It came up in the welcome thread, but I felt like it might merit its own thread.
The suggestion suggested the same thing I thought of immediately, why can't an invention explode and be powered by electricity as an option instead of by fire? They also mentioned acid, which occurred to me might be something driven by a connection to the elemental plane of earth, and would that mean that some construct driven by the elemental plane of water might have the potential do cold damage explosions?
The last one for me is harder to imagine, but I think for more science related issues than ones that would be relevant to Golarion. But it made me even consider, although RARE options, I could imagine even constructs that might even be driven by Positive or Negative energies. What if Frankenstien was an Inventor and he managed to (thinking he was using just lightning) had actually created a construct built of organic components, that was powered by a bolt of positive energy that connected it to the positive energy plane?
Not that NPCs need to have representation in classes, but I could see tons of options for enemy Inventors whom aren't magicians but are building an army of negative fed constructs that some people might mistake for true undead.
At present, we have the base power produced by the innovation being fire, and have a couple options that can produce lighting, but would it be better to allow more variance on what energies you can choose? Potentially provide a bonus if you choose a special attack with the same type of energy (a synergy) bonus, but allow someone to pick other energies as well.
So you could have an electrically charged construct or armor, and have an ability to produce a fan of fire instead of a lighting bolt. Or be able to spray a line of corrosive fluid. At higher levels you might unlock access to additional energies to pick for your chosen attack feats. (even things like positive or negative, for instance)
I wish we had more choice in the damage type and shape of the explosion, and I'd be happu to pay feats for it.
Like, my ranged weapon innovation user wants nothing to do with an emanation, but I'd LOVE a cone for like a weird shotgun effect, and absolutely would put a low level feat to get it.
I think explode's typing could be handled by an offensive boost type deal, where you have to retrain it like a modification, but I can see justification for most damage types:
Fire: like, duh
Electric: for when you leave steam and dieselpunk and went to testapunk. Or you nabbed it from Numerian ruins
Cold: you vent coolent or pressurized gas. Propane can actually give you frostbite when it leaks irl
Acid: you're innovation uses stong lubricants that react aggressively with flesh. Alternatively, battery acid or corrosive fuel. Irl, there are plenty of lubricants that will damage your flesh if you touch it. Maybe not as aggressively as you melt into a pool of goo in 4 seconds, but we are talking mad science here.
Any physical: your innovation is clockwork, and your explode is shrapnel from gears and springs flying out. Crushing can be a concussive traditional explosion vs a fiery one.
Otherworldly types, like alignment damage, positive/negative and the like might be cool to be available through feats, to represent truly WEIRD science like Frankenstein's mecha powered by negative energy and quack science, devotees to Torag, who's high tech hammer is powered partly by their diety's blessing of Law and Good, or a strange take on van helsing, who hunts undead with a robot buddy who is immune to turning, and explodes by splashing positive energy infused water
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I wish we had more choice in the damage type and shape of the explosion, and I'd be happu to pay feats for it.
Like, my ranged weapon innovation user wants nothing to do with an emanation, but I'd LOVE a cone for like a weird shotgun effect, and absolutely would put a low level feat to get it.
I agree with the shape: I found more times than not emanation wasn't feasible. I'd like to see an option to shape it into a cone or line instead to #1 allow a ranged option and #2 avoid hitting friendlies [such as other melee characters].
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Pretty easy change would be to allow the damage type to be the same as your Offensive Boost once you get that.
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I think Line starts to step on Megavolt's toes though.I agree with the shape: I found more times than not emanation wasn't feasible. I'd like to see an option to shape it into a cone or line instead to #1 allow a ranged option and #2 avoid hitting friendlies [such as other melee characters].I wish we had more choice in the damage type and shape of the explosion, and I'd be happu to pay feats for it.
Like, my ranged weapon innovation user wants nothing to do with an emanation, but I'd LOVE a cone for like a weird shotgun effect, and absolutely would put a low level feat to get it.
Would it have to though? Say the line option was 20' [30'-40' with upgrades] while megavolt starts at 60' [90'-120' with upgrades]. Megavolt seems it has a definite long range option this way and not, IMO, stepping on any toes. Now lets say the option to shape explosion was a feat: can you say the shape feat was better that megavolt? To me, it seems different enough to stand on it's own, especially if you can opt for a cone [say 15' start] or the line to fill in some close range options while megavolt fills in for long ranged.