[Supernatural Style] "This sword here at my side don't act the way it should..."

[amechra]

Mood music, anyone?

Black Blade [Supernatural, Style • - •••••]
Despite the name, this merit is not restricted to bladed weapons - it merely represents a deeper... partnership between you and your possessed weapon. I'd... advise keeping an eye on it, all the same. Unless otherwise stated, "weapon" refers to the weapon you chose for Assertive Implement.
Prerequisites: Assertive Implement ••, Living With Death ••
At One With The Tool (•) - You may reduce any penalties due to physical pain or damage by one when using your weapon for its intended purpose (i.e., hurting other people). In addition, you may ignore any Strength requirement it might have, and consider it to be Size 2 for the purposes of concealing and carrying it unless it was already smaller. However, your dots in this merit are added to your weapon's dice pool when it lashes out.
Trust Your Partner (••) - Your weapon is far more in tune with violence than you are - you may expend your use of Assertive Implement to apply your Defense against a single Firearms attack or sneak attack. In addition, your weapon gains Armor Piercing •, or increases its Armor Piercing by one dot.
My Master, My Slave (•••) - You no longer suffer Breaking Points when faced by violence you committed while wielding your weapon. In addition, you may treat fulfilling your weapon's needs as an additional Vice.
The Weapon's Flow (••••) - On any turn where you make an all-out attack, you may spend one Willpower to use Assertive Implement without it counting towards your one use per scene. If you use Trust Your Partner in this manner, you don't apply your Defense against a Firearms attack or Surprise attack - instead, you apply your Defense against one attack as if you hadn't sacrificed it for the turn. In exchange, your weapon may spend your Willpower when lashing out.
Violence Is As Violence Does (•••••) - If you strip away the decorations and the lies we tell each-other, all that's left of a weapon is a tool intended to hurt people. Whenever you make a successful attack with your weapon, you may expend your use of Assertive Implement to inflict a Personal Tilt on the character you struck. This Tilt must be one that could normally be inflicted by the weapon on an Exceptional Success, but otherwise can be any Tilt you please. At this point, you no longer need to spend Willpower to take violent action while Beaten Down or to attack someone who has surrendered - instead, you must spend Willpower to prevent yourself from taking those opportunities for violence.

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Who's really in charge, you or the weapon?

(No souls for your Lord Arioch, though. That would be a little too much.)

[nofather]

The song's about Michael Moorcock's Elric, the Eternal Champion. Specifically referring to Stormbringer, his evil sword.

[MCN]

Any relationship to the Black Blade novels? Curious minds inquiring.

An awesome FS, by the way. +1 like.

[Vent0]

Skulls for the Skull Throne!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-gSJW3sHXE

Harriers for the Cup!

[amechra]

You could use Style Merits like those presented in Hurt Locker, specifically the Grappling one.

True. That could get nasty. I could also see a merit that lets them "move" their blood-drinking abilities to a melee weapon, letting them gain Vitae from blood spilled on its surface.

[Leetsepeak]

You could use Style Merits like those presented in Hurt Locker, specifically the Grappling one.

[Raistlin]

Muramasa Hungers (•••) - Your sword loves you enough to share part of her meal. Whenever you make a successful attack with your weapon, the blood is absorbed by the sword and it may be used by the swordmaster. In game terms, each point of lethal damage caused to the victim can be used by the character to heal lethal or bashing damage. This ability can only be used once for scene.

[StSword]

Well for my vote I'd add them in but not replace the original ideas, make them alternatives.

Some people might prefer the original, after all. And I like it, for what it's worth. Want a blade that eats souls? Sure. A blade that burns with the fires of hell, or the coldness of death? All right.

If you're curious about the Sleepy Hollow version of Jack the Ripper- It's like an especially evil version of the Witchblade. Grows around the hand so it can't be let go, grows protusions to protect the host in response to attack, and literally drinks the blood of the victims. In sleepy hollow what ended Jack's reign of terror was catching a blood transmitted disease through the blade's mosquito routine.

[amechra]

Dear lord, I missed posts. A bunch of posts.

For cursed wounds or setting people on fire or whatever... my revised version of the fifth dot has you covered. You can have your rifle pull a Ritho and set people on fire - you could have your hammer shatter someone's sanity, or whatever. I'm pretty sure there's a tilt you could give someone that'd slow their natural healing or whatever.

Heck, depending on the weapon, you might have it inflict a custom tilt like You are Fucking Dead. Maybe not that extreme, but a custom Tilt that can be inflicted on an Exceptional Success or through Violence Is As Violence Does... I like the idea.

As for the Legion of the Dead... Sounds legit. I think they would probably want some additional merits, but this would be a fair start.

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! DEATH TO THE SLAVES OF THE CORPSE EMPEROR!

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Does everyone like the changes I advanced in post #8? Should I edit that stuff into the first post?

[amechra]

You know, I'm kinda embarrassed to admit that I didn't even think of vampiric healing.

Hmm...

I'm not familiar with that rendition of Saucy Jack, but I do know that Stormbringer healed you through the power of delicious, delicious immortal souls. If I were to go for healing-through-hurting-people, I'd probably stick it at the third dot, replacing the second vice (because why should you be getting satisfaction out of this?). How about...

My Master, My Slave (•••) - You no longer suffer Breaking Points from violence you inflict when using your weapon. In addition, whenever you make a successful attack with your weapon, you may expend your use of Assertive Implement to heal either 2B or 1L.

And for the fifth dot, I think the following might work more smoothly than what I have written up right now:

Violence Is As Violence Does (•••••) - Whenever you make a successful attack with your weapon, you may expend your use of Assertive Implement to inflict an appropriate Personal Tilt on the character you struck. At this point, you no longer have an option to not Go For Blood while wielding your weapon - any fight it is involved in is to the death.

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Thoughts? At higher dots the third dot can get you a lot of healing, and the fifth dot can maim people pretty well... but the merit also strips you of the illusion that you have any choice with continuing the fight.

[Almarck]

Immediately, I am thinking to Pathfinder's Bladebound Magus due to the name of the "Style".

Are you going to include alternate paths? Perhaps something involving cursed bleeding wounds, or maybe literally impossible and improbable uses of the weapon's lethality. "So evil, the knife causes you to recieve burning wounds."

[Diggs]

Blood for the blood god!

Skulls for the Skull Throne!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-gSJW3sHXE

[Rose Bailey]

Blood for the blood god!

[Leetsepeak]

Man, this is a great expansion you could potentially give to a member of the Legion of the Dead, with their cursed weapons. Awesome stuff, amechra.

[GibberingEloquence]

Hmm, I'm surprised you didn't work in any vampiric aspects- like Elric and Jack the Ripper from Sleepy Hollow.

There could be an option to spend 1 willpower point once per scene when Going For Blood to heal 1/2 of the total damage you inflict, round down (you must be suffering from bashing or lethal). Alternatively, heal 1 aggravated damage. That may step on the toes of other Supernatural Merits that heal you, though.

Nifty Merit, Amechra. You come up with some of the best homebrew. Have a Like.