Author Topic: Strength/Might Question  (Read 3891 times)

Offline wyvern

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1418
    • View Profile
Re: Strength/Might Question
« Reply #15 on: September 09, 2010, 09:51:02 PM »
Define "stronger"?  How much force you can put behind a punch doesn't necessarily translate to lifting capacity or skill in wrestling; a BCV with a zero might can dish out rather more hurt than a mortal wrestler, but may not have the build (or leverage - remember, BCVs don't weight much) to effectively lift or carry heavy objects, or the skill to actually pin someone (which, again, requires leverage and an understanding of how your foes joints work, more than it requires raw strength.)

Still, if you want to put a might minimum on various levels of strength power in your game - that sounds like a perfectly fine house rule.  I'd suggest taking a closer look at what the values actually mean, though - for example, I was designing a dragon with supernatural strength and hulking size, and it worked out that a might skill of three was about right - that's enough to casually carry a mid-sized car; more than that would've been overkill.

Offline Becq

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1253
    • View Profile
Re: Strength/Might Question
« Reply #16 on: September 10, 2010, 12:22:04 AM »
The description for Inhuman Strength states that those who possess it are stronger than the average human, not stronger than the strongest human.  With a +3 bonus to lifting, even the weakest vampire (Might 0) will outclass the average human (+1) ... and will do well against even a well-trained human (+3).

That said, the monster templates are starting points; feel free to add to them if you feel the need.  This is particularly true for (as an example) vampires -- if you compare the vampire templates to other templates, you might not that while other templates list peak skills, stating that other skills are 2s or 1s, the vampire's template doesn't.  you should probably pick out an appropriate mortal template, then take the better of each skill listed on the two templates, or some such thing.  This should obviously be done with some care, lest the resulting monster be too powerful...


Offline Belial666

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 2389
    • View Profile
Re: Strength/Might Question
« Reply #17 on: September 10, 2010, 08:47:33 AM »
Someone with Inhuman strength can do;

1) Lift heavy furniture without even rolling even if they have no might at all.
2) Have a +50% chance to successfully grapple (+1 to rolls) over a human of the same Might.
3) Take out an average human being with a single blow if they roll anything above their defense.


Now consider what might scores mean;

+0 might means below human norm; a weak adult who has never trained or a strong child.
+1 might means human norm; an adult who has never trained or a strong teenager.
+2 might means lifting heavy adults without trying; a strong adult or an average adult with training/experience.
+3 might means lifting heavy furniture without trying; a very strong human with training is at that level.
+4 might is the realm of professional weightlifters and strongmen.
+5 might is for the strongest people in the world



Now a vampire that was a teenager or a 5-ft young woman while alive and has no training whatsoever becomes as strong as a very strong human with training as soon as they get Inhuman Strength. With Supernatural Strength, they are stronger than the strongest men in the world by a fair margin but, due to lack of training, skill and leverage, they are still less effective in grappling.

Offline Lanir

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 208
    • View Profile
Re: Strength/Might Question
« Reply #18 on: September 10, 2010, 12:19:12 PM »
I've played plenty of WoD games so I get what you're aiming for here. Although honestly I'd hardly aim for potence personally. It wasn't terribly well balanced.

In any case, if you want to house rule in things just house rule that any level of strength requires a might skill of 2 as a pre-req. That's all that's required. If you do that you should be fine. With your scaling requirements what you're basically telling the poor schmuck who bought Inhuman Strength with his very limited refresh is that his strength does not and cannot ever matter against someone with Supernatural Strength or better. This is kind of the same effect as telling your potence 2 vampire that all the experience points he spent are completely worthless because his adversary has potence 3. You're fine as long as it's all NPCs but the minute you get a PC with this kind of power you'll end up backpedaling really fast or find yourself on the spot trying to explain why PC Strongman suddenly resembles the scrawny wimp that gets sand kicked at him on the beach.

Also keep in mind the damage bonuses to grapples and muscle powered weapons are unique to those with this power at any level even before alterations are made. And honestly... Apex human vs Supernaturally Powered Couch Potato is always very contrived. Yes, we can make that comparison. But it's pretty easy to go off the deep end trying to rebalance everything based on one very odd circumstance. I'm actually rather curious what prompted the original post here. Something about this martial artist character bothered you but I'm not sure exactly what. Him specializing in grappling and being able to out-grapple even mildly powered enemies isn't necessarily a bad thing.