All You Need is Love

Question: Why'd you make Engender Love so expensive?

Engender Love is a great knack. We love it: it's effective in the game world, a very mythic power to use, and often hilarious, especially when used against other PCs. But Engender Love is also a grenade, and since it has the capacity to instantly subvert or kill any foe if used right, we upped its cost to reflect its power.

Think about it: when you successfully use Engender Love on somebody, they will do almost anything for you (for the next few days or even weeks, depending on your roll). Betray their usual masters and friends? They'll do it! Dump treasured loved ones to the curb? They'll do it! Give you everything they own, up to and including things that they need to survive? They'll do it! Put up with your friends (or even you) trying to kill them until they inevitably die? They'll probably do that, too. They'll do anything, as long as they think you'll love them (or even just be a little happier) if they do.

Of course, this is totally something gods and their children should be able to do. We encourage it. But it's a very powerful thing to do, so paying one measly Legend didn't really seem to reflect the results. Three Legend and a Willpower seemed like the magic number where it wasn't a prohibitively high cost to stop people from using it if it was their usual bread and butter, but also wasn't so low that totally stripping others of most of their defenses was chump change (and the Willpower helps reflect that, as the dude forcing someone else to love you, you need some hefty personal determination as well).

This does make Engender Love harder to use for Hero-level Scions, no doubt about it, but since it's also pretty insanely powerful for them (oh, look, the Secretary of Defense is now in love with me and will do anything I ask. Bombs away!), that usually works out all right in the end. It also makes sense for it to be something that is difficult or seldom done for Scions who are still mostly humans, but which becomes easier and easier as they ramp up toward godhood.

We love a world in which the PCs use this all the time. Not only is it usually a great tool for them, but when it misfires, it misfires hilariously (a muspel-giant's idea of love may not be as gently accommodating as you might wish, and when you engender love in someone with a high level of firepower and she starts taking potshots at anyone else who looks like they might get close to you, well, you have only yourself to blame).