Question: Why can't I use my Epic Charisma and Epic Manipulation in Animal Form? Even if I have Extended Influence?
The short answer here is because that would be busted, and having the ability to be in flawless stealth against anyone who doesn't have Real McCoy or Unfailing Recognition and then puppeteer everyone from total secrecy and have a free skin-shed on the wild outside chance you get caught would be way overpowered for the boon's level and cost. At the same time, we wouldn't want to move the boon higher, because being able to turn into animals is a core animal-Scion power. If anything, we kinda want it available sooner, not later.
However, there is good news here, and that's that we've totally been talking about the purview needing another level that allows transformation into more badass animals than simple normal ones. It's super cool to turn into a rhino and all, but past Hero-level it's no longer a physical advantage, and those with smaller animals never had even that bonus. We're pushing around possibilities right now like turning into a Nemean (or even Typhonian? dare to dream!) animal, turning into an animal but retaining more of your normal stats, and so on and so forth. If you have more ideas yourself, we're always happy to hear them, though we make no promises because John is a crochety ogre of a man.
Animal needs some love, and we hear you guys. Just give us some time to clean our way overloaded plates.
I saw a version on the forums that let you keep all your epics, but had no get out of death free clause. That seems like it would let you effectively be nemean or even typhonian just by virtue of keeping your stats. Maybe something like that?
ReplyDeleteOnly at higher levels, if we decide to go for it. It has all the problems of the post above, even without the skin-shedding clause, which we added in an attempt to make the boon more worthwhile. We'd have to figure out how to balance it to make that work.
DeleteWould it be possible to turn into mythical beasts at higher Legend?
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking Dragons and such.
If you have Animal (Dragon), definitely (though that's a long and thankless road at lower Legend levels). We've also talked about how some animals functionally become that thing - for example, someone with Animal (Lizard) who turned into a big and scary enough kind of lizard is effectively turning into a dragon.
DeleteJust as a general boon... probably not. We prefer to keep Animal specialized to the totem creature. We do let folks try to use their Animal boons on mythical creatures where appropriate, though - if you've got Animal (Lion) or Animal (Goat), you might be able to get through to a chimera with a badass enough roll!