2e Purviews, Knacks and other questions

[lbeaumanior]

Greetings,

Just discovering Scion 2e, and some question arise:

1. If you have a Purview with a specific subset: Artistry, Beasts, Passion.
   • Do your boons only work on that subset? Like Beast (Monkeys) or Passion (Fear), only that specific animal/passion?
   • If your parent has the subset All, do you need to pick an initial subset (animal, art, passion) or can you use your boons on all conceivable subsets?
2. Knacks and Callings. Assuming I have 5 dots in my three callings, can I have in total 5 knacks active or 5 knacks for each calling?
3. Is there any way to get another innate (not needing Relic nor Guide blessing to work) purview besides the one from your divine parent and the pantheon specific?
4. Will the Teros get Demigod/God boons at some point?

Thanks for your answers.

[Critian Caceorte]

Greetings,

Just discovering Scion 2e, and some question arise:

1. If you have a Purview with a specific subset: Artistry, Beasts, Passion.
   • Do your boons only work on that subset? Like Beast (Monkeys) or Passion (Fear), only that specific animal/passion?
   • If your parent has the subset All, do you need to pick an initial subset (animal, art, passion) or can you use your boons on all conceivable subsets?
2. Knacks and Callings. Assuming I have 5 dots in my three callings, can I have in total 5 knacks active or 5 knacks for each calling?
3. Is there any way to get another innate (not needing Relic nor Guide blessing to work) purview besides the one from your divine parent and the pantheon specific?
4. Will the Teros get Demigod/God boons at some point?

Thanks for your answers.

1. a. Correct, only the specific artform/animal/emotion is applicable, but at least you get a Motif based on the subcategory to create Marvels with.
1. b. Either one, actually. You can choose to use the Purview as a general application, OR choose a specific subsection. Subsections again provide Motifs for you to use in the creation of Marvels, which is handy as it's one more avenue to work your magic with, but the General Application is of course quite helpful because then you can use the Purview's powers on anything in that Purview.
2. 5 TOTAL Knacks. As you gain more Calling Dots, that limit increases, but at the start of Hero you can only have 5 Knacks active. You can still learn more Knacks, but you can't activate them unless you swap them out for another active Knack.
3. Nope. You only get two (Pantheon Purview and 1 from Parent.) It helps to emphasize the importance your Relics and Guides possess.
4. So, the way Purviews work at the Demigod and God level, there are no "Demigod/God-level Boons," which means that Boons kind of get superceded by other stuff, though they are still helpful at times of course. Thus, there really isn't a need for the Teros to get special Demigod+-level Boons when the system doesn't have those in the first place.

[lbeaumanior]

1. a. Correct, only the specific artform/animal/emotion is applicable, but at least you get a Motif based on the subcategory to create Marvels with.
1. b. Either one, actually. You can choose to use the Purview as a general application, OR choose a specific subsection. Subsections again provide Motifs for you to use in the creation of Marvels, which is handy as it's one more avenue to work your magic with, but the General Application is of course quite helpful because then you can use the Purview's powers on anything in that Purview.
2. 5 TOTAL Knacks. As you gain more Calling Dots, that limit increases, but at the start of Hero you can only have 5 Knacks active. You can still learn more Knacks, but you can't activate them unless you swap them out for another active Knack.
3. Nope. You only get two (Pantheon Purview and 1 from Parent.) It helps to emphasize the importance your Relics and Guides possess.
4. So, the way Purviews work at the Demigod and God level, there are no "Demigod/God-level Boons," which means that Boons kind of get superceded by other stuff, though they are still helpful at times of course. Thus, there really isn't a need for the Teros to get special Demigod+-level Boons when the system doesn't have those in the first place.

Critian Caceorte Thanks for the answers, I should have been more specific regarding question 3. If I have 5 dots in each of the Callings, how many active Knacks do I get? 5 knacks total or 5 for each Calling? A Creator 5, Sage 5, Trickster 5 in my example.

And for the Teros, I was expecting Demigod and God to have pantheon-specific boons at that level, but if you can point me to which document says that no further pantheon-specific boons will be released.

[Critian Caceorte]

Critian Caceorte Thanks for the answers, I should have been more specific regarding question 3. If I have 5 dots in each of the Callings, how many active Knacks do I get? 5 knacks total or 5 for each Calling? A Creator 5, Sage 5, Trickster 5 in my example.

And for the Teros, I was expecting Demigod and God to have pantheon-specific boons at that level, but if you can point me to which document says that no further pantheon-specific boons will be released.

For the first point, in the hypothetical case of you having 5 dots in each Calling (which is impossible to do in normal play), each dot would be a space for a Knack, so 5 dots in all 3 equals 15 dots total, or 15 Knack slots. Realistically, the highest amount of Calling dots you'll ever have total is 11 (5 from the start + 6 from Legend 12).

For the second point, the reason I said that there weren't Pantheon-specific Boons on the "Demigod/God-level" is because there aren't any Boons of that level, at all. Boons are designed for the Hero level of play, no matter what level of play they're actually used at. Now, as Demigods or higher, you get access to something known as "Dominions." Dominions are Boon-like abilities, tied to one of the generic Purviews, that allow you to do basically anything with that Purview at the risk of things going wildly out of control. A Hero with the Epic Strength Purview might struggle from having to carry a car around for hours on end, but a Demigod with the Epic Strength Dominion can do so with ease, because of how much they've come to embody the concept of "Strength." Dominions cost 2 Boon Slots, but they're really just Boons in name only because of how much power they possess. As for why there aren't any Pantheon-Specific Dominions, well I'd have to do some archive binging of the forums to provide the evidence, but someone on the Dev team said that the issue with having Dominions for things which are tied to a culture rather than just a fact of life is that it's difficult to approximate all that you can do with it. What does Dominion-level Yoga even do? Or Dominion-level Heku? It's far more difficult to work out what the system can do in those cases, and thus they weren't included as an option. I'm sure that you could maybe homebrew something, but it's going to be fairly unwieldy in my opinion.

[Stupid Loserman]

(And for clarity on what document this information comes from: it comes from Scion Second Edition: Demigod. Backers for the Kickstarter/Backerkit campaign receive access to the raw text of the manuscript.)

[lbeaumanior]

For the first point, in the hypothetical case of you having 5 dots in each Calling (which is impossible to do in normal play), each dot would be a space for a Knack, so 5 dots in all 3 equals 15 dots total, or 15 Knack slots. Realistically, the highest amount of Calling dots you'll ever have total is 11 (5 from the start + 6 from Legend 12).

For the second point, the reason I said that there weren't Pantheon-specific Boons on the "Demigod/God-level" is because there aren't any Boons of that level, at all. Boons are designed for the Hero level of play, no matter what level of play they're actually used at. Now, as Demigods or higher, you get access to something known as "Dominions." Dominions are Boon-like abilities, tied to one of the generic Purviews, that allow you to do basically anything with that Purview at the risk of things going wildly out of control. A Hero with the Epic Strength Purview might struggle from having to carry a car around for hours on end, but a Demigod with the Epic Strength Dominion can do so with ease, because of how much they've come to embody the concept of "Strength." Dominions cost 2 Boon Slots, but they're really just Boons in name only because of how much power they possess. As for why there aren't any Pantheon-Specific Dominions, well I'd have to do some archive binging of the forums to provide the evidence, but someone on the Dev team said that the issue with having Dominions for things which are tied to a culture rather than just a fact of life is that it's difficult to approximate all that you can do with it. What does Dominion-level Yoga even do? Or Dominion-level Heku? It's far more difficult to work out what the system can do in those cases, and thus they weren't included as an option. I'm sure that you could maybe homebrew something, but it's going to be fairly unwieldy in my opinion.

Thanks for the answers, I wasn't even aware of the Calling limits, I thought you bought them with experience.

You mention boon slots, your known boons are also limited by a stat? Which one? I know that imbuing depends on Legend.

[Critian Caceorte]

Thanks for the answers, I wasn't even aware of the Calling limits, I thought you bought them with experience.

You mention boon slots, your known boons are also limited by a stat? Which one? I know that imbuing depends on Legend.

You can actually buy more Knacks with XP, but not only do you get new ones with each Calling dot you get, you can only have a number of them "available" equal to your Calling dots. Mortal Knacks take 1 "slot," and Immortal Knacks take 2.

As for Boon slots, you start with 2 at character creation, and starting at Legend 3 you get 1 with each increase in Legend. This is the only way to get new Boons outside of specific Relics.

[lbeaumanior]

You can actually buy more Knacks with XP, but not only do you get new ones with each Calling dot you get, you can only have a number of them "available" equal to your Calling dots. Mortal Knacks take 1 "slot," and Immortal Knacks take 2.

As for Boon slots, you start with 2 at character creation, and starting at Legend 3 you get 1 with each increase in Legend. This is the only way to get new Boons outside of specific Relics.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I am extremely confused on the new edition, so I will make further questions (perhaps I should make a dedicated thread):

1. If you have only 4 boons at Legend 4, those boons can be from any Purview that you have access right? Either innate or granted access through guide/relic?
2. Do relics/Guides grant access to specific Boons or only to Purviews?
3. When a Guide/Relic grants access to a Purview you get the innate power of the Purview immediately or do you need to do something? (Besides any possible Flaw in the Relic).

Any help is appreciated.

[Critian Caceorte]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I am extremely confused on the new edition, so I will make further questions (perhaps I should make a dedicated thread):

1. If you have only 4 boons at Legend 4, those boons can be from any Purview that you have access right? Either innate or granted access through guide/relic?
2. Do relics/Guides grant access to specific Boons or only to Purviews?
3. When a Guide/Relic grants access to a Purview you get the innate power of the Purview immediately or do you need to do something? (Besides any possible Flaw in the Relic).

Any help is appreciated.

1. Correct. You might want to rely more on your Innate Purviews because those can't be taken/withheld from you, but you can distribute your boons as you please.
2. Guides cannot grant access to specific boons. Relics can, however, and it's the only way that you can have more Boons than your Legend allows (there's another option at the Demigod-level of play, but that's not available earlier.)
3. You get the innate power immediately as soon as you get access to the Purview.

[FallenEco]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I am extremely confused on the new edition, so I will make further questions (perhaps I should make a dedicated thread):

1. If you have only 4 boons at Legend 4, those boons can be from any Purview that you have access right? Either innate or granted access through guide/relic?

While what Critian Caceorte is entirely correct, I feel I should point out your numbers are off. Heroes (and Demigods) have a number of Boons equal to their Legend + 1 in 2e.
So a Legend 4 Hero would have 5 Boons, from any Purview they have access too. Boons from Relics don't count towards this (and always cost more Legend), but very few Birthrights grant Boons, rather than Purviews.

[notMidas]

While what Critian Caceorte is entirely correct, I feel I should point out your numbers are off. Heroes (and Demigods) have a number of Boons equal to their Legend + 1 in 2e.
So a Legend 4 Hero would have 5 Boons, from any Purview they have access too. Boons from Relics don't count towards this (and always cost more Legend), but very few Birthrights grant Boons, rather than Purviews.

It's as Critian Caceorte says - it is explained under 'Legend Trait Effects' on 187-188 of the Hero book.
Legend 1 = 2 boons, 5 calling dots
Legend 2 = 2 boons, 6 calling dots
Legend 3 = 3 boons, 6 calling dots
Legend 4 = 4 boons, 7 calling dots

It's essentially 1 boon every legend, but they give you an extra one at the start (I guess because having only 1 boon would be pretty boring).

[FallenEco]

That is cleaner than how I said it, but we are in agreement.