Emotional Vampire; Benefits?

[surarrin]

Specifically, without Feeding Dependency.

What would the ability do for a character that can be put down into game mechanics?

[luminos]

It lets you make mental attacks against an opponent when they have the right emotion, and clears your physical stress and removes a minor consequence when you kill with it.

[JosephKell]

Without Incite Emotion it is pretty weak for a power.

Feeding Touch basically sets you up for a situation where success using the Incite Emotion power begets more success (if you succeeded once, now you are rolling with an extra +1).

Taste of Death is basically a "Ding, round 2!"  With Inhuman Recovery, this ability even lets you get back a Moderate Physical Consequence (since all consequences are downgraded by 1 for recovery period).  I assume the unstated part of Taste of Death is that it removes all Hunger Consequences.

But since Taste of Death doesn't actually give a way to emotionally attack, it also requires Incite Emotion.

Emotional Vampire should probably have a must of "Incite Emotion" just to ease confusion.

[luminos]

But since Taste of Death doesn't actually give a way to emotionally attack, it also requires Incite Emotion.

Emotional Vampire should probably have a must of "Incite Emotion" just to ease confusion.

Feeding touch gives a way to emotionally attack.  "When a victim is in the throes of an eligible emotion, you may draw some of his life force out of him to sustain you.  This is done as a psychological attack with the appropriate skill."

[surarrin]

As a baseline, whenever you’re near an
“eligible” strong emotion, you may draw in mild
sustenance from it.

This is what I was refering to guys.

How does THIS benefit your character, if the character doesn't kill?

[JustinS]

Well, it gives you the implicit supernatural sense: Taste Emotions.
An actual Empathic sense power is likely more sensitive for the same cost.

[surarrin]

I meant the sustenance part. 

[Archmage_Cowl]

I would let it function as tagging a scene aspect or two to feed and heal. Thus if you can get enough shifts that would be tantamount to murdering someone you would heal. So like if you fed on fear, and say you're at a horror movie convention with the scene aspect "damn scary" and "Frightful Fun" then the place catches fire adding the scene aspect "true terror" now if you were feeding off of a regular person a six shift attack would probably do them in, so i would allow tagging of those three aspects to induce a "feeding recovery period" in which you would feed lightly off of everyone around you, which would allow you to heal. I'm not entirely sure thats the correct way to do it, thats just what i would say.

[luminos]

the way the wording of the power goes, your drawing sustenance from the victim is just a mental attack, until you take the victim out.  But being able to do a mental attack is a big deal.  In most cases, that line of attack simply isn't available to your character, and this makes it much more feasible.

[surarrin]

the way the wording of the power goes, your drawing sustenance from the victim is just a mental attack, until you take the victim out.  But being able to do a mental attack is a big deal.  In most cases, that line of attack simply isn't available to your character, and this makes it much more feasible.

The following line issss;

This just grazes the surface
of the victim’s life force, maybe making them just
a shade less vital in the long term, but it doesn’t
have much of an immediate effect.

 

[Deadmanwalking]

Well, you can live off emotions rather than food and drink, so that's a nice benefit. Aside from that you pretty much need to kill to get much out of it, but mid-combat healing is both rare and really powerful, so that's actually very worth it all by itself.

[luminos]

Did you miss the part where it lets you make mental attacks?  That is kind of useful.

[Victim]

It lets you heal in combat.  It also can grant +1 attack after you've hit once.  Any sort of accuracy boost is a pretty big deal in this game.

[surarrin]

...Let me specify.

Outside of combat. General use.

Deadman has answered it best so far.

Why are you all so combat minded? 

[iago]

Deadman and Luminos are hitting on what's best about this power. There's noncombat uses, but the ability to use an emotion as a gateway to making mental attacks on a target shouldn't be underestimated, especially given what a few hits to the mental stress track will do to a wizard who wants to cast a few evocations.  Yes, Incite Emotion is something you'll find alongside it pretty often -- it's easier to force an emotion to be there than it is to wait for the opportunity, and that costs ya -- but I think you could do some interesting things with it just by itself. (I'd be particularly interested in seeing a creature/character that uses it to feed on rage. Combat is chock full of rage. Ooh look! An angry sorcerer! Nom nom)