Because NEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDD
Right, as part of the crossover fanfic I’ve been working on, I’ve struggled to figure out a way to convert Servant stats into something easier to work with as well as equivalents in other universes to ensure that characters stayed within their limits as well as get an idea what they could do.
It ended up being a very rough game system, and because I thought someone else might get some use out of this or at least find it amusing, and hell, any help in fleshing this out would be amazing as well as how to convert other series or systems towards it. I’m going to add more as I figure out how to convert them or codify the conversions I already have.
Conversion Notes:
I’m converting to a significantly modified Pathfinder / D&D system because it A). Has the most detail and granularity of the systems that I’m familiar with and B). The conversion is surprisingly and delightfully easy, though not perfect.
Usually, using the starting health of an NPC or level 1 character with baseline stats to determine lethality, and then determining weapon strength from their damage compared to that baseline health. Core stats seem best determined by starting with the Carrying Capacity and converting between those to get a conversion rate, and then expanding it to the other traits.
Alterantively, one can assume that the maximum, unaugmented level a human can reach as well as the ‘average’, and then compare that to the max stats and base stats of characters, taking into account any magic, Ki, or other things that would allow a person to exceed the normal cap. Then getting a conversion factor based on lining up the base and max levels.
Servant Parameter Conversion
Traits:
As a general rule, I’m treating traits as such, remembering that a “+” means that the trait can situationally be increased to up to twice the original rating:
E- = 0 – 9
E = 10 – 19
D = 20 – 29
C = 30 – 39
B = 40 – 49
A = 50 – 59
Strength:
Strength rating is determined as per the Strength Bonus of Dungeons & Dragons 3 / Pathfinder.
This works out surprisingly well when compared to the demonstrated effects of high strength. Remembering that each +1 represents another point of damage for melee attacks and the usual HP and DR of items in the Pathfinder/D&D systems, this reasonably approximates what Servants seem to do with their given Strength Rating and without weapons.
Assuming he wasn’t being Mad Enhanced at the time, during the Graveyard portion of F/SN Berserker vs Archer vs Saber, Berserker has B+ rank strength. Stone has a DR of 8 and 15 hp per inch. That means that smashing through a gravestone would subtract ~25 - 40 from Berserkers strength, bringing it into the realm of Sabers B rank strength. Additionally, using Saber as a missile and assuming equal damage between Saber and the statue, 80 – 100 damage is reasonable to destroy it.
This is also allows F/Z Berserker to punch holes in things like the modern jet to rip things out. Given that iron or steel has a DR of 10 and ~30 HP per inch, even though the fighter jets’ armor would have better DR than that, Berserkers A rank strength of 50 – 59 would still reasonably punch through it even without assuming the damage his hand itself would do (negligible under Pathfinder rules).
Additionally, if a person starts with 18 or 20 Strength, and funnels all of their stat increases into Strength (assuming +2 per stat increase, and a total of 5 stat increases at level 20) they would end up with a bonus of +10, which puts ‘peak human’ at approximately minimum Servant. With ‘Epic’ levels of ~30 bringing someone solidly into E rank.
All in all, this seems like a decent baseline from which to work. Perfect? No. But the Fate series at very least plays a bit loose with the numbers so it’s passable.
Agility:
Working off of the same template as Strength, a +1 for Dexterity represents one point on the Servant scale, with the added caveat that movement speed would be determined by 30 ft per round + (Dexterity Bonus / 2) to represent how higher Agility also represents higher speed, with obvious exceptions of some Servants being faster or slower than their Agility otherwise would indicate, but it’s an approximation.
This one’s much harder to approximate as there aren’t that many exclusively Agility based feats to compare to that I’m aware of. There’s running up walls, but that’s hard to convert to Pathfinder/D&D. So exempting a better way to represent it, I’m going for consistency here.
Endurance:
The Servant’s ‘Health Limit’ (A.K.A. – HP) is equal to their specific Endurance rating. Generally, Servants reduce incoming damage by (Endurance/10). Damage to fill someone’s health limit doesn’t immediately kill them, but is a fatal wound that will bleed out without medical attention. When a person (or Servant) reaches -10, they die. Endurance is calculated as the Pathfinder / D&D Constitution bonus.
This one’s a bit different. It seems to represent how resistant to damage the Servant is as well as how much total damage they can take. Servants, sans armor (or F/SN Berserker) don’t appear to be terribly resistant to damage, just able to take a surprising amount or absurdly skilled to the point of avoiding or mitigating it in the first place to a ridiculous degree.
Since we determine Endurance/Reslience/HP and Strength as contrasts to one another, we’re using the same conversion factor as Strength.
Mana:
One point of the ‘Mana’ stat represents access to ~25 units of Prana, either in the form of internal reserves or access to it through Magic Circuits enabling the usage of Mana, or Divine Words allowing for direct manipulation of Mana at minimal cost of Od.
This one was really hard and I’m still iffy on it. Anyways, B-rank Mana for Saber (under Shirou) means access to 1250 units of Prana with her Dragon Core upon summoning. B rank meaning 40 – 49. This gives us a conversion of ~30 – 25, which sort of matches what Fate says about the average Mangus’ reserves of 25 prana.
But if that were strictly the case, even given a power boost from his contract, F/SN Archer having B-rank Mana is ridiculous if you assume that Mana represents only their internal reserves. Shirou has 27 circuits and would need to hold 38 prana in each circuit to make that possible, which is more than even Rin, a prodigy.
However, if I’m understanding Magic Circuits properly, they store a relatively small amount of prana within them. This is the users Od. Spells are cast using a small amount of the users Od, and use the Circuits capacity to manipulate the surrounding Mana. The amount of Od required to manipulate a given amount of Mana is based on the affinity of the Mangus. The maximum amount of Prana is determined by the quality of the Circuits themselves (Their ‘capacity’, such as Shirou’s circuits holding a maximum of 10 units of Prana each). So it may make more sense that Mana represents the Servant’s effective Prana capacity given both reserves of Od and the conversion of that into Prana for magic.
Figuring out what each unit of prana translates to though, is horrendously difficult. I have been unable to find any serious costs for spells in the Fate universe other than Shirou’s Incarnation modified Od costs.
As a placeholder, the best I can figure is the following as a conversion rate between magics is as follows:
D&D – (Spell Level + 1)^3 * 5. This means that D&D spells would cost as follows:
Cantrips – 5 Prana ; Examples: Light, Detecting Magic, Minor Repairs, Stop Bleeding, Make noise, 5-lb. telekinesis
1st Level – 40 Prana ; Cause fear in one being for ~30 seconds, Comprehend Languages, Heal the equivalent of an E- rank attack, Endure Elements, Weakly enchant a weapon (+1), Weak armor, E- rank touch attacks, change your appearance, small stationary illusions
2nd Level – 135 Prana ; Examples: An E rank touch attack, Weak stat boost for several minutes, Listen to thoughts nearby, create a permanent heatless light, E rank beam attack, Invisibility
3rd Level – 320 Prana ; Examples: Walk on Water, Breathe underwater, Inflict a disease, High E rank touch attack, Melding into stone, Protect against Scrying, Summon a magic horse for 7 hours, Low E Rank attack against a 40 foot diameter or in a long line, Make everyone within 10 ft invisible, Become a human sized or small animal, increase speed significantly
4th Level – 625 Prana ; Examples: Walk on air, Low D rank touch attack, Speak any language, Short range teleport, create simple materials from nothing
5th Level – 1080 Prana ; Examples: Heal a D rank attack restores life to a being slain in the past minute, Heal or inflict an E- rank attack for 9+ people, Restore the recently dead to life, See through all illusions, High D-rank cone of cold, teleport self miles with some error
6th Level – 1715 Prana ; Examples: Summon a barrier of whirling blades around the user that lasts for a minute and inflicts a C rank attack against any that pass through it, C rank lighting that hits 11 targets, moving illusions, travel through shadows, become a dragon the same size as you, A rank beam that disintegrates the target
7th Level – 2560 Prana ; Examples: Control the weather within several miles, Regenerate (heal from a C rank attack, regrow limbs), (truly) Resurrect a dead body, Reflect 7 – 10 spell levels, teleport self miles with no error, A+ rank attack against a single target, Reverse local gravity, Create a small demiplane that lasts for several days.
8th Level – 3645 Prana ; Examples: Antimagic Field (No magic within 10 ft), Cause a 160 ft diameter earthquake, Firestorm (B rank attack against all in an area), become a huge dragon, create a backup clone, Trap a soul in a gem, A rank beam of cold that also reduces Agility, C rank sonic attack against all nearby
9th Level - 5000 Prana ; Examples: Resurrect someone even without a body, Permanently imprison touched subject, A rank fireball or 4 simultaneous C rank fireballs, ‘stop time’ for 10 to 30 seconds
If I could figure out the amount of Prana in an A rank attack (such as Rin’s gems) I could work backwards and figure something out, but as is, this is the best I’ve got. Any suggestions would be delightful.
Luck:
Another tricky stat, mostly because there’s nothing equivalent to it in the majority of game systems. My best approximation is that it allows the user to ‘roll’ their luck to improve/inhibit another effect a number of times per day equal to Luck / 10 (rounded down).
Noble Phantasm:
Just the average of the Noble Phantasms that the Servant/Character has.
Skills: WIP
More than happy to have any suggestions whatsoever on this:
Charisma:
Directly equal to the D&D / Pathfinder Charisma Bonus + Diplomacy rating of the character.
Item Creation:
Directly correlated to the Effective Caster Level of the character when it comes to creating magical items.
Magic Resistance: (WIP)
Likely directly related to Spell Resistance, but acting as additional Damage Resistance vs a spell and/or a bonus to Saves against spells that don’t deal damage.
Noble Phantasms:
Every point of average Pathfinder / D&D damage an attack would do, an armor would stop, or the save DC of an effect equals a point towards the rating of the Noble Phantasm.
Remembering that an A rank Mystic Code is the equivalent to a C rank phantasm, and an A rank is likely the best a human can reasonably make, here’s some approximations:
A powerfully enchanted weapon: 4.5 (Longsword) + 7 (Alignment based damage) + 7 (Elemental Based damage) + 3.5 (Bleed damage) + 5 (Enchantment bonus) = 28
A powerfully enchanted armor set: 9 Full Plate + 5 Enchantment +10 ‘Invulnerable x 2’ = 24
A very powerful spell effect 10 + 9th level + 10 Attribute bonus = 29
This also means that to get the ‘human’ level rankings of these things, you merely double them and compare it to the usual Servant table.
Notes:
Servants consume 6 units of prana per day manifested?
Magi respire/regain ??% of the number of Circuits they have in prana per day?
The natural maximum for the average human in anything tends to be 30. Level 30 in a discipline/class, an attribute of 30, a skill rated at 30, etc, etc. This means that a dedicated, gifted, but unaugmented human can approach C rank in Servant terms in many areas, though even the greatest of humans can only approach D rank in the core parameters.
The 'system' treats armor not as a bonus to not getting hit as Pathfinder / D&D do by default, but rather as Damage Resistance.
The 'system' treats the ability to deflect blows and avoid death that is gained from skill (the classic HP rating) as something seperate from the actual damage a body can take (the Wounds, based on Endurance/Constitution). Based heavily on the alternate Wounds/Vigor system in Pathfinder Ultimate Combat.
How the 'system' rolls dice is not a major concern for me since I'm using this primarily as a guideline for relative character strengths and weaknesses for crossovers and fiction, but it's a fascinating question that I'd love input on.