Impo, power balance

[Johnwaluigi]

Ok, I’ll be the one grading this.

This feels less like a balance update, and more like a straight buff to his powers - I would think. The speed of your objects within the Flood, while reduced compared to what they were previously, now scale off your Instinct Stat. You now have high level-manipulation (such as the doll example) and the ability to reinforce objects within your Flood. This seems like way too much, in my opinion. The base ability of your Flood was already one of the strongest abilities on-site, so I feel adding to it is a no-go.

So, I’d ask that you remove the ability to finely manipulate objects, and the ability to reinforce objects that are within your Flood (or perhaps change your Flood so that it focusses solely on those aspects, rather than the original idea of “redirection”).

Alright, so with that in mind - I’ll offer some suggestions for balancing the abilities. Firstly, your Flood should only be able to affect things that you have Offensive Stat superiority and Class superiority over. The “more Reiatsu than his RS” is a cool idea, but is unfortunately too strong for a Failure - some of your opponents may even be starting with less Reiatsu than your RS.

I’d prefer if you could move things at a flat speed rather than at a speed which scales with your Instinct. Using Instinct as a stat to control the speed of the things is not something I’m comfortable with allowing, I’m afraid - given that an argument could be made that every mentally commanded technique’s speed should scale off Instinct. I do like the part from his original power, though, that states that the degree of control he has over the objects in his Flood is proportional to his Instinct.

A balancing suggestion I do have, however, is that the speed with which he can manipulate things is proportional to the number of things within his Flood. This prevents him from being completely impervious to attacks, and means ranged characters could just overwhelm him with projectiles. I am open to alternative balancing suggestions, though.

[Impossible]

...Buff?

I have to disagree with you on this being a buff to his powers. While its true that he can do much more with his flood now than before, his old/current flood is far stronger in terms of screwing someone over. Where the new one has conditions to manipulating people, which I am willing to expand on for balancing, his old one only has the restriction of touching someone to completely shut them down.

And by 'shut down', I mean that literally. His flood wasn't just teleporting people, it was putting them into stasis for however long he wanted, and moving them like Syndrome from the Incredible's. He had absolute control over them, despite me never using it that way. This also extends to enemy attacks, like Kido and other such, letting him just turn attacks back at them. The rate he could move things was 5000.

That in mind, with what his old flood did, I basically broke into different parts, increasing the cost of doing either, and keeping their power on the low end, at least in comparison. I want to be able to use Impo in fights, that's the entire reason I'm doing this, because, like you said, it was one of, if not the, strongest powers on site. I don't want Impo to be someone I can't use, especially because people are afraid of getting one-shot.

[Impossible]

Okay, I made changes, but I must ask why exactly the durability and the fine control is too much for the flood.

[Johnwaluigi]

Mhmm, I do agree that the overall power of the “control of motion” part of your Flood has been nerfed, but I would consider this power a buff due to the overall increase in utility. There is more to Powers than simple raw numbers, I would argue. The added ability to increase the durability of objects and the ability to perform fine control over objects within his Flood are significant buffs to what was otherwise a rather crude (in terms of overall utility), but strong, power. The increase in durability, also, is something which I can only see as a tenuous connection to the overall theme of the Flood, which is why I’m hesitant to pass it. The fine manipulation is, at the moment, just a costless version of Fullbringer’s Soul Manipulation, and I’m not entirely happy with passing powers that are overly similar to (and even outclass some) racial abilities.

So, my argument would be to simplify. Remove the extraneous powers (unless you really want them, but then the power of your Flood would have to be reduced dramatically in order to compensate for the increased Utility, I fee), and focus on the redirection and manipulation aspect from his original Flood. You mention that he can capture techniques, elaborate on that. Some balancing checks will need to be put in place, but I think the overall idea of your original Flood was good - it just requires a few more drawbacks so that you don’t completely alienate anyone who wants to thread with you.

[Impossible]

The raw numbers were enough to make Impo completely unapproachable to others, meaning I couldn't use him. Utility can't compare to the ability to kill someone instantly. Not that I ever did that, tried that, or even thought of it before it kept getting thrown in my face. I got rid of the durability bit. If I want it, I'll just make it into a technique later. Also, 'capturing' an ability is just another term to describe him manipulating something, though I thought I had made that clear. I still want fine manipulation though. I'd be willing to make that into a higher costing variant if it is really that big an issue, especially since he can only manipulate things inside his flood, as stated before.

[Johnwaluigi]

Alright, so let’s break the power down to its base - “control” (both at a macro-level, and a micro-level). Once something enters your Flood, as long as Impo is aware of it, he can “control” it. That’s a pretty powerful idea, but workable.

At the moment, there isn’t a huge impact to Impo in the way of drawbacks (besides Reiatsu cost). And that’s what makes it so strong. So, here’s my compromise - as I believe I mentioned earlier: limit the number of things he can control at once (at a both a fine-level and a ‘crude’ level). How I would imagine balancing it is like this:

Impo can expend 50 Reiatsu to “control” a single object that moves within his Flood as before (however, the Speed should not be 5000, and it should be restricted by the Class and Offensive Stat of the object). However, to control a second object in that same post, he would have to expend 100 Reiatsu, and the Speed would be reduced. For each subsequent object, the cost increases by 50 and the overall speed of objects he can control is reduced (reducing by, say, 400 for each object he’s controlling?).

The “fine manipulation” could be balanced pretty much the same way. For 50 Reiatsu, Impo could ‘focus’ his Flood on a single object, and instead of being able to move it through his Flood he can manipulate that object. The costs would double the same way as “control” would.

This system means that it is possible to overwhelm Impo with consecutive, fast attacks - a weakness that he didn’t really have before. The more he tries to do, the less effective he becomes at doing it.

That’s only my suggestion, and feel free to put forward an alternative.

[Impossible]

Okay, I think I got it

[Impossible]

Btw, is this power going to be an issue on a support type? As in, would this still fit for a support character?

[Johnwaluigi]

I am happy with the changes, however I do not feel this power is appropriate for a Support-Type characters. It has both offensive and defensive capabilities, so I feel it stretches what the Support Type allows in a Release.

[Impossible]

That's fair. I figured as much when I brought it up. I'm going to change him to cunning then, seeing as this is mostly an indirect fighting style, seeing as he more often than not is unable to use it on opponents. I'll have the stats and skills edited in, just give me s few minutes. And thank you for the help, I appreciate it.

[Impossible]

Alright, added the changed stats and skills

[Johnwaluigi]

Cool. This has my 1/1 then.