Hey... make me a Hero-level Nahualli!
For a Hero-level nahualli, you have to make a few adjustments. You want it to be powerful enough to seem important, but it can't overpower other Hero-level relics.
I think the best eventual solution is to tie the nahualli into the PSP. The temporary solution I came up with requires an excellent role player and may not be for everyone. It's borrowed in part from a god-level nahualli I made for Kettilla. I'll be making it here for a Death-focused Scion whose totem animal is a vulture, but it should be easy to see where you can adjust it for any character type (though I would not change out the ability bonus for a combat one).
****Nahualli
Add your Animal Ken dots as dice to all Survival rolls.
Add your Animal (Vulture) boons as autos to all Death rolls.
Faunaphagia costs double, but lasts for a week.
Disadvantage: At the start of each day (midnight on earth, others depending on realm), roll 1d10. This die cannot be rerolled. On a roll of 1, you become a vulture. You are the other half of your soul and act exactly like a vulture. You keep all your stats, but cannot use Animal boons. You don't speak or understand languages, nor can you read. Your goals should change as the other half of your soul has complete control. You probably just feel like getting meat. You remember the people you have been around and know that they aren't enemies, but you're a vulture; act like one. At the end of the day roll again and you will probably change back.
So that's my balanced Hero nahualli. I still think they could be handled better with a PSP, but there you have it for now if it's something you might want to use in your games.
First of all, thanks a bundle. I really appreciate you doing this.
ReplyDeleteThe first two powers are superb, and I can see a ton of room for customization (And as a sidenote, Vulture is indeed a superb animal to go by. Jaguars may be badass but vultures are as well, plus they're freaking everywhere). Choose a thematically appropriate non-combat ability and Purview and away you go.
The Faunaphagia boost seems... weird to me. I'm trying to articulate why and failing miserably. I'm just not sure it fits the theme.
The disadvantage, I have complex feelings about, so that's going to take a few paragraphs.
The disadvantage as written is perfect for someone like Ketilla who has no Boons of the Animal Purview and no dots in Animal Ken. I also agree that, at the Hero level, a Scion should not have the level of synchronicity that Eztli possesses at God. However, I do think that there should be some middle ground between the two... and I may have an option that keeps it as a disadvantage in most cases.
A Scion with a nahualli who has a bunch of Animal Boons and high dots in Animal Ken (Maybe adding Occult and to a lesser extent Magic in the mix, since that was always the context for nahualli in Aztec myth) is better in touch with her animal half than a typical Aztlanti Scion. This has a side effect of the beast being more likely to show up, perhaps at an inopportune moment.
So, for in addition to the daily roll for dominance, Scions with higher Animal Boons/Animal Ken will occasionally find themselves in situations where they have to make that roll again (not sure exactly how many times they must, crunch wise). The situation is always appropriate to their animal. In those situational rolls, the Scion could have the option of intentionally losing and letting the beast out (to probably change back when midnight strikes again).
For example, your hypothetical Scion with a vulture nahualli. She makes her daily roll and, nine times out of ten, doesn't wake up as a vulture. However, she has 5 dots of Animal Ken and all the Animal Boons available to her, she's got a lot of Occult to boot, and she's fatebound to a great deal of people associating her with vultures. So, throughout her day, the vulture's going to want to come out in certain situations... say, if she sees a dead body. Perhaps this doesn't happen EVERY time she sees a dead body, but often enough that she knows she has to make that roll. And, in certain cases, maybe she wants to be a vulture then (For example, she happens on the corpse of a politician, a cop car's driving up and she's holding a bloody knife), in which case she forgoes the roll and lets the change happen.
This may not sound like a disadvantage (and players can use this trait to their advantage), but remember that the ST is the one who decides the situations where the nahualli wants to come out. Your rabbit nahualli is going to want to run away when threatened, even against foes you know you can defeat. Your rattlesnake nahualli wants to bite the person invading your personal space, even though it's a reporter asking about your humanitarian efforts. Your jaguar nahualli may be quiet when you're in a fight, but it's VERY interested when you see a lost child wandering alone at night... it's up to the ST whether this feature bites you in the ass (perhaps literally).
Thoughts?
I wrote some notes that responded to this but then didnt post them. My apologies.
DeleteI also am not "happy" with the faunaphagia buff. However I felt like the relic needed a buff to animal boons in there, but I HAVE to stay away from buffing animal aspect for any character in any way. Leaving the only two animal boons available to heros communication and command. Although I guess I could have gone with call of the wild too. Although for a hero relic, it seems unfair that you cant use a portion of it til legend 4. But i completely agree, thematically I dont think faunaphagia fits(except maybe for a female black widow or praying mantis).
I like your adjustment, and I think thats something Ive made kettilla roll before without even remembering(she was near a giant peaceful pond of water, do a roll).
I worry that it may be over debilitating, but awesome. I think it can lead to many complex interactions with virtues and the "wants" of both sides of the soul.
I worry that its strange that the better you are at animals and the animal purview the worse you would be at controlling it. But then I wouldnt want you to be able to control it too well or it would lose the disadvantage.
I think a Stimulus would be a better trigger than a time of day, unless a time of day happens to be a thematically appropriate Stimulus.
ReplyDeleteFor example, a Dead Body stimulus for a Vulture. A physical damage stimulus for a Possum. An abundance of blood stimulus for a Shark. A display of great weakness for a Jaguar.
Stimulus might not come up often enough to be appropriate. A 10% chance only on rare occasions is hardly a disadvantage at all.
DeleteBut I do agree thematicallness is always better. However when balancing such a powerful relic sometimes you have to lose a little theme.
Although, it can just be that the animal half always wants out, and you just have to deal with it once a day. Or rather, thats just a roll you make once a day to see if it wins, the time is irrelevant.