[DF] Devil power help
 

In my Mythic DF world I have both demons and devils. Demons are the more generic evils of the infernal region while devils are Abrahamic in origin. So while the more generic demons desire to kill and plunder the devils often enjoy tempting and subverting God's Creation in addition to general mayhem. The devils were once angels that chose evil instead of good and so for this reason they are able to influence others to choose evil as well. The powers that devils have are to be able to find out the weaknesses that a PC has such as as Greed, Bloodlust, Pride, etc. and then deceive the PC with lies to make the PC act out in a way that their Disadvantage comes into play.

Here is an example: A Wizard and a Knight encounter a devil in a dungeon. The devil sizes up that the Wizard has the Greed Disadvantage and from this information the devil comes up with a lie where he says to the Wizard during combat that the Knight has stolen some gems and jewels from the Wizard. The Wizard must make Will roll from his Will with overcoming Greed which might be say 12. I feel that Resistance to Evil powers would apply to the roll if the Wizard had it. If the Wizard fails his Will roll then he will become obsessed with the fact that the the Knight has stolen his treasure and will try to retrieve his treasure during the fight with the devil.

If the Wizard had Berserk or Bloodlust then the Wizard might very well begin attacking the Knight out of rage that his property was stolen.

I am guessing that this power of devils would be a form of mind control but it would also target the Disadvantages that a PC has. A devil could tell a PC with Alcoholism that there is ale in a barrel in another room and then the PC would have to make a Will roll based on his Disadvantage Will of Alcoholism to resist stopping combat to go and drink ale. The devil could also create ale for the PC to drink and then the PC would have to resist or stop combat and drink the ale.

So I am curious about how to set up a power like this for devils. Thanks for your help.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

First off he'll need some form of Detect with Analyze, or maybe an enhanced form of Mind Probe, to "peek" at the PCs' mental disadvantages. Manipulating them may simply be a matter of Fast Talk used to trigger those flaws (getting a SC roll to control it), though it sounds like he can force the PCs to do things they wouldn't do even on a failed roll. If that's the case he will need a type of Mind Control, limited so it can only force actions that correspond to the target's disadvantages. However, they may have a penalty to resist this Mind Control based on the severity of the disadvantage (much as Cowardice gives an increasing Fright Check penalty for each SC number.)

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

That is what I want. I would like the devil to be able to scare a person with Cowardice and that person would have to make a Will roll based on his Will with Cowardice factored in. If he fails then he is a coward and retreats leaving his fellow dungeon delvers to fend for themselves.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

Are they PCs? If not, don't bother with actual builds of their abilities because you don't need price. Just say that they can learn character disadvantages (maybe on IQ roll or Per roll and/or when they are actually triggered) and just hit them with Fast-Talk or plain Will roll or QC.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

"Gaze Into The Abyss" / "Perceive the Mortal Weakness"

Detect ("Sin") (Common)
Modifiers: Analyzing, +100%; Reflexive, +40%; Power Modifier, -10%; Sense-Based (Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch, Vision), -0%

"And The Abyss Gazes Into You" / "Wicked Graceful Whispers"

Affliction 1
Modifiers: Based on Will, +20%; Malediction (Speed/Range Table), +150%; Variable Disadvantage (up to -30), +300%; Accessibility (Only to afflict disadvantages the target already has), -20%; Power Modifier, -10%; Sense-Based (Hearing), -20%

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

You are right, they are not PCs. So I will just have the devils be able to find out what sorts of "sins" (Disadvantages) a PC has and then use them against them.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

Yup, pretty much what I was thinking. I am curious where you get the "Variable Disadvantage" thing from - is it in Powers, or maybe PU4? I was thinking it would require something clunky with Modular Abilities (Only for Afflicting Mental Disadvantages target already has) or something, but it's nice to see a more elegant approach*.
*...for a more civilized time

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

Variable Enhancement (sidebar, Power-Ups 4: Enhancements, pg 5), yep. Its' technically able to do any enhancement up to +30% (as we've paid +300% for it), but as we'd only use it for Disadvantages it is cleaner to say it that way.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

Here is another idea for a devil power: Blasphemy- a devil with utters forth a vile statement that causes a holy cleric or holy warrior to take physical damage and also have the same amount of penalty for using holy spells or holy powers.

For example: A devil fighting against a cleric utters forth a wicked and vile defamation of the cleric's faith. The devil's Blasphemy power is at 21 while the cleric's faith (Will + Power Investiture) is 17. There is a contest of skills with the devil succeeding by 11 and the cleric by 4, this means that the cleric takes 7 points of physical damage from the utterance and the cleric is at -7 skill to use both clerical spells and holy powers until a Bless spell is cast to remove the Blasphemy. It can also be removed by time in prayer as well.

This Blasphemy works against non holy PCs but it only causes physical damage to them and does not affect magical spells or other non holy powers.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

I like this. Good work.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

Another effect you could have his to lower the CR of the disadvantage by three for a failed will roll, effective only vs. the devil, in addition to forcing the will rolls.

I also think that -20% is a cheap price for "only affects advantages the target already has". sure, lots of the characters will have disadvantages, but having the right one can be kind of iffy.

I mean, looking at the "Iconic characters" in the back of basic, C31R07 has "humble", which is going to be really hard to use, Dai has "overconfidence", which will also be hard, D'Antares has gambling and overconfidence, which are a little more workable, but gambling will take time. Headly has ... almost nothing, Iotha has only jealousy, which has no CR, Sora looks safe, xing has gluttony, which is... workable with time. The Baron is an idea target, but he's a vampire, what did you expect?

As a final rundown, of the iconic characters, three have nothing to target, one has the "flaw" humble, two have flaws that will take time, two have flaws that require a nice set up (overconfidence), and one is a nice target.

I would bump up the discount quite a bit. You are extremely limited in who you can target and how you can target them.

If you want this to be effective during combat you will want mind control. Of course, if I were to use it (and I very well may) I would likely give the devils some ability to tempt outside of combat, either by being invisible or impersonating mortals.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

A -20% Accessibility means that it works between 44% and 56% of the time. Out of eight iconic characters, it can't hit three. 3 immune out of 8 possible targets means it works 62.5% of the time. As such, -20% is too high and so it should be a -15% limitation instead. (Powers, pg 99)

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

In my game, the PC's came across some succubus. They were tempted but didn't die. What they didn't know is that they caught A STD (Sexually Transmitted Deviancy), which would have them do bad things at the most inappropriate times...

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

Very nice. Nitpick: I'd make the cap on the Variable Disadvantage -38 instead of -30, so that even [-15*] Disadvantages could have their Self Control numbers reduced to autofail for 2.5x cost.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

Ahhh..... So being humble is a sin and thematically appropriate for a devil to manipulate? good to know.

If the affliction could hit 50% of the characters with everything it had, I'd agree. As it stands right now, It limited not only in who it can target, but what it can target them with. meaning right now its priced as an affliction that hits 50% of people with 30 points of disadvantage all the time.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

As I recall, GURPS Horror has Only Human Weakness listed as a -30% accessibility limitation on Empathy. That could probably be ported over to Mind Reading or Mind Probe, for devils that can learn specific sins.

Blasphemy just sounds like an innate attack with a linked affliction.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

I have another idea that is sort of the Black Magic rule for all of the PCs. The Devil is active in my campaign and likes to tempt the PCs with powers and other enticements. The Devil wants the souls of men and having man choose evil makes things much better. So the Devil will likely offer assistance to PCs in their time of need for a small price of course. The PC will gain some power or make a die roll or be able to escape some danger in exchange for a very small part of his soul. This might add a black point like on black magic rules. When the PC has enough black points then the soul of the PC belongs to the Devil and the PC is out of the players control.

For instance, a PC is cornered by a Peshkali demon and it seems as if his dungeon delving days are over until a voice whispers to him that PC could escape for a small price.... Well, the PC agrees to the voice and as the Peshkali closes in on the PC the dungeon door opens and a bunch of orcs file into the room causing the Peshkali to turn around and attack the intruders. While the Peshkali and orcs settle their dispute there is time for the PC to make an escape and he does so but in the process he picks up a black point. The PC now knows that when there is trouble, there is friend who can help him...

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

You could use it to raise the self control number for 'good' disadvantages. I think.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

It can be, yes. Depends on the how and why of it.

Its' not limited in who it can target. It is limited in what it can target them with. It can only afflict disadvantages that the target already has.

Its' priced as an affliction that can hit anyone but can only do things to about half of the characters it hits.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

An interesting idea. I'm not such a fan of having "Dark Side Points" simply turn the PC into an evil NPC. Instead, it's much more interesting to make the player play an "evil" PC, by gradually giving him malicious mental maladies - er, I mean Disadvantages. The Corruption rules from Horror work like this, and could be tweaked to fit. That's also basically how Black Magic works too; at no point does the player lose the PC, he just gets saddled with additional disadvantages. At some point the GM and player may agree to let the PC go, at which point he becomes an NPC and the player makes a new character. But I wouldn't want to remove that choice from the player.

Re: [DF] Devil power help
 

You might look up the corruption system in GURPS Horror. It provides a rather nice approach to gradually changing a person's personality until they are consumed by an idiology. It shouldn't be difficult to adapt, since you coudl base corruption costs on a percentage of the equivalent advantage granted by the devil (or negated disadvantage, should that be the nature of the devil's help).