Volver: Survive, Adapt, Overcome, Repeat
Aug 10, 2018 12:36:58 GMT -6
Post by Traskus on Aug 10, 2018 12:36:58 GMT -6
I can't find much about how the armor plating trait interacts with worn armor or wholeness of body. As such, I am making a declaration: the armor plating trait stacks with itself and other sources of natural armor, but not worn armor or wholeness of body.
Throughout the Wheel, certain individuals feel inspired to somehow accelerate evolution or create an "ultimate life form." This usually consists of creating a specimen that they understand to be a "perfect specimen" of their race, sending them to live in the harshest conditions they can find or create, waiting until it expires, and repeat the process with an adaptation to give the new one an advantage.
The eventual end result is millions of years of evolution over the course of maybe a decade. These are Volvers, and you're one of 'em. A Volver begins life as a fine specimen of their race, but the various adaptations programmed into their makeup show themselves as the Volver matures.
Statuesque: Each race gives a choice of +1 to two or more Characteristics. Choose one of those Characteristics you have not chosen before. You gain +1 to that stat.
Survival of the Fittest: Your adaptations don't just keep you alive, they keep you ahead. Gain the Hardy feat. Each time you burn a hero point to survive, note the damage types. Those types of damage can never inflict critical damage on you again. Instead, it deals a level of fatigue per critical damage that would be inflicted. Alternatively, this can apply to a single metal ore (like silver) and protect against it no matter what damage type it deals.
Aggressive Adaptation: Every time your Helix is increased, gain a specialty in a characteristic of your choice. You heal all injurious conditions (body part loss, blindness, deafness, etc.) upon healing all critical damage.
Darwin's Nightmare: Volvers are considered to be an unnatural creation, and their physiology matches. Medicae tests to stabilize or heal you take a check and cannot apply specialties. You may not take hindrances that create physical drawbacks such as lost limbs, sensory deprivation, less than normal starting dots, etc.
Power Stat: Helix
As Volver's Helix stat is in reference to its adaptation to its surroundings. As the Volver grows stronger, their biology starts to resemble what their race would look like after millions of years of evolution under the harshest stresses imaginable.
Even after spending experience and doing the paperwork for increasing Helix and the effects that follow, those effects do not activate until you spend a Pin as a full action to transform into your new more powerful form.
Resource Stat: Pins A Volver has a number of Pins equal to their Helix*3. A Pin is restored via a Medicae + Intelligence roll against TN 15, restoring one plus one per raise on the test. The process takes one hour. The Volver need not be the one to perform this test.
Tell: As a Volver spends Pins, their bodies twitch and convulse at random. Their bodies are trying to adapt to the new circumstances around them, and as more Pins are spent their bodies bulge in places, trying to grow a new adaptation.
Helix|Power Gained
1. Redundant Physiology Your body has created failsafes and redundancies that would generally be considered a waste of energy, but you make it work. You are immune to blood loss. The first time you would be dealt critical damage each scene, ignore that damage. This does stack with other ways to ignore critical damage.
2. Niche Filler: Select two traits from the Wild Shape and Improved Wild Shape feats. Apply those options to your character permanently. The Flyer trait's speed is equal to your own. If you select a trait you already had, it is additive if it could conceivably be.
3. Perfect Cells: You may spend a Pin to gain the Regeneration (1) trait for the next Helix + Constitution rounds or minutes. This may heal critical damage as well, at a rate of 1 critical damage per ten minutes. You may spend Pins to heal hit points in combat as a free action.
4. Niche Apex: Consider the selections you made for Niche Filler:
If you chose Amphibious, you can breathe underwater as well as on land and can survive up to 10km underwater.
If you chose armor, aura, or both, their effects triple.
If you chose Crawler, you may crawl your full speed.
If you chose Darksight, you also ignore adverse effects of bright light.
If you chose Flyer, the speed multiplier while flying increases by 1 (single speed becomes double, double becomes triple, etc.).
If you chose Quadruped, your base speed is increased by 2.
5. Ultimate Life Form: Your body has boundless potential, and all you need to do is meet it. Gain the Stuff of Nightmares Trait. In addition, the characteristics and skills in your Volver's primary groups can be raised to 6.
Volver Gene Assets
Apex Predator Genes
The top of the food chain, your metamorphosis has lead you to be a powerful wild animal. Gain a natural weapon (1k1 I or R, melee, brawling). At Helix 3, you may add a single +1 melee mod property to it. At Helix 5, you may add another that would conceivably coexist with it or discard the original mod and gain a +2 melee mod. Only one mod can force the target to make a test.
Augmented Genes
You have some sort of device that increases your power briefly. Refer to the characteristic increases found in character creation and statuesque. You may spend Pins to gain a +1k1 bonus to skill and characteristic rolls per Pin spent using the characteristics chosen for the next round or test (whichever is longer).
Blackboard Genes
You somehow have the ability to say "welp, that didn't work. Let's try again." Whenever you increase your Helix, you may discard your Niche Filler traits and select new ones. At Helix 5, you may spend a Pin to change it once per day in narrative time.
Celeritious Genes
Your genes have made you faster in travel and action. You may spend a Pin to take a full action as a half action.
Hardiness Genes
Not only do you have the ability to survive what has felled you before, you are more resistant to it. You have +1 resilience against any damage type or source that your Survival of the Fittest power is relevant to.
Reversion Genes
This technique has been part of digital life forms for untold time, and Frostlings were the first to learn it. You may suppress your Exaltation at will, losing all powers except this one. You may spend a Pin to get your Exaltation powers back as a full action. At Helix 3, this becomes a half action. This asset may be taken as a second exaltation asset at character creation.
