I took the assumption you were referring to the Extraordinary Item properties. Yes, most feats in-game can be used for beyond this degree, but these can also help compliment a strategic composition of the team. Furthermore, the point of these are to be items that create better synergies with feats. Feats in this game are what make or break most characters, as unless you’re apart of my group which are much more item-centrist, you won’t be getting a million and a half Extraordinary items. With that being said, let me counter each point in my own perspective.
Directing allows a level, let’s say uhh… 3, to get up to 100 Feet of range when their max statistic can be a 6 by base (7 if they have Extraordinary Focus). That right there means they have an item allowing them to attack 100 feet away at a point where they can attack at 50 feet at base, or 75 feet with an Extraordinary Focus. Combine that with Longshot for that item, and you can attack from 200 feet away. Compare that to the 100 feet of range a Tier 6 would get from Longshot, or the 150 feet that a Tier 7 would be able to utilize. Unless a Ranged Character also has Longshot, incurs 1 disadvantage to hit, or has an Extreme Range weapon, they tend to not hit those ranges.
Baneful as an Item property is very much useful. Same goes for Bane Focus as a feat. Multi-Bane Specialist also works well. However, Baneful is an Extraordinary Item property which is not necessarily the easiest thing to get. Bane Focus works the same as Baneful, but can also tackle at Afflicting. Being able to apply banes at 5 or more damage is already immensely potent. Bane Focus however, still counts towards your 1 bane limit. Multi-Bane Specialist is limited as well; as you must have enough of an Attribute Score in order to properly apply these Banes. Consider the fact that the early game has very low attribute score. The lucky hitter may have their Multi-Bane Specialist, but its still limited by the fact that they have a 5, 6 or 7 (levels 1-3). More of the potent banes are higher level, and thus can be finicky to make useful (although it is!). The point is to be able to apply more Banes as a result of either A. getting lucky on a hit or B. building for that kind of path.
Bane Focus does make Afflicting seem redundant; but realize that Advantage in Openlegend has a very direct correlation to power spiking and higher average rolls. My proof lies within this. The two of them stack together to further emphasize their synergy. Bane Focus grants two extra advantage on Bane Attacks, and if a Bane is listed on an item, you gain 1 advantage to casting that Bane. That grants 3 advantage to your Bane Attack. Apply then Afflicting to the item with said listed bane; it gains an extra advantage on the cast. That ups your total advantage to 4 advantage with just this alone, and if you’ve been Bolstered; great! All the more to apply that Persistent Damage you’ve been so eager to afflict that Minotaur with, or that Fatigue on that damned Hellbot trying to murdelize your facehole!
Orderly is probably the one I have no easy way to push against. While it’s true that Extraordinary Items can be used for sustaining Boons, that’s if you have Persistent as a property on it. First off, that’s a +3 WL on it’s own. Then you must take into account that if the item is sustaining the Boon, it has to also have the Boon counted towards it’s WL. That means the minimum level you can be at to use a Persisting item is Level 4, as that’s when WL gets to WL 4. That restricts you to crafted Persisting Boons at levels 1-3 or levels 4-5 if you chose Wealthy as a Feat. Then only at level 6 do you even get to jump up to 6 or 7 where some of the most potent Boons are placed. Of course, WL subtractions can be used, but nobody actually likes those unless it means you can get your Deadly III. As for your other inquiry of Multi-Target Boon Specialist + Multi-Target Boon Expert, that is hard to legitimately counter. The best that I can say is that its meant for synergy at best, unless you plan on not affecting more than two people. After all, just to even make use of that ability, you need Boon Focus I + Multi-Target Boon Specialist II + Multi-Target Boon Expert. That adds up to a minimum of 10 Feat Points to even use. That, at level 10, is about 1/3rd of your Feat Points. Potent, but expensive. The total result with this item only leads to the maximum, that is Boon Focus I + Multi-Target Boon Specialist V + Multi-Target Boon Expert to cost 16 points, or even 19 to 22 if you take higher levels of Boon Focus. This is mostly just to alleviate some of the intensity that comes with that point spreading, but can still be useful in its own right.
Finally, this. [quote=“Great_Moustache, post:4, topic:720”]
This surprises me greatly, as I have seen Extraordinaries been used to huge success in combat in the games I’ve run and participated in.
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You are indeed correct, Extra-ordinaries can be used to immensely huge success for combat. But just compare them to most Physical builds. In a rather optimized setting, a Melee character can reach 10 to 11 advantage. Deadly III on their blade, Bolster PL 8 from (let’s say) a Presence stat, Attack Specialization III, where they are Two-Handing the weapon and have Battle Trance. That adds up to 11 advantage; 3 from Deadly, 3 from Bolster, 3 from Att. Spec, 1 from Two-Handing the weapon and 1 from Battle Trance. Ranged attackers follow a similar pattern, just remove the Two-Handing and replace that with Range. 10 advantage to the Extreme Range sniper with Longshot? 8 advantage if they choose to fire from 1500 feet with that Longshot, not even counting that people probably won’t notice that attack because it’s so far away! Now look at your Mage, or your Mutant or your Bio-engineered Super Soldier.
Bolster PL 8. Attack Specialization III. Possibly Battle Trance.
That’s it? 7 advantage, and that’s possibly? They also have a limited range, unlike a sniper who can take 1 disadvantage to double distance or 2 disadvantage to triple it? Seriously? These will hit way more often than if they didn’t have advantage at all, but a physical character can have way too much stacked on top of it in order to make an extraordinary focused character potent for pure damage output. Banes and Boons sway the tide of battle, but if you get caught alone and can’t output damage in the same way as your Swordsman or your Sniper, you have a bigger chance of getting knocked out. If they wanna bump up Attack Specialization, they spend more than 9 Feat Points on that. Just to even get to 10 Advantage like a Melee or Ranged character, you have to spend 18 Feat Points! That’s not worth matching.
I understand your concern though, but I feel as if the other expansions that I plan on using as a “replacement” to the current combat system (it’s more of an addition, but it will have some core differences altogether) will help both justify this system and give them a better and more clear distinction between the three, while keeping all three viable for almost any situation.