Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Character Creation and Discussion (second reincarnation)

[Evangelion Xgouki]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.......grafph?

*blink*

Is it over yet?

[Comartemis]

I'll give you the simple thjing that separate you and the others. A very simple difference. I wont tell who, but there were a couple of OCs who have also violated the established limits laid by canon. The very simple thing that has made the difference was...

Execution, presentation. How to present the package and make it pass smoothly.

Call me a skeptic, but I don't see how I'm presenting my characters so differently from the others. I post an idea, I wait for comments, I run with what I get, then rinse lather repeat until the finished product is ready for posting. How's that so different from what the others do?

[Sheba]

Know what? I dont care. I have taken much worse from the tournament pricks in shoryuken.com, I never demanded an apology. Why should I bend for you when others did not?

I see no reason.

[Estavali]

Gentlemen, kindly take your arguments to PM. To put it bluntly, the thread does not need more flames to keep it lively.

This applies to everyone.

[Evangelion Xgouki]

*goes back to sleep with the air conditioner on*

[Comartemis]

No need; I finished arguing when Sheba offered up an explanation of what I'm doing wrong. Post edits took place at bad times and Sheba must've posted and logged off before he saw that I edited out a rather rude comment and left the post the way it appears now. If he'll just explain what he means so I can go about working on it I'll drop the matter entirely.

I said I'd take legitimate complaints more seriously than groundless insults and I meant it. Sheba, would you care to provide that explanation so we can go back to being relatively civil to each other?

[Comartemis]

You know what, I've come to a decision.

Alex's status as a half-familiar leaves him with a body that is all but saturated with magic, which leads to him having a higher-than-normal affinity for magical energy manipulation and allows him to learn to use kanka in a few months rather than years. Basically it just allows him to have magical potential on par with the other Aces and then be able to use kanka to keep up with them after the cartridge system is introduced. All other effects are just personality quirks and the like, not actual powers, so there shouldn't be any balance issues, or at least none that I can see.

[Wild Goose]

Is there any real point to him being half familliar? Because seriously if not, you may as well drop it. Franz was supposed to retain Unlimited Blade Works but I dropped that because there wasn't any real point in him having it.

[Evil Rick]

Nanoha, Rise of Techno_Union

Spoiler for Intro:

Spoiler for Preview:

Full Download link:

http://www.badongo.com/file/10430223

PD: In this number makes debut Dr. Faust

Enjoy!

[Sheba]

Then I remembered AARON SMASH...

And has gone to write a slice of life bit to check if I still has the writing groove:

Spoiler for A slice of life part 1:

5:30 AM

Diana was covering her ears with her large pillow upon hearing the sound of her alarm clock. That was a gift from her cell members, it looked like a large toad in tuxedo and it was singing one of those operas of Mid-Childa. What was it? Yes, Christan and Hilda. Two noblemen of two rival families of the ancient nobility, trying to live their forbidden love. She was gathering her thoughts in a more coherent whole, she then remembered that it gonna be another day in the TSAB, well for her. She knows that her Department has been staggering, and was recovering, from the Jail Incident and how it failed to prevent the disaster. Hopefully, her section and cell were not in charge of this task, her cell's business was about the Lost Logia and how to catch those who smuggle them, so it was not their heads that rolled.

Now, she rolled off her bed and fell on the wooden floor. Her muscles were still recovering from the work of the previous day. She stood up and walked to the bathroom, to undress and shower. The contact of the warm water has suddenly pulled her mind out of the mist of her dreamless slumber, she may have dreamed, only she may have forgotten it. The last dream she has was about getting her section being forced in butler or maid outfits for one week by that devilish Lieutenant Colonel and calling whoever they served "My Master". She has few contacts with the Lieutenant colonel, it was mostly paperwork and Yagami trying to get friendly with Diana's cell. Her efforts has meet cold stares and embarassed coughs from Diana's workmates. Only Diana has answered Hayate's attempt with a rather lame joke that made the atmosphere less tense, and an handshake. She has heard about the Lieutenant Colonel's unusual antics, especially from female rookies. Then again, as a member of the Intelligence department, Diana has heard lots of things about lot of people.

After she washed and cleaned her body and mind, she dressed herself up in her work clothes then walked to the kitchen room. She boiled water for the tea, took fruits and toated a slice of bread for her breakfast, while listening the radio. Nothing new were good news as much as she wished, but as a member of the intelligence department, she tried to pay attention to the more mundane things that could hint her about something wrong going on.

She checked her wristwatch, it was time for her to go to work.

6:57 AM

She was driving a small gray car, while listening the music that was playing on the radio. As far as she is concerned, Diana has managed to avoid most of the traffic jam. The ride was smooth until she was stopped by the red lights. She cursed the obstacle then tapped her driving wheel with her fingers. She her a car stopping by her right then turned her head. Black sport car, it was what her workmates called "The Fatemobile". The blonde enforcer turned her head as well and greeted Diana with the smile that earned Testarossa admirers from the both genders. She did feel uncomfortable when her newest recruit, Lou, was talking about Testarossa with thoe dreamy eyes and this "Fate Onee-sama~" and spinning on the tip of her toes like a belkan ballet dancer, however Diana recognized that everyone needed models and heroes. And that was what the Aces were. So Diana answered Fate's smile with a friendly hand gesture and both her them warmed up their cars engines to get it rolling when the traffic light will turn green.

7:20 AM

Diana managed to make it to the TSAB underground car parking lot. As expected, Fate has made it well before her. Diana walked toward the elevator to get to the hall and have a talk with the security guards. The poor men has a boring job, so she thought it could be nice to talk with them a bit.

Five minutes later, she was at their posts. Under a mundane conversation topic, Diana has taken note of the coded hand gestures and words that meant "Nothing to note for the last night."
Nothing new should be good news. She turned around and walked toward the elevator's door. Her department was located among the highest floor, just above the floor where the enforcer department was. Once she has reached her destination, she has gone through the mandatory security check-ups. Then she finally could reach the offices of her cell. She found one of her workmates, the agent Mc Donnel, reading one of those magazines that most of males enjoys. Oggling, would be a better way to describe what he was doing, seeing how he has unfolded the central poster.

"Hum, 'reading' your erotic magazines again, Mc Donnel?", she asked.
The agent who has not noticed her, quickly let a surprised shout escape from his lungs and stood up as if he was reviewed by the White Devil, or that other instructor who has watched too much of those, how do they say that? Yeah, kung-fu movies from Earth.
"Get back to work, a long day has started.", she said, almost scolding him.
"YES MA'AM!", upon those words, Mc Donnell rushed back to work, listening the phone conversations of people they wouldnt even ask what were the reasons for doing it.

Diana went to her own office and sat on her spinning chair. She turned toward the window. If she makes the effort, she could almost see the training field If she could focus a bit more, she could hear the crashes and explosions sounds from buster-type spells being fired.
She turned her chair again to face the amount of reports to fill. Most the damage reports from the missions of her department, or discovery reports of lost logias.
In about one hour and half, she has to get ready to meet the head honchos of her department, and the vice director of the enforcer department. As expected, the actual director of the enforcer department would only communicate with the mean of a laptop computer as proxy, with a blank screen as face and a morphed voice. Nobody has ever seen him. Since the Jail Incident, a collaboration between the enforcer department and intelligence department has become a necessity. Both department were known to be on less than good term. Their paths has crossed a few times, and a fewer times these encounters has degenerated into skirmishes. While competition could be necessary, it has proved to hurt the both departments, and the TSAB as a whole, more than it should. It just did not help that the both department has their fair share of bad apples, enforcers corrupted by the Mid-Childa mob and bought into infiltrating the ranks of the enforcers to work against the TSAB, or a cell of intelligence department agents that has gone rogue.

Getting her mind out of these thoughts, she rubbed her temples, and focused her attention on her work.

8:35 AM

Diana has gotten out of her office, carrying the reports under her arm, she has the meeting scheduled in about twenty minutes. The meeting room was about one floor above hers.

Before the meeting room's door, there were a vending machine, and in front of the vending machine, there were the separate bathroom. In front of the coin slot of the machine, a small silver-haired female being was floating, trying to put her coin in the slot.

"Good day, Rein.", Reinforce Zwei has accepted Diana to call her as such. Diana can say that both of them are as close as two members of two completely different departments can get."Hello Diana.", the Small Boss answered with a wide smile.
"Let's drop the formalities.", Rein answered Diana's proposition with a nod. "Shall I help you with the machine?"
"Yes, thank you.", the Device enthusiastically replied.
Any TSAB member who has come to this floor knew that this vending machine was malfunctionning. It shall not distribute the beverages unless...

"Very Small tomato juice?", Diana's finger were hovering over the options.
"Very small hot chocolate", Reinforce answered.

A very small cup, about as big as the tip of Diana's pinky finger has dropped, filled with steaming hot chocolate milk. Reinforce grabbed the precious drink then savored each warm sips while Diana served herself some orange tea. The door of the ladies bathroom opened, revealing Hayate who has likely washed her face to erase any sign showing that she has a busy and entertaining night. Wolkenritters and their Mistress sure knew to have fun.

"Lieutenant Colonel!", out of instinct, Diana saluted Yagami.
Yagami took a closer look at Diana then lowered her glance.
Diana stood still as Hayate reached out her hands toward... Diana's necktie and proceeded to fix it.

"I know you have a meeting soon, you are the one who will be doing most of the talk.", Hayate said.
"This is my job.", Diana answered.
"Everything will be alright.", Hayate replied with a confident smirk.

While waiting for the meeting to be hosted, Hayate and Diana were discussing about mundane topics related to their acquaintances. Then the conversation shifted to the current state of TSAB and mid-childa. The more things has changed, the less it has changed. Hayate has grown aware that, as the Mistress, she was at the center of a struggle for influence between a couple of factions. And it is not just her, but also her friends.

Her chin rested on her fist, Diana listened her with a lot of attention.

Hayate then waved her hands:

"Ok, let's forget it for some time. The meeting is going to start shortly."

They both walked together, toward that door, accompanied by Rein. But Hayate has work waiting for her, so they has to part their ways.

Before Hayate left the floor, Diana turned toward her.

"Hayate, if you wish me to help you against them. I'll offer you my help, I knew some people who sympathize with you.", So was her words.

Hayate looked over her shoulder, imiated by Reinforce Zwei, then:

"After that tennis match with Nanoha you are supposed to play, will you join my friends and I for a karaoke?", Hayate asked with a joyful tone.

"Say yes, please", echoed the small boss

Diana thought about it while twirling a lock of her brown hair around her ring finger, then answered:

"I am not that good at singing and I heard that Fate's singing makes people feel not good at that, once you get her in the mood."

"A little drink and things seems easier", Hayate giggled as the elevator door opened.

"Alright", it was the answer of Diana

"Yippie", it was as if Reinforce Zwei has made this victory hers.

Then Diana looked at them while thinking:

"How could I say no? They are so attaching"

Depending on the reception, I may or may not continue it.

And I realized one thing, dialogues were never my forte. So my stories tend to kinda look like a spaghetti western by Sergio Leone.

[Comartemis]

Is there any real point to him being half familliar? Because seriously if not, you may as well drop it.

'Twas conceived as a character quirk to make him stand out from the other OCs on this site, like Kero's Aspect Magic and Kha's... well, Khaness, for lack of a better term. His background allows for a Calling the Old Man Out moment when he inevitably tracks down dear old dad during the StrikerS timeskip (at least part of which is due to be chronicled in fic form). It's not of vital importance that he be half-familiar, but I want something to make him stand out from the other Aces as part of his character/background; can't have an Ace without an angsty background now, can we?

[ghazghkull]

Originally Posted by Comartemis

'Twas conceived as a character quirk to make him stand out from the other OCs on this site, like Kero's Aspect Magic and Kha's... well, Khaness, for lack of a better term. His background allows for a Calling the Old Man Out moment when he inevitably tracks down dear old dad during the StrikerS timeskip (at least part of which is due to be chronicled in fic form). It's not of vital importance that he be half-familiar, but I want something to make him stand out from the other Aces as part of his character/background; can't have an Ace without an angsty background now, can we?

Having a character quirk is one thing.

Having a useless status is just that, useless.

[tshouryuu]

Originally Posted by Comartemis

You know what, I've come to a decision.

Alex's status as a half-familiar leaves him with a body that is all but saturated with magic, which leads to him having a higher-than-normal affinity for magical energy manipulation and allows him to learn to use kanka in a few months rather than years. Basically it just allows him to have magical potential on par with the other Aces and then be able to use kanka to keep up with them after the cartridge system is introduced. All other effects are just personality quirks and the like, not actual powers, so there shouldn't be any balance issues, or at least none that I can see.

While I don't like the idea of a half familiar, partially because you left a bad first impression Coma, to play Devil's advocate a bit, I thought there is precedence in one of Nighty's OC who if, my memory is correct, is a half familiar.

Btw Coma, if anything, being half familiar imo would leave Alex with LESS mana instead because part of his natural mana (I am assuming half), produced by the human half, should be going to be used to support his familiar half. While he might be stronger physically, I seriously doubt he would be that powerful magically. And before you go on the kanka route read the next part below.

As for the Kanka idea, my personal idea (anyone is free to disagree) is that magic/linked mana IS kanka or at least the concept is. Reason is due to the two conflicting information about mana from the dvd booklets since there there is an entry talking about mana from the atmosphere but the entry on loading foods seem to indicate its from the body. (TK, I know you disagree on this point).

If I remember correctly, magic in Negima is from the atmosphere and ki from the bod. You might ask how is this applicable to the crap I mentioned above? Magic in Nanoha has to be linked to be used and assuming that the two entries about mana is correct and not conflicting, I think the linker core links energy from atmosphere and energy from the body to form magic aka kanka.

If my idea is correct, which I seriously doubt and I can bet many people (probably TK, Ark and Jimmy to mention a few offhand ) can find the flaws in my admittedly crazy idea, it would make your Alex less unique, no?

[Comartemis]

Originally Posted by tshouryuu

While I don't like the idea of a half familiar, partially because you left a bad first impression Coma

Guilty as charged, though you'd think that a few months of development and doing some level grinding in the Outer Cadian prestige class would've helped erase people's initial impressions of me...

Btw Coma, if anything, being half familiar imo would leave Alex with LESS mana instead because part of his natural mana (I am assuming half), produced by the human half, should be going to be used to support his familiar half. While he might be stronger physically, I seriously doubt he would be that powerful magically. And before you go on the kanka route read the next part below.

Makes sense when you put it that way

As for the Kanka idea, my personal idea (anyone is free to disagree) is that magic/linked mana IS kanka or at least the concept is. Reason is due to the two conflicting information about mana from the dvd booklets since there there is an entry talking about mana from the atmosphere but the entry on loading foods seem to indicate its from the body. (TK, I know you disagree on this point).

If I remember correctly, magic in Negima is from the atmosphere and ki from the bod. You might ask how is this applicable to the crap I mentioned above? Magic in Nanoha has to be linked to be used and assuming that the two entries about mana is correct and not conflicting, I think the linker core links energy from atmosphere and energy from the body to form magic aka kanka.

If my idea is correct, which I seriously doubt and I can bet many people (probably TK, Ark and Jimmy to mention a few offhand ) can find the flaws in my admittedly crazy idea, it would make your Alex less unique, no?

That actually makes sense in a bunch of ways, but there's a few problems with it as well, the biggest one being that kanka is activated or deactivated by the mage and provides a bunch of stat boosts and power-ups, which is why I have it labeled as one of the highest techniques in the Ancient Belkan system, since it's a more-or-less perpetual boost to physical attributes on top of any spells the knight may cast on himself. I'll just borrow Kero's IS for a moment, I'm sure he won't mind if I put it back where I found it...

Spoiler for IS: Silver Retriever:

The working definition that I have going right now is that magic in Negima refers to linked mana and ki is the energy of the body. Kanka is a hybrid energy created by pumping mana directly into one's ki flows in such a way that the two energy sources mix and turn into a new type of energy.

The limitations of this energy are akin to the limitations placed on straight-up ki in Comacanon, namely it can't be projected more than a few meters away from the body (except in special circumstances; Asuna stacks a kanka blast on top of a magic cancellation effect during the battle at the Magic World gate, and Comacanon Asuna can probably pull the same thing off), and using it for extended periods wears out the linker core. Higher ranked knights don't need to worry about the second limit so much as knights with weaker linker cores; Signum, when she was still alive, could hold this technique for hours at a time without even noticing the strain on her LC, but her artificial body doesn't have ki flows so no kanka for her after the BoD assimilates her.

[dkellis]

Originally Posted by Comartemis

'Twas conceived as a character quirk to make him stand out from the other OCs on this site, like Kero's Aspect Magic and Kha's... well, Khaness, for lack of a better term. His background allows for a Calling the Old Man Out moment when he inevitably tracks down dear old dad during the StrikerS timeskip (at least part of which is due to be chronicled in fic form). It's not of vital importance that he be half-familiar, but I want something to make him stand out from the other Aces as part of his character/background; can't have an Ace without an angsty background now, can we?

While I haven't been keeping track of the Drama that unfolded due to this, I have to ask: isn't Alex already "standing out" with his use of kanka?

Not that I can understand why a character needs to stand out. My characters don't really stand out much in this thread, even if they're unique enough in my mind. Taken in Nanoha-verse terms, they're pretty commonplace.

Should I be working on making my characters stand out more?

[PhoenixFlare]

*rubs temples at the amount of rage going on*

Seriously, people ... Ah, I'm too lazy to even comment.

Originally Posted by Comartemis

You know what, I've come to a decision.

Alex's status as a half-familiar leaves him with a body that is all but saturated with magic, which leads to him having a higher-than-normal affinity for magical energy manipulation and allows him to learn to use kanka in a few months rather than years. Basically it just allows him to have magical potential on par with the other Aces and then be able to use kanka to keep up with them after the cartridge system is introduced. All other effects are just personality quirks and the like, not actual powers, so there shouldn't be any balance issues, or at least none that I can see.

Basics, Comartemis, basics. If you want to give your character something good, remember to give him something bad as well. Multiple amounts of good can be offset by a single amount of bad of equivalent magnitude, so there's no way that you are saying that Alex is having all the good traits and leaving all the bad ones out.

Right now, you're bordering Alex as a "all-good-and-no-bad" character, which leaves little to be desired for approval. I don't mind him being a half-familiar and stuff like that, but try to make him more normal than he is right now. Thanks.

And no, I don't see why familiars need to be physically stronger than anyone. Arf and Zafira (if he's classified as a familiar and not guardian beast) look just as normal as any other human mages. Arf has been near-death before in Season 1, and Zafira in StrikerS. Why Alex should be above them, I don't know.

[Comartemis]

While I haven't been keeping track of the Drama that unfolded due to this, I have to ask: isn't Alex already "standing out" with his use of kanka?

Aye, this is true. The half-familiar thing was a tentative idea to help explain his talent for energy manipulation but I got a bit carried away with it. Something less exotic would work just as well, I guess.

Should I be working on making my characters stand out more?

I'd hardly call it a requirement, it's just that with Alex being one of the Aces, I'd like him to have a... signature trait, I guess, that makes him unique within the circle, like Nanoha's beamspam and Hayate's Belkan magic. The last thing I want is for people to look at Alex and say that he's just a clone of one of the other Aces (Fate was my big worry based on their similar mixed-range fighting styles before I revamped Alex's fighting style to have a stronger melee emphasis), so I've designed him to be as different as possible from the others.

For one thing, Alex is sort of an Idiot Hero in that he doesn't like to spend a lot of time deliberating and worrying about things and prefers to jump headfirst into everything he does, consequences be damned. He has traces of Hot Blood in him but it's not his defining feature like it is with, say, anyone from TTGL. His fighting style is a nod to Kyuubi Naruto in that he fights at short-to-middle range with much less skill than you would expect from a hand-to-hand fighter (at first; this doesn't last after Eva gets her hands on him after Classic) but he comes at you like a runaway freight train and he doesn't stop until you're down for the count. His inability to use the cartridge system (his device is too delicate to be able to handle frequent and sudden power surges) forces him to learn to trigger the magic/ki fusion in his ki flows during A's while Nanoha and Fate are getting device upgrades.

Like the other Aces, he's also essentially a nice guy who's pretty easy to make friends with (assuming you don't have a plot device standing between you and him...), doesn't worry about much, doesn't take too many things seriously, etc. One could easily imagine him as having a kansai dialect, since he pretty much matches the stereotype to a T.

[dkellis]

Originally Posted by Comartemis

Aye, this is true. The half-familiar thing was a tentative idea to help explain his talent for energy manipulation but I got a bit carried away with it. Something less exotic would work just as well, I guess.

Mind you, if the half-familiar thing is important to Alex's backstory (and by "important" I mean "gives more chances for character development"), then by all means put it in. I was just confused about it apparently only being for "uniqueness".

Honesty compels me to admit that I probably won't remember anything much about Alex after a while, perhaps not even his name, but I'll probably have that little niggling at the back of my mind which goes "wasn't there a character using magic and ki at the same time?" In my view, that's unique enough. In fact, personally speaking the kanka is more memorable than the half-familiar thing.

I'd hardly call it a requirement, it's just that with Alex being one of the Aces, I'd like him to have a... signature trait, I guess, that makes him unique within the circle, like Nanoha's beamspam and Hayate's Belkan magic. The last thing I want is for people to look at Alex and say that he's just a clone of one of the other Aces (Fate was my big worry based on their similar mixed-range fighting styles before I revamped Alex's fighting style to have a stronger melee emphasis), so I've designed him to be as different as possible from the others.

For one thing, Alex is sort of an Idiot Hero in that he doesn't like to spend a lot of time deliberating and worrying about things and prefers to jump headfirst into everything he does, consequences be damned. He has traces of Hot Blood in him but it's not his defining feature like it is with, say, anyone from TTGL. His fighting style is a nod to Kyuubi Naruto in that he fights at short-to-middle range with much less skill than you would expect from a hand-to-hand fighter (at first; this doesn't last after Eva gets her hands on him after Classic) but he comes at you like a runaway freight train and he doesn't stop until you're down for the count. His inability to use the cartridge system (his device is too delicate to be able to handle frequent and sudden power surges) forces him to learn to trigger the magic/ki fusion in his ki flows during A's while Nanoha and Fate are getting device upgrades.

Flippantly speaking Alex is already standing out among the Aces for having a Y chromosome.

Generally the easiest way I know of to make the character "unique" enough is to vary his personality from the others. Make it something that's explainable in a short sentence or phrase, even if it's a gross overgeneralization or exaggeration. Even if he has the same powers, the difference in personalities might mean differences in how they're used: Alex is the sort to charge in first and plan later, so even if he has the same style as Fate, he's not as likely to worry about positioning and such.

If we're looking at powers, then we can steal a page from standard adventuring archetypes: the Ace trio is heavily oriented towards nuking and large ranged blasts, which suggests an immediate use for a tank-type. (Zafira would probably fill this role, but he always gets shafted. Arf too, although she gets less and less screentime as the series went on.) Or you can go for a mezzer-type, with binds and status effects. Or a barrier-type (Yuuno, poor guy). So on and so forth.

I like the D&D 4E classification of roles, but it's probably too esoteric for this discussion. But I have to say that I really like it for a handy guideline.

-

One thing I've heard about regarding Character Flaws comes from creating characters in a game system which includes a Flaw or Disadvantage portion for extra character points. As a caveat, it's not a rule of any sort; at most, it's a very rough and insubstantial guideline, and everyone's free to ignore it. (In fact, not all, or even a majority, of DMs follow it.)

Flaws are used in two senses: to give the characters plot hooks for the DM to build upon for the Character Backstory, and to give the players extra build points to bring their characters up to par.

The rule of thumb when picking a Flaw is: "if this did not give me any points, would I still take the Flaw?" In other words, is the Flaw something that makes sense for the character, or is it something that's taken for the points? Note that the latter is not inherently "bad": something apparently random and unrelated can turn out to be a significant plot point in the future.

Putting it into character creation terms out of pen-and-paper RPGs: when listing the flaws for a character to show that she is not a Mary Sue (or whatever), are these flaws thrown in just to defeat Mary Sue Litmus Tests? Or do they have a reason to be there in the backstory?

Considering that most OC creators here aren't working with point-buy systems (I think I'm the only one, really), the trick isn't to load the character with enough Tragic Backstory or Personality Flaws to offset the Amazing Power they get; it's whether one can justify that Amazing Power in an interesting manner, without having to resort to "but they've got Angst!"

[Keroko]

Originally Posted by Comartemis

That actually makes sense in a bunch of ways, but there's a few problems with it as well, the biggest one being that kanka is activated or deactivated by the mage and provides a bunch of stat boosts and power-ups, which is why I have it labeled as one of the highest techniques in the Ancient Belkan system, since it's a more-or-less perpetual boost to physical attributes on top of any spells the knight may cast on himself. I'll just borrow Kero's IS for a moment, I'm sure he won't mind if I put it back where I found it...

Spoiler for IS: Silver Retriever:

The working definition that I have going right now is that magic in Negima refers to linked mana and ki is the energy of the body. Kanka is a hybrid energy created by pumping mana directly into one's ki flows in such a way that the two energy sources mix and turn into a new type of energy.

The limitations of this energy are akin to the limitations placed on straight-up ki in Comacanon, namely it can't be projected more than a few meters away from the body (except in special circumstances; Asuna stacks a kanka blast on top of a magic cancellation effect during the battle at the Magic World gate, and Comacanon Asuna can probably pull the same thing off), and using it for extended periods wears out the linker core. Higher ranked knights don't need to worry about the second limit so much as knights with weaker linker cores; Signum, when she was still alive, could hold this technique for hours at a time without even noticing the strain on her LC, but her artificial body doesn't have ki flows so no kanka for her after the BoD assimilates her.

Ironically Kotaro's description of Kanka sounds exactly like magic. Increased physical strength? Yup. Haste? Yup. Physical/magical defence increase? Yup. Resistances? Yup.

[tshouryuu]

Originally Posted by Comartemis

Guilty as charged, though you'd think that a few months of development and doing some level grinding in the Outer Cadian prestige class would've helped erase people's initial impressions of me...

First impressions are very important. Its hard to erase a person's initial perception of you. For example, I had a lousy first impression of ATC and even though he got better (Sorry ATC), I still can't totally erase that negative perception of him.

With Goose, he made a good first impression so even when he isn't as ... err... impressive as before (sorry as well Goose), I still have a positive perception of him (Although when he goes Abare mode, it does test my limits )

Originally Posted by Comartemis

That actually makes sense in a bunch of ways, but there's a few problems with it as well, the biggest one being that kanka is activated or deactivated by the mage and provides a bunch of stat boosts and power-ups, which is why I have it labeled as one of the highest techniques in the Ancient Belkan system, since it's a more-or-less perpetual boost to physical attributes on top of any spells the knight may cast on himself. I'll just borrow Kero's IS for a moment, I'm sure he won't mind if I put it back where I found it...

Spoiler for IS: Silver Retriever:

The working definition that I have going right now is that magic in Negima refers to linked mana and ki is the energy of the body. Kanka is a hybrid energy created by pumping mana directly into one's ki flows in such a way that the two energy sources mix and turn into a new type of energy.

The limitations of this energy are akin to the limitations placed on straight-up ki in Comacanon, namely it can't be projected more than a few meters away from the body (except in special circumstances; Asuna stacks a kanka blast on top of a magic cancellation effect during the battle at the Magic World gate, and Comacanon Asuna can probably pull the same thing off), and using it for extended periods wears out the linker core. Higher ranked knights don't need to worry about the second limit so much as knights with weaker linker cores; Signum, when she was still alive, could hold this technique for hours at a time without even noticing the strain on her LC, but her artificial body doesn't have ki flows so no kanka for her after the BoD assimilates her.

I feel that normal magic use does provide a stat up although for Mid style mages its generate on demand while for Belka style users, its a weak passive ability usually until needed then its a powerful active ability. But that's my view.

Originally Posted by Comartemis

I'd hardly call it a requirement, it's just that with Alex being one of the Aces, I'd like him to have a... signature trait, I guess, that makes him unique within the circle, like Nanoha's beamspam and Hayate's Belkan magic. The last thing I want is for people to look at Alex and say that he's just a clone of one of the other Aces (Fate was my big worry based on their similar mixed-range fighting styles before I revamped Alex's fighting style to have a stronger melee emphasis), so I've designed him to be as different as possible from the others.

About this thing on Aces, I highly suggest you don't do it. Don't label him as one, most OC starts to stink of munchkin/ mary sueness once an author tries to make a character better or as good as the Stronger Canon Cast members.

Currently there are only 2 OCs imo that even deserved to be called an Ace. One would be Keroko because he inserted her (Damn you Keroko for making me start to think of you as a girl even when i know you're a guy) very seemlessly into canon. The other would be Aurion. Main reason would be Hayaurion, 'nuff said