Spirit/summon access to special elements

[CDF]

So I was thinking:

We currently require an ability on spirits to access unique elements like wood, lava, etc. The idea being that you normally need an ability for an element you don't have. But spirits are weird, they come from different realms and do naturally have these elements, depending on the spirit.

For example, what made me think of this was the fact that I'm trying to do lava body summon, but i can't because his one ability needs to go to giving him access to lava in the first place. It feels to me like each spirit, so long as its thematic (no EMP on a lava monster) should get one such concentration. Their natures should be enough to grant them access to the element, and then a concentration would be needed for the element in question.

Summons/spirits are fairly strong atm so idk if this is wise, but it'd certainly be a lot more satisfying in terms of logic and for writing. I'm still not sure if it's worth it though, so figured I'd put it out there.

[Valkier]

The first question that immediately springs to mind then is - why wouldn't someone have exotic ele-body-user spirits? Is there something "regular" spirits could get instead?

There was a discussion not too long ago about a summon that Kitsui wanted on his Shoshiki, too - the theme was a dragon with a Garaton body that could also use Garaton jutsu. Thematically it made great sense, and I'd love to see a fair, working system to accommodate this sorta concept. In the end, the dragon was downgraded to having a regular glass body (differentiating between regular glass and Garaton as two distinct things) so as to still be able to use the ability for Garaton release.
That's the current workaround, anyway - you could totally have a lava-themed spirit whose body is formed of lava - but it's just regular, natural lava, not at all the fusionified Youton chakra-lava-element stuff - assuming you wanted to use the ability slot for Youton release.

The other concern is about simple power creep; companions, spirits, summons etc. are already pretty strong tools and extend huge amounts of versatility to a PC. Effectively giving them a 2nd ability slot just pushes that even higher. Small changes like this all set precedents and slowly, over time, may lead to a situation where it's stupid for any PC to not make use of them. That's more just food for thought, though.

Edit: Whoops, you already thought of the last part!

[CDF]

Yea, normal spirits get to be not normal. That's what i'm pushing for really, like a spirit that can be a hollow suit of armor and control metal, or a spirit that can do a unique posession ability without needing an ability to get tenkujutsu. A spirit with limited control over its soul and it uses it as an element, a spirit that has multiple forms and is also made of metal, a spirit that can do something i can't thinkk of right now.

I think their existence is a blank check for everyone to get to do a little bit of everything. Right now the most powerful thing to have are henchmen. They cost nothing, they're entirely independent if you want and can get you just about any element/ability. And they can't be banished with jutsu (not easily, anyways).

[CDF]

bump

[Lace]

I dunno if the ruling changed or if anyone remembers, but I know the staff once discussed this, iirc the verdict for it was some sort of limiting on how many of these specialty summons you could have on any one character or something to that nature. I don't think it was ever really written down or maybe it was not completely agreed upon, hard to remember exactly. It was discussed at the time that we felt it was fair that summons got to learn things like lava and ice and such but also agreed with the new companion rules we should limit the amount any one person could have given the room for abuse. Which is still a fair compromise, imo.

[CDF]

I would be down wih that, yea

[Director]

This topic is complete