Acute Senses

[eberg]

Since Acute Senses adds your Wyrd rating to perception rolls and supersedes the usual bonus for max Clarity (which is +2), doesn't that make the perception rolls of a max Clarity changeling with this merit worse at Wyrd 1 and the same as everyone else at Wyrd 2, only having benefit at Wyrd 3 or higher, or am I missing something?

[Master Aquatosic]

I'm not entirely sure right now but you'll probably be more likely to get an answer if you post questions here so new topics don't bury ongoing ones.
http://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/m...edition/page55

[Satchel]

Since Acute Senses adds your Wyrd rating to perception rolls and supersedes the usual bonus for max Clarity (which is +2), doesn't that make the perception rolls of a max Clarity changeling with this merit worse at Wyrd 1 and the same as everyone else at Wyrd 2, only having benefit at Wyrd 3 or higher, or am I missing something?

That's the idea.

Other things that happen at Wyrd 1:
• No frailties besides iron.
• A base Clarity damage roll that is offset to a chance die by any number of attached Touchstones.
• The lowest possible bonus to fae tracking without Dull Beacon or Hollow.
• Unqualified for a number of other Supernatural Merits.

It's one of those things that's there to both tempt you to raise Wyrd despite the drawbacks and to make constantly maintaining maximum Clarity less attractive.

[eberg]

Sorry, but that's not really a justification for why a merit someone spends a point on to reflect their character having amazing senses is penalized on their Perception rolls. That's just bad design.

[Heavy Arms]

Acute Senses still doubles your range over people without it and adds a bonus to memory checks, which is pretty valuable even if at Wyrd 1 and a max Clarity you're technically penalized be 1 dice compared to other characters.

Maybe it should have a Wyrd prerequisite of 2 just so people with Wyrd 1 don't react negatively like that, but considering it's a 1-dot Merit it's good as is. If you want a character that has boosted perception rolls, you can always start with Trained Observer instead and buy Acute Senses later.

[Satchel]

Sorry, but that's not really a justification for why a merit someone spends a point on to reflect their character having amazing senses is penalized on their Perception rolls. That's just bad design.

I here must point to the Vampire Merit of the same name, which saddles you with a multi-night Obsession Condition (i.e. you lose 10-Again on anything that's not related to the obsession) whenever you roll an exceptional success on a sensory-related roll.

Having a lower persistent bonus at maximum Clarity that cancels out as soon as penalties from low Clarity come into play isn't a net penalty and, as Arms points outs, it's a one-dot Merit that still does the thing it does re:things that aren't bonus dice.

[Draconis]

Or you can just say "use the bonus from this merit or the usual bonus, whichever is higher". It won't break anything.

[Satchel]

Or you can just say "use the bonus from this merit or the usual bonus, whichever is higher". It won't break anything.

Both versions of the Merit that exist come with a drawback and both versions of the Merit that exist put the dice bonus as a secondary effect relative to "all your senses extend further." This is a one-dot Merit in a system where other one-dot Merits include "the one-die bonus from a single Skill Specialty is now a two-dice bonus" and "one of your Skill Specialties can now benefit any Skill you have dots in that it would make sense for" and a Merit dot costs half the price of a Skill dot. Things are set up to encourage particular lines of mechanical development for a character.

Like, sure, do whatever at your table, but calling it bad design is a bad call.

[Draconis]

Like, sure, do whatever at your table, but calling it bad design is a bad call.

What? No, I don't think it's a badly-designed merit—I'm just trying to say this die bonus replacing the maximum-Clarity bonus is a relatively minor part of the merit (the double sensory range comes up more often in my experience) and the system won't come crashing down if you change the die bonus in this one particular edge case (Wyrd 1, maximum Clarity).

[Satchel]

What? No, I don't think it's a badly-designed merit

You walked into a conversation where the two posts immediately preceding yours immediately followed and were responding to a post that called it bad design, and your post did not address that part of that post.

I am not proposing that you share that assessment, but addressing the conversation in aggregate my point is "as ever, nothing prevents you from altering the material to suit your needs, but an element of the game isn't badly designed just because you don't like that half of a thing that gets better when you're more magically potent is suboptimal to take when you're the least magically potent you can be."