| Faolán Maiali the Azure Abjurer |
Universal Spell Bus is intended to allow the Viper technomancer to be able to cast spell gems and chips without holding them.
Overclock Gear states that you must be holding, wielding, or wearing the target (i.e. a spell gem or spell chip) in order to overclock it.
Viper's Overclock Pulse (Overclock Spell Gear), states you use Universal Spell Bus, and if you then Cast a Spell from an overclocked item, you can Overclock Gear as a free action after the spell resolves.
I believe what's intended is that the viper is meant to be able to Overclock a stowed spell gem/chip, in order to maintain a loop of overclocking a spell gem/chip, casting it, the overclocking a different one to repeat the process. Basically an action economy saver in order to incentivize the subclasses core gimmick by eliminating the need to retrieve stowed gems/chips.
If it doesn't function that way, then the way the Overclock Pulse is written is meaningless. You're already holding the overclocked gear (since you needed to hold it to overclock it in the first place). Using Universal Spell Bus has the same action cost as the Overclock Pulse, so if you use the Overclock Pulse to cast a stowed gem, then the effect is the same as just using Universal Spell Bus. Lastly, if you can't Overclock a stowed gem/chip as a result of the Overclock Pulse, then you must already be holding another spell gem in order to Overclock it, meaning you had to spend time retrieving it beforehand.
Is my analysis correct?
If so, then the Viper needs an errata/clarification, ideally under Firmware Enhancement that simply adds the sentence. "When using Overclock Gear to overclock a spell chip or spell gem, you don't have to be holding the item."
Zoken44
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You have missed a very important point, which admittedly others like myself have missed in the opposite way. to overclock you must be holding, wielding, or WEARING the target. so all you need to do is keep your spell gems in a bandolier or other container that suitably counts as "wearing" them. This is likely the intended method as it requires no re-writes on either side. I will admit I missed the need to be holding wielding or wearing in order to overclock, but like I said, so long as they can suitably be described as "worn" then there is no problem, and bandoliers count as basic containers.
| Xenocrat |
I believe what's intended is that the viper is meant to be able to Overclock a stowed spell gem/chip, in order to maintain a loop of overclocking a spell gem/chip, casting it, the overclocking a different one to repeat the process. Basically an action economy saver in order to incentivize the subclasses core gimmick by eliminating the need to retrieve stowed gems/chips.
I agree with Zoken's answer above, but I also want to note that the main loop isn't just about allowing you to be constantly overclocked throughout a battle to save actions, it allows you to save spell slots because it's the only way to overclock without using a real slot - you can just churn spell gems or spell chips and leave your slots alone.
All other programming languages can only overclock every odd round (1st, 3rd, 5th, etc) at best, and they also have to spend multiple slotted spells to do that. The Viper doesn't, it can get by on one per combat if it has gems/chips to spare (and with the dynamic frequency scaling feat it can use a held chip and jailbreak to get double use out of those).