Scabmettler: Scabs & Shields

[yackronin]

“The Best Offence”

Characteristics: Constitution, Willpower, Strength
Skills: Arcana, Athletics, Brawl, Crafts, Command, Intimidation, Medicae, Perception, Weaponry,
Sword Schools: Iron Heart, Confused Turtle
Magic Schools: Biomancy, Healing
Bonus for Completion: +1 to all body parts natural AP

Thrombophiliac
Level: 1
Prerequisites: Crafts 1, Medicae 1
Feats:
Fast Reflexes
Armor Prof (Light)
Blood Guard
Power Attack OR Spell Might
*Powerful Charge OR Tested
Sound Constitution
*Sound Constitution

Clot Apprentice
Level: 2
Prerequisites: Medicae 2, Crafts 2, Blood Guard
Feats:
Evasion
Armor Prof (Medium)
*Blood Guard
Mortu-crutt I
Spell Focus (any) OR Furious Assault OR Corpus Conversion
Sound Constitution
*Sound Constitution

Scabmettler
Level: 3
Prerequisites: Medicae 3, Crafts 3, Mortu-crutt I, Sound Constitution
Feats:
Ki Strike
Guardian OR Spell Focus (any)
Sound Constitution
*Sound Constitution
Armor Prof (Heavy)
Touch Spell Specialisation OR Defensive Mobility OR Blood Sacrifice
*Blood Guard
Mortu-crutt II

Scarred Knight
Level: 4
Prerequisites: Medicae 4, Crafts 4, Mortu-crutt II, Sound Constitution
Feats:
Blademaster OR Mental Fortress
Fearless
Combat Master OR Greater Spell Focus
Sound Constitution
*Sound Constitution
*Blood Guard
Mortu-crutt III

Sanguine Master
Level: 5
Prerequisites: Medicae 5, Crafts 5, Mortu-crutt IV
Feats:
Cleave OR Spell Focus (School)
Death before Defeat OR Armor Prof (Power)
Iron Curtain
Spell Mastery OR Counter Attack OR Blood Tracery
*Sound constitution
*Blood Guard
Mortu-crutt II

New Feats:

Blood Guard:
By making tactical cuts along your body, your over coagulating blood hardens into armored plates. For 1HP per cut you gain 1AP per instance of Blood Guard taken over each body location. This effect reaches 4AP per location before conventional armor is unable to be worn. This armor is of poor quality. In combat this is a Full Action, and all AP gained this way is lost at the start of the next day.

At 1-5 AP it is considered Light armor.
At 5 &6 AP it is considered Medium armor.
At 7 & 8 AP it is considered Heavy armor.
At 9 AP it is considered Power armor.
>5 AP caps dexterity at 6
>6 AP caps dexterity at 5
>7 AP caps dexterity at 4
>8 AP caps dexterity at 3
>9 AP caps dexterity at 2
>10 AP caps dexterity at 1

Mortu-crutt I:
An apprentice of Mortu-crutt learns to specialize their own methods of utilizing Mortu-crutt. The Apprentice chooses one of three Paths: The Sanguine Fury, The Clot-Knight, or The Red Mendicant. Selecting Mortu-crutt I more than once allows you to select an additional path.

Sanguine Fury:
The Sanguine Fury balances offense and defense. While they are unable to create Scab Armor beyond 4 AP, they can create Spiked Scab Armor. These spikes deal 1k1 damage to a melee attacker that misses their attack against you.

Clot Knight:
The Clot-Knight vastly increases the defensive power of their Scab Armor. You can increase AP per HP to 3AP per HP lost. Additionally, you may spend 1HP to, in 1 round, create a poor quality shield.

Red Medicant:
The Red Mendicant sacrifices defense to focus entirely on offense. You can create needles on your knuckles from your scab tissues for 1HP. Your unarmed attacks gain 1k1 I and the Toxic quality.

Mortu-crutt II:
Each path has the prerequisite of following the path in Mortu-crutt I.

Sanguine Fury:
Your abnormally high blood pressure allows you to fire the rapidly clotting blood as projectile shards for 1HP per shot dealing 2k2 I with 0 PEN. this acts as a Full Action.

Clot Knight:
Your greater mastery of your clots allows you a sort of reflexive armor. After taking HP damage from a weapon you gain 1AP from the same source, eg. Autogun, revolver, scyth and rapier are different sources, but 2 boltguns would count as the same source. This acts as a reactive action.

Red Medicant:
On a successful strike with the Medicant’s needles, the needles are broken off and must be reformed. A target struck by the Red Mendicant must succeed vs the Toxicity check or be injected with a small portion of the Scabmettler's quick clotting blood. Failure results in an effect from below. A single target may only be affected once per combat.

Head	Stroke: Blinded or Deafened
Body	Heart Attack: Deal 2k1 damage
Gizzards	Halves static defense
Arm	Increases TN of attacks made by the target by 5
Leg	Halves movement

Mortu-crutt III:
Each path has the prerequisite of following the path in Mortu-crutt II.

Sanguine Fury:
Spending 1HP immediately sprays a dramatic fountain of blood, crystalising mid-flight dealing 3k2 R damage with 3 PEN.

Clot Knight:
No penalties to Dexterity from scab armor and always acts as unarmored for non-damage purposes. Additionally, it now acts as Average quality armor.

Red Medicant:
The Red Mendicant manipulates the iron in their blood to create explosive shrapnel with their Scab Gauntlets. With a punch, you may sacrifice any amount of HP in order to deal it as X1.5kX damage in a cone in front of them. This destroys the Scab Gauntlets on their hands, which must be reformed.

[Lestat]

Class Track

SPOILER: Click to show

Characteristics: Constitution, Willpower, Strength
Skills: Arcana, Athletics, Brawl, Crafts, Command, Intimidation, Medicae, Perception, Weaponry,
Sword Schools: Iron Heart, Confused Turtle
Magic Schools: Biomancy, Healing
Bonus for Completion: +1 to all body parts natural AP

Thrombophiliac
Level: 1
Prerequisites: Crafts 1, Medicae 1
Feats:
Fast Reflexes
Armor Prof (Light)
Blood Guard
Power Attack OR Spell Might
*Powerful Charge OR Tested
Sound Constitution
*Sound Constitution

Clot Apprentice
Level: 2
Prerequisites: Medicae 2, Crafts 2, Blood Guard
Feats:
Evasion
Armor Prof (Medium)
*Blood Guard
Mortu-crutt I
Spell Focus (any) OR Furious Assault OR Corpus Conversion
Sound Constitution
*Sound Constitution

Scabmettler
Level: 3
Prerequisites: Medicae 3, Crafts 3, Mortu-crutt I, Sound Constitution
Feats:
Ki Strike
Guardian OR Spell Focus (any)
Sound Constitution
*Sound Constitution
Armor Prof (Heavy)
Touch Spell Specialisation OR Defensive Mobility OR Blood Sacrifice
*Blood Guard
Mortu-crutt II

Scarred Knight
Level: 4
Prerequisites: Medicae 4, Crafts 4, Mortu-crutt II, Sound Constitution
Feats:
Blademaster OR Mental Fortress
Fearless
Combat Master OR Greater Spell Focus
Sound Constitution
*Sound Constitution
*Blood Guard
Mortu-crutt III

Sanguine Master
Level: 5
Prerequisites: Medicae 5, Crafts 5, Mortu-crutt IV
Feats:
Cleave OR Spell Focus (School)
Death before Defeat OR Armor Prof (Power)
Iron Curtain
Spell Mastery OR Counter Attack OR Blood Tracery
*Sound constitution
*Blood Guard
Mortu-crutt II

Confusing completion bonus. It seems as if you don't want it to work in worn armor, or do you? Armor stacking and types aren't a fully fleshed out and well thought part of the system, so most things that interact with armor specify exactly what it works with and how like bonuses to Wholeness of Body.

It also says Mortu-crutt IV is a prerequisite for level 5 when it doesn't exist, and it gives Blood Tracery as an option when that isn't a feat.

Blood Guard

SPOILER: Click to show

Blood Guard:
By making tactical cuts along your body, your over coagulating blood hardens into armored plates. For 1HP per cut you gain 1AP per instance of Blood Guard taken over each body location. This effect reaches 4AP per location before conventional armor is unable to be worn. This armor is of poor quality. In combat this is a Full Action, and all AP gained this way is lost at the start of the next day.

At 1-5 AP it is considered Light armor.
At 5 &6 AP it is considered Medium armor.
At 7 & 8 AP it is considered Heavy armor.
At 9 AP it is considered Power armor.
>5 AP caps dexterity at 6
>6 AP caps dexterity at 5
>7 AP caps dexterity at 4
>8 AP caps dexterity at 3
>9 AP caps dexterity at 2
>10 AP caps dexterity at 1

Vampires and Daemonhosts have arbitrary amounts of resource regen, and Dragonblooded can restore 120 resource points an hour, this concept of stacking benefits based on HP/resources spent doesn't work with core DtD. This feat is also complex enough to warrant a chart which should always be a last resort, has a limitation in combat that makes it useless on its own without other interactions, gives you Power Armor at AP 9 (counting as power armor for the purposes of static defense isn't the same as counting as power armor wholesale), counts your armor as poor quality which adds unnecessary math and complexity that doesn't make any sense: poor armor gives -1 AP, does that effect the chart progression, most notably when you spend 1 HP you still have 0 AP. It also seems to be Wholeness of Body/Feed the Meat with extra steps, it also dips into natural armor and worn armor blending which are already poorly worded and defined parts of the game.

Also past 9 AP it is not counted as any type of armor, only 1-9 are defined.

Additionally gaining more armor per activation based on how many times you've taken the feat leads to oddities like being unable to reach certain breakpoints, or have your armor count as a certain type.

Mortu-crutt I

SPOILER: Click to show

Mortu-crutt I:
An apprentice of Mortu-crutt learns to specialize their own methods of utilizing Mortu-crutt. The Apprentice chooses one of three Paths: The Sanguine Fury, The Clot-Knight, or The Red Mendicant. Selecting Mortu-crutt I more than once allows you to select an additional path.

Sanguine Fury:
The Sanguine Fury balances offense and defense. While they are unable to create Scab Armor beyond 4 AP, they can create Spiked Scab Armor. These spikes deal 1k1 damage to a melee attacker that misses their attack against you.

Clot Knight:
The Clot-Knight vastly increases the defensive power of their Scab Armor. You can increase AP per HP to 3AP per HP lost. Additionally, you may spend 1HP to, in 1 round, create a poor quality shield.

Red Medicant:
The Red Mendicant sacrifices defense to focus entirely on offense. You can create needles on your knuckles from your scab tissues for 1HP. Your unarmed attacks gain 1k1 I and the Toxic quality.

The fluff of Red Meidcant is extremely conflicting. It imposes no penalty on your AP, but is said to be full offense no defense while Sanguine Fury is said to be balanced, and loses the potential of their armor. Also Sanguine Fury sticks out as being the only one with a downside, which means if you were forced to take this three times via other classes potentially using it you would be forced to take a downside. It also doesn't make clear if non-cost defined bonuses like Spiked Scab Armor are perpetual and passive, and whether any of these effects you do spend HP on dissipate at the end of the day like the core feat. Additionally a poor quality shield is worse than a simple common item, and it supposedly takes an entire "1 round" to create the shield meaning you don't get it until next turn. Also do these HP costs take no action, or the same action as the core feat?

Additionally for Sanguine Fury it likely just would cap any AP gotten from Scab Armor to 4, but if you take all the Blood Guard feats you would create 5.

Mortu-crutt II

SPOILER: Click to show

Mortu-crutt II:
Each path has the prerequisite of following the path in Mortu-crutt I.

Sanguine Fury:
Your abnormally high blood pressure allows you to fire the rapidly clotting blood as projectile shards for 1HP per shot dealing 2k2 I with 0 PEN. this acts as a Full Action.

Clot Knight:
Your greater mastery of your clots allows you a sort of reflexive armor. After taking HP damage from a weapon you gain 1AP from the same source, eg. Autogun, revolver, scyth and rapier are different sources, but 2 boltguns would count as the same source. This acts as a reactive action.

Red Medicant:
On a successful strike with the Medicant’s needles, the needles are broken off and must be reformed. A target struck by the Red Mendicant must succeed vs the Toxicity check or be injected with a small portion of the Scabmettler's quick clotting blood. Failure results in an effect from below. A single target may only be affected once per combat.

Head Stroke: Blinded or Deafened
Body Heart Attack: Deal 2k1 damage
Gizzards Halves static defense
Arm Increases TN of attacks made by the target by 5
Leg Halves movement

Needlessly complex on multiple levels for requiring an extra "prerequisite".

This feat has multiple options like other feats with an in-feat choice, but it doesn't have all options open from the beginning. That means that the feat is optional if you run across it without the prior path, but if you gain that path later it would not have been optional anymore leading to classes with "mandatory" feats that were skipped. First this feat is given to you at level 3 and 5, but Mortu-crutt I is only given once at level 2, meaning you would just skip Mortu-crutt II at 5th level leaving it pointless.

Unlike the other options in Mortu-crutt I Sanguine Fury states that spending HP for a unique effect is a full action, however it is unclear if you can spend as much HP as you want per full action for as many shots as you want.

Clot Knight is so overly fiddly and has no place in DtD. It doesn't define if it lasts forever so it by default does, similar to the problem with Mortu-crutt I where it doesn't define when if ever your effects dissipate unlike Blood Guard. It also is comparable to Volver where it only calls such an effect when they would die, it cares about damage type instead of countless individual sources, and gives immunity to critical damage from that source. This effect is constant paperwork that slows down an already snail paced game. Combat is complex enough without minigames.

Toxicity check > Toxic property. Heart Attack doesn't seem correct: it deals 2k1 damage, but not of any type. If it was a straight roll of wounds it would be overpowered at 8.3 wounds on average. If not then it would be assumed to be physical damage stopped by armor which wouldn't make sense, but isn't defined. Also without a damage type there are damage-type caring exaltations in an odd position. Also it does not say when if ever these effects dissipate.

Mortu-crutt III:

SPOILER: Click to show

Mortu-crutt III:
Each path has the prerequisite of following the path in Mortu-crutt II.

Sanguine Fury:
Spending 1HP immediately sprays a dramatic fountain of blood, crystalising mid-flight dealing 3k2 R damage with 3 PEN.

Clot Knight:
No penalties to Dexterity from scab armor and always acts as unarmored for non-damage purposes. Additionally, it now acts as Average quality armor.

Red Medicant:
The Red Mendicant manipulates the iron in their blood to create explosive shrapnel with their Scab Gauntlets. With a punch, you may sacrifice any amount of HP in order to deal it as X1.5kX damage in a cone in front of them. This destroys the Scab Gauntlets on their hands, which must be reformed.

Most of the same issues with Mortu-crutt III with Mortu-crutt II having extra prerequisites, it isn't built robustly to withstand other classes using anything other than a tightly controlled pre-defined line of succession of feats taken in order. Classes are meant to be able to be taken half way, or even jumped up to midway through a level. If you don't want anyone to be able to take any of these feats out of order it would still need better level prerequisites, and order/amounts in which Mortu-crutt 1-3 are given.

Sanguine Fury's wording implies it is a rider effect attached to spending any HP, but is it meant to work with any effect that spends HP such as an Exalt power?

Clot Knight fixes issues with poor quality armor, but it shouldn't require an extra feat to fix those issues. Also this effect causes all bonuses to worn armor to stop working, and suddenly unarmored bonuses begin to work. To have a major shift if what your build should optimize for at a very late level is very awkward. Also if you wanted to be super worn armor bonus guy taking Clot Knight you're shit out of luck when you get here, and hopefully read ahead.

Red Medicant needs to define what X is, and it needs to make it clear that X1.5kX requires multiplication as often you simply plug in X for abilities. It isn't clearly written at all to be frank, and should probably not deal with multiplying by 1.5 at all. Also lets say you spend 20 hit points, with your Sound Con you should still have a little left over. You would then deal 30k20 or 10k10 + 150, average 211. To a level 5 human with sturdy, machinator array and power armor with 17 AP (12 Power Armor + 5 from a class track) they would take 211 - 16AP = 194/9Res = 22 wounds. Lets say you take another class track with at least 5 sound cons in it for a total of 34 HP. You can spend it all to deal 51k34 or 10k10 + 325 or 386 on average. That same human would take 35 wounds. For ever hit point you spend past 10k10 you're dealing 10 extra damage, if their resilience is below 10 you will always deal more than you take. I've been in an over 10k XP test game with a player that had a 60+ HP character, and even though that's an extreme example characters can get tons of life.

Also it doesn't give the length or degrees this cone has, and even more importantly it has no counterplay. It simply deals this damage not just to one enemy, but everything.

A lot of these feats seem overwrought and scratch paper prone. Using 1 HP to gain 1 Armor that changes you worn armor type forces a player to: erase and rewrite their HP, erase and rewrite their AP, erase and rewrite their SD, and if it causes certain other feats like proficiency or bonuses to a certain kind of armor to change it also needs a full check of what feats do and do not apply anymore. When you have as many feats at DtD each one needs to be as unobtrusive as possible, and be prone to being locked in rather than an ever changing bonus. If every feat had ever changing bonuses nothing would be playable.

[GuardianTempest]

I agree with the criticism posted above. The attempt at directing the source material is too direct, becoming obtuse as a result. Even most exalts aren't this prone to subsystem bloat. Also, you should link to any homebrew schools (Confused Turtle, Biomancy).

You can't have three OR feats, it's either one or the other. Since this is a brute force-ish support class, you can drop Spell Mastery, Defensive Mobility and Furious Assault. Sure, you're not being as specialized as a proper wizard/rogue/barbarian but you're not supposed to be—you're a scabmettler, you have your own niche. In fact I think you should drop the alternate feats altogether and make Corpus/Blood stuff mandatory.

Completion bonus can be reworded to "natural armor provides +1 AP" which can stack scarily from Scarabyn, plus core books don't exactly use the term "natural armor". Armor from non-worn sources? No, it would bizarrely stack with Prometheans. Maybe +1 to the AP provided by Blood Guard if it's so integral (though Feed the Meat is just good enough). I have an idea though but it's probably not a good one. IMO, you could probably drop all those armor proficiency feats and instead have the class rely exclusively on natural armor.

Blood Guard (this is a one-off feat, not meant to be taken multiple times)
Your bodily fluids have some kind of coagulating properties that cause it to harden upon bleeding. Whenever you are dealt wounds the attacked body part gets +1 AP for each Hit Point lost, to a maximum of your Constitution, until the end of the scene. This feat does not work on bionic limbs since they don't bleed.

Blood Guard Alternative (presumably added at a later level) (parallel to numbed nerves)
<fluff> Gain +1 Resilience while suffering from Blood Loss.

I'd like to try my hand at providing suggestions for the Mortu-Crutt feats but I'm so unfamiliar with the source material that I can't do it. Still, I believe that it can be streamlined further. Red Mendicant I could just be "Spend 1 Hit Point to create Caestus w/ Toxic, lasts until end of scene or removed as a Full Action" while Clot Knight II could just be "Gain +X AP to all hit locations until the end of the next round, where X is number of wounds dealt to you." Those ideas need polishing though, I don't think you should take it as-is.