2.0 Contracts

[Lashet]

I'm not gonna whine too much, but...
Is it me, or they seem to be very disbalanced?
No, to for crossover just in comparison with each other . Especially Royal ones. While one ability give you two (or four) beast-forms, or made a Tony Stark out of your, others only provide some narrow effects like brng sunlight in rhe room or don't let your guests to kill each others.

[TheStray7]

Show me a WoD/CoD game that has ever been balanced. That said, neither Helios' Judgement nor Solstice Revelation (the two Royal Contracts I could think of that sound like "bringing sunlight into a room") "just" bring sunlight into a room -- one is a frickin' laser beam, the other reveals hidden/invisible things and prevents anyone from hiding within the radius, which includes making it possible for any mortal to see beneath The Mask, which is actually a pretty big deal. Helios' Light, which is a Common Contract, only produces light, sure, but it's actual fucking sunlight. That matters mystically, symbolically, and mechanically (as in you can french-fry vampires).

As for The Royal Court, it is extremely handy to have a power that forces people to play nice when dealing with people as prone to paranoia as The Lost. And when dealing with gangbangers or the mafia or a group of cops or an angry mob. And when dealing with vampires, or demons, or just about any other splat in the CoD. It stops ambushes cold, too.

Sure. A lot of Contracts can be narrow. Some are more generally useful than others. But narrowness is not an indication of power.

[Taidragon]

Every contract has their niche, which can be broaded by way of Seeming bonuses (and the ST is explicitly encouraged to make more for other Seemings). This is why I find “which is the most powerful/useful contract” discussions pointless - no Contract is the strongest save for a specific purview, and even then they can be challenged by other Contracts. That makes it hard to “balance” in terms of effectiveness when they each have different contexts with their own required effectiveness.

[MalkSam]

Helios' Light, which is a Common Contract, only produces light, sure, but it's actual fucking sunlight. That matters mystically, symbolically, and mechanically (as in you can french-fry vampires).

Most of the time, you can't. Especially when considering that Helios' Light explicitly says it does half damage to creatures damaged by sunlight, vampire sunlight damage isn't a huge deal unless you are high in BP and low in humanity.

A vampire PC at Humanity 5 and BP 4, for instance, would be taking 1 lethal every turn, which is nothing all that impressive.

[TheStray7]

Most of the time, you can't. Especially when considering that Helios' Light explicitly says it does half damage to creatures damaged by sunlight, vampire sunlight damage isn't a huge deal unless you are high in BP and low in humanity.

A vampire PC at Humanity 5 and BP 4, for instance, would be taking 1 lethal every turn, which is nothing all that impressive.

So it's more of a slow baking than a french-frying. That wasn't the point I was trying to make, though...the point was that all the Contracts that "bring sunlight into a room" have greater utility than the OP was suggesting.

[Neos01]

So it's more of a slow baking than a french-frying. That wasn't the point I was trying to make, though...the point was that all the Contracts that "bring sunlight into a room" have greater utility than the OP was suggesting.

Consider also that in vampires direct sunlight could also cause a strong fear frenzy