New Weaknesses

Weaknesses, as noted in their section, are the polar opposite of abilities; they take something away from a character and grant them extra build points to make up for it. A good weakness is neither made up for entirely by the extra build points and interesting for the character to play.

When creating new Weaknesses, please keep in mind that the punishment should fit the severity. Minor weaknesses are a mild pain in rump, but should never seriously injure the character, and may even be able to be bought off in time. Moderate weaknesses should never be paid off for except in extreme circumstances and at higher levels, and can prove dangerous to a character but rarely fatal. Severe weaknesses should almost always include some potential to get the character seriously hurt or killed. A big part of making most weaknesses work is player-storyteller interaction; if a storyteller is inattentive, it's very easy for a player to simply pick up weaknesses that are thereafter never brought into play, thus giving the player extra points for free.

That aside, the same rules apply as the New Abilities thread, but use the following code when posting new weaknesses, removing * of course.

<*b>Weakness Name<*/b>
<*b>Description:<*/b> A thematic description of the weakness.
&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;<*i>Minor:<*/i> The mechanics of the weakness at minor severity.
&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;<*i>Moderate:<*/i> The mechanics of the weakness at moderate severity.
&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;<*i>Severe:<*/i> The mechanics of the weakness at severe severity.
&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;&*nbsp;<*i>Special:<*/i> Special notes and conditions for the weakness, such as scenarios in which it might be temporarily revoked or altered by the storyteller.


Weaknesses Up For Discussion
Frail
Harder to Heal
Weak Will




Weaknesses To Be Added

Frail
Description: You are frail, sickly, and cannot take as much punishment as others of your kind.
     Minor: For the purposes of determining how many Hit points you gain treat your endurance as though it were one lower than it actually is. you also suffer a -1 on all Resistance rolls versus Disease.
     Moderate: As above but treat your endurance as though it were two less and the penalty against disease increases to -2.
     Severe: As above but treat your endurance as though it were three less and the penalty against disease increases to -3.

This weakness has some potential. It really does. The penalty to disease-related checks is a wonderful idea in and of itself. A penalty to hit points sounds good in theory, but in practice it will run into the same problem you always have when a weakness penalty is based on a non-set number; ultimately, the drawback will outweigh the benefits.

I would suggest, as an alternative, applying the same penalty to checks against diseases to poisons as well. That would seem to round out a very nice, and easily measurable, trade when considering the weakness for characters.

Let me start out by saying this: I like Frail. It makes sense, thematically, having the tougher time gaining hit points. Yes, it makes it a little harder on people to calculate the difference, but so Energy Vulnerability and we have that.

The penalty against diseases is a bit iffy, tho'. AVA doesn't have a lot of diseases. If fact I've only seen one use of Remove Disease in the games I've read and it wasn't something that the character had to roll against. Making it a penalty towards diseases and poisons makes sense from both a mechanical and a thematic point of view. The same weak immune system that would allow a disease through would have a tougher time dealing with poisons as well.

I'm up for more discussion of this weakness, but I've also got two of my own that I would like to discuss.

Weak Will
Description: You are more easy to fool with illusions or control like a pawn. If it's really bad, you have a tougher time imposing your will on others.
     Minor: You suffer a -2 penalty on all Resistance rolls versus mind-altering abilities.
     Moderate: Same as minor, only the penalty is -4. You also suffer a -2 penalty on magical attacks using mind-altering abilities.
     Severe: Same as moderate, only the penalty is -6 on Resistance rolls and -4 on magical attack rolls using mind-altering abilities.
     Special: Weak Will does not prevent you from picking up abilities of the mind-altering category. Weak will does not prevent you from picking up Mental Barrier, but does prevent you from picking up Clear Head.

~@~

Harder to Heal
Description: Knitting you back together again is tougher than the average person.
     Minor: Whenever a Heal Hit Points is used against you, the caster heals four Hit Points less (-4) than their normal on you.
     Moderate: Same as minor, only six Hit Points less (-6).
     Severe: Same as minor, only eight Hit Points less (-8 ).
     Special: Harder to Heal does not prevent you from using Magical Healing abilities or having them used on you. Healers who cannot heal more Hit Points than your penalty cannot heal you.

~@~

You've heard the saying that two wrongs don't make a right. I'd accordingly reply to your argument about the hit points being viable because it's somewhat been done elsewhere as, "Two complications don't make the game any simpler."

On diseases, you're absolutely right about there being precious few. I really feel, and have felt for some time, that we need to get on the ball creating disease-based abilities as they were originally intended to accompany Remove Disease the same way the poisons have accompanied Remove Poison and their absence is, as you've noted, a glaring oversight on the part of myself and, by extension, the creative team.

Moving along to your other new weaknesses, which we'll now be discussing simultaneously, I like Weak Will. A lot. I think we should implement it as is.

Harder To Heal is mechanically sound, but may be unpopular among players due to the drawbacks it entails. We could soften this blow, and accordingly make it more viable, by making the points lost by severity -2 (minor), -4 (moderate), and -6 (severe), respectively. Of course, this is failing to account for high Magic mods.

Me and Relish have been tossing back and forth ideas for a few Disease related abilities for the last couple of days so it shouldn't be too much longer before you see them in the new abilities section.

I'll agree with the lessening of Harder to Heal. As I was making it, I was thinking that maybe I was being too mean with it.

So you are dead set against the Hit Point penalty on Frail? I guess it would be sound without, but it just fits thematically so well that I would hate lose it. I guess compromises have got to be made, right?

Afraid so.

hmm...without the Hit Point penalty Frail now seems too lenient...how about upping the penalty versus disease and poisons to the standard -2 (minor), -4 (moderate), and -6 (severe)?

Just that we're on the same page, here's how the two we're still discussing now look:

Harder to Heal
Description: Knitting you back together again is tougher than the average person.
     Minor: Whenever a Heal Hit Points is used against you, the caster heals two Hit Points less (-2) than their normal on you.
     Moderate: Same as minor, only four Hit Points less (-4).
     Severe: Same as minor, only six Hit Points less (-6).
     Special: Harder to Heal does not prevent you from using Magical Healing abilities or having them used on you. Healers who cannot heal more Hit Points than your penalty cannot heal you.

~@~

Frail
Description: You are frail, sickly, and cannot take as much punishment as others of your kind.
     Minor: You suffer a -2 on all Resistance rolls versus Disease and Poisons.
     Moderate: As minor except your penalty is now -4.
     Severe: As moderate except your penalty increases to -6.
     Special: This weakness prevents you from picking up both Poison Immunity and Carrier.

~@~

Those both look good to me Mustard, I say they're good to use as is. along a similar train of thought since we now have one for Attack (General), Defense (General), Resistance (Mind Affecting) and Resistance (Poison/Disease) not to mention the one for Resistance (Sneaky), I present...

Magically Inept
Description: Somehow, the study of magic is foreign to you. Either through sheer lack of potency, a natural physical resistance or an inability to focus your own magical energys, you are unable to muster the same level of mastery as your peers.
     Minor: You suffer a -2 on all Magic rolls.
     Moderate: As minor except your penalty is now -4.
     Severe: As moderate except your penalty increases to -6.