Movement need more flexibility

Movement atribute has a potential that I don’t see in OL.
The movement is based on moving matter as PC wish to. It looks to me as classic speciality of elemental mages, eg. earth mages creating walls out of ground, aquamancer locking its foes in levitating bubble, or air manipulator deflecting projectiles (not Yasuo inspiration at all) or deafing encounters with high-volume sound, stunning creatures with liquid manipulation in their ears and so on.
In my opinion there should be at least banes and boons that make certain element feel special. I’d recommend add movement atribute to barrier boon. Any other ideas?

1 Like

If you’re interested in environmental manipulation like that, I would suggest that you look at Alteration which has “nature control” as part of its arsenal. Movement already has access to some very powerful effects, but its ability to move objects in the surroundings should be restricted to creative use of the Telekinesis Boon (or just different descriptions of other banes, boons or generic rolls).

Narrative is flexible in Open Legend, but you can’t use it to justify adding huge amounts of power and flexibility to an attribute just because you don’t want your character to have to invest in multiple attributes; otherwise I’d be abusing my knowledge of physics to use Energy for literally everything. One or two boons is fine (with GM permission) but don’t go overboard, try looking elsewhere for the effects you want first. For example, if you want access to all the environmental control aspects of Alteration through your Movement score, try looking at the Attribute Substitution feat.

4 Likes

Hi Sam, thanks for replying. I am making geomacer for my class buddy, it is from The Fifth Season. They can do literally anything with earth/minerals, including ripping hemoglobin out of your blood.
You have a point here, but barier doesn’t have alteration in its atribute neither. I guess I am gonna use Atribute Atribute Substitution II limited to manipulate earth’'s resources and Boon Access VII(Barrier) to make him more situational in some situations. Thanks again

If Barrier is what you’re really interested in, I’d suggest maybe substitution into Creation instead - since it has some overlap with Alteration with regards to the environment - or Entropy if you want to focus more on blood manipulation.

I agree with everything Sam has said, but I also want to add that none of the examples you provided, apart from the air deflection, scream movement to me. So instead of your first thought being “let me change the mechanics to fit”, maybe try to look for more fitting mechanics, because generally the answer is right there already. Also, from what you are describing I would consider an Attribute Substitution II from Alteration into Energy, as you make it sound like you want to be using your Alteration as an attacking attribute and it also provides access to the Barrier boon, so the combination of these two attributes should cover the offensive and defensive abilities that you are looking for.

I was also thinking of strategical values. For example, I would use my geomancy in order to transport myself, just like Terra from Teen Titans: flying on rock. Also there is a few preety banes from movement that I would use, such as creating sand to slow or quicksand to immobile or create a ramp to make my foe slide into abbys. Or knock up ground and enemy within it, dealing ad-hoc damage. In combat, i would say geomancer would rather use environment than ripping off enemies.

All these boons and banes are covered by alteration and energy, as I proposed, but I feel like this statement:

and this one:

stand in opposition to each other.

booms lol :joy:
1234567890

There isn’t really fun using one method of dealing with opponent, right? This “Ripping” is one example of many. I suppose this type of mage can kill you with your own bones.
The point is that I am searching for resolution that doesn’t limit PC. To sum up: alteration/ movement for control, creation/boon access for walls, entropy for damaging. I think there is enough information to close this thread. Thanks guys <3

OL is all about self-limitation, either mechanical or narrative. If you’re really searching for a character without limitations then you might be in the wrong system. At the very least make sure you talk this out with your GM and group- and I don’t mean convince them, I mean ask them - because a character concept like this could easily overshadow the rest of the party (“No need to use your specialised skills, my character can also do that”). If your group is fine, then go for it! I don’t know the people you’re playing with so I can’t say for sure, just sharing my experience having been, played with, and GMed for these types of characters.

2 Likes

Maybe I said it in the wrong way. I don’t want build OP characters, but I rather want to give my players potencial to be…heroic? I want to help them reach their goals in the way they want. But I also understand that a goal without a challenge is unworthy. That’s how OL creates good stories, right?

In that case, I’d definitely suggest that you look into restricting yourself more. If you try and maximise your skillset everything will be equally difficult, and the only time you get to properly show off is when the challenge is easy. If you specialise, your character will still be powerful and will shine far more when something they can do better than anyone comes up.

For example: I have a player in one of my games who built his character almost entirely around multi-target ranged attacks. In most combats he only gets to target 2 or 3 enemies at once (so the character still gets to do his thing regularly) but when the bank was being surrounded by soldiers while a fellow party member was trapped inside, he got to swoop in and take out 5 of them with a single roll which was amazing for everyone at the table. Likewise, the forcefield maker in a different campaign got her moment in the spotlight when a malfunctioning security robot opened fire on a crowd of civilians and she had the chance to save them.

None of this is to say that you can’t have versatile powers, it just needs to be approached with care; jack-of-all-trades characters can be a lot of fun. A good way to stop them from becoming boring is to give them a glaring weakness, something for your allies to cover for and for your GM to challenge you with. Overcoming weaknesses is equally, if not more satisfying than showing strength. OL has the flaws system to encourage you to do this from a story perspective, see if you can find a way to do this from a mechanical perspective as well (which can feed right back into the story).

3 Likes