<Snipped quote by MelonHead>
The major, and only, really important differences between charges and preps is quite simple. Preps exist in the T1 rules, charges do not. Charges boost damage, preps do not. Though they would naturally allow for more potent abilities to activate.
Heck, there's nothing that says attacks get stronger with more preps(or that only an equal prep is even needed to block that attack!). Because, as far as T1 Eden era rules are concerned, there is nowhere that it states more preps mean a more powerful attack. Heck even I thought it did not too long ago. Until I started branching out to others sites and realized how morphed Arena style is here. For the most part it works, but you'll get laughed out if you try using charges elsewhere.
On a unrelated note, odd you feel magic would not need preparation. The most popular form of magic settings, low magic (and even higher magic settings) often require long rituals and at the very least arcane incantations. Which is what I always felt the idea of preps originated from. It can easily translate to non-magic, as the language is loose enough that loading a shot into a chamber of a gun and knocking the hammer would technically count as a prep.
Personally I always liked magic that required time and patience to use. Makes using it allot more risky from a story telling point of view. Otherwise it wouldn't be any different than elemental bending.
Like I said, T1 only gives examples for very low level characters, T3 at most on the old scale, so it is in my opinion a poor diagram for the average fight on RPG, which tends to be mid or high powered. Hell, they literally only reference sword fighting and shooting a fireball in that system, so its obvious that the prep system in that regard is not appropriate for our use in a literal sense. We've adopted our own version of it for the popular style of fighting here, and it works for the most part.
On second thoughts, they don't even follow an appropriate tier scale with their examples, its more like fantasy with human characters that adopt magical abilities. In our system magical abilities ups your tier, which increases resistance, in their version its still essentially humans fighting, so restrictions -have- to be placed on magic and anything else even remotely unusual or ranged or powerful, otherwise you'd just die. It's narrow minded in my opinion.
What I'm saying is, in the T1 example it pretty much only applies to two spellswords fighting eachother, and is therefore a poor reference for anything we do on RPG, which rarely if ever includes two people with ordinary physical qualities -and- the ability to launch fireballs.
Hell, that argument is broken from the start Khan, you know what also doesn't -exist- in the T1 system in regards to -that- specific article? Guns? Bows? Any high tier? Any other forms of magical attack other than a fireball while sword fighting?
Frankly I think sticking to that guide for elements of fighting that it doesn't even cover is ludicrous.
Also, I never said anything about magic not requiring preparation, but I think it's equally narrow minded to imagine every form of unusual ability as a type of magic under the same rigid constraints as some fiction. Hell, there's just as many examples of magic which require no preparation, and have a mana cost instead.
Also, considering the type of ability launched in the average fight, I think little preparation is fair. Using Full Metal Alchemist for example the average attack is launched near instantaneously, and then takes time to physical interact with an opponent. Its the wide spread attacks that are harder to avoid that need some sort of time constraint.
Hell, I'm not even sure what fiction you're referencing when you say 'most magic requires long rituals.' The majority of fiction I've read its almost always been fast. I think the problem is you've always been stuck with the mindset of a form of fiction that doesn't properly fit into RPG, which is strange because you make incredibly powerful physical characters with insanely overpowered spells a lot of the time, but on the other hand expect magic to be nerfed or have some sort of obvious tell. It's like every other character you want to face is a DnD character and your character's a boss or something.
Which certainly fits Rilla's theory.
