3e Homebrew: Infernals: The Devils Are Here

[ajf115]

So, I came across Lanaya's To Rule in Hell homebrew a while back, as well as Sandact's unfinished Infernals homebrew and, like a maniac, decided I could give it a go myself. Here are the results.

I have, for the most part, just taken 2e Infernals material and more-or-less updated it straight to 3e. A lot of the combat charms should probably have Initiative costs, but I'm not entirely sure how to balance those. Comments, discussion and ideas are more than welcome.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...it?usp=sharing

There is also a Discord server for discussing the thing here: https://discord.gg/ct7XRQ3

[armyofwhispers]

So first thing I did was an audit of the caste ability spread.

The results are that you've got one ability that's only favored by one Yozi (thrown), seven abilities that are only favored by two yozi (Archery, Athletics, dodge, integrity, investigation, resistance, and ride), and you've got presence favored by eight yozi, performance favored by six, and socialize favored by 5.

You've got a real bias towards up close combat, but also a bias against dodge, or resistance which kinda makes parry the big thing with your infernals? You've also got a massive bias towards social abilities represented here which I'm not sure is appropriate for the Yozi. I don't really think of most of them as eloquent or persuasive speakers. I would recommend shifting some of your ability selections away form social abilities into some of the more left out ones.

That said, if you want to indicate a bias in the overall Yozi ability spread, that's cool too. Though don't forget that things like archery can be used to represent eye lasers and similar esoteric powers. Similarly, being able to toss mountains or globs of acid or fire or what-have-you at targets also make sense.

I'm not familiar with Ta'akozoka. Is that one a home-brew?

Also, isn't Mardukth one of the neverborn?

I'll keep reading and critiquing as I go.

[armyofwhispers]

I'm a little bit confused as to what the smothering anima power is supposed to do in creation. For example, a malfean caste flares up and reinforces his anima in the jungles of the East. Does this a) extend his plant-to-brass aura out further, b) make it last longer c) make the plants start moving and writhing to create an area of difficult terrain d) nothing e) any of these dependent on the situation and stunts or f) something completely different that I'm not getting

Whichever option you go with, it might make sense to flesh it out a bit with more explanation.

[ajf115]

So first thing I did was an audit of the caste ability spread.

The results are that you've got one ability that's only favored by one Yozi (thrown), seven abilities that are only favored by two yozi (Archery, Athletics, dodge, integrity, investigation, resistance, and ride), and you've got presence favored by eight yozi, performance favored by six, and socialize favored by 5.

You've got a real bias towards up close combat, but also a bias against dodge, or resistance which kinda makes parry the big thing with your infernals? You've also got a massive bias towards social abilities represented here which I'm not sure is appropriate for the Yozi. I don't really think of most of them as eloquent or persuasive speakers. I would recommend shifting some of your ability selections away form social abilities into some of the more left out ones.

That said, if you want to indicate a bias in the overall Yozi ability spread, that's cool too. Though don't forget that things like archery can be used to represent eye lasers and similar esoteric powers. Similarly, being able to toss mountains or globs of acid or fire or what-have-you at targets also make sense.

I'll admit I mostly went with my gut for the Caste/Favored Abilities, but it does somewhat reflect the inherent bias of the Yozis - none of them are really associated with riding per se, while a lot of them are associated with Presence. I'm definitely open to suggestions for more balanced spreads, though.

I'm not familiar with Ta'akozoka. Is that one a home-brew?

When I added her to the thing I thought she had been added in Ink Monkeys, but upon further investigation it looks like she's homebrew. However, I rather liked her so I kept her.

Also, isn't Mardukth one of the neverborn?

In 2e he canonically is. I've put a sidebar at the beginning of Mardukth's charm document to explain this.

I'm a little bit confused as to what the smothering anima power is supposed to do in creation. For example, a malfean caste flares up and reinforces his anima in the jungles of the East. Does this a) extend his plant-to-brass aura out further, b) make it last longer c) make the plants start moving and writhing to create an area of difficult terrain d) nothing e) any of these dependent on the situation and stunts or f) something completely different that I'm not getting

Whichever option you go with, it might make sense to flesh it out a bit with more explanation.

The purpose of that anima power is to act like a Solar's Chaos-Repelling Pattern. The rest is pretty much narrative fluff - for example, though, if a given Infernal's anima normally tinges things with brass, with that up it would transmute them wholly and permanently.

[armyofwhispers]

Continuing on, it seems odd to me that the charms of the infernals (solar tier exalts) are easier to get rid of than actual sorcery in this edition. Even a terrestrial sorcerous working cannot be truly 'dispelled' in the way that your sorcerous keyworded charms and your geomancy keyword charms can be.

Geomancy makes sense as I would liken it to cleansing a shadowlands or creating a shadowlands type of working. The sorcerous keyword though, I'm not sure of. I haven't read through the charms yet, so I don't know what kinds of sorcerous effects you've got available. I'll keep going for now