Post by dorkknight23 on Feb 25, 2010 15:11:22 GMT -5
This is a houserule idea I had. I wanted to kick it against you guys before I take my chances with the White Wolf forum... Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, as always!
~DK
Playing a Legendary Creature
The gods number include some former giants and sundry ascended spirits. On occasion these legendary beings are even fatebound to Scions and gain legend in excess to their peers, some even get to join the ranks of their pantheon although they might worry they don’t truly belong. Although lacking in power compared to their Scion peers, reformed Titanspawn and Legendary beings could make a useful addition to any band, given Storyteller approval.
Legendary Creature Character Creation Guidelines
First, any legendary creature has slightly lower abilities and skills than their Scion peers. They receive only 7 points to their primary attribute, and 20 points for skills, and they only have three favored skills. They also lack access to the Pantheon Purviews of their respective pantheons. They often have similar virtues to their most closely associated pantheons, and select virtues as normal, although their virtues can be as varied as any Scions, and might even still retain a Dark Virtue. They have 8 points for Epic Attributes and Boons instead of 10. Legendary creatures also improve their Legend at a slower rate than Scions, 10*previous Legend, as opposed to 8, and cost 10 bonus points to improve at creation instead of 8. They also only can receive birthrights through bonus points. They also only receive 10 bonus points as opposed to 15.
Each legendary being has certain Favored Epic Attributes and Purviews, as appropriate to their normal bailiwicks. These are up to GM approvals, but should typically be anywhere from 3 Epic Attributes and 1 Purview, or 1 Epic Attribute and 2 Purviews. The peak of these creatures is significantly higher than their mortal peers. Their Attributes can be improved to 3+Legend, minimum 5, so a Legend 3 legendary creature could have attributes of 6 or higher. They also treat their Legend score as 1 point higher for the purpose of qualifying for Favored Epic Attributes and Boons. They also do not need relics to channel Favored Purviews.
When they reach Legend 5 and 9, respectively, they can add the Demigod and God templates as normal, although the previous cost to Legend still applies.
Example:
Derek wants to play a gruff minotaur trying to atone for his past sins and working against the Titans and closely with a band of Scions (the other players.) Wanting to focus on a relic Labrys and improve his combat skills, he decides to keep his legend at 2. He starts with his primary attributes: physical attributes. He has Strength 4, Dexterity 2, and Stamina 3. His secondary is Mental, so he puts his dots like so: Perception 4, Intelligence 2, Wits 3. Finally, his last skill is Social: so he goes Charisma 2 Manipulation 2 Appearance 3. He now figures out his skills: his favored skills will be Melee, Presence, and Survival (all things a minotaur should be good at.) He puts 3 points into Brawl, Melee, Marksmanship, and Survival. Having 5 points left, he puts 3 into Awareness and 2 into Presence. Now he goes for his relics, keeping in mind he has to spend bonus points to activate them. He uses 1 bonus point for a ball of twine that can unravel after his quarry, which he decides functions as casting the spell Ariadne’s Thread. He then spends 3 more bonus points on a Labrys: 1 point to give it +1 to Accuracy, +1 for it to be easily concealed (transformed into a golden nose ring that he can pull out to activate [ouch,]) and 1 more to channel the War Purview. He then spends 4 points to bump his Melee to 5, and uses the last 3 points to improve one of his Virtues. Speaking of: he decides (with storyteller approval) two of his virtues are common to the Dodekatheon: Valor and Vengeance. The other two are different: Rapacity (a common virtue for Minotaurs in the book,) and Duty (reflecting his desire to serve the Gods.) Spending 6 points (including the one he spent bonus points on) he has: Duty 5 Rapacity 1 Valor 3 Vengeance 1. His Willpower is 8. Now his Epic Attributes and Boons: the Storyteller decides a minotaur’s favored attributes would be Strength, Stamina, and Perception, and his favored Purview would be Guardian. Derek can only purchase 1-dot War boons (which he does, as Blessing of Bravery,) but he also can get up to 2 dots in Guardian, which he also does (getting both Vigil Brand and Aegis.) He needs his labrys to use Blessing of Bravery, but can channel Guardian boons without a relic. That leaves 5 points for Epic Attributes, he can have Epic Strength, Stamina, and Perception of 2, the others at 1. He wants 1 in Epic Appearance (Negative,) taking the Dreadful Mien knack, and 1 point in Epic Perception (taking Predatory Focus.) He divides his other 3 between his epic abilities, putting them all in Epic Strength and Stamina, putting 2 in Epic Strength (taking the knacks Crushing Grip and Holy Bound) and 1 in Stamina (taking Damage Conversion.) He figures out all his derived statistics (like Dodge DVs, Weapon values, Willpower, Legend points, and so on) and is ready to toss on a black trenchcoat and play as the one-horned and scarred Griff the reptentant minoutaur, basically Dirty Harry with hooves… In fact, that’s what he writes for his concept.
He has less experience to spend towards anything but improving his Legend, taking 90 experience to a similar Legend Scion’s 78 (and this gulf only increases higher up the ladder) but he doesn’t have to worry about using his Guardian boons without a relic, and can push his Attributes past 6 sooner, and his Epic Strength, Stamina, and Perception.
Creator Commentary:
My goal was to make something that would work for a viable non-Scion who can at least hold his weight, but not necessarily be the optimized choice. The ability to channel some All-Purpose or Special purviews without a relic and the increased ceiling for Attributes and Epic Attributes seemed like a trade-off for a slower legend growth and less starting stuff. Mechanically, I was inspired by Exalted’s Dragonblooded.
~DK
Playing a Legendary Creature
The gods number include some former giants and sundry ascended spirits. On occasion these legendary beings are even fatebound to Scions and gain legend in excess to their peers, some even get to join the ranks of their pantheon although they might worry they don’t truly belong. Although lacking in power compared to their Scion peers, reformed Titanspawn and Legendary beings could make a useful addition to any band, given Storyteller approval.
Legendary Creature Character Creation Guidelines
First, any legendary creature has slightly lower abilities and skills than their Scion peers. They receive only 7 points to their primary attribute, and 20 points for skills, and they only have three favored skills. They also lack access to the Pantheon Purviews of their respective pantheons. They often have similar virtues to their most closely associated pantheons, and select virtues as normal, although their virtues can be as varied as any Scions, and might even still retain a Dark Virtue. They have 8 points for Epic Attributes and Boons instead of 10. Legendary creatures also improve their Legend at a slower rate than Scions, 10*previous Legend, as opposed to 8, and cost 10 bonus points to improve at creation instead of 8. They also only can receive birthrights through bonus points. They also only receive 10 bonus points as opposed to 15.
Each legendary being has certain Favored Epic Attributes and Purviews, as appropriate to their normal bailiwicks. These are up to GM approvals, but should typically be anywhere from 3 Epic Attributes and 1 Purview, or 1 Epic Attribute and 2 Purviews. The peak of these creatures is significantly higher than their mortal peers. Their Attributes can be improved to 3+Legend, minimum 5, so a Legend 3 legendary creature could have attributes of 6 or higher. They also treat their Legend score as 1 point higher for the purpose of qualifying for Favored Epic Attributes and Boons. They also do not need relics to channel Favored Purviews.
When they reach Legend 5 and 9, respectively, they can add the Demigod and God templates as normal, although the previous cost to Legend still applies.
Example:
Derek wants to play a gruff minotaur trying to atone for his past sins and working against the Titans and closely with a band of Scions (the other players.) Wanting to focus on a relic Labrys and improve his combat skills, he decides to keep his legend at 2. He starts with his primary attributes: physical attributes. He has Strength 4, Dexterity 2, and Stamina 3. His secondary is Mental, so he puts his dots like so: Perception 4, Intelligence 2, Wits 3. Finally, his last skill is Social: so he goes Charisma 2 Manipulation 2 Appearance 3. He now figures out his skills: his favored skills will be Melee, Presence, and Survival (all things a minotaur should be good at.) He puts 3 points into Brawl, Melee, Marksmanship, and Survival. Having 5 points left, he puts 3 into Awareness and 2 into Presence. Now he goes for his relics, keeping in mind he has to spend bonus points to activate them. He uses 1 bonus point for a ball of twine that can unravel after his quarry, which he decides functions as casting the spell Ariadne’s Thread. He then spends 3 more bonus points on a Labrys: 1 point to give it +1 to Accuracy, +1 for it to be easily concealed (transformed into a golden nose ring that he can pull out to activate [ouch,]) and 1 more to channel the War Purview. He then spends 4 points to bump his Melee to 5, and uses the last 3 points to improve one of his Virtues. Speaking of: he decides (with storyteller approval) two of his virtues are common to the Dodekatheon: Valor and Vengeance. The other two are different: Rapacity (a common virtue for Minotaurs in the book,) and Duty (reflecting his desire to serve the Gods.) Spending 6 points (including the one he spent bonus points on) he has: Duty 5 Rapacity 1 Valor 3 Vengeance 1. His Willpower is 8. Now his Epic Attributes and Boons: the Storyteller decides a minotaur’s favored attributes would be Strength, Stamina, and Perception, and his favored Purview would be Guardian. Derek can only purchase 1-dot War boons (which he does, as Blessing of Bravery,) but he also can get up to 2 dots in Guardian, which he also does (getting both Vigil Brand and Aegis.) He needs his labrys to use Blessing of Bravery, but can channel Guardian boons without a relic. That leaves 5 points for Epic Attributes, he can have Epic Strength, Stamina, and Perception of 2, the others at 1. He wants 1 in Epic Appearance (Negative,) taking the Dreadful Mien knack, and 1 point in Epic Perception (taking Predatory Focus.) He divides his other 3 between his epic abilities, putting them all in Epic Strength and Stamina, putting 2 in Epic Strength (taking the knacks Crushing Grip and Holy Bound) and 1 in Stamina (taking Damage Conversion.) He figures out all his derived statistics (like Dodge DVs, Weapon values, Willpower, Legend points, and so on) and is ready to toss on a black trenchcoat and play as the one-horned and scarred Griff the reptentant minoutaur, basically Dirty Harry with hooves… In fact, that’s what he writes for his concept.
He has less experience to spend towards anything but improving his Legend, taking 90 experience to a similar Legend Scion’s 78 (and this gulf only increases higher up the ladder) but he doesn’t have to worry about using his Guardian boons without a relic, and can push his Attributes past 6 sooner, and his Epic Strength, Stamina, and Perception.
Creator Commentary:
My goal was to make something that would work for a viable non-Scion who can at least hold his weight, but not necessarily be the optimized choice. The ability to channel some All-Purpose or Special purviews without a relic and the increased ceiling for Attributes and Epic Attributes seemed like a trade-off for a slower legend growth and less starting stuff. Mechanically, I was inspired by Exalted’s Dragonblooded.