Question: Could you potentially burn Nemean or Typhonian Beast simultaneously with Epic Enhancement to get creatures that are awesome in traits besides Strength and Stamina?
Alas, no, you could not. Epic Enhancement specifically applies only to mundane animals, not Nemean ones, and that's intentional. A Nemean beast's lack of mental or social traits is the major limiting factor that prevents it from being monstrously overpowered for a Scion to have access to; it's awesome to make a creature that's a physical juggernaut to fight your battles and perform your feats of strength for you, but if it can also outshine everyone in the other arenas, it's very quickly becoming more effective than your bandmates or even yourself, which is not the intent. Nemean creatures are powerful and useful but not very bright.
You can make very intelligent creatures with Epic Enhancement, though! That's where you get your magical creatures that are awesome at things besides Strength and Stamina, but you need to start with a normal animal as your base to prevent things from getting out of hand. If you want to enhance a normal grizzly into some kind of Einsteinian Science Bear, you can do that, and grant it at least a few physical powers to boot if you roll high enough. But you have a limited number of successes to pass around to various traits when you're enhancing your Nobel prize-winning poet turtle, so you have to choose what you want it to excel in the most. If you were able to layer that on top of a Nemean creature, you'd be basically getting all the points you were going to spend on size or physical capabilities for free and then some.
There's an exception to this rule, however: if you have a Birthright creature, you can use Epic Enhancement on it (one time only), even if it's already Nemean, to represent that you're much closer to this particular creature and let you sink some resources into enhancing your animal Birthrights just as an Industry god might sink some energy into enhancing her relics. Sowiljr actually did this for Ull a while ago, so the giant grumpy mountain bear now also speaks Latin and finds the other bears disappointingly pedestrian and below his intellectual level.
But otherwise, unless you're fielding The Beast to create your unstoppable animal forces, no dice. Epic Enhancement and the boons that create Nemean animals are meant to be used for different purposes and to show different kinds of your power over animals, not to pull off cheesy combo moves.
Would the Epic Enhancement on a Birthright Creature work similarly to Guardian Boons like, Confer Immunity? Where you can only do it once, but then someone else can do it as well? Or is it a strictly "The birthright creature can only have this done to it once" thing?
ReplyDeleteOnly you can do it to your Birthright creature, so it can only be done once. It's not that it's a Birthright creature in general that allows it, but that it's your Birthright creature; it only works because of the close bond you share with it. You can't Enhance someone else's Nemean Birthright any more than you can Enhance any other Nemean beast.
DeleteOh, okay! Thanks for the clarification.
DeleteAlso, I voted Hittites, because your Vlog on them made them sound cool and interesting. Every little bit helps, right?
Hittite supporters represent! /high-fives
DeleteThis is one of the questions I sometimes submit where I know the answer going in, but I'm compelled to ask because maybe I'll be surprised, or you'll have some insight on a problem that I'm not seeing.
ReplyDeleteThe main issue I was thinking of was Typhonian Creature and the utter lack of Epic Dexterity provided by the Boon. I mean, with no Epic Dex, how effective could such a creature be?!
And, of course, since you might enjoy the context, in our games, Thor is dead as Ragnarok is going totally out of whack, and Jormungandr is causing Problems. My character is a zoologist, and wants to create a whole lotta Godly honey badgers and mongooses to slay him.
Very effective, because it can just grapple. All that Epic Strength makes it perfect at just flinging itself on things and destroying them. In effect, Nemean beasts are always Heracles-style fighters (the irony!), while Typhonians have the same option but also have the +40 accuracy leg up. We tend to not worry too much about what an animal "grappling" looks like - sometimes it's obvious, as with pythons, sometimes you have to fudge a little, as with counting a wolf biting and hanging on with crushing jaws, but every critter should have a way of pulling it off.
DeleteIf he were in our games (he isn't, so feel free to brainstorm other stuff!), we'd suggest the following options:
A) Make a LOT of creatures, possibly over a long period of time (you're Aztec, you can probably keep the blood sacrifice flowing to pay for this good cause!), and unleash a veritable army of angry mongeese on Jormungandr. If there are enough of them, they're going to be a problem for him even if they're significantly lower-Legend, and at the very least distract him from his aims and help give an edge to anyone fighting him.
B) If you're close to Legend 12, save for/bust off The Beast. We'd let you create your army of super-whatever badgers, no questions asked.
C) If you're not close to Legend 12, consider finding someone who is and working with them to try to pull this off. As an Aztec, your ability to pay people to help you in Legend - either through Legendary Surge or at the high levels Communal Divinity - goes a long way toward getting cooperation, and it might lead to some epic diplomacy/convincing/alliance kinds of scenes. Doesn't need to be a god of badgers, but bonus points if you can get close.
D) Find a Norse buddy to work with. You Epic Enhance, he Gift of Battle Eternals. Bloody, bloody teamwork!
E) Juice yourself up with The Burning Heart and anything else you can get your hands on and conduct the most massive Epic Enhancement event ever seen. If you're willing to pay for, say, five rolls on the same creature, you should be able to basically create a Typhonian creature with whatever stats you want. Slow way to build an army, but spectacular results.
F) Create some Typhonian animals, bribe/beg/shenanigans a God of Magic into making them Birthright animals for you. Then Epic Enhance.
That's all I got off the top of my head.