Double-dipping - Can't wear Armor and Vow

[Anders]

I'm doing a bronze-age celtic campaign where characters can possibly have Sidhe blood. That means they can have Spearman's Invulnerability - if you take off all your clothes, paint yourself blue and run screaming at the enemy your sheer belief that you're invulnerable will protect you*. Naturally you can't wear armor, although a bronze torc is acceptable.

Do I model this with DR (Can't Wear Armor) or Vow (can't wear armor) and DR (Pact)? Or both? Or is there some nifty combination I haven't thought of?

*DR 6. However, they must make a Will roll for it to take effect, and everytime that damage does get through they must make a new Will roll or it disappears and they are SOOL.

[Humabout]

How about this:

Spearman's Invulnerability (15 points) - You gain DR 6 against all attacks so long as you believe yourself to be invulnerable. This requires a 1 minute ritual in which you strip naked and paint yourself blue. A bronze torque is permitted, but this offers no protection while using Spearman's Invulnerability. At the end of this ceremony, you must make a Will roll. On a success, you believe yourself to be invincible and enjoy DR 6 until you put clothes on again or don armor.

Should you sustain any injury while using Spearman's Invulnerability, you must immediately make an immediate Will roll to continue believing yourself to be invulnerable. On a success, you keep your DR; on a failure, your belief is shattered and Spearman's Invulnerability ends - you must undergo the 1 minute ritual again if you wish to reactivate it. A successful Hidden Lore (Faeries), Theology (Celtic), or Occultism-2 roll reveals this weakness to an enemy.

Statistics: DR 6 (Cannot Wear Armor, -40%; Link, +10%; Preparation Required, 1 minute to paint self blue, -20%; Requires Will Roll, -5%; Terminal Condition, Skill reveals weakness, (Resistible (Uses Will Instead, -10%), -23%), -8%) [11] + Nictitating Membrane 6 (Link, +10%; Preparation Required, 1 minute to paint self blue, -20%; Requires Will Roll, -5%; Terminal Condition, Skill reveals weakness, (Resistible (Uses Will Instead, -10%), -23%), -8%) [4].

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The Terminal Condition is limited by a limited limitation to represent that if the terminal condition occurs (getting injured) it is resisted with a Will roll. I inverted the sign of the modifiers since it didn't make sense for Resistible to be more of a limitation because it used Will instead of HT.

If you want the Will roll to resist the Terminal Condition to be based on the amount of injury sustained or the basic damage the penetrates DR, I'd just call it a special effect and be done with the wonky bits. As it is, rolling against unmodified Will can be pretty easy to succeed, though, hence the point reduction.

[lexington]

I would do Vow and Pact. Cannot Wear Armor means (IMO) that you can't put on armor if you wanted to because the GM will stop you. Vow and Pact means you can but lose the effects of your natural DR if you do.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by lexington

I would do Vow and Pact. Cannot Wear Armor means (IMO) that you can't put on armor if you wanted to because the GM will stop you.

The text of the limitation in Basic says, "cannot or will not" (italics mine), leaving both possibilities open. However, I do agree that the Vow and Pact are a better fit for this concept, it not being a Supers world where CWA and the Nonprotective Clothing Perk seem particularly appropriate.

[Humabout]

Well, perhaps we need a little more information regarding just how the OP sees this working. Is the lack of armor a requisite because the person must be naked (and therefore cannot wear armor) and blue to believe himself to be invincible, or does the wearer's nakedness empower his DR, and therefore not wearing armor in combat becomes the price of a mystical pact?

[Anders]

The power will not activate unless the character is naked. That sounds like Vow and Pact, doesn't it?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

The power will not activate unless the character is naked. That sounds like Vow and Pact, doesn't it?

No, it sounds like a highly limited power. Probably:
DR 6 (cannot wear armor, -40%; or anything else, -5%; requires a will roll -10%; preparation required: 1 minute, -20%; device required: woad, -5%) [6]

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

The power will not activate unless the character is naked. That sounds like Vow and Pact, doesn't it?

I'd go with CWA for that one. And don't forget to include levels of nictitating membrane so the person's eyes are protected, too. I think I'd go with what I suggested above, personally, but ymmv

[Anders]

Thank you all. Meditate upon this I shall.

[Gudiomen]

Yet another way to look at it is "being naked" as a Trigger, which is -10% for a Very Common condition. This "readies" the DR for one minute use, so you'll have to add terminal conditions.

DR 6 (Trigger, Being Naked, -10%; Requires Will Roll, -5%; Terminal Condition: Not Being Naked, -10%; Terminal Condition: Failing a Will Roll After Taking Damage, -10%) [20]

So... being naked triggers your DR, as long as you make a Will roll, but if you put any clothes on, or fail a will roll after taking damage, you loose your DR immediately.

More sensibly, this is just Accessibility, instead of Trigger. I don't think Pact is a good idea, there's no vows, and you can freely opt to wear clothes or armor, you just can't get the DR while doing that. As accessibility, it's also -10%, but you don't need and can't take the terminal condition of not being naked, as it's already implicit in the Accessiblity. Trigger also has the problem that it only lasts 1 minute, which is enough for most individual or small scale melees, but won't be enough for battles.