Nephilim Ideas

[Archmage_Cowl]

honestly i always took the nephilim, Huge, thing to mean that they were spiritually big. Like bigger than mortals. I mean i can definatlely see them being bigger physically but thats how i saw the specific meaning.

[Deadmanwalking]

Nephilim Baseline Powers:
Hulking Size [-1]

Hulking Size is WAY bigger than I see your typical PC being without Human Guise. Look at it this way, Siberian Tigers are actually fairly sneaky, Hulking Size makes you incapable of Stealth, so, by definition it makes you bigger than they are...that's not 300 lbs, that's a minimum of 700 or so, and likely at least 8 feet tall (I put the minimum at 1000 lbs personally). Not everyone a bit bigger than average needs Hulking Size.

Also, it's a -2 power, not a -1.

[FutureGameDesigner]

Hulking Size is WAY bigger than I see your typical PC being without Human Guise. Look at it this way, Siberian Tigers are actually fairly sneaky, Hulking Size makes you incapable of Stealth, so, by definition it makes you bigger than they are...that's not 300 lbs, that's a minimum of 700 or so, and likely at least 8 feet tall (I put the minimum at 1000 lbs personally). Not everyone a bit bigger than average needs Hulking Size.

Also, it's a -2 power, not a -1.

Noted on the power cost.

Still as far as Hulking Size goes, Nephilim are rare enough and the legends of their size pervasive enough, that Hulking Size is viable.  Obviously, if they happen to have access to Human Guise, they won't even look like an overly large person...they'll be normal.

Ultimately, I'm out of my element anyway, because while I've read a variety of holy books, I haven't bothered to memorize or reread any of them.  Hulking Size seems to be a good baseline for Nephilim based on what I've heard so far though.  As such, Human Guise is a logical optional power for them.

[Jeckel]

Oooo, I like it. However, I disagree that Hulking Size is necessary. The term "Giants" was an improper translation and has been replaced with 'Nephilim' in newer translations. You can see various different translations of the genesis passage here. Might be good to move Hulking Size to the optional powers list.

Personally the idea of Hulking Size babies born of mortal women doesn't seem right, regardless of who the father was.

Either way though, cool template.

[citadel97501]

I like the template, and thank you prophet, for the quotes from the appropriate sources. 

I really think though that the template should include the choice to be either Hell fire, or Soul Fire, and that they can "choose" similar to the Changeling choice which side manifests, perhaps after some extremely traumatic event (Severe Consequence), that they start channeling the other, all though the change to which you channel would fit best with falling from grace, so Soul Fire to Hell Fire. 

[prophet224]

Well, 'giants' isn't really an improper translation, exactly.  As far as I can tell, 'Nephilim' is the original word, which means something akin to 'fallen ones'. However, as many of the sources that refer to Nephilim also refer to them as giants, the word 'giants' was used to replace the more unusual 'Nephilim'.

As far as sources, I mean Genesis, Numbers, Macabees, Amos and certainly all throughout Enoch.

Here's one from Enoch:
"And they became pregnant, and they bare great giants, whose height was three thousand ells[60]: Who consumed all the acquisitions of men. And when men could no longer sustain them, the giants turned against them and devoured mankind. And they began to sin against birds, and beasts, and reptiles, and fish, and to devour one another's flesh, and drink the blood."

Surprisingly (to me at least... I don't usually use answers.com), Answers.com has some pretty good write-ups with references.
http://www.answers.com/topic/nephilim#Nephilim_in_the_Hebrew_Bible
http://www.answers.com/topic/book-of-enoch#The_Book_of_the_Watchers


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Anyway, I do think Hulking Size should be a requirement, along with some level of strength bonus, as described in my previous post.

Citadel, you mention the Changeling template... I think that would be great for a 'Descendant of Nephilim'. You just pick from the Nephilim list that we come up with.

As far as the size and mothers, think about the tallest man, Robert Wadlow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Wadlow). He was born at 8lb 6oz (according to Wikipedia, not, of course, a perfect source) and died at 8ft 11in and 490lbs at the age of 22.

Andre, though shorter, was probably closer to a true 'giant' in that his bone structure was heavier, helping his body stand up under the size and weight. But anyway, it looks like around 7-10 feet, at least, is not unreasonable from a normal-sized woman.

[FutureGameDesigner]

As a matter of flavor, whether they're born huge or not is up to the group, really.  There's no reason for them to be born any more than slightly bigger than normal.  If they're born too much larger, the mothers would frequently die during childbirth...which isn't unreasonable I'd think.

I left out things like the Inhuman Strength on the baseline because Inhuman Recovery is really good, and I wanted to keep the template viable for all power levels.

I try to do everything that way as much as possible...I don't like the idea of power-level-specific templates, though I know sometimes it's unavoidable.