Alternate Promethean - Paradigm
Apr 4, 2020 7:38:45 GMT -6
Post by yackronin on Apr 4, 2020 7:38:45 GMT -6
Alternate Promethean - Paradigm: Neo-Ancient Machines
In modern times however, the Lotuses have begun to come online, seeking inhabitants who no longer exist in the materium. Endless failures led them to seek a ‘Repopulation’ of sorts. As such, those who are compatible with the network are sought out by a damaged system in hopes to restore a lost people. The modern Paradigm are those found compatable and connected to the Lotus in return for access to the old technology of Frames and the Shimin. The Paradigm are often viewed as a breed of immortal, or more often, ancient threat due to the uncomfortable similarity to the modrons as living technologies and converted beings. The inhuman appearance of many Frames and mind-based network structure does not do much to assuage these concerns.
Powers:
Static Powers:
Living Construct: A Paradigm is immune to Fatigue, Poison, and Disease. They are not subject to the same frailties as their fleshy companions. They also have no need to Eat, Drink, Sleep, or Breathe though they can still do so if they want. Because a Paradigm has a Pyros Reactor instead of a heart, they cannot benefit from a Bionic Heart or any of the artifact versions.
Augmented Prowess: You can perform most actions of exceptional physical finesse. Gain the Catfall feat and you always gain a 1k1 to acrobatics tests.
Disquiet: A Paradigm generates an aura of subtle wrongness. He takes -2k1 to all social rolls against non-exalts. Partly this is because of their status as living weapons and machine-like appearance. This is also, though, a partly magical effect.
Frame: You have multiple bio-mechanical bodies you can download your consciousness into called a Frame. You may possess a number of frames equal to 1+ Generation. It takes 1 hour and 1 Pyros to switch between or destroy Frames. Damage and derived statistics (Health, Speed, Static Defense etc) are shared between frames but otherwise there are no changes unless specified below in the guide to construct Frames.
POWER STAT: GENERATION
As a Paradigm Generation increases, he swaps out older equipment with newer gear. Most Paradigm must return to their place of birth or Lotus in order to increase their Generation, despite spending XP. As their generation goes up, most Paradigm also become more and more ornate in appearance, with extra components and gadgets being added over time. Every ability, spell, and feat a Paradigmhas might well come from these installed components.
Resource Stat: Pyros. The Paradigm regain one Pyros per hour as their internal reservoirs of magical essence generate power. They can hold Pyros equal to three times their Generation.
Generation Powers:
| Generation | Power |
| ★ | Frame Construction - Constructing a Frame requires a week of dedicated resource gathering, construction and 1 Pyros to activate the Frame once completed. Constructing a Frame follows the Frame Construction guide below. |
| ★★ | Integrated Weapons - A Promethean can integrate a number of weapons into his body equal to his Generation. These weapons are effectively concealed and can't be found by a normal search. He can draw them as a free action. |
| ★★★ | Transhuman Potential - A Promethean may spend Pyros to increase a characteristic by +1 for skill and characteristic tests, spending 1 Pyros for every +1 bonus. This bonus lasts only for one test or one round, whichever is longer. |
| ★★★★ | Emergency Disconnect - If you die, you emergency transfer to your nearest intact frame (albeit probably not close) with half of your maximum health and 0 Pyros. You are also able to, as a Free action, exchange Frames for 1 Pyros as long as you have another valid frame to enter within 5 meters. |
| ★★★★★ | The Sum Of Its Parts - For 1 Pyros and an hour of construction, you may combine 2 Standard Frames into a Prime Frame, combining their bonuses. Additionally you may either gain the Spell-like abilities of both Frames, or you may instead select any spell equal or lesser to your generation. Prime Frames use 3 slots of your Standard Frames and cannot be combined with other |
[FRAME CONSTRUCTION]:
Name: Your Frame's name!
Characteristic Alteration: +1 to a single Characteristic. This cannot exceed 7 and only affects raw characteristics and not derived attributes like Health, Speed and Static Defense.
Skill Bonus: +1 to 2 different Skills or +2 to a single Skill. These cannot exceed 7 each.
Spell-like Ability: You may add a Spell to your Frame from a Spell School with a level equal to or less than half your Generation (rounded up) when the Frame is constructed. The chosen spell cannot be pushed, fettered, or used in a spell-combo. The spell is cast with generation instead of its spell school, and cannot cause psychic phenomena.
Examples:
Name: Ash (Generation 1)
Characteristic Alteration: +1 Dexterity
Skill Bonus: +1 Stealth, +1 Weaponry
Spell-like: Blink
Name: Nekros (Generation 4)
Characteristic Alteration: +1 Constitution
Skill Bonus: +2 Weaponry
Spell-like: Draining Touch
Prime: Ash + Nekros (Generation 5)
Characteristic Alteration: +1 Dexterity & Constitution
Skill Bonus: +1 Stealth, +3 Weaponry & +1 Stealth
Spell-like: Blink & Draining Touch
Paradigm Design Assets:
Atlas: The fibres of your Frames are woven to be hardened and contracted with minimum effort. Spend 1 Pyros to, as a free action, harden your Chassis, granting +2 AP for the turn that stacks with other sources of armour.
Embeds & Exploits: Your connection to your Lotus allows you a veritable library of lost knowlege. Begin play with 1 free rank in any magic school, Sword School or Gun Kata. You may purchase ranks in it as if it appeared in your class progression.
IFF Sensor: Your new eyes give you warning of incoming threats. You know danger lurks behind every corner. You are never Surprised and gain a +2 bonus on initiative rolls.
Personal Connection: You are connected to the Lotus to a greater degree than most Paradigm. Gain a single 3 dot in ally to represent the Lotus that created you.
Supply Cache: Your mind is better equipped to handle the strain of multiple Frames. Gain +1 Frame maximum.
A Paradigm’s appearance largely depends on their current Frame. A Frame is another body you have the capability to download your consciousness into, a form specialised for certain tasks and needs. Some were made to decrease the discomfort and revulsion felt by regular mortals. Most Frames are constructed to resemble the Paradigm’s original race in order to facilitate a more intuitive movement of the Frame. ‘Under the Hood’ so to speak, Paradigm look like fusions of biological tampering and cold technology. The techniques used to create them have largely been lost relying on remnants of the Lotus’s fragmented memory.
Paradigm Tells:
As a Paradigm spends Pyros, their strangeness begins to become more evident. They begin to glitch, stuttering and echoing. Physically, the markings of manufacture begin to show on their frames. Fusion and welding marks mixing with veins now blue with coolant. At greater strength they can appear more like servitors and combat drones, devoid of faux facial features and identification outside their strange, elaborate and often ornamental forms.
Becoming a Paradigm:
Becoming a Paradigm is a practice in chance. For one reason or another, you were deemed compatible by a fragment of a Lotus, and asked to become a product of the long dead Shimi. After accepting, whether it was through persuasion, deception, or force, your old form is converted into your first Frame. Then you were implanted with the knowledge of how to use the said Frame. The Lotus gifts the first ‘Spare’ frame as a kind of reward for the conversion. From here the Lotus gave rudimentary training in using your new form before departing in search of more compatible beings to convert. The Lotus rarely cares for Paradigm after this instructional phase, seeing it’s duty as complete.
Playing a Paradigm:
Paradigms struggle acclimating to both their new Physicality, especially using radically different forms than their base race, and their new Mentality, being connected to the Lotus enough to extract specifications for new frames at will. This ungainly strangeness follows them in most interactions. When playing a Paradigm, one could play up the unfamiliarity with their body and abilities, often tripping over themselves socially as their Frames have done away with necessary glands and pores. It can be rather distressing to realise one is unable to cry.
Paradigm Culture:
Paradigm in Game:
Paradigms are creations of a dead race and are incredibly versatile by nature. Take advantage of this ‘master of none’ tendency and force them into a position of speciality. Their agile nature makes them useful for infiltrators and mobile characters. Forcing them into a position with no maneuverability will allow a more threatening situation than it would for most characters, and thus, more intricate ‘sets’ will allow more ability to show off these skills.
Adapting a Paradigm:
Anything moving between multiple bodies can be a Paradigm. Perhaps a parasite that drifts between hosts, where each ‘Frame’ is instead another body consumed into the whole. A Paradigm may also be a being moving between bodies they are trapped inside.
[Playtest ongoing]
