Gifted With Soul

[KOFFEYKID]

You know how when somebody tells you that you can't do something, the first thing you do is try to figure out a way to do it? Well, here is my attempt. First a little bit of exposition.

I was thinking that not all death curses have to be curses, here is the topic I made about it here, but this quote explains my idea for a Red Court with Soul:

Ive got the idea of a wedded pair of wizards captured by the reds and infected for fun, to see who would eat the other first, and the husband uses his death curse to say "Keep Your Soul" as she kills him in bloodlust.

Here is my attempt to stat that idea in a playable character. Below is the crux of the idea, a new power for Red Court Vampires, based off of the item of power, only this has far more severe downsides.

Gifted With Soul [+1]
Description: You are different from other Red Court Vampires. Normally your kind do not have a soul, for it is antithesis to your being, and destroyed once you have had your first killing feed. You however have somehow managed to store your soul in an item, making a phylactery of sorts.
Musts: You must be a red court vampire.
Effects:
Silence the Beast. You loose your Echoes of the Beast power As a Red Court Vampire with a Soul your beast is suppressed by the morals other Red Court Vampires lack.
Refresh Bonus. You have somehow maintained your soul, keeping free will. Add +1 to your refresh level.
Phylactery. Your soul is stored in an item that you must keep on your person at all times. If it leaves your person, you loose the above benefits of the Refresh Bonus described above, becoming an NPC. If you spend one fate point you have one day to retrieve the item.
Altered Catch. You are no longer burnt to a cinder in sunlight, but you are weakened in it. In sunlight your catch is automatically satisfied for any attack. In addition add a new condition to your catch: "Phylactery Damage."
Made Whole [-1]. If you take this upgrade your soul no longer resides in your phylactery, which becomes a mundane item, it has been restored to your body. You loose the "Phylactery" portion of this ability, and the "Phylactery Damage" condition on your catch.

The change to the Catches is so that the character doesn't inconvenience the party, but its possible to remove that bit if you think the power does too much already, you might even turn it into an upgrade, but I wouldn't bother with it. The danger that your phylactery could be destroyed is too great.


Here is a character with the power.

Isabella Hargrove

Red Court Rebel High Concept
Isabella hates the Red Court, yet she is a vampire of the red court. She spends most of her effort in spying on them and sending information to the fellowship of St. Giles.
Invoke: To aid in any effort against a red court opponent. Bonuses when Using her Red Court Powers.
Compel: To get Isabella involved in plots to thwart the red court.

Traitor To The Blood Trouble
Isabella is a well known rebel of the Red Court, and they hunt her, since she has proven to be a thorn in more than a few sides.
Compel: To get her in trouble with Red Court Vampires.

Black Sheep Of The Fellowship Background
Once Isabella was able to verify that she still had a soul, the Fellowship was eager to put her out in the field, though they don't trust her as much as did before.
Invoke: For bonuses on Contacts within the Fellowship, and access to their Resources.
Compel: For the most part she is a lone agent, but sometimes they call her in for a specific task.

Vengeance, Served Hot Or Cold Rising Conflict
Isabella and her Fiance' were captured by the Red Court, and she was repeatedly beaten repeatedly, forcing her body to heal the damage with the speed of a Red Court Infected. Her hunger mounted, and grew until she could no longer control it. The only available meal was her Fiance', and she killed him in her unreasoning bloodlust. His final words were "Keep your Soul."
Invoke: Isabella has learned to take her vengeance in any way she can get it. Once somebody has wronged hurt her in any way she can invoke this to aid in getting vengeance.
Compel: Isabella finds it hard to resist sating her lust for vengeance.

**Note** Isabella's Phylactery is her engagement ring.

COST   POWER
+1      Gifted With Soul
 -1      Addictive Saliva
 -1      Blood Drinker
 -1      Claws
 -1      Flesh Mask
+1      Feeding Dependency
 -1       Cloak of Shadows
 -2       Inhuman Strength
 -2       Inhuman Speed
+2       The Catch
 -2        Inhuman Recovery
 -2        Inhuman Toughness
--------------------------
-9

Rank    Skills
5         Discipline
4         Athletics, Stealth, Alertness
3         Deceit, Presence, Fists
2         Empathy, Lore, Endurance
1         Resources, Contacts, Rapport

[paul_Harkonen]

You're partially removing a catch for these vamps, and giving them two refresh as well.  This seems... somewhat overpowered to me.

Additionally, while I realize "phylactery damage" could be a problem, and requiring them to have it on them at all times, it doesn't seem to jive with some of the other refresh bonuses.

For example, Human Form offer +2 only when the character cannot access any of his\her powers except during specific, uncontrollable, periods of time.  By contrast, your vamps maintain all of their powers, and only have to protect their object (which they can hide under their flesh mask).  Finally, one of the costs of "having a soul" is the problems you (as a person) would have continuing to feed the way red court usually do.  I might add the additional requirement that you cannot feed off the life blood of a victim.

[KOFFEYKID]

Compare this to Item of Power, which gets you up to +2 refresh back from any power. If you loose your item of power, you do not suddenly become an NPC, with this, if you loose your phylactery you are essentially taken out unless you have two fate points to spend. It puts you in an extremely dangerous situation at all times.

[Deadmanwalking]

First, I don't think the immunity to sunlight is either thematically appropriate or necessary.

Second, judging by Item of Power, for this to be +2 the item would need to be large...aka sword sized. Something smaller would be only +1. The only way I can justify this is you're basically buying Item of Power on your entire character, and all the restrictions of that drawback would thus apply.

On the bright side, I see no need for buying it off to cost 3 Refresh, 2 would do just fine.

[KOFFEYKID]

What if it gave partial immunity to sunlight, if you are in sunlight, your catch is automatically satisfied, but you dont burn into a cinder. The whole point of the power is to make RCV's playable, and I dont like the idea of restricting a player to only night scenes and indoor scenes.

[Deadmanwalking]

What if it gave partial immunity to sunlight, if you are in sunlight, your catch is automatically satisfied, but you dont burn into a cinder. The whole point of the power is to make RCV's playable, and I dont like the idea of restricting a player to only night scenes and indoor scenes.

Oh, mechanically you can remove it entirely with no problem. Holy items and the belly thing are still a +2 Catch, I just don't think it's necessary.

[KOFFEYKID]

Finally, one of the costs of "having a soul" is the problems you (as a person) would have continuing to feed the way red court usually do.  I might add the additional requirement that you cannot feed off the life blood of a victim.

Werewolves dont have a condition that they aren't allowed to chew you to death, I figure a vamp can still feed (and kill with it) if it is in character. You know, the whole "Feeding on Criminals" thing is totally possible, and a Red Court Vamp doesn't always have to casually kill via feeding.

Oh, mechanically you can remove it entirely with no problem. Holy items and the belly thing are still a +2 Catch, I just don't think it's necessary.

I've changed the Altered Catch portion to Sunlight Weakness (Automatically satisfied catch in sunlight, but not burning to cinders), and changed the upgrade from -3 to -2. What do you think now?

[Mal_Luck]

What if it gave partial immunity to sunlight, if you are in sunlight, your catch is automatically satisfied, but you dont burn into a cinder. The whole point of the power is to make RCV's playable, and I dont like the idea of restricting a player to only night scenes and indoor scenes.

Worked for Angel and Spike  

Generally, I'm against any traditional blood-drinking vampire having the ability to walk around in daylight.

Also Phylactery rubs me wrong for several reasons, but mainly because it makes me think of Liches (I'm looking at you Kemmler). I would think they either need to have the soul in the body or not at all.

That and since the Reds are giant bat monsters just makes it weird that they could have their souls back(Not against the soul thingy, just find the giant bat monster with a soul odd).

But I back you with the feeding on different blood sources: criminals, not killing, animals, etc.

[TheMouse]

Trading being burned to a cinder for satisfying your Catch is already advantageous. Adding another weak point (ie the phylactery) might balance that out.

Getting +2 Refresh on top of that just totally overbalances this. You need to add more teeth to this to make it jive.

[Deadmanwalking]

I've changed the Altered Catch portion to Sunlight Weakness (Automatically satisfied catch in sunlight, but not burning to cinders), and changed the upgrade from -3 to -2. What do you think now?

Yeah that works perfectly, as long as the item is large and visible enough to count for +2 as Item of Power. If it only counts as a +1 in size you'd need some other MAJOR disadvantage to justify it.

Trading being burned to a cinder for satisfying your Catch is already advantageous. Adding another weak point (ie the phylactery) might balance that out.

Getting +2 Refresh on top of that just totally overbalances this. You need to add more teeth to this to make it jive.

The Catch thing is actually meaningless, mechanically. The other, well, as I mentioned think of it as Item of Power applied to an entire character.

[KOFFEYKID]

Yeah that works perfectly, as long as the item is large and visible enough to count for +2 as Item of Power. If it only counts as a +1 in size you'd need some other MAJOR disadvantage to justify it.

Any ideas?

Trading being burned to a cinder for satisfying your Catch is already advantageous. Adding another weak point (ie the phylactery) might balance that out.

Getting +2 Refresh on top of that just totally overbalances this. You need to add more teeth to this to make it jive.

Yeah, Ive added the phylactery to the catch. If you manage to break their phylactery they turn into a NPC on the spot, (which is why I dont feel so bad about letting them hide it in a flesh mask, hell, Id swallow it, or implant it in my chest, or something).

As far as the +2 Refresh, I don't think its too overpowered, essentially its like deadmanwalking said, an item of power for your whole character. One that if it leaves your possession you are forced to spend two fate points to maintain sanity.

It makes an excellent item for your arch nemesis to steal, a powerful thaumaturgical link as well ("Hey, I've got your SOUL!").

[Deadmanwalking]

Any ideas?

Hmmm. Maybe just leave it at +1 and drop Echoes of the Beast? Damocles Ravenborn doesn't have it and he's full Red Court...there's even a good excuse in the case of a guy with a soul, since they're clearly a bit less in tune with their instincts than most Red Court.

[KOFFEYKID]

Perfect. Thats a reasonable change, and it solves the problem of it being a small item. Does anybody see anything else wrong with the power?

[Deadmanwalking]

Perfect. Thats a reasonable change, and it solves the problem of it being a small item. Does anybody see anything else wrong with the power?

That'll drop Made Whole to only -1, and should drop the Fate Point cost to stay sane for a day to 1 as well.

And on a note about that specific character: I can't quite wrap my head around her lack of the Conviction skill, it feels wrong to me. Endurance would also be nice mechanically, but the lack of Conviction feels wrong.

[KOFFEYKID]

That'll drop Made Whole to only -1, and should drop the Fate Point cost to stay sane for a day to 1 as well.

And on a note about that specific character: I can't quite wrap my head around her lack of the Conviction skill, it feels wrong to me. Endurance would also be nice mechanically, but the lack of Conviction feels wrong.

Changes made.

Do you think this power would qualify you to pick up the Tattoos of St. Giles (again if you lost it)? Im finding it hard to imagine a Tattooed bat, maybe I could make a stunt that expands the hunger track by 2.