Oli!

Casts would probably be one "turn" similar to standard combat, just for the sake of keeping things moving since fights have a tendency to take a while. For managing power, I suppose something like "these wards will nerf your boom-boom to [convenient fraction] of their power for the sake of not killing each other." That, compared with some clever objective that doesn't involve simply burninating the other person could make for something clever. Regarding Robots: I might look into a way to see if this can work as well. It sounds a bit complex, but this is just the brainstorming stage, so there might be a way to make it work, or at least take parts from it for something new!

I was thinking about that sort of problem, and the solution that I came up with was including some sort of objective other than "KO the other guy." Maybe something more clever, like "destroy this thing they're protecting," or "knock this guy off these platforms onto the floor." One of the more developed ideas I had was somewhat reminiscent of one-on-one pro-bending with nothing but ring-knockouts. Manawards / Protection Spells would probably be a thing too, to prevent people from getting auto-fried. As for skill-levels, that would probably be the sort of thing that would have to be balanced by a roll-system, like what the Grindstone does at the moment. There are fighters of varying talents there as well, and (as far as I can tell) the roll system they use hasn't drawn too many serious complaints. At least not public ones, anyway.

Oliwat is a pretty cool guy who also does the magic thing. He'd be down with talking with your Thaumaturge.

...and would give one a reason for flanchard and full-suit armors. Those things are bog-ugly, but certainly would fit that whole "animated armor" idea reasonably well. Also true, there are some armor sets that are very accommodating to this idea. Heck, if you don't want the idea, I might take it myself!

Well, the other thing that came to mind is that there are instances of souls getting bound to armor Alphonse Elric style. I think one of the first party-content bosses is one of those, actually. It's not exactly a robot, but it's pretty close and actually in the game. It could be an interesting work-around to consider.

I'd bring up Mammets, who seem to possess at least a rudimentary amount of intelligence (Gigi of the Goldsmiths' Guild especially, who might even have feelings depending on how you interpret their actions), but even then they are flawed, and markedly unrealistic in terms of appearance and operation. On a tangential note, however, I would be one to argue that if you're absolutely sure that being a robot is required in order for the character to be interesting, then you might be going about their development and implementation wrong. I'd look at what you're looking to explore in that character, and then see if there are alternative ways of exploring that path that are more cohesive with the game's environment. If you were to supply information along those lines, I'm sure that people here could even help you with it! EDIT: Additional information regarding Gigi (spoilered because...Spoilers):

So this idea came up in RP today. The Grindstone, as of now, is purely technical fighting. No flashy-flashy boom-boom to be found on tournament grounds. Of course, this leaves the other half of the class system out of the loop, unless they happen to double up as fist-fighters or blade-wielders or anything else that involves physical punishment to the face. That got me wondering whether or not people on the more mystical side of things would want a similar type of competition for their characters. I have no idea how many people are or would be interested in this sort of thing. For all I know, there could already be something similar in place, or there isn't enough people to make something like this work. If some interest does end up being shown, I'd have to do a lot of brainstorming, since any ideas are purely preliminary at the moment. I'd also probably have to track down some of the people more familiar with the inner workings of the Grindstone in order to make something happen. So, let's start with an interest check. Would anyone want to see something like this, and if so, do they have any ideas for it?

If you need a healer from time to time, I have a guy that might be able to help every so often.

Well, evidently overdosing on aether is actually going to make you sick (assuming aether sickness is actually a thing and not something the guys made up to protect Echo users). And assuming that is true, then actually controlling a huge amount of aether requires some form of training and/or natural aptitude to avoid said sickness. BAD TRIP MAN BAD TRIP

Oli would be this guy, only wearing a wizard hat. This picture is the most adorable.

Miqo'te are NOT the "acute hearing" race. They have a stronger sense of smell but it's the Elezen you go to for sensitive ears. And the Plainsfolk Lalafell, thank you very much. No one ever remembers us. The struggle is real. ;~;

Oh, well then I guess I'll just go ahead and CANCEL THAT BLACK MAGE FIREWORKS SHOW THANKS ERIK

This sort of advice certainly isn't for everyone (I'm big on whimsy), but from time to time, I've found that people tend to lose their touch with characters because they're taking them too seriously, or they're super hung-up on only one facet of their characterization or personality. Do something silly with them. Go on a misadventure. Or, if that's not that character's style, look for characters to interact with that serve as a foil for them, or make a character to contrast them yourself.

10/10, would pay large amounts of money that I do not actually have for a chatbox.

I don't think anyone would look down upon something like this, but considering it's a super specific event for a super specific group of people, others might have a hard time joining in in any way besides being an NPC (which lots of people don't like to do). Maybe reformatting it slightly to make it a little more open could bring in more participants? Either way, I don't actually have any characters that fit what you're looking for here, but best of luck to you anyway! Consider this a bump for the cause.

Sounds good to me! Next time I pop into the game, I'll slot you onto my friend's list and we can talk.

That sounds 100% excellent and I would be totally happy to do that! What times are you usually around?

Yep! Managed to force it open a few times, which isn't a very good way of doing things. I like the sound of that steeplefingers though.

So, I have a character (parts of that profile are WAY outdated but the basic bits are the same) that's only just starting to come to terms with her Chakra and what it means to be a fighter. Due to fear, a lack of control, and low self-esteem, she's pretty sure that this isn't something that she can do all by herself. She's a wandering fighter at the moment, but lacks a sense of purpose or personal direction at the moment. As a result, she needs a mentor to teach her a few things and perhaps inspire a bit of proper fighting spirit. Her technique is technically sound for the most part, but she lacks the confidence to carry her movements through. Anything involving Chakra is also highly destructive at the moment, especially to herself, since that ability hasn't been refined. OOCly, she's level 32 at the moment. I'm generally around in the CST evenings, but I tend to keep weird hours (read: I pull frequent all-nighters because I don't know how sleep works). If I'm not on Adalhaid, I can also be found on Oliwat Kokiwat if I need to be contacted in-game. If anyone is interested and has a character that they would like a student for, post below, and maybe we can work something out!

WELCOME TO TOLD CITY POPULATION: YOU Also sleeping is for amateurs and losers.

Chugging a bunch of it in consumable form is implied to get you really high, so I'd say around that point you've probably had enou-- Oh. Oh that's not what you meant. Well. Personally, I feel there's a difference between taking something in the game-world that seems impossible and explaining it with a magical in-game force, and going, "oh, I need this hitherto-unknown Weird / Rare / Special Thing for X-Reason. Aether can make this thing a thing, right? Right." One is just coming up with an explanation for a thing that we don't know about. The other one smells more like taking a short-cut through provided information instead of trying to work with it.

...Until you skewer them with a giant ice spike placed directly where you were standing a few seconds ago. TEAM BLACK MAGE WINS AGAIN YOU CANNOT STOP US

I abide by the Exalted rules of superpowered combat: Perfect defenses trump perfect attacks, full stop. Unless you apply the rule of 'get one's ass beaten one-sidedly until someone talks about the power of friendship'... Shoot. You've cracked Chachan's battle plan. Abort, ABORT. FOOL YOU DON'T ABORT IN THIS SITUATION, THAT'S WHAT HAX ARE FOR WHAT KIND OF MASTERMIND ARE YOU

I guess it's more of a desire as opposed to something to be or a thing to do, but my highlander gal has a secret desire to grow her hair out and put on a dress and be SUPER PRETTY for a day. But she has no real reason to do that so she doesn't.

Letter from the Editor Why hello Wanderers! I would certainly hope you haven't forgotten about me! Yes, yes, I know, it's been quite a long time, I'm sure. But I assure you that I had a very good reason to suddenly cease the updates! You see, I had a rather nasty run-in with a Coblyn, which, through a series of strange happenings, managed to result in a rather nasty sprained wrist. And if that were not bad enough, the sprain was inflicted upon my one and only writing arm! Awful! But how could something as simple as a sprain persist for nearly a year, you ask? Well, I will have you know that it was an absolutely awful sprain, which managed to remain despite my best efforts at Conjury! I in fact got to thinking, perhaps it was not a sprain at all! An anti-writing curse, perhaps? I shall investigate! Nevertheless, in recent times I have been compiling great amounts of interesting facts, and have been thinking of many ways to streamline what is perhaps a rather unruly set of writings. One such idea is a supplementary guide, which I am the moment calling the Rattlepack Bestiary, which should serve to shorten the bits on beasts included in the current work. As always, one and many are always welcome to contribute to the project with submissions of their own! It would certainly make my life much easier, at the very least. At any rate, the next time you see a letter of mine, it will no doubt be denoting some update or progress in regards to the Rattlepack Guide! Eorzea waits for no man, after all, and although it hasn't seem to have changed much since my most recent record, I must confess that I haven't been very busy lately. It was the wrist-sprain, I swear! As always, Oliwat Kokiwat, The Very Last of the Rattlepacks.