Vajra - Living souls of a Spelljammer

[sliprunner]

Fluffy Bits
The spelljammers that travel the great wheel may be great or small, for some they may be simple transportation among the void, for others a machine of war unlock any other, and others still may just see it as a place to call home. The captains who call these spelljammers their own often can feel the vessel as something greater, a friend or lover, not just a part of their lives but a part of them. Spelljammers in situations like this seem to almost take on a soul of their own, as both captain and ship impart some personality upon the other, and yet in the most rare breed of captain, this is something far more than a simple belief or spiritual feeling. For this rare breed of captain the breed may become something physical, a Union core, the manifestation of a soul spark forever entwining captain and vessel. While the circumstances of this core's formation tend to differ as much as the captains, the appearance forever changes the captain of such a vessel forever into something more - A Vajra, the living soul of a spelljammer.

Power Stat - Union Core: As the embodiment of a Spelljammer's soul, your power is exerted through the V-Type energy of the core. The Union Core represents the growth of the Spelljammer.
Resource Stat - V-Type: Pool of (Composure * 2) + (Union Core * 2). V-Type replenishes at a rate of 1 for every 12 hours spent in the Warp or Astral Sea.

Tell

1 Point - Motions gain a creaking sound of metal, skin begins taking on the texture/appearance of hull plating

2/3 Points - Ghostly appearance of miniaturized ship parts form around the body, engines on legs, weapons on arms, sensors on head, etc.

4/5 Points - Appearance of miniaturized ship parts solidifies, the air around them begins to reflect the void

6+ Points - The air around them appears as if they stand among the void, miniature 'escort' spelljammers appear floating around them.

Static Powers

Shipborne Soul: Build a Spelljammer worth 25 + (45 * Union Core) BP, you may spend dots of holding to improve this by 50BP per dot. Whenever you gain a new dot of Union Core you may re-build your Spelljammer. You may spend 1 point of V-type to summon your Spelljammer around yourself as a Full Action, this fails if there is not enough room and the V-type is refunded. The spelljammer will only respond to commands from you, and if it is destroyed you die as well and may burn a Hero Point to prevent it.

Multitasked Control: You may command all stations aboard the spelljammer from Shipborne Soul, the vessel has no crew and instead you count as crew equal to 4 + (4 * Union Core) crew up to the maximum of the hull. When working aboard another spelljammer, you may replace the need for an equal amount of crew. You may spend a point of V-Type to add an extra point of crew as a free action, this crew lasts for a number of turns equal to Union Core. If you are the only crew aboard a ship it has a crew quality equal to your Union Core, otherwise it defaults to the ships crew quality. Crew from this ability may not be used as part of boarding actions.

To Boldy Go: You may never spend more then a week away from the void or an environment suited to their spelljammer, Doing so so requires a TN 15 test against Fatigue, failing adds a level of Fatigue that lasts until you are brought to a suitable environment. The test is repeated each day afterwards, the TN increases by 2 for every day after the first. Immunity to Fatigue instead causes a point of damage if the test is failed. If you should fall unconscious from fatigue caused by this ability, you remain comatose until brought to a suitable environment for your spelljammer.

Starbound Life: Gain a Best Quality Void Skin that can't be replaced, its air supply is considered unlimited. You may trade HP from yourself to your Spelljammer as a Half Action, up to your Union Core in maximum HP, your spelljammer must be summoned and you must be on board it to do so. Your Spelljammer also repairs at a rate of 1 HP per day as long as it is summoned.

Gained Powers

* - Leaf on the Wind: By spending 1 point of V-Type as a half action you can move as if you had flyer, add your speed to your static defense until your next turn. While working aboard a spelljammer you may spend 1 point of V-Type to increase its maneuverability by your Union Core, this lasts until your next turn.

** - Kelsin Fields: By spending 2 points of V-Type as a free action you can summon a Void Shield around you with a rating of 10 + (2 * Union Core), this lasts until your next turn. While working aboard a spelljammer you may spend 2 points of V-Type to reduce the disruption of attacks against it to zero, additionally any critical hit rolls against your ship suffer a -1 penalty this effect lasts until your next turn.

*** - Ship and Captain, One and the Same: You no longer need to be present on board your spelljammer to control it, as long as you are in the same sphere as the spelljammer you can control its actions and it can benefit from Multitasked Control. By spending 3 points of V-Type you can remotely summon the spelljammer within 5 VU of you.

**** - Spontaneous Refits: By spending 4 points of V-Type as a free action you can treat the void skin from Starbound Life as if it was made of an Artifact material, this lasts until end of scene. While working aboard a spelljammer you may spend 4 points of V-Type to replicate the effect of a console for a number of turns equal to Union Core.

***** - Intensify Forward Firepower!: By spending 5 points of V-Type you may make a ranged attack against one target each turn for (Union Core) turns, this attack uses the profile of the Wave Motion Cannon. While working aboard a spelljammer you may spend 5 points of V-Type to fire all weapons as part of an attack, this does not count as the tactical action for the turn, this may only be used once per turn. Core Modifications (Assets)

Assets

Arcana Core- Any spelljammer you work on can automatically open a portal to the warp without check. Summoning your Spelljammer does not require spending a point of V-Type. When making Arcana checks you add +Xk0 where X is your Union Core.

Command Core- You count as having 4 additional crew beyond Multitasked Control, this can bring you above a hull's maximum crew. When making command checks you add +Xk0 where X is your Union Core.

Engineering Core- When you take this asset, pick one console; Any spelljammer you work on is counted as having this console, this console takes up no slots and may not be disabled by critical. When making Tech Use checks you add +Xk0 where X is your Union Core.

Tactical Core- Any spelljammer you work on treats its weapons as having +1 to critical. When making ballistic checks for Spelljammer weapons you add +Xk0 where X is your Union Core.

Elite Core- Any spelljammer you work on can treat its crew as 1 rating higher. V-Type replenishes at a rate of 1 for every 12 even when away from the Astral Sea or Warp.

Note: this is simply me reposting the exaltation from previous forum, feel free to suggest changes.

[ScrapyardDragon]

Low-key forgot vajra existed. Probably because I've never gotten to be in a space heavy game so I've never even put thought into spelljammers. One less thing to be moved over I guess.

[sliprunner]

Having done more playtesting with Vajra, I am working to rebalance it. As not to overwrite I am posting it here as it is not a true variant but rather a partial rewrite.

Power Stat - Union Core: Unchanged

Resource Stat - V-Type: Unchanged

Static Powers

Shipborne Soul: You are bound to a spelljammer work 25 + (45 * Union Core) BP, You may spend dots of holding to improve this by 50BP per dot. Whenever you gain a new dot of Union Core you may re-build your spelljammer. You may spend 1 point of V-type to summon your spelljammer within 5 VU of you as a Full Action, This fails if there is not enough room and the V-Type is refunded. You may retreat the spelljammer to a Stable Warp Bubble by spending 1 point of V-Type. No crew except officers you permit may command/operate the vessel. If the spelljammer is destroyed you are killed as well, and may burn a hero point to prevent it.

Will of the Ship: You may command all stations aboard a Spelljammer, counting as a crew equal to 6 + (6 * Union Core) crew up to the maximum of the hull. When working aboard another spelljammer, you may replace the need for an equal amount of crew. If you are the only source of crew aboard a ship, it has a crew quality equal to your Union core. In cases where 2 Vajra are aboard a ship it defaults to the highest crew quality provided. Crew from this ability may not be used as part of boarding actions, nor may they be killed by critical or effects that would result in crew loss.

To Boldly Go: You may never spend more than a week away from the void or an environment suited for your spelljammer, doing so requires a TN 15 test against Fatigue, and failure adds a level of Fatigue that remains until brought to a suitable environment for at least Union Core hours. The test repeats each day afterwards, with the TN increasing by 2 for each subsequent test. If you should be rendered unconscious from fatigue caused by this ability, you remain comatose until brought to a suitable environment. Immunity to Fatigue instead causes a point of Lethal damage that may not be negated. You may spend a point of V-type to automatically pass the test.

Part of the Ship: Gain a Best Quality Void Skin that can't be replaced, removed, or destroyed, and it's air supply is considered unlimited. You may trade HP from yourself to your Spelljammer as a Half Action, up to your Union Core in maximum HP. You must be onboard your spelljammer to trade HP. Your spelljammer repairs at a rate of 1 HP per day as long as you are onboard of it.

Gained Powers

I - Leaf on the Wind: By spending 1 point of V-Type as a half action you can move as if you had flyer and may add your speed to your static defense until your next turn. While aboard a spelljammer you may spend 1 point of V-type to allow it to make an additional Maneuver action that turn.

II - Kelsin Fields: By spending 2 points of V-type as a free action you can summon a void shield around you with a rating of 10 + (2 * Union Core), This lasts until your next turn. While working aboard a spelljammer you may spend 2 points of V-type to regenerate the spelljammer's shields by (2 * Union Core) points, if the spelljammer does not have shields or they are offline, it instead gains a temporary shield with the same amount of HP until its next turn.

III - Unbound: You may control your spelljammer from anywhere in the same sphere, and by spending 3 points of V-type as a free-action, may extend your control to other spelljammers until end of scene. Spelljammer's targeted by this must have a friendly and willing captain onboard to be controlled. All crew from Will of the Ship Control may be spent freely among all ships controlled in this manner.

IV - Miracle Engineering: Your void skin from Part of the Ship may benefit from the effect of one Artifact Material of choice, this choice is permanent and may not be changed later. By spending 4 V-type as a Free-Action you may replicate the effect of a Console on any spelljammer effected by Unbound for a number of turns equal to your Union Core. You may trade HP between ships affected by Unbound, but no more than twice your Union core in HP per round.

V - Intensify Forward Firepower!: By spending 5 V-Type as a full action, you may designate a number of targets up to your Union Core, and make a standard ranged attack against each using the profile of a Wave Motion Cannon. You may spend 5 points of V-type to allow a vessel under the effects of Unbound to count all weapons twice when making an attack.

Assets

Arcana Core: Any spelljammer you control can make the jump to warp without check, and summoning or retreating your spelljammer no long requires spending V-type. When making a Arcana check you may add +Xk0 where X is your Union Core.

Command Core: Any spelljammer you are an officer aboard may gain benefit of Will of the Ship up to 50% (rounding up) past it's maximum crew, and you may replace a normal crew's quality with your own if it is higher. When making a Command check you may add +Xk0 where X is your Union Core.

Engineering Core: Any spelljammer you control may gain benefit of an additional console, chosen a the time this asset is taken. This console takes up no slots and may not be disabled by critical. When making Tech-use checks you may add +Xk0 where X is your Union Core.

Tactical Core: Any spelljammer you control may improve it's weapons critical by 1, and may improve their disruption by your Union Core. When making Ballistic checks for Spelljammer weaponry, you may add +Xk0 where X is your union core.

Elite Core: Any spelljammer under effects of Will of the Ship may increase it's Crew Rating by 1, and you add your Union Core one additional time for purposes of calculating your Resource Pool

Admiralty Core: You may divide the points from Shipborne Soul to have multiple spelljammers. You may only have one such spelljammer summoned at a time until you gain the Unbounded power, where instead of spending 3 V-type to take control of another vessel, you may summon one of your additional Spelljammers. This asset may be taken with another asset, except Beast Core.

Beast Core: You may not control any other spelljammers other than the one provided by Shipborne Soul. You may 'consume' other spelljammers, adding 5BP per size class of the spelljammer to your own pool. When using the 'Unbound' Ability, you may instead target any ship with the ability. If a captain is present aboard a vessel targeted by the 'Unbound' ability they must make a command test against a TN of [5 * Union Core], a Varja officer or captain aboard provides a +5 to the roll. Failing the test applies the 'Infected' condition, success renders the ship immune to the 'Unbound' ability for 24 hours. Any ships that suffer the 'Infected' condition act as NPC's with a crew equal to [3 * (Creating Varja's) Union Core] and a rating of 2, Infected vessels are hostile to all non 'infected' vessels except those under control of 'Beast Core' Vajra. The effects of Infection last for a number of days equal to Union Core, after which the vessel is considered 'destroyed' as it's control systems are broken down by the infection.

The overall changes are as follows
Shipeborne Soul: Ship can be summoned at some distance, you can retreat the ship, and clarification on how others aboard a spelljammer operates.

Multitasked Control -> Will of the ship: Overall crew available is pushed up, ability to spend resource for more crew was removed, and some clarification was given on how the crew is treated.
To Boldly Go: Clarification on how the fatigue works, clause to prevent just quick-tapping the warp with magic trickery and allowing you to spend resource points to autopass test. Remember, your resource stat only regens in suitable environment anyway

Starbound Life -> Part of the Ship: Renamed, adjusted the free repair to require you to be on the ship, rather than simply having it summoned. You can't simply shunt it off or leave it somewhere after a battle and expect it to be fine later.

Leaf on the Wind: minor text clarification, spelljammer action changed to being additional maneuvering. This may be adjusted again due to the inherent power an additional maneuver allows.

Kelsin Fields: Adjustment of the spelljammer action to enhancing/regenerating the shields rather than reducing the penalty they receive. this significantly prolongs/improves survivability of a spelljammer. Due to text multilayered shields gain the greatest benefit as it would by RAW apply to all shields, I am still unsure if this is acceptable.

Ship and Captain, One and the Same -> Unbound: Completely replaced the ability. Still allows you to control the spelljammer from anywhere, but allows a single Vajra to control more than one vessel. May the legacy of S'jet live on.

Spontaneous Refits -> Miracle Engineering: Artifact Material for the void skin becomes a permanent effect rather than a per-scene effect, this seems acceptable as void skins are far less influential than actual armor. Likewise effect expanded to allow effecting anything controlled by Unbound instead of just one ship, and you can now trade HP around from unbound controlled ships.

Intensify Forward Firepower: Changed to making all weapons count twice in an attack rather than allowing a special attack, this avoids shenanigans involving a large number of lance weaponry being fitted.

Command Core was buffed and is now more geared towards supplementing other vessels rather than your own spelljammer.

Tactical Core received a slight buff in how it operates weapons by improving disruption of weapons now.

Elite Core no longer has pool regeneration anywhere, instead it simply expands your pool, making it less of a de facto choice.

Admiralty Core was created to better fit with 'Unbounded', allowing one to be a self-contained fleet if you can manage the crew.

Beast Core was created to allow a 'different' style of Vajra without being a full alternative.

I still very much need opinions on things to adjust/balance on this. A large part of problems I uncovered and have yet to find a good solution to involve that the actual power of a Vajra is often completely separate from the character itself, and often completely self sufficient without investment at power stat 3 and higher. For context, at power stat 3 you have a crew rating of 3 by default, 4 if you are an elite core. This means with 3 or 4 kept dice you are better than a 'default' ship crew (rating 2), and for most checks for spelljammers you can likely succeed with only minor challenge...Warp Travel is still special case unless your an Arcana Core.

[ScrapyardDragon]

The condition for triggering beast core technically isn't listed anywhere, and the wording "you may target any ship which is subject to a command test" being what and where it is happens to be rather, clunky for lack of a more polite term. If the intent is that the asset lets you target hostile ships for the 'infection' effect then the conditions should be listed BEFORE the effect, and the wording should be more like "the targeted ship must succeed a command test" because afaik NOTHING in this game uses the wording "which is subject to".

Oh, and how EXACTLY do beast and admiral cores interact with eachother? Heck malicious rules lawers could claim that since your OWN ship/s is/are also affected by unbound, you lose control of it/them. I would PRESUME thats not the intent, but again, the wording is flawed, and the core books have enough flawed wording as-is.

[sliprunner]

Alright, I did what I could to clean up the Beast Core. I realized there is a lot I should of defined in it that I didn't, and had largely forgot to come back and finish working on it. That aside the Admiralty Core + Beast Core was a mistake, I forgot to specify they couldn't be taken together. The intent there was that they would be two separate ways to handle a more powerful Vajra, one would infect and consume ships to be more powerful, the other would be able to adjust their vessel to the task at hand; however, while I want to have a method by which admiralty core may grow their BP pool, I am unsure as to what I should offer there if anything.

Thank you for reminding me that this needed more work though.

[ScrapyardDragon]

I'd argue there is no need for growing the BP pool, since it caps at 250 while buying with holdings only caps at 230, so they're already ahead on that front. Furthermore; one can always add on consoles/weapons just by buying them. granted buying new consoles is extremely overpriced in practice, but end of the day uncapped growth has extreme snowball potential.

[sliprunner]

Fair, I'm now sitting here looking at beast core and might have to readjust how it works or remove it completely. Growing the BP pool is one thing, but I just realized how devastatingly powerful its unbound action is, as it has the potential to instantly remove an enemy vessel. As no matter how I'm looking at it now, beast core being able to instantly remove a voidjammer from the enemy side is devastatingly effective. Only alternatives I can think of offhand is something that either reanimates 'destroyed' ships, or purely focused on scavenging to increase its pool.

[yog]

Maybe something like:

Beast Core: You may not control any other spelljammers other than the one provided by Shipborne Soul. You may 'consume' other spelljammers, adding 5BP per size class of the spelljammer to your own pool. Additionally, when using the 'Unbound' Ability, you may target any ship within 5 * Union Core VU. If the target's crew choose to resist your control, then you may take a free Boarding Party action against them that requires no crew, instead rolling a number of dice equal to your Union Core.

By the way, "V-Type replenishes at a rate of 1 for every 12 hours spent in the Warp or Astral Sea." makes for incredibly poor resource regen compared to all core Exaltations:

Atlanteans regain 1 per hour spent meditating or per dangerous free-action unravel attempt. Chosen restore all of their resource points once per day. Daemonhosts can regain resource points through feeding, free-action resonance eruption, or through their exaltation asset. Paragons regain all resource points at the beginning of each session. Prometheans regain one resource point per hour. Vampires get resource points from feeding, and with the extra background dots they can easily afford some followers or allies to make feeding less of a nuisance. A Werewolf regains all their resource points at the beginning of combat and nightly when the moon rises. Wraiths recover two resource points per hour spent in the Umbra. And then there's the Dragon Blooded, who can regain all their resource points by taking a five minute break.

On top of the slow regeneration rate, the Astral Sea is specifically the void outside of all Crystal Spheres.

It would probably be reasonable for it to instead be "V-Type replenishes at a rate of 2 for every hour spent in the void or in the Warp." As far as I'm aware, the void includes the Astral Sea in addition to offworld space inside Crystal Spheres, so you'll only need to hang around in low orbit or wherever instead of outside the solar system entirely.

[sliprunner]

That change to the beast core might work but I'm still thinking on how to properly revise it. I did not actually notice that distinction on the Astral Sea though, as for regen speed itself? I had it so poor because I felt some of the powers of the Vajra were exceptionally powerful, that and I thought the hours didn't matter to strongly when for a Varja. Their home is with a spelljammer and between battles the repairs take considerable times even with the Varja speeding it up, this complicated with travel times in the warp, and as happened in most playtests with my group they had recovered V-Type in reasonable time; however, I do see the point and will likely look at adjusting that or the overall size of resource pool.

[yog]

I've gone over your rebalanced version and here are my thoughts:

Shipborne Soul: You are bound to a spelljammer work 25 + (45 * Union Core) BP, You may spend dots of holding to improve this by 50BP per dot. Whenever you gain a new dot of Union Core you may re-build your spelljammer. You may spend 1 point of V-type to summon your spelljammer within 5 VU of you as a Full Action, This fails if there is not enough room and the V-Type is refunded. You may retreat the spelljammer to a Stable Warp Bubble by spending 1 point of V-Type. No crew except officers you permit may command/operate the vessel. If the spelljammer is destroyed you are killed as well, and may burn a hero point to prevent it.

Not a fan of feeding Holdings BP into the bound spelljammer for a number of reasons, chief among them that having starting Holdings as the only way to get more BP if you don't have Beast Core is not good. Also, added a clarification to head off use of teleportarium + summoning to do 10 VU leapfrogging per 1 V-Type spent. What I would do:

Shipborne Soul: You are bound to a spelljammer worth 50 + (50 * Union Core) BP. Whenever you gain a new dot of Union Core you may rebuild your spelljammer. If there is enough room, you may spend 1 point of V-type to summon your spelljammer within shuttle range of you if it is not already present in the scene. When out of combat, you may retreat the spelljammer to a stable Warp bubble by spending 1 point of V-Type. No crew except officers you permit may command/operate the vessel. You are killed if this spelljammer is destroyed, but you may burn a hero point to ignore an attack that would destroy the spelljammer.

Alternatively, letting all Vajra eat ships as with Beast Core would be fine. They could just apply it to any starting holdings if they wanted.

Will of the Ship: You may command all stations aboard a Spelljammer, counting as a crew equal to 6 + (6 * Union Core) crew up to the maximum of the hull. When working aboard another spelljammer, you may replace the need for an equal amount of crew. If you are the only source of crew aboard a ship, it has a crew quality equal to your Union core. In cases where 2 Vajra are aboard a ship it defaults to the highest crew quality provided. Crew from this ability may not be used as part of boarding actions, nor may they be killed by critical or effects that would result in crew loss.

My first thought was that this provides so much virtual crew because the extras would replace dead crew, but then I saw that the crew a vajra provides cannot be killed. After seeing Unbound, though, I get it, but I don't like it: I really feel like you should just get crew based on your spelljammer's crew limit. Additionally, I feel like providing bonuses to using other spelljammers kind of defeats the point of having a bound spelljammer. You could cut this down to:

Will of the Ship: You may command all Bridge Officer stations aboard your bound spelljammer, and can fully crew your bound spelljammer alone. This virtual crew cannot be killed, cannot be used in boarding actions, and has a crew quality equal to your Union Core.

To Boldly Go: You may never spend more than a week away from the void or an environment suited for your spelljammer, doing so requires a TN 15 test against Fatigue, and failure adds a level of Fatigue that remains until brought to a suitable environment for at least Union Core hours. The test repeats each day afterwards, with the TN increasing by 2 for each subsequent test. If you should be rendered unconscious from fatigue caused by this ability, you remain comatose until brought to a suitable environment. Immunity to Fatigue instead causes a point of Lethal damage that may not be negated. You may spend a point of V-type to automatically pass the test.

That "You may spend a point of V-type to automatically pass the test" at the end makes most of this pointless. Might as well just drain V-Type directly, but if you're doing that then you should mirror Vampire and Wraith and have the drain effect written in the resource stat text block. I'd replace it with a bonus like:

To Boldly Go: You can do the job of a Navigator while aboard your bound spelljammer, even if you don't have Divination. You gain a free raise on all tests involved in Warp travel.

Part of the Ship: Gain a Best Quality Void Skin that can't be replaced, removed, or destroyed, and it's air supply is considered unlimited. You may trade HP from yourself to your Spelljammer as a Half Action, up to your Union Core in maximum HP. You must be onboard your spelljammer to trade HP. Your spelljammer repairs at a rate of 1 HP per day as long as you are onboard of it.

I like this a lot. The only changes I'd make are to the wording:

Part of the Ship: Gain a Best Quality Void Skin that can't be replaced, removed, or destroyed, and its air supply is considered unlimited. As a Half Action, you may trade up to your Union Core in HP and Hull Strength between yourself and your bound spelljammer at a 1:1 ratio. You must be onboard your spelljammer to trade. Your spelljammer repairs at a rate of 1 Hull Strength per day as long as you are onboard of it.

I - Leaf on the Wind: By spending 1 point of V-Type as a half action you can move as if you had flyer and may add your speed to your static defense until your next turn. While aboard a spelljammer you may spend 1 point of V-type to allow it to make an additional Maneuver action that turn.

I'm not so sure about adding speed to static defense, and I really don't like allowing multiple maneuver actions without specifying some kind of limit. So:

I - Leaf on the Wind: As part of a Half Move, you can spend 1 point of V-Type to gain Flyer until your next turn. While aboard your bound spelljammer, you may spend 1 point of V-type to allow it to make an additional Maneuver action that you have not already made this turn.

II - Kelsin Fields: By spending 2 points of V-type as a free action you can summon a void shield around you with a rating of 10 + (2 * Union Core), This lasts until your next turn. While working aboard a spelljammer you may spend 2 points of V-type to regenerate the spelljammer's shields by (2 * Union Core) points, if the spelljammer does not have shields or they are offline, it instead gains a temporary shield with the same amount of HP until its next turn.

That's a pretty powerful personal void field, and a spelljammer effect that is too weak at lower Union Core to be worth it. I would also add clarification on what a void shield is, because IIRC an explanation of void shields only shows up in the vehicle creation system:

II - Kelsin Fields: You may spend 1 point of V-Type to summon a Void Shield around you with a rating of 3 + Union Core, allowing you to ignore all ranged attacks with penetration below the rating except those made by someone else who has their own Void Shield. This Void Shield lasts until your next turn. While working aboard a spelljammer you may spend 1 point of V-type to regenerate the spelljammer's shields by 1d10 + Union Core points. If the spelljammer does not have shields or they are offline, it instead gains a temporary shield with the same amount of HP until its next turn.

III - Unbound: You may control your spelljammer from anywhere in the same sphere, and by spending 3 points of V-type as a free-action, may extend your control to other spelljammers until end of scene. Spelljammer's targeted by this must have a friendly and willing captain onboard to be controlled. All crew from Will of the Ship Control may be spent freely among all ships controlled in this manner.

I've noticed you've taken care to specify when resource point expenditure is a free action, but spending resource points doesn't require actions unless specified otherwise. In fact, specifying that spending resource points is a free action may lock you out of spending more resource points in a turn than you should be able to: see page 387 of book 1. "During their turn, a character may preform any number of free actions, to reasonable limits of what the SM allows, and no more than one action of a given type per turn." What I would change this to:

III - Unbound: You may control your bound spelljammer from anywhere. By spending 3 points of V-type while aboard your bound spelljammer, you may extend assistance to allied spelljammers until end of scene. Spelljammers targeted by this must have a friendly and willing captain. Ships you are assisting in this manner may share your bound spelljammer's crew pool, allowing them assign crew to their rolls that you did not assign in your last turn.

IV - Miracle Engineering: Your void skin from Part of the Ship may benefit from the effect of one Artifact Material of choice, this choice is permanent and may not be changed later. By spending 4 V-type as a Free-Action you may replicate the effect of a Console on any spelljammer effected by Unbound for a number of turns equal to your Union Core. You may trade HP between ships affected by Unbound, but no more than twice your Union core in HP per round.

I like this, mostly:

IV - Miracle Engineering: Your void skin from Part of the Ship may benefit from the effect of one Artifact Material, as armor. This choice is permanent. By spending 4 V-type, you may replicate the effect of a Console on any spelljammer affected by Unbound for a 5 turns. You may trade Hull Strength between ships affected by Unbound, but no more than 20 Hull Strength per round.

V - Intensify Forward Firepower!: By spending 5 V-Type as a Tactical action, you may designate a number of targets up to your Union Core, and make a standard ranged attack against each using the profile of a Wave Motion Cannon. You may spend 5 points of V-type to allow a vessel under the effects of Unbound to count all weapons twice when making an attack.

Cool! Not sure about doubling attacks but I do like more stuff to do with Unbound. Also the wave motion cannon needs a range in a unit other than meters, if you're pulling the one from the vehicle system...

In the absence of any ideas of my own for changes to this one, I'll let you figure it out.

I get the impression that you're right in that V-Type lets you do a lot of powerful stuff, but I'm more inclined towards powering V-Type expenditures down so you can justify a normal resource regen rate than keeping most personal-scale uses of resource points infeasible because Vajra have so many better things to spend them on at the spelljammer scale. If you're worried about using resource point healing for significantly faster spelljammer repair with Part of the Ship, then I'd specify that health gained from spending resource points cannot be traded to your spelljammer, but I'm not so certain that that is a big problem?

Also, as stated previously, some stuff should be moved into the resource stat block. I feel like after some more balance fiddling this should become justifiable:

Resource Stat - V-Type: A Vajra replenishes V-Type at a rate of 1 for every hour spent in void or an environment similarly suited for their bound spelljammer, loses 1 for every day not spent in such an environment, and they have V-Type equal to Composure + (Union Core * 2).

I'll review the assets and do another pass at some point so I can get a better idea of Vajra vs. core exalts balance-wise.

[Lestat]

Aug 31, 2020 19:16:31 GMT -6 yog said:

What I would do:

Shipborne Soul: You are bound to a spelljammer worth 50 + (50 * Union Core) BP. Whenever you gain a new dot of Union Core you may rebuild your spelljammer. If there is enough room, you may spend 1 point of V-type to summon your spelljammer within shuttle range of you if it is not already present in the scene. When out of combat, you may retreat the spelljammer to a stable Warp bubble by spending 1 point of V-Type. No crew except officers you permit may command/operate the vessel. You are killed if this spelljammer is destroyed, but you may burn a hero point to ignore an attack that would destroy the spelljammer.

Why would a spelljammer exalt not have as much BP as a non-spelljammer exalt until Power Stat 4? Needing holdings to max your ship is a false option, but just like vehicle exalts need to be as good as non-vehicle exalts level 1, and money exalts should be at least as rich as other exalts level 1, spelljammer exalts should at least be as powerful as a Vampire with spare dots and a maxed ship.