GAH! Power System Help Needed!

[Jemini]

Alright. As an update to this. I think I have an idea that might make the system relevant, but satisfy those number goes up feeling. And I'ma do that by having resource pools and skills. Mix it with a system that allows you to gain skills that just straight up hyper evolve your genes or just splice that stuff all together. (The more I think about this the more it sorta makes sense, live in a hot environment and you get people who can live in desserts after a long time. Just sped up) as for active skills or reality defying ones, it just uses aether to help support the user. (It uses aether to do a lot lol) and I think I'll have classes be the main factor. Maybe 3 classes at a time, chosen at the age of 15, and the classes basically guide resources. I Feel like this needs way more fleshed out cause it does. I mean I have to figure out how to turn a person's punch into a nuclear strike without killing themselves or power balancing between dragons and such. Levels will probably exist but I think a lot of skills will just be super slow to even gain and level, bit to mention be low level caps, so while level 5 or 10 low poison resistance would result in immunity to low class poisons, then evolve. As much as I despise the rarity system for just how much work it will have me do, I think I'm fine with working out the kinks in that. I need to decide if I do end up doing stats but it would be literally 1 per species level with classes giving resource points. And regeneration and capacity can be modified by skills or something like mutations. (still not sure how I should implement this as while I like the idea of having a William Grafton with dragon head hand and all that because let's face it. Elden Ring grafting is just cool lol, having grafting just isn't really my style)


For some context on the mc of my story, she will pick up the last remnants of an ancient outer goddess and slowly have their consciousness merged, the only reason she is still her is the drive to get back to the loved one she found in the world and the lingering anger towards an enemy she can't even begin to remember because her soul was basically completely fracture, hence the reason she can even bond with the goddess sealed away in a weapon. (have some ideas of how to really turn this story into an insane heart string pulling experience) she will lose her arm before then, and probably a leg or foot to the horrors in the prison she finds herself in, having then ultimately replaced with the body parts of the goddess she has to utilize and fight ever step of her journey, losing her humanity and such as she goes. The first OVER ARCHING plot point, is her vengeance against the god, getting stronger as she steals the spark of other divine artifacts along the way, furthing the corruption she faces. A lot of her system will be locked behind a single class that only powers from these sparks she steals as most gods are hiding or just dead and sealed.


I'm totally at my wits end, hopefully I have more insight tomorrow when I wake up, currently 4 am and it's not doing me any favors lol.

Well, so far as RPG-like systems go, I find stats are more compelling if double-digit numbers are considered absurdly high.

D&D is probably a good model to look to for several reasons in this vein. They base everything around 10 being average, 18 being the peak of human potential, and it requiring great lengths you have to go to in order to get a 19 or a 20 in a stat. Well... in 1st and 2nd edition that was the case anyway. 3rd edition and onward made it a little bit easier to break the 18 cap and even get as high as 25 with some special stat-increasing items, but hitting 25 would require you to go all out on nothing but increasing pure stats (and would make you pretty darn absurd.)

If you can balance the power scaling so that numbers hovering around 20 or so are considered way beyond super-human, then you've probably got your balance right.

That reference I made to Worm also applies here. A lot of D&D parties manage to slay gods with stats averaging around 15 or so. (And a 15 average across all 6 stats would be considered an extremely high-powered character. The average adventurer would have a 12 average, and the average civilian a 9 average.) The ability to slay gods has more to do with (game-based) skill and use of powerful items and spells rather than having an OP physique.

 

[FluffyGamma]

If you can balance the power scaling so that numbers hovering around 20 or so are considered way beyond super-human, then you've probably got your balance right.

Honestly not a bad idea. I'll probably have to crunch numbers and decide how mental stats work if at all, probably just better memory or something, but following that trend, just having levels be extremely hard to obtain could probably be a good place to start. I'd probably have gods have their base stats somewhere around 30 depending on the god plus what level of control they have over their resources and what not and it would probably make for a decent backbone. Just gotta figure out the numbers for how powerful a punch would be multiplied by whatever factor the stats are. Can't have someone have lopsided stats or if they try to run really fast or punch then they would just vaporize themself or shatter every bone in their body from air resistance, but I find that low numbers is honestly just a more fun and conclusive way to grow.

my whole problem with stats though is how to determine the non quantifiable stats. Not intelligence since I just find that whole thing dumb and will probably do something else for a control stat (probably just control honestly), but something like fortitude. How does one quantify how tough your body is lol.