As I mentioned in another thread, I'm a fan of psionics (especially Dreamscarred Press' adaptation), and a theme that both psionics and Final Fantasy have in common is a focus on crystals. One of my favorite aspects was the idea of having crystals for weapons and armor, and being able to enhance them by spending power points on them, which is a reasonably effective option in certain circumstances, and with how MP works in this game, it's a great way to make having crystal gear be more than just something that looks fancy.
The rules I'm thinking of are thus:
Throughout the world, there are many kinds of crystals that can be harvested from various places, and they typically have some small amount of magical essence in them, and some even have elemental affinities. There is a certain grade of crystal from which weapons and armor, strong as steel, can be made, and though it is rare, those who have a pool of mana to draw from can use them with startling effectiveness. The power and rarity of these crystals vary, and are commonly divided into three groups: elemental, divine, and cosmic.
The primary function of the crystal depends upon whether it is used to make armor or weaponry. Through a crystal weapon, a character with an MP pool may spend MP to add damage to their attacks as a free action. For each MP spent, 1d6 of the element that the crystal weapon is attuned to is added to the damage of the attack; no more than half of the character's HD may be spent on any single attack. The additional damage lasts either for one minute or until an attack is made. Regardless of whether the attack hits or misses, the damage is spent upon making an attack roll; expenditure of more points may be used for additional attacks, but each attack must have MP expended for each attack it is going to be applied to. Ranged weapons have crystals embedded in them, and bestow the damage upon their ammunition. Ammunition made of crystal may be charged as normal, but it is destroyed after the attack, whether it hits or not.
Crystal armor, on the other hand, offers greater protection at the cost of MP. For each point of MP spent as an immediate action, the wearer can negate two points of damage from the element that the crystal is attuned to would be strong against (for example, wearing earth crystal armor and spending five MP would negate ten points of lightning damage) for one round. As with crystal weapons, the user may only spend as many MP at one time as half of their HD. Divine crystal armor can function against both holy and shadow damage, and cosmic crystal armor functions against all elements; it may even negate non-elemental damage, but two MP must be spent for each point of non-elemental damage that is negated. Shields made of crystal are treated as armor, and may be of a different type than the armor worn, although tower shields may not be made of crystal.
Regardless of whether the crystal is fashioned into armor, shields, or weaponry, the crystal's abilities overlap with any other abilities in the equipment or innate abilities of the user that are of the same element (for example, spending 1 MP on a Fire crystal weapon with a level 3 Fire materia in it does not give you +3d6 fire damage, and you must still spend 3 MP to get ice resistance 6 from your Ice crystal armor, and it won't stack with your natural ice resistance 5 to give you ice resistance 11).
Crystal equipment also interacts curiously with materia; putting materia that is associated with an element that the crystal's element would either be strong or weak against, e.g. putting Water or Earth materia in a Lightning crystal weapon, doubles the MP cost when using the crystal's abilities due to the clashing energies. Materia of the same element as the crystal initially has no effect upon the equipment, but activation of the crystal's abilities with the materia in it will give the equipment the broken condition. Using the crystal's abilities when the equipment has the broken condition destroys the item instead. Cosmic crystal is the only variety that is exempt from this limitation.
Sources of supernatural energy of other kinds offered by the wielder's class may also be used to power crystal equipment. These typically provide greater bonuses than the expenditure of MP, but the effects are still limited by level, e.g. a 4th-level red mage who spends 1 point from their arcane pool on a wind crystal longsword will still only get 2d6 wind damage on their next attack, regardless of how much an arcane point would normally grant.
- Uses per day from an arcane pool, channel energy, dark pool, harm touch, holy pool, and lay on hands ability count as 4 MP, but the dark pool and harm touch abilities can only power earth, water, wind, and shadow crystal, while the holy pool and lay on hands can only power fire, ice, lightning, and holy crystal. Channeling positive energy powers fire, ice, lightning, holy, and cosmic crystal, while channeling negative energy powers earth, water, wind, shadow, and cosmic crystal.
-Uses per day from an arcane reservoir, ki pool, motes of time, and veil pool count as 3 MP.
-Points from an animus pool count as 2 MP.
Crystals may be attuned only to one element, which is determined upon finding it. All crystal equipment is considered masterwork; this is included in the extra cost. The normal additional cost for a weapon is used for twenty pieces of ammunition.
Elemental crystals: Fire, Ice, Wind, Earth, Lightning, and Water.
Divine crystals: Holy and Shadow.
Cosmic crystals: Non-elemental.
Weapons: +1,000 gil (elemental), +2,000 gil (divine), +3,000 gil (cosmic).
Armor: +500 gil (light), +1,000 gil (medium), +1,500 gil (heavy), +1,000 (shield); +2,000 gil (elemental), +4,000 gil (divine), +6,000 (cosmic).
Crystal has 30 hit points per inch of thickness and a hardness of 10.
The rules I'm thinking of are thus:
Throughout the world, there are many kinds of crystals that can be harvested from various places, and they typically have some small amount of magical essence in them, and some even have elemental affinities. There is a certain grade of crystal from which weapons and armor, strong as steel, can be made, and though it is rare, those who have a pool of mana to draw from can use them with startling effectiveness. The power and rarity of these crystals vary, and are commonly divided into three groups: elemental, divine, and cosmic.
The primary function of the crystal depends upon whether it is used to make armor or weaponry. Through a crystal weapon, a character with an MP pool may spend MP to add damage to their attacks as a free action. For each MP spent, 1d6 of the element that the crystal weapon is attuned to is added to the damage of the attack; no more than half of the character's HD may be spent on any single attack. The additional damage lasts either for one minute or until an attack is made. Regardless of whether the attack hits or misses, the damage is spent upon making an attack roll; expenditure of more points may be used for additional attacks, but each attack must have MP expended for each attack it is going to be applied to. Ranged weapons have crystals embedded in them, and bestow the damage upon their ammunition. Ammunition made of crystal may be charged as normal, but it is destroyed after the attack, whether it hits or not.
Crystal armor, on the other hand, offers greater protection at the cost of MP. For each point of MP spent as an immediate action, the wearer can negate two points of damage from the element that the crystal is attuned to would be strong against (for example, wearing earth crystal armor and spending five MP would negate ten points of lightning damage) for one round. As with crystal weapons, the user may only spend as many MP at one time as half of their HD. Divine crystal armor can function against both holy and shadow damage, and cosmic crystal armor functions against all elements; it may even negate non-elemental damage, but two MP must be spent for each point of non-elemental damage that is negated. Shields made of crystal are treated as armor, and may be of a different type than the armor worn, although tower shields may not be made of crystal.
Regardless of whether the crystal is fashioned into armor, shields, or weaponry, the crystal's abilities overlap with any other abilities in the equipment or innate abilities of the user that are of the same element (for example, spending 1 MP on a Fire crystal weapon with a level 3 Fire materia in it does not give you +3d6 fire damage, and you must still spend 3 MP to get ice resistance 6 from your Ice crystal armor, and it won't stack with your natural ice resistance 5 to give you ice resistance 11).
Crystal equipment also interacts curiously with materia; putting materia that is associated with an element that the crystal's element would either be strong or weak against, e.g. putting Water or Earth materia in a Lightning crystal weapon, doubles the MP cost when using the crystal's abilities due to the clashing energies. Materia of the same element as the crystal initially has no effect upon the equipment, but activation of the crystal's abilities with the materia in it will give the equipment the broken condition. Using the crystal's abilities when the equipment has the broken condition destroys the item instead. Cosmic crystal is the only variety that is exempt from this limitation.
Sources of supernatural energy of other kinds offered by the wielder's class may also be used to power crystal equipment. These typically provide greater bonuses than the expenditure of MP, but the effects are still limited by level, e.g. a 4th-level red mage who spends 1 point from their arcane pool on a wind crystal longsword will still only get 2d6 wind damage on their next attack, regardless of how much an arcane point would normally grant.
- Uses per day from an arcane pool, channel energy, dark pool, harm touch, holy pool, and lay on hands ability count as 4 MP, but the dark pool and harm touch abilities can only power earth, water, wind, and shadow crystal, while the holy pool and lay on hands can only power fire, ice, lightning, and holy crystal. Channeling positive energy powers fire, ice, lightning, holy, and cosmic crystal, while channeling negative energy powers earth, water, wind, shadow, and cosmic crystal.
-Uses per day from an arcane reservoir, ki pool, motes of time, and veil pool count as 3 MP.
-Points from an animus pool count as 2 MP.
Crystals may be attuned only to one element, which is determined upon finding it. All crystal equipment is considered masterwork; this is included in the extra cost. The normal additional cost for a weapon is used for twenty pieces of ammunition.
Elemental crystals: Fire, Ice, Wind, Earth, Lightning, and Water.
Divine crystals: Holy and Shadow.
Cosmic crystals: Non-elemental.
Weapons: +1,000 gil (elemental), +2,000 gil (divine), +3,000 gil (cosmic).
Armor: +500 gil (light), +1,000 gil (medium), +1,500 gil (heavy), +1,000 (shield); +2,000 gil (elemental), +4,000 gil (divine), +6,000 (cosmic).
Crystal has 30 hit points per inch of thickness and a hardness of 10.