Getting Extra Mental or Social Stress Boxes?

[darkfire14]

Ok as you know, there are toughness powers that give characters bonus boxes to their physical stress. But what if you wanted to take an ability to represent someone who is either exceptionally "Strong Willed" mentally and/or "Extremely Stubborn" socially.

Could you take a variant of supernatural toughness that would improve mental or social stress boxes? Perhaps even provide some armor of some kind against mental and/or social stress? Now wizards having a low enough Refresh as it is probably wouldn't be able to take this but it could be useful for focused practitioners and sorcerers as it would allow them to cast more spells before taking mental consequences as well as soak more backlash (For the mental version of course). As for "Armor" it would be able to reduce mental/social stress from mental/social effects, but it would be pretty broken if it allowed spell casters to not take the minimum 1 mental stress for casting a spell, so the armor wouldn't work against something like that (But would help with backlash and reduce the extra mental stress for channeling above your conviction).

On the flip side, could one technically take some sort of supernatural recovery for  Mental and Social stress? For instance being able to recover quicker from said consequences?

So in the end, is supernatural toughness only applicable to physical stress or could you take different versions for other forms of stress?

[Chris_Fougere]

On the flip side, could one technically take some sort of supernatural recovery for  Mental and Social stress? For instance being able to recover quicker from said consequences?

So in the end, is supernatural toughness only applicable to physical stress or could you take different versions for other forms of stress?

Our game that starts tonight has a True Believer Priest with an Item of Power that's essentially a rosary that gives him the Inhuman Recovery ability for Mental "damage".  No reason why you can't reskin the existing toughness powers and apply them to other Stress Tracks, just so long as it makes sense for the character.

[Blackblade]

On the custom powers thread, we have Inhuman/Supernatural/Mythic Stoicism, which are the toughness powers reworked for mental stress.  I think it's also mentioned that any self-inflicted stress also satisfies the catch.

[sinker]

Now wizards having a low enough Refresh as it is probably wouldn't be able to take this but it could be useful for focused practitioners and sorcerers as it would allow them to cast more spells before taking mental consequences as well as soak more backlash (For the mental version of course). As for "Armor" it would be able to reduce mental/social stress from mental/social effects, but it would be pretty broken if it allowed spell casters to not take the minimum 1 mental stress for casting a spell, so the armor wouldn't work against something like that (But would help with backlash and reduce the extra mental stress for channeling above your conviction).

The common opinion on the forums is that wizard's are powerful enough without reducing one of their only limitations. Consider that any submerged level wizard could pick this up. With mental armor like that the caster will throw around even more powerful spells just because they can, not just when it's important or dramatic.

On a secondary, less important side I also have a thematic issue with a focused practitioner who is better at slinging around magic than the wizards. A focused practitioner built specifically with this ability will consistently throw around better spells than a full wizard.

I really have no problem with someone wanting mental armor/more mental stress boxes unless it's in conjunction with spell casting abilities. It's just not appropriate for any game I have run or played. Have any of you ever really run out of mental stress/consequences to cast spells? I don't think I've ever been in that situation unless it was dramatically appropriate (I.E. it's the big bad and I'm throwing everything I've got at it, and then it still takes a few more shots from my trusty shotgun).

Anyway, I guess if this is an issue that you've run into many times or something then maybe something like this could work in your game, but it's not something I would implement.

[Blackblade]

A simple solution to this would be that mental stress taken from casting would automatically satisfy the catch.

[Wolfwood2]

Ok as you know, there are toughness powers that give characters bonus boxes to their physical stress. But what if you wanted to take an ability to represent someone who is either exceptionally "Strong Willed" mentally and/or "Extremely Stubborn" socially.

Have you taken a look at Stunts rather than Powers?

I think the Stunt system is better for this sort of thing.  Rather than get extra boxes, you get extra Mild Consequence slots (usable only for Consequences of the appropriate type).  There actually is a Presence Stunt that gives you Social Armor 1.

[batmanjr]

There is also a mental stunt that gives you 2 free mild mental consequences.

[Blackblade]

There is also a mental stunt that gives you 2 free mild mental consequences.

That stunt was nerfed in the final version; the consequences now only apply when attempting to resist torture.