Aberrant: 200X - Kazuo Asked For A Few Of These

[Dave ST]

Kazuo asked for a few more enhancements from my handy-dandy notebook of Aberrant, so here they are.

Over Before It Begins (Intelligence)

This is the combat equivalent of Analyze Weakness. Every system possesses weaknesses and by studying their opponent for a few moments a nova may find the flaws in their fighting style. Perhaps they lean their shoulder when they punch leaving an opening; maybe they delay on a kick due to an old knee injury. Whatever the reasons, the nova may locate these flaws inherit to the combatant, and exploit them.

System: The nova spends one turn studying their opponent, either inside of or outside of combat (observing them fight in an arena or cage match for example). If in combat the nova may use the Full Defense option and still gain the benefits of this enhancement. She spends a quantum point and rolls her Intelligence + Mega-Intelligence + (Pertinent Combat Ability) against their opponent’s Strength or Dexterity + (Pertinent Combat Ability) in a contested roll. It should be noted that the opponent may roll their Mega-Strength dice for this check if they use Brawl or the Powerhouse Enhancement.

If the analyzing nova does not possess a relevant fighting skill (no dots in brawl for example) then they lack the fundamental understanding of the art and are left with hyper-enhanced guesswork. In this case the nova only rolls her Intelligence pool, but any Mega-Dice are treated as normal Intelligence dice.

If the nova succeeds then for a number of turns equal to her [Quantum] she may reduce her attackers combat dice pool an amount equal to the results of the contested roll on a 1:1 basis (Mega-Dice are removed first) as speed and power loose their advantage to a nova who knows exactly how to avoid and counter attack their weak spots.

This enhancement effects both offense and defense, so the penalty applies to dodges, blocks and parries as well.

Look It’s Elvis! (Manipulation)

Some people will fall for anything, but when a nova is in a bind sometimes it helps to play a little dirty. By calling out some blatantly bullshit lie the nova distracts her opponent long enough to either run, or get the party started.

System: The nova may use this enhancement only before initiative is rolled. By making note of something that might distract someone (‘Your shoe lace is untied’, ‘Look there’s Elvis, ‘Does this bra make my chest look big?’, etc) the nova makes a contested roll pitting their Manipulation + Mega-Manipulation + Subterfuge against their opponent’s Wits + Mega-Wits + Subterfuge. This is a manipulation attempt so bonus dice granted by Mega-Manipulation apply for both parties involved.

If the nova wins, she tricked her opponent and now has two options:

1. The nova may simply just leave. In this case the extra successes generated on the contested roll are used as a multiplier for the character’s movements to determine how far she manages to make it before the opponent realizes she’s gone!

2. Sucker punch. In the case of a sucker punch, you get a free hit on the enemy before combat even begins. The extra successes are added to your damage pool, meaning that you must still connect with the initial blow. This enhancement permits a nova to break the 5 dice damage cap temporarily, as sucker punches can be painfully brutal.

After this enhancement is used, initiative is rolled as normal and combat begins.

Critical Strike (Perception)

You are capable of shattering the bones of even the strongest of novas.

System: The nova spends a number of quantum points equal to their target’s [Quantum] score and then rolls their Perception + Mega Perception against the targets Willpower + Quantum. The target’s Quantum Score is treated as a Mega-Attribute for calculating successes.

If the nova is successful, he may negate [5] points worth of her opponents soak for every dot of Mega-Perception she possesses.

This enhancement may be purchased twice, permitting the use of the character’s full Perception score.

Zen Fighting (Wits)

For you combat is more cerebral than physical. You’ve trained your mind to anticipate and react to your opponents by keeping one step ahead of them in a battle.

System: After purchasing this enhancement, the character may now use their Mega-Wits score to enhance their martial arts attacks, making their pool Dexterity + Mega-Wits + Martial Arts. If the character already posses Mega-Dexterity he may opt to use either score, but never both at once.

Skadoosh (All)

You possess phenomenal cosmic power.

System: The nova depletes their entire quantum pool and moves their pinkie finger 45 degrees in any directions. All opponents suffer ([Quantum] x 100) levels of unsoakable aggravated damage in a ([Quantum] x 2,000) mile radius.

This enhancement is only usable by baselines*, erupting into a nova removes a characters opportunity to learn this enhancement forever.

*Baselines may not purchase enhancements because they do not possess a quantum score.

[Kazuo]

I like these Rev, they're fun (except for Skadoosh - it's total BS that novas can't take that one! ).

The only one that I kind of have a problem with is Critical Strike, because of the bit where the attacking nova has to pay a number of QPs equal to the target's [Quantum]. I realize it's kind of a moot point in an open world forum, where everyone can see everyone else's character sheets, but it still seems this is a free way for a PC to find out how powerful an opponent is (at least roughly, anyway), while also simultaneously attacking them.

Maybe alter it so that you can remove up to [5] points of soak for each success (up to a limit of [Mega-Perception] successes), but it costs 1QP per [5] points so removed? Something like that, anyway?

[Dave ST]

Knowing an opponents quantum score in Aberrant really doesn't mean much. It never really didn't become an issue since most PCs are all in the 2-4 range they expected their enemies to be around there too.

Also, since all my NPCs were theme based, players could pretty much guess what their scores were anyway so I never really made a big deal about hiding it.

[Bombshell]

Okay, here are my thoughts on these Enhancements...

Zen Fighting

I have no issues with this one.

Look, it's Elvis!

I have a few with this one. Bonus dice from Mega-Manipulation only apply to detecting or resisting manipulation/trickery attempts, so the person using this Enhancement would not be able to apply them.

1) I understand what you are trying to do with this effect, but as is, it lets someone run away from not only who they tricked, but anyone else around as well, and potentially much faster than a single round of Enhanced Movement. As an alternative effect, might I suggest the following:

For each net success, the target doesn't realize the nova is gone for one turn (effectively, this gives the multiplier to speed, just over time). This effect is broken if someone takes an action to point it out to the poor sod, or if the Nova interacts with the target in anyway.

2)Sucker Punch - this is simply an Ambush attack by another name (replacing the Stealth vs. Awareness roll with Manipulation + Subterfuge vs. Wits + Subterfuge) and should be treated as such. Net successes are added to the attack roll (not damage). If they are tied, the target can perform a defensive maneuver. If the target wins, they roll initiative as normal.

I would suggest looking at Surprise Attack in TNF - this Enhancement is similar, and better in someways.

Over Before It Begins

At first, I really liked this one, but then I started comparing it to enhancements that are already out there, mainly Accuracy and Improved Feint (in TNF), and came around to believing it was too good. Yes, this ehancement takes a turn to use, and there is an opposed roll, but Accuracy only adds 3 dice for a single attack - this enhancment can give a much bigger penalty to dodge, affecting every attack against them - but also takes Mega-Dice away first. And Improved Feint works very similarly to this enhancement, though it takes an action, not a turn, to use, but it also only penalizes a single defensive maneuver, once.

As well, I wasn't sure if the wording was unclear - but say if the Nova studies the target's Martial Arts, would the target suffer the penalties if he switched to Melee? Would he suffer a penalty to using Telekinesis even though his fighting style has nothing to do with that?

Thus, as an alternative, how about the opposed roll instead of giving them a flat penalty to all their combat rolls, they suffer a penalty to their ranks in the pertinent skill that was rolled? So, the nova studies his target's Martial Arts, and then his net successes reduces his skill in Martial Arts by an equal amount, curtailing his skill, while leaving him his innate qualities. Instead of hitting the targeting Brawl, Martial Arts, Melee, or Firearms, the nova may target Dodge (which would affect Athletics and Martial Arts, but for the purpose of Dodging only)

Otherwise, on a good enough roll against someone with a low skill, a target could end up not being able to hit the broad side of a barn or avoid the most casual of slaps. He'd be better off not using any skill at all.

This is a lesser effect, so maybe changing the duration to Int + Mega-Int turns would be fine - for anyone with this Enhancement, this should be marked improvement. As for the actual opposed roll, I'm not sure if Style Bonuses from specialization should be added, though I think they should be, since this enhancement is about studying their combat style.

Critical Strike

We have this in the game already, it's called Armor Piercing. Except for a few more QP, this enhancement lets you add it to any attack and the effect is most likely greater greater - definitely much greater with the second rank. Just raising the cost by 1 or 2, or even 4 qp doesn't justify allowing someone to reduce soak 50 - that would be like getting 25 net successes with Armor Piercing. Again, what works for table-top doesn't necessary work as well for PbP.

I assume it's only for the next attack, but the description gives no indication of that. Also, for the same reason as Centi, I don't particularly care for the Q-cost being based on something the PC should have no reason of knowing.

I'd like to see this enhancement being on par with Armor Piercing, along with some definite limitations due to the tremendous advantage of being able to apply it to apparently anything. At the least, it should take a turn of wind-up (allowing for the Nova to go defensive) and still have an opposed roll, perhaps to determine how many attack successes can be used like Armor Piercing. For example, if the Nova makes 4 net successes, then he can count 4 extra successes on his attack roll as if it was Armor Piercing (ie reduce soak by 8). On the other hand, the enhancement would cost only 1qp. No second rank, and enhancements or effects that mitigate Armor Piercing would affect this enhancement as well. I don't think this effect should stack with Armor Piercing either.

That's my two (maybe three) cents.

[Kazuo]

Originally Posted By: Bombshell

Look, it's Elvis!
I have a few with this one. Bonus dice from Mega-Manipulation only apply to detecting or resisting manipulation/trickery attempts, so the person using this Enhancement would not be able to apply them.

1) I understand what you are trying to do with this effect, but as is, it lets someone run away from not only who they tricked, but anyone else around as well, and potentially much faster than a single round of Enhanced Movement. As an alternative effect, might I suggest the following:

For each net success, the target doesn't realize the nova is gone for one turn (effectively, this gives the multiplier to speed, just over time). This effect is broken if someone takes an action to point it out to the poor sod, or if the Nova interacts with the target in anyway.

2)Sucker Punch - this is simply an Ambush attack by another name (replacing the Stealth vs. Awareness roll with Manipulation + Subterfuge vs. Wits + Subterfuge) and should be treated as such. Net successes are added to the attack roll (not damage). If they are tied, the target can perform a defensive maneuver. If the target wins, they roll initiative as normal.

I would suggest looking at Surprise Attack in TNF - this Enhancement is similar, and better in someways.

A few comments:

Regarding your first statement (before you begin using numbers), I'll leave it to Rev to explain/defend. I have a feeling he's referring to dice and/or extra successes that certain mega-manip enhancements grant, but I could easily be wrong.

Re: 1) I don't think that's what's being said. It says that the 'enhanced movement' affects the victim, but nothing about anyone else who might be present. Rev should probably include something that clarifies how things might be handled if/when there are others present who might take offense at the nova's fleeing, but I seen no evidence from the description that it's meant to affect more than a single target.

Re: 2) I tend to agree with this point, personally.

Originally Posted By: Bombshell

Over Before It Begins
At first, I really liked this one, but then I started comparing it to enhancements that are already out there, mainly Accuracy and Improved Feint (in TNF), and came around to believing it was too good. Yes, this ehancement takes a turn to use, and there is an opposed roll, but Accuracy only adds 3 dice for a single attack - this enhancment can give a much bigger penalty to dodge, affecting every attack against them - but also takes Mega-Dice away first. And Improved Feint works very similarly to this enhancement, though it takes an action, not a turn, to use, but it also only penalizes a single defensive maneuver, once.

I wouldn't compare this enhancement to either 'Improved Feint' or 'Accuracy', as there is really nothing in the way of similarities between them, mechanically-speaking.

Also - and I'm not really sure why I keep running up against this perception lately, but I have been - there is nothing in the rules that says that Mega-Attributes aren't lost first when a penalty is applied against a 'dice pool' or against a given Attribute. Unfortunately, in typical White Wolf style, there is nothing that expressly tells how this is handled, but there's a few indicators out there that, if you look at it honestly and not in terms of how it will benefit your PC, make it pretty clear that Mega-dice go first in basically every situation where you lose dice from a given Att or relevant dice pool (Multiple Actions being a notable exception and one which is explained in great detail).

This issue came up during the recent combat between Kazuo and Einherjar and I let it go at the time because it's just not a big deal in a forum setting like this one and I was more interested in having fun than in arguing the nitty-gritties of the rules, but it still kind of bugs me that - apparently - a lot of people are of the erroneous belief that Mega-dice are next to impossible to lose. They're not. There is no evidence for this at all. In fact, the only instances where any of the Abby books bother to tell us how to apply penalties or bonuses to Atts and/or dice pools, they tell us that Mega-Attributes get the benefits last and suffer the consequences first.

When you are building a character you must actually have a dot in an Att (the first dot of which typically comes free, so no worries) in order to be able to take any dots in the relevant Abilities. Once you have dots in the Attribute you may add dots in Abilities and/or dots in the relevant Mega-Attribute. Therefore it sort of makes sense that when Quantum Leech tells us how to apply its draining effect against an Attribute it makes a point of telling us that the Mega-dice go first. Likewise, and following the exact same pattern, the 'Quantum Intensification' technique of the Quantum Authority power (Player's Guide, pg. 126) lets us know that any dots of Mega-Atts added by the use of this technique fade before any dots of base Attributes gained by its use (as well as before any Abilities so gained).

So again, there is nothing - anywhere - that says that Mega-dice are kept while other dice go first. In fact, this really doesn't make much sense, since you can't have more dots in a Mega-Att than you do in the base Att, which is exactly what would happen in the case of a high enough drain effect that takes away base stuff first. What does make sense is to say that the Quantum stuff goes first (the Mega-Att), followed by the dependent Baseline stuff (the Ability in question), followed finally by the underlying Base Attribute.

Sorry for the long rant, but I wanted to nip this one in the bud before the bad logic got out of hand.

Originally Posted By: Bombshell

As well, I wasn't sure if the wording was unclear - but say if the Nova studies the target's Martial Arts, would the target suffer the penalties if he switched to Melee? Would he suffer a penalty to using Telekinesis even though his fighting style has nothing to do with that?

Thus, as an alternative, how about the opposed roll instead of giving them a flat penalty to all their combat rolls, they suffer a penalty to their ranks in the pertinent skill that was rolled? So, the nova studies his target's Martial Arts, and then his net successes reduces his skill in Martial Arts by an equal amount, curtailing his skill, while leaving him his innate qualities. Instead of hitting the targeting Brawl, Martial Arts, Melee, or Firearms, the nova may target Dodge (which would affect Athletics and Martial Arts, but for the purpose of Dodging only)

Otherwise, on a good enough roll against someone with a low skill, a target could end up not being able to hit the broad side of a barn or avoid the most casual of slaps. He'd be better off not using any skill at all.

This is a lesser effect, so maybe changing the duration to Int + Mega-Int turns would be fine - for anyone with this Enhancement, this should be marked improvement. As for the actual opposed roll, I'm not sure if Style Bonuses from specialization should be added, though I think they should be, since this enhancement is about studying their combat style.

I think the wording makes it pretty clear that this enhancement would only affect the specific Combat Dice pool against which it was used (so only Martial Arts, not Melee). If I've got it wrong and it's supposed to affect them all at once, then I agree with your opinion that it's too powerful.

As my little rant above should make clear, I do not agree that the penalty should apply specifically against the Ability itself. This is an odd mechanic and I can't think of any other instance of a similar mechanic in any of the books (which doesn't mean there isn't one, of course). Something closer to what you seem to be trying to accomplish would be applying a Difficulty Penalty against rolls made with that particular Combat Dice pool.

Another idea, for weakening this enhancement's effectiveness, would be to state that it only affects the victims offense or defense (declare at the time of use), but not both simultaneously.

Re: Critical Strike:

I still don't really care for the method of determining quantum cost either, as I've already stated. Also, I hadn't realized until I re-read the rules more clearly that it's saying you can add your full Mega-Per score simply for succeeding. I'd thought it was on a per-success basis, which would still be kind of high but not entirely over-the-top. Anyway, yeah that is a little much.

[Eingar]

Originally Posted By: Kazuo

Also - and I'm not really sure why I keep running up against this perception lately, but I have been - there is nothing in the rules that says that Mega-Attributes aren't lost first when a penalty is applied against a 'dice pool' or against a given Attribute. Unfortunately, in typical White Wolf style, there is nothing that expressly tells how this is handled, but there's a few indicators out there that, if you look at it honestly and not in terms of how it will benefit your PC, make it pretty clear that Mega-dice go first in basically every situation where you lose dice from a given Att or relevant dice pool (Multiple Actions being a notable exception and one which is explained in great detail).

This issue came up during the recent combat between Kazuo and Einherjar and I let it go at the time because it's just not a big deal in a forum setting like this one and I was more interested in having fun than in arguing the nitty-gritties of the rules, but it still kind of bugs me that - apparently - a lot of people are of the erroneous belief that Mega-dice are next to impossible to lose. They're not. There is no evidence for this at all. In fact, the only instances where any of the Abby books bother to tell us how to apply penalties or bonuses to Atts and/or dice pools, they tell us that Mega-Attributes get the benefits last and suffer the consequences first.

When you are building a character you must actually have a dot in an Att (the first dot of which typically comes free, so no worries) in order to be able to take any dots in the relevant Abilities. Once you have dots in the Attribute you may add dots in Abilities and/or dots in the relevant Mega-Attribute. Therefore it sort of makes sense that when Quantum Leech tells us how to apply its draining effect against an Attribute it makes a point of telling us that the Mega-dice go first. Likewise, and following the exact same pattern, the 'Quantum Intensification' technique of the Quantum Authority power (Player's Guide, pg. 126) lets us know that any dots of Mega-Atts added by the use of this technique fade before any dots of base Attributes gained by its use (as well as before any Abilities so gained).

So again, there is nothing - anywhere - that says that Mega-dice are kept while other dice go first. In fact, this really doesn't make much sense, since you can't have more dots in a Mega-Att than you do in the base Att, which is exactly what would happen in the case of a high enough drain effect that takes away base stuff first. What does make sense is to say that the Quantum stuff goes first (the Mega-Att), followed by the dependent Baseline stuff (the Ability in question), followed finally by the underlying Base Attribute.

It's a good case, but an equally good case can be made that unless specifically stated that a power actually strips the attribute rather than the dice pool, mega-attributes are not the first to be so stripped. Quantum Vampire: Dex? Sure, that would take Mega-Dexterity off first, because it targets Dexterity, not Dex-based pools.

In the case of Gravitational Field, which is the instance that came up in the Kaz vs Ein battle, it makes little sense to me that a nova's mega-strength and dex could effectively be Disrupted by a high-gravity field. That a nova could lose regular strength and dexterity enough to actually lose the requirements for their mega counterparts and thus also lose the mega-dice is, conversely, fine by me.

Example:
Nova X uses a high-grav field on nova Y, who has Str 4, M-Str 4, Dex 4 and M-Dex 3. Nova Y effectively loses 2 from their regular strength and dex, reducing them to 2 and 2 respectively. That has the knock-on consequence of temporarily nerfing their mega-str and dex to 2 also, since a nova cannot have mega-attributes higher than their regular counterparts.

If nova X went after nova Z, who has Str/M-Str 5/1 and Dex/M-Dex 5/3, losing two dots of strength and dex would have no effective impact on their mega-attributes, reflecting that the innate baseline framework of nova Z's body is superior and better able to handle the gravitational stresses.

That's how I've handled it in the past, at any rate.