Signature Power Creator

I'm aware this has been suggested before, but thought I would add my own take on how it would be implemented into the game.

So, the Signature Power would be a single power that you could earn through the Incarnate system. Each character would receive 1 Signature Power "slot". This power is created after speaking to an NPC, and can only be re customized by using a respec.

It would have a couple layers to it. The first part would be choosing what type of attack it is: Cone, Single Target, PBAoE, AoE, etc. etc. The only restriction would be that melee classes could not choose AoE's.

Second part would be picking the damage type. There are two ways to go about this: First is to allow all damage types to be available. Useful for creating unique concepts, but people would definitely try and min/max this based on damage type. The second way would be to restrict it to your primary damage dealing powerset. For example, a Fire/Energy Brute would have to pick Fire, a Katana/SR Scrapper would have to pick Lethal. Balanced, but prevents certain concepts from happening, like how Statesman has Zeus' Lightning.

Third is to pick the Secondary effect. Chance to knockdown, knock-up, stun, etc. etc. If none are picked, you can boost the damage of it instead.

Fourth is to pick the animation of the power. No need to be fancy, just pick from a list of the already created animations for powers. I would make the animation time set at something medium length, seeing as someone could pick a short animation and be able to fire it off relatively quickly.

Lastly is to name the power.

As for slotting the power, that would be the difficult part. I'm aware a lot of builds cannot spare slots for an extra power. My only suggestion is to either automatically six-slot it, or have it "level up", and gain slots as you use it more.

I would love to hear any feedback on this, even though it's been brought up before. I feel like it would be an interesting system to implement and, with a little tweaking, would not unbalance any aspect of the game.

I would definately have all damage types available. If we must, then we could reduce the damage for types that don't match the primary.

The last thing my claws, katana or broadsword Scrapper needs is more Lethal. It would certainly be nice, when dealing with Lethal-resistant foes to be able to bust out Energy or Cold or whatever I felt like picking when the Signature Power became available.

See, here's the thing. My concern with the idea is that, and we'll use your Claws Scrapper as an example, they will consistantly choose Toxic or Psi, the least resisted damage types.

It can be argued that having only one power with this is the tradeoff. Reducing the damage is also a good fix. I'm trying to look at it from the point of "How can I min/max this?"

Personally I don't think an Offensive-only signature power would be an optimal implementation of such a feature. Some character concepts I have would have defensive, even supportive qualities if they ever were to have their own custom power. For instance, my main hero would have the power to become completely phased in order to facilitate the effect of merging with another ally and giving them significant buffs to many of their abilities, taking damage if the target ally takes damage.

A signature power that's only a fancy custom attack can't make that concept come true. As it's more of a super-buff to an ally rather than hurting the enemy.

If there had to be a signature power system in the game, it would have to include Offensive and defensive choices.

I lived through the Fire/Ice plague of 2004. There were Fire/Ice Tanks as far as the eye could see. Well, that's an exaggeration. But you couldn't swing a dead catgirl in the Portal Corps parking lot without hitting one. Why? Because it was a FotM Farming build. Herd->Drop Ice Patch->Burn until dead.

I disliked the min/max that used what I saw as conflicting themes. But with imagination, any powersets and origin can match up. (Once there was a thread in Virtue where contestants challenged the OP to come up with a backstory to match any primary+Secondary+origin. He did, even if some were a bit..odd.)
So I can't sit here and say "NO, you CAN'T do that!" to someone's desire to want poisoned talons on one power for thier Claws Scrapper, just because it would be a desirable (rarely resisted) damage type.

*Warning: Numbers pulled from thin air!*
But if for said Claws/SR Scrapper, my choices were an attack with 90 points of Lethal Damage or 50 points of Toxic? I'd have to decide whether Awesome Possum wanted Slashing Force (Lethal) or Dumpster Disease (Toxic) and it would seriuosly be a close tossup. Drop that 50 to 35 or even 20 and I'm gonna take Lethal almost every time.

So I'm still backing the "All damage types, but reduced if need be"

What about say, a Psi Blaster? If they fight a Psi-resistant foe, would it be a big deal if one power did Fire instead? I'm sure Simon the Psi-Man would love Pyrokinesis. Heck, with APPs in place already, there's some precedent for being able to go against your Primary+Secondary.

You make a good point with the "anything can be done with imagination" point. But I'm gonna roll with your Fire/Ice tank and talk about defensive powers for a moment.

I'll give ground on the Phase-shifting ability, but I think you'd need to be careful with defensive powers and I don't think alot of them could be implemented without either making them boring or overpowered. Phase-shifting is a temp power already and has limited uses. A defensive ability, in my eyes, could be adding another shield to a tank (boring) to adding another cooldown button (potentially unbalancing). And though I think buffs would get out of hand as well.

I went with the signature attack route because it allowed the most customization without making things too complicated or allow unbalancing powers to be created. Though, I could be wrong.

After further thought on Offensive powers, what about this:
50% of the Damage type must be from your Primary/Secondary, the remainer can be any, but if it doesn't match, it might (or might not!) be reduced.

Fire/Dark character can have a power that does: 90 Fire, 45/45 Fire/Dark, 45/45 Fire/Lethal or 45/25 Dark/Tox. Calling the power a "Signature Power" is starting to tell me that it should be tied into your main powers somehow, just not 100% bound to them.

I think that's a pretty good halfway there. I agree with the definition of Signature there. I don't think it should be just an extra attack, it should be a part of the character.

I actually like the idea of a split, or 100% link to your primary/secondary power. I also think making these primarily offensive would be best, though you could play with "offensive" to ally buffs, I suppose. That way an amp could have a signature power that briefly adds a massive damage boost to an ally at the expense of dealing their own damage or something similar. Buffing powers reduce your own ability to act while active, and offensive powers may be balanced by having some sort of formula to deal with resistances.

That or you could just solve the issue by making the effects of your signature power unresistable, whether it be an offensive or defensive attack. this would mean lower base damage numbers but perhaps be evened out by the fact that any mobs will feal it equally, period.