Custom Skill - Soul Science

Hi! I have two levels in Soul Science, I would like to have what it can do arranged. I was told to have it done via Discord, but due to my timezone, I believe it would be better to do it via posts. I have only two levels in Soul Science currently, but I intend to purchase more with my leftover EXP.

I hope you like what I propose here, and thank you for your time!

Source: Soul Science
Details: It is intended to be inventions that wield the supernatural in some way, to make up for Marika’s total lack of spiritual gifts. For example, using an Artificial Soul as the equivalent of a guide dog for blind people to see Shinigami, using a captured Hollow as a Cero cannon, etc.
Desired Effect: I’d like to propose that its overall theme is that each invention is a ‘summon’ that can be incapacitated to cancel its abilities, and that most of these abilities have a limited amount of uses (due to batteries, reiatsu, etc limitations)

Invention: Inventions can endure up to Minor Wounds, at which point they are incapacitated and cannot be used. They have Block equal to Marika’s own, minus one, and always Block all attacks that target them. Marika generally has her Inventions at full 'health' and 'uses' at the start of threads, unless it would be appropriate for it to be otherwise.

Funky Boy [Invention]:

[Lasts until destroyed] Basic: Marika has Funky Boy, her Artificial Soul’d headset, be aware of the surroundings, and via careful teamwork and her genius, it allows hers to detect where otherwise invisible spiritual beings are at. While active, Marika doesn’t have her usual -1 penalty with all invisible spiritual beings.

[2 Uses] Standard: Funky Boy can now directly intervene in combat to aid Marika in a creative way by employing weak kido, granting her a +1 to a certain action. This can be used only once per action, and up to 2 times before Funky Boy runs out of Reiatsu.

Cero Cannon [Invention]:
[3 Uses] Basic: Marika can shoot a Cero from a guitar case where she has a particularly small Hollow locked into. Since how effective it is doesn’t rely on Marika’s own strength but on her engineering skills, she may check damage with her Control instead of her Power.

[-] Standard: The cannon is shot with a +1 bonus to its damage.

Hey I'll dig into this more tomorrow but so I have some time to mull it over. To clarify, the way these custom powers TYPICALLY work is that by mastery you wind up with two decent Techniques (which are further explained in the mechs thread here)

That said, I'm open to a bit of wiggle room, for example, you could get three lesser techniques which usually have a higher cost or lesser effect and one standard, or we can focus on the two inventions here you've presented and focused your Soul Science mechanically around this Cero Cannon and the Funky Boy or I can try to come up with something more flexible.

To be clear, non-mechanical uses of this power are totally fine, not all inventions you make need be combat-focused or confer some mechanical benefit.

So I suppose my question is more usefully this: Do you want a broad set of mechanically lesser but more diverse inventions or would you rather a more traditional focus on these two and be okay broadly using any other invention ideas non-mechanically?

Hi! Thank you for checking my request Meridith!

I'd like the latter, the more traditional focus.

Heyo, so, one thing I might suggest is that you make your cero cannon your spellcasting and if you want it to defend, perhaps focus it on two inventions that do each of attack and defend? But if you think you already have a strong concept in mind, I can definitely work in a technique that ups the damage of the cannon working with your spellcasting skill.

Was there anything beyond cannon/summon you had concretely in mind to do with this skill or just those two for now?

ps. expect more frequent replies.

Ah, I thought it already was Spellcasting because I have my Spellcasting as "Gadgetry". Sorry for not making it explicit.

My intent was that these Inventions were the repertoire of special techniques that my Gadgetry Skill could use (unless I'm misunderstanding something about the system, sorry if that is the case). Techniques which better utilize Marika's speciality (high Control, which I understand as insight, intellectual ability, genius) for combat than just the plain Attack and Block.

And yes, my intent is to have Gadgetry be able to Attack and Defend. And yups, I'd just like to focus on these two for now.

Gotcha, so, to be clear, you intend most of these to come from Soul Science (per listing it in your request) but function primarily off of Gadgetry? That's fine, there may be some exception, but that does simplify things a bit.

Yes please

Alright, so! Two techniques, one a 'summon' companion who supports Marika in combat, and a Cero-like cannon.

So, we don't operate on charges typically but I think there's something I can play with via the summoning mechanics. Bear in mind, there is a universal technique that allows you to spend -5 for any check to gain +1, it might make sense for Funky Boy to just be that for Marika, but I'm happy to work on a better version via this! For note, anything with a x/y represents x= the lesser version and y the standard.

Funky Boy - (Lesser/Standard) - (7/5) Stamina - Minion - Companion, ally, battle utensil! This technique deploys Funky Boy, a minion of Marika. While not terribly powerful, Funkyboy is a useful tool that can creatively employ spiritual attacks to distract and harass opponents to help Marika. Funky Boy has Reiatsu-30 placed into a template that should be kept up as Marika herself levels. The attack and defence levels are one level below Marika's Soul Science skill. e.g., if Marika is Journeyman, they are both Apprentice. Funky Boy may not directly attack an enemy. This technique may only be used once per battle. Funky Boy also has a technique Aid Marika, which allows him to sustain a (Moderate/Minor) wound, representing the energy expenditure, to provide +1 to any of Marika's check once per round.

Potential tweaks, make this not take a turn representing that Funky Boy is always ready to go with some drawback likely to the cost. Could specify what specific actions he can help with, or even allow him to attack too. Could make it so his aid can fail, which could make it much cheaper to do. I've defined Minion elsewhere but not in official documents so I'll post it here:

Minion - A minion is a combatant often controlled by a master and function otherwise exactly as a normal combatant except their action each turn is decided by their master. They have reiatsu, and thus stats determined when they are created through some method defined by their creation. They do not have skills but simply have an Attack and a Defense rating that is used in the related calculations. Minions sometimes have a reduced wound pool, ie they might be defeated when they sustain a moderate wound or greater as opposed to a serious wound typical of other combatants this will be noted in the body of the technique.


And Cero Cannon! To be frank, allowing you to sub-control for power is big and it drives up the cost of this considerably. The reasoning for this is that all stats are meant to be vital for a build, so to cut off the need for one of them (and thusly to allow you to dump it without consequence) comes at the cost of requiring stamina to make it work.

Cero Cannon - (Lesser/Standard) - 5 Stamina - Offense - The deadly and destructive power of a cero trapped and built upon by the strange mechanism. This technique allows Marika to attack with Gadgetry utilizing Control in place of Power for the initial check(/albeit at -1 to the check).

So the penalty drops off at Standard but the cost remains high. It's essentially, a +2 to your check though comparing your power/control so I still think it's extremely useful. Alternative tweaks to this, dropping the control for power substitute and making it a cheaper bonus to damage, or perhaps making it so she can fire off a second one in a single round?



So, if you're happy with these, I'll work on a second draft to confirm I am and others are okay with all the mechanics. If you'd like to see me work on any of them in some specific area please give me all the feedback, the more you give the more I can do.