Working on an AltU game, wanted some feedback for new Templates/Powers

[zeonsghost]

Hey all.
First time posting here. My gaming group has run a few DF campaigns, but the GM of those games wanted to take the system for a run as a PC. As the group's nominal GM, I volunteered to do something with DF. I settled on doing an AltU game, because I enjoy that sort of storytelling and it avoids Canon conflicts (we have a few Canon junkies at the table).

Basic rundown is that its a version of the DF universe that no longer has a White Council. They broke up in World War II over national ties. In the aftermath, things go crazy. You have a much more involved Church, whose reformed the Inquisition away from public eyes as a way to combat threats. You also have two successor organizations to the Council: The Society of Britannia, which concerns itself with practitioners from Commonwealth of Nations; and the League of Mages, which is an organization trying to serve as a reformed White Council, but lacking the support from a lot of practitioners. The White and Red Courts went to war with each other over turf. The Reds got wiped out and the Whites didn't fair much better. Both wizards getting involved in WWII and a vampire v. vampire war has made some in mortal governments slightly more open to the supernatural, but only slightly.

Oh, and Harry Dresden was never born. Woops.

Anyways, onto the crunch!

The Faithless

While there is debate regarding the existence and/or nature of deities, there are those possess a supernatural removal from powers associated with the Divine. Though some possess this condition naturally, others are cut off from the divine through other means.  Within the Inquisition, these people are referred to as Faithless.

Faithless are said to be “blank spots” on the spiritual level. All Faithless are protected on some level from things such as holy artifacts, possession, Soulfire (and its opposite number, Hellfire). Their condition also grants them the ability to cause harm to ghosts and spirits that normal mortals could not. Lastly, the Faithless have the ability to sense the beliefs and faiths of others. In well-trained Faithless, this ability allows them to sense how strong a persons faith is and what they believe in.

Not all Faithless are nonbelievers per say (particularly the those in the Inquisition). However, all Faithless are said to be outside God’s sight. Faithless are known work for various supernatural organizations as spies or assassins sent against religious or demon worshiping organizations. Those born with the abilities are just as likely to go through life never realizing the abilities they possess.

Musts:
The Faithless must have an Aspect that reflects their condition. This will be the source of many invocations against certain foes, but will likely tagged in matters regarding the spiritual issues.

Spiritual Void [-2]
Physical Immunity[-8]
Catch (All but Divine/Spiritual Powers) [+6]
Supernatural Senses (Sense Faith) [-1]

Options:
The Faithless come from all walks of life and can take any ability that fits with their high concept.
Some suggestions are:
   Mana Static [-1]
   Marked by Power [-1]
   The Sight [-1]
   Item of Power [Varies]


Ability: (Added to True Faith)

Spiritual Void [-2]
Description: You exist outside the influence of Gods and Spiritual Beings
Skills Affected: Stealth,others
Effects:
Void Blessed: You cannot take any other True Faith abilities, nor can you gain access to Hellfire, Soulfire or magic based on Faith in the Divine.
I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Your touch is anathema to spiritual beings, such as demons, angels and ghosts. You can fulfill the Catch for any of these creatures and touching them inflicts 1 point of physical stress. This can be done as a Weapon: 1 attack with Fists. You may also use this ability to compel any high concept from a creature that would take offense to this ability.
Cast Out From Gods’ Sight: You’re condition makes it more difficult for beings that rely on divine powers to detect you.  You gain a +4 bonus to stealth rolls against such beings and must roll stealth to avoid being detected in their presence! You gain a +2 bonus on stealth rolls to avoid detection by such beings. You also cannot be magically scryed on by any beings possessing powers of a divine origin or source.

Grigori

Among the hosts of heaven, the Grigori are not spoken of. Created to observe and watch over humans, they soon became enamored with them and took them as lovers and spouses. As punishment, the Grigori were imprisoned in Dudael and lost to time. Recently, the Grigori were freed from their prison by unknown means. The Grigori now roam the Earth, cast from Heaven though not damned to Hell.

As fallen angels, the Grigori possess a wide array of abilities. However, the curse of their banishment gives the use of those abilities a cost. When drawing on their abilities, their must face their corruption and risk being overcome by it. The corruption brings them closer to transforming into true Demons both physically and mentally.

Free to roam the Earth and with their powers atrophied from aeons of imprisonment, the Grigori have scattered. Some have isolated themselves, fearing their own corruption. Others have sought to blend in with humanity. A select few have sought redemption and have become protectors of humanity by hunting other supernatural threats.

Musts:
A Grigori’s High Concept must reflect what they are.

The Corruption (Tied to all Supernatural Powers) [+2]
At least three points in Supernatural Powers.

Suggested Powers:
Any
Human Guise

Ability: Add to Creature Features

The Corruption [+2]
Description: Your powers are tied to some subversive force which influences your mind and body if you are not careful to resist it. This ability “attaches” itself to most, if not all, of your supernatural abilities.
Skills Affected: Discipline
Effects:
Corruption is Stressful: You have an additional stress track called Corruption. The length of the track works like those of other stress tracks from Endurance, Conviction, etc., only using Discipline as the base skill. Unlike other Stress tracks you may not clear this out at the end of a scene (see below).
Resisting Corruption: At the end of a scene when you have exerted your powers, you must check to see if you experience Corruption stress. This manifests as an attack with a strength equal to the total refresh cost of the abilities you used; you roll Discipline to defend. For example, if you used Inhuman Strength and Speed in a scene the strength of the attack would by 4.
If you succeed, you may clear your Corruption stress.
If you fail, you suffer Corruption stress equal to the amount you failed by. If you have mental or physical consequences, you can use them to buy off the stress as per the normal rules. If you do not or cannot use consequences, then you must select lose access to a number of powers, up to a refresh cost total equal to the amount of stress taken. These options can be combined however you choose.
If you have no powers left to lose or have no open Corruption stress boxes open you are taken out of the scene (due to mental anguish and/or physical transformation) as your Corruption increases. (See below)
Being Corrupted: If you are unable to lose more powers to Corruption or are taken out by Corruption stress, you must immediately spend at least 1 refresh point to buy or improve one or more Supernatural Powers. Upon doing so, you clear your Corruption stress track at the end of the scene. If your total refresh drops below one, you become an NPC (per the rules).
Corruption Recovery: You can recover 1 Corruption stress box and regain 1 refresh of power per scene that you chose to opt out of, spending time in meditation to regain control of your powers.

[Sanctaphrax]

Spiritual Void looks pretty good, but I think it needs clarification on a couple of points. When does the mental stress hit happen? Because "touching" isn't exactly defined in the rules. Even a successful Fists attack might not make skin contact. And how is a Faithless's need to "roll stealth to avoid being detected in their presence!" different from the normal situation?

I'm not such a fan of The Corruption. Feeding Dependency has issues, and The Corruption looks likely to inherit those issues.

[zeonsghost]

I based the touch on the wording Touch of Faith causing a 1 stress hit when touching something that'd be affected. I'll expand the wording.

The Faithless have to roll stealth, even in a situation they might not want to. That was the best I could come up with for handling their interaction with a creature that'd have trouble detecting them.  Initially, I had wanted to scale it based on the refresh of the thing in the room, but it seemed to complicated. [EDIT: In hindsight even this is a bit too complicated. I think I may just scale it down to the a +2 and that they can't be scryed]

Corruption was based largely on Feeding Dependency. I haven't had many encounters with it in play, what are the issues with it? Do you think there are good ways to address them?

[Sanctaphrax]

I based the touch on the wording Touch of Faith causing a 1 stress hit when touching something that'd be affected. I'll expand the wording.

Touch of Faith is also a bit vague. But if you've got a good idea of how you'll handle it, that's fine.

The Faithless have to roll stealth, even in a situation they might not want to.

That sort of thing usually works best as a Compel.

Corruption was based largely on Feeding Dependency. I haven't had many encounters with it in play, what are the issues with it? Do you think there are good ways to address them?

Feeding Dependency is overpowered when attached to 2 Refresh of stuff and underpowered when attached to 10. Some parts of its wording are vague (do you lose Powers when you take stress, or do you use Powers to absorb stress and not get taken out?) and the ability to clear stress with one good roll creates perverse incentives to use your Powers only a little so you can easily control them and clear stress.

I don't have any really great solutions.

[zeonsghost]

As far as the touch part of the ability, I'm thinking of making it a Weapon: 1 Physical attack based on fists. Mental seems a little too good. (I've seen what incite emotion is capable of, particularly with foes outta the book).

Regarding the stealth part, I think you're right with the compel thing. I changed the wording to simplify it.

Best I can figure for the Corruption is to remove the ability to take it on physical consequences. It makes juggling a bit harder and forces conservative play fitting with the theme of the template.

Thank you for your feedback!

[blackstaff67]

Regarding The Catch:  Is straight-up Magic as Dresden used it considered a Divine/Spiritual Power?  What if someone throws Soulfire at you, do you ignore it completely or merely the supercharging effect of it?

[zeonsghost]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the "supercharging" part of sponsored magic just allows you to apply bonuses you have from regular spell casting (like specialties and focus items) to the Sponsored Magic. If I have it correct, if you use Soulfire to supercharge a spell then the spell would fail to damage them. If I have it wrong, then my group's been doing it wrong I need to figure out where we went wrong.

[blackstaff67]

The Soulfire "supercharging" effect allows you to satisfy the Catch of any creature whose catch is holy trappings of Faith and the like; it still downgrades the Toughness of a target by one (down to normal) even if its Catch is different. 
Example #1: I shoot Soulfire at a Black Court Vampire.  I hit.  Soulfire satisfies its Catch, so that it may not apply any Toughness abilities towards the damage it receives nor may it apply any Recovery powers towards it.

Example #2: I shoot Soulfire at a member of the Fae.  I hit.  Even though it is not vulnerable to items/trappings of Faith, it still loses one level of Toughness towards reducing damage (Mythic becomes Supernatural, Supernatural becomes Inhuman, etc.).  Technically even a critter with Physical Immunity would feel a hit from this (albeit with Mythic Toughness--hope he holds still for you to continue hitting him).

[zeonsghost]

That's the standard benefit of Soulfire. I intend to rule it as they would take no damage from Soulfire.