Homebrew Supernatural Merits

[GibberingEloquence]

Seems a bit complicated for an essentially simple idea. Any way to streamline it? Also, despite being Supernatural, I'd say use Athletics instead of Occult. And some version should grant Defense vs Firearms.

For Psychometry, a nice idea might be the ability to "chain" activations - scrying the past of object A, then scrying the past of object B you saw in visions of A.

I don't think it's that complicated, but I'll see if I can make it simpler. And I agree with using Athletics instead of Occult. Good idea for Psychometry as well.

It's a good idea, but not for us since we already have that as a Condition for achieving Exceptionals on Psychometry (and Auspex when we play Vampire).

I'm not sure I like the variable penalty, but it's certainly an interesting mechanic. Also, when would this Merit enter a Clash of Wills against Celerity? Is it a passive defense against the interrupt part of Celerity? If that's the case you should specify it, and specify the Clash of Wills dice pool.

I also suggest taking one point of bashing damage per extra turn rather than paying more Willpower points. I know that Supernatural Merits tend to be expensive in terms of Willpower, but I personally don't like it. Hence why Psychometry (Advanced) grants several questions, and two out of four dots in Mastery is about Willpower points.

Why not add full Merit rating to Defense and Initiative? Also, you could remove the ranged penalty from the previous Merit and have the Defense granted from this one apply to ranged Defense as well. I.e. someone with 4 regular Defense and 3 dots in this Merit would, after activation, have 7 Defense against melee attacks, and 3 Defense against ranged attacks.

I should have made the circumstances of the Clash Of Wills explicit, yes. The dice pool would be Stamina + Athletics (+Supernatural Resistance if the ST allows it). Taking Bashing damage instead of extra Willpower does sound more economical. I'll add your suggestions for the Advanced version.

What if I changed the Epic version so that, instead of making instant actions reflexive, it allowed you to reset the Initiative roster and place yourself (and maybe others) in any order within it a number of times per scene equal to the Merit's rating? You'd be essentially pulling off a Quicksilver. Messing around with the action economy can easily break the game.

[Tessie]

For Psychometry, a nice idea might be the ability to "chain" activations - scrying the past of object A, then scrying the past of object B you saw in visions of A.

I like it. We'll see if I add it since I wrote Psychometry (Advanced) for my own character so it's up to my ST to decide.

I should have made the circumstances of the Clash Of Wills explicit, yes. The dice pool would be Stamina + Athletics (+Supernatural Resistance if the ST allows it). Taking Bashing damage instead of extra Willpower does sound more economical. I'll add your suggestions for the Advanced version.

The rules for CoWs says Supernatural Tolerance + Power Dot Rating (or Supernatural Tolerance + Governing Attribute, if the power doesn't have a dot rating). I've never seen Skills being used. This is actually a problem at my table since we're not completely sure how to roll CoW for Supernatural Merits.

For the Epic version, why not just spend a point of Willpower and put yourself first in the initiative queue? I don't see why you'd be able to mess around with other characters' initiatives.

[GibberingEloquence]

Forge Elemental (•••••)
Prerequisite: Psychokinesis (•••••)
Effect: You may give a measure of independence to a patch of your chosen element. After activating Psychokinesis, you may roll Intelligence + Crafts or Medicine to turn the patch into a temporary Retainer with a dot rating equal to Successes on the Resolve + Occult roll (maximum 5) as an instant action, which is usually humanoid but may have other forms. They obey a number of simple commands for one scene equal to your Resolve + Occult (e.g. attack that person, steal that object, protect this building). They roll Retainer dots x 2 for carrying out these commands. Health and Speed are equal to Retainer x 2, while Defense and Initiative are equal to just Retainer. They are immune to bashing damage and Tilts related to their element, but filling their Health with lethal damage or exposing them to an opposing element destroys them immediately (e.g. water for fire, rubber for electricity, fire for ice). Note that carrying out ambiguous commands reduces this dice pool to just their Retainer dots, and that they will only communicate if instructed to do so (which they do by shaping their element). They are also considered to have Psychokinesis 3 for the element that composes them, which they may use to alter themselves or an external instance of the element, with their Retainer dots x 2 as a dice pool (they must be instructed to do so, and how). Each such elemental after the first costs an additional point of Willpower to create. You may have a number of elementals active equal to your Resolve.
Drawback: When the elementals fail at carrying out ambiguous instructions, their rolls are downgraded into Dramatic Failures.

Forge Elemental (Advanced, • to •••••)
Prerequisite: Resolve •••, Occult ••, Forge Elemental
Effect: You may have [Resolve x your rating in this Merit] elementals active at any time, and each point of Willpower spent creates [highest between Resolve and dots in this Merit] elementals. Your elementals may now last for a number of extra scenes equal to your dots in this Merit.
Drawback: Each additional scene inflicts one lethal damage.

Forge Elemental (Epic, • to •••••)
Prerequisite: Resolve •••, Occult ••, Forge Elemental (Advanced, Equal Or Higher Level)
Effect: Each elemental is considered to have Psychokinesis 5 for the element that composes them. You may also spend an additional point of Willpower and roll Resolve + Occult, with Success allowing you to bestow a number of additional Supernatural Merits to all your elementals equal to your dots in this Merit, which cannot be Advanced or Epic. You must have these additional Supernatural Merits yourself, the elementals will have the same rating as you and roll Retainer x 2 to use them.

[Basic]

Did anyone make a merit that will allow someone see and talk to spirits ?

[Tessie]

Well, you can always speak to them. The problem is seeing them and hearing their replies without them having to use Manifestations and potentially requiring setting up Manifestation Conditions.

I see three ways to create such a Merit:
- First one is just have it always on, like the Piercing Eyes Tell from Werewolf.
- The second is a simple switch. Pay one WP and perceive spirits for a scene.
- The third one is doing it in the form of a ritual. Something like being able to take a reflective surface (such as a mirror by a specific material or a bowl of water) and make it show a reflection of Twilight. That's personally my favourite. The ritual could vary between individuals, but as a general rule I suggest a five minute setup time for the ritual and a Presence + Occult roll.

[Tessie]

We've had a session of a dark fantasy style game using the CofD system. Inspired by it (and another thread on this forum about true faith in CofD) I created two Merits. Only one of them is actually supernatural, but the other fits hunters and other people who has had extensive contact with the supernatural.

True Faith (••• or ••••)
Prerequisite: Having Faithful as Virtue
Whether a blessing from forces beyond ours or a supernatural manifestation of the placebo effect, the character is able to substitute the bane component with a symbol of ger own faith in Binding, Warding and Exorcising rituals against ephemeral entities and other creatures who are susceptible to such rituals.
The four dot version of this Merit also doubles the bonus granted by her Virtue to abjuration rolls.
Drawback: Whether it's devotion or force of will that empowers her actions, doubt can make the entire effort be for naught. Those entities that realize this will often try to undermine the characters faith. If they do roll Finesse or Manipulation plus a relevant Skill opposed by her Resolve + Composure. Failure means this Merit loses all effect until her faith has been restored. If it's not and the character becomes permanently disillusioned, lose this Merit and reap the benefits of Sanctity of Merits.

Fervent Zeal (•• or ••••)
The character has an insatiable need to destroy what she believes to be unholy or wrong. When taking the two dot version of this Merit choose a supernatural creature or phenomenon. Anytime she spends a point of Willpower on an attack roll against the target of her zealous rage she gains an additional +2 to her roll. When spending Willpower on non-combat actions with the intention to hinder or destroy the subject of her hate she gains 9 Again in addition to the usual bonus. If the character already has 9 Again on the roll she instead gets 8 Again.
The four dot version is much the same except that the character wishes to purge anything supernatural that clashes against her sensibilities. Rather than choosing a specific target, define what supernatural occurances are acceptable, if any. These exceptions are often dictated by her faith, or her loyalty or inclusion to a supernatural group. It is, after all, a difference between witchcraft and miracles.
Drawback: Such monomaniacal behavior is hardly healthy. Each time the character suffers a Breaking Point due to interaction with the subject of her hate the roll is penalized by -2 for the two dot version and -3 for the four dot version.

[GibberingEloquence]

Clairvoyant Mastery (Style, • to •••••)
Prerequisite: Wits •••, Occult ••, Clairvoyance (•••)

(•): Add your dots in this Style to the activation roll for Clairvoyance. If you achieve an Exceptional Success, you may have your Clairvoyance last for the whole scene, and switch it on and off at will (but not switch the place you are viewing).

(••): You achieve an Exceptional Success with 3 Successes. You may also change locations you are viewing reflexively without rolling or spending Willpower again a number of times per scene equal to Wits. Each time after that requires 1 Willpower point.

(•••): You no longer need to use tools or meditation to activate Clairvoyance, but using them anyway grants the Informed Condition about the location you are viewing. You may also use Clairvoyance across the Gauntlet, modified by its local rating. AT ST discretion, you may also remotely visualize realms like the Astral, Hedge and Underworld if you have a sufficiently strong connection to them.

(••••): You no longer need to spend Willpower to activate Clairvoyance for the first time in the scene, but may spend it anyway for a +3. You may also extend your remote visualization to anyone within your immediate presence.

(•••••): You may combine Clairvoyance with other Supernatural Merits, at ST discretion. These other Supernatural Merits require their own rolls and Willpower expenditure. If you extend your remote visualization to other people with Supernatural Merits, they may use you as a channel to activate their own powers, but do so at a -1 penalty due to the indirect connection. At ST discretion, characters with a Major Template may also use you as channel to activate their powers, with the same penalty.

[GibberingEloquence]

Unseen Sense (Advanced, • to •••••)
Prerequisites: Unseen Sense, Wits 3, Occult 2
Add your dots in this Merit to all Perception rolls against the chosen supernatural being and to the number of times per chapter your Unseen Sense can be pinged. Furthermore, you may pierce active supernatural powers of deceit, disguise and illusion of the chosen being by spending 1 Willpower and rolling a Clash Of Wills consisting of Wits + Occult + rating in this Merit. This does not apply to passive powers like Cover and the Mask.

Unseen Sense (Epic, •• or ••••)
Prerequisites: Wits 4, Occult 3, Advanced Unseen Sense 4
You are no longer required to spend willpower to active the Advanced version. Add your Wits to Resistance Attributes to contest or resist any supernatural power from the chosen being. All Perception rolls against the chosen supernatural being gain Exceptional Success with 3 Successes. Your basic version extends to a radius of (Wits x 200) yards, and when it is pinged you may roll Wits + Occult to ask the ST one yes or no question about the thing that pinged you per Success. One answer is given even if the roll fails. The 4 dot version also gives you 8 Again on this roll and the Informed Condition about the thing that pinged you.
Drawback: When your sense is pinged and you choose to roll Wits + Occult, you must also roll Resolve + Composure - number of questions asked. Failure inflicts the Obssessed Condition (Investigate What Pinged My Unseen Sense).

[Vent0]

Unseen Sense (Advanced, • to •••••)
Prerequisites: Unseen Sense, Wits 3, Occult 2
Add your dots in this Merit to all Perception rolls against the chosen supernatural being and to the number of times per chapter your Unseen Sense can be pinged. Furthermore, you may pierce active supernatural powers of deceit, disguise and illusion of the chosen being by spending 1 Willpower and rolling a Clash Of Wills consisting of Wits + Occult + rating in this Merit. This does not apply to passive powers like Cover and the Mask.

Unseen Sense (Epic, •• or ••••)
Prerequisites: Wits 4, Occult 3, Advanced Unseen Sense 4
You are no longer required to spend willpower to active the Advanced version. Add your Wits to Resistance Attributes to contest or resist any supernatural power from the chosen being. All Perception rolls against the chosen supernatural being gain Exceptional Success with 3 Successes. Your basic version extends to a radius of (Wits x 200) yards, and when it is pinged you may roll Wits + Occult to ask the ST one yes or no question about the thing that pinged you per Success. One answer is given even if the roll fails. The 4 dot version also gives you 8 Again on this roll and the Informed Condition about the thing that pinged you.
Drawback: When your sense is pinged and you choose to roll Wits + Occult, you must also roll Resolve + Composure - number of questions asked. Failure inflicts the Obssessed Condition (Investigate What Pinged My Unseen Sense).

Nice. I'll probably use the Wits * 200 yards for the range of an Aura Reading (Epic) feature I had planned.

[Almarck]

Respawning ● to ●●●●●
Prerequisites: Mortal
Effect:When you would suffer death, your death is only temporary. At a specified amount of time after the death based on this merit’s rating, you reawaken at a predetermined place that is you place of rest or dwelling, the spawn point, with all but 3 wound boxes full of lethal damage with no gear or equipment except simple clothing. At the site of your death, you previous body and equipment are left behind.

Your new body is purged of any medical conditions and tilts that cause continuous damage or injury, such as bleeding, disease, poison, and the like. Other physical conditions and tilts that while annoying but aren't life threatening such as arm and leg wrack are not cleared, and all mental, social, and other similar or strange supernatural conditions such as soul loss are not removed.

If the spawn point is destroyed or would be compromised in a way that guarantees death within 1 hour of revival, you respawn in the closest safe location instead and treats it as the new spawn point until a proper one can be designated.

The amount of time it takes for your character to respawn is based on how many dots is in this merit. If you died and respawned within the last 24 hours, use the time intervals listed in parenthesis as the respawn time.

At ●, the character respawns in 12 hours (24 hours)
At ●●, the character respawns in 6 hours (12 hours)
At ●●●, the character respawns in 3 hours (6 hours)
At ●●●, the character respawns in 1 hour (3 hours)
At ●●●●●, the character respawns in 10 minutes (3 hours)

Soulbound Item ●●●
Prerequisites: Respawning ●
Effect: When you die, the item of greatest emotional importance to you disappears from you previous body and is sent to you new body. The item must be arguably within your possession or reach when you dies.

Continues ●● to ●●●●
Prerequisites: Respawning ●●●
Effect: When you die, instead of respawning, you immediately respawn where you died or the closest “safe” location to your death if the area he is too inhospitable for life. You have the health, inventory, and other conditions you would have from a normal respawn. You may delay Continues for up to a scene.
This effect triggers once per Story at ●●. Two times per Story at ●●●●


A Glorious Death (Style) ● to ●●●●
Prerequisites: Resolve ●●, Composure ●● (Advancing above ●● requires a form of reliable resurrection such as Respawning).
Effect: Your character embraces a recklessness that represents a suicidal determination to defeat the foe at all cost. You will not go down quietly.

One Final Act (●): When you would be incapacitated or slain, you may immediately perform a single instant action, disregarding turn order, actions per turn, or other inhibitions that cause you to resist, if need be. It may be an attack or some other deed you would stake his very life on. This action cannot be impeded by and conditions or tilts that would stop her save being utterly impossible (Fear for instance is disregarded, but shooting a gun without any hands still prevents the character from shooting). This action receives a +5 bonus to performing it. You disregard Willpower costs associated with activating abilities, but may not spend willpower to gain dice. This effect only triggers once per Story.
Pushed to the Limits (●●): Even injuries and blood loss won’t stop you; you’ll break your body to disregard even the most dire of injuries… even at the cost of everything else. You may ignore a single tilt or condition for one turn; each time you do so, make note of it. At the end of the scene, you take bashing damage equal to the number of times you used this merit, this damage is not resisted and may not benefit from any form of accelerated healing.
Utter Disregard (●●●): When death comes, you revisit an old friend, one which you are deeply familiar with. You don’t fear or worry; you may laugh, you may weep, you might even cheer, but it doesn’t stop you. You are immune to fear when you possess 3 or less boxes of health that are clear of damage.
One Last Life For Both of Us (●●●●): It isn’t enough to kill your enemy; many foes simply return from the grave to stalk the streets. At the cost of everything else, you will ensure it will never return even if the cost is your own nigh immortality. If a being with resurrection immortality is dead or dying within the same scene, you may choose to attack it with the intent of killing it… and yourself forever; if you strike a blow against it, both of you will die and stay dead. If you land the killing blow already, you may trigger this merit to kill both of you automatically without needing to spend actions. Neither of you may perform One Final Act if this merit is performed, through One Final Act may be used to perform this merit. You disregard turn order to perform to suicidally kill yourself and your target. If at any point your target somehow manages to revive or bypass the prohibition on reincarnation, resurrection, or respawn, you also come back to life following your rules for resurrection. You need to perform One Last Life of Both of Us again to have its effects apply again.

---

One day, I had the stupid idea to think: How crazy would it be to give a mortal character the ability to have infinite lives like a video game character... following video game like character rules.

-Respawn Locations away from the fight, with the only exception being "Continues" being granted in much the same way an old arcade game might have worked. (Now that I think about it, the 3 health box thing really fits in that mold)
-A body leftover from the last life. Almost all gear dropped at site of old death.
-Seemingly no justification other than you pop back into existence at no cost.
-And a penalty for dying too soon after reviving.

I'd argue that it's balanced on the basis that the only thing it allows you to do is be more reckless; Its agency is that it is an insurance policy to mitigate your own deaths... Which is easily controlled and can be interesting as it means that while you might be superman, everyone else is not. There's also the issue that there are ways to avoid the respawning mechanic by involving nonstandard ways to kill off or prevent the character from dying; such as totally losing his mind or being stranded in some hellscape that prevents dying.

At the same time, it means that the Storyteller now, like for directors in many TV shows has an excuse to keep killing you over and over again without need to worry about pulling punches for the sake of plot; you can take it better than even Mummies can. Taking this basically sentences you to being your group's Redshirt, which might be okay if the rest of the group is not mortal, though not uber durable.

I didn't cover breaking point rules, largely because that's probably a character specific thing.

[Vent0]

Only change I'd make is for One Last Life For Both Of Us to have text stipulating that if your Target is brought back somehow, you come back too.

[Almarck]

Only change I'd make is for One Last Life For Both Of Us to have text stipulating that if your Target is brought back somehow, you come back too.

Alright, added it in, cleared up some things.

Is Respawning overpowered or underpowered.

[Vent0]

I don't think it really unbalances anything at first glance. It is definitely one you only include if you have a reason to, or Chronicle based on it.

[Tessie]

I don't remember what it's called, but there's one of the Merit Templates from Hurt Locker that has a resurrection Merit. The devs didn't consider that overpowered, but it both had prereqs and limited uses. You could look it up if you want to compare your version with an official.

[Khanwulf]

Being the "guy who comes back from the dead" in a world of weird horror just means you have a benefit with some significant side-effects. Also, it worked for Highlander for a long while. Respawning in a new location is just a minor twist that enhances playability.

I'd totally play such a character, but then again I enjoy both "mortals with shtick" and "stayin' alive."

--Khanwulf