Hunter (http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,19083.msg865124.html#msg865124) (Minimum [-2] Refresh): An adaptation of the hunters from the Old World of Darkness to the DFRPG. Warning: includes homebrew Powers of somewhat questionable quality.
The Hunter Template has a bunch of things I thought were sketchy. Overstrain looks dangerous, Cleave is dull as toast, Cassandra's Tears without the penalty isn't worth -1, I don't know what those Incite Emotion upgrades are, Healing seems better than Ritual, and there's some unfortunate Stunt-obsoletion there. I would have ignored most of that stuff individually, but collectively it deserved mention.
The catch is..difficult. The orcs they're based on (discworld) were very, very difficult to kill. They could survive being decapitated, supposedly. A mechanical change to striking a certain organ? That's what's described as powering their healing ability in that specific canon. I'd really prefer it not to be just "Cold Iron, +3". Cold Iron should be a +4 (You can find out it hurts faeries with 30 seconds and Wikipedia) and it's really, really generic.
Sure, if you know it's Fae. What's Fae, though? And do they look how you expect? For example, Harry knew the whole thing about Fae and Iron but might as well not have when meeting the Gruffs...because he didn't know these weird goat-people were Fae. The same is true for Winter Ogres (who look like Yetis) or centaurs, or goblins. Or, indeed, for most kinds of Fae, really, especially given their Glamours and ability to appear how they like. Little folk like Toot-toot, matching as they do the popular image of a faerie, might get +4 out of it...but they'd be just about the only ones.
Edit- Also, allowing the GM to adjudicate exactly what bypasses the Catch really only works if you and your GM can agree on what exactly constitutes "extreme physical harm". Standing next to a grenade, yes. Small caliber gunfire, no. On the other hand, this is an excellent story element- The bad guy figures out he's facing an orc, and starts in with the heavy artillery.
Edit secundus- Rereading Lords and Ladies, would Thunderbolt or Meteoric iron be an acceptable catch? I find it to suitably flavorful, but I'm fairly sure it would only provide a +2.
I always found this interpretation pretty iffy. Harry never does any research to discover that enemy X is a faerie, and I wouldn't expect PCs to do that research either.
To a degree. There tend to be more female Yang vampires than female Yin vampires. However, the Jade Court is highly patriarchal and males are a clear majority of both Yin and Yang, especially in roles of authority. Paradoxically, the very sexist nature of the Court means that in general female Jade Court members tend to be more ruthless, competent and dangerous than their male counterparts.???
Yin is characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse, cold, wet, and passive; and is associated with water, earth, the moon, femininity and nighttime.
Yang, by contrast, is fast, hard, solid, focused, hot, dry, and aggressive; and is associated with fire, sky, the sun, masculinity and daytime.
Catch is (sunlight for both along with Bamboo(Yin) or Lead (Yang) (+3) as well as True Love (and True PeaceisWrath has been added) for Yang vampires or True Courage (and True Hopeisdespair has been added) for Yin Vampires.
In addition to the above powers Yang vampires may add or increase the following:
Add Inhuman Toughness (-2)
Increase Speed to Supernatural (-2)
Add Inhuman Strength (-2)
Add Emotional Vampire(Lust) (-1)
Increase range and potency of Incite Emotion and add the emotion of wrath (but not fear or despair)
Yininversethe above list with
Add Inhuman Recovery(-2)
Increase Strength to Supernatural (-2)
Add Inhuman Speed
Add Emotional vampire (fear)(-1)
Increase range and potency of Incite Emotion and add the emotion of despair (but notfearor wrath)
1. Wow, those are some bizarre weaknesses.
2. I think that Power could use work. Its base effect makes Claws/Natural Weaponry look lame, and I don't see why you couldn't perform a block with it without the Magic Eater upgrade.
3. I'm having some trouble extracting a template from that statblock. Which Powers are Musts? What are the Options and the important skills? What's the blurb like?
if a character with it randomly stumbles across the Merlin's corpse at some point in the game he'll have Epic Discipline forever for 1 Refresh.
Actually Mimic abilities only works while the person you mimic is alive.
How would you recommend balancing Vulcanomancy?
The skinwalker is still weird. I'm trying to imagine how I can limit Modular Abilities to only wearing a skin. A homebrew power would work but empirical evidence suggests I am pretty bad at those. Limitation might but the rebate would be weird.
Does The Catch apply to their always-on Recovery?
Alrighty then. Because I do math like fish do bicycles, I may have messed up the interaction between Human Form and Limitation. Constructive criticism is welcome. First, the Vesuvian.Okay, I'm sorry, but by Supernatural Sense: Bullshit Detection is going off a little bit here. Your "Limitation" is that he can't use his Strength, Toughness and Recovery unless he's near a large, open flame. And as an "Oh, by the way" he also has at least two super-quick methods (Vulcanomancy and Breath Weapon) to create said large, open flame. Yeah. No. Maybe if you pegged his Vulcanomancy and his Breath Weapon to the Limitation, that might work. Otherwise, no, I don't see this as a viable template.(click to show/hide)
Okay, I'm sorry, but by Supernatural Sense: Bullshit Detection is going off a little bit here. Your "Limitation" is that he can't use his Strength, Toughness and Recovery unless he's near a large, open flame. And as an "Oh, by the way" he also has at least two super-quick methods (Vulcanomancy and Breath Weapon) to create said large, open flame. Yeah. No. Maybe if you pegged his Vulcanomancy and his Breath Weapon to the Limitation, that might work. Otherwise, no, I don't see this as a viable template.
-I agree on the Human Form double dip thing, but I think i misread your earlier posts about how it would be a good mechanic for the skins. I'm not going to just make constant little edits to the thing- I'm editing it in a google doc and i'll post the full thing when I'm comfortable with it.
-Skins are meant to be enchanted objects essentially usuable only for this and maybe Armor. The base Skinwalker has four skin slots from his Ritual:Biomancy.
-I'm switching back and forth on the form points because i'm really uncomfortable with them being able to have Mythic anything, but i want them to be able to have both building blocks, Echoes maybe, and some Creature Features stuff. Blood, bracken and bone but i am terrible at math. Sorry once more.
-Rereading Tricked, skinwalkers probably have Demonic-Co Pilot but that power is kind of awful IMO.
Can Valkyries take Refinement?
Here's a Template I thought of a long time ago, but never wrote.
AGENT OF FATE
johntfs, the Dragonborn looks pretty good except for the copypasta Sponsored Magic at the end.
Though I would hesitate to allow people to take both Claws and Breath Weapon. It's such a bad idea...
I was borrowing from another Template and the Storm stuff got stuck on the end. I've deleted it. As for Claws and Breath Weapon, a normal mortal gets the same effects for 0 Refresh if she has a knife and a pistol. Plus, Breath Weapon is Feeding Dependent and both of them are "form dependent."
I'm thinking of adding a new potential ability called "cannibal" which gives a +1 to attempts to kill and eat sentient beings. Essentially this would be a "Lawbreaker" ability for the Dragonborn and would stack with each "cannibalism" incident.
@vultur: Okay, I'll add that to the list.
Have you seen the Variable Abilities and Supernatural Martial Arts custom Powers? I think they might interest you.
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Most games are at least somewhat similar to one another.
So while there is plenty of variation, white-room estimates are still useful.
To extend the mental illness analogy further, it's totally possible to say that drug X (Refresh Rebate X) is good for illness Y (Limitation Y). You wouldn't want to take X without consulting your doctor (GM), but the general statement is still useful.
Now could someone report this thread and get it moved to Resources? I dislike having to dig it up when I want to add to it.