Deva My Ride

Question: How do you handle Vahanas?

Man, how excited am I about our PCs one day soon getting vahana of their very own? So excited!

At the moment, we actually technically don't handle vahana, though it's not because we don't want to; none of our Deva PCs, awesome though they are, are grown up enough yet to have them. However, when we do get there, we are tentatively planning to treat them as custom Birthrights (similar to how we treat nahualli, and actually both are mentioned in this old post here). Most likely, Scions will gain their vahana when they reach apotheosis (or soon before), since the Devas themselves have such fantastical mounts but Hindu heroes generally don't.

Every vahana will probably be different, tailored to the specific Scion in question and what he or she is aiming to be god of, but there will probably be common threads. To start with, the vahana is actually a thing, usually an animal but sometimes a magical moving object or even person, so it will be able to transport the Scion about. At what speed depends on the Scion's preference and how many dots this thing is going to be; a psychopomp's vahana is probably better at getting around than a fire god's, for example. If the vahana is a living thing, it may also be able to interact with and perform some tasks for the Scion, the same way that Garuda sometimes fights or runs errands for Vishnu.

Vahana also often represent some facet or symbol of the power of the god who owns them, such as Skanda's peacock representing his ferocity and majesty, so it will likely grant some kind of bonus to things that are especially strong foci for the Scion. That doesn't necessarily mean a straight +Legend to Magic Boons or anything (although it could!), but could also include specific boons being bolstered (by making them cost less, last longer in duration, substitute what stats they use or work in concert with other powers more effectively) or specific actions being supported (such as gaining bonuses to making speeches to the common folk, building architecture, fighting descendents of Vritra or whatever other specific the Scion is all about).

Vahana also sometimes represent things that are the opposite of their god's attributes, in order to show that the god has dominion and control over them (for example, Mushika, Ganesha's rat, represents ignorance and laziness, which he sits atop and crushes to show wisdom and action prevailing). So we would also consider a vahana being able to grant a Scion resistance-style bonuses to those things while mounted on it, whether in the form of increased resistance to mental meddling, better perceptions or understanding of shenanigans, immunity to specific singular powers or bonuses that only apply when the Scion is actively opposing the represented evil. A Scion who has a vahana representing wrath, for example, might be more difficult to send into Virtue Extremity or madness with some of the magical powers in the game. It might also be interesting for a Scion with this kind of vahana to have some risk attached to it - namely, if the vahana represents something bad that he has to master and control by riding it, it might be prone to doing bad things if it happens to be out and about without him keeping it under control, or give him negatives if he's not firmly reminding it of his weight at all times.

We probably wouldn't give every one of these bonuses to every vahana, because that would be bananas, but it's a wide selection for Scions to choose from when it comes to what their sacred vehicle, from which they are likely never to be parted, actually does for them mechanically. How many dots the vahana is worth will restrict how many powers and effects it can have on the Scion, as well as what its own independent abilities might be; a three-dot vahana probably doesn't do much but drive the Scion around and give him +Legend versus Chaos boons, but a nine-dot vahana can probably think and fight on its own with decent stats and provide a bunch of different possible benefits, and a star-level or higher one will rival the fabled mounts of the old Devas themselves.

If it's not immediately obvious, I am way too excited about vahana. Grow up faster, Akhileswar, Mohini, Mrs. Young, Padma, and Shanti!