Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Brains Over Brawn - Wits Knack

This has been back-burnered for a long time. It's a knack idea aimed at boosting Mental-focused Scion PCs more helpful in combat. The idea has been that I wanted some way for lots of Perception, Intelligence or Wits to be as useful as lots of Strength or Dex. The problem has been that doing so always undermined the importance of those physical stats. However, I figured out a way finally for cleverness to be devastating about once per fight scene without it outperforming Physicals on every attack.

Brains Over Brawn - Wits Knack - No Prerequisites

Your quick thinking and clever stratagems make you a deadly force in battle. You find clever ways to use scenery and situation against your enemies, or to exploit their weaknesses.

When stunting on an attack or damage roll, you may spend a Willpower to use any Mental Attribute (and the corresponding Epic Attribute) in place of Dexterity or Strength. Which Mental Attribute to use is your choice, though it should make at least some sense to the situation. For two-die and three-die stunts, if you spend a Legend as well, you can use a different Mental Attribute (and corresponding Epic) in place of the other Physical Attribute.
Example: Fred, Scion of Thoth, is facing a vampire. His stunt involves impaling the villain on a wooden fence. For a willpower, he could use Intelligence (instead of Dex) on the attack roll to lure it into position. Alternately, he could justify using Perception (instead of Strength) on the damage roll because he lined up the shot with the vampire's heart. If he spent both a Willpower and a Legend, he could do both.
In most circumstances, you may only do this once per scene. Having fallen victim to your clever traps (or having watched their comrades or henchmen fall victim to it), they become more cautious and are unlikely to leave you an opening a second time. However, if a foe is in the throes of a Virtue Extremity (or has 0 dots in one or more Mental Attributes) they may leave themselves open repeatedly, at the GMs discretion.

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