Alternatives to Dependancy: Mana

[Bruno]

All the fae races in DF have Constant Dependancy mana. In mana levels above "none", fae characters notice no effect, and in No Mana areas they take 1 hp per minute starting 60 seconds after exposure and continuing until they escape. This knocks -25 points off of all the fae templates.

For pixies, especially, this means that most of the time mana doesn't matter, until they hit a no-mana area and then they're incapacitated with a major wound, and are at risk of death. This makes me, as a GM, extremely reluctant to use no-mana areas if a game involves pixies - but with all fae races there's the pressure to include no mana zones, or that expensive disad is just a pile of free points.

And on the other end of things, there's the weirdness that a Weakness to No Mana areas (a Rare environment) does 1d upon exposure and then 1d per minute, is only worth -10 points but is much more dangerous.

On the other hand, I like the idea of the fae races being mana sensitive, and would like do keep working with the concept.

Some options I'm tossing around are disadvantages or attribute penalties with Accessability (Only in Mana levels below X), possibly combined with an option to buy Mitigator on the disadvantages (or even the original Dependancy) allowing the a fae to use a Power Item as a "reserve" of mana to stave off penalties or damage.

On the flip side of the equation, I would allow all fae races to buy (as Power Ups) one or more of a set of advantages with Accessability (Only in Mana levels above X) - Fit or Very Fit, Attribute bonuses, Energy Reserve, etc.