[Minor Template] They Bleed Snakes

[GibberingEloquence]

You should write a background and a supernatural origin for these fellas.

I would prefer some suggestions instead of a definitive origin. Monsters and gods based on and themed around snakes aren't exclusive to a single mythology. I can mention Apep/Apophis and Yamato No Orochi off the top of my head.

[GibberingEloquence]

Apep was written up as an Idigam, complete with stats. This micro template could be the reward for reaching a certain Status in a Mystery Cult that serves him.

[Hastur00]

I would prefer some suggestions instead of a definitive origin.

Yig. Doesn't do much of anything except protect the interests of snakes, but comes with a few interesting cross-genre hooks.

-Mythos man awaaaaaay

[amechra]

Yig. Doesn't do much of anything except protect the interests of snakes, but comes with a few interesting cross-genre hooks.

-Mythos man awaaaaaay

Yeah, I cannot confirm or deny that they are linked to snake daddy Yig.

[StSword]

I would prefer some suggestions instead of a definitive. Monsters and gods based on and themed around snakes aren't exclusive to a single mythology. I can mention Apep/Apophis and Yamato No Orochi off the top of my head.

I don't know about anyone else, but I quite liked the suggested ties to all the major splats they gave the blood bathers, so in that vein-

Vampire- They are the descendants of the Serpent from the Garden of Eden, or so the Sanctified say, who are prone to waging war against them every now and again.

Werewolf- They are the descendants of snake hosts mating with regular humans, making them their equivalent of the wolfblooded.

Promethean- They are the embodiment of the great ouroboros, making them a living embodiment of alchemy, in which case alchemists probably hunt them down, either to drain pyros from them or hoping to become like them.

Changeling- They're a form of hobgoblin that look human enough to live out of the hedge without attracting attention, how many of them work for the True Fae no one knows.

Hunter- They are the Mehen, the guardians of Ra, perhaps they are among those the AO go to for new alchemical formulae....

Mummy- :Perhaps they were made using the same principles as the Amkhata.

Demon- They might be the first case of human cryptids instead of stigmatics.

Deviant- Perhaps there is a conspiracy of these guys making deviants, perhaps seeking to learn how to make more of their kind from regular humans, or to enhance their own powers.

[amechra]

I kinda envisioned them as an isolated phenomena - of course, if you want them running the world in the background...

I like the Deviant one, actually - given that the game isn't out yet, there's a delicious Serpentblooded - Lost Boys - Dreamers crossover going there in the meantime. And for Hunters, I do kinda like the idea that the venom is an important component for both AO alchemy and the Hotel's drugs.

[Hastur00]

Yeah, I cannot confirm or deny that they are linked to snake daddy Yig.

Well that's a real shame. Real shame. Here I had this character hook for a gaunt, secretive gunslinger in the old west, haunted by the racial memory from that terrible Injun totem that won't let him relax his guard. Thankfully, when he's ambushed, it's generally in the wilderness, so they can't tell anyone afterwards which weapon he quickdraws with the fastest.

Yup. Bringing snakes to a showdown. Somehow word has gotten around his secret weapon is a whip. He shrugged and bought one. What the hell, one more layer of preparation never killed anyone.

[amechra]

Some more Ophidisms - snake-y folklore is pretty rich, you guys.

Apothecary
You may add your dots in Apothecary to any Medicine roll you make to diagnose illness, licking the traces of plague out of the air with your tongue. In addition, you gain the Holistic Medicine merit even if you do not otherwise qualify for it, allowing you to substitute snake venom and snake bites for medical tools - you automatically succeed on the roll to gather supplies. When treating characters with your "natural medicines", you multiply their natural healing rate by [your dots in Apothecary] + 1; if you have at least 3 dots of Apothecary, you may use Holistic Awareness to treat characters with Wound Penalties from Lethal damage, and 5 dots allows you to treat characters regardless of how badly injured they are.

Eternity
Each dot of Eternity increases your expected lifespan by 20 years and reduces any penalties you might suffer due to age by one. By spending a second dot of Willpower while recovering in snake form, you may clear an additional Persistent Condition and restore yourself to a healthy 20-year-old body when you finally shed back into human form. As a side effect, this Ophidism supercharges fertility - you are immune to mundane contraceptives, and roll Stamina + Eternity as a Clash of Wills against any supernatural power that would negatively impact your ability to have healthy children.

Guardian
Add your dots in Guardian to your Resolve while you are defending a person or object - this doesn't grant you additional Willpower dots, but applies for all other purposes. In addition, you treat any Intent in combat involving harming or stealing something or someone you're guarding as if it was an Intent to kill you.

Heat
You gain the Unseen Sense (Body Heat) merit - it triggers whenever you encounter a character with a body temperature outside the norm (a person with a fever and a walking corpse would both trigger the sense), and you can accept the Spooked condition to both pinpoint who is causing the feeling and their exact location within a yard or two. You may spend a point of Shedding in place of accepting the Spooked condition, if you so choose. In addition, you add your dots in Heat to all rolls to track or locate another character by scent or body heat, and can recognize any heat signature you've pinpointed if you encounter it again.

Hiss
You may spend a point of Willpower while looking into another character's eyes to exchange their Vice and Virtue for the purposes of your current Social Maneuvering attempt. In addition, you gain the Pusher merit even if you don't otherwise qualify for it - whenever you open a Door using the Pusher merit, you receive a bonus on your next Manipulate roll involving that character equal to your dots in Hiss.

=---=

The fun bit is giving them powers that don't line up to what any of the major templates get. They've got their own sense of style, you know? Eternity might seem odd, but snakes are fertility symbols in a lot of cultures - it seemed appropriate.

Also, here are a few higher-power Ophidisms, appropriate for crossovers:

Crown
You may spend one point of Shedding when your snake-based natural weapons bite a character to inject them with a mind-warping venom - rather than taking the Poisoned tilt, your victim instead takes a Serpent Beat. Five Serpent Beats are traded for a dot of the Subliminal Conditioning merit - frame their mission as a long-term Aspiration (which doesn't necessarily have to end in an assassination). Characters afflicted this way cannot have more dots in Subliminal Conditioning than your dots in Crown. As a side effect, any character that takes damage from your poison immediately loses a point of Memory as it gnaws on their sense of self.

Jormungandr
Whenever you summon a snake, you may spend a number of points of Shedding up to your dots in Jormungandr. Each point you spend increases the snake's size by 3, increases its Strength by 1 for the purposes of Feats of Strength and Grappling, and increases its Stamina by 1 for the purposes of suffering Tilts. In addition, the snake's bite gains the Knockdown tag against smaller creatures, multiplying the weapon bonus by [your dots in Jormungandr + 1], rather than simply doubling it.

Nidhoggr
Your serpents' venom can, simply put, poison anything. Your snake-based natural weapons can inflict the Poisoned tilt on anything they attack, including inanimate objects, ephemeral beings, and the undead. Roll your Stamina+Nidhoggr as a Clash of Wills against any supernatural ability that would render your victim immune to the Poisoned tilt or remove the tilt after it is inflicted - the sole exception to this all-encompassing toxicity is other Serpentblooded, In addition, any character with the Integrity advantage who sees the damage inflicted by your venom suffers a Breaking Point with a penalty equal to your dots in Nidhoggr - watching impossibly acidic venom eat through walls and flesh with the same casual disdain tends to be horrifying.

[amechra]

By the way...

If anyone wants to, I give full permission for people to use, abuse, and mangle these rules (as long as they credit). This includes any merits or Ophidisms people want to toss out, inclusion in other things (like Mystery cults or whatever), erotic poetry (I doubt it), and general use.

Enjoy.

[YeOfLittleFaith]

Cool to hear. Your work on these minor splats is pretty inspiring!

[Master Aquatosic]

this seems pretty powerful for a minor splat.

[StSword]

this seems pretty powerful for a minor splat.

What type of template one has doesn't necessarily deal with power level, but the extent of the transformation.

Ghouls can have fifth level disciplines, and demon possessed can fly around while throwing hellfire and summoning demons, proximus can replicate spells of up to 3rd level, etc.

Although most of the time lesser templates provide lesser power levels.

But if you'd rather use these guys as a major splat, well I don't think it would take too much fiddling.

[amechra]

this seems pretty powerful for a minor splat.

Proximi, Ghouls, and Faeblooded get tricks that are actively better than what Serpentblooded get, if you ignore Crown, Jormungandr, and Nidhoggr. These guys are closer to that level than most of the other stuff I've written.

Edit: Ninja'd in my own thread!

If you were going to make this a major template, you'd actually have to tweak quite a few Ophidisms - Skin, Hatching, and Cold-Blooded are written to "patch up" the hole left by lacking a supernatural tolerance trait.

Speaking of which, some of them need to be adjusted anyway - as it stands, quite a few could be broader (all of the ones that grant Weapon Tags). Also, a few Ophidisms are messy - I blame the format I used (i.e., none).

[nofather]

Incorporating some in my current game, based on this from Dark Ages.

'Javelins are rare, though once many of the People used them. A generation ago, a wounded hunter from a settlement on the River met Snake herself. She healed his wounds but first let a snake slide into his guts to curl itself around his heart; she cautioned him that if he ever threw another javelin it would kill him. A javelin’s striking motion was too close to that of a serpent, and Snake’s animal children had petitioned her that humankind should not possess it. After such a clear signal of displeasure, only a few hunter-cultists who venerate Wolf dare use javelins now.'

I figure getting close enough to Snake, especially abandoning humankind for it, would allow it as well.