Legendary Surge vs. Itztli 9

When asked about the similarities between the "Legendary Surge" spell and the "Communal Divinity" level of Itztli (two powers which do the same thing, but have been assigned to power levels 2 and 9), Jesse (of White Wolf) said this:

Legendary Surge vs. Itztli 9: Not only does Legendary Surge have a surcharge, but it creates a Fatebinding automatically (because it's a Magic spell). Being heavily Fatebound to the rest of your group can be liability, especially if it's accentuating a role that pushes you into conflict with the other Scions.

I can't decide whether or not to reply to that on the Official Scion Companion Thread. On one hand, I'm really thankful that he took the time to answer, and I think it's awesome that he's trying to get his explanations and unwritten rules put into the revised version of the Scion Companion pdf. ...But on the other hand, that explanation is bunk.

In regards to the surcharge: The surcharge is just 1 measly point of temporary legend. A character capable of using a 2nd level spell will have a legend pool ranging anywhere between 9 and 144. At the lower end, that's meaningful - the surcharge could be 11% of your total legend pool. But at that low end, you can't even have the 9th dot of a purview - even with the surcharge, having a power is better than not being able to have the power. In order to buy Itzli 9, your Legend pool has to be at least 100 points - so the surcharge is at most 1% of your pool, and is pretty much just trivial. At Legend 10, the surcharge is practically irrelevant in determining which power you'd rather have. Not having a surcharge would explain away a variance of one, maybe two, dots in power level - but not a 7 level gap.

In regards to the fatebonding: Yes, magic does have the drawback of fatebinding, but it will never happen as he described it. The rules specify that Scions don't end up in fatebound roles to other characters. To quote page 223 of Hero: "Unlike mortals, however, supernatural beings don't succumb to Fatebound Roles; the retain their free will. ... At the storyteller's discretion, certain supernatural creatures or beings might come under the effect of a Fatebound Role, but Scions and Gods never do." Even if that paragraph didn't exist, I think it would be very rare that a ST would assign a negative fatebinding role to a PC. Making a PC suddenly become the Nemesis, Traitor, or Weak Link just seems like a recipe for campaign-wrecking disaster. Most players would hate being straight-jacketed into such a role: permanently switching from good guy to bad guy "overnight" because a different PC cast a low-level spell? Yes, there's individual players (and perhaps whole groups) who'd have a blast with that (but if so, then it's not being a limitation or deterrent, is it?). For the rest of us, it'd be a nightmare.

• Thus, of the two limitations he mentions, neither one would make you choose Itzli 9 over the level 2 spell.

One major reason to by the spell: because it's so much cheaper. The level 2 spell costs 8 to 10 xp (actually, for 7-9 xp you can buy the first 2 dots of the Magic purview, which come with a free 1st level spell and a free 2nd level spell). The 9th dot of a Pantheon Specific Purview (like Itzli) costs 32 xp - on top of the 115 xp you had to spend getting the 8 levels that stand as prerequisites to Itzli 9. To be fair, the Magic purview requires a 1 dot Birthright as well, but I should mention that by the time you reach the requisite legend to buy Itzli 9, you have at least 15 dots of Birthrights, could potentially have as many as 60 Birthright Dots if you went crazy on them, and may even have the stats to be able to make your own Birthrights in-character.

As mentioned above, you only need Legend Rating 3 to use the Spell. To buy Itzli 9 you need to be an Aztec God of Legend Rating 10, 11, or 12. That's yet another way Legendary Surge is better than Communal Divinity.

The spell is also better than Itzli 9 in that the spell requires a miscellaneous action (Speed: 5, DV -1) from just the caster, and can be done at range. Itzli 9 takes a (Speed: 5, DV -2) action from both the caster and the recipient - they have to exchange ichor via close physical contact ranging from a sloppy kiss to becoming blood brothers. So, if you plan on using the power in combat, you're better off with the spell.

The final way that the 2-dot spell is better than Itzli 9 is availability. Literally any Scion character can buy the Magic Purview. Only Scions of Aztec gods can buy Itzli. If the levels were reversed, perhaps my objection would fade away. I might accept that a single pantheon has the advantage of getting an effect cheaper than most PCs. But the inverse, where everyone can get the effect cheaper than the Aztec-exclusive method doesn't make much sense to me.

That said, Jesse didn't mention the 2 ways that Itzli 9 is actually better than the 2-dot Spell:

1. Itzli doesn't require a die roll. For the 2nd level spell, you can only transfer an amount of legend less than or equal to the successes you roll. At the lower levels of play, this isn't a big deal, as you'll never be transferring more than a couple points of Legend anyway. At the higher end it does matter, as you'd be able to give 30 legend to a fellow God to power their next Avatar. If you're making an Aztec PC, and plan on having no (or low) Epic Wits for in-character reasons, and the campaign is likely to last unto Godhood, and you expect to need to transfer 20 or more points of legend per use, Itzli 9 is better than the spell. I should qualify that, though: Itzli 9 is only significantly better if you need the Legend transferred quickly. If there's no ticking deadline, nothing stops you from using the spell multiple times in a scene.
   
2. Itzli 9 is the prerequisite for Itzli 10. If the ability to give temp Legend points to other PCs is of minor concern to you, but you're playing an Aztec PC and plan to advance to Itzli 10, then why waste points on a redundant spell? Of course, I don't really agree that this logic will apply to many characters. Itzli 10 is very powerful, but it's also very grizzly. The activation cost includes sacrificing a close blood relative. In a game with strong heroic leanings, like Scion, the majority of PCs won't want to buy Itzli 10. If, however, Itzli 10 is something you plan to buy, you'll have to get Itzli 9.
   

*Sigh* I'm probably going to have to go point some of this out to Jesse. His point about Fatebindings indicates a significant divide between the rules as written and how he's using them. Since he's authoring books for the game line, that probably needs to be addressed. But other than the Fatebinding issue, I'll probably not bring up all these other points to him, at least not in the Official Scion Companion Thread. Random grognard bitching on the internet about a rule he doesn't like is pretty much accepted and expected these days, but getting into author's face in his own 'parlor' is probably something I should try to avoid doing when possible.

Identifying your Boonhole

Ahem. A boonhole, for the sake of this post, is a hole in the Boon charts of a given Purview in Scion. As in, a place where an alternate boon is needed. This could be because existing boons at various levels are redundant, such as Water 2, 7, and 10. Or it could be most people who take a given Purview find certain boons to be lame, such as Death 2 or War 8. Or it could be because certain basic things you expect to find in a particular purview either don't exist or don't show up until the mid- or late- game, like any attack power for the Fire Purview.

Here's the lists we brainstormed:

All Purpose Boonholes

• Darkness: 2 or 3 (just make sure it's not about hiding/disguise)
• Death: 2, also something at a level 4-7 that isn't about Ghosts
  
• Fertility: Any 2 boons at levels 5-10, and/or possibly a new level 1.
• Fire: 3 (either control/manipulate fire or be a hero-level attack power)
• Psychopomp: 2
  
• Sky: 3 and 5.
• Sun: 1 or 2 (should function like smoking mirror)
• War: 2 or 3, plus 8
• Water: 2, 7, 10 - they overlap, I'd probably just replace 2 of them
• Death and Psychopomp: The general power that PCs with these purviews have to enter portals to their underworld should be codified into specific low-level boons.
  

Special Boonholes

• Magic: New spells are always welcome, since magic's supposed advantage is that it has more spells than the other purviews have boons.
• Mystery and Prophecy: Alternate versions can be found here and here.

Pantheon-Specific Boonholes

• Heku: 2 or 3 or 7 or 8 or 10. (However, Heku levels 1-3 are so darned good, they kinda make up for the wonkiness later, so perhaps it's best to leave Heku alone. If I did anything to improve Heku 7/8/10, I'd knock Heku 1 - 3 down a few notches to balance.)
• Tsukumo-Gami: 10
  
• Of course, touching TG or Heku opens the doors on all sorts of Pantheon Specific craziness. Itzli just does the same thing at level after level, so you'd need 2-4 alternate Aztec boons. Cheval is more open-ended, but really the powers are similarly redundant. Arete would need to be redone entirely, since it's "just" a die-adder. The alternate Jotunblut now would need revising, perhaps so that both sets of Jotunblut boons could exist in the same campaign, etc. And since Heku 1 and 3 are so incredibly good (and making alternates just bumps up the power of Egyptian heroes), perhaps it's just best to leave well-enough alone.
• Overworlds and Underworlds. The various Axis Mundi and the general ability of any PC to enter their pantheon's underworld from various places could be codified into specific boons.
  

Chunks of Ichor

The new Scion PDF (Scion Companion, Chapter 2: Manifestations of Ichor) is full of new Knacks and Boons. Most are really cool, and a great addition to the game.

Unfortunately, some of them blow chunks. Here's a list of ones I'll be house-ruling or just not using:

One Inch Punch - anything you can do with this Knack you could already do with Making It Look Easy and a decent stunt. This knack just devalues Making It Look Easy, which was already kinda weak as knacks go. What's more, Making It Look Easy doesn't have a prerequisite, and One Inch Punch does.
I won't be using One Inch Punch.

Titanium Tools - I'd expect few or no GMs currently apply real world physics to the majority of weapons, especially not where Epic Strength is involved. This knack is only useful if your GM is the kind of jerk who makes swords shatter when your super-strong hero swings them. While there's some merit to the higher end uses of this knack (using a 2x4 to shatter a concrete bunker), they don't justify the can of worms this knack's existence opens. The game doesn't have simple rules to determine when and what weapons break, so your basically forcing any strength-based weapon user to buy this knack.
I will probably allow Titanium Tools, but I'll make it abundantly clear to my players that anything built to be a weapon by skilled craftsmen already survives without this knack. As a result, the knack is of somewhat lessened value.

Microscopic Precision - Since it doesn't give any mechanics for reducing the difficulty of microscopic movements, this knack is of dubious use. A Scion with high Epic Dex (but without this knack) and a scientific microscope (or just the right Perception knack) will feel they should already be able to do this. A Scion with just one dot of Epic Dex and this knack is likely to fail at any Microscopic Precision rolls they make, since the GM will probably assign an arbitrarily high difficulty number. By forgetting to give the knack any tangible mechanical benefits and providing no difficulty guidelines for the GM, the knack fails to be helpful.
I will probably house-rule this to "Microscopic precision reduces the difficulty (or difficulty penalty) of microscopic maneuvers by an amount equal to your dots of Epic." I'd considering switching it to a Perception knack, so that you can have a character who's not a good fighter but can build nanotech by hand, except all the PCs in my campaign already have Epic Dex, so there's no need to do so in my game. Need to think about whether this knack is even needed in my campaign.

Shot To The Heart - Richochet Symphony and a stunt already do this, and more, and do it without the prerequisite. Plus, it's not like there's a lot of creatures with weak spots in the game - as much sense as it would make for leviathan's eyes to have lesser soak, they don't. Unless you radically alter the existing rules for DV, Soak, Disarming, and stunting, this knack is next to useless. It gives you a bonus on a situation that just doesn't happen in the current rules, and it's not enough of a bonus to really justify going to the work to make it useful. In fact, it just eliminates penalties - so why go to all the trouble of adding such penalties to the game if you're just going to make them go away with 5xp?
I'm probably just going to pretend this knack doesn't exist, instead of redoing all those rules or monster stats.

Under Pressure - My initial reaction was "this is so narrow, it's useless." Then I realized it completely eliminates the environmental hazards of The Drowned Road. If you intend to send your PCs there, it's incredible. But since more than a dot or two of Epic Stamina will ensure you make the Trauma rolls anyway, it's still dubious.
Not sure what to do with this Stamina knack.

Blame James - This should be a Manipulation Knack, not Charisma. Of course, that would make the prerequisite tricky, since it's Charisma-based.
House-ruling this to be a Manipulation Knack. The prerequisite is now God's Honest.

Instant Seminar - Doesn't list a duration.
House-ruled to last till the end of the scene.

Paragon of Virtue - Doesn't list a duration.
House-ruled to last till the end of the scene.

Do Not Want - Activator uses Attribute + Epic + Ability + Legend. Resistors use Willpower + Ability + Legend. At low levels that makes this week. But at high Legend, this is huge - especially since you could expend a Deed on the activation. In fact, for high-legend social PCs, this is arguably better than Untouchable Opponent. And UO is widely regarded as the most broken knack in the game, everyone house-rules it. Worse yet, this knack has a lot of rules baggage attached. Worst of all, there's nothing that prevents you from combining this with Epic Dex, UO, Arete: Athletics and Arete: Presence for a DV of 200+. At the legend where that's possible, the activation cost won't deter you from popping it every battle. The game didn't need another big DV booster - what it needs is ways around DV.
Despite the funny name, I won't be using this knack. There's no good way to fix it.

Not The Face - This shouldn't be resisted with Willpower + INTEGRITY + Legend. Command or Larceny would make more sense. Using integrity means that a cruel backstabbing bastard is more likely to grant you mercy than a pious humanitarian is.
House-ruled to be resisted by Willpower + Larceny + Legend.

Return To Sender - Has the wrong prerequisite. Instead of Overt Order (which lasts only a few seconds) it should be either Instant Hypnosis or Kill The Messenger.
House-ruled to have Instant Hypnosis as the prerequisite.

Visage Great And Terrible - Examined against merely the Scion cannon, this knack is fine. However, as discussed below, this knack is inferior to at least two very similar fan-made knacks, neither of which is the least bit broken. (Some bias is possible here, as I made one of those knacks.)
Using Terrible As The Dawn instead.

Axiom - Seems to overlap heavily with Mystery, and will generally out-perform it. Rather unfortunate that single knack is better than an entire Purview.
Luckily, I've house-ruled Prophecy and Mystery, so I'll be able to use Axiom without a problem.

Concept To Execution - Overall, I love this knack (though I wonder why its Intelligence + Craft + LEGEND for the roll). It's the Hitori Hanzo fix we've all been craving. However, I do have one fairly serious problem with it. The entry for the difficulty chart says "Item runs counter to part of the story, theme or plot: +10". Shouldn't that be a bit higher in a game where PCs can have rolls that baseline at 45 before even looking at the dice or power-ups?
House-ruling that one line to be +20 to difficulty. That should keep the story/theme/plot from being wrecked until very late Godhood, at which point PCs should feel entitled to do so.

Adaptive Fighting - I see no point to the increasing cost, but perhaps I'm misunderstanding something since it's all written a little vaguely. Seems like they mean your Epic Wits Dots, not Successes, in which case the increasing cost is unneeded. Unless the "if this fails or you choose not to attack" is meant to be taken literally - as in, if we're supposed to infer the bonus lasts as long as you keep hitting, then that's really good and the extra cost is justified. But it's hard to say for certain what they mean, and if the bonus is dots and lasts for just 1 attack, there's no need for the stepped costs and limitations.
House-ruling this as follows: Works for next attack/action only. Costs just 1 legend. Bonus is equal to dots in Epic Wits.

Don't Read The Manual - This knack steps on the toes of Well-Read Virgin and Jack Of All Trades. Depending on whether or not you interpret it as getting around the "no Epics if you don't have the Ability" clause, it's either strictly better or strictly worse than both those knacks. I'm not sure what the writer's intent was.
Both the knacks it supplants have yet to be taken by anyone in my campaign, so I'll probably just not worry about this, and rule in the way that makes it strictly better than them.

---

Boons:

Scire - This purview has some neat powers, but unless you've got Atlanteans in your game, there's little chance you'll find it useful. I won't spend much time on it.
I'm not using this Purview, as I have no plans of incorporating the dead Atlantean pantheon into my game.

Faunaphagia - Is a die-adding power, and unfortunately the existing Level 3 of Animal is also a die-adding power. This version is a lot more balanced than the existing power, so that's a nice plus. I'm more comfortable with this as a 3-dot boon, despite it being a lot more limited and taking more work on the GMs part if the PC chooses a non-standard animal. At least it works for the scene, so it's not strictly inferior.
Since I'd house-ruled the existing Animal 3 to reign it's power in, I probably won't be using this boon in my campaign.

Paper Tiger - Is fun, but ultimately it just duplicates the existing Animal boon of the same level.
I'll allow this Boon, but I think it's redundant, and doubt anyone will want both boons of this level.

Unlikely Pattern - Awesome power, but the costs and difficulties are silly. Making a handful of change land heads-up shouldn't cost a Willpower and 10 Legend - at least not for a level 8 power. But you can't lower the level since a mere 50 successes lets you create your own Pocket Universe. Ultimately, it's too costly to use for parlor tricks, so it'll only see use for things that are truly busted. PCs can score 50 successes by low Godhood, and that chart pretty much implies a top-end to difficulty.
I'd probably cut the legend cost to 1/3 the difficulty, rounded down, or just add it as a seperate column to the chart. The coin trick would cost 1 legend, making a cake would cost 6 legend, and making a car would cost 8. I'd then adjust the upper end of the chart. I'd add "rubies, chemistry set, batteries, and aluminum tubes" into "industrial laser" at difficulty: 35 / legend 11. I'd add "shipyard" into "aircraft carrier" at difficulty: 50 / legend: 16. Then I'd push the existing "dark matter becomes pocket universe" entry up to difficulty: 75 / legend: 25. Even then, though, someone will eventually get a helium tank and try to make a portable sun out of it, and the GM had better be prepared for it.

Absorb Light - This 4-dot Darkness boon provides weaker invisibility than the existing 3-dot Darkness boon or the existing 3-dot Moon boon. On the other hand, it renders you immune to lasers and radiation, so it's not entirely useless. You'd still be killed by the concussive force of a nuke, though. And you'll have to house rule whether immunity to infrared energy means protection from fire - I'd think it would, but the text doesn't specify.
I wouldn't criticize any GM who chose to alter it's stats or rule it doesn't stop fire and then downgrade it to a 3-dot boon. I'll probably rule that it boosts all your soaks vs fire, heat, and radiation by your Legend (instead of granting total immunity), and then leave it at 4-dot.

Death of the Soul - Technically not a 1-hit kill, but it feels like it. Everything hinges on a single die-roll, and if you don't resist it, there's nothing you can do to come back. Uncertain what I think of that. Also, it says the victim is now restricted to 5 dots in Abilities. They must have meant Attributes, since abilities are already capped at 5 dots.
I'll be leaving it alone for now, but reserve the right to house-rule later for power concerns later. My existing house-rules allow Abilities to go above 5, and Attributes cost a lot more than Abilities to buy up, so I'll probably not house-rule the likely typo, but just interpret it literally.

Rust/Shine - Is under powered. Hardness is laughable. It doesn't affect Relics, either. 4-dots and 2 legend per activation for a demigod to make a gun have a 50% chance of malfunctioning? Not good enough, especially since rusting out a sword or axe won't stop them from attacking you with it. The only thing that could make it worth it is being able to do so subtly over range - but the vague write-up implies you have to pass your hand over the item.
If any of my PCs pick up Earth, I'll probably downgrade this to a 3-dot Boon. To be safe, I'll house-rule that it can't work on an item in someone else's control, just free-standing items and things you're holding. That seems to be the intent of the original text, but it's nice to make it specific. Or maybe I'll just make a 2-dot version that's just Rust for small objects, and then house-rule the 4-dot version to work more offensively and/or restore items at range.

Toxic Thorn - I know this isn't meant to be a huge combat power, but to make a poison that would reliably kill an average mortal extra in 10 minutes after getting a single dose you'd have a difficulty of around 26. If the mortal's not an extra, the difficulty is around 35. That indicates to me that the author might not be using the poison rules as written in his home campaign.
I'll be leaving this one as-is, but I have no illusions that it's potent, at least not until you get to Godhood.

Flamin' Bullets - Has been criticized in a previous post. It's way underpowered, being weaker than the existing Fire 4, and Sun 4, and the Frost 2 boon in the upcoming Ragnarok.
I'll be house-ruling this to be Fire 3, and I wouldn't argue with any GMs who wanted to knock it down to Fire 2.

Hotter Than Hot - Sounds great until you get to the part about the die roll. So, someone who's Stamina+Fortitude+Legend trumps your Wits+Control is still immune, even though it was written that it "suffers no such limitation". It's like the author (or editor) wussed out at the last minute. Since all this power does is override resistance against your other fire powers, this is sad.
I'll probably strike that last paragraph.

Bolster - Doesn't state whether the bonus health levels are damaged first or last. This makes a huge impact on the power of the boon. If they fill last, it saves lives but doesn't prevent injuries from occurring in the first place. If they fill first, then this power (especially with high Epic Stamina) is bustedly good, since you could effectively cancel the first 50 levels of damage to get past someone's soak - and that's too good for level 2.
I'm house-ruling that the bonus health levels are the last to fill, and that they have whatever penalty the characters normal last pre-incapacitated health level has.

Antidote - Overcoming Jormungandr's venom is just difficulty 5. But if that same venom were made via Toxic Thorn, the difficulty to Antidote it would be 60. Seems like Toxicity might not be the right thing to base the difficulty on for Titanspawn.
I'll houserule it to be double the higher of (Toxicity or Damage). Instead of supernatural venoms running difficulty 3 to 5, they'd have difficulty 12 to 20. Mundane poisons would remain an automatic cure.

Drown - This is a little nitpicky, but here goes. When the existing level 5 is an attack power, why make the new attack also be level 5? Also, when the game has rules for drowning, and other rules for environmental effects, why not use one of those two systems for a power that makes people drown? Instead, this power uses a totally new system, that doesn't even match the games general rule of making things harm you on your tick, but instead requires keeping track of a separate 3-tick cycle on the battle wheel.
I may eventually work up my own drowning power, based on the games drowning or environmental rules.

---

And that's all the Knacks and Boons. Most are really good, but the ones mentioned above need house-ruling. I suppose that's not surprising, since so many boons in the original books needed fixing, too.

I've skipped Magic. It's a tiny bit complicated, and none of the PCs in my game have it, so I'm not really up to speed on it.
I can comment that the new 2-dot Spell "Legendary Surge" is really close in effect to the 9th Dot of the Aztec-specific purview. That's pretty awful. Mind you, Itzli 9 isn't that impressive, but to see that somewhat at White Wolf thinks it's balanced to put the same effect as a 2nd level power says something. Either one is grossly over- or under-powered for it's level, or their both off by a few dots from where they should be, but I couldn't say for certain which.

In general, the new powers that are just plain inferior to an existing Boon of the same or lesser rating in the same Purview (or an existing knack for the same Epic) really piss me off - that seems like a fairly amateurish mistake. I'd think it would be something you actively try not to do when designing powers for an RPG. That's one of the standards I've used when making things for my own campaigns, and I've observed a similar rule in published games like D&D. So why'd this happen?

Maybe the campaign Jesse (the author of most or all of that chapter of the Scion Companion) is running is operating at a subdued power level compared to the original rules? I don't know.

What I do know is, I'll be filling in additional Boons and Knacks for my own game.

Flaming Bullets Suck

The second chapter of the Scion Companion keeps getting delayed, so they released some spoilers over at the forums. I was terribly disappointed by these spoilers.

Flamin’ Bullets (Fire ••••)
...
The weapon becomes wreathed in flames, and for the rest of the scene, the weapon belches blasts of Legend-fueled fire. The weapon still consumes normal ammunition, but the shots become imbued with “fire power,” so to speak. The fiery rounds also inflict lethal damage, even against creatures that normally take bashing damage from bullets, such as the walking dead. The fiery rounds add +1 Accuracy and Damage to the weapon and also allow it to light targets on fire. Shooting the gas tank of a car with a pistol really can produce an explosive ending when Flamin’ Bullets are used.

Not a good choice for a preview.

It overlaps heavily with Flare Missile (the existing Sun 4 boon), and doesn't compare well to it. Flamin' Bullets costs less (legend per scene, not per shot) and gives +1 die to accuracy. However, it's damage boost is +1 die, whereas Flare Missile gives at least +5 levels (roughly equivalent to 10 dice). Damage (not accuracy) is where guns need boosting in the system, since they don't get Epic Strength on their damage rolls but do get Epic Dex on attack rolls. What's more, Flare Missile lets you create ammo out of sunlight - so if your clip is empty, it'll let you keep shooting.

Worse yet, it also overlaps heavily with Blazing Weapon (the existing Fire 4 boon), and compares even worse to it. Blazing Weapon can only augment a melee weapon, not a ranged weapon like a gun, but it gives bonus dice equal to your legend, which you split up as you see fit. You can put +1 to accuracy and +1 to damage, and have at least 3 more dice to apply as you see fit. It also sets things on fire like Flamin' Bullets does.

Speaking of which, the vague "also allow it to light targets on fire" clause pisses me off too. It provides no rules, so you're completely at the whim of GM fiat as to whether or not you can ignite a person's clothes. I'm sure the authors thought that was best handled via Stunting, except they made this a level 4 boon - you have to be a Demigod to use Flamin' Bullets. The bonus dice given by stunts become laughable sometime mid demigod.

In short, Flamin' Bullets sucks. It does something the existing Fire 4 already does (it just changes the target from melee to ranged) but the new boon doesn't do it as well. Further, the two areas where guns could really have used improvement (damage and range) in the system aren't boosted (the former not significantly and the later not at all). While the Fire Purview could use more attack powers, what it really needed is a Hero-level attack boon. What's more, it's not fresh, and doesn't explore new design space at all - it just poorly mimics existing boons.

Flamin' Bullets would have been fine as a 3-dot Boon, but it's just nowhere near as powerful as the two very similar existing 4-dot boons.

Re-evisioning Arete

Rather than Arete, which is a very narrow Purview (that only exists as somewhat flavorless die-adder), I'd like to make a broader Greco-Roman Purview.

I'd like to see the things Arete does (excellence on a handful of focused skills, aka rerolls and or bonus dice) be just a couple (neither too weak nor too strong) boons within a larger Greek Pantheon Purview.

So, I'd stick some skill boosting boons in the lower stages. Probably 2 boons total.
One grants one free reroll per scene to a small number of Abilities.
The other grants +Legend Dice to those same skills.
I'd be tempted to call those levels 2 and 4, in the absence of a larger context.

Somewhere in the low levels I'd have a power that reveals the trophies of Titanspawn. This is something Scion's been needing for a while, and it jives with the notion of the Greek myths seeming to really emphasize the "use bits of the monsters later" theme.

Some level should involve little models of mortals, being placed upon a chessboard or miniature ampitheatre, since anyone who's seen a Ray Harryhausen film thinks of that when you mention Zeus. This would manipulate mortals or fate.

For that matter, a "View From Olympus" observational power or something that superimposes you as a giant transparent dude in the clouds could work.

Perhaps a Pandora's Box power somewhere in the high levels? We could then reveal that it's what Prometheus used to make cavemen everywhere discover fire simultaneously.

Pomegranites, Golden Apples - there could be a level about accursed fruit, though I don't yet know exactly what it would do.

Some sort of transformative power might work, too. This could represent both Circe's efforts at turning men to beasts, and Zeus's many non-human dalliances. (Zeus doesn't have Animal Avatar, since it's not one of his Favored purviews. That means he probably doesn't have Animal 10 either, so either he has Level 5 a whole bunch of times, or there's some other power at play).

For level 10, I'd be tempted to have it be Zeus's lightningbolts, or perhaps the power that locked the Titans in Tarterus in the first place, but both are possibly better handled elsewhere.

If there was some way to work Hubris and questing into this Purview as well, so much the better.

Other than being paragons of skills, what else do Greco-Roman gods and heroes have in common? What other cool powers could we work into boons and stick beneath the Dodekatheon banner?

Problematic Arete

Several attempts have been made in the past to revise Arete. All (that I've seen, anyway) simply change the nature of the dice pools. They still keep the concept of "Greeks are just better at Skills" and don't branch out at all. Me, I think giving bonuses to skills is pretty narrow design space, not truly worthy of 10 levels of a Pantheon Purview.

There's numerous criticisms that have come up about Arete. Note that this is an attempt to just list everything I've heard/read people complain about it, both in person and on the forums. I'm including them in the same barely-sensible order I used on the Forum, so that I don't get confused and refer to the wrong letters later.

Here's the short version:
A) Not as good as Epics, for around the same cost.
B) Yet way too good in the late campaign, especially Legend 12.
C) Too many dice to fit in your hand. Too many rerolls, too.
D) Better than Abilities.
E) Very cost-prohibitive.
F) Not as flavorful as other Pantheon's Purviews.
G) If you do buy it to a high level, you get called a munchkin/twink.
H) The first dot is rather weak compared to the first dot of anything else.
I) If it applies to DV, Greeks are unhittable.
J) The rerolls are pointless.

Here's the long version:

A) Not as good as Epics, for around the same cost. Until your Legend gets really high, there's little reason to buy it. Investing the XP in Epics will pay off better. Since my campaign uses "Legend Rating by Storyline" not by XP, this isn't really a problem with my group. They aren't rushing to keep Legend and one or two Epics maxed, so therefore they have time and XP available to spend on little things, like Arete. Even if they were focused on maxing something, they'd get the Epic topped out, and then have to wait till the next time I felt a Legend increase was justified. In that wait-time, they'd be tempted to spend XP on Arete to further max out their pools. But for those who require XP to raise Legend, Arete looks pretty crappy. (And for the record, I think that's just fall-out from the truism that compared to Epics, everything else looks crappy as heck.)

B) In the late God-stage campaign, when it's finally worth spending XP on it, Arete gives the Greeks a huge bonus. Obviously, I'm not at this hurdle yet, but I'm not sure how it'll feel when the one Greek PC in my campaign is rolling 16 to 46 more dice than anyone else at everything. Greeks get all the die-adders the other pantheons have access to, plus Arete on top of it. The only cost is XP, which limits it in the early game, but at Legend 12 it's a sudden pump method.

C) No one really wants to roll +46 bonus dice. Nor do they want to roll +20 or 30 extra dice and a stack of emergency rerolls. Truth be told, there's really no reason to ever hold back more than 1 or 2 rerolls. Still, a Legend 12 Greek Character using their primary schtick will be rolling at least 60 dice total, with one reroll set aside just in case. Since you can't really get more than 20 dice in your hands at once, that's roll and pick out the successes, roll and pick, roll and pick, add them up, decide it's not good enough so you reroll and pick, roll and pick, roll and pick. Yuck.

D) Compared to Abilities, Arete is actually really good. Increasing your overall die pool from 9 to 10 is cheaper if you do it by getting Arete 1 than if you do it by getting Ability 5. It typically takes less XP, and gives a bigger benefit for what you do spend. This is a pretty minor complaint, and it's completely obliviated if the PCs take Fast Learner / Star Pupil / Teaching Prodigy. But still, it's just enough to make certain other complaints (E, H, and J) feel like unwarranted whining. ...which they aren't.

E) Maintaining Arete in more than one or two Abilities is very cost-prohibitive. I actually see this as a balancing factor, since Arete is so powerful at high-legend and/or a Legend by Storyline campaign. Yet it seems to be the #1 complaint by players of Arete, at least on the Forums. It requires them to become narrow specialists, not just broadly amazing at everything. I think that reinforces the concepts of Greek myth, but some folks feel it fails to capture the "We're just better 'cause we're Roman" concept. I suspect that "we're better" statement has been made by every culture in history, but it's just more familiar to us thanks to the heritage of our civilization. Mentioning such doesn't dissuade anyone on the forums, though.

F) Other pantheons get cool powers that have flavor, whereas the Greeks just get dice. As I said, bonus dice is pretty uninteresting for 10 levels of anything. I also think that as far as dice-adders go, the current Arete does it in a pretty flavorless way. It's just "everytime you roll, add these dice" not something that allows for slightly rarer Heroic feats or truly memorable greatness. Even with 7 dots of Arete: Craft, you can't make a magic item, for example. Compare this to Animal 3 and Animal 5, or Tsukumo-Gami 3. All of those add dice to rolls, but do so in more interesting and flavorful ways. (Though, I'll admit, A3 and TG3 are broken. I've houseruled them in my campaign to solve that, limiting bonus dice by your Legend).

G) Arete is the one Purview that a player can't purchase to it's highest level without being insulted, at least on the Forum. For some reason, using an Avatar or Ultimate to rewrite the plot doesn't get you called a twink, but taking Arete above level 7 does. Using a mirror to talk to your followers via Heku 8 isn't twinkish, but rolling 60 dice (Arete 8 gives 29 dice, plus the 15-30 dice in most of your pools at Legend 9) is likely to unleash the verbal snipage. Sure, it being an impersonal forum makes that easier - but if people are saying that on the net, they must be thinking it when playing face-to-face.

H) The first dot of Arete is rather weak compared to the first dot of any other Pantheon Purview. You're not getting the same payout for your XP. Even original Jotunblut, which was frequently disparaged on the forums, gave you magic puppy dogs for the first dot, and brainwashing for the second! Compare that to +1 die on Animal Ken or Command, and it's clear which is best.

I) If applied to DV, Arete makes Greeks unhittable. The rules are a tiny bit unclear about whether or not it should apply to DV, and this causes big flaming fights on the forum. As I see it, the implication of the rules about bonus dice are that it should affect DV, though I can see why some would disagree (it's not spelled out terribly clearly and is lacking from the DV calculations of the sample PCs). As I said, if you do interpret it to apply to DV, it makes Greeks untouchable in combat somewhere mid-DemiGod (I'd say around 5 or 6 dots of Arete in Melee or Athletics).

J) The rerolls are pointless. This is no big deal, since Arete gives so much power just via the bonus dice. However, it's silly (and annoying to some) that the books mention you could have 23 rerolls with Arete 10. I can't really think of anything where 20 dice and 23 rerolls (so 0-40 successes, most likely a final result in the high teens to low 20s) is actually better than 66 dice (0-122 successes, but most likely a final result just over 30).

Turning my attention to Arete

Things that were on my to-do list:
1) Revise Jotunblut
2) Revise Prophecy
3) Revise Mystery
4) Figure out some way to make Magic cool again once the Companion brings us alternate boons for every Purview
5) Revise Arete before my campaign gets to the God level where it could break down
6) Minor tweaks to all Pantheon-specific purviews and special purviews so that they can all function under the same XP/purchase rules as All Purpose Purviews.

Obviously, 1-3 are dealt with. Not all are perfected, but they don't suck anymore, either. Minor tweaks may occur over time, but I don't need to do anything in the short term.

#4 is almost irrelevant. No PCs in my campaign have Magic, only NPCs, so the need to keep their powers "cool" is pretty minimal. Also, the Companion section with all the alternate boons won't release for over a month, so there's no point to working on it yet - for all I know, they may deal with it directly in the Companion and do the work for me. I'll hold off on it.

That means it's time for project #6: Arete.

I brought up the subject over at the Scion forums. Most people thought I was just trying to make a joke about how much Arete causes flamewars - there's a steady stream of faux insults going back and forth now. Someone actually got flamed for not being flaming enough. It's amusing, but not terribly useful. My own fault, that. I knew it would result in arguments, so I made a joke or two at the get-go, and now everyone takes it as a big laugh.

Alternate Mystery Purview (by Sidhe16)

As I said before, my intention was to make an alternate version of Mystery to compliment my alternate version of the Prophecy purview. However, it was low-priority for me, since I have no PCs or major NPCs with Mystery in my Scion campaign. So, I never really got past the brainstorming stage. Thankfully, Sidhe16 over at the forum picked up the ball and ran with it. While I'm not in 100% agreement about one or two of these boons, they at least form a framework against which I can make alternate boons if it ever becomes important. Plus, he really designed it to compliment/mirror my version of Prophecy, which is kinda cool and flattering. Anyhow, here's Sidhe16's version of Mystery, which has some pretty cool ideas (and boons)...

Uncanny Intuition
(Mystery o)
Dice Pool: None
Cost: None
Every session, the GM provides you with a minor small amount of enlightenment. This usually takes the form of the ST pointing out an item of interest that pertains to current or recent events, but not in an obvious way. The GM chooses what he wants to reveal, and it can range from trivial to vital, as he or she sees fit. It must apply to a current or previous scene. If by the ST has not yet provided such insight in the session, the player may request it, but may not demand a specific plot or topic for the insight to apply to.

Unnatural Insight
(Mystery oo)
Dice Pool: None
Cost: None
Your intuition and eye for abnormal detail give you greater information about any given situation. Whenever rolling Perception + Skill to notice something pertaining to that skill, you gain a bonus die equal to your highest level boon in this purview.

For example a Perception + Melee rolls might reveal to a normal Scion that his opponent is using a Shotokan Bo stance, the insight of this Scion grants him the conclusion that he studied under a teacher from the YMCA and never practiced against left-handed opponents. Perception + Investigation might tell other Scion that the battle site was a Scion against a fire giant due to the burning smell, while this Scion gains mysterious insight that the Scion actually lit a Formorian on fire using the fire purview.

This does not include join battle roll, rolls of reaction to the current such surprise, or boon knack activations.

Drawing Conclusions
(Mystery ooo)
Dice Pool: Perception + Awareness
Cost: 1 legend
The Scion is capable of truly unnaturally feats of insight. Upon entering a scene that is already in progress, he may take 3 seconds to attempt to conclude what has been occurring. Upon entering the scene, be it a combat already in progress, or a hopping club, the Scion spends a Legend and makes a Perception + Awareness roll against the highest legend of everyone previously in the scene. Success reveals to the Scion a brief, but detailed and accurate, replay of what has occurred for a number of minutes equal to the threshold successes prior to the Scions arrival.

Where a normal person would walk into a room full of giants standing around a phone and conclude they were waiting for a call from their evil Scion leader, this Scion would somehow conclude accurately that they just ordered a pizza and had argued over pepperoni verse sausage.

Post Cognition
(Mystery oooo)
Dice Pool: Perception + Investigation
Cost: 1 Willpower + ? Legend
The Fates themselves guide your intuitive process, gifting you with true post cognition. Upon entering a site the Scion can spend a willpower to relive something that occurred at the same site within one day per success on the activation roll. Use of this power costs one Legend per year in the past that the scene occurred, with a minimum of 1 legend.

Connect the Dot
(Mystery ooooo)
Dice Pool: Wits + Investigation
Cost: 1 Willpower
Gifted with flashes of insight, you may sense a particular target's connection to a specific targeted event, character, or object. Using this power costs a willpower and requires a number of successes on the activation roll equal to their legend plus a factor of connection of increase difficulty based on the distance of the connection. The target must be on line of site to attempt this.

For example tracing Loki's connection to some mysteriously knowledgeable man you met in a bar would have a difficulty of 12 (12+0) if Loki was the man, 13 if the man was one of Loki's Scions or servants ordered by Loki directly to feed you information, 14 if it is a servant of one of Loki's Scion given orders by his Scion who was given orders by Loki's Scion, 15 if that servant was given orders by the Scion without Loki's intervention but works with the overall plans given to the Scion by Loki. Basically every step of displacement increases the difficulty by 1.

Pull Back the Veil of the Unknown
(Mystery ooooo o)
Dice Pool: None
Cost: 3 legend
Legends of some creatures and their weaknesses are well known by even the average mortal movie watcher. Those that study the occult may even be able to separate truth from fiction. But none are as capable of putting it all together as a Scion with this level of power. With the expenditure of a point of willpower the player may ask for a specific statistic value or weakness of the target being. The storyteller must answer the question truthfully.

Unlocking the Greater Mysteries
(Mystery ooooo oo)
Dice Pool: None
Cost: None
The Scion has now been gifted with some of the greatest mysteries of the worlds. Upon purchasing this level of Mystery, the Scion chooses a single purview. From this point on all uses of that purview enjoy a number of bonus automatic successes to all rolls equal to the characters level of Mystery.

Mysteries of the World
(Mystery ooooo ooo)
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Presence
Cost: 1 legend / level of Mystery sent
The Scion's powers of mystery allow him to activate the power through another, granting them the same insight as he is able to obtain himself. The god spends the legend while watching his chosen target, who must be talking about, either with the god or another person, the topic that is the target of the Mystery power. The power is rolled as normal as if the target had attempted the roll, with all willpower and legend being provided by the god.

The god could for example lead a detective at a crime scene to the inspiration to track a minor immortal that is actually behind a murder that the mortal would never normally be able to connect. Or the god could even use this power to help guide his own Scion while watching his child via clairvoyance or some other means of sensing from a distance.

Distorting the Figures
(Mystery ooooo oooo)
Dice Pool: Wits + Stealth
Cost: 1 Willpower and 10 or 20 Legend
You have great understanding about the workings of the world. You've learned much about unlocking the worlds secrets, and in extension you've learned how to hide things as well. For the cost a willpower and 10 legend, this god can hide a place or object from fate. For 20 legend instead an event planned for the future can be hidden as well.

The target hidden from Fate has a bonus to its defenses against any fate using power by the result of the Wits + Stealth roll. Against powers that get no rolls, if defeat powers of lower levels automatically. Powers of equal or higher level only succeed if the user is of HIGHER legend than the hider. If the target uses legend, then its defense erodes any at the rate of 1 bonus defense die lost per legend spent. Do not forget about the requirements for maintaining one's Legend Rating. This protects its target predominately from the powers of Prophesy, Magic, and Mystery. Other powers may apply at the Story Teller's whim. While under the influence of the Wyrd, this power holds no protection.

If the being trying to Fatefully detect the hidden target fails to achieve the necessary number of successes their power simply fails. The person may or may not know they even failed. Failing to see something in the future, the prophet would never know, attempting a spell on someone you are looking at is a little more obvious that you failed, you just don’t know why you failed.

For Example: Loki is planning a coup against Odin and figures it would be best that no one get tipped off by Fate, so he enacts this power on his plans. Odin’s “Minor Visions” would not see the coup coming. If faced with a choice of two paths one of which would lead to Loki’s plan succeeding, and he used “Read the Signs” the power would act as if the number of successes were reduced by Loki’s activation roll.

If Loki wished to hide himself from Fate he could do that as well. Assume he rolled 40 successes for the activation. If in the future someone attempted to use mystery to look back 5 years to see his actions and they only rolled 20 successes, they would see the scene, but fail to see anything indicating Loki was there. If Odin attempted to use the spell Fateful Connection or Ariadne's Thread on Loki the difficulty to use such powers would increase by 40. However if Loki had to defend himself and used 20 legend in that scene to do so, his protection would reduce to 20 instead of 40.

Raising the Monolith
(Mystery ooooo ooooo)
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Academics
Cost: 1 Willpower and 5+ Legend
You have unlocked the greatest mysteries of existence, you post cognition is fine tuned well beyond the simple gathering of information from the past few days. You may now look upon an object, person, or site and see much of its history. You roll Intelligence + Academics against a difficulty equal to the target's Legend + the number of boons from the Chaos purview the target has. Every threshold success is one significant event you witness from the past of the target.
The cost of this power it 1 willpower and 5 legend for the first Legend Rating events for a number of events in the target’s past equal to your Legend Rating, an additional event for is seen for every additional legend spent. The god lives through the events as if he were that target, which makes this power somewhat risky if used on a very powerful or deranged target or on someone who has died violently or suffered great torture. The dangers are not to the god’s body, but rather to his mind. Anything that plays out the events is replayed upon the god. This could mean the rigors of brainwashing using the same number of successes would challenge the god’s mind as well as he relives the event. At the very least this should require an Intelligence + Integrity + Legend test against the Perception + Awareness + Legend + Number of Chaos boons of the target. If the god fails this he should escape the visions in a virtue extremity of the target’s greatest virtue, and will suffer personality twitches, becoming the target in personality, when faced with events similar to those experienced, the only known cure for this powerful of an affliction is Tranquility ( Moon 8 )

The God may declare how significant of events are played out, but gets only of that significance and greater from the target's point of view. He can't omit things he knows about the cut costs.
Note: Every use of an Ultimate Attribute or Avatar Boon by or on the target is a greatly significant event in the fate stream of that person's fate, and ALWAYS comes up in the stream. This understandably makes Gods very difficult to use this power on.
For example a legend 12 god could attempt to use this on Loki and declare that only events of life changing significance could would be seen. If said god rolled 50 successes, he would have 50-23=27 threshold successes. The power would cost 1 willpower and 5 legend for the most 12 most recent life altering events, the god could choose to spend 15 more legend and see the full 27 events. What these events are is up to the storyteller, and some may/should not make sense to the Scion. Continuing this example the god relives the moment Loki learned of the Feathered Cloak, the birth of Hel, the moment he learned of Garm’s fate, the moment he learned of the Midgard Serpent’s Fate, the moment he saw how the world changed since the dark ages (may not seem that significant to others), the moment he fell in love with a mortal woman (not the moment they met, may not even have been anything special, to the spying god it could be Loki looking across a boardroom table at a secretary typing), the last 5 times he became the void and the last 10 times he used Ultimate Manipulation, etc.

Jotunblut Revisited

Most of the following was written by Sidhe16 at the Scion forum, who had great ideas about how to fix Jotunblut. This new Jotunblut functions as do most Pantheon-Specific Purviews, and has the same costs and requirements. Elements of the blood-bonding version of Jotunblut remain, for those who liked that theme. However, the dominant paradigm of the Purview has been shifted towards being half-giant, and thus able to mingle amongst their kind.

I edited his boons to better fit my campaign. In particular, I reigned in the bonus health levels it grants, clearly spelled out that the boosts to Strength and Stamina were dice (not dots) and put a cap on those boosts. I also fine-tuned the "growing" powers. Gods can now stand eye-to-eye (or nearly so) with Jotunheimers, but are still dwarfed by Surtr and Sinmore.


Heroic Stature
Jotunblut Level 1
Dicepool: N/A
Cost: None
Even at this most basic level the blood of the Giant shines through. The young Aesir are larger than most men and typically stronger and tougher. Aesir Scions with the blood of the Giants showing through their veins may purchase their mundane Strength and Stamina to one dot higher than normally allowed by their Legend.

In addition, they gain a single additional -4 health level. The penalty on that level is reduced via Epic Stamina as per the normal rules.

After achieving Godhood, if the Aesir purchases an avatar, their avatar can support an additional level of epic strength and epic stamina beyond what should be possible at the legend of their avatar. However, no Avatar may have the full value that the Gods pure form does, so this only applies to 2-dot or higher Avatar manifestations.


Giant among Men
Jotunblut Level 2
Dicepool:
Cost:
Whenever the Aesir Scion rolls a die pool based on Strength or Stamina, he or she gains +1 bonus die to the roll. This die is also calculated into derived statistics, such as Soak, carrying capacity, alcohol consumption, and the Feats of Strength chart.



Form of the Giant
Jotunblut Level 3
Dicepool: Appearance + Fortitude
Cost: 1 willpower + 3 Legend
By channeling his Giant ichors into his body the Scion grows noticeable amount, becoming half again as tall, and his bulk increasing many fold. He makes a roll of Appearance + Fortitude and may distribute these successes as additional bonus dice on rolls of strength and stamina equal in total to the number of successes gained. However, neither attribute may gain more bonus dice than the Scion's Legend Rating. These bonuses last for a single scene unless the Scion chooses to dismiss the power early. Your clothing and carried equipment grows to match your stature, but this gives no further bonuses and they revert to normal if separated from you by more than a few seconds or meters.

The benefits of this power stack with Giant Among Men/Demigods/Gods. If you had all those boons, the maximum number of bonus dice would be 5+Legend.


Gift of Blood
Jotunblut Level 4
Dicepool: N/A
Cost: 1 Lethal and 1 Legend
The demigods blood is now potent enough to be used by others in the same manner as the heartblood of a true Jotun. By conducting a short blood-sharing ritual (speed 8 should it come up in combat) you may bind a mortal or beast to you. They become somewhat gruff and prone to foul moods, but they are steadfastly loyal. Such a bond must be renewed a few times a year.

This allows the demigod to boost his allies, as well as enthrall mortals. Such a bound individual gains a number of bonus dice they can add to Strength or Stamina equal to 1/2 your Legend Rating at the time of imbuement. The difficulty of any rolls to keep their cool and control their temper raises by 2. In combat, they fly into a berserk fury, though beyond the affects listed above, this is mostly a thing of flavor and description.


Giant among Demigods
Jotunblut Level 5
Dicepool: N/A
Cost: None
The bonus dice from Giant Among Men are increased to a total of +3 to all rolls (and derived stats) of Strength or Stamina.

In addition, they gain a single additional -0 health level. This is in addition to the -4 Health level granted by the first level of Jotunblut, which now likewise becomes a -0 level regardless of your Epic Stamina.


Hounds of War
Jotunblut Level 6
Dicepool: N/A
Cost: 1 willpower + 5 Legend + 1 Lethal
The Demigod's blood is now potent enough to cause great physical changes in beasts which fate doesn't really watch over, meaning animals without Legend.

By feeding his ichors to such a beast, the Demigod infuses it with Giant traits. It grows to clearly impossible size, gaining the Nemean template with a starting Legend of 2 and its creator's virtues in place of the dark virtues a Nemean would normally have. It is also bound to the Scion as per the Gift of Blood.



Form of the Jotun
Jotunblut Level 7
Dicepool: N/A
Cost: 2 Legend per Action
By allowing his Giant heritage to burst through, the demigod gains an even greater refinement to his body. In the few seconds of activating this power, the Demigod increases even more in size, easily tripling his or her height. Against man-sized foes, this functions much as a higher-ground bonus, raising his DV (since his vitals are harder to reach) and lowering the DV of targets he faces in combat.

This power lasts for as many actions as he can afford the cost. You may activate it reflexively at the same time as you activate Form of the Giant, and maintaining it is a reflexive expenditure as well. While at maximum size, you apply your bonus dice from Form of the Giant to both attributes, instead of having to split them between the two. When you stop paying the higher Legend, you may choose to revert to mere Giant size, or to your mortal dimensions.



The Gift of Battle Eternal
Jotunblut Level 8
Dicepool: N/A
Cost: 1 willpower + 5 Legend + 1 Lethal
The God's blood functions much like that of a Cyclops, not merely augmenting those who drink of it, but wholly transforming them. A mortal, or near-mortal such as an Einherjar, who drinks the God's Divine Ichors is transformed into a full blooded Legend 3 giant. The bonus dice given by Gift of Blood instead become permanent bonus dots of mundane Strength and Stamina, and the giants maximum for those traits can be taken as high as 5+Legend. In addition, they gain two dots in Epic Strength and Epic Stamina, plus 2 knacks for each. It gains 8 dots of Norse or Dark virtues (the God's choice), though none can be taken above their new Legend Rating. You may chose to penalize their Intelligence by 1 if you wish, but it is not necessary and only a cruel god would do so.

The default assumption is that they become a "normal" giant, such as a hill giant, with no additional powers. However, a God with access to other purviews may have additional options if they spend a little XP. An alternate level two boon may be taken in the Water, Frost, or Fire Purviews that, when used simultaneous with this power will wield an Ice or Fire Giant. Other purviews and giant types are up to the GM.

This change is permanent and generally irreversible. The Giant will be a loyal servant as long as he lives, and as long as he doesn't listen too closely to the seductive words of the Titans.

This power does not prevent you from using Gifts of the Blood normally to make berserker thralls instead of giants.


Giant among Gods
Jotunblut Level 9
Dicepool: N/A
Cost: None
The bonus dice from Giant Among Men are increased to a total of +5 to all rolls (and derived stats) of Strength or Stamina. In addition, they gain one more -0 health level, bringing the total gained from this purview to 3.

When creating your physical body from your ichor (regardless of whether it's via Avatar or the regular Godly method) you may choose to have it manifest at your mundane height, or up to 1 foot taller for an extra Legend. That's one foot total, not one foot per legend. Such a body has an additional -0 health level, ramping the bonus up to 4 health levels.

If you do so raise it, the taller body is used also to determine the height you grow to via Form of the Giant and Form of the Jotun, granting and extra +6 inches and +3 feet in those forms, respectively.


The Truth In The Blood
Jotunblut Level 10
Dicepool: As per other levels
Cost: As per other levels
The God may take on a stature nearly rivaling that of the Jotun side of the family. When using Form of the Jotun, he may grow up to 10 times his normal size. Doing so follows the same rules and restrictions as that power, however instead of granting bonus dice, it grants bonus successes to both Strength and Stamina up to the lesser of your Legend Rating or the total on your Appearance + Fortitude roll. The higher ground benefits now extend when fighting against things the size of a "normal" giant or even something as large as a full-grown bull elephant.

In addition, your blood has the ability to break down bonds created by Eitr or Jotunblut, and return to human sized those who were made into Giants or Nemeans by means of Jotunblut (but not those who were born as such). Doing so costs the same as whatever level you are counteracting. If you use your blood to bond someone to you, they gain a bonus equivalent to 3 dots of Loyalty, and do not suffer the usual penalties to Intelligence or rolls to remain calm.

Lastly, The Truth In The Blood gives you one more health level, and allows you access to the second health level from Giant Among Gods regardless of your size, bringing the total maximum health bonus via this purview to +5 health levels all the time, all of the -0 variety.

The Jotunblut Problem

In Scion, Jotunblut (the Norse Pantheon-Specific Purview) puts all it's power in the first two dots - you can make mortals and beasts do your bidding. Thereafter, instead of branching out, the power meekly increments the dice pools of your new Followers. The scale at which it does so is genuinely inferior to most other Purviews - instead of scaling up like Arete or Epics, it just adds one die to one stat on the NPCs per level.

Since none of those dice affect Dexterity, blooded mortals become all but useless in combat by Demigod level. Since those you bond become crazed berserkers with nasty tempers, they cease being useful outside of combat well before that.

Furthermore, this blood-bonding power isn't terribly well themed for Norse myths. There's not a lot (or, honestly, any that I can think of off the top of my head) of tales of the Aesir using their blood to enslave men. Whereas Heku involves numerous notions from Egyptian folklore, and Arete captures the spirit of the Greco ideals of perfection, Jotunblut is in a league with Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Myth.

For all of the above reasons, I feel an alternate version of Jotunblut is necessary. Supposedly, one will release in Scion: Ragnarok, but that book doesn't even have a release date yet (and every Scion product thus far has missed it's release date two or more times). My campaign needs a solution now, not 4-6 months down the road. Conveniently, I'm not the only person to have that thought.

Alternate Prophecy Purview

I just posted 10 new boons for the Prophecy Purview in Scion. For campaigns using this version, Prophecy moves from being a Special Purview to being an All-Purpose Purview, and uses the cost and progression rules for APPs. The existing powers (and dice) presented in the Scion: Hero rulebook are NOT used in conjunction with these boons, which totally replace that system (except for the Avatar level).

The new boons are:

1. Minor Visions
2. Danger Sense
3. Search For A Sign
4. Lateral Prognostication
5. Foretelling The Messiah
6. Forespeak Destruction
7. Friend or Foe
8. Voice of Fate
9. Negative Prophecy
   
10. It's A Wonderful Life
11. The Wyrd (The Avatar level given in Scion: God by White Wolf)

Those interested in the rationales behind this change should click here and here. These boons would not be possible without a great deal of brainstorming and feedback by people at the Scion forums - thanks, guys - and, of course, the framework and ubercoolness provided by White Wolf Publishing.
EDIT: This is now also available at the White Wolf Wiki. You can see all the boons on one screen here by clicking on the Prophecy (Scion) label.

Minor Visions (Prophecy 1)

Minor Visions
(Prophecy o)
Dice Pool: None
Cost: None
Every session, the GM provides you with a minor Vision. This can take the form of a dream or meditation, or just an insight given you. The GM choses what he wants to reveal, and it can range from trivial to vital, as he or she sees fit. It must apply to a future (not the current) scene. If by the end of a session the GM has not given you a Minor Vision, you may prompt them for one and they must deliver. Minor Visions prove truthful and accurate unless a being with a Legend Rating takes actions to thwart or prevent it.

Danger Sense (Prophecy 2)

Danger Sense
(Prophecy oo)
Dice Pool: None
Cost: None
Your intuition and second sight give you warnings when you are in dangerous situations. Whenever rolling to Join Battle, you may roll bonus dice equal to the level rating of your highest Prophecy boon. The same bonus applies when rolling Perception + Awareness to detect an unexpected attack. While mechanical traps such as covered pits and poisoned needles are exceedingly rare in Scion, these bonus dice would be applied to attempts to avoid those, as well.

Search For A Sign (Prophecy 3)

Search For A Sign
(Prophecy ooo)
Dice Pool: Perception + Occult
Cost: 1 legend
By consulting tarot, star charts, runestones, or other divinatory tools, you may determine the better of two possible courses of action. Doing so takes 10 minutes of focus. You name two possible approaches to the situation at hand, and then roll Perception + Occult. Record the number of successes you score.

The GM decides which of those two paths is most suitable to his or her campaign plans, and tells you that the stars/cards/runes favor that path. Every success becomes a bonus die that is set aside. You may use those dice on any action while on that path, up to a number of dice equal to your Legend rating on any given roll. Doing so is reflexive, and involves no effort or involvement on the part of your character. Each bonus die may only be used once, then it goes away. You may even use the dice to augment rolls made by other characters, but you cannot expend more dice than your legend on any one tick.

Should the players for some reason decide to follow the other path instead, the successes become bonus dice the GM can use to boost villains and obstacles that stand against the PCs. Should the two options the player presented have only trivial cosmetic differences, the GM can apply the dice to both - the players get one pool of bonus dice to the things they are doing, but an equal pool of obstacle dice is reserved to apply anytime they step even just a bit outside the narrow path they created. Far better to pick two methods that are dynamically opposed, so that the penalty dice can only be invoked if you stray afar from the better path.

To prevent potential abuse, a few additional restrictions govern the use of this power. First, bonus dice can never be used in the same scene that the power is activated - they apply only to future scenes. Secondly, activating the power again wastes/eliminates any remaining dice from previous uses, and dice from this power cannot be used on future activations of this power. Lastly, all bonus dice go away at the end of the story.

Lateral Prognostication (Prophecy 4)

Lateral Prognostication
(Prophecy oooo)
Dice Pool: None
Cost: 1 Willpower
The Fates themselves guide your intuitive process, gifting you with precognitive vision and great ability to "think outside the box." You may spend a willpower to request from the GM a vision pertaining to a specific upcoming challenge or plot point that has you stymied. This boon stomps all over traditional mystery plotlines, by providing access to breaks that no mortal detective could ever reasonably expect to receive. However, it does nothing to protect against short-term deceptions. It is rare that the methods prompted by these visions involve doing things within the current scene - generally this power puts you on a path to solving things tomorrow or at least a few hours from now.

The vision so granted comes in the format of "If you do A, the result will be B". The GM has a lot of leeway in what to slot into that statement, and it can involve some very overt "coincidence" or even obvious manipulation by the Fates themselves.

To reap the benefit of B, the PC must do A. The only real restrictions are that "A" must be something the PC is capable of doing, and "B" must be must be beneficial to the PC, and must consist of new data/leads. You can't just confirm things the player likely already figured out. The point of this power is to provide new avenues for information gathering, and ways for players to sidestep impasses and mental obstacles.

For example, if your PC is trying to battle an epidemic, this boon might reveal "If you go to park at 9 am tomorrow, the man in a red hat will hold the key to the cure." The GM has plenty of latitude there. The man in the red hat could be a powerful supernatural who is spreading the infection. He could be the poor accursed mortal whose hubris provoked a god to unleash the disease. Or he could be an otherwise normal human with a random genetic immunity, the existence of which could enable a Science or Medicine roll to create a vaccine. Such a vision provides a lead that the PCs never would have gotten to via logic or mundane detective work, but still requires some efforts on their part to get the full reward.

Foretelling The Messiah (Prophecy 5)

Foretelling The Messiah
(Prophecy ooooo)
Dice Pool: None
Cost: 1 Willpower and 1 or more Legend.
Gifted with flashes of insight, you may predict that a particular PC or NPC holds the solution to the problem at hand. Making such a declaration costs 1 Willpower point, and any number of Legend points up to a limit equal to your Legend Rating. This insight comes to you in a (Speed: 5) vision - while the player chooses who will fulfill the role of the prophecy, the character does not (they see it as Fate itself having chosen).

In a later scene this same story, the player of the prophecied character may announce that they are attempting to fulfill your prophecy with their current action. Any stunts they perform on that action add auto-successes instead of dice. In addition, if they expend a legendary deed on that action, it grants successes equal to their Legend Rating (as normal) plus one success for every point of legend you spent while activating this Boon. This bonus affects a maximum of one roll, and that roll cannot be made in the same scene in which this power is activated.

You may only name one person to be your messiah at a time. Using the power again immediately ends the effects of all previous activations. You may name yourself as the messiah, but doing so increases the cost of this power by 3 extra legend points. Regardless of whether or not you ever name yourself messiah, you may not indicate the same character in back-to-back messianic prophecies. Someone else must have used the bonus before you can give it to the same person a second time.

Forspeak Destruction (Prophecy 6)

Forespeak Destruction
(Prophecy ooooo o)
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult
Cost: 1 willpower
By looking into the future, you may learn a person's fatal flaw, the tragic destiny that will be their undoing. By spending 5 ticks gazing at a person, you learn their Legend rating, and their greatest Virtue or Dark Virtue (or multiple of the same if they have several rated at the same level) along with the effects of the related virtue extremity. Armed with this information, you may predict what will be their undoing. This itself costs nothing, and involves no die roll. Those come in when you actually tell them the horrible fate you foresaw.

For creatures with Virtues or Dark Virtues, the answer is that they will fall victim to the dark side of their strongest virtue. If their legend is less than yours, you may roll Manipulation + Occult (they contest via Willpower+Integrity+Legend), if you succeed, you gain the ability to force that extremity upon them at any time (from any distance) by spending a willpower. You may do so immediately, and/or wait till later. You may do so no more than once per day. Note that if you personalize the destruction you announce (such as "your rapacity will cause you to gorge yourself to death eating your own children"), it will probably score you stunt dice on the roll.

For victims who lack virtues (and have Legend less than yours), you may predict any terrible fate of your wishing, provided that it's something the GM deems befitting of that person's Legend Rating. You thereafter gain the ability to spend a willpower to make them flee or cower in terror. For victims without a Legend Rating, you may choose that they die in a totally mundane way, such as a car crash or a virus, or even in some humiliating fashion, such as an accident during autoerotic asphyxiation.

For those of equal or greater legend than yourself, your pronouncement increases the chance of that flaw impacting them. If you succeed on the contested roll, they lose the ability spend willpower to suppress that Virtue. Instead, they must roll against it whenever attempting to override the virtue. For those of equal legend, this penalty lasts for one month, for those of greater legend it lasts but a scene.

The effects of this boon may also be canceled by a variety of mind-affecting powers, including Moon 7, Prophecy 9, Justice 9, or any of several different Avatar/Ultimate level powers.

Friend Or Foe (Prophecy 7)

Friend or Foe
(Prophecy ooooo oo)
Dice Pool: Typically none, but sometimes Perception + Empathy
Cost: 3 legend (though sometimes 20 legend plus a willpower)
When you first meet someone, a montage of key moments from your future interactions with them cascade before your eyes. This means that when you first see a person, you can know immediately whether they are destined to be a friend or a foe. This three-tick action costs 3 legend to activate, and succeeds automatically, if done in the scene where you first meet the NPC. It can only be done once per NPC.

The GM then must choose whether your fate is to be friends or foes. If destined to be a friend, you gain bonus (successes equal to your Legend) on all Charisma and Appearance rolls directed at that person, though only for positive interactions. (In order to knowingly take a harmful action against you, they must roll dice equal to your Legend, and score no successes.) If instead they are destined to be an enemy, both parties gain bonus dice on all harmful actions against each other equal to their respective Legend ratings. These effects last forever. As potent as such bonuses may be, they are insignificant compared to the benefit of knowing without a doubt whether or not you can trust someone.

If used later than the introduction, such as when talking with an NPC you'd met in a previous scene or story, the visions are not as pure or objective. In such a case, the cost is increased to 20 legend and a point of willpower, and you must roll Perception + Empathy vs a difficulty of (5 times their Legend). The difficulty increases by 10 if they have even a single level of the Chaos or Magic Purviews. If they have both, the penalty increases to +15 total. Failure on your roll prevents you from using this power on them again for one year.

Altering an NPCs friend/foe status is extremely difficult, something to rival the greatest Herculean task, though it could be sped up considerably by The Wyrd or Ultimate Charisma. Note also that while this power will no doubt color your first impression, and dictate the final fate between two characters, nothing mechanically prevents a Friend from betraying you for a good cause, or keeps you from making a truce with a Foe. But doing so would be a waste of good bonus dice, and probably require exceptional circumstances.

Voice Of Fate (Prophecy 8)

Voice of Fate
(Prophecy ooooo ooo)
Dice Pool: Typically none, but sometimes Intelligence + Occult
Cost: 1 legend / level of Prophecy sent
Following the example set by the Fates, you've learned to delegate. You may pass your visions on to your own mortal oracles. Whenever you use Prophecy, you may choose to pass it on to one of your followers instead of gaining the benefits yourself. You still roll, and make any decisions involving the activation, but your chosen oracle sees with your eyes and speaks with your voice. Combined with the Hear Prayers knack, you can selectively send the visions only to those who pray for them, but there's nothing that stops you from inflicting prophecy on those who don't want it.

When you send a prophecy to a Follower or worshiper (or your own child) you use the normal activation cost of the boon being sent, plus extra legend points equal to the level of the boon being transmitted. The range of this power is unlimited, you can even send visions to an oracle on another plane of existence. The only Prophecy boons you can't send are this one, the avatar level, and the tenth level boon. Once you have used it on a worshiper in at least 3 different scenes, you also gain the ability to communicate to them for one legend per sentence, similar to a long-range version of the Telepathy knack.

For those who are not allied to you, you may force Prophecy upon them, as Apollo did to Kassandra. This requires a roll of your Intelligence + Occult vs their Willpower + Integrity + Legend, in addition to the costs listed for followers. If you fail the roll, the prophecy cannot be sent to them (though all costs must still be paid).

Negative Prophecy (Prophecy 9)

Negative Prophecy
(Prophecy ooooo oooo)
Dice Pool: None
Cost: 1 Willpower and 15 Legend
As a speed 5 action, you can declare that something "shall not come to pass" and the power of fate will back up your prophecy. As with foretelling the Messiah, the character is not choosing the thing that will not happen, the fates are. However, the player of the character gets to choose the restriction, rather than leaving it up to the GM.

Anyone who attempts to work against your negative prophecy will find the difficulty of all rolls they make (to that end) raised significantly. Legendless mortals just fail automatically. Hero-level Scions and most Titanspawn find their difficulties raised by +10 for even the most mundane tasks opposing this prophecy. Demigods and lesser immortals face +5 difficulty. Gods and the Avatars of the Titans face +1 difficulty. Such penalties do not stack, not even if spoken by multiple goddesses of fate.

Note that this power only allows for banning events/outcomes, it cannot force events to occur. The GM is free to deny any use of this power that he or she feels is contradicts this clause, though they should ask the player to rephrase to something that more specifically pinpoints that which it seeks to ban. For example, you could say "McCain will not become President" but you couldn't say "Obama will become President". Any number of reasons could prevent McCain from being sworn in: Obama or Clinton could win, McCain could win but abdicate to his running mate for a variety of reasons, or (in a world as epic as that depicted in Scion) the US government could fall apart before the election.