List Of your favorite Custom Perks

[Celti]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

I did a quick search for this and didn't see it. This is a Magical Perk, possibly useful as a perk for a Magical Style. I didn't see it in Magical Styles, either, when I was making a character who could use it.

Improved Counterspelling
The mage can use the Counterspell and Ward spells against any spell from any college he knows at least 6 spells from, even if he doesn't know the spell being cast.

The idea is that after six spells, the mage has a solid grasp of the basics of the college that he can produce effects that counter spells he doesn't know.

So, thoughts?

I'd remove the "must know six spells" and just make the perk be specialised by College. He's trained in counterspelling that college of magic.

Edit: Alternatively, make "six spells from college X" be the prerequisite to purchase Improved Counterspell (X). But I would definitely make the perk be specialised by College.

[ArchonShiva]

Pockets full of snacks

Can reliably produce an apple, biscuit or piece of jerky.

[CoyoteGestalt]

Specialized Fluency: You have Accented spoken fluency in a language, or Accented literacy, or Broken spoken fluency and literacy, but only for communicating about a single, specialized subject area. This perk is suitable for students and scholars who learn enough of a foreign language to communicate about their academic specialty, but not for daily functions. It can also represent, for example, mercenaries and adventurers who learn to operate foreign-made (or alien!) equipment but don't know the language as used outside of weapons manuals, clerics who only know the liturgical components of a language, or linguists learning a dead language from very limited sources. (This last can be relevant when they later meet up with time- or world-jumpers who learned the language normally!)

An alternative version of this perk could be added to existing Broken fluency to increase your fluency and literacy to Accented within your specialty, or perhaps to allow either Broken literacy or Broken fluency within your specialty in two closely related languages.


Obviously, this is only a meaningful perk if the character is at some point going to need to interact with people who do speak the rest of the language! If everyone in the world has only ever known as much as you do, then you probably need to buy the language at full price, since you don't face a meaningful limitation in the context of the game.

[ericthered]

Accustomed to Blood:

You are experienced with the innards of the human body, and do not take fright checks from mere gore or medical conditions.

[johndallman]

National Familiarity

This is a bit like Cross-Trained (PU2, p16), in that it's a bundle of familiarities, but rather than applying to a single skill, their uniting feature is a nation. You are familiar with the specific ways skills are used within a nation, and its other characteristic pieces of behaviour. This makes it far easier to masquerade as a native, given appropriate language, accent and cultural familiarity. You won't give yourself away by using cutlery like a foreigner, looking the wrong way when crossing the road, cooking or cleaning in a foreign style, failing to recognise road signs or police ranks, or any of the numberless ways of "acting foreign".

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by CoyoteGestalt

Specialized Fluency: You have Accented spoken fluency in a language, or Accented literacy, or Broken spoken fluency and literacy, but only for communicating about a single, specialized subject area.

I once got a GM to charge a language that wouldn't be used in the campaign outside of characters the PC brought in as a perk. So I bought Romani and another player bought french. The campaign was to take place completely with english speakers.

[CoyoteGestalt]

Knight in Shiny Armour
Your primary suit of armor does not soil or rust when traveling, and is not visibly dented, scratched, or stained by combat. (This does not preserve its integrity as armor, only its cosmetic appearance; the GM may still require you to perform maintenance to prevent its combat benefits from degrading over time.)
You receive an appearance-based reaction bonus of +1 when performing proper knightly deeds (fighting on the tourney field, slaying dragons, etc.) while wearing your full armor.

(This is effectively a combination of two schticks, "Looks Good in Uniform" before the invention of uniforms, plus "Sartorial Integrity" limited to a single outfit; the double effect is balanced by armor being inconvenient in most social situations, and the appearance bonus mostly only applying in combat situations where it is often irrelevant to the PC - the dragon probably doesn't care if you're pretty, and you probably can't wear armor to the royal ball afterwards.)

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by johndallman

National Familiarity

This is a bit like Cross-Trained (PU2, p16), in that it's a bundle of familiarities, but rather than applying to a single skill, their uniting feature is a nation. You are familiar with the specific ways skills are used within a nation, and its other characteristic pieces of behaviour. This makes it far easier to masquerade as a native, given appropriate language, accent and cultural familiarity. You won't give yourself away by using cutlery like a foreigner, looking the wrong way when crossing the road, cooking or cleaning in a foreign style, failing to recognise road signs or police ranks, or any of the numberless ways of "acting foreign".

That sounds like stuff that would be covered by Cultural Familiarity.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by The Benj

That sounds like stuff that would be covered by Cultural Familiarity.

It's more detailed than that. Passing as an American, if you're British, requires using cutlery quite differently, among many other things. Yet the two countries share a CF by most reckonings.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by johndallman

It's more detailed than that. Passing as an American, if you're British, requires using cutlery quite differently, among many other things. Yet the two countries share a CF by most reckonings.

I've seen fellow Americans switch hands and others not switch hands for cutlery. Nearly all noticeable differences are vocal/written, not behavioral.

Personally, I never put sharp objects in my right hand for more than a split second. It's stabbed me a few times, so I literally don't trust righty when I'm not focussed on "him".