New perks part 2 - combat perks

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Bicorn

I got some very useful criticism for my previous batch of perks, so here's some more. This time, focusing on combat perks.

Adrenal Surge (Physical)
This one seems fine to me - for comparison you can have either an extra FP all the time for 3, or have a point of DR that means the first point of damage in every hit costs you anything (as opposed to convert one of your hp to a point of fp)

Backstab (Physical)
Maximum damage is a *lot*, and sets a bad precedent. Lots of situations involve being unaware. You wouldn't allow a perk to claim maximum damage all the time against things that don't have any awareness in the first place would you? Maybe an extra point of damage or something, but not maximum.

Battle Cry (Mental)
Doesn't seem unbalanced, but note there are already skills (Kiai and Intimidation) in the same general vicinity. Is there a good reason to have yet another mechanic for this?

Blood in the Water (Physical)
A +1 to multiple skills with Accessibility (only on wounded people)? That's worth quite a bit more than 1 point.

Casual Defense (type) (Physical)
Sure. It's colorful but has no game mechanical utility - a perfectly valid Shtick.

Corpse Kill (Physical)
Restricted to a foe who has actually *died* and hence really is a corpse, no problem. But for one who is just "incapacitated"? Yes you could usually automatically kill a defenseless victim in a second or two, but in combat saving a couple seconds to finish off an opponent matters a lot.

Cornered Rat (Mental)
No.
RAW Berserk is a meta-trait with enough built in advantages that it's not balanced if you get to control when it triggers (i.e. get to minimize it's admittedly pretty nasty drawback of insanely attacking everything by only doing that when it isn't going to be a really bad idea).
If it has Berserk as a prerequisite - i.e. a character already has Berserk and wants to flip out on a failed Fright Check in addition to when injured, maybe. I'm still a little wary of the voluntary part, but it might be tolerable then.

Deadeye (Mental)
As a simplification of the Gun-Fu perk of the same name? I'd probably allow that.

Duelist (form) (Mental)
The first part OK. Shutting off disadvantages in a duel, probably not. Not Disadvantaged (Accessibility: only in a duel) is generally not that cheap.

Gun Jinx (Mental, Supernatural)
For skilled shooters (i.e. anybody with effective skill pushing up against the weapon Malf) this is effectively a -1 to hit you. That's a pretty substantial bonus. Maybe it should apply to any gun you are using too? And you probably need to be a little more explicit about has a Malf value, the optional rule is after *all* firearms have one, it just overlaps Critical Failures for the higher TL ones.

Inspiring Defeat (Mental)
With some schemes of handing out Impulse Points that's fine. If you are normally charging a full character point for them, 1 point for one you could claim multiple times seems pretty generous - but then you do have to lose a fight first. If your players are the sort who are often let defeated opponents live, so it could theoretically happen to them too, then I'd probably allow it even then.

Insult to Injury (Mental)

After successfully scoring a hit on an opponent, you get +2 to your next use of Rapier Wit or Acid Wit against them. For the bonus to count, the hit must have had some degree of effect (even a single point of damage, or equivalent, is enough) and the bonus needs to be used within two turns after the hit.

Just a Little Quicker (Physical)
Sure. The official version to add 1 to speed for determining order of action is called Blinding Strike (from DF Swashbucklers)

Just a Little Stronger (Physical)
Sure. On a tie, you win is always a pretty reasonable perk for any sort of tie.

Last Ditch (Physical)
Definitely overpowered, but avoiding PC deaths is often intentionally underpriced. It's not likely to be a problem - who is going to get themselves reduced to less than 0 *on purpose* to get a bonus? Just don't let players talk you into using it as a precedent for getting +1 to all rolls to do something *else*, see Daredevil for that.

Last Legs (Physical)
This is a fairly generous return rate, 1d turns for 1 FT. You are going to fall unconscious in a couple seconds *anyway*, so it's not like there's any point in saving FT for later uses.

Last Stand (Physical)
Not really restricted enough to justify the low cost. Compare to Enhanced Defenses (all) with an accessibility limitation.

Meatshields (Social)
You inspire your underlings to defend *themselves* better by not joining in the fight yourself? Probably not abusive, but I'm not seeing the logic here.

Melee Empathy (Mental)
Bit of a bargain relative to stuff like Empathy or Mindreading, but effectively a pure roleplaying tool, so I'd allow it.

Painless (body part) (Physical)
If you are pretty strict about "small part". It might be more consistent to do this with the rules for Partial DR - Notionally hands are -4 to hit, so Partial defense would be a -40% for both, or -80% for 1, which would work out to [2] for one hand HPT.

Pull Together (Physical)
OK. It allows you to turn a point of Extra Fatigue into a (fast healing) Extra Hit Point, but then you pay 4 for Extra FP plus the perk vs 2 for an Extra HP. Fair enough.

Schtick: Blade-Biter
Schtick: Gangsta Grip
Schtick: Pin-Pulling Teeth
Schtick: Ring Knuckles
Schtick: Unorthodox Reload (method)

These all seem OK.

Spray and Pray (Mental)
Fine. A weaker version of No Friendly Fire.

Stonewall (Physical)
No. It feels like it's intruding on the Immovable Stance skill or Sumo. And providing you with a potentially unlimited amount of DR (only vs slams) is way too generous - even DR 1 (only vs. Slams) is probably too much for a perk, and a Slam attack is likely to be several dice even for normal sized opponents, so 1 per die is a *lot*

Trick Joint (Physical)
Again I'd prefer to do this with the Partial rule for DR. The base advantage here being Slippery.

Turtle Up (Physical)
I guess. Though since you'd lose the Retreat bonus, would anybody want this?