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[11twiggins]

At my table the Fang Dagger specifically is banned - also activating the dagger is a Gnosis roll, and thus impacts your ability to do additional attacks.

The wings being limited to Hispo is an annoying restriction, but the kiting opportunities in supernaturally obvious fights (Fomori, BSDs, manifested Banes etc.) are pretty great. The leg up from Spirit of the Bird is that you don't suffer any penalties, though of course the form restriction is indeed annoying! Thankfully it's arguably the best form to fight in. The veil implications are bothersome, but it's also not impossible you'll...

[11twiggins]

RANK 3 BLACK FURY GIFTS

Coup de Grace: Spend a WP. Roll Perception + Brawl, difficulty of the target's Stamina + Athletics. If you're successful you double the damage dice pool of your next attack on the target.

Given that Crinos foes will have a Stamina + Athletics of 10+ this Gift can be hard to use. But if your foe is, say, a Spirit... their "Stamina + Athletics" will be their Willpower trait!

This is a very solid power, and since it doesn't take a full turn of concentration or cost or roll Gnosis, you can use it and then do an attack using a...

[11twiggins]

W20 takes the stance that rumours of gold cage realms for Corax, and silver deserts for Bastet, are Garou myths; Erebus is unique to the Garou, and exists (likely at great expense to the resources of "Gaia", or the spirits beneath her, given the powers levied to maintain the realm!) because of events like the War of Rage, War of Shame, the fall of the BSDs, the Wyrmbringer fiasco and so on.

While no Fera Breed is perfect, the Garou have had a lot of what my table would affectionately call Gamer Moments.

Shade is right about the nature of Erebus - it's a spiritual/psychological/cathartic/energetic...

[11twiggins]

That's actually great to hear about! Honestly it's mad that I didn't explicitly mention such a use - it was in the back of my head but it's very pertinent. It's one of those very swingy things where if you get lucky you could do insane damage to a Pit....

[11twiggins]

First point makes sense.

I'm aware that Sense Wyld and Sense Wyrm existed in old editions, and they ARE in W20, but only as Fera Gifts; I believe Ratkin get a Sense Weaver, and some group get a Sense Wyld. So these Gifts existing for Garou is at least feasible, but you might need to discover, rediscover or link up with Fera to learn them etc. And absolutely, if you have access to those Gifts, Sense Balance becomes even more of an expensive waste of time.

I agree that Weak Arm has some Ragabash vibes! Your suggested changes make sense and line up with some of my thoughts;...

[11twiggins]

Given that the Garou basekit is a huge aspect of what makes them so powerful (if you compare splats, a starting Garou PC vs an advanced Garou PC are closer together than, say, a starting Troll vs an advanced Troll, Gangrel vs Gangrel, Akashayana vs Akashayana and so on), it's really important that some of the Ahroun Gifts genuinely advance your combat potential.

RANK 3 AHROUN GIFTS

Combat Healing: Every turn if you want to regenerate you need to roll Stamina, difficulty 8. On a success you regenerate a point of lethal or bashing, on a failure you don't, on a botch you...

[11twiggins]

Small note - I haven't mentioned Pure Breed that often in many of these reviews. Keep in mind that whether Pure Breed and Persuasion apply to a Gift's activation roll will depend on the context and the taste of the Storyteller; generally speaking PB1-5 is a noteworthy buff to many social Gifts, but YMMV.

RANK 3 GALLIARD GIFTS

Eye of the Cobra: Roll Appearance + Enigmas, difficulty of the target's Willpower. I like the Enigmas Knowledge being used here. You're so good at puzzles that your eyes are extra mysterious. This Gift forces the target to come towards you; with...

[11twiggins]

By the way, an important rules matter: you spend Rage to get extra ACTIONS within the same TURN. If something takes a "turn of concentration" or a transformation takes a "turn to complete", it won't be online until the turn has completed. You might run it differently at your table, knowingly or unknowingly, but that's how I'm interpreting the word "turn" just so people know.

RANK 3 PHILODOX GIFTS

Mental Speech: See the Metis entry. Quite important to any role arguably, but suits the judges and lawkeepers quite well.

Scent of...

[11twiggins]

Yeah I'm not liking their chances - I note that the defensive measure exists, but I'm not saying it's likely to actually save them at all. Even with 10 dice of countermagick and a meager pool from the Garou, it's very much stacked in their favour. And you only need one success to win the fight really - shutting them down temporarily gives you enough time to rip them to pieces or repeat the Gift....

[11twiggins]

RANK 3 THEURGE GIFTS

For some reason we continue this trend of lists having varying numbers of Gifts.

Exorcism*: To the best of my knowledge this is the only exorcising power available to Garou, outside of the infinite potential of Fetishes, Totem Gift (the Elder Metis Gift), and the potential to acquire a Fera Rite. We can call it the only feasibly obtained exorcising power. With this you can free Fomori from the spirits within, rip Banes from powerful Fetishes you can't destroy, drive spirits out of their prisons to free them and more besides. In theory you could attempt...

[11twiggins]

RANK 3 RAGABASH GIFTS

Gremlins: You roll Manipulation + Intimidation, difficulty determined by complexity of the device (simpler = harder), and if you get 3+ successes you scare the spirit of the object into fleeing, permanently wrecking it.

I like this a lot, despite there being far too many tech-destroying Gifts.

There's no cost, no real risk, and the baseline use of the power doesn't demand you prance around hunting the object, you can give it a mean glare. The RP potential of terrifying someone's toaster to death is very funny, and I love the idea of...

[11twiggins]

Good point - it's a pain to do it now, rather than as I went along, but sure XD

[11twiggins]

True, but it's kind of annoying for the Gift's greatest potential to be in the hands of a non-Lupus! Veil-protecting murder with dog disguise is an angle I hadn't considered though, thanks!

[11twiggins]

RANK 3 HOMID GIFTS

Calm the Savage Beast: Cancel a frenzy within 30 feet by spending a WP and passing a reasonably difficult roll. For a second WP you can end the frenzies of Vampires, Fera and so on.

This is a great power for Homids and CoG, and definitely worthwhile to prevent Veil breaches, save allies from harming their loved ones, dragging an NPC back to conversation and so on. It's hard to really give examples where it's useful; there's only one example. Someone within 9m is frenzying and you don't want them to be.

Cowing the Bullet: +2 soak dice to...

[11twiggins]

RANK 2 YOUNGER BROTHER GIFTS

Cutting Wind: Spend a Willpower, roll a Dex + Occult with difficulty based on ranged weapon rules (which is fun), those hit by the winds lose 2 dice from their pools for 2 turns; there are definitely worse debuffs. The Gift also can throw people into obstacles or traffic etc. though how this plays out mechanically is anyone's guess. The wind lasts for a number of turns equal to your successes, but it's unclear if you can manipulate it after it is created. Like many YB Gifts this doesn't feel particularly playtested. The flavour text mentions that they...

[11twiggins]

I realized that Fetish Fetch could be used with a Magpie's Swag, and updated the entry!

As for using it on Mages/Thaumaturges/Sorcerers/Arcanum types... I can see that! Still a bit niche, but it's a good angle on the Gift.

[11twiggins]

RANK 2 ELDER BROTHER GIFTS

Coils of the Serpent*: I feel like Clan Lasombra are owed royalties.

You summon tendrils of fog, without cost or special condition, with a DEX+Occult roll, meaning this is best done in Lupus/Hispo funnily enough. They're 30 foot long and have your characteristics, so in Hispo they could have 8/7/8 potentially, and it would be 4/3/4 as a bare minimum.

This Gift has two major uses. The explained effect is to bind a target, or targets (with split dice pools or rage actions) with tendrils of fog. This uses DEX+Brawl. The target becomes...

[11twiggins]

See I was thinking of situations where having a reflective surface of any kind is hard to pull off, like Lupus and Hispo, and also that a total lack of need for reflections will help optimize an attempt to cross over in the middle of a scene/conflict.

As for Pulse of the Invisible, I checked the Gift and it didn't say anything about helping cross over, so I went "you misremembered twig" - your reply just jogged my memory. The rules specifically mention Pulse, separately, don't they. The advice I was going to write in the first place is "this is less good if you get...

[11twiggins]

RANK 2 STARGAZER GIFTS

Inner Light: A great QOL upgrade for Stargazers which makes entering and leaving the Umbra far easier. This would be a PERFECT Silent Strider Gift! A replacement for Axis Mundi; accessing and leaving the Umbra freely, while running even potentially (if you got enough sux to cross over immediately), is so important to smooth travel.

Obvious green simply because it lets you do so many things with stepping sideways which would be hard otherwise.

Hiding you have this might allow for some fun surprise escapes, even from other Garou....

[11twiggins]

Totally! My PC has a STR+Athletics of 11 in Lupus, so with Hare's Leap he would be able to leap 210 feet, assuming 10 successes on the STR+Athletics check, which is difficulty 3 after all! If you have a specialty, and 12 dice, and spend WP, you could get closer to 250 or 300 feet even.

Hell, if you made a Pack Tactic based on the whole pack doing a running leap together, and you had gifts to support it, you could leap even further......