Technician gets to the level where they can add continuous attack advantages (+30MK to any technique), a single miss that allows the Weaponmaster to counterattack can stop the rest of a multiple attack technique.
Remember, as well, that counterattack abilities are separate from normal attack abilities for the Technician’s domain powers, but are a cost free part of the Weaponmaster’s. All of the Weaponmaster’s abilities are also cost free to use.
The rest of the fighter options, including the mixed class options, can be built to be very effective, even in a combat heavy environment. Let an Acrobatic Warrior use Acrobatics to outmaneuver you and put you at a disadvantage, while using ki abilities not much less than the Technician’s if they want.
The Weaponmaster build I used here is not the only option for building an effective Weaponmaster. It was a heavy handed build to showcase a significant weakness other classes could have if players were interested more in power gaming over character development.
Power gaming is not a wrong way to play if people are having fun, but I find it tends to make people miss obvious issues. Extra attacks with bonuses to hit, reduced enemy armor, and all sorts of other toys sound cool, but you have to pay for them, and other classes are getting new toys, too.
Tell them to stop comparing a tabletop RPG with a PC RPG.
Who says we were? We are making no such comparisons. We analyze any system we game with simply so no one gets stuck playing a bad build. Differences in power level can be a point of contention in a group and after GM’ing for as long as I have with our group I know they are prone to this. I really just seek to prevent it. Playing a certain class concept can be fun, but playing a ineffective character or rolling a new character every session isn’t.
The important thing is not the class is what you do with it.
I thought the saying to counter optimizers was ‘the important thing is to have fun’?
It’s very easy to look at the rules structure, see high powered concepts, and assume balance does not exist. What it takes to reach those high powered options is where balance is regained.
Really are we going something wrong? MA = 10 likely, 250 DP in MA =50 MA, Superior Magic Recovery III = 200 daily Zeon recovery.
250 DP in MA leaves 110 left for Magic Projection
and extra zeon. Even skipping the extra zeon, that's only a 55 Magic Projection. If you don't win the roll for attack vs defense, shields won't help. Dumping everything into Magic Projection at 2nd level would only increase it to 80, which is still likely to be a deficit against attacks.
If the Wizard could survive a few levels, the daily zeon recovery would help, but they'd be pretty worthless until then. Power 8-11 is only giving you 210-250 total zeon, and most defense spells cost at least 50+ maintainance.
As the book notes, too high an accumulation can leave you high and dry when you need zeon, and too low can take forever casting spells.
Edit to note: My original numbers were run quickly with company due, and I forgot to add the limitation of 50% of DP's to attack and defense. I also neglected to add the -20 initiative penalty for stacking armor. I apologize for the errors. The numbers have been corrected.
Anima - Role Playing Game
