Shattered Kingdoms

The issue I have with secret meetings are they are meant to be secret to the rest of the world not the group itself. If you dont trust the group enough to show your face and its not a major part of your RP(spy), you are probably just there for the skill set. If you want no one to know your of a cabal why are you a part of the cabal?

As for cabal robes in offense. Someone not outlawed moves into a city casts rift or acts as a gate target. A group of robed figures enters moves on room to the Inn then attacks. They can not be outlawed or IDed. It is a risk free attack. They will be no counter attack because no one knows which PCs attacked. There is already two cabals who have similar abilities people [REDACTED] about them often enough. Dont give it to all cabals.

Also another problem with cabal robe is spirit sight and who list with locate corpse. IDing dead people. Even Rez and locate corpse can be used to some degree.

I'm not a big fan of robes preventing me from seeing what someone is wearing. How am I supposed to judge someone's class and/or power if I can't see what they are wearing? If all I see is a robe, it could be a weak-ass scout or a bad-ass merc. I don't use the 'consider' command, just because it doesn't work as well as a good look at someone's kit.

Not a fan here, just because of that.

Some ideas:
- The 'peek' ability allows you to check out what's under a robe.
- The state of being cloaked applies a penalty, perhaps to dexterity.
- Getting into a fight forces you throw back your cloak.

Others?

How about a certain less-than-almighty fighting style while under robes? For instance, while you're wearing robes, you'd be forced to fight a losing battle, trying just to get away, whereas when you throw open your robe, you can adopt your full-fledged awesome noobness. This way, you could maybe backstab somebody, then run away, all under a robe, but you couldn't exactly tank.

There are some important concerns about the “cabal robe” skill. But I’m not a fan of the peek or getting your cloak thrown back suggestions. With peek showing what one is wearing, that person could deduce who is wearing the robe. It just seems way too easy of a way to discover a secret member of a cabal. With throwing the robe back, all one has to do is attack a robed figure and they then know that person is a member of XYZ cabal. Again, it seems way too easy to discover the identity of one wearing the robe.

The main purpose of the robe is so that a member or members can meet with another character as a representative of XYZ cabal without revealing themselves. This is not just for inductions, but when a non-member wishes to meet with a member for any reason. The issues that have been brought up mainly deal with using the robes in an offensive manner. Therefore, the solution should be one that offers maximum anonymity to the wearer so long as they don’t provoke combat or prevent them from wanting to engage in combat while wearing.

I suggest that wearing the robes cause some negative effect so that it wouldn’t be advisable to wear them for PK purposes. Possible solutions: penalty to attributes, penalty to skills, all enchantments are set to 0, penalty to AC, penalty to MP, penalty to saves, cancels/prevents any buffs, all combat related movement takes 10X pe (or whatever), casting has X% chance of targeting an ally/foe (spell dependant), not allowed to hold anything in hands, adds to opponents art score, etc.

Personally, I think it would a killer scene to see a group of anonymous robed figures show up and do what needed to be done. But I recognize that abuse in such a situation is far too easy. I don’t want to see the possibility eliminated, just made so it is highly unlikely.

Lei Kung

How about robes working only in a cabal HQ, as has been suggested? I don't mind defenders having another bonus there. Outside, the tactical advantages seem to be getting a bit out of control.

There's also the roleplay aspect. It's nice to know who the heck just attacked you, so you can send them a tell when you escape or come back to life. Further, secrecy is a great reason why they shouldn't send you a tell instead.

Besides, if you're going limit combat in robes, what are they really good for outside of group meetings? You couldn't mask cabal powers.

I forgot about HQ defense. So long as CRS is on cabals, when defending HQs, members should suffer no ill effect from wearing the robes. But I don't think they should be limited to HQs. There are times when a non-member needs to meet with a represenative but the cabal doesn't want to reveal any member's identities. Here I suggest some affect that would dissuade the robe wearer from taking aggressive action.

Lei Kung

Most of my suggestions about cloaks/robes are in the context that this would be a command that would be available to anyone wearing a qualifying cloak/robe (flagged as being a long flowing garment).

This command would just cover the physical possibility that you covered yourself with a cloth. That means no special magical defenses and any penalties associated with it ought to make mundane sense (aka -DEX).

To deal with cabal secrecy in particular, other measures would need to be added specifically to them. Perhaps some sort of protection from divination spells ability that is activated when they are in their HQ.

But I'd rather flesh out the details of how an ordinary cloak would work first.

Oh, sorry I didn't realize you were talking about robes for the average joe. In that case I think what you listed works. So the only real possitive affect would be to cover your items and if hooded your description right?

Lei Kung

This would be GREAT for assassin stuff.