Alternate Oneiroi - Boneca

[GuardianTempest]

Alternate Oneiroi - Boneca

There are many Exaltations out there than can be created from scratch, but the effort and resources required puts them out of reach from most lonely mortals looking for a companion. Manufacturing a Promethean crashes the economy for their Pyros Reactor alone and Programs are born from anomalous feats of software engineering. For those who are lacking, there is a discount option available. It only takes some elbow grease, a cheap imitation of a race, and a surplus of exotic powers to animate them. Daemonic rituals, Getter energy, distilled Pyros infusion, souls of the damned; whatever you want as long as you can keep it locked inside long enough to bond with the construct. The process is relatively quick and can be done en masse, but it doesn't always work. However, when it does you have a Boneca (or several) at your hands.

Bonecas are simple constructs animated by their internal reservoir of energy, drawing from its reserves for self-locomotion and gradual self-repair. It is easily depleted, causing the constructs to become inert until their energy replenishes itself. As the cheapest and most basic of artificially-created Exalts, they are also the most expendable. Those sentient enough to realize it try to cling to their lease on life for as long as possible.

Tell:
A Boneca's tell is the strain exerted on the energy that animates them, causing their liveliness to waver upon spending Phosphenes. Their voice sounds hollow and tone-deaf, or even monotone at times, while their movements lose fluidity and become rigid. Uncanny mannerisms are exhibited and they begin acting more like puppets following a script that a living being with an artificial body.

Power Stat: Lucidity

Resource Stat: Phosphenes

Power	Replaced With
Dream Walker	Bootleg Construct
Fading Light	Hollowed Effigy
Well-Rested	Auto-Repair (cosmetic)
Lotus Eater	Crash Test Dummy
Reality Break	Artificial Soul

Bootleg Construct: You do not have any physiological needs or functions except for sleeping to recover energy. Each of your limbs track critical damage separately and does not use the Critical charts for damage. Instead, it is completely destroyed at 3 critical damage. Destroying your Head knocks you out until it is replaced, but destroying your Body is fatal. You have no Gizzards and attacks that would hit that location go to the Body instead. If you would gain fatigue, you lose an equal amount of Phosphenes instead.

Hollowed Effigy: You lose 1 Phosphene every hour while awake and immediately fall asleep when you run out. This dormancy lasts until you regain all your Phosphenes. Surging Abstraction does not give you Stuff of Nightmares and you cannot benefit from drugs, bionics and cybernetics. You also cannot purchase Upgraded, which is treated as an optional feat. Obtaining replacement parts requires 2 hours and either a TN 15 Wealth test or a TN 20 Crafts test.

Lucidity	Power Gained
✱	Sleepwalker
✱✱	Auto-Repair: As Well-Rested.
✱✱✱	Crash Test Dummy: Your limbs are destroyed at 5 critical damage instead of three. Your arms and legs fall off your body at 3 critical damage, and severed limbs can be reattached with a Full Action if they're still intact.
✱✱✱✱	Surging Abstraction
✱✱✱✱✱	Artificial Soul: The body you have may not be real, but the life within definitely is! You no longer lose Phosphenes every hour from Hollowed Effigy. Additionally, you gain 1 Phosphene at the beginning of your turn in structured time, which stops if you have 10 Phosphenes or more. Whenever you would spend Phosphenes to recover Hit Points, you may spend 5 to remove a point of Critical Damage from yourself instead.

Boneca Manufacturing Assets

Matryoshka
Whenever your Body or Head is destroyed, if your Size is 2 or more, you survive instead of dying or falling unconscious. You emerge from your previous body with no Critical Damage and your Lucidity in Hit Points. Your new body has -1 to Size and Resilience (both to a minimum of 1) compared to the previous one. You can restore yourself to your original size and Resilience with a Crafts test (done by someone else) or a Wealth test of TN 10 + 5 times the difference between your current Size and your original Size. You are unconscious during this process, which takes 4+(4*Size Difference) hours to prepare the nested bodies.

Ragdoll
Your cloth skin and cotton flesh is more than just for cuddling. Double your Resilience against Impact damage and you cannot lose Hit Points from falling. You take a minimum of one wound from weapons that deal Rending damage and a minimum of two from weapons with the Tearing property. Attacks that deal Energy damage force you to make a TN 15 Dexterity test or spend a Phosphene to avoid catching fire.

Dress-Up Doll
All that fashion improves more than your looks. Begin play with the Appearance asset and the Accessorize feat, with the latter providing an additional +0k1. Get a free raise to Charm, Disguise and Persuasion tests.

Piece of Junk
Your body is made out of shoddy materials and would be more at home in a junkyard. Reduce your Resilience by 2 (to a minimum of 1) and your threshold for losing limbs is one point lower (i.e. your limbs are destroyed at 2 critical damage, dislocated if you have Crash Test Dummy). The TN for acquiring replacement parts is 2 to both Wealth tests and Crafts tests (which take 5 minutes). As an Extended Action that requires two rounds and provokes, your limbs can be repaired with a TN 5 Crafts+Intelligence or Wisdom test, restoring a Hit Point for every raise on the test.

Battery
You can project your internal energy towards other items. Begin play with the Luminen Charge feat.

Homonculus
You're flesh and blood, at least at first glance. You can eat and drink if you want, and eating a full meal recovers your Lucidity in Phosphenes. You still cannot benefit from taking drugs.

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Sidebar: The Cognition of Bonecas (Simplified)

The Boneca's resource calculation has a very thematic reason on why it involves Mental characteristics. Take this into account if the players even decide to create their own.

Intelligence (Power): The "complexity" of the Boneca's mind. Intelligence is the difference between an animal plushie and a walking mannequin.
Wisdom (Finesse): How much "programming" the Boneca has. Wisdom determines mental acuity and the processing of stimuli to make decisions.
Willpower (Resilience): How "spirited" the Boneca is. Willpower measures the Boneca's level of independence.

[GuardianTempest]

This idea came about when I was pondering about the Oneiroi's Fading Light power (back then it was called Dreamer). I mentally compared it to Unknown-Person's Climber (the first image of the post) and how he has an energy supply that drains him. Needless to say, inspiration hit me like a truck.

This alt-exaltation is about being a bootleg Promethean, with less in the way of physical durability but also quicker recovery. Artificial Soul is potent especially in protracted fights, but keep in mind that it only goes up to a limit (8 if you have 5 in all Mental characteristics).

Hmmm, I'm planning on replacing either Matryoshka or Dress-Up Doll with Integrated Item. (Essentially your body is an item, gain more when you increase Lucidity.)

[lanugo1984]

Question: If I wanted to make a character that was an animated miniature (like a 40k mini, essentially. Tiny plastic man), do you think this exaltation would fit, or should there be a new exaltation for tiny plastic replicas given life?

[GuardianTempest]

Easiest way would be to take the homebrew Chibi asset (listed in the Homebrew Assets thread). If your race is Size 2, you can also take the Small asset (also in the homebrew asset thread). Lestat's Puppet race works as it can be Size 2-5 while also being a living construct without being a complex robot.

If you're going to play as a *group* of minis, then take the Swarm exaltation (either one), or play a Gemini with the Tatoo You! asset.

[GuardianTempest]

Buffed Artificial Soul by making the bookkeeping aspect easier, also the Phosphene regen at structured time is reduced. Here's the old iteration for comparison.

✱✱✱✱✱

Artificial Soul: The body you have may not be real, but the life within definitely is! You no longer lose Phosphenes every hour from Hollowed Effigy when you currently have a third of your full amount or lower (round down, to a maximum of 8). Additionally, you gain 3 Phosphenes at the beginning of your turn in structured time, which stops when you reach or exceed the aforementioned threshold. Whenever you would spend Phosphenes to recover Hit Points, you may spend 5 to remove a point of Critical Damage from yourself instead.