Severe disadvantage + very easy mitigator?

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by beevr

In short, the character is being stalked by a demon. If the demon gets his way with the character, the victim gets 100 points worth of mental disadvantages - all sorts of hallucinations, delusions, etc. But keeping the demon away is rather easy. The character has to pray for 1d6 x 10 minutes every 12 hours.

That's an average of over an hour, daily, which is kind of a lot of time. Also, if the demon knows about this, what's stopping it from just getting somebody else to tie him up and gag him or something?

[beevr]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

That's an average of over an hour, daily, which is kind of a lot of time.

Yes. This is about as much as Disciplines of Faith or Vow limitations would require a Chi-based character to invest to keep his superpowers, if I'm not mistaken.

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Also, if the demon knows about this, what's stopping it from just getting somebody else to tie him up and gag him or something?

The metaphysics of the setting. Driving the character insane is pretty much the only way the demon can communicate with the physical world. This is not The Devils Lawyer or Hellraiser type of demon.

[cosmicfish]

Just as an observation, the few times I have had something like this (a severe disadvantage with a "very easy" mitigator) proposed by a player I have told them some version of this:

Every game I run has at least some smart bad guys. The bigger the disadvantage, the more they will want to exploit it. You, as the player, have to expect that at some point any disadvantage will kick in, no matter the mitigation - there is no secret so deep, no mitigation so foolproof, that eventually it will not be exploited. So before you commit to this, are you going to be okay when some bad guy finally keeps you from your prayers and the demon takes you?

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

Just as an observation, the few times I have had something like this (a severe disadvantage with a "very easy" mitigator) proposed by a player I have told them some version of this:

Every game I run has at least some smart bad guys. The bigger the disadvantage, the more they will want to exploit it. You, as the player, have to expect that at some point any disadvantage will kick in, no matter the mitigation - there is no secret so deep, no mitigation so foolproof, that eventually it will not be exploited. So before you commit to this, are you going to be okay when some bad guy finally keeps you from your prayers and the demon takes you?

This is a very good point. I used to allow heaps of disads during CharGen, figuring it made "cool" characters. Then we found that we could actually roleplay all of those crippling disads at one time, and I got tired of it. So now, I just cap Disads at 40, and if I want more powerful characters, I allow more points

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by beevr

If that matters, the campaign is supposed to be 'gritty super' power level. And all advantages are limited to TL10 Bio-Tech.

This seems incompatible with demonic curses. Maybe the character should just have a Delusion and Disciplines of Faith.

[beevr]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

This seems incompatible with demonic curses. Maybe the character should just have a Delusion and Disciplines of Faith.

I meant player advantages, sorry for being unclear. But you have a very interesting take.

The trick is, the character will suffer from Phantom Voices, Flashbacks, Chronic Pain, if he fails ot follow the Disciplines. How would you describe/price that?

[Walrus]

I'd start with Maintenance. Possible skills required are Meditation for the character, Religious Ritual for assistants and, in the case of actual possession, Exorcism to restore him. It has explicit price for 1 hour skilled task twice a day to begin with as well.

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by beevr

I have a character idea, and I'd appreciate if you could share your views on appropriate point costs and other game balance issues that it might entail.

My instinct is to call this an Enemy disadvantage. Figure out how often the character will not be able to keep up his prayer regimen and use that to determine the frequency of appearance. The prayer regimen itself is a separate disadvantage. Maybe the two could be linked, but I'm not sure linking disadvantages is legal.

[Ashtagon]

In effect, what you have is the Disciplines of Faith disadvantage. Because realistically, if the penalty is triggered, the player is almost certainly going to want a new character, and leave this one as an NPC until he is somehow cured off-camera.

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

In effect, what you have is the Disciplines of Faith disadvantage

Agreed, but only if getting back on the prayer regimen reverses the damage, much like a Pact limitation [B113].

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

Because realistically, if the penalty is triggered, the player is almost certainly going to want a new character, and leave this one as an NPC until he is somehow cured off-camera.

Normally, failing to adhere to a Disciplines of Faith by itself results in a loss of earned character points for that adventure. If the penalty is significantly more than that, then a second disadvantage is called for.