Protector: You are an expert at the protection of others. Whenever you use a skill to create a block to protect another character, add two to your roll. (This does not apply to spellcasting).
Needs the situation narrowed a little bit before I'd be happy with it. Right now this applies to social conflicts, gunfights, fistfights, car chases, anything where you might create a block to protect someone. At least narrow it to physical or social conflict.
Traffic Watcher: You really know how to use those rear-view mirrors. Add two to your Alertness skill as long as you are in a car.
Would prefer to move the "noticing stuff" trapping from Alertness to Driving when in a car.
Excellent Mount: You are very good at carrying other people. Add two to your Athletics skill while being ridden.
Not only is this stunt weird as hell, it also defies logic by making you faster when you carry more weight. I just don't like it on an instinctual level. Despite that, I say keep it in the list precisely because it's so out-of-the-box that it hopefully will act as an inspiration for others.
Five-Fingered Discount: Why buy what you can steal? You may use your Burglary skill instead of your Resources skill to “buy” things. Everything “bought” this way has the aspect “Stolen Property”.
You may use Burglary to make Declarations about having an item. The GM may assign the Aspect "Stolen Property" to whatever objects/animals/whatever come into play through such a Declaration, however.
Friends Everywhere: Your network of contacts extends around the world. You never receive a penalty to your contacts skill due to an unfamiliar area.
Penalties to Contacts rolls from being in an unfamiliar area are reduced by two. I am not a fan of blanket "no penalties ever!" stunts.
Sanction: Your faith in your boss, be it the archangel Uriel or Colonel Carrington, is absolute. Pick a being. Add one to your Conviction skill when acting on behalf of that being.
I don't see what the deal is with this one, honestly. It's got a possibly-gameable-but-probably-okay usage restriction, only applies to Conviction, and is only a +1. Oh wait.
You should add the caveat "does not apply for the purposes of determining maximum spell power, you sneaky bastard wizards."
Shield Of Dogma: Words are meaningless against your fanatical will. You may use your Conviction skill to defend in social combat.
I don't mind this one either as long as it's got a sufficient usage restriction. Right now it IS too broad. I'm not sure how to word this, but if it applied against attacks that threatened the source of your conviction, that'd be okay in my book. Someone attacking Jack Bauer by tearing down his belief in his country? Yeah, I could see Jack using Conviction to defend there. But if they went and dragged him through the mud for, say, sleeping around? No, he wouldn't be able to use Conviction to defend.
Data Manipulation: It's easy to fool someone when you have graphs to back you up. Add two to your Deceit skill when you have statistics to back up your lies.
I don't think this needs to be a stunt. A clever Powerpoint presentation is a Deceit or Scholarship maneuver that places "Clever Powerpoint Presentation" available for tagging on a subsequent Deceit roll. Meh. OTOH, I don't see anything horribly off about it either, except for it being very similar to the one Deceit stunt about incorporating a relevant and obvious truth.
Con Man: You make a living off of lies. Add two to your Deceit skill when using it to get someone to give you money.
Isn't this kind of like Salesman?
I'm just saying there are a lot of +2 effect Deceit stunts floating around here that cover most all of the stuff someone with a high Deceit would be doing anyway.
Feint: They think thought they had you, but they thought wrong. You may use your Deceit skill to dodge physical attacks.
Ugh. This lacks a usage restriction and has a lot of the same logic problems that befall "I Made This Myself" that we've already discussed. I would rather this be "Your Deceit complements skills used for physical defense". Either that, or something with a better - OR ANY - restriction.
"You may roll Deceit to defend against physical attacks provided you were able to engage your opponent in conversation on your previous action." In most cases, gunfire makes normal conversation very difficult.
Wearing An Extremely Trustworthy Face: Some faces are just easy to trust, and as a shapeshifter you have access to many of those. Pick a form other than your natural one. As long as you are in that form and visible to your target, add two to your Deceit skill.
"Oh, I'll just make a 'sparkly vampire' form and have an instant +2 Deceit! My GM will NEVER suspect me of rampant bullshittery."
Ugh. This one should be green or something anyway, shouldn't it? It's not really a Pure Mortal ability. Anyhoo, I'd posit that this should be moved to Rapport at any rate if one were to already have Mimic Form. Mimic Form
already grants +4 Deceit.
In fact, this stunt is basically just half-price Mimic Form - and looking at it like that, it should share the same material requirements IMO.
Founded Upon Lies: You are very good at turning innocuous lies into devastating arguments. Whenever you invoke or tag an aspect that you created with a Deceit manoeuvre, add two to your roll in addition to the normal benefits.
You could chain a bunch of maneuvers together and then basically double their value. This might be overpowered... maybe. But then there's Dirty Fighter, the Fists stunt that gives a +3 for tagging opponents' Aspects. Eh... I'd allow this one because it IS limited to Aspects you yourself created.
Defensive Lies: You can come up with a counterpoint to any point, as long as you don’t worry about honesty. You may use your Deceit skill, unmodified, to defend against everything in social combat.
Needs a restriction, but for the life of me I can't think of one. Maybe this stunt is useful so long as your attacker hasn't gotten a read on you this scene (Empathy trapping)?
"Honest" Lawyer: Okay, maybe they don’t exist. But most people would say that you are one, anyway. Add two to your Deceit skill when you are in a legal context.
I kinda like this one.Defensive Focus: Your incredible focus makes it easy to avoid the clumsy attacks of your enemies. You may use your Discipline skill to defend against attacks from enemies in the same zone.
AKA all melee and point-blank gunfire? This is as ridiculous as the Conviction one up above. HI'd use my fallback tactic of allowing Discipline to complement defense rolls. Another option might be to restrict it to facing single opponents in one-on-one combat. Like a duel.
Reflexive Shield: Magic is the only defence you need. When you are attacked, you may sacrifice your next action to cast a defensive evocation.
I like this one too. Maybe wizards are badass enough, but this stunt matches how I always saw Harry's defensive magic working. He'd always interpose his shield bracelet just in time, you know? I would allow it in my (admittedly wizard-light) game, but I'll defer to those of you with more experience getting your games broken by optimized spellcasters.
I'll Just Ignore You: Counterarguments are a waste of time. You prefer to simply not listen to the people you disagree with. You may use your Discipline skill for the social defence trapping of Rapport.
If the situation made sense, I'd allow this without a stunt. Usually such a situation would be one where there wasn't an audience to sway.
Bartender's Ear: Like any good bartender, you know how to understand drunk people. Add two to your Empathy skill when dealing with people who are under the influence of alcohol.
I think this one's pretty lame.
Tough as Nails: You don’t seem to feel pain the way normal people do. When an opponent tags or invokes one of your consequences in a physical conflict they only receive +1 to their roll. If they choose to reroll, you may lock down one of his dice and leave him only 3 to reroll.
What's the issue with this one?
Was That Supposed To Hurt?: You are TOUGH. You don't avoid attacks, you just take them right. Use your Endurance skill to “dodge” attacks.
Again, like the similar stunts above, I would allow a stunt where Endurance complemented physical defense.
Competition Fighting: You are a martial artist, not a fighter. Add one to your Fists skill as long as you aren't in a real fight.
I think perhaps the restriction could be modified to be "pick a type of organized and structured combat (MMA, boxing, Unseelie Accord-regulated duels). When participating in such an event you may add 1 to your Fists skill."
I also think it could apply to Weapons or even Guns, for the high noon quick-draw showdown.
Brutality: Your style of fighting verges upon the sadistic. You may use manoeuvres to inflict consequences. In order to do so, first state the name, level, and type of consequence that you would like to inflict. Then make an ordinary attack with the skill that you are using for the manoeuvre. If that attack hits and inflicts stress equal to or greater than the value of the consequence, then that consequence is inflicted. Extra stress is wasted, as is the entire manoeuvre if it misses or fails to inflict enough stress.
I don't like this one instinctively. It feels exploitative, although I can't put my finger on it.
Storm Of Punches: A great warrior fights as well against a thousand enemies as he does against one. You may take a -2 penalty to a Fists attack in order to have that attack affect everyone in the zone (except yourself, of course).
This one depends a lot on GM/group accepting what's legal for area attacks. I know spray attacks are reviled around here, but IMO area attacks are the realm of magic, explosives, and possibly suppressive automatic fire (aka a maneuver or block, not aimed attacks). However, I've got no beef with you if you allow Weapons / Guns / Fists to attack zone-wide at -2. The mechanics have definite precedent and if you're running a high-power game like that, rock on. \m/
Threats Of Violence: Fear and pain: they’re like best buddies. You always try to keep them together. Add two to your Intimidation skill when targeting someone who you have physically harmed recently.
I think if you just reworded "recently" to "in the same scene", that would be specific enough for me.
Clever Wrestling: You've wrestled against incredibly strong things before and you know how to handle it. When in a grapple with something that has a strength power, halve their power bonus to might and round down.
I don't like halving the other guy's bonus. It's a variable effect and I'd prefer to boost the stunt owner rather than penalize the opponent. What if the condition wasn't "has a strength power" but rather was a specific grappling action? "Add two to your Might rolls when defending against a grapple attempt"? Does that work or is that too far afield from the original text?
Professional Attitude: You take your job so seriously that it’s hard to believe that you have a life outside of it. Add one to all of your social skills when at work.
"My job is a Monster Hunter! Gimme that bonus bitches!"
"I don't really have a day job."
"My job is a mob hitman!"
I'd nuke this one. Disregarding the lack of restriction on what qualifies as a "job", people who take their jobs really seriously are annoying, not sociable. Perhaps...
perhaps, if the stunt was reworded to be "Add one to your Rapport rolls when interacting with someone with the same or decently similar job as you".
And I'd call the stunt "Commiserate".
Master Of Riddles: Your intelligence lets you run circles around those you talk to. This may take the form of actual riddles, or perhaps just complex logical arguments. You may use your Scholarship skill to make social attacks. Attacks with Scholarship can be defended against with Rapport, Scholarship, and sometimes Empathy.
Pre-Prepared Counterpoint: You’ve heard that argument before, and you know how to defeat it. You may use your Scholarship skill for social defence.
I am okay with both of these, provided they are properly restricted. I wanna say "where logic and reasoning make a valid argument", but that's almost as vague as not having a restriction. I've allowed a PC to spend a FP to use Scholarship in just this fashion before, so I'm not against it. It just needs some limitations.
I would rename the attack stunt to "Occam's Razor" to reflect the "attack" nature, or possibly "The Only Logical Conclusion".
Weapon Focus: You've trained to use a specific type of weapon. Choose a type of weapon. Add one to your weapons skill while wielding that type of weapon.
Weapon Specialization: You know how to attack effectively with a specific type of weapon. Choose a type of weapon. Your attacks with that type of weapon inflict two additional stress.
Weapon Mastery: It's easier to defend yourself when you are using your weapon of choice. Pick a type of weapon. When using that type of weapon to make a defense roll, add two to your Weapons skill.
Weapon Focus should only affect attack rolls. You've got Weapon Mastery for the defense side of things, and Focus only affecting attack rolls is more keeping with the D&D spirit anyhow.
Mounted Combat: You know how to fight from atop a horse. Add one to your weapons skill while riding an animal.
Just have this be "Use Survival to make physical attacks while riding an animal." This way you can cover cowboys and knights at the same time.
