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It recently came to my attention that Battle Magi can not draw PPE from other individuals. Are they the only mage class who cannot do this,and can anyone think of a good reason why?

Because everything else they get would make them broken if they could do that.

Sorry guys, but neither of those explanation is adequate to me. Since Battle Magi are warrior mages,they should be able to replenish their PPE with the PPE of their slain enemies.And I have never thought of them as "broken." If MDC beings were allowed to play them, you might have a point.

The canon answer (listed before mine) is still the correct one. I believe that if Battle Magi had the ability to do that, it would unbalance them in favor of other casting classes.

Captain Shiva wrote:It recently came to my attention that Battle Magi can not draw PPE from other individuals. Are they the only mage class who cannot do this,and can anyone think of a good reason why?

Because the Battle Magus is a Warrior FIRST , and a wizard second. Thier the front line battle troops.
And thier some what limited understanding of magic. Would in my personal opinion be the reasoning behind them not being able to draw PPE from other beings.

Considering it could take up to 14 years just to master both thier bodies and minds , then thier taught the mystic arts.. means to me that is the very reasoning in which they could not draw PPE from other beings .

A Battle Magus is NOT a warrior first, because he is listed under Men of Magic, and not Man at Arms OCC's.

Making the Battle Magus a Man at Arms OCC would solve that problem for me, but it would open up a host of others.

Balabanto wrote:A Battle Magus is NOT a warrior first, because he is listed under Men of Magic, and not Man at Arms OCC's.

Making the Battle Magus a Man at Arms OCC would solve that problem for me, but it would open up a host of others.

Can argue it all you want. I took those words directly from the Occ's write up. As per thier writeup they are in fact Warriors 1st .. and Wizards 2nd .

Captain Shiva wrote:Are they the only mage class who cannot do this?

I'm pretty sure there's a few others out there that also can't draw PPE from other individuals, but I wouldn't know who they are without going through each & every one.

Their writeup says plainly their warriors first and magic-users second.

You can disagree with the reasoning, but what the reasoning is is not exsactly secret.

Thats why I'm Aberrant Evil.
I would do it... but my allies wont let me.

Rogue_Scientist wrote:

Shinitenshi wrote:Conjurer and Controller are two other Magic OCCs that can only draw PPE from a Ley Line and not from people or rituals.

As well as Warlocks.

And, in regards to the OP, you might want to re-visit canon rulings on absorbing PPE from those you kill as well. If I recall correctly, it's not particularly battle-field effective. This isn't a video game. Baddies aren't dropping little blue energy pellets for you to pick up.

I believe it requires time, and a bit of focus. More of a mini-ritual than anything else. And sure, you can keep the last guy alive and kill him to replenish, but then you're killing in cold blood. As a GM, I'd inflict alignment penalties for good and most selfish characters.

You have to be prepared for it.

You don't necessarily have to do a ritual, you just have to be ready. You pretty much just have to time it right, either by waiting for the opponent to bleed out, or by knowing exactly when he will die, I have had my LLW walk up to a wounded enemy after battle, point a gun at him, pause to collect himself, and then shoot him in the face and collect his PPE. It was ruthless and cruel, but we were in a bind, and I needed it than him anyway. I believe the RMB and RUE both have passages on this kind of thing, both of them are incredibly vague, and are pretty much what I said a few sentences ago.

My last group house-ruled that you had to be mysticlly prepared for it, which meant as part of a ritual, not something you could do on in combat.

Ours house ruled that you either had to do that, or just know precisely when that person would die, but without the ritual, you could only get their normal PPE, not the doubled PPE from their death. So if you for example, after calming yourself and prepare to absorb that energy, shot someone in the face, you could snag some of it. Of course the ritual wasn't a big thing, just took a melee or two, but it was kinda obvious there would be no questioning involved, and that the person was gonna die. Hence, most of them wouldn't sit still. Didn't matter much either way, you can only so many people in cold blood. I only did it once, and even then my own group nearly turned me in to some random law enforcement agency. Friends will lower your chances of easily recovering your PPE.

Captain Shiva wrote:It recently came to my attention that Battle Magi can not draw PPE from other individuals. Are they the only mage class who cannot do this,and can anyone think of a good reason why?

They are not the only ones who cannot. Warlocks immediately spring to mind as ones who cannot draw PPE from individuals (though they can from elemental beings).

Tyciol wrote:I wonder, what about multi-class characters who have both elemental magic and normal magic?

In cases like that, I almost think treating it like 2 separate PPE pools might work, so they could borrow PPE for their normal magic, but not to fuel their PPE pool for elemental magic.

This is an important consideration for godlings/demigods, dragons, and if you use multiclass rules.

It's only one pool of PPE; the techniques for drawing from non-elemental beings aren't part of being a warlock, and aren't available without a radical realignment of understanding (i.e. training in wizardry).