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Homebrew Exalted - Harrowed
Topic Started: Feb 11 2016, 09:44 AM (2,538 Views)
weredrago2
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He Who Posts Too Much
Feeling experimental. Tell me what you think.

HOMEBREW EXALTATION - THE HARROWED

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People stay down when you kill them. That's what they do, right? Well gee, wouldn't that be nice if it were true? As it turns out, that isn't always the case. Magic is a hell of a drug, and a desperate necromancer is wont to bring back the dead when he really shouldn't. Of course, sometimes you find a blood who is too tough to stay down the first time he's put in a coffin, waking up from his dirt nap to settle some unfinished business. Either way, these Harrowed folk dragged themselves out of the earth and walk the Wheel once more, their rotting corpses powered by little more than the will to keep on keepin' on.

Tell: When a Harrowed spends Resolve, things get ugly. Various eerie effects can occur. Their corpses can start to smell of the dead (if they didn't already), or their fatal wounds and their lifeless eyes will begin to glow with the otherworldly touch of death itself.

HARROWED STATIC POWERS
Deathless: Harrowed have the Undead trait. They are immune to Fatigue, Poison, Drugs, and Disease, and cannot be killed by critical damage unless it would destroy their head. If critical damage to the body or gizzards would 'kill' them, the Harrowed dies temporarily and comes back in 1d10-Constitution days (to a minimum of 1), which can be reduced by spending one Resolve per day taken off.
Spare Parts: Harrowed do not heal over time, and cannot spend Resolve to heal hit points. If you lose a body part, it can be replaced with a spare (typically taken from someone else) by spending Resolve and rolling Medicae + Intelligence against TN 20 as a Full Action. Limbs applied this way are treated as poor quality bionics until the end the scene they are acquired in. You can spend another point of Resolve to count them as normal quality right away.
Disassemble: As a half action, a Harrowed can disattach a body part (gaining an appropriate condition) and control it at a range of (Harrowing*10) meters. Disembodied limbs with means of locomotion can travel at a rate of 1/4th their owner's Speed (rounding up), and you can still see out of a gouged out eye. Enemies have a -2k0 penalty to hit missing limbs (as if they were making a Called Shot), but they do not roll Hit Locations - they just hit the limb.
Damaged Goods: There's about a dozen right ways to come back from the dead, and you didn't do any of them. Start the game with the Jaded feat and 10 Insanity. On account of being, you know, dead, you take a -2k1 social penalty with the living unless they're Exalted themselves.

POWER STAT: HARROWING
The Harrowed's Power Stat is their Harrowing, representing how far they have come in mastering the condition of death. It's not an easy process, as it takes both an acceptance of their own death and the deaths of those around them.

Resource Stat: Resolve
When death is no longer certain, your Resolve is all you can rely on. As such, Harrowed use their Resolve pool in the place of a normal Resource Stat. Each morning, the Harrowed may roll her Composure against TN 10. If the roll succeeds, she regains one point of Resolve, plus one for every raise on the roll. A Harrowed can gain a point of Resolve if they perform a stunt that furthers their Alignment (at the SM's discretion). A Harrowed's maximum Resolve is equal to their Harrowing + Willpower + Composure.

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HarrowingPower Gained
*Flesh-Eater: Once per hour, a Harrowed can consume a pound of meat to regain one hit point. You gain a bite attack with the following profile; 1k1, R, Brawling.
**Implacable: Reduce damage taken to the Body or Head by your Harrowing.
***Fifth of Dismember: Limbs gained with Spare Parts are no longer treated as poor quality during the scene you attach them. You can spend Resolve to treat a normal limb as a good quality bionic limb until the end of the scene.
****Counting Coop: You can cast the spell Consume Soul, using your Harrowing + Willpower instead of the normal focus power test. Consumed souls grant a number of Resolve equal to their Level.
*****Chimera: You may take racial feats from any race who's body parts are incorporated into your body. The part and feat must be related to each other. Losing the body part causes the feat to be refunded.


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Harrowed Class Assets
StacyBeing made of dead flesh only makes you tougher.
ThanatosYou shine the brightest in the heat of battle.
GothicBiting chunks out of people restores your health.
RequiemBullets are your friends, and your friends are really good at killing people.
BaroqueYou can mutate into a horrible monster on the fly.
RomanesqueDance! Dance like Pinocchio on PCP!
PsychedelicGoing crazy is your modus operandi.


Stacy
You can really take a beating. Increase your Resilience by 1, and your hit points by your Harrowing.

Thanatos
You gain a free rank in one Sword School. You may purchase ranks in this school as if it appeared on your class track. If you were injured in the previous round, your melee weapons gain Tearing and Penetration equal to your Harrowing in the current one.

Gothic
You can regain hit points by successfully biting enemies, gaining a number of hit points equal to the number of wounds caused (to a limit of your Harrowing).

Requiem
You gain a free rank in one Gun Kata. You may purchase ranks in this kata as if it appeared on your class track. You also gain the Eagle Eyes feat and a free ranged weapon proficiency.

Baroque
You can spend a point of Resolve and a Full Action to to modify yourself as if you had the Wild Shape or Improved Wild Shape feats. This lasts until the end of the scene, and is reduced to a Half Action to activate at Harrowing 3.

Romanesque
You really put the danse in danse macabre. Gain the Evasion feat, and increase your Static Defense by your Harrowing.

Psychedelic
You can spend a point of Resolve to reroll on the Psychic Phenomena table, taking the new result unless you spend another Resolve for another reroll. If you have 0 Resolve, you can opt to gain 1d5 Insanity in the place of using Resolve.

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Edited by weredrago2, Jan 12 2017, 02:45 PM.
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stellatedHexahedron
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Noneuclidean Polyhedron
Some wording stuff:
--"limbs applied this way are treated as poor quality bionics until the end the scene they are acquired." reads better IMO
--As it is, it looks like this resolve just happens to have the same name as ordinary Resolve. You should probably mention if they are the same.
--Why don't you just omit the last sentence of Romanesque and increase static defense by Harrowing+2?

This is probably the most polished out-of-the-gate exaltation I've seen. Unique abilities, nothing obviously exploitable, good puns. The whole limb thing is damn cool.
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weredrago2
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Fixed the wordings. Resolve here is the same as regular Resolve, as with the Perpetual.

I'm glad you like the Harrowed. I played around with the idea for a few days, but got right to it when I had the chance. It just clicked, you know?
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Eisenritter
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...At a glance, looks like we're ousting both the Deathking and the Liminal/Homunculus with this? The latter would certainly seem rather poor set against this, and if the former was not intended you might want to not use the phrase "vigor mortis," as the Deathking uses it for its "you are Undead" feature.
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weredrago2
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My intention wasn't to replace Deathkings, but I do admit this was my alternate take on the same idea presented by Liminals and Homunculus. I'll think of something to replace Vigor Mortis.
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Eisenritter
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weredrago2
Feb 11 2016, 09:44 AM
Deathless: Harrowed have the Undead trait. They are immune to Fatigue, Poison, Suffocation, Starvation/Thirst, Blood Loss, Drugs, and Disease, and cannot be killed by critical damage unless it would destroy their head. If critical damage would kill them, they instead 'die' and revive in 1d10-Constitution days (to a minimum of 1), reduced by 1 for every additional point of Resolve spent.
Green parts are already included in the Undead trait. You can remove those.

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Spare Parts: Harrowed do not heal over time, and cannot spend Resolve to heal hit points. If you lose a body part, it can be replaced with an appropriate spare by rolling Medicae + Intelligence against TN 20 as a Full Action. Limbs applied this way are treated as poor quality bionics until the end the scene they are acquired. You can spend a point of Resolve to count them as their normal quality right away.

Claymore-style reattachment; press the member to the stump and hope you can do it quickly enough to regain tempo and solidly enough that it won't just fall off when you swing your sword. Noting, of course, that this is much more efficient than the Promethean's Refitting.

Actually, here's a more pressing thought: If your new arm has claws, do you gain those claws as a natural weapon? If you take a Dragonblood's arm, do you now have the properties he had on his claws? Or does the "can't benefit from two exaltations" bit kick in and render it into a normal mortal's, somehow?

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Disassemble: You can remove a part of your body (gaining an appropriate condition) and control it at a range equal to three times your Harrowing in meters. Disembodied limbs can travel half your movement speed, and you can still see out of a torn out eye. Enemies have a -2k1 penalty to hit missing limbs, and you do not roll hit locations for them - you just hit them.

This one feels weird. I'm not sure exactly what it is... maybe that now I might be obliged to do something similar with the Dullahan...

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Damaged Goods: There's about a dozen right ways to come back from the dead, and you didn't do any of them. Start the game with the Jaded feat and 10 Insanity. On account of being, you know, dead, you take a -1k1 social penalty with the living and a -2k1 penalty to Animal Ken.

Can't heal themselves, insane, and a social penalty. I'd say that's sufficient "downside"...

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Flesh-Eater: Once per hour, a Harrowed can consume a pound of meat to regain one hit point. You gain a bite attack with the following profile; 1k1, R, Brawling.

Poking at the various Feeding-type exalts here. I have no complaints, though.

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Implacable: Reduce damage taken from any source by an amount equal to your Harrowing.

Dragonbloods gain a limited version of this at Aspect 4. You'll note that their version is still affected by Penetration and doesn't stack with other sources, as this does.

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Fifth of Dismember: Limbs gained with Spare Parts are no longer treated as poor quality during the scene you get them. You can spend a Resolve to treat a normal limb as a good quality bionic limb until the end of the scene.

With a name like that, I'd expect to see something about being able to safely remove enough of a limb mid-battle to be able to use it right away...

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Consume Soul: You can cast the spell Consume Soul, using your Harrowing + Willpower instead of the normal focus power test. Consumed souls grant a number of Resolve equal to their Level.

Spells are not usually granted at a power stat equal to their level; the Dragonblood does (Dragon Form), but it comes at a limit, and here you've added an additional benefit. That said, I'm sure this one is at least flavored to something you've used in the amalgam...

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Chimera: You may take racial feats from any race whose body parts are incorporated into your body. The part and feat must be related to each other. Losing the body part causes the feat to be refunded.

...I had restricted this based on having an actual body location replaced. Hm. Actually, now imagining a Cyclops eye shoved into an Elfin socket just to take Spectral Eye, that's hilarious. :P

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Stacy: You can really take a beating. Increase your Resilience by 1, and your hit points by your Harrowing.

...Is this Necronica or Spider-Man? Vanara Psychos can probably milk that Resilience bonus... would that be Gizzards-related?

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Thanatos: You gain a free rank in one Sword School. You may purchase ranks in this school as if it appeared on your class track. You may spend a point of Resolve to give your melee weapons Tearing and Pen equal to your Harrowing for a scene.

I got nothing, this is cool.

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Gothic: You may regain hit points by successfully biting enemies, gaining a number of hit points equal to the amount of hit points taken from your opponent (to a limit of your Harrowing + Level).

Combine with Ravening Maw for breakage. Ten might be a bit high of an upper cap, but then I remember dealing 9 damage with a Magic Missile... :(

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Requiem: You gain a free rank in one Gun Kata. You may purchase ranks in this kata as if it appeared on your class track. Once per round, you can spend 1 Resolve to add your Harrowing as rolled dice to the damage roll of a ranged weapon.

This wouldn't be based on the old Hotshot Hero, would it? 'Cus I agree, ranged kinda needs the help... "you're not stuck in" doesn't actually make up for not being able to land a telling shot before getting stuck in...

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Baroque:[/b] You may spend a point of Resolve to gain the Amphibious, Auto-Stabilized, Crawler, Dark Slight, Flyer (equal to ground speed), or Quadruped traits until the end of the scene. You can maintain a number of traits equal to your Harrowing simultaneously.

So... at Harrowing 5 I can just drop 5 Resolve and get all but one of these traits in one go? Is there an action associated with this? Sudden mutation, or just posture adjustment?

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Romanesque: You really put the danse in danse macabre. Gain the Fleet of Foot feat. Increase your Static Defense by twice your Harrowing.

...We're now up to 60 Static Defense without accounting for other dickery.

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Psychedelic: You may spend a point of Resolve to reroll on the Psychic Phenomena table, taking the new result unless you spend another Resolve for another reroll. Any time you run out of Resolve, you can opt to gain 1d5 Insanity in the place of using Resolve.

Be careful with wording. I assume it's not meant to include spending Resolve as well as being drained of it?
Edited by Eisenritter, Feb 11 2016, 04:00 PM.
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stellatedHexahedron
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Much better handle on what's balanced and what's not now that someone's picked it apart.

ol' ironhide
 
Actually, here's a more pressing thought: If your new arm has claws, do you gain those claws as a natural weapon? If you take a Dragonblood's arm, do you now have the properties he had on his claws? Or does the "can't benefit from two exaltations" bit kick in and render it into a normal mortal's, somehow?
Since he already has a 1k1 brawling attack, that's not such a big deal. Presumably, since all the extra affects come from Blood Quickening, they no longer operate once it's no longer attached to the Dragonblooded. If the limb is from something else that has a more powerful unarmed (heh) attack, then we can say that the hallowed no longer has access to whatever biology (leverage, production of venom, claws that regrow as they wear down, etc) granted the attack extra power.

knights of (i)ren
 
ophidiolycanthrope
 
Implacable: Reduce damage taken from any source by an amount equal to your Harrowing.
Dragonbloods gain a limited version of this at Aspect 4. You'll note that their version is still affected by Penetration and doesn't stack with other sources, as this does.
Yes, but the Dragonblooded version grants Aura as well. I do agree this is probably not balanced, though. Never mind I apparently looped around my train of thought while writing this.

ire night
 
we're dragons too!
 
Consume Soul: You can cast the spell Consume Soul, using your Harrowing + Willpower instead of the normal focus power test. Consumed souls grant a number of Resolve equal to their Level.
Spells are not usually granted at a power stat equal to their level; the Dragonblood does (Dragon Form), but it comes at a limit, and here you've added an additional benefit.
Yeah, but Dragon Form kicks ass, whereas Consume Soul is only useful against specific enemies, and only after they're defeated.

draco sapiens
 
Gothic: You may regain hit points by successfully biting enemies, gaining a number of hit points equal to the amount of hit points taken from your opponent (to a limit of your Harrowing + Level).
Yeah, 10 is too high. I'd go with either lowering the cap to Harrowing, or making it a modification to Flesh Eater, allowing you to use gain its benefit on bite attacks and it's the cap from once per hour to Harrowing+Level per scene.

ive run out of dumb nicknames
 
...
 
Romanesque: You really put the danse in danse macabre. Gain the Fleet of Foot feat. Increase your Static Defense by twice your Harrowing.
...We're now up to 60 Static Defense without accounting for other dickery.
Only if there's some non-exaltation way to get Wis and Dex up to 6. And even if there is, I'm pretty sure it'd count as dickery. Anyway, I'd just cut it to 1 Harrowing at this point.
Edited by stellatedHexahedron, Feb 11 2016, 07:11 PM.
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Eisenritter
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stellatedHexahedron
Feb 11 2016, 07:00 PM
knights of (i)ren
 
ophidiolycanthrope
 
Implacable: Reduce damage taken from any source by an amount equal to your Harrowing.

Dragonbloods gain a limited version of this at Aspect 4. You'll note that their version is still affected by Penetration and doesn't stack with other sources, as this does.
Yes, but the Dragonblooded version grants Aura as well. I concede it's still probably not balanced, though.
"Damage taken from any source" explicitly includes both spells and weaponry. Dragonbloods get Armor and Aura... one for weapon attacks, one for magic attacks. The difference is that the Dragonblood's version is affected by Penetration, while the Harrowed's is not.

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ive run out of dumb nicknames
 
...
 
Romanesque: You really put the danse in danse macabre. Gain the Fleet of Foot feat. Increase your Static Defense by twice your Harrowing.
...We're now up to 60 Static Defense without accounting for other dickery.
Only if there's some non-exaltation way to get Wis and Dex up to 6. And even if there is, I'm pretty sure it'd count as dickery. Anyway, I'd just cut it to 1 Harrowing at this point.

Halfling, Transmutation, Animal Power. We have classes that get it now.
Edited by Eisenritter, Feb 11 2016, 07:06 PM.
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weredrago2
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It's about this time I wish I knew how to do the whole "quoting" thing. Oh well. Time to respond to peer review.

Removed redundancies in Deathless.

I considered allowing you to take parts from other Exalted for Chimera, but I'd rather not break the 'no two Exalted' rule. Yet. I need to make a homebrew for multiexalting first. My reasoning is that an arm is an arm, and a Dragonblooded arm stops being Dragonblooded when the blood stops flowing through it. I also considered a system where you need to spend a Resolve to 'bind' a limb to your body before you can use it.

While you have a point about Implacable being on the strong side, I'm not too keen on replacing it. Should it be switched out with something else on the Harrowing track?

I'm going to go ahead and implement the 'spend a Resolve to gain use of the limb' rule so that we wouldn't have to worry about players overusing this power. Maybe I should remove the Spare Parts modifier as well?

Consume Soul is a reference to 'Counting Coop', a trick where a Harrowed in Deadlands can consume the soul of a supernatural critter to gain all sorts of nasty powers they normally wouldn't have. I'm changing it to a Resolve booster for the sake of consistency.

I based Chimera on the fact that Exalted Liminals can take the qualities of others by stitching them on themselves. Tongue of a poet, legs of a dancer, arms of a swordsman, etc.

According to the Nechronica translation wiki, Stacy is a reference to a J-Horror film.

Limiting Gothic to a Harrowing damage cap.

I actually forgot about Hotshot Hero when I was writing Requiem. Ranged really does need help.

I'll change Baroque to requiring a Half Action to apply your weirdo mutations.

Reducing the benefits of Romanesque.

Not sure what you mean about Psychedelic.
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Eisenritter
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weredrago2
Feb 11 2016, 09:32 PM
It's about this time I wish I knew how to do the whole "quoting" thing. Oh well. Time to respond to peer review.
At the bottom of each post is a pair of buttons that read "Report" and "Quote." Click on the latter to open up the full reply page with the post in a second text field.

Alternately, check the box between each post you'd like to quote and then hit "Add Reply" at the bottom of the page to open the full reply page with each checked post in your text field, complete with quote tags.
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