I’m a little torn. I do see its use, but mostly by using a bane aura as a way to deter enemies from going into melee range with a squishy target. As a boon aura, I realy don’t see its use. The limit of “half your power level” is quite harsh, the need to end the turn inside the aura (as oposed to entering or ending the turn), makes it realy a hassle to use, since it is removed at any time you leave the aura. This means that everyone who want to benefit aswell as the wielder of the aura is effectively locked to the ground, since moving more than 10 ft is likely to leave someone ouf ot the aura and having its effects end. I feel multitargeting a boon, especially if you have invested in a few feats, is a much better option.
Which brings me to a possible solution. Have some aura specific feats, for example increased range, removing the “half your attribute score” cap (maybe per boon/bane?).
I would also opt to make a boon aura be applied on entry, to make movement less cumbersome and to bring it in line with the way banes are applied.
I would even go as far as to suggest maybe not having bane auras affect allies ? Have them bunch up and be covered by the same bane aura if the range allows it. (and then AoE the hell ouf of them once they think they are all safe inside the aura )
Like instead of “half the power” do “-2 to the power”. I think I might test giving that as an option.
Aura can be pretty powerful, so some of that was certainly put in to counter it. Though I feel like leaving the aura can still lose it, but if you are in the aura at all (start of turn or end of turn) you should benefit from it too. Right now, I really haven’t seen it used much b/c of the big restriction.
the -2 would bring it more in line with the power of multitargeting boons I think.
I think one of the issues might actually be the existence of milti targeting boons. Aura and multi targeting need to be very close in power otherwise one will outshine the other.
For banes, I think it may be a different story. Banes do not have the multitarget feat options that boons do. Nor can they be turned into minor actions, or guaranteed successes. For the best results in balance, the penalty may need to be different for banes and boons. Though maybe the fact that allies also are subjected to the banes makes up for it, since the risk wil also become higher.
A bane can be auto success when you deal the 10+ damage, but yeah, for the most part no.
I actually just finished a build for a 2 Bane Focus, 2 Potent Bane, Multi-Bane Specialist, Multi-Target Specialist with a bit of fun. Could build it a bit more “optimized” earlier, but where is the fun in that?
Getting ready to post it, but food, shave, shower first
That advantage of multi-target is the greater range, of course. Max of 15’ on the Aura. Though if you had a companion that had Evasive Footwork, Fly, and Fleet of Foot and used Aura on it, could be interesting. B/c once you inflict the bane, it stays on the target even if they get out of the Aura.
So a brief look at the boons and banes you would gain access to if you could do PL6, which might be the main reason to limit it to 4:
##only additional boons would be:
Blindsight
Bolster (at adv 2 instead of just 1 at PL 8 Aura)
Access to Flight (at PL 8 Aura)
Haste (at PL6 where you get one extra major action @ disadv 3 [this might be one reason])
Invisible [maybe another reason?]
Life Drain
Resistance at PL 5
Tongues
Truesight
##BANES
Blinded
Charm (at it’s highest, which is Major on humanoid intelligence)
Demoralized (at disadvantage 2)
Disarmed (can wield their item instead of just 15’ away)
Dominate (gain lesser on humaniod)
Fatigued [a possible reason?]
Fear [another possible reason?]
Incapacitated (loud noise can wake them back up)
Memory Alteration (temporary)
Nullify (at PL6 can cancel permanent/passive/inherent)
Polymorph [possible reason]
BUT, all those banes, and even boons, are subject to the GM saying it if makes sense for an Aura to have it.
The reason I wouldn’t do this is that it’ll break your game
There’s a specific reason why it’s “half your attribute” – we intentionally wanted to prevent an overly easy way to access PL 5+ banes and boons.
The intent of the Aura boon is to enable only very low-level banes and boons. If you want to do the same with high-level ones, you need either Multi-Target Attack Specialist or Multi-Target Boon Specialist
I think this is exactly the problem with Aura when it comes to boons. The existence of these feats make it very easy to outperform Aura. Boon focus, multi target specialist II and multi target expert. that’s 10 feat points. It’s not a small investment, but it’s not a crippling one either. And obtainable with just 4 xp. it’s an automatic success at the highest level (5 max at that point) for 4 players (2 lines) which stays after people move. Yes it is specialized, yes it requires some investment, but at 4 xp this is already more powerfull and less of a hassle than Boon Auras will ever be able to become.
The specialization thing would be an issue if there weren’t so few boons that would be worth having as aura.
With a max of power level 4 you have access to :
Absorb object : Not sure how this makes sense
Barrier : Seems weird aswell
Bolster : This is one of the few usefull ones
Darkness : This is already an area, no use in making it an aura.
Detection : Only the target invoking the boon can see the detected auras (ambiguity here). If this is overridden by the aura, this might be an interesting choice. Still limited in application though.
Genesis : Nope
Haste : Doesn’t work. At most you get 1 guard since the speed boosts will only allow you to leave the aura faster (which will end the boon).
Heal : if this works with aura, it would be a better form of regeneration aura. Could be usefull if everyone would be taking damage at once.
Light : already an area.
Precognition : Makes no sense.
Regeneration : See heal.
Resistance : This one could also be usefull.
Restoration : Could be usefull, but only when many are afflicted by low level banes.
Seeing : You can now all see through eachothers eyes, would be usefull if you didn’t need to be standing right next to eachother in the first place.
Shapeshift : Nope
Summon Creature : Noper
Telekinesis : Nopest (sais right in the Aura description that it makes no sense)
Telepathy : I can think of a few ways that this could be used. All very situational however.
Teleport : But more usefull than haste since you get to at least teleport its full range.
Transmutation : Also makes no sense.
And let’s not forget that the boon needs to be of the invoking attribute score. So of the 4 or 5 usefull boons you may only have access to 2 of them in the first place.
Bane auras might have their uses, but I realy see no reason why anyone would chose to go for boon auras instead of just taking a few feats to have a much more reliable effect.
The two aren’t the same. Aura at 5’ radius can affect a group of 6 allies plus the invoker (7 total). So, to affect the same number of targets with Regeneration, you would need to take Disadvantage 3 (Area [15’ cube] = disadvantage 3). This boon exists because everyone who play Open Legend quickly realizes that they don’t won’t to incur disadvantage and lose the opportunity to explode dice. So that disadvantage 3 is a big deal.
10 feat points to get the “better version” of this via the various multi-targeting and boon focus feats is in NO way a trivial investment. It’s the equivalent of 3 levels worth of investment.
Lastly, Aura effects both banes and boons. It doesn’t exist primarily for boons, it’s main usefulness is for banes.
It’s a balance thing to limit the aura caster’s ability to spread the boon. The same reasoning goes into how bane aura works:
For banes, targets have to “willingly enter” or “end their turn” in the aura to be affected. So, someone with persistent damage aura can’t just run all over the battlefield and inflict 20 banes just by moving.
For boons, allies have to end their turn in the aura for the same basic reason. A caster with a healing aura can’t get a ton of free heals just by moving.
Well no, the two aren’t the same. I’m claiming that multitarget invoking is way better.
Sure you will need a large amount of disadvantage to cover 7 people (or feats), but in my experience, you rarely have 7 people in the first place (most GMs suggest never running for more than 4, maybe 5 people)… The disadvantage is an issue, but you only need to get the proper powerlevel, explosions don’t matter after that (unless your gm has a specific rule for that). Even if you roll lower than the max powerlevel due to disadvantage, you can still invoke boons at their lower powerlevel if you at least roll above that. At base level, boon auras and boon invokes may be balanced. But if you decide to invest in Boon feats, aura becomes obsolete fast. If it’s investment you’re worried about, perhaps some feats that would improve aura specifically might be the solution here?
That I agree on. This is also why I suggested maybe looking at having different powerlevel caps for them.
I would also like to add that balance wise, Boon Aruas have a huge tactical disadvantage. Namely that everyone has to be bunched up in order to benefit. This makes them a nice juicy target for AoE attacks.
Seems like Starting or Ending your turn would still be ok. That’s 2 different instances just like bane, and like bane, can only benefit 1x per round.
I don’t feel that an aura of fear would neccessarily be a horriblly broken thing as once a target resists fear, they can no longer be affected by the same source of that fear for a 24 hour period.
One interesting thing I have thought of, using aura level 8 to cause a boon of aura level 4. Assuming the original caster of Aura gets to choose what the other aura does you could cause a few enemies to make auras that inflict a bane or maybe different banes per aura and they would be out of range of you.
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