Wyrd evolution

[ThriceHonored]

I am currently using first edition changeling and was tinkering around with the idea of providing certain benefits to the characters as they increase in Wyrd. It is a modified version of the game that uses love craft style Outer gods as opposed to gentry. I wanted to make the changelings less fragile while playing up the idea of having bodies with slightly different types of matter then normal mortals. I was thinking at one rating they could have a type of disease immunity, or some type of quick healing/regeneration, or at higher levels maybe environmental resistance . My only concern would knocking things off balance too badly. I am currently trying to assign a different ability every other power level, maybe less or more. Any suggestions on some abilities that would be appropriate for certain wyrd levels?

[HelmsDerp]

Changelings already get a bonus against infirmity and disease that increases as they go up in Wyrd, you could bump those numbers up if they feel too weak. Equinox road has suggestions for increasing Kith blessings, although those only kick in at Wyrd 7+.

Honestly you could halve normal healing time at every odd Wyrd and even at Wyrd 9, 1/16th of regular time, it wouldn't change anything in combat timing but would make them feel decidedly more than mortal.

[Khanwulf]

HelmsDerp has an excellent suggestion, in increased healing rates. You could also, at 6+ or something, downgrade certain types of damage to Bashing similar to how vampires handle it. That would make the lovecraftian changelings "feel" inhuman and unstoppable, sans application of either considerable firepower or repeated rounds of combat.

Downgrading environment damage would let them more or less ignore such effects below certain severity, as well, so they could for example walk out of a burning house apparently unharmed (at least, no lethal).

Just ideas. From what I can tell, Changeling operates at a different point in the damage scale compared to vampire, and certainly werewolf. You can move them up that scale if you want a different tone, achieving an expression of "inhuman alternate reality monsters" alongside "inhuman vampiric monsters" or even "unstoppable voracious nature-monsters".

--Khanwulf

[Tessie]

You could also, at 6+ or something, downgrade certain types of damage to Bashing similar to how vampires handle it.

Downgrade one point of damage for each dot of Wyrd above five, perhaps?

[Khanwulf]

Downgrade one point of damage for each dot of Wyrd above five, perhaps?

Sure! Increase healing rate outside of combat, plus downgrade (except, of course, for iron or cold iron, as you prefer). That means if you're fighting one and it runs away for a few minutes, it'll probably come back fully healed if you haven't succeeded in wrapping the scale to lethal.

Very iconic to horror films.

--Khanwulf

[ThriceHonored]

Sadikh in mummy take bashing damage from all non magical sources. I was tempted to incorporate that though I am not certain which level I would put it at

[Mad_Maudlin]

Another option, maybe to add at lower levels of Wyrd, is heightened senses -- able to see in the dark, for instance. Given your reference to Lovecraft in the first post, I mostly settled on this in terms of how unsettling it would make a changeling look without the Mask: over-large pupils, an eerie greenish glow in the eyes when viewed from the right angle (tapetum lucida), cocking their head like a dog towards a sound no one else can hear...

[ThriceHonored]

How about this for a rough draft:
Level one the quick healer merit and the ability to see in the dark.
After this at every odd level the healing time is cut in half.
At level five some sort of environmental resistance. I was thinking resistance to extreme heat, cold, and pressure. Though I am not entirely sure how to quantify that.
Then at power level 10 all non-magical damage is treated as bashing

[HelmsDerp]

If you were in second edition I would say just allow them to downgrade extreme environments by some amount, but for first edition... The first dot of elemental contracts reduces damage from elemental sources, you could just make this a universal contract that all changelings possess. It only protects against one kind of damage at a time, but I think different varieties of changeling being adapted to different environments is pretty fitting.

[ThriceHonored]

Hm. True that does seem to fit 2e better...instead I could replace that with something else...but what?

The rest sound good?