Novitiate
Dec 29, 2022 10:06:13 GMT -6
Post by GuardianTempest on Dec 29, 2022 10:06:13 GMT -6
Imagine a world where 99.9% of the Great Wheel's way of life doesn't exist. A world so droll that most of its inhabitants seek out small glimpses of pleasure and luxury in their daily lives. They dream of escaping the boring monotony to seek out something better, either achieving something greater than themselves or taking solace from an unjust world. Usually those people just continue on their life, either coping with what they have or sticking to escapist fiction. Others just do the impossible by achieving their desires the hard way: with hard work and determination. Very rarely, a few finally get their wish when something strange happens to them.
They could hail from a universe with different laws of physics, seeing the Great Wheel as a strange world of cardboard. A Random Omnipotent Being may have whisked them away, giving them a bevy of superpowers in exchange for entertaining the observer. It's possible they are chosen ones from across dimensions taken by elaborate summoning rituals. Or perhaps they died in a freak accident and the afterlife took pity on them before reincarnation. Regardless of how they arrived into the Great Wheel, the results are all the same: mind-numbingly out-of-touch berks with unfathomable power and a total lack of self-awareness. They either take this too seriously or not seriously enough.
At least, that's the theory everyone is operating on. Why else are they so overpowered yet so unaccustomed? It's not like they're a desperate entity's attempts at gathering reinforcements or something like that. If that were true then Novitiates would behave a lot more competently.
Static Powers
From Another Turf, Another Life: You start with the Clueless hindrance. Veteran o' the Wheel and Ugly as Sin may not be taken. Hindrances gained by Novitiate powers do not grant XP nor do they count towards the maximum amount that can be taken at character creation. Whenever you would roll for Insanity Points, the shock table or the Mental Trauma table, roll twice and choose the worse result.
Outside-Context Problem: Begin play at Devotion 2. You can't put more than one background dot in Backing, Contacts, Fame, Followers and Status at character creation. Your Primary characteristics have 5 dots to allocate while your Tertiary characteristics have 3.
Hardly Heroic: You can't have more raises on a test than your Wish Fulfillment, and your Hero Points are already spent at the start of each session (they can still be burned). One spent Hero Point can be replenished by choosing one of the following effects as a free action:
- Reroll a successful test once. The results of the reroll are final.
- Increase the TN of a roll by 5. This must be chosen before dice are rolled.
- Add a check to an already failed test. This can only be chosen if the test takes up a Half Action or longer.
- Count as having rolled a 1 for initiative
- Become stunned for one round, ignoring Iron Jaw and other events that prevent stunning. This option is only available in combat.
You can't replenish a hero point on the same turn you spend one (and vice-versa). Hero points spent on feats, spells, equipment and Transcendence can't be replenished for the rest of the session.
Adventurer Template: Novitiates are as varied as they can be but they all seem to blend together. Choose one of the following options:
- Vanilla Hero: Gain the Law o' the Stars hindrance, the Driven asset and the Fearless feat.
- Villain Reborn: Begin play with the Witch-Mark degeneration. Gain the Nine Lives asset, and the feats Obtain Familiar and Worf Effect.
- Revenge Fantasy: Gain the Vengeful hindrance, the Tough as Nails asset, and the Devastating Critical Feat.
- Reincar-Native: Begin play with a major derangement (Conflicting Memories) and 20 Insanity Points. Outside-Context Problem does not restrict your background dots and you can take Veteran o' the Wheel.
- Selected Successor: Gain the Enemy hindrance, the Spirit Mentor asset, and additional items following the guidelines of Inheritance 3.
- Everyman: Gain the Wimpy hindrance, the Level Headed asset, and the feats Luck and Unremarkable.
Power Stat: Wish Fulfillment
A Novitiate's Wish Fulfillment is their growing immersion into their new lives in the Great Wheel as they become further detached from the life they lived before. A Novitiate don't necessarily get stronger as their Wish Fulfillment grows, they just get more powers at their convenience.
Resource Stat: Spectacle
A Novitiate has Spectacles equal to twice their Wish Fulfillment. They recover 1 Spectacle each time they suffer critical damage, succeed on a test that benefits from the Aid Another action, choose not to keep any exploding die on a test that isn't a magic roll, or upon failing a test that takes up a Half Action or longer with one or more checks.
Tell:
A Novitiate's tell is the absolutely ostentatious display of power brought about by their myriad of abilities, coupled with an equally-annoying aura of contrivance. There's a visible discrepancy between the effects of their actions and the effort in making them. The more Spectacles a Novitiate spends, the more it's clear that they're being coddled by their own exaltation.
Wish Fulfillment | Power Gained |
✱ | Thaumaturgical Toolbox: Choose a Level 1 spell that doesn't have the Subtle keyword. Whenever you increase your Wish Fulfillment, gain additional non-Subtle spells with a total combined level equal to the new rating to the list. (e.g. Wish Fulfillment 2 gives a pair of Level 1 spells or a single Level 2 spell.) You may gain access to a spell chosen for this power until the end of the scene by spending Spectacles equal to its level. These spells are cast using Wish Fulfillment instead of a magic school. Casting this way removes the Focus and Material keywords, and adds the Verbal keyword if the spell doesn't already have it. |
✱✱ | Integrated Materia: Choose a single 2-dot hearthstone (except for Gem of Sending) or a pair of one-dot hearthstones. You may spend Spectacles equal to a chosen hearthstone's cost to gain their effects until the end of the scene. Effects that exclusively apply to weapons attached to the hearthstone instead apply to your unarmed attacks, natural weapons and spells with damage rolls. Whenever you increase your Wish Fulfillment, choose additional hearthstones with a total combined dots equal to the new rating. |
✱✱✱ | Martial Distillation: Choose three passive benefits you don't already have from any Sword School or Gun Kata (like Wind Step or Full Frontal). You may spend 3 Spectacles to access one of them until the end of the scene, using your Wish Fulfillment instead of your ranks in that school/kata. Only one passive benefit may be active at a time. Choose a new passive benefit whenever you increase your Wish Fulfillment, or upon gaining enough school ranks to avail a passive benefit already chosen for this power. |
✱✱✱✱ | Transcendence: Choose a magical material, you may spend a hero point to benefit from that material until the end of the scene. Your arms, legs and heart gain the bonuses of their bionic equivalents made out of the chosen material. Apply the material's melee weapon bonus to your melee attacks and damaging spells with the Touch keyword. Apply the special ammunition bonus to your ranged attacks and damaging spells with the Ranged Touch keyword. This power doesn't apply if the body part or attack already has the effect of a magical material. |
✱✱✱✱✱ | Hyper Heroic: Gain a Hero Point, which may not be burnt. Hardly Heroic no longer restricts the maximum amount of raises you can have on a successful test. If you did not purchase a Cheat Asset back in character creation, you may spend Spectacles to add extra raises on an already successful test, spending 1 Spectacle for every additional raise. Spectacles spent this way cannot be replenished for the rest of the session. |
Novitiate Cheat Assets
Neutronium Physics
You come from an incompatible universe, one that grants you world-breaking power due to differences in weight and density. Gain +1 Resilience against nonmagical damage and +2k0 to rolls that involve physical characteristics. You get one wound for every five meters you fall instead of two. Lastly, you weigh five times as much as a normal person and may no longer swim.
Relationship Singularity
Bitches will congregate towards your dick like it was made of caffeinated heroin. You are always under the effects of the Attraction spell, with the saving throw being Level+Willpower or Composure against a TN of 10 + 5 times your Wish Fulfillment. Targets of your social attacks halve their Willpower (round up) for the purposes of building/eroding Disposition. Whenever you build/erode a character's Disposition towards something, you build their Disposition towards you by one step. This effect stacks if that something is also you.
Prime Weapon
With a weapon this awesome you don't need anything else. Gain a weapon that's Rare or of a lower rarity. The chosen weapon has the common traits of artifacts and is always under the effects of the Call Item spell. Whenever you increase your Wish Fulfillment, you may either apply up to (Wish Fulfillment+1) compatible weapon mods or replace it with a new weapon entirely. The modified weapon or its replacement can't have a rarity higher than X steps above Uncommon where X is your new Wish Fulfillment rating. You may specify "Prime Weapon" for Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and their improved versions, which always apply to this asset's weapon no matter what form it takes.
Universal Crafting Interface
It's like one of my survival sandbox games! Gain a personal inventory space which functions like a Bag of Holding only you can use. You can create any non-artifact non-Syrneth object with acquisition tests using (Level+Wish Fulfillment)k5 instead of Wealth. Doing so poses no risk of Wealth strain and instead requires placing manufacturing materials inside the inventory space. The creation process takes the half the time as a normal Wealth test does and if the test fails the materials are deposited back into your inventory space. Only one object can be created at a time with this asset.
Mana Eater
You're like a hole in the shape of a person. Gain the Magic Resistance asset, its effect becomes "The TN of all enemy spells directed at you is increased by 5 times your Wish Fulfillment." If a focus power test fails because of this asset, you may either heal HP equal to the spell's level, or temporarily place the spell into your Thaumaturgical Toolbox list until the end of the scene. If an ongoing spell would affect you (e.g. you walk into an Incendiary Cloud), it is affected by this asset if its level is lower than your Wish Fulfillment.
Gamer's Physiology
A very coveted power as video game characters operate on a simpler level of reality. Gain the Hardy feat and the Stuff of Nightmares trait. Mind-influencing psychic effects only affect you if the TN to resist is higher than your Mental Defense + 5 times your Wish Fulfillment. (i.e. ignore effects with TN of 30 or lower at Composure 2 and Wish Fulfillment 3) This asset doesn't apply to fear and addiction. Your tell causes numbers and user interfaces to pop up as if this is all a video game.
Critter Mode
"I'm an Aboleth, so what?!" Choose a non-Modron creature in the Dramatis Personae with a Level equal to or lower than your Wish Fulfillment. You may transform into the chosen creature (with your own cosmetic touches) and back as a Full Action, replacing its exaltation powers and resource stat with yours (if it has any). Critical damage is retained between forms. The transformation has additional dots equal to twice your Wish Fulfillment, +2 if the creature doesn't have a racial power, +2 if the creature doesn't have a resource stat, and +3 x (Wish Fulfillment - creature's level). These dots can be put into any characteristic or skill of the transformation (to a maximum of 5). A dot may also be exchanged for a feat your normal self already has. Whenever you increase your Wish Fulfillment, you may change what creature you transform into.
Optional Rule
With SM approval, you may expand your selection to include the Simple Expanded Bestiary, and maybe even non-unique entries in the Advanced Expanded Bestiary if the SM feels very generous.
"What if I want to use the Spirit Creation Rules?"
Eh, sure, if the SM allows it. Spirit Form uses your Spectacles for resource points. Additional BP equal to twice your WF.
With SM approval, you may expand your selection to include the Simple Expanded Bestiary, and maybe even non-unique entries in the Advanced Expanded Bestiary if the SM feels very generous.
"What if I want to use the Spirit Creation Rules?"
Eh, sure, if the SM allows it. Spirit Form uses your Spectacles for resource points. Additional BP equal to twice your WF.
Ultimate Do-Over
This isn't the first time you have arrived in the Great Wheel. In fact, you have lived an entire lifetime before starting over. Why did you go back? Gain the feats Eidetic Memory, Jaded and Paranoia. Replace the hindrance given by From Another Turf, Another Life with Big Britches, High Falutin', Intolerance, Loco or Night Terrors. You may purchase this as a second exaltation asset.
Runes of the Forbidden One
You gain a magic tattoo somewhere on your body that glows as your tell rises. At higher levels, your tell causes the tattoo's runes to appear in the air at a larger size. Atlanteans and anyone familiar with the Syrneth language may recognize these symbols then look at you with fear, pity, and/or scorn. Gain the Grim Servant o' Death hindrance and you lose a Hero Point. Choose one of the following options in place of your normal Adventure Template choices:
- Left Hand of Combat: You must pass a TN 20 Willpower test to willingly spare an enemy's life in combat. You are always proficient in non-improvised weapons, which gain +2k1 to attack and damage rolls. Weapon Proficiency, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization, and their improved versions are treated as optional feats and may not be taken.
- Right Hand of Control: Begin play with an acute derangement (Control Freak). Gain the feats Air of Authority, Armor of Contempt and Spell Penetration. You can concentrate to maintain Enchantment spells as a free action, and targets do not get bonuses to resist their effects based on the orders given.
- Mind of Sorcery: Begin play with the Ill-Fortuned degeneration. Gain the feats Daggerspell Stance, Spell Might and Tested. Double your Wish Fulfillment for determining the amount of spells Thaumaturgical Toolbox provides, but you can't choose spells with a higher level than your Wish Fulfillment for this ability.
- Heart of Sacrifice: Gain the Deathwish hindrance and the Mana Generator feat. You may spend Spectacles to add rolled dice to your Aid Another bonus (adding raises instead if you're using Mana Generator). You may also receive Energy critical damage to the Body as a free action to triple the amount of Spectacles spent for this asset.
Personified Patron
Eh? Me?! Uh...sure! I hope we'll be good friends together. I am your exaltation personified into a 1-dot Ally that doubles as a 1-dot Mentor. Unlike other Allies, I am created like a player character who gains the same amount of XP you do, plus another 1000 XP each time you increase your Wish Fulfillment. Because I am literally your exaltation, I share your exaltation powers but not any feats, hindrances and assets from it. I also share your alignment and hold a Helpful disposition towards you. On the other hand I use your hero points and can only place background dots in Artifact and Inheritance. I also can't spend XP to improve YOUR Power Stat for obvious reasons. You and I know each other's location at all times as per the Arcane Mark feat. If I die, I merely vanish to heal 1 HP per day but you lose all exaltation powers until I fully recover and return to your side. You also lose your exaltation powers if we are no longer aware of each other's presence (i.e. being in different Crystal Spheres or one is in the Astral plane while the other isn't).