12-09-2018, 04:15 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2015
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New perks part 2 - combat perks
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) The first time you suffer damage in a combat (or a similar crisis situation), you gain one extra fp that can only be used for Extra Effort. You only gain fp for the first injury during a given fight/crisis situation unless the perk is taken multiple times, in which case each instance needs a separate hit to trigger. The points gained are lost at the end of the situation if not used. Backstab (Physical) When attacking someone from behind with a thrusting attack or a close-up shot (no more than 2 yards away), as long as they're unaware of the attack a successful hit automatically does maximum damage. Battle Cry (Mental) When you utter your battle cry, enemies facing you must roll Will with the reverse of morale check modifiers as a modifier. Any who fail will have -2 on their next attack against you and -1 to defend against your next attack. Those who succeed are unaffected. A battle cry can only be used once per combat. Blood in the Water (Physical) You get +1 to attack when attacking an opponent that already has a fresh wound (inflicted by you or someone else). This bonus applies to all melee attacks and any ranged attacks made from close enough to see the injury. Casual Defense (type) (Physical) Choose a specific active defense when taking the perk. As long as your defense roll succeeds by 2 or more, you can make the defense look completely effortless - e.g. you dodge just by leaning a little to the side or nonchalantly stepping out of the way. If you succeed by 4 or more, you can make the defense so smooth that any observers need to make a Per roll at a penalty equal to your margin of success to tell you defended at all; if the roll fails it just looks to them like the attacker missed completely. Corpse Kill (Physical) After you successfully incapacitate a foe in combat (stunning isn't enough), you get to make an additional attack against them as a free action. This attack must be done on the same or following turn. Cornered Rat (Mental) When you fail a Fright Check in a combat situation, you can choose to go berserk (as per the disadvantage) instead of the normal short-term effects of the fright check. Long-term effects (e.g. new disadvantages) affect you normally. Deadeye (Mental) You can continue getting a cumulative +1 bonus for one more turn of aiming than most people. Duelist (form) (Mental) Choose the form of duel when taking the perk, e.g. fencing, pistols, Old West showdown, etc. When fighting a formal duel of your chosen type you get +1 to effective Speed for the purpose of determining initiative, and +1 to one other kind of roll appropriate for the type of duel; e.g. a sword duelist could have a bonus to Feint, while an Old West duelist might have a bonus to Fast-Draw. These bonuses do not apply in spontaneous fights, only actual duels. Additionally, if you have fighting-impairing non-physical disadvantages such as Combat Paralysis, they don't apply when fighting a formal duel of the chosen sort. Gun Jinx (Mental, Supernatural) Whenever a weapon with a Malf number is used against you, its Malf is treated as 1 lower. Inspiring Defeat (Mental) (only available if the Impulse Buys rules are in play) After losing a serious fight to a worthy adversary, the next time you face him you have an extra temporary impulse point to spend during it; the point is lost at the end of the fight if not spent. These points may not be used for anything not associated with the fight. 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) In a combat sequence, you act before people who have the same Basic Speed, and win speed/initiative contests that would otherwise be ties. If both sides have the perk, they cancel out. Just a Little Stronger (Physical) Any contest of Strength vs. Strength or Slam that would otherwise be a tie becomes a win for you. If both sides have the perk, they cancel out. Last Ditch (Physical) You get +1 to all rolls related to avoiding harm (active defenses, etc.) when you're at 0 hp or below, as long as you're still in the same fight or other emergency situation that the wound that brought you to 0 or below was received in. This perk may not be taken if you have an advantage that removes the normal consequences of being at 0 hp or below, such as Supernatural Durability. Last Legs (Physical) When you would fall unconscious you may take a point of long-term fatigue to remain conscious for 1d turns, during which you can still act. Wound penalties still affect you normally. Once this duration runs out, it cannot be extended further with this perk. Last Stand (Physical) You get +1 to all active defenses when fighting against a numerically or otherwise superior force in a position where fleeing is either impossible or not a reasonable option. You can also declare a last stand if you had an opportunity to flee but choose not to use it; however, if you do and later choose to attempt to flee, you lose the bonus and the opponent gets one attack that you cannot defend against. Meatshields (Social) When your NPC underlings or servants are fighting to defend you in combat, they get +1 to all active defenses. This only applies when you are present but not engaged in melee yourself. Only established underlings (e.g. Allies with an appropriate sort of relationship) get this bonus, and it only ever applies to NPCs (to keep other players from getting easy bonuses just by declaring themselves your servants). Melee Empathy (Mental) When you get hit by an opponent's melee attack, parry one, or have your own attack parried, you can try an IQ roll. On a success, you learn their current attitude towards you (e.g. are they angry with you, do they respect you or hold you in contempt, do they intend to kill you or not, etc.) You can try again each time the trigger condition occurs until you succeed; after a success, you learn no further information until the opponent's mental state changes significantly. Painless (body part) (Physical) You have High Pain Threshold for one small part of your body, e.g. only one hand. Pull Together (Physical) After taking damage, you can take a Ready maneuver to heal a single point of injury in exchange for taking a point of long term fatigue. This must be done within a minute of suffering the damage, and you may not use the perk again until you receive more injury. Schtick: Blade-Biter You can carry a weapon weighing no more than 1/10 your Basic Lift in your mouth with no risk of dropping it or hurting yourself with it; obviously, you can't use your mouth for other purposes (such as speaking) when doing this. If you have the appropriate Fast-Draw skill for the weapon you can grab it from your mouth as easily as you would from a sheath. The GM may veto using this perk for weapons for which holding them in the mouth would be implausible due to shape or other properties. Schtick: Gangsta Grip You're able to hold a gun sideways (or upside down, or in some other unusual manner - choose when taking the perk) and still attack with it without penalties. Using the grip may merit a +1 on Intimidation or Streetwise when dealing with people who think it looks "cool". It may also be useful for taking people who assume your grip is a sign of lack of skill by surprise. Schtick: Pin-Pulling Teeth You can pull a grenade's pin reliably with your teeth, without risk of failure or dental damage; this allows quick arming of the grenade when the other hand is occupied. Schtick: Ring Knuckles If you are wearing at least two hefty metal rings (or one especially heavy one, or four light ones) on a hand, you can punch with it as if you were wearing brass knuckles. Schtick: Unorthodox Reload (method) You can load ammunition in an uncommon manner as quickly and reliably as if you were doing it normally; e.g. drop a bolt hidden in your sleeve into a crossbow's groove, spit a bullet held in your mouth into a sling's cradle, or kick up a leg to slip a magazine tucked in a boot into place. This can be useful for keeping a reload ready without using up a free hand or for surprising people who thought you had no ammo. Each reload method is a separate perk. Spray and Pray (Mental) Your stray shots get -2 to their effective attack skill against any targets you would rather not see hit, such as allies or innocent bystanders; this also reduces stray shots' maximum effective skill from 9 to 7. Stonewall (Physical) You are hard to knock down. Any knockback you receive from attacks is reduced by 1, when receiving (but not when performing) a Slam your opponent's damage is reduced by 1 per die, and you get +1 to rolls to avoid falling down after a hit (e.g. DX rolls after being knocked back, or rolls to resist a Sweep.) If you move faster than walking pace, you lose these benefits until your next turn. Trick Joint (Physical) You get a +3 to Break Free attempts or Escape rolls against grapples or bonds applied to a particular limb, as well as to rolls to resist joint locks placed on that limb. Choose the limb when taking the perk. Turtle Up (Physical) When using the All-Out Defense maneuver, as long as you do not move you get an additional +1 to Parry and Block (but not Dodge.) The bonus is lost if you move from your position (even just a Step) or get knocked back. |
12-09-2018, 04:51 AM | #2 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: New perks part 2 - combat perks
This is Too Good for TL6-8. It allows you to kill people automatically with rifle shots to the skull or vitals.
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
12-09-2018, 04:55 AM | #3 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: New perks part 2 - combat perks
This is close to Controllable Disadvantage (Berserk), which is specifically banned (Power-Ups 2, p. 12).
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The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques. |
12-09-2018, 05:37 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Madrid, Spain
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Re: New perks part 2 - combat perks
Thanks for sharing! I like very much Adrenal Surge. I think I will steal it for my DF campaign. I think also Backstab is much too good as it doubles the damage for a very low cost.
In DF, in order to give them a more "tactical" approach I would add most of them the following sentence "As an extra effort option, costing 1PF you can....". You know, DF is about making desitions and paying with scarce resources... :)
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"Imagination is more important than knowledge" Albert Einstein |
12-09-2018, 05:44 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Wellington, NZ
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Re: New perks part 2 - combat perks
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The 2+ death checks from ST13+ people with spears, polearms, and large (and/or high-quality) swords is also too good for one point, IMO. I can't imagine my players not taking it for every vaguely combative character, and that right there says 'too good'.
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Rupert Boleyn "A pessimist is an optimist with a sense of history." |
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12-09-2018, 09:10 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Tokyo, Japan
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Re: New perks part 2 - combat perks
I enjoined reading these perks a lot. Thanks for posting them.
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12-09-2018, 11:04 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: New perks part 2 - combat perks
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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?
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12-09-2018, 12:12 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: New perks part 2 - combat perks
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12-09-2018, 04:06 PM | #9 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Bristol
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Re: New perks part 2 - combat perks
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This should require a prerequisite Recovery Last Legs (Physical) When you would fall unconscious you may take a point of long-term fatigue to remain conscious for 1d turns, during which you can still act. Wound penalties still affect you normally. Once this duration runs out, it cannot be extended further with this perk. There are similar combat modifers like this. Sensitivity or Style Familiarity (police training, soldier training, dojo etc...) Melee Empathy (Mental) When you get hit by an opponent's melee attack, parry one, or have your own attack parried, you can try an IQ roll. On a success, you learn their current attitude towards you (e.g. are they angry with you, do they respect you or hold you in contempt, do they intend to kill you or not, etc.) You can try again each time the trigger condition occurs until you succeed; after a success, you learn no further information until the opponent's mental state changes significantly. This could be done like DR on X location with the corresponding modifier applied to High Pain Threshold. Painless (body part) (Physical) You have High Pain Threshold for one small part of your body, e.g. only one hand. There is already as similar perk for using min ST weapons at above your own ST. Schtick: Blade-Biter You can carry a weapon weighing no more than 1/10 your Basic Lift in your mouth with no risk of dropping it or hurting yourself with it; obviously, you can't use your mouth for other purposes (such as speaking) when doing this. If you have the appropriate Fast-Draw skill for the weapon you can grab it from your mouth as easily as you would from a sheath. The GM may veto using this perk for weapons for which holding them in the mouth would be implausible due to shape or other properties. Not sure because rings are not as robost as Brass Knuckles. Schtick: Ring Knuckles If you are wearing at least two hefty metal rings (or one especially heavy one, or four light ones) on a hand, you can punch with it as if you were wearing brass knuckles. Similar to Immovable Stance Stonewall (Physical) You are hard to knock down. Any knockback you receive from attacks is reduced by 1, when receiving (but not when performing) a Slam your opponent's damage is reduced by 1 per die, and you get +1 to rolls to avoid falling down after a hit (e.g. DX rolls after being knocked back, or rolls to resist a Sweep.) If you move faster than walking pace, you lose these benefits until your next turn. Similar to Escape Trick Joint (Physical) You get a +3 to Break Free attempts or Escape rolls against grapples or bonds applied to a particular limb, as well as to rolls to resist joint locks placed on that limb. Choose the limb when taking the perk. |
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12-09-2018, 06:43 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Denmark
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Re: New perks part 2 - combat perks
I really enjoyed reading these. A lot of them had a lot of flair to them.
Some of them are too good for perks. but can easily be made more balanced while keeping the intention of the perk: Backstab. As others pointed out is way too good and doesn't fit GURPS abilities. To emphasize the name I would instead suggest. "When making thrust attack from behind you may ignore up to -2 to-hit penalty from locations". This would encourage making attacks to the Vitals or Chinks in the targets armour. I deliberately say 'thrust' to avoid people simply using the perk to swing at the skull. Battle cry is too vague. How long a range does it affect? How many? does it matter how long there is until "their next attack" or "next defence"? Say it's an attack action. Say they get a bonus to Will of +1 per y (so it's effectively only a few yards). And say it's not "until next" but just "next turn". Blood in the Water As others have said. That quickly becomes +1 against almost anyone. That's too good. Instead make it more specific. Blood in the water suggest a sort of blood frenzy. So it could be "you gain +1 to hit if making an all-out attack against a wounded target". It fits the perk name but is not really that good. Corpse kill No. An extra free attack is way too good. And if people have super powers or similar, that extra attack could be an AOE attack that hit others. Maybe instead let it boost attacks against prone enemies, or set some harsher restrictions on the attack. For instance "If making an All-Out attack against an incapacitated foe, you may gain the benefit of two of the options (strong, determined, double)". Last Stand. The restrictions are too vague. To make it more restrictive only give the bonus as long as you do not make a Retreating defense. Meatshields. This one is way too powerful for a perk. And makes little sense in regards to the name. Instead let the perk boost peoples active defense by +1, but only when people make a sacrificial dodge for you (see p.375). Stonewall. Again too good. Instead simply say your ST count as +2 higher for the purpose of resisting knockback or slams. you gain some of the same benefit but without being unbalanced. The rest I would have no problems with. And I am definitely going to steal some of them. :) |
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