"We haven't much time, 'friends'! You're going to help me test out my latest and greatest creation.
Now. Before you change your minds."
I fucking hate tier lists. Like BMI, it's a basic collection of information that people go fucking overboard with. In a fighting game, theorists will gauge which characters have an advantage over other characters, and the ones with the most advantages will be put higher in the tier list. It's simple, and it's not always saying there's a huge difference between two characters. For example, King Dedede is a bottom tier character in Smash 4, but that doesn't mean you can pick Diddy Kong(who's top tier) and just automatically win. It doesn't mean you're "stupid" for picking Dedede. The list creators aren't even saying that themselves.
But that's how they're taken, all of the time. To use Smash as our example again, there are people who will look at the S tier and refuse to play anyone but Bayonetta, Cloud, Shiek and Diddy. It's stupid, especially if you're doing this in casual play and you're never going to touch a real tournament. I mean, you're surrounded by your friends who are all picking their favorite characters and you're "eyes on the prize" focused on winning.
I said all that so you'd have context for what I'm doing. I'm going to talk about Pathfinder's core skill set and how valuable the skills are. It doesn't mean you're stupid for taking a low tier skill, and like I always say, every class can spare a few skill points to support a cool backstory. I'm simply discussing trends I've noticed along with basic theorycrafting, to give people an idea of how to prioritize skills. A few ground rules first.
I'm only discussing the core Pathfinder skills. I haven't read the PF update to the Psionics guide so we won't be going over autohypnosis or any of the other skills it updates.
I'm factoring in skill unlocks as well as new uses for skills, such as in the Occult Guide. They're not going to sway my opinion very often, though.
Obviously, things shuffle around based on the kind of game you're playing in. I go into that in the lists, but in general you're going to have to "read the room" or pay attention to what your GM is telling you about the game. Obviously Swim is more important in an aquatic game, and the social skills are flat out necessary in a socially focused game. This kind of thing is always going to happen, and I'm just trying to provide general information and guidance.
I'm not factoring in what class you're playing. Yeah, this is going to change what skills you take, but it's so obvious that I don't feel the need to discuss it. So when Perform is low on our tier list, don't come at me with "But Bard!". I know. I know Bard.
I didn't take optional rules into account, even though Expanded Craft and Expanded Profession are how those skills should have been designed in the first fucking place.
So with that out of the way, here we go.
Hyper Rainbow Tier
Skills in this tier are always useful, no matter what the game is or who's running it. It will probably still come up even if the GM is making an effort to squash it. It's something everyone can justify putting points into regardless of class or concept.
Perception - Yeah, there's only one skill here. It will be a very strange game if your GM isn't calling for a perception check several times in the night. Knowing what's going on and getting key information and hints from the GM is super important to figuring out mysteries, or even just who's about to attack you. In addition to just passively knowing what's going on, it counters stealth and finds traps. Perception will almost always be your most-rolled skill.
Gold Tier
Skills in this tier are useful very often and in most games. They will almost always come up, and hardly ever need players putting in an effort to make them useful.
Diplomacy - Diplomacy covers getting people to help you, which you're either going to end up doing a lot, either by necessity or by it simply being easier than the alternative. It also covers gathering information, which you absolutely will end up doing. This is the prime social interaction skill.
Knowledge(Arcana) - Arcana covers Constructs, Magical Beasts, and Dragons, which you'll fight reasonably often. It also covers magical traditions and symbols, which are bound to come up. Most importantly, however... it covers Weird Magical Shit. Weird Magical Shit will come up in every game you play. Hands down. Even the "low magic" games. Especially those games. As a small bonus, the psychic skill unlock for this is Phrenology, which lets you get some "speak with dead" style information about a corpse(or sleeping person) without having to cast anything. Nice considering that most people who will be using that unlock won't have that spell on their spell list.
Stealth - A lot of skills are dedicated to gathering information, and Stealth is no different. Even if you never steal anything(which, let's face it, is almost always the easy way) it also covers things like scouting and reconnaissance. It also facilitates killing by coup de gras or simple ambush, which can pretty often make an upcoming combat easier. This is technically a skill that requires the player to be proactive about it's use, but it's useful so often and in so many different games that I've made an exception.
Spellcraft - Spellcraft is how you identify magic items and spells as they're being cast. I could stop explaining why this is a great skill right there. Your group will be rolling this constantly for their loot, OR end up paying someone to do it. That aside, knowing what spells are being cast is very important, and people are going to be casting spells in your presence constantly. Even if you're not a spellcaster, you still might be able to justify ranks in Spellcraft.
Use Magic Device - This skill almost got into Hyper Rainbow Tier, but I'm assuming your game is sticking to its book listed uses and not letting players fudge what it can do. Being able to emulate another type of character so you can use a magic item is great. Being able to activate things without knowing their command words is even better. Both of these combined means you can get past standing magical structures like magic doors or portals with a skill check and not having to somehow research or identify how it works.
Silver Tier
Skills in this tier are still pretty useful, but may require some effort on the player to fully realize their worth. They may only come up in certain situations or require the player to be proactive or inventive about their application.
Acrobatics - I fucking love acrobatics, but the fact is that a lot of its uses can be mitigated in some way. Being able to jump doesn't matter as much when you've got wings of flight or a fly spell, and plenty of classes get big bonuses to jumping which preclude you taking acrobatics if you're not one of them. However, it's still really useful for moving around, and it is the ONLY way to avoid Attacks of Opportunity on the battlefield. You may not always need to do that, but it's VERY nice to be able when you do.
Bluff - So yeah, this is only in Silver Tier because, generally, you have to choose to lie to people. Bluff will sometimes get you into an amount of trouble that Diplomacy never will. However, in the hands of the right character, bluff is fucking great and will be very useful in the hands of someone aiming to make it so. Feint is just icing.
Disable Device - There's traps and locks. We all know that. getting past them is a fucking STAPLE of the genre, so instead of going on and on about that, let me share the ONLY reason this isn't in Gold Tier. It very nearly was, but IDENTIFYING that a trap is there is the most important part. Getting past a trap or lock can be accomplished by Disable Device...or, a lot of the time, by hitting it very hard. It's a sad fact, but breaking things works a lot of the time. Still, Disable Device is intensely useful. There will be traps you can't break. There will be chests you won't want to RISK breaking. There will be locks you CAN'T break without making noise. Disable Device is the more elegant and careful solution.
Handle Animal - This is a disused skill I feel like shouldn't be. Training animals for some sort of use can be really helpful. They don't need high skill ranks to roll to assist you in something, and they don't need a high amount of HD. There's a ton of different useful tricks, and even if you only stick to the core book, guard animals will, at the very least, wake you up or alert you to danger. You can also train flanking buddies, or assist pals. Yeah, they only have a few HD. Sure, they might not always succeed at that DC 10, but it's a solid bonus that's not very expensive to replace.
Intimidate - Intimidate can cause Shaken in combat and has some pretty useful feat applications like the Boar Style tree or Dazzling Display. Without that, it can even get you something socially, but it's temporary and not likely to win you any friends. Carefully applied and with a feat or two, though, and this is one of the best debuffs in the game.
Knowledge(Local) - Another useful skill I feel is disused. This time, I know it's because it used to be tied to particular areas, forcing you to spend skill points for a very minor, fiddly amount of knowledge. Now that it's not, this skill is great for making your way, fitting in without looking like an outsider, or simply navigating an area or city. Most PCs are constantly traveling and this skill gets you everything you need to know about where you are.
Knowledge(Nature) - Per the book, knowledge of animals, fey, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, and vermin. All things you're likely to be fighting a lot in your game. Wilderness is often a staple of the fantasy genre. This is no substitute for survival, but it can still prove pretty valuable when you're in the middle of nowhere. Like I just said, the players will likely be in the middle of nowhere a lot.
Knowledge(Planes) - Knowing things about the planes themselves is useful, but knowing things about outsiders is better. The mid to high CR monster lists are dominated by outsiders and undead.
Knowledge(Religion) - In addition to knowledge about undead, which are often a staple enemy, this is everything you need to know about gods and religious traditions, both things that are very likely to come up.
Linguistics - Let's face it, you're going to be traipsing through ruins looking at ancient scrolls and warnings scrawled onto the walls. If you're not doing that, by some miracle, you're still encountering a billion different races and a billion different languages. The psychic skill unlock, Automatic Writing, is also a semi-reliable casting of Augury or Divination, which can be a help, especially at later levels.
Sense Motive - Another skill that was almost gold. People are GOING to lie to you, but even if they don't, this skill lets you read situations, give hunches, or gauge someone's general trustworthiness. This skill is great for when you've got a hunch about a situation already and you'd like to confirm it with a roll.
Sleight of Hand - A somewhat good money maker and a skill that can potentially make your life a lot easier by lifting keys or important macguffins off people without having to kill them. In stealthy or subtle situations this skill can see a lot of use, but it's one of the skills that requires your inventive application.
Survival - Wilderness is a staple of the fantasy genre, and most games are going to be in it a lot. It's nice to be able to hand-wave things like path finding or gathering food by having decent ranks in this skill.
Bronze Tier
Skills in this tier probably won't come up even if the player puts effort into making them useful. They may simply be concepts unlikely to come up in an average game, or there is something in the game that makes putting ranks into them less useful, such as spells or magic items.
Appraise - It's nice to know what your treasure is worth, and a decent GM will always throw you a curveball or two like rare gems or works of art. However, this skill is really only for maximizing your profits, which not everyone is going to care about. Thiefy types can use Skill Unlocks to get some decent uses out of this, but with so many decent unlocks to take and so few you actually get, it feels like a waste.
Climb - Being able to climb is great, and it's probably going to come up, but here's the problem. Things like slippers of spider climb, wings of flying, or racial climb scores preclude you ever having to roll this skill. It's rare that you'll want to put more than 5 ranks in this.
Craft - The mechanics of the craft system as presented in the core book are straight up broken. The times it gives to make things make no sense at all. You'd never use this for actually making mundane items unless you're literally naked in the wilderness and using the new forage system... which is pretty cool, to be fair. A GM using expanded crafting skill from Pathfinder Unchained could potentially bump this a lot closer to silver, but as it is, it's just not going to come up much. This skill is propped up by saving you money on gunpowder and alchemical materials, but also the new Trophy system, which lets you get some extra money out of monsters.
Disguise - Disguise can be pretty useful for gathering information, hiding your identity and such, but Hat of Disguise and polymorph subschool spells give a pretty big bonus to this skill. You can see some nice use out of ranks sometimes, but at some point given a greater hat of disguise and a few ranks and nobody's going to beat your number ANYWAY.
Escape Artist - It can get you out of a grapple. That's nice. It can get you through tight spaces. That, however, isn't as useful as it seems. You can sometimes break your way into something, or even use reduce person or other polymorph spells to preclude having to put much into this skill.
Knowledge(Dungeoneering) - Abberations, Oozes, Caverns and Spelunking. So, two seldom-used monster types and two concepts I can't think of how to roll for. I mean, you're going to be in caves and underground a lot, but I can't think of why you'd need to roll this.
Knowledge(Geography) - Lands, Terrain, Climates and People. Most of this skill's usefulness can also be provided by Knowledge(Local). The reason you'd take this is for knowledge of places you can't find maps for. That might come up once or twice, but probably not often.
Knowledge(History) - I really want this skill to be useful, but frankly it's REALLY nice in specialized games and...otherwise, probably won't come up. The average game is only going to have maybe five places where you can even roll this and come up with something useful.
Perform - If you're not a bard, all Perform does is earn you a decent amount of money for your time. It can be helpful for improving someone's mood or for providing a cover story for your identity, but those are kind of at the GM's discretion.
Ride - This is only for riding in combat and stressful situations, which holds it back. Everyone's gonna ride horses, but riding one in combat can be nice bonuses. If nothing else, you can usually get that nice little +1 for advantageous position. This is in bronze simply because...well, you're either a Mounted Combat guy or you're not. I can't see a lot of people just putting ranks in ride and not backing it up with feats or lances or special mounts.
Swim - Oh boy, this one. Swim is useless until it's not. Nobody wants to fucking drown, but there's two problems. One is a lot of characters are going to be wearing so much weight in gear and armor that no amount of ranks is gonna save them from sinking straight the fuck down. The other is that Water Breathing basically precludes this skill. Add in that most games aren't going to strongly feature water or boats.
Kevin Costner in Waterworld Tier
Skills in this category never come up. There are few, if any, ways to make them useful, no matter how hard you try. If you're rolling these skills a lot, you're either in a very specialized game, or your GM is messing with you. Maybe both.
Fly - I guess Paizo felt this skill had to exist to curb people flying in combat. Fair, I guess...but the DC for falling when getting hit is only ever DC10, it never goes up. You roll it for fancy maneuvers, which most flying combatants aren't going to bother with. If you plan on flying in combat a lot, you took Hover. Like, period. Even then, most of flight's benefits are out of combat anyway. Pathfinder really overvalues flight.
Heal - I did a whole post on this. Just so I'm not repeating myself, I'll be brief. Heal doesn't do anything that curative magic doesn't do, and even with the heal skill unlock, it's not very useful even if you don't have a cleric.
Knowledge(Engineering) - Nobody's ever actually rolled this skill in my presence and had it make a difference. It only ever comes up in terms of being able to effectively destroy a building. There are so many destructive spells like earthquake or even fucking fireball that I don't see the point. As for its other uses? ... Are there any? The book says it handles bridges, aqueducts, buildings and fortifications. Have you ever had to roll a knowledge skill about an aqueduct? Seriously think to yourself, have you ever even been in a game that had an aqueduct in it?
Knowledge(Nobility) - You can't even justify this skill in a social game, because everything you'd ever use it for would be covered by Knowledge(Local). I can't even imagine most actual nobles have this skill. They gather information on relevant allies or enemies and ignore the ones that aren't. This is another one I haven't seen anyone roll in my presence and have it make a difference in the game.
Profession - Profession doesn't actually do anything. Go read the book if you don't believe me. All it does is make a piddly amount of money. There's no reason to ever take this skill unless your GM is using the expanded profession, alternate profession or downtime rules from Pathfinder Unchained. If you are, Profession bumps solidly into bronze, maybe even silver...but in all other games, it remains here underneath the waves.
Sunday, December 31, 2017
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Saying Yes(and the problem with Vampire: The Masquerade)
"You wake up again. What do you do?"
"I read for 300 years."
I fucking love White Wolf. I have a lot of great memories of LARP despite how much really stupid stuff happened and really awful people I met. White Wolf has a way of injecting lore and feeling into their books and even systems that I don't think many other games can match. I was going to talk about one of our hobby's most controversial opinions, and using VtM as an example fits this so well that we're gonna talk about both of them. Today's topics are design problems prevalent to White Wolf games, and also the art of saying Yes.
You know, we have a pretty weird hobby where saying Yes is a controversial topic.
It starts, obviously, with the GM being an arbiter. Even though I've repeatedly told you that trying to delicately arbitrate balance is a fool's errand, he still has to make decisions constantly. Sometimes you have to say 'no' to things or add conditions for purposes of story, mechanics or even fitting something into the game world. Gunslinger in Pathfinder isn't even a very good class, and guns aren't even very good, but they're both frequently banned simply due to how they feel. I don't like doing that, but it just happens sometimes. From here, a lot of GMs start to think that "No" is their default answer and that "Yes" should be used sparingly.
I find a lot of people get overly obsessed, hung up on some problems that may or may not be very important in reality. Here the obsession is the idea that you should never spoil the players. This is true (and decent advice), since getting everything they want is gonna lead to growing disinterested in the game. For some reason, though, worry of this is bloated so far in their perception that it ends up getting applied to aspects of the game it absolutely doesn't apply to. Whole games end up being played with less than 1/2 of the source available because the GM is hyper-concerned with putting things into his game.
Other times game balance is the concern. You see this a lot in games like World of Darkness or Deadlands where not everything is intended to be played but everything feels like it can be. This is another fair point that a lot of people take to extremes. The only direct advice I have here(before we get to our mission statement) is to not mistake utility or variance of options for raw power. Sometimes playing a weird race, class, clan or whatever might feel very powerful because they get something nobody else gets. This doesn't automatically make it better, and VtM shows this in spades with its rare vampire bloodlines.
It is vitally important for you to understand that something is not powerful simply because it's rare or unique.
That's good advice for White Wolf's games in general, but let's continue. I want you to say "Yes" in the following two scenarios: When it's a primarily creative situation, and when it doesn't matter. In specific, I want to present the following method.
Whenever you get faced with allowing or disallowing something, seriously ask yourself what's going to happen if you say yes. Thoughtfully answer that question.
This means you are gonna hit some "no"s, obviously, but a lot of the time you can easily allow something your first impulse says you shouldn't. A great example is the Lasombra Antitribu. Imagine someone asking to play one. Immediately, a lot of people would think to say "no" because they're rare. But let's go over the answers to our question above. What's going to happen if we let him?
He might get picked on or schemed against by people who don't understand his history.
He'll have to blow points on generation.
He will have a discipline nobody else has, Obtenebration.
He will not be able to use many of Obtenebration's powers without breaking the Masquerade.
You will likely have to use his sire in your plot some how, or at least have him and his machinations affect the player.
So basically our phantom player is gonna have a nice bargaining chip with offering to teach people Obtenebration, assuming it won't piss off his sire to do so(it probably will). He'll have utility that nobody else in the Camarilla has, but is a nice but balanced power in any other game. His sire will probably have to factor in to the game somehow. Really, now that we've laid it out, this sounds a lot more playable than before we did this. He'll probably end up in a lot of trouble or have to be careful just for choosing this clan, so if you really think Obtenebration is that powerful in this instance, someone could argue that it's more than mitigated.
Other times you may have the impulse to say "no" to something simply because the book says it's rare. This is a LARP mentality creeping in: Obviously in a game with 20-50 people in it, you can't have like eight Harbingers of Skulls, ten Samedi, five Kiasyd, et cetera. In a tabletop game with 3 to 8 players, though? I don't see the point of adhering strictly to the world information the books put forth. You have no reason to be inflexible, especially when it's not going to matter mechanically(as is the case with most of VtM's rare clans). An individual pack or coterie doesn't need to adhere to some sort of standard of averages.
This is where I segue into talking about the problem I mentioned before. Simply put, the WoD games foster this rigid mentality in how they're presented. White Wolf relies on stereotypes in many of their books, to the point where it's filled with "All X are Y" statements. The fact that clans DO have trends because of who they seek out, and DO have flaws they ALL carry doesn't help. The games almost feel like they're set up so you don't have to worry about your character's personality if you don't want to, with Werewolf: The Apocalypse being especially egregious with this. You have three intersecting things to define your character with(Breed, birth moon and clan) which can serve as a character defining set of traits if you want, even worse than alignment.
Back to Vampire. I went flipping through the Sabbat Guide yesterday for some object lessons I could use in this topic. I remembered the misguided notes placed on several of the rare clans in this book. Let's look at three of them: One piece of play advice that's totally fair, and two that are absurd.
First, the Blood Brothers. They are a created, artificial clan, a sect of loyal servants with very little individuality. Their clan-mates are their life and they frequently form exclusive packs. They even frequently look identical to the other members of their pack. So, let's go through our questions! What's gonna happen if we let someone play a blood brother?
The player won't be able to use any of the powers of his unique discipline Sanguinis, because they require other blood brothers.
He'll either be beholden to a bunch of NPCs, be playing very contrary to the clan, or end up playing basically the same character as someone else.
He'll have fewer roleplay opportunities because they're bred for no personal drive.
Holy shit, those sound like a lot of reasons to say no. The book primarily cautions against allowing Blood Brothers because of their low opportunties for RP and rigid concept. While it may be possible to bend and give the character roleplay opportunities or personal drive, there's no fixing how Sanguinis works: It's a discipline only known to Blood Brothers that requires you to know Sanguinis to benefit from it. It's also atypical to see a lone Blood Brother, even if the player is okay with only having two disciplines. The entire core of the clan is their camaraderie and bond with their brothers.
Let's move on to the Harbingers of Skulls. Formerly the Cappadocians, this ancient clan was betrayed and their progenitor was killed and diablerized by Giovanni, making that clan the world's premiere necromancers and the Cappadocians a distant memory. They have recently returned to the world stage and joined the Sabbat, craving revenge. They're all decayed and hideous, with a similar disadvantage to Nosferatu. They have necromancy in-clan and a path of it unique to them. So before I yell the loud funny words about what the book SAYS about Harbingers, let's ask our question. What happens if we let someone play a Harbinger?
He'll have access to Necromancy beginning with the Mortuus path, which is of middling usefulness until later levels.
He'll have to blow freebie points on being around 8th generation.
His sire is probably going to be a powerful, important figure.
He might catch shit for being rare or have Giovanni gunning for him.
Basically the same answers as Lasombra Antitribu. Generation is frequently restricted in LARP games, but in tabletop this isn't really an issue: tabletop GMs don't have to worry as much about direct player versus player stuff, and other backgrounds are generally more useful than in LARP. He'll have necromancy, but must buy Mortuus up to 3 before taking anything else, and Mortuus isn't really that useful. It has a nice debuff, some good but situational powers, and a quite powerful 5th dot. Please note that I don't consider a very nice 5th dot to be a mitigating factor to a shitty discipline. More on THAT later with Mytherceria. Anyway, really, there's...not a lot of reasons here other than our phantom boogeyman "They're rare".
So let's talk about why the BOOK says you shouldn't allow them and where the problem with this reasoning is. The book claims it's impossible to create a Harbinger of Skulls under a normal character generation system because they're all very powerful, very old and very low generation. They have "More disciplines than many starting packs" and predate the Sabbat. Okay, first off, that's all fair, but the implication that you can't possibly contrive a reason for a new character to exist is absurd. This is more of the "All X are Y" thinking the White Wolf books are guilty of. The short passage then goes on to say that a Harbinger of Skulls isn't likely to "pick people off the street and turn them into vampires". This is literally a false equivalence. I don't think anyone is implying a Cappadocian is going to pull someone off the fucking street to embrace them. It's stupid to even bring that up. It then goes on to say that they're "better off" being used for you to "weave your elaborate plotlines" than as "powerhouse players' characters". This part reads like a direct insult. It might even be one. It also implies if you want to play a munchkin that it's okay to just pick another clan. By saying this one ISN'T good for it, they're saying other clans ARE. Fuckin' go make an Assamite Antitribu. GO WILD, CELERITY FIVE!
Anyway, our final one, Kiasyd. They're fey blooded researchers and intellectuals who rarely interact with others. That's fucking it, here's our questions.
The character would have Obtenebration, a basic option available to him if he were to just play a lasombra.
He'd have a second unique discipline, Mytherceria, which deals primarily with fey, meaning it sucks and won't hardly ever come up. It is potentially the worst discipline in the game.
Brujah Antitribu will call him a nerd and dump his books.
If you'll notice, I even had to come up with a third reason on my own. The Kiasyd is literally at a disadvantage because of Mytherceria's niche uses, most of which won't EVER come up in a normal game. Fey in the classic World of Darkness generally want nothing to do with vampires due to their high banality. In terms of strict effectiveness, Kiasyd is behind many character options that are inarguably basic like Lasombra.
So why does the book say you shouldn't allow them? Because they're content to spend all of their time researching and contemplating. That's basically it, they even contrive the stupid-as-hell exchange I used as today's quote above. All X are Y, remember? The question "What if I want to play someone who's not like that?" goes completely unanswered. It reads like White Wolf has never heard of field researchers.
Do you see the difference between the Blood Brothers and our other two clans? First off, the Blood Brothers having no personal drive is inherent to the clan, like an insane Malkavian or a Ventrue with a feeding restriction. It's not something the book is just telling us about the clan, it's something they are, enforced by their blood. Second, even if that weren't true, their powers create problems: In this case, the fact that he's not likely to be able to use an ENTIRE discipline without teaching it to everyone(which is slow and likely to get him in trouble) or with other people playing Blood Brothers, which would mean they're essentially playing the same character. That's not as fun as it sounds. It's not the same as the Harbingers of Skulls or Kiasyd descriptions telling us they all act a certain way.
I'm not saying you can always flex. Some concepts are integral to a race or clan and can't be flexed much, and some are enforced by mechanics. In general, try to be permissive of people trying to develop a story contrary to something's concepts if they can come up with a great reason for it, and be harder on things that are mechanically integral to something or VERY important concepts. Can you play a Malkavian who's completely sane or a Brujah who never flips out? Really, no. Those things are enforced by their blood and there's not many reasonable stories that will get you around a clan weakness. I'm not saying you can never get around that with a decent story, but most of the time it's going to come off as hacky or lame. These clan disadvantages are important to the game's theming. Can you play a Gangrel who hates the wilderness, though? Sure! In fact, I believe that's the conceit of the Gangrel Anarchs.
Like Spoony said when he was talking about reacting to other people's concepts, don't say "You can't", come up with a reason why it'll work. He was speaking in terms of being a player and being permissive of other players, but there's wisdom in that thinking in general. It's very easy to bend to allow someone to play something cool, and in a PNP game(not a LARP) that's usually all they want. A lot of the time, there's really no reason to deny them. I mean, I could go on. The book says there's only fourteen Nagaraja left and they're all under the protection of powerful Kuei-jin, right? So obviously, you can't play one. However, what's it matter to bend the details of the world a little bit to let someone play one? Say you alter it so that the Nagaraja are vampires living primarily in India and South Asian countries and have only a minor presence in the United States. What does that REALLY fuck up to say that?
Brief sidenote, but why the fuck do they get a full write-up if there's only fourteen of them left? The fuck is the point of that? It's not like we got rules on the Bunyip or the Wereboars in Werewolf: The Apocalypse. If we're counting, btw, that's one whole thing WtA got right. I mean, with Salubri I get it, they're a HUGE part of the Tremere and Sabbat stories and they're fairly playable too. Nagaraja aren't mentioned again past their write-up.
Anyway. It doesn't matter one bit to the world, really. Information on Asian countries is thin to begin with, the Nagaraja are independent and weird shit is tucked into every inch of the World of Darkness. Really, it's the whole point. It's why we like the world. What's REALLY the difference between a Pizzaria secretly run by incestuous Italian necromancers and a Korean Restaurant run by South Chinese cannibal necromancers? One would sell calzones and one would have bulgogi. That's really it, they're BOTH putting people into the food. There's no way they're not.You could even have a subplot where the Giovanni feel threatened and start a turf war to try and muscle them out of the city. We've CREATED plot!
Edit time. Nagaraja are printed in the Storyteller's Guide, which is where I know them from, but apparently their first printing is Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand. If you don't know what this book is, it's something that blows the lid off a secret organization in VtM called the Black Hand, old vampires and master manipulators playing the Camarilla and Sabbat off each other. So that's why they got printed: they're a clan so old they're almost extinct. This book was widely regarded as a mistake to define so much about the Black Hand and a poor book in general. It's entirely full of things players can't use and won't likely ever even see, putting it on par with the SWD20 Guide to the Sith. I don't feel this invalidates my point. In fact, I feel it supports it. The Black Hand are such a mysterious and important concept that a GM should be taking their plots and details into his own hand in the first place. The GM shouldn't rely on the books for this. So essentially, the Nagaraja matter to a metaplot I'd advise a GM to never use.
What happens if you ignore me and strictly adhere to the metaplot, though? Well, someone gets mildly to moderately upset and plays a less interesting character. I guess you...get to feel good that you kept everything in line? I mean, I guess some people get satisfaction from being really inflexible. But really, nothing happens. Your game isn't enriched by it, a White Wolf rep doesn't show up to give you the Golden Stickler Award for Metaplot Safety. Hell, even the books constantly give you the advice to flex if you don't and everyone seems to completely gloss over it.
Go reading the old VtM books if you don't believe me. There's a wealth of information out there that says "Hey, if you don't like our metaplot, change it". People frequently miss the forest for the trees when they're talking about the World of Darkness, though. A lot of people miss the fact that you can bend world ideas to allow someone to play a concept, or even come up with strange circumstances for it. The real world is full of absurd, nonsensical circumstances and coincidences, I assure you.
The obvious counter to "What does it matter to say Yes" is "What does it matter to say No", I think. I imagine I'm going to hear that at least once. My answer is that it matters because someone could be having more fun and play a really memorable character because you allowed them to play something "Rare". It's nothing to you as the GM, but it's a really good feeling to them. Enjoying ourselves and creating good memories are why we do this. Some of our most memorable concepts, like Rosemary and Kamuati who are undead, Doctor Gatter and his aggressively amoral approach to science, Jumpin' Joe who's a cyberzombie with a fucking chainsaw or Joe Beautiful, the only wraith in a game of vampires...they're all something someone might've(maybe even should have) said "no" to. They're also all memorable characters we're going to treasure forever.
"I read for 300 years."
I fucking love White Wolf. I have a lot of great memories of LARP despite how much really stupid stuff happened and really awful people I met. White Wolf has a way of injecting lore and feeling into their books and even systems that I don't think many other games can match. I was going to talk about one of our hobby's most controversial opinions, and using VtM as an example fits this so well that we're gonna talk about both of them. Today's topics are design problems prevalent to White Wolf games, and also the art of saying Yes.
You know, we have a pretty weird hobby where saying Yes is a controversial topic.
It starts, obviously, with the GM being an arbiter. Even though I've repeatedly told you that trying to delicately arbitrate balance is a fool's errand, he still has to make decisions constantly. Sometimes you have to say 'no' to things or add conditions for purposes of story, mechanics or even fitting something into the game world. Gunslinger in Pathfinder isn't even a very good class, and guns aren't even very good, but they're both frequently banned simply due to how they feel. I don't like doing that, but it just happens sometimes. From here, a lot of GMs start to think that "No" is their default answer and that "Yes" should be used sparingly.
I find a lot of people get overly obsessed, hung up on some problems that may or may not be very important in reality. Here the obsession is the idea that you should never spoil the players. This is true (and decent advice), since getting everything they want is gonna lead to growing disinterested in the game. For some reason, though, worry of this is bloated so far in their perception that it ends up getting applied to aspects of the game it absolutely doesn't apply to. Whole games end up being played with less than 1/2 of the source available because the GM is hyper-concerned with putting things into his game.
Other times game balance is the concern. You see this a lot in games like World of Darkness or Deadlands where not everything is intended to be played but everything feels like it can be. This is another fair point that a lot of people take to extremes. The only direct advice I have here(before we get to our mission statement) is to not mistake utility or variance of options for raw power. Sometimes playing a weird race, class, clan or whatever might feel very powerful because they get something nobody else gets. This doesn't automatically make it better, and VtM shows this in spades with its rare vampire bloodlines.
It is vitally important for you to understand that something is not powerful simply because it's rare or unique.
That's good advice for White Wolf's games in general, but let's continue. I want you to say "Yes" in the following two scenarios: When it's a primarily creative situation, and when it doesn't matter. In specific, I want to present the following method.
Whenever you get faced with allowing or disallowing something, seriously ask yourself what's going to happen if you say yes. Thoughtfully answer that question.
This means you are gonna hit some "no"s, obviously, but a lot of the time you can easily allow something your first impulse says you shouldn't. A great example is the Lasombra Antitribu. Imagine someone asking to play one. Immediately, a lot of people would think to say "no" because they're rare. But let's go over the answers to our question above. What's going to happen if we let him?
He might get picked on or schemed against by people who don't understand his history.
He'll have to blow points on generation.
He will have a discipline nobody else has, Obtenebration.
He will not be able to use many of Obtenebration's powers without breaking the Masquerade.
You will likely have to use his sire in your plot some how, or at least have him and his machinations affect the player.
So basically our phantom player is gonna have a nice bargaining chip with offering to teach people Obtenebration, assuming it won't piss off his sire to do so(it probably will). He'll have utility that nobody else in the Camarilla has, but is a nice but balanced power in any other game. His sire will probably have to factor in to the game somehow. Really, now that we've laid it out, this sounds a lot more playable than before we did this. He'll probably end up in a lot of trouble or have to be careful just for choosing this clan, so if you really think Obtenebration is that powerful in this instance, someone could argue that it's more than mitigated.
Other times you may have the impulse to say "no" to something simply because the book says it's rare. This is a LARP mentality creeping in: Obviously in a game with 20-50 people in it, you can't have like eight Harbingers of Skulls, ten Samedi, five Kiasyd, et cetera. In a tabletop game with 3 to 8 players, though? I don't see the point of adhering strictly to the world information the books put forth. You have no reason to be inflexible, especially when it's not going to matter mechanically(as is the case with most of VtM's rare clans). An individual pack or coterie doesn't need to adhere to some sort of standard of averages.
This is where I segue into talking about the problem I mentioned before. Simply put, the WoD games foster this rigid mentality in how they're presented. White Wolf relies on stereotypes in many of their books, to the point where it's filled with "All X are Y" statements. The fact that clans DO have trends because of who they seek out, and DO have flaws they ALL carry doesn't help. The games almost feel like they're set up so you don't have to worry about your character's personality if you don't want to, with Werewolf: The Apocalypse being especially egregious with this. You have three intersecting things to define your character with(Breed, birth moon and clan) which can serve as a character defining set of traits if you want, even worse than alignment.
Back to Vampire. I went flipping through the Sabbat Guide yesterday for some object lessons I could use in this topic. I remembered the misguided notes placed on several of the rare clans in this book. Let's look at three of them: One piece of play advice that's totally fair, and two that are absurd.
First, the Blood Brothers. They are a created, artificial clan, a sect of loyal servants with very little individuality. Their clan-mates are their life and they frequently form exclusive packs. They even frequently look identical to the other members of their pack. So, let's go through our questions! What's gonna happen if we let someone play a blood brother?
The player won't be able to use any of the powers of his unique discipline Sanguinis, because they require other blood brothers.
He'll either be beholden to a bunch of NPCs, be playing very contrary to the clan, or end up playing basically the same character as someone else.
He'll have fewer roleplay opportunities because they're bred for no personal drive.
Holy shit, those sound like a lot of reasons to say no. The book primarily cautions against allowing Blood Brothers because of their low opportunties for RP and rigid concept. While it may be possible to bend and give the character roleplay opportunities or personal drive, there's no fixing how Sanguinis works: It's a discipline only known to Blood Brothers that requires you to know Sanguinis to benefit from it. It's also atypical to see a lone Blood Brother, even if the player is okay with only having two disciplines. The entire core of the clan is their camaraderie and bond with their brothers.
Let's move on to the Harbingers of Skulls. Formerly the Cappadocians, this ancient clan was betrayed and their progenitor was killed and diablerized by Giovanni, making that clan the world's premiere necromancers and the Cappadocians a distant memory. They have recently returned to the world stage and joined the Sabbat, craving revenge. They're all decayed and hideous, with a similar disadvantage to Nosferatu. They have necromancy in-clan and a path of it unique to them. So before I yell the loud funny words about what the book SAYS about Harbingers, let's ask our question. What happens if we let someone play a Harbinger?
He'll have access to Necromancy beginning with the Mortuus path, which is of middling usefulness until later levels.
He'll have to blow freebie points on being around 8th generation.
His sire is probably going to be a powerful, important figure.
He might catch shit for being rare or have Giovanni gunning for him.
Basically the same answers as Lasombra Antitribu. Generation is frequently restricted in LARP games, but in tabletop this isn't really an issue: tabletop GMs don't have to worry as much about direct player versus player stuff, and other backgrounds are generally more useful than in LARP. He'll have necromancy, but must buy Mortuus up to 3 before taking anything else, and Mortuus isn't really that useful. It has a nice debuff, some good but situational powers, and a quite powerful 5th dot. Please note that I don't consider a very nice 5th dot to be a mitigating factor to a shitty discipline. More on THAT later with Mytherceria. Anyway, really, there's...not a lot of reasons here other than our phantom boogeyman "They're rare".
So let's talk about why the BOOK says you shouldn't allow them and where the problem with this reasoning is. The book claims it's impossible to create a Harbinger of Skulls under a normal character generation system because they're all very powerful, very old and very low generation. They have "More disciplines than many starting packs" and predate the Sabbat. Okay, first off, that's all fair, but the implication that you can't possibly contrive a reason for a new character to exist is absurd. This is more of the "All X are Y" thinking the White Wolf books are guilty of. The short passage then goes on to say that a Harbinger of Skulls isn't likely to "pick people off the street and turn them into vampires". This is literally a false equivalence. I don't think anyone is implying a Cappadocian is going to pull someone off the fucking street to embrace them. It's stupid to even bring that up. It then goes on to say that they're "better off" being used for you to "weave your elaborate plotlines" than as "powerhouse players' characters". This part reads like a direct insult. It might even be one. It also implies if you want to play a munchkin that it's okay to just pick another clan. By saying this one ISN'T good for it, they're saying other clans ARE. Fuckin' go make an Assamite Antitribu. GO WILD, CELERITY FIVE!
Anyway, our final one, Kiasyd. They're fey blooded researchers and intellectuals who rarely interact with others. That's fucking it, here's our questions.
The character would have Obtenebration, a basic option available to him if he were to just play a lasombra.
He'd have a second unique discipline, Mytherceria, which deals primarily with fey, meaning it sucks and won't hardly ever come up. It is potentially the worst discipline in the game.
Brujah Antitribu will call him a nerd and dump his books.
If you'll notice, I even had to come up with a third reason on my own. The Kiasyd is literally at a disadvantage because of Mytherceria's niche uses, most of which won't EVER come up in a normal game. Fey in the classic World of Darkness generally want nothing to do with vampires due to their high banality. In terms of strict effectiveness, Kiasyd is behind many character options that are inarguably basic like Lasombra.
So why does the book say you shouldn't allow them? Because they're content to spend all of their time researching and contemplating. That's basically it, they even contrive the stupid-as-hell exchange I used as today's quote above. All X are Y, remember? The question "What if I want to play someone who's not like that?" goes completely unanswered. It reads like White Wolf has never heard of field researchers.
Do you see the difference between the Blood Brothers and our other two clans? First off, the Blood Brothers having no personal drive is inherent to the clan, like an insane Malkavian or a Ventrue with a feeding restriction. It's not something the book is just telling us about the clan, it's something they are, enforced by their blood. Second, even if that weren't true, their powers create problems: In this case, the fact that he's not likely to be able to use an ENTIRE discipline without teaching it to everyone(which is slow and likely to get him in trouble) or with other people playing Blood Brothers, which would mean they're essentially playing the same character. That's not as fun as it sounds. It's not the same as the Harbingers of Skulls or Kiasyd descriptions telling us they all act a certain way.
I'm not saying you can always flex. Some concepts are integral to a race or clan and can't be flexed much, and some are enforced by mechanics. In general, try to be permissive of people trying to develop a story contrary to something's concepts if they can come up with a great reason for it, and be harder on things that are mechanically integral to something or VERY important concepts. Can you play a Malkavian who's completely sane or a Brujah who never flips out? Really, no. Those things are enforced by their blood and there's not many reasonable stories that will get you around a clan weakness. I'm not saying you can never get around that with a decent story, but most of the time it's going to come off as hacky or lame. These clan disadvantages are important to the game's theming. Can you play a Gangrel who hates the wilderness, though? Sure! In fact, I believe that's the conceit of the Gangrel Anarchs.
Like Spoony said when he was talking about reacting to other people's concepts, don't say "You can't", come up with a reason why it'll work. He was speaking in terms of being a player and being permissive of other players, but there's wisdom in that thinking in general. It's very easy to bend to allow someone to play something cool, and in a PNP game(not a LARP) that's usually all they want. A lot of the time, there's really no reason to deny them. I mean, I could go on. The book says there's only fourteen Nagaraja left and they're all under the protection of powerful Kuei-jin, right? So obviously, you can't play one. However, what's it matter to bend the details of the world a little bit to let someone play one? Say you alter it so that the Nagaraja are vampires living primarily in India and South Asian countries and have only a minor presence in the United States. What does that REALLY fuck up to say that?
Brief sidenote, but why the fuck do they get a full write-up if there's only fourteen of them left? The fuck is the point of that? It's not like we got rules on the Bunyip or the Wereboars in Werewolf: The Apocalypse. If we're counting, btw, that's one whole thing WtA got right. I mean, with Salubri I get it, they're a HUGE part of the Tremere and Sabbat stories and they're fairly playable too. Nagaraja aren't mentioned again past their write-up.
Anyway. It doesn't matter one bit to the world, really. Information on Asian countries is thin to begin with, the Nagaraja are independent and weird shit is tucked into every inch of the World of Darkness. Really, it's the whole point. It's why we like the world. What's REALLY the difference between a Pizzaria secretly run by incestuous Italian necromancers and a Korean Restaurant run by South Chinese cannibal necromancers? One would sell calzones and one would have bulgogi. That's really it, they're BOTH putting people into the food. There's no way they're not.You could even have a subplot where the Giovanni feel threatened and start a turf war to try and muscle them out of the city. We've CREATED plot!
Edit time. Nagaraja are printed in the Storyteller's Guide, which is where I know them from, but apparently their first printing is Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand. If you don't know what this book is, it's something that blows the lid off a secret organization in VtM called the Black Hand, old vampires and master manipulators playing the Camarilla and Sabbat off each other. So that's why they got printed: they're a clan so old they're almost extinct. This book was widely regarded as a mistake to define so much about the Black Hand and a poor book in general. It's entirely full of things players can't use and won't likely ever even see, putting it on par with the SWD20 Guide to the Sith. I don't feel this invalidates my point. In fact, I feel it supports it. The Black Hand are such a mysterious and important concept that a GM should be taking their plots and details into his own hand in the first place. The GM shouldn't rely on the books for this. So essentially, the Nagaraja matter to a metaplot I'd advise a GM to never use.
What happens if you ignore me and strictly adhere to the metaplot, though? Well, someone gets mildly to moderately upset and plays a less interesting character. I guess you...get to feel good that you kept everything in line? I mean, I guess some people get satisfaction from being really inflexible. But really, nothing happens. Your game isn't enriched by it, a White Wolf rep doesn't show up to give you the Golden Stickler Award for Metaplot Safety. Hell, even the books constantly give you the advice to flex if you don't and everyone seems to completely gloss over it.
Go reading the old VtM books if you don't believe me. There's a wealth of information out there that says "Hey, if you don't like our metaplot, change it". People frequently miss the forest for the trees when they're talking about the World of Darkness, though. A lot of people miss the fact that you can bend world ideas to allow someone to play a concept, or even come up with strange circumstances for it. The real world is full of absurd, nonsensical circumstances and coincidences, I assure you.
The obvious counter to "What does it matter to say Yes" is "What does it matter to say No", I think. I imagine I'm going to hear that at least once. My answer is that it matters because someone could be having more fun and play a really memorable character because you allowed them to play something "Rare". It's nothing to you as the GM, but it's a really good feeling to them. Enjoying ourselves and creating good memories are why we do this. Some of our most memorable concepts, like Rosemary and Kamuati who are undead, Doctor Gatter and his aggressively amoral approach to science, Jumpin' Joe who's a cyberzombie with a fucking chainsaw or Joe Beautiful, the only wraith in a game of vampires...they're all something someone might've(maybe even should have) said "no" to. They're also all memorable characters we're going to treasure forever.
Sunday, December 10, 2017
New Races: Alternate Continuity II, Feltouched Kender
"Stealing? I wasn't stealing his soul, honest Mister. I was just borrowing it."
The Burning Crusade raged across the known universe, and while its story begins(and ends) in Azeroth, Sargeras and his influence have touched a near countless number of worlds. There exists, somewhere, a version of Krynn locked in battle with an infinite army of demons. For the task of conquering Krynn, Sargeras appointed his right hand Kil'jaeden, the deceiver.
Kil'jaeden was an Eredar once, a race of people known for foresight and wisdom. Kil'jaeden himself was a master manipulator who weaved plans within plans, so his assault upon Krynn began not with violence, but with deception and subterfuge. He observed the people of Krynn for a long time without acting, slowly replacing nobles, advisors and kings with his hidden dreadlord agents. In every city, every town and countryside, he noticed a presence that intrigued him.
The Kender's fearlessness and endless curiosity intrigued him, but their ever-wandering presence and habit of being overlooked or ignored convinced him of their usefulness. In a way, it was painfully easy to corrupt them and bend them to his will: many Kender willingly drank demon blood simply to see what would happen, and many more were convinced by Kil'jaeden's hidden agents, posing as kender themselves.
The Feltouched Kender would prove invaluable at first as spies and assassins, with their natural abilities bent toward Kil'jaeden's evil. Once Kil'jaeden struck and his armies assaulted the world of Krynn in full force, however, the diminuitive, often underestimated Kender proved to be his eventual downfall. The majority of them abruptly switched sides and disabled many of his ships. With several of his ships and portals disabled and one of them, the Paraxis, under Kender control, Kil'jaeden was forced to retreat.
After all, nobody can really control a Kender.
Physical Description: Feltouched Kender all share some similarities: like their uncorrupted brethren, they're small, slight and agile. They favor topknot hairstyles and have youthful, expressive faces. However, this is where similarities end. Their corruption manifests inconsistently, granting a wide array of demonic traits. While this could mean anything from horns and cloven feet to piranha-like teeth and an ever-present brimstone smell, there are a few traits which are very common. Glowing eyes and jagged tattoo-like marks of bright greens, purples or reds are a common trait, as are dusky red, deep blackish purple or green skin. Kil'jaeden's corruptive influence follows no mortal laws, so feltouched kender range anywhere from strangely beautiful to unnatural and monstrous.
Society: Feltouched Kender share much with normal Kender who never agreed to Kil'jaedens bargain. Family and friends are still strikingly important to them, and they are often fiercely loyal and protective. They still have no concept of property ownership as well and will often borrow things without asking, seeing no wrong in it. However, unlike normal Kender, the Feltouched are more aware of the concept of theft and will use it to their advantage, if they can. They also still have a love of jokes, riddles, stories and pranks, but they have a sadistic streak that sometimes turns their pranks harmful or even deadly. Feltouched Kender assassins are known for toying with their targets first, toying with them and playing tricks on them until one prank abruptly ends their life. Their boundless curiosity can drive them to these "taken too far" jokes as well as a host of mean or sadistic pursuits, simply to see what would happen.
Relations: While Kender are mostly tolerated, the Feltouched are divisive. Some see them as corrupted monsters, while others see them as heroes who saved Krynn from the brink of destruction. Mistrust is often well warranted, however, and even societies who tolerate them watch them closely. Kender often see the feltouched as tragic and corrupted, but most try to be as welcoming as possible, trying to guide their "brothers". Tieflings, obviously, see the Feltouched as brothers. After all, they have both been through very similar circumstances in their lives.
Alignment: Feltouched Kender are often evil, falling to their sadistic curiosity. However, they can be of any alignment, and the vast majority of them are some form of neutral. Many Feltouched steadfastly reject their heritage and its influences, reigning in their impulse for sadism and sick curiosity.
Adventurers: Feltouched Kender find it hard to integrate into society, often feeling unwanted and scrutinized even in Kender societies. This combined with their natural Kender wanderlust means an overwhelming number of Feltouched Kender have turned to adventuring to make their way. In addition to this, those that indulge their demonic heritage often become valued members of thieves' guilds.
Feltouched Kender Racial Traits
+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence: Feltouched Kender are agile in both body and mind.
Native Outsider: Feltouched Kender are outsiders with the native subtype.
Small: Feltouched Kender are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a -1 penalty to their CMB and CMD, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
Normal Speed: Feltouched Kender have a base speed of 30 feet.
Darkvision: Feltouched Kender see in the dark for up to 60 feet.
Lucky: Feltouched Kender gain a +1 bonus to all saves.
Fearless: Feltouched Kender are immune to all fear effects.
Light Fingers: Feltouched Kender possess a light touch, gaining a +2 racial bonus to sleight of hand checks.
Soul-Borrow: Kender can 'borrow' a minor amount of life force from any being with the humanoid, monstrous humanoid, giant or outsider types as a standard action. This touch range ability heals them for 1d8 plus their INT mod. A subject does not have to be willing, but to target an unwilling subject, the feltouched must succeed at a sleight of hand check vs. the target's perception check. If the feltouched succeeds, the target does not know anything happened. If he fails, the target catches the feltouched in the act and will likely mistake the attempt for pickpocketing. If he succeeds, he can also choose to give the target a -2 to INT and WIS-based skill checks for one hour as they are muddled and confused. The Feltouched can only successfully 'borrow' from an individual person once a day.
Alternate Racial Traits
Fiendish Resistance: The Feltouched Kender gains Resistance 5 to Fire, Cold and Acid. However, this extended exposure to fel energy has obliterated their immunity to fear. They lose the fearless quality.
Razor Teeth: The Feltouched Kender gains a bite attack dealing 1D4 points of damage. This replaces Soul-Borrow.
Adaptable Luck: As the Halfling ability of the same name. This replaces Lucky.
Saboteur: The Feltouched Kender's experience with Eredar technology has granted them a +2 racial bonus to Disable Device. In addition, when taking the Sabotage action with Disable Device, the Feltouched can choose to reduce or increase the amount of time for the item to break by one round or one minute, as appropriate. This replaces Light Fingers.
Demon Killer: The Feltouched Kender abruptly betraying Kil'jaeden taught them a lot about fighting demons in a very short amount of time. The Feltouched Kender gains a +2 dodge bonus to AC vs outsiders with the evil subtype as well as +1 to attack rolls against them. This replaces Soul-Borrow.
Little Liars: The Feltouched understand the kender's penchant for stories and tall tales can be a useful skill. They gain a +4 bonus to Bluff checks made to convince someone what they are saying is true. This replaces Light Fingers.
@}-,-'--
Inspirations
Okay, first off you need to know how hard this was to put together. That's why this caused me to skip a week. This is essentially a bash-together of Tiefling and Halfling(kind of, Kender are close enough) and it was very hard giving them unique abilities that would also not override the other two races. The whole time I had to be mindful of the question "Would I play Halfling or Tiefling over this?" and lemme tell you, it wasn't easy. Halfling's not a very good race. So if you have issues with this race once you've read my notes and justifications below, talk with your group about poking them up or down a little, as appropriate.
Anyway. Fluff first. This came from an idle idea I shared with Mat once I had the idea for the Mannekin. Like most of my ideas, it was really stupid. Mat jokingly gave me the quote above and it inspired me to put a whole thing together. I love the Burning Crusade, and I love that they corrupt what they touch: You drink the fel flavor-aide and you turn into a monster with great powers. The orcs, some of the Tauren in Highmountain, and even MURLOCS. Once I saw fel corrupted Murlocs I knew my idea wasn't very far off in terms of believability.
After all, Kil'jaeden is a crafty motherfucker, and the kender are crafty motherfuckers. I really had the feeling he'd see them as useful tools, a perfect little spy army provided to him on a silver platter. This is why I swung this way instead of the more ridiculous(but vastly funnier) idea of Illidan training Kender as Demon Hunters out of sheer necessity.
In the end, they betray Kil'jaeden. This is for two reasons: The first is to express that they're still Kender. They might be sadistic little sneaky bastards now, but they still have that core to them. They're not all evil. The other reason is that I found it really funny, that Kil'jaeden kinda hoists his own petard by underestimating the Kender: Something a lot, a LOT of villains in Krynn have done.
Alright, let's discuss mechanics. The goal is still to put races between 12 and 15 points, and Feltouched sit at around 13. This was pretty difficult, as I said above, but I think I succeeded at having them split the difference between Tiefling and Halfling, giving them a BIT of skill utility but keeping their stuff mostly toward being a mix. I tried not to invent any alternate racial traits that push them closer to specializing and stepping on another race's toes. I also left out some of their classic disadvantages like the penalty to concentration checks or the constant mechanics-enforced "borrowing". Concentration's no longer a skill so that'd be a much bigger penalty than it needs to be...and the borrowing really should just be a RP thing anyway. It's a great way to get the Kender character killed to mechanically enforce stealing from the party. That crap is one of the reasons so many people hate Kender.
Fearless is probably the first controversial bit. I ballparked it at three points because an elemental immunity, something a LOT more useful, is four points. I thought about just giving them a flat +4 to save vs. fear, but that's not fair to the spirit of the Kender. they're fearless. Literally, they do not understand the concept. If this bothers you or if you're just trying to emulate a fel-touched halfling, knock it down to +4, but try not to go further down than that.
And lastly, here's the bit where I defend soul-borrow. It probably sounds a lot more powerful than it really is. First I'd like to say the skill penalty is largely there as a token, because I think it's weird that a thing like soul borrow wouldn't actually affect the person he's borrowing from. It also lets the feltouched feel like he's setting something up, to pop soul-borrow on someone in preparation for bluffing them or sneaking past.
Next...INFINITE HEALING! Well, not really. He's not going to be doing it in combat unless he's desperate due to the standard action and the non-scaling amount of HP. In most adventuring games, it basically means he's gonna get 4-5 uses from his fellow party members in a day. This means he heals up real fast in cities and towns, but it also puts him at risk for doing it, assuming most people who don't know him are gonna say "no" to having their life energy borrowed. Even then, asking people would probably be a diplomacy or bluff check anyway, so it'd be rare for the player to really get around some kind of check.
All in all, I consider it a conditional fast healing rating, something that's going to be great for downtime healing(something a lot of parties handwave anyway) and mildly useful any other time. If it still bothers you, consider restricting it to three times a day. I wouldn't go lower than that. You could also enforce they replace it with Demon Killer, which is a nice but conditional bonus.
Just as with Mannekin, I probably will do a supplementary post on these guys in the future with equipment, spells, and feats. The fun stuff.
The Burning Crusade raged across the known universe, and while its story begins(and ends) in Azeroth, Sargeras and his influence have touched a near countless number of worlds. There exists, somewhere, a version of Krynn locked in battle with an infinite army of demons. For the task of conquering Krynn, Sargeras appointed his right hand Kil'jaeden, the deceiver.
Kil'jaeden was an Eredar once, a race of people known for foresight and wisdom. Kil'jaeden himself was a master manipulator who weaved plans within plans, so his assault upon Krynn began not with violence, but with deception and subterfuge. He observed the people of Krynn for a long time without acting, slowly replacing nobles, advisors and kings with his hidden dreadlord agents. In every city, every town and countryside, he noticed a presence that intrigued him.
The Kender's fearlessness and endless curiosity intrigued him, but their ever-wandering presence and habit of being overlooked or ignored convinced him of their usefulness. In a way, it was painfully easy to corrupt them and bend them to his will: many Kender willingly drank demon blood simply to see what would happen, and many more were convinced by Kil'jaeden's hidden agents, posing as kender themselves.
The Feltouched Kender would prove invaluable at first as spies and assassins, with their natural abilities bent toward Kil'jaeden's evil. Once Kil'jaeden struck and his armies assaulted the world of Krynn in full force, however, the diminuitive, often underestimated Kender proved to be his eventual downfall. The majority of them abruptly switched sides and disabled many of his ships. With several of his ships and portals disabled and one of them, the Paraxis, under Kender control, Kil'jaeden was forced to retreat.
After all, nobody can really control a Kender.
Physical Description: Feltouched Kender all share some similarities: like their uncorrupted brethren, they're small, slight and agile. They favor topknot hairstyles and have youthful, expressive faces. However, this is where similarities end. Their corruption manifests inconsistently, granting a wide array of demonic traits. While this could mean anything from horns and cloven feet to piranha-like teeth and an ever-present brimstone smell, there are a few traits which are very common. Glowing eyes and jagged tattoo-like marks of bright greens, purples or reds are a common trait, as are dusky red, deep blackish purple or green skin. Kil'jaeden's corruptive influence follows no mortal laws, so feltouched kender range anywhere from strangely beautiful to unnatural and monstrous.
Society: Feltouched Kender share much with normal Kender who never agreed to Kil'jaedens bargain. Family and friends are still strikingly important to them, and they are often fiercely loyal and protective. They still have no concept of property ownership as well and will often borrow things without asking, seeing no wrong in it. However, unlike normal Kender, the Feltouched are more aware of the concept of theft and will use it to their advantage, if they can. They also still have a love of jokes, riddles, stories and pranks, but they have a sadistic streak that sometimes turns their pranks harmful or even deadly. Feltouched Kender assassins are known for toying with their targets first, toying with them and playing tricks on them until one prank abruptly ends their life. Their boundless curiosity can drive them to these "taken too far" jokes as well as a host of mean or sadistic pursuits, simply to see what would happen.
Relations: While Kender are mostly tolerated, the Feltouched are divisive. Some see them as corrupted monsters, while others see them as heroes who saved Krynn from the brink of destruction. Mistrust is often well warranted, however, and even societies who tolerate them watch them closely. Kender often see the feltouched as tragic and corrupted, but most try to be as welcoming as possible, trying to guide their "brothers". Tieflings, obviously, see the Feltouched as brothers. After all, they have both been through very similar circumstances in their lives.
Alignment: Feltouched Kender are often evil, falling to their sadistic curiosity. However, they can be of any alignment, and the vast majority of them are some form of neutral. Many Feltouched steadfastly reject their heritage and its influences, reigning in their impulse for sadism and sick curiosity.
Adventurers: Feltouched Kender find it hard to integrate into society, often feeling unwanted and scrutinized even in Kender societies. This combined with their natural Kender wanderlust means an overwhelming number of Feltouched Kender have turned to adventuring to make their way. In addition to this, those that indulge their demonic heritage often become valued members of thieves' guilds.
Feltouched Kender Racial Traits
+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence: Feltouched Kender are agile in both body and mind.
Native Outsider: Feltouched Kender are outsiders with the native subtype.
Small: Feltouched Kender are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a -1 penalty to their CMB and CMD, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
Normal Speed: Feltouched Kender have a base speed of 30 feet.
Darkvision: Feltouched Kender see in the dark for up to 60 feet.
Lucky: Feltouched Kender gain a +1 bonus to all saves.
Fearless: Feltouched Kender are immune to all fear effects.
Light Fingers: Feltouched Kender possess a light touch, gaining a +2 racial bonus to sleight of hand checks.
Soul-Borrow: Kender can 'borrow' a minor amount of life force from any being with the humanoid, monstrous humanoid, giant or outsider types as a standard action. This touch range ability heals them for 1d8 plus their INT mod. A subject does not have to be willing, but to target an unwilling subject, the feltouched must succeed at a sleight of hand check vs. the target's perception check. If the feltouched succeeds, the target does not know anything happened. If he fails, the target catches the feltouched in the act and will likely mistake the attempt for pickpocketing. If he succeeds, he can also choose to give the target a -2 to INT and WIS-based skill checks for one hour as they are muddled and confused. The Feltouched can only successfully 'borrow' from an individual person once a day.
Alternate Racial Traits
Fiendish Resistance: The Feltouched Kender gains Resistance 5 to Fire, Cold and Acid. However, this extended exposure to fel energy has obliterated their immunity to fear. They lose the fearless quality.
Razor Teeth: The Feltouched Kender gains a bite attack dealing 1D4 points of damage. This replaces Soul-Borrow.
Adaptable Luck: As the Halfling ability of the same name. This replaces Lucky.
Saboteur: The Feltouched Kender's experience with Eredar technology has granted them a +2 racial bonus to Disable Device. In addition, when taking the Sabotage action with Disable Device, the Feltouched can choose to reduce or increase the amount of time for the item to break by one round or one minute, as appropriate. This replaces Light Fingers.
Demon Killer: The Feltouched Kender abruptly betraying Kil'jaeden taught them a lot about fighting demons in a very short amount of time. The Feltouched Kender gains a +2 dodge bonus to AC vs outsiders with the evil subtype as well as +1 to attack rolls against them. This replaces Soul-Borrow.
Little Liars: The Feltouched understand the kender's penchant for stories and tall tales can be a useful skill. They gain a +4 bonus to Bluff checks made to convince someone what they are saying is true. This replaces Light Fingers.
@}-,-'--
Inspirations
Okay, first off you need to know how hard this was to put together. That's why this caused me to skip a week. This is essentially a bash-together of Tiefling and Halfling(kind of, Kender are close enough) and it was very hard giving them unique abilities that would also not override the other two races. The whole time I had to be mindful of the question "Would I play Halfling or Tiefling over this?" and lemme tell you, it wasn't easy. Halfling's not a very good race. So if you have issues with this race once you've read my notes and justifications below, talk with your group about poking them up or down a little, as appropriate.
Anyway. Fluff first. This came from an idle idea I shared with Mat once I had the idea for the Mannekin. Like most of my ideas, it was really stupid. Mat jokingly gave me the quote above and it inspired me to put a whole thing together. I love the Burning Crusade, and I love that they corrupt what they touch: You drink the fel flavor-aide and you turn into a monster with great powers. The orcs, some of the Tauren in Highmountain, and even MURLOCS. Once I saw fel corrupted Murlocs I knew my idea wasn't very far off in terms of believability.
After all, Kil'jaeden is a crafty motherfucker, and the kender are crafty motherfuckers. I really had the feeling he'd see them as useful tools, a perfect little spy army provided to him on a silver platter. This is why I swung this way instead of the more ridiculous(but vastly funnier) idea of Illidan training Kender as Demon Hunters out of sheer necessity.
In the end, they betray Kil'jaeden. This is for two reasons: The first is to express that they're still Kender. They might be sadistic little sneaky bastards now, but they still have that core to them. They're not all evil. The other reason is that I found it really funny, that Kil'jaeden kinda hoists his own petard by underestimating the Kender: Something a lot, a LOT of villains in Krynn have done.
Alright, let's discuss mechanics. The goal is still to put races between 12 and 15 points, and Feltouched sit at around 13. This was pretty difficult, as I said above, but I think I succeeded at having them split the difference between Tiefling and Halfling, giving them a BIT of skill utility but keeping their stuff mostly toward being a mix. I tried not to invent any alternate racial traits that push them closer to specializing and stepping on another race's toes. I also left out some of their classic disadvantages like the penalty to concentration checks or the constant mechanics-enforced "borrowing". Concentration's no longer a skill so that'd be a much bigger penalty than it needs to be...and the borrowing really should just be a RP thing anyway. It's a great way to get the Kender character killed to mechanically enforce stealing from the party. That crap is one of the reasons so many people hate Kender.
Fearless is probably the first controversial bit. I ballparked it at three points because an elemental immunity, something a LOT more useful, is four points. I thought about just giving them a flat +4 to save vs. fear, but that's not fair to the spirit of the Kender. they're fearless. Literally, they do not understand the concept. If this bothers you or if you're just trying to emulate a fel-touched halfling, knock it down to +4, but try not to go further down than that.
And lastly, here's the bit where I defend soul-borrow. It probably sounds a lot more powerful than it really is. First I'd like to say the skill penalty is largely there as a token, because I think it's weird that a thing like soul borrow wouldn't actually affect the person he's borrowing from. It also lets the feltouched feel like he's setting something up, to pop soul-borrow on someone in preparation for bluffing them or sneaking past.
Next...INFINITE HEALING! Well, not really. He's not going to be doing it in combat unless he's desperate due to the standard action and the non-scaling amount of HP. In most adventuring games, it basically means he's gonna get 4-5 uses from his fellow party members in a day. This means he heals up real fast in cities and towns, but it also puts him at risk for doing it, assuming most people who don't know him are gonna say "no" to having their life energy borrowed. Even then, asking people would probably be a diplomacy or bluff check anyway, so it'd be rare for the player to really get around some kind of check.
All in all, I consider it a conditional fast healing rating, something that's going to be great for downtime healing(something a lot of parties handwave anyway) and mildly useful any other time. If it still bothers you, consider restricting it to three times a day. I wouldn't go lower than that. You could also enforce they replace it with Demon Killer, which is a nice but conditional bonus.
Just as with Mannekin, I probably will do a supplementary post on these guys in the future with equipment, spells, and feats. The fun stuff.
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