NEW PROFOUND MASTERS OF OGRE GATE PLAYTEST NOTES

I started play testing my New Profound Masters of Ogre Gate material last night with a focus on combat with gods. This is just something I am working on that is for my present campaigns. It may become a large blog entry or perhaps a book if there is enough material. It is done in the spirit of New Dragon Inn, meaning it is a new take on the Profound Masters levels for Ogre Gate, where I can be more liberal in my interpretation of the original rules. 

In this session the players all made high level immortals (Qi rank 24). They were given one powerful Celestial Weapon and also each given two new Insights from tables I made recently. Then we had a battle between them and Xian Nu Shen, the Enlightened Goddess. 

Initially they had some difficulty. Some characters were more vulnerable than others as there are abilities that cap damage. The Enlightened Goddess has such an ability called Jade Heart, which means she can't take more than 10 wounds from an attack. But two of the Immortal Characters had a similar ability capping their damage from individual attacks at 20 (something they would need as the Enlightened Goddess' sword alone does +25 Extra Wounds. One player was able to fend off her sword attacks with his Iron Heart Reversal, making it so he only took half damage. Another player couldn't withstand her attacks and took 20 points of damage due to the cap. The third character managed to block the attack completely. 

While things were difficult for them at first, they very quickly realized a profound technique that would limit her considerably, called The Clamoring Laughter of Ancient Gray Demon, was something they all knew. Due to this and another attack, her hardiness was lowered when she moved. However she opted to continue moving so she could cut a hole in reality with her sword to suck the players through, which reduced her to 1 Hardiness. The players all made their Muscle TN 10 rolls to avoid getting obliterated from existence, and managed to reduce her Hardiness to zero with further attacks. They then threw her into the tear in the sky and the Enlightened Goddess was annihilated. 

After the battle one thing that was observed was immortal characters lacked a defining quality. They felt, at least in this battle, more like high level profound characters. After some discussion, I added this to the list of abilities all immortals get and we will see if that improves things: 

Path Power: Select one profound technique that defines your character. Your character can now use this technique even in actions not related to its usage. You can always use it freely as an action without taking imbalance points. Players should describe how they use this feature of their character freely and the GM should adjudicate it openly and creatively, applying bonuses and effects when it seems appropriate to the description of the technique.

This is just the first real combat test of this stuff. But I liked how things functioned so far. And I am hopeful about the use of this new Immortal Ability. It was an isolated test though, with the party and the Enlightened Goddess squaring off with no real context beyond location. In a normal campaign circumstances might be very different. My goal is to make these kinds of battles possible but not a cake walk. 

I am also looking at XP spending at the higher levels and considering special features players can spend XP on at the immortal levels during downtime (things like celestial geography and sect building).