Rules Help

[Jason]

Quick rules question:

One of my players would like to make an angel who could lift a car. Any advice on how to make that happen?

My initial response was that this is not naturally possible, even with "superhuman" Strength (9+, if I remember from the core rules). Even superhuman strength only barely raises damage from punches, and I'd imagine anybody with the strength to lift a car could easily kill with a single punch. If "ability to kill with a single punch" is any kind of indicator of "ability to lift a car," then, I thought it might make sense to suggest that the character take the Corporeal Song of Might, or a variant thereof (which specifically affects lifting ability over punching ability).

It also occurred to me that this might be worth looking at as simply a hefty penalty on a Strength roll, like a -6 or more. Then superhumanly strong angels could indeed lift a car on an unmodified roll, or could spend just a few Essence to improve their chances. This could also explain the proverbial "mother lifting a car to rescue a child" phenomenon (spending all Essence at once to boost her Strength roll and negate the penalty).

Any thoughts?

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Jason

If "ability to kill with a single punch" is any kind of indicator of "ability to lift a car..."

In In Nomine, it's not. This is a movie-like world in terms of physical reality and one that favors armed melee above all other comabt options. Just because you can lift a bank robber's Ford doesn't mean your punch to the jaw will do more than knock him out ... if that.

I had an NPC demon with Strength 12. I had no problem with him lifting a man-sized chunk of marble and chucking it at a combatant or three. This isn't GUPRS, so a lot of the effects of "fantastic strength" sre going to be a GM's judgment call rather than a strict real-world estimation of effects.

As far as your last point -- yes, the mother burning Essence to boost her Strenght and lift a car is the classic example of an ordinary mortal using an Essence explosion under stress.

[Acolyte]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

As far as your last point -- yes, the mother burning Essence to boost her Strength and lift a car is the classic example of an ordinary mortal using an Essence explosion under stress.

Or the classic example of a Kyriotate in action, especially since those stories are often accompanied by a black-out or "I don't even remember doing it"-type memory loss.

But as to the original question...

One of my players would like to make an angel who could lift a car. Any advice on how to make that happen?

My answer: in the coolest way possible. In Nomine is less about a Mythbusters comparison of lethal punch force vs. dead lifting force and more about playing superhuman idealists. A Strength roll at a penalty seems like a great way to go (-6 or -4 is probably appropriate -- this might necessitate Essence expenditure, in which case, don't forget the supernatural FX that accompany celestials using Essence to boost TNs).