Steve Jackson Games Forums - Detect Sin power or soell

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Detect Sin power or soell

I am wondering how you would use a spell or power like Detect Sin in a DF game. I am thinking that this power could be used by demons or evil clerics to identify bad disadvantages in PCs like Sadism, Bully, Sloth, Gluttony and Lecherous to use it against them. Maybe if a demon or evil cleric knows that a PC is lecherous then he may gate in a succubus to weaken him. Or if the PC is an addict or alcoholic he can tempt him with drugs and alcohol. Or maybe the demon can feign weakness and attempt to control the mind of a PC with Weakness or Sadism. I am sort of interested in how to play such a power in a game. Thanks.

Re: Detect Sin power or soell

How do you cast a soell? ;-)

Re: Detect Sin power or soell

It all depends on what the detector wants. Does he want to corrupt his victim, or is he trying to kill his opponent and bathe in their blood? The first is far more interesting, but gets very dark very quickly, and isn't really what I think of in a DF game... though it might work for an imp familiar trying to corrupt its "master".

In either case, the advantage works best when coupled with time to setup a temptation. An adventurer may be lecherous, but if the demon discovers that in the midst of combat it probably doesn't matter much. So ideally the detector either lives in town/some other social arena, or they can see the adventurer's coming and rapidly prepare.

Re: Detect Sin power or soell

Could also be used by good priests in a "this is what you need to work on" fashion.

Re: Detect Sin power or soell

Some of Douglas Cole's excellent Nordlond material includes a type of demon with a take on this idea. The demonic falleglygi ("beautiful lie") from Citadel at Nordvorn tries to take advantage of a character's weaknesses: "The demon uses Mind-Search and Mind-Reading to learn their foes' exploitable disadvantages." It's an interesting implementation of a demon that preys on a victim's weakness.

The psychology skill also reveals exploitable disadvantages, so a creature might have a power based on that. (Or just a high skill level.)

Re: Detect Sin power or soell

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dalin (Post 2398778)

I do hope folks take advantage of the broader nature of the demon and the exploitation of weaknesses than just a boink-bot, too.

Re: Detect Sin power or soell

Here is some Kromm gold that you can retool for this purpose:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kromm (Post 1017153)

Well, this is based on the 30-point version of Detect. You can break it down from there:

Detect (Gifts and foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [75] gives you the lot.

Detect (Mental gifts and foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [50] gives you IQ, Will, Per, skills and techniques based on these, mental advantages and disadvantages, etc.
Detect (Physical gifts and foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [50] gives you ST, DX, HT, HP, FP, Basic Speed, Basic Move, skills and techniques based on these, physical advantages and disadvantages, etc.
Detect (Social gifts and foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [50] gives you Cultural Familiarities, Languages, social advantages and disadvantages, etc. Since there's less stuff here, I'd toss in any "mental" or "physical" trait that helps social functioning, like Appearance, Smooth Operator, or Streetwise skill.

Detect (Mental gifts; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with positive point values.
Detect (Mental foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with negative point values.
Detect (Physical gifts; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with positive point values.
Detect (Physical foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with negative point values.
Detect (Social gifts; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with positive point values.
Detect (Social foibles; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [25]. As above, but only stuff with negative point values.

Detect (One very specific trait of any kind; Analyzing, +100%; Cosmic, +50%) [13]. Pretty specialized, and probably not worth the points in many cases, but would give you just IQ, or Will, or HT, or Status, or whatever else you want.

There's lots of room to quibble about category size and composition: Is a Language mental or social? How about Per? Can I shoehorn in "mental disadvantages" between "mental foibles" and "Bad Temper"? The important thing is the price spectrum: 75/50/25/13. Really, you could interpolate if you wanted . . . there's no magical reason not to allow 15- or 25-point levels of Detect, in which case you'd get 75/63/50/38/25/13.

it's not DF specific... no sure of your wggle room there.

Re: Detect Sin power or soell

I wrote up an ability like this called Soul Sight in Pyramid #3/99: Death and Beyond, p. 4. It's for GURPS, of course, but it could be a good start.

Re: Detect Sin power or soell

Quote:

Originally Posted by DouglasCole (Post 2398779)

I do hope folks take advantage of the broader nature of the demon and the exploitation of weaknesses than just a boink-bot, too.

Thus far in my Nordlond game, we've had plenty of interaction with falleglygi who have been far more frightening than a mere boink-bot. I've got devious plans brewing for an upcoming session.

Re: Detect Sin power or soell

While mulling this over, I noticed that the Weaken Will spell doesn't affect disadvantages with a control roll. This made me wonder if there are any canonical abilities that reduce the odds of resisting your mental disads.