Talk:Heat Point

It should be noted that the ability to concentrate heat on a specific spot depends a great deal on your ability to mentally focus on that precise point. That is, while it is theoretically possible for the psion to torch ships the moment the sails appear over the horizon, being able to properly focus on the pinpoint necessary for combustion is much more difficult in practice. Sails are immense and inherently (if the ship is moving) flapping in the breeze. Concentrating heat on a very tiny spot may not be possible if the entire space in question is larger than your house, and appears as only a tiny pale space in the distance.

Heat point is like taking a punk ember or blown-out match head to something. To put it another way, heat point brings thermal energy into a space the size of a period at the end of a sentence. If the object you are trying to burn is so far away that you couldn't read said sentence unless the font was so large that the periods would be larger than dinner plates, then you won't be able to focus energy tight enough to burn anything.
 * <span style="background-image: -o-linear-gradient(left, silver, black); background:-webkit-gradient(linear, left top, right top, from(silver), to(black)); background:-moz-linear-gradient(left, darkred, silver, black, black); color:blue; border:4px ridge; border-color:black black red red; border-radius:2em 2em 2em 10em; text-shadow: -22px -9px 15px yellow, 0px -1px 2px rgb(255, 255, 0), 0px -3px 3px rgb(255, 204, 0), 0px -5px 4px rgb(255, 153, 0), -2px -7px 5px rgb(255, 102, 0), -2px -9px 6px rgb(255, 51, 0), -3px -11px 7px rgb(255, 0, 0); " >    ————Golgotha—Kinslayer—  &#9760;  || || || ||

This fire is raging out of control
This skill has gotten a bit out of hand. The original intent was for this skill to replicate the effects of a still-hot match head after it's been blown out. That is, you can start a fire with it, but it's not quick or simple. I'd also like to retain the knockout effect, possibly only in combination with anatomy as a power stunt/combo.

What I should probably do is make this a basic skill—using the first level benchmarks—and cut out references to actual temperatures. We might could later make a (toned down) separate skill to heat things up. A revised write-up would be much smaller. I still have the original problem of wanting to limit the effectiveness over distance. That is, heat point is great for (eventually) burning through an enemy's bowstring if they're close enough, but not at said bow's maximum range, since you wouldn't be able to see it enough to focus on it.

Thoughts?


 * <span style="background-image: -o-linear-gradient(left, silver, black); background:-webkit-gradient(linear, left top, right top, from(silver), to(black)); background:-moz-linear-gradient(left, darkred, silver, black, black); color:blue; border:4px ridge; border-color:black black red red; border-radius:2em 2em 2em 10em; text-shadow: -22px -9px 15px yellow, 0px -1px 2px rgb(255, 255, 0), 0px -3px 3px rgb(255, 204, 0), 0px -5px 4px rgb(255, 153, 0), -2px -7px 5px rgb(255, 102, 0), -2px -9px 6px rgb(255, 51, 0), -3px -11px 7px rgb(255, 0, 0); " >    ————Golgotha—Kinslayer—  &#9760;  || || || ||