Tattoos/saved posts

Category: GemStone IV Announcements
Topic: Important Announcements
Message #: 3615
Author: GS4-Oscuro
Date: 06/12/2020 03:01 PM
Subject: Monk TATTOO Ability

The TATTOO verb has been released. With it, any player can view their TATTOO INVENTORY and a TATTOO MENU of flash tattoos available.

Monks of at least level 20 are able to ink mundane tattoos from the TATTOO MENU upon themselves and others. The process requires a Monk own a tattooist's needle and ink. These can be found at your local alchemist's shop. A needle costs 2k silver, and ink costs 50k silver per dose. Ink can be POURed into other ink to combine up to 10 doses.

Monks can enhance non-special tattoos into Mystic Tattoos. Mystic Tattoos have 5 circles (a.k.a. tiers), with each circle providing +1 stat bonus (i.e. +2 stat base) of your choice (but the stat selection is locked in when first applied). Making these requires earning Motes of Tranquility by absorbing experience (via an exp pulse or offline exp absorption). Experience absorption modifiers such as Gift of Lumnis and RPAs apply, but instant exp absorption such as BOOST ABSORB or Rings of Lumnis brooches do not. There is a weekly cap of 50,000 Motes of Tranquility and a total cap of 200,000. It takes 50,000/75,000/100,000/125,000/150,000 Motes of Tranquility to reach circle 1/2/3/4/5. Thus, to go from a mundane tattoo to a Mystic Tattoo of the fifth circle requires 10 weeks of capped Motes of Tranquility. Current Motes of Tranquility are displayed using TATTOO (in character description) or RESOURCE (numerical readout).

A Mystic Tattoo is a normal, non-crumbly enhancive with 100 charges, but can only be recharged by a Monk. A character may only have one Mystic Tattoo at a time. There is a skill check based upon expected monk training, such that the circles are achievable around levels 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100. Each also costs ink doses equal to the circle. Failure to create a Mystic Tattoo results in a loss of 10% of the required Motes and one dose of ink. Monks automatically recharge Mystic Tattoos every time they upgrade the tattoo; also they can charge them at a cost of 1000 Motes of Tranquility per charge. Note that a typical 100-charge enhancive lasts a very long time. For comparison, Premium Point enhancives have 200 charges and often last most players many years before needing to be recharged.

Success factors for the skill check for TATTOOing are Monk level, Dexterity bonus, Discipline bonus, Physical Fitness ranks, First Aid ranks, Minor Mental and Minor Spiritual spell ranks, Arcane Symbols ranks, Mental and Spiritual Mana Control ranks, Mental Lore, Transformation skill bonus (when applying a tattoo to yourself) and Mental Lore, Telepathy (when applying a tattoo to others). The circle of the mystic tattoo, injuries, and low spirit apply penalties to the skill check. The Gift of Eonak crafting roll applies to these checks.

GameMaster Oscuro

Discord discussion:

Oscuro 05/21/2020

Lore uses skill bonus in the Mystic Tattoo skill check, so it's more useful than any other skill for a bit.

Shield 07/10/2020 at 1:19 PM

This is all from Oscuru. Comments are given in-order. I copied all from Discord.

Success factors for the skill check for TATTOOing are Monk level, Dexterity bonus, Discipline bonus, Physical Fitness ranks, First Aid ranks, Minor Mental and Minor Spiritual spell ranks, Arcane Symbols ranks, Mental and Spiritual Mana Control ranks, Mental Lore, Transformation skill bonus (when applying a tattoo to yourself) and Mental Lore, Telepathy (when applying a tattoo to others). The circle of the mystic tattoo, injuries, and low spirit apply penalties to the skill check. The Gift of Eonak crafting roll applies to these checks.

Lore is the most TP efficient approach.

Ideal is shoving as much as you can into lore, but that's not a typical build.

The skill ranks aren't equally weighted, but you can probably guess a lot of the weights based off the TP costs. Like spell ranks is weighted twice as much as MCs and Arcane Symbols, which is higher than PF, which is higher than First Aid.

I think we estimated a typical Monk build at 2x PF, 0.5x FA, 0.33x spells, 0.25x lore and 0x the rest.

With that, a typical monk will have > 60% to do each of 1/2/3/4/5 at 20/40/60/80/100.

But that training is very much a minimum

You can kick your lore, or PF up to 3x or add in some MC or something if you want to tat earlier.

Oscuro 07/10/2020 at 1:51 PM

Monk Level + 2*DEX bonus + 2*DIS bonus + PF ranks*3/4 + FA ranks/2 + 2*spell ranks + AS ranks + MMC/SMC ranks + Lore skill bonus - 100 * (circle of tattoo) + d100 > 100, for success.