Aquiring Vizard Question

[·:Seiyaru:·]

When aquiring vizard powers ic, do your stat points stay the same, or do you increase by a certain amount?

[Hattori Kihashi]

They pretty much stay the same if I remember correctly, because you start out with no control over your hollow mask. Since an increase to your abilities comes from your hollow mask, you'd only have the increased stats when its on. Two of your stats are replaced. You no longer have a Hakuda or Kido skill. They are replaced by Hollow Control and Cero, respectively.

We're pretty shaky about acquiring Vizard status here, though. You'd have to talk to Senroku about it. Typically if you're a Shinigami and you get Vizard status, that's committing a crime in Soul Society; you're attempting to or have succeeded in gaining the powers of a hollow. The crime is punishable by either death, or by exile to the human world. Of course it's not a crime unless you're caught (Senroku's character is a Vizard. Since we have no Captain-Commander just yet, it could probably fly for now, but once we get one it'll actually be a challenge to conceal the status and not get the big boot.

Typically your rank will correspond to the Shinigami one you left behind. So if you were a Captain-level Shinigami, then your rank would be a Captain-level Vizard. If your rank was a Vice Captain Shinigami, you'd be the second highest rank of Vizard. The real benefit comes from the power of the mask. Once the mask is on, then you get the increases. As for being unmasked, your abilities pretty much stay the same.

[·:Seiyaru:·]

Oh okay! I kinda get it. What if someone has 0 hakuda and Kido(my character will have those), does the cero and hollow control become 0 when wearing the mask? Sorry, I'm still pretty confused on the subject. Seeing as how vizard shinigami has less points than regular shinigami is what confuses me the most.

It says vizard captains have 120 points. When they're masked does that go up to 170?

[Hattori Kihashi]

Well, Hollow Control is generally a requirement. Not having it will pretty much entitle your character to have zero control over what his inner hollow chooses to do, so when it takes over, it takes over. And generally, we dont let stat points hold a huge amount of difference between characters. Hollow Masks generally don't amplify anything but physical parameters and spiritual energy, so a Mask pretty much builds upon what was already there in the first place. You move faster, you hit harder, etc.

Something like Kido could be empowered by a Mask, per say, such as with my Vizard, Yoshida. However, if you have no knowledge of Kido to actually perform a spell, then the Mask has nothing to amplify. See what I mean? You only get four stats. With Yoshida, I chose to keep his Kido instead of giving him a Cero or any hollow abilities, actually. He has Zanjutsu, Hoho, Kido, and Hollow Control. Since you're aiming for Vizard, Hollow Control is generally a requirement unless you want it to take over your character whenever it surfaces.

A mask doesn't so much add power as much as it boosts the power of something that already exists. For example, a Hado Spell wouldn't just be learned when you don your mask, your character would learn that. The Mask would just boost its power when it was used.

The reason Vizards have lower stats would probably be for this reason; they get the masks which have the potential to put them on par with a Captain when trained enough, and it would make them outclass most people on their level. However, this doesn't mean that just because you start with 120 points, that's your limit. We have Missions for that reason; to get stronger.

Case in point; you get four stats maximum.

Now, I think I can answer another question you may be having; ''If I only get four stats, what about the stats that aren't there? Are those zero?'' Generally, how i've been playing it, if it's a skill your character should have, like unarmed skill, I tend to scale that with rank on my characters. For example, Espada have no unarmed skill, but I at least made Vicente able to hold his own in that respect. He doesn't know any pressure points, but he knows your basic strikes and junk. He can punch and kick, basically; just enough so he can hold his own.
However, this doesn't exactly apply to something that needs extensive training, like Kido.

[·:Seiyaru:·]

OOO I see.

So if I hollowfied I'd have to maintain 4 stats. When un hollowfied I have zanjutsu, kido, hoho, and hakuda. When masked I can change to zanjutsu, hollow control, cero, and hoho, if those were the stats I chose.

[Necesse Letum]

I never got why Vizard got cero and hollow control to replace that stuff, so I guess here we can address it.

Personally I think the vizard should get all the shinigami attributes, PLUS cero and hollow control. Some might think this would make them stronger from the beginning, but in actuality they would have to stretch their stat points over a larger area. Now, once they managed to get these stat points in place, and have a strong character, yes, they might outclass those who don't have mask, but thats the point, isn't it?

Same with arrancar. Wheres their hand-to-hand ability? I don't see why we HAVE to only have 4 attributes for each. If we really wanted, we could find 2 other abilities for shinigami and quincy, and one more for arrancar. It just doesn't make sense to me that we deny some classes abilities they SHOULD have, simply because they might seem overpowered.

And Sei, to answer your previous question, no. If you replace cero with kido or something, you will never get cero, from my understanding. Hence that large portion of text above this.

[Hattori Kihashi]

Pretty much what Letum said. You pick four and you stick with 'em. When Senroku gets back, i'm gonna have me and Letum talk to him about adding another stat or two for each race.