Homebrew Demon Merits

[Vent0]

Variant Application (•; Multiple)
Prerequisites: Embed or Exploit usage, a Near-Field Gadget
Effect: You've figured out how to modify or tweak the expression of an Embed or Exploit you possess to replicate the variation a Near-Field Gadget has proven is possible. To do so, you need to possess the base Embed or Exploit, and Reverse Engineer the desired Near-Field Gadget. Thereafter, you can use either the normal effect, or any of the Near-Field effects you've learned in this manner.
Drawback: Each instance of this merit requires the separate Reverse Engineering and deconstruction of a Near Field Gadget, which often possess their own costs.

[Vent0]

Updated Suborned Facility here

[Vent0]

Impulse Jets (•••)
Prerequisites: Abruption Jets Technology
Effect: You can now spend 1 Aether to use your jets to fling you in any direction at terminal velocity for one Turn. You can spend another point of Aether to arrest your movement at any time as normal.

Mercurial Form (• to ••••)
Prerequisites: Fluid Form Technology
Effect: For each dot in this merit, reduce the penalty from Conditions and Tilts by an addition -1.

Mental Reconfiguration (•••)
Prerequisites: Body Modification Process
Effect: You can reconfigure mental and social aptitudes just like you can physical attributes. The same restrictions apply, and you can only do so within the same category (Physical, Mental, or Social).

Second Sun (•• or ••••)
Prerequisites: Magnesium Flare Process
Effect: With two dots, your light shines with the same effect as natural sunlight, and inflicts the Disoriented Tilt on everyone in Primum x 10 meters who still uses eyesight. At four dots, you can also spend 1 Aether to project Intensity 2 Ionizing Radiation over the area, or Intensity 5 on targets you focus on.

[TerrorCooper]

[I'd use Dual Processes if it wasn't already taken by Terrible Form ••••. Multi-threading, maybe? Probably not Cheerleader]

I think that Multi-threading would be a fine name for it.

Palace (Special)
Prerequisites: Demon, Tempter Agenda, Bolthole, Subborned Infrastructure 2, Resources 4

Effect: Your Demon has gathered enough connections and resources to build a modified Bolthole. While other Tempters can discover the means to build a Palace, they often personalize theirs and establish security measures to make them unique. While many Palaces live up to the name in their ostentation, a few are more manageable and frugal, and work more like cabins than mansions. The Palace is supported by the Subborned Infrastructure, whatever form it takes, and if the Linchpin is destroyed, so is the Palace (assume that it Self-Destructs as per a normal Bolthole, unless otherwise determined by context).

The following benefits of Palace can be bought in any combination, and add to the total cost of the Bolthole. Assume that features like decorations, furniture and entertainment are acquired off-screen with Resources and Contacts. This is not an exhaustive list of benefits, and members of the same Ring often pool their resources together to create more impressive Palaces. With ST permission, regular Boltholes may have Palace benefits.

Aetheric Insulation (•): As long as they remain within the Palace and put their Covers back on before leaving, Demon guests may assume their full Demonic Forms, with no Compromise rolls or Aetheric Resonance.

Perception Filter (•): The more outlandish features and guests of the Palace are seen as mundane equivalents by mortals. Stigmatics bypass this benefit.

Meals And Drinks (•): The Subborned Infrastructure can be used to place Aether inside programmable matter. The food, drinks and cutlery can adapt to whatever means of ingestion a Demon's true form might have. These meals can accurately mimic the characteristics of normal but exquisite food, which can be digested even if the Demon would normally be incapable of that. They can also take on less familiar forms that are more suited to robotic anatomies. Those who partake in the meals regain 1 willpower point as if they had fulfilled their Vice, but they can also fulfill their actual Vices within the same scene. They also regain Aether equal to [dots in Subborned Infrastructure + 2], which can be done once per chapter.

Competitions (•-••): Many Tempters are consummate hedonists, but pleasure takes many forms. These rooms are dedicated to sports and games of the physical and mental kind. Guests may test themselves against holographic opponents, other guests or the host. Variations of fencing, quizzes, shooting ranges, poker and chess are popular, as every match is different. For Palaces with Aetheric Insulation, the guests may even play unusual games in full Demonic Form. This benefit keeps Demons in shape: a scene of competition grants 9 Again to a number of Physical and/or Mental Skills equal to the benefit's dots + 1 for the rest of the chapter. This stacks with other sources of 9 Again to give 8 Again. A good match may also improve the Impression level with other competitors.

Extradimensional HQ (•••): The Palace contains a gateway leading to a secure area within an Invisible Realm or some other plane of existence, with a stable path back to basline reality, entrance and exit password and immunity to scrying. Rolls to Build Equipment and create Plans gain +3. Plans that use the Realm's resources and denizens in some way are considered Exceptional with 3 Successes. The Demons, Equipment and Plans are protected not only by conventional security, but also by loyal Cryptids built to exist comfortably within the Realm.

Suborned Facility (••+, Special)
Prerequisites: Demon, Primum 5+, Bolthole, Suborned Infrastructure 1+, Infrastructure Proficiency
Effect: You've managed a feat few other Unchained have - subverting an entire God-Machine Facility toward your own ends. While it is likely run down and small, initially, you can eventually grow it into a vast base, fortress, or possible even Hell of your own design.

The initial Suborned Facility is superficially similar to a Bolthole, albeit with a bit more room. The real advantage lies in the various additions that can be added on to the core. Each addon takes increases the Merit cost by its listed dots. Like with a Safe Place, multiple members can contribute their own dots. As an additional cost, however, each addon requires its own piece of supporting Suborned Infrastructure to power it, which determines the Tier of effects that addon provides. This removes such a potential Aether resource from those the donating Demon has access to, so this decision is not made lightly. The rewards, though, are often worth it.
Drawback: Each feature of the Facility requires you to "lose" one instance of the Suborned Infrastructure merit (without XP refund) as it gets incorporated into the Facility.

Manufactory •
Prerequisites:
The processing and manufacturing devices let you create what basic commodities you might need.
Tier 1 lets your create Resources 2 worth of goods a month, or items with Availability 2 or less a week.
Tier 2 lets you create Resource 4 worth of goods a month, or items with Availability 4 or less each week.
Tier 3 lets you create Advanced Resource 1 worth of goods a month, or multiple items with availability 5 or less each week.

Hellforge •
Prerequisites:
This chamber is specifically designed to reconfigure and imprint occult pathways onto devices to make Gadgets.
Tier 1 grants Installation rolls the Rote quality.
Tier 2 halves the time required for Installation.
Tier 3 allows one Installation per day to require only a Willpower point, not a dot.

Concealment Shroud •
Prerequisites:
Occult veils and subtle (to direct) psychic manipulation render the Facility harder to locate.
Tier 1 is basic Concealment Infrastructure, hiding the Facility from anyone unable to see the Gears.
Tier 2 affects even Demons, Angels, and Stigmatics, though once they've found it once, they can locate it again.
Tier 3 is continuously active, erasing the memory of even those who've found it prior (check each Scene).
Note: In the event of a Clash of Wills, the Facility rolls it's dots against the detecting power.

Aether Converter •
Prerequisites: Show of Power or Deep Cover
Occult energies can be converted and transmuted through the specialized fonts and reactors here.
Special: Unlike most Addons, the effects of all tiers are the same - instead of generating Aether, the Suborned Infrastructure generates one type of other supernatural resource, such as Essence, Pyros, Vitae, etc.
Note: The same conversion apparatus can accept an influx of Aether from another source (such as a Demon), and convert it into the same supernatural resource the Converter is configured to. Which type of output it "generates" can be altered by someone both familiar with the supernatural power in question, and some down time (approximately 1 Session or Chapter).

Remote Access ••
Prerequisites:
The Facility has the ability to relocate it's access points to wherever its controllers need them.
Tier 1 operates like the Easy Access Bolthole upgrade.
Tier 2 allows for up to 4 access points to be active at once (allowing for rapid relocation of resources).
Tier 3 allows for the controllers to open an access point from the Facility to a location they are familiar with, without needing to be there.

Cryptid Defenses ••
Prerequisites: Hellhounds
Aether generators and exotic foodstuffs allow for the maintenance of a number of loyal Cryptids, to defend the rest of the facility from intruders (or deploy as a small army with Remote Access).
Tier 1 allows for [Need to figure out a good distribution at this point. Tier 3 should allow for at least one Rank 5 Cryptid]

Pact Monitoring Network ••
Prerequisites:
You can store Pact Documents in this nexus and have the systems monitor the status of those involved.
Tier 1 lets you access the location of the signers of the Pact.
Tier 2 allows you to observe the participants of a Pact as if you were using Clairvoyance.
Tier 3 lets your target the signers of the Pact with Embeds and Exploits as if they were in visual range.

Restoration Center ••
Prerequisites:
These repair bays enable Demons to do some slight maintenance upon their forms.
Tier 1 allows Minor Glitches to be suppressed for an entire Chapter, for 1 Aether.
Tier 2 allows for Major Glitches to be suppressed for 2 Aether.
Tier 3 allows for even Catastrophic Glitches to be suppressed for 3 Aether.
Note: Glitches can be removed permanently at the cost of 1 XP instead of Aether. Glitches resulting from high Primum may be suppressed, but not removed.

[Surveillance Nexus: Omen Sensitivity up to Precognition]

If these two were put together, the resultant bolthole’d make one hell offa’ base.

While typing this up, I had an idea for some merits; ones where the Unchained would be able to get a boost or additional abilities for knowing a minimum number of Embeds of a particular type. For example, a demon who had managed to acquire seven (7) or eight (8) Vocal Embeds would get a bonus to expression, persuasion, or some other speech based skill to represent their improved understanding of the Occult mechanics underlining both communication and language.

[Vent0]

Adamantine Frame (•• or •••••)
Prerequisites: Steel Frame Modification
Effect: Your metallic superstructure is even more reinforced than conventional metal accounts for. Your bones' effective durability increases to 5 (increasing Structure), your unarmed attacks are now 1L. At five dots, Durability and Structure increase another 2 points, attack damage increases to 2L, and you gain 1/0 Armor.

[Vent0]

Simple, but effective. I like it.

[espritdecalmar]

Touchstone (• - •••)

Through a combination of method acting, specialized occult subroutines, and genuine sentiment, there is an individual who provides an additional bulwark to one of your demon's Covers. They could be a relative, friend, lover, student, or even enemy, so long as the Cover possesses some strong tie to them. This Merit is attached to one Cover; add the dots in this Merit to Compromise rolls caused by acting out of character. Once per session, the demon may spend a scene of meaningful interaction with their Touchstone to regain a point of Willpower. If the demon takes significant action to protect their Touchstone from harm, they recover all lost Willpower.

Drawback: With attachment comes suffering. If the Touchstone is killed, the demon must roll Resolve + Composure, penalized by the dot rating of this Merit. On a failure, they immediately shift to Demonic Form and gain the Demonic Rage Condition. This does not apply if the Touchstone died of natural causes. If the Cover to which the Touchstone is attached gets Burned, the demon loses this Merit. Finally, the demon cannot use Pacts with the Touchstone for Patch Jobs; to do so would be akin to attempting to repair a broken machine with its own parts. The demon can still make their Touchstone a Cultist or cash in a Soul Pact, though this latter action obviously causes to demon to lose the merit, and additionally grants a temporary Glitch, as reality sorts out the sudden overlay of sympathetic connections.

Note: A demon can give himself a Touchstone using a Pact. This is a benefit to the demon's side of the bargain, with a rating equal to the desired dot rating of this Merit. The Touchstone does not have to be attached to the same Cover with whom the mortal is making the Pact.

[Vent0]

Rapid Installation (••)
Prerequisites: Ability to make Gadgets, Wits 3+, Craft 3+
Effect: You can wrench the subroutines needed for Installation into a Gadget in a hurry, though the result is temporary and unstable. You can spend 1 Willpower to speed up the Installation time for Embeds to 1 Turn per roll, or 1 Minute per roll for Exploits. You may use Wits in place of Intelligence when doing these Rapid Installations.
Drawback: The resulting Gadgets are too unstable to be made permanent, and always fade away at the end of the Scene they are created in. Additionally, they always have some fault as if they were Overclocked, but do not get a corresponding benefit.

Stable Exploitation (•)
Prerequisites: Ability to make Gadgets
Effect: When Installing an Exploit into one or more One-Shot Gadgets, you can do so in a controlled manner that doesn't warp the Hardware away from its original function. The object's Resonance must match the Exploit's function, the same as for Embedded Gadgets. The lingering energies of the Aether would warp the Hardware after activation, meaning this method is useless for non-One-Shot Gadgets.
Drawback: Installation takes 2 hours per roll.

Gaze of Corruption (••••)
Prerequisites: Corruption Aura Process
Effect: When you activate your Corruption Aura, you can further focus and extend it to a single object your Size or smaller within Primum * 5 meters/yards, dealing successes in Structure Damage. Exerting it in this matter, however, shuts it down until the start of your turn after the one you use it - it can be reactivated.

[Vent0]

Demon Gunner (• to ••••, Style)
Prerequisites: Alibi (or similar Embed), Ranged Weapon Demonic Form ability (such as Rivet Arm, Acid Spit, Laser Cutter, or Eliminator Cannon), Primum 2+
Effect: You have refined your inherent ranged combat abilities beyond your peers.
Mysterious Stranger (•): You can direct attacks through a temporary use of one of your other Covers. Pick an unobserved space in your line of sight that your Cover could appear from. As an Instant action pay 1 Aether - your Cover can "appear" from hiding and make a normal ranged attack from that position as if it were you, using a weapon or Form Ability you posses, before fading away at the end of the Turn.
Drawback: If your Cover uses a Form Ability, you must pay 1 Aether for the Partial Transformation and make a Compromise roll for it using its Cover Rating. It may also incur Compromise for acting out of character.
Flash Draw (••): You can now partially transform fast enough to fire a quick burst then transform back without anyone noticing. Spend 2 Aether, and make an attack with a single ranged Form ability as normal. After the attack, you revert to your fully human Cover as normal for Partial Transformation. The attack occurs so quickly no one notices your arm momentary became a cannon, though you roll for Compromise as normal for an unobserved Partial Transformation. Your Mysterious Stranger can also use Flash Draw (costing 2 Aether instead of 1) and rolling Compromise for it instead. You cannot both use the same Form Ability in the same Turn.
"Cover" Fire (•••): You can manifest another Cover to provide fire support. As a Reflexive action, you can use Mysterious Stranger to perform Covering Fire instead of making a normal attack.
Controlled Blast (••••): You've achieved the ability to super-charge your ranged attacks with Aether, giving them destructive blasts, splitting beams, or shaping explosions. Spend 3 Aether before making an attack. The attack is capable of striking a number of additional targets equal to your Primum with the vicinity of the attack as if it had a blast area of 4. Alternatively, if it already had a blast area, you can exclude up to your Primum in targets within the blast area.
[Comments: So I switched around the effects. Now it starts with a base of using a Cover as a "second shooter", good for flanking strikes, or deniability. Flash Draw was moved to the second dot, and is available to your Cover should you want additional deception. The third ability let's your Cover lay down fire support while you do something else (like Aim or Reload). I kept the final ability, but with Long Bursts, it isn't as useful - I might drop it in exchange for keeping up a "squad" of your alt-Covers.

As always, feedback is appreciated.]

[Vent0]

Thinking or redoing Demon Gunner to use Cover as well. Mysterious Stranger or Grassy knoll as the name for using a Cover to strike from another angle?

[LordofIron]

Hi All, first attempt at Demon Homebrew. I had a player who was intrigued by the Idea of a Demon-Blooded being able to make Pacts and Deals. I brewed up the below merit, it seems coincidentally that a similar Merit was discussed a few pages ago but I wanted to throw my variant into the ring:

Dealer (●●, ●●●●, ●●●●●)
Prerequisites: Offspring, Fractal
Effect: Your Demonic Heritage gives you access to the reality shifting Pact Magics of the Demons who made you. At 2 Dots you can create a demonic pact with variables at the Lesser or Medial level with a duration up to a year, you are unable to create Soul Pacts or make Bills of Sale. At 4 Dots you can create pacts with a Level of greater and a permanent duration, and construct Bills of Sale. And at 5 Dots you gain access to creating Soul Pacts. When making a Pact a Demon-Blooded always acts as the “Demon” on their side of the Pact and are not able to access Mortal Only components of Pacts. This also means they are responsible for the Willpower costs of a Pact.
Drawback: Once a Demon-Blooded has signed their first contract they can no longer partake in a Pact as a mortal with another Demon and are always unable to apply the mortal side of a pact to themselves.
Note: If a Demon-Blooded gains cover experiences from a pact they may spend them on either Merits, or Integrity to simulate the part of a life taken, what can and cannot be taken should be discussed with your storyteller as appropriate to what the recipient has. In the case of a Negative effect (Pacting for an illness or a Stalker Boyfriend) a persistent condition may be more appropriate than Cover Experiences. This is the Demon-Blooded stitching others’ lives onto their own and making themselves more connected to the world.
If a Demon-Blooded creates and activates a Soul Pact the effect is Lifechanging for them. Firstly, the Demon-Blooded experiences a Breaking Point equivalent to murder (-5) as they steal a mortal’s existence. Then they must remove all merits that pertain to their past life, most of these will be Social merits, and rebuy the lost dots of Merits to create the life they have stolen. Finally, the Demon-Blooded sheds any Cipher conditions and is considered to have back-traced all these conditions. This is jarring for the Demon-Blooded as they are stripped out of reality leaving a tattered existence behind. They should be wary of the God-Machine investigating their old life if they try to contact pieces of the life they gave up.


I also have knocked up 2 merits regarding Demonic Form abilities:


Quantum Uncertainty (●●)
Prerequisites: Demonic Form
Effect: The Demon has 2 parts of its Demonic Form entangled in one another until one is observed. Each time this merit is Taken the Demon selects 1 Technology or Modification they already have, then selects a new one of the same Form type. The Demon can then manifest one of these two form abilities when taking on either a full or partial Demonic form, but never both at the same time. If the Demon changes one Form abilities for another the second part remains attached to the new Form ability and the merit Persists. This merit can be taken multiple times but only once for each Form Ability the Demon possesses.
Drawback: If the Form part is lost for any reason, such as being made into a Form Gadget, the secondary form part is lost with it.

Quantum Uncertainty (●●, Advanced)
Prerequisites: Quantum Uncertainty, Primum 4+
Effect: The Demon understands how their form is entangled with themselves and their cover better, they can now apply the effects of Quantum Uncertainty to Propulsion's and Process'.
Drawback: When using a transformation with a Propulsion or Process effected by Quantum Uncertainty the Demon suffers and additional -1 to any compromise checks.

[Vent0]

Template Installation (• to ••••)
Prerequisites: Demonic Form, Ability to create Gadgets
Effect: You have figured out how to create inferior copies of your Demonic Form Abilities, allowing you to create Form Gadgets without having to rip them out of your form. Create them as if you would install an Exploit, except the raw materials have to come from Infrastructure. The resulting Gadget has a drawback as if it was Overclocked (but without the benefit). At one dot, you can create Modification Form Gadgets this way, Technologies at two dots, Propulsions at three dots, and Processes at four dots.
Drawback: After you use one of your Form Abilities as a Template, you gain the Form Fatigue Condition related to that Form Ability.

Form Fatigue

You've strained the use of one of your Form Abilities and cannot safely access it. Attempting to do so requires a successful Primum roll and deals 1 point of Resistant Lethal damage. Beat: Manifesting the Form Ability despite the costs. Resolution: Endure the Condition for one Month without any attempted usage, or Going Loud.

[Comments: You might be able to use a version of this for Werewolf's Forms as well.]

Prototype Installation (••••)
Prerequisites: Ability to create Gadgets
Effect: You've refined your Gadget crafting talents to the point you can create Prototype - One-Shot versions of Lambdas useful for testing out concepts prior to creating the real thing. Follow both the rules for creating a One-Shot and a Lambda except the following - due to the complicated construction of Lambdas, only one can be produced at a time, though the less intensive energies invest means the consequences for failure and complete construction are only equal to those of Exploit Installation.

Resonance Echo (•••)
Prerequisites: Aetheric Resonance
Effect: The Demon can analyze the residual echo of other Aetheric signatures in any signal they pick up. From a given Aetheric Resonance source, you can detect other nearby sources as if the Demon was at that location (with a -2 penalty). You can continue to change virtual positions, until the penalties reduce your dice pool to a chance die.

Transmitter (••••)
Prerequisites: Electromagnetic Linguistics, Radio Suite Modification
Effect: You can use yourself as a source for Software Gadgets, sending out the Embed-laced code to any authorized requestor your signals can reach.
Drawback: Since you are essentially acting as a relay for your Embeds, you can't do the kinds of experimentation for Near-Field effects that actual Gadgets allow.

Diabolus est Machina (••••)
Prerequisites: Data Form Process, Demon House or Demon Car Exploits, Primum 6+
Effect: You have figured out how to live inside the internet, making temporary homes of servers, and eyes of web-cams. You can construct a purely online Cover, inhabiting it with Data Form, but without the recurring Aether cost. You are not considered to be in your Demonic Form while in the digital Cover, but you can use Partial Transformation to utilize some of your other Form Abilities, if applicable (Clairvoyant Sight is likely, Claws and Fangs are less so).
Drawback: Your digital Cover still must be hosted upon a singular piece of hardware, and if that becomes disconnected from the network, you must assume another Cover to escape. Your online identity is still subject due to Compromise from investigation and Exploit usage. Your host hardware also manifests versions of your Glitches, making it easier to locate than normal. The Data Form Process is consider to always be "on" (disregarding its usual limitation of only being accessible in full Demonic Form), which affects Compromise rolls for Partial Transformations.
[Comments: I might refine this further into a specific Data Form upgrade merit, perhaps even as a Style.]

[Vent0]

Anyone have any other "Augments the Demonic Form" Merits?

[Vent0]

Reviewing...

I think Veteran X is, while bland, serviceable. Grand Inquisitor sounds nice, but doesn't really fit the lower key the Paranoids prefer. Hardcore Saboteur works, but kinda sounds like they are trying too hard. Vile Tempter and Sanctified Integrator both seem to import a bias on how each are viewed already.

Yeah, you could probably restrict these from Dual Agendas, to reward specialization.

Grand Inquisitor (Style, • To •••••)
Prerequisites: Inquisitor Agenda, Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Composure 3, Occult 3

Always Watching, Never Watched (•) Add your dots in this Style/2 round up to all Perception, Investigations. Social Chases and Research rolls for Infrastructure, agents of the God-Machine and other Demons. Rolls to uncover any of your secrets suffer a penalty equal to your dots in this Style/2 round up and lose 10 Again.

What about making it flat "dots in this style" for both powers, and dropping the 10-again block? Or instead of a flat dice bonus, a broad Interdisciplinary Speciality for those subjects (to encourage picking up other Specialities)?

Obsessive Pursuit (••) The rolls mentioned in the First Maneuver receive 8 Again and spending Willpower on them grants two extra dice.

Something that seems thematic for Demons (what with temporal manipulation and Quantum thought) is the Rote action - picking the best option out of multiple outcomes and/or rewinding time.

Predicting The Enemy (•••) Gain the Omen Sensitivity Supernatural Merit, which may be activated with Willpower or Aether. This is restricted to asking questions about Infrastructure, agents of the God-Machine and other Demons. Add your Primum or dots in this Style to the Wits + Occult roll to activate Omen Sensitivity, whichever is higher. This version of Omen Sensitivity does not suffer the usual Drawback.

Seems fine. Though maybe instead of ignoring the Drawback, they could instead reuse the power, but risk Compromise?

Knowledge Is Power (••••) For very Clue (or other equivalent investigative milestone set by the ST) earned when making Investigation rolls for Infrastructure. God-Machine Agents or other Demons, restore 1 Aether.

Looks good.

I WILL Know The Truth (•••••) The rolls mentioned in the first maneuver achieve Exceptional Success with 3 Successes. Once per Chapter, by Resolving your Agenda Condition, you may spend 1 Willpower to not only gain the usual benefit, but also upgrade a Success into an Exceptional Success.

Looks good. Maybe keep these two as a trend for the other Styles?

Collaborate over PM, or right here?

[GibberingEloquence]

Vent0 I edited my Inquisitor Style. How about now? Also, please help me choose names and come up with Maneuvers for the other Agenda Styles. How about Hardcore Saboteur, Vile Tempter and Sanctified Integrator? Also, should I add a "No Dual Agendas" prerequisite, to represent the payoff of focused purpose?