NWod Mass Effect/Archetype Merits
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Archetype Merits
Each archetype outlines the split of 6 Archetype Merit dots, but the exact choices of how those are spent is up to the player. There are three types of Archetype Merit, Biotics, Tech and Training. The split of how each archetype can assign them is as follows:
Adept: 6 Archetype Merit dots in Biotics
Engineer: 6 Archetype Merit dots in Tech
Infiltrator: 3 Archetype Merit dots in Tech and 3 Archetype Merit dots in Training
Sentinel: 3 Archetype Merit dots in Biotics and 3 Archetype Merit dots in Tech
Soldier: 6 Archetype Merit dots in Training
Vanguard: 3 Archetype Merit dots in Biotics and 3 Archetype Merit dots in Training
Biotics
Split into Distortion, Integration and Kinetics. Every dot in a Discipline unlocks a single power from it, and uses of any power under a Discipline are at Resolve + Discipline rating. Player gets to choose what power(s), there's no 'ladder'.
Distortion
Haze
A 'barrier' type of power actually caused by intense mass effect distortions in a shell.
Affects an area Resolve x 5 yards in radius. Roll Resolve + Distortion – the effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to successes. Anyone attempting to perceive (hearing, sight or any other form of sense, including radar etc) suffers a penalty to all rolls to do so equal to the biotic's Resolve – and indeed need to make such rolls in the first place. To the outside world, the barrier haze looks like warped, shimmering glass.
Cost: 1 level of bashing damage.
Reave
A single-target crippling attack. Not interested in emulating the damaging effects of Reave – would rather go with the crippling emphasis.
Works as a mid-ranged power but rather than an attack roll it's an opposed roll of Resolve + Distortion vs target's Stamina. Failure means that the target suffers wound penalties as if they had their boxes filled out (ie -3 – note that this isn't cumulative if the target is already suffering wound penalties). Effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to Resolve.
Cost: 1 level of bashing damage
Scramble
A close-range AoE thrashing tangle of gravitic pulses. This is a personal defence/close assault power.
Affects an area of Resolve x 3 yards radius around the biotic. Roll Resolve + Distortion to see how many turns the power lasts. Inflicts a -2 penalty to Speed and on all attack rolls and Athletics rolls made by anyone other than the biotic in the area of effect.
Cost: 1 point of Willpower.
Singularity
An AoE penalty-applier. Singularity as per the computer game is too potent for this, really; instead, consider the gravity effect of the spacetime distortion to be a very strong pull but not a yank-off-floor strength power.
Mid-ranged (or maybe short-ranged?) power. Pick your target point and roll Resolve + Distortion; result is number of rounds it lasts. Affects an area Resolve x 5 yards in radius. Anyone in area must make a Strength + Athletics test against 'defence' of biotic's Resolve to move in any direction other than towards the middle, successes are number of yards they can go. Everyone in area gets pulled 5 yards towards middle every round.
Cost: 1 point of Willpower
Warp
A basic biotic attack. Intention here is something that is a) worth using rather than a gun under some circumstances but not all while b) works to give a different flavour than a regular shooting attack. Key aspects of the power that I want to emulate are good against armour and explodes when hits a biotic effect.
Works as a ranged attack (range to be decided – something mid-ranged I think) using an attack pool of Resolve + Distortion. Damage is Resolve in lethal levels, ignoring Armour. However, Warp half damage against a target with any levels of Shields remaining, although it works fine against biotic Barriers.
Successes on the attack roll do not add to damage. Instead, if Warp is used against a target already undergoing a biotic effect there's an explosion of radius equal to successes rolled in yards, dealing damage equal to Resolve to anyone in the radius.
Cost: 1 level of bashing damage
Integration
Barrier
Let's start with the can of worms, then. This is the basic biotic defence, giving Shield-equivalent health levels that need to be punched through. However, you never see someone with Shields and Barrier up at the same time (I think?). Is it good enough for Barrier to therefore be the back-up that a biotic throws up once their Shields are knocked down? Or should a biotic be able to raise Barrier on top of (or under) Shields and have both running at the same time?
Barrier provides a number of Barrier health levels equal to the user's Resolve. These levels work the same as Shields, but are affected in different ways by various effects. Barrier does not stack with existing Shield levels, but it can overwrite remaining Shields if they are lower than the user's Resolve (so using Barrier with Resolve 4 when you have 4+ Shield levels is useless, but if you have 3 Shield levels it replaces it with 4 Barrier levels). Roll Resolve + Integration - the user gets a bonus to resist knockdown/being moved around equal to the number of successes.
Barrier lasts for a scene, or until Barrier health levels are all lost.
Cost: 1 level of bashing damage.
Charge
Zoom! Going to ditch the shield-recharge effect of Charge, it's got quite enough going for it already.
Charge allows the user to near-instantaneously move up to Resolve x Speed in yards. This movement must be in a straight line, doesn't allow the user to pass through solid obstacles, but may allow them to go straight over gaps of up to their Speed in yards wide. Roll Resolve + Integration; increase the user's Defence by the number of successes for 1 round (note that, as normal, Defence doesn't help against firearms at range).
Cost: 1 Willpower point
Smite
This is the power you very rarely see used by biotics to enhance their punches/kicks (such as Samara's Boot To Face in cutscenes). The only power with no roll involved, as you're already having to make a Strength + Assault roll to hit in the first place.
Smite is reflexively used to enhance an unarmed melee attack. Add Resolve in levels of bashing damage on a successful hit, and the biotic may choose to upgrade the damage to lethal instead.
Cost: 1 Willpower point (should it be just 1 bashing damage instead?)
Stasis
Stasis! Lacks the damage of powers like Slam, but has a massively boosted control effect - literally locks the target in place. Only 1 round duration to keep it from being seriously scary; not sure if should bother with the repeated-Statis-on-same-target-is-less-effective thing from the game though. Willpower point cost already helps with that issue.
Target makes a Strength check with a penalty of up to the biotic's Resolve (biotic chooses how much exactly). Failure on the target's part locks them in place for 1 round, completely unable to do anything. However, they gain Armour equal to the Resolve penalty that the biotic applied (so a -4 would add 4 to the target's Armour) that affects all attacks, whether against Shields, Barriers or health levels, and adds to normal Armour when against health levels.
Cost: 1 Willpower point
Kinetics
A note here – unlike in the Mass Effect games, the effects that grab people do not render them totally helpless and limp (that kind of total neutralisation is the realm of Stasis). They can still move, look around, shout and, indeed, try to aim and pull a trigger while flailing around (for appropriate penalties of course).
There will be some extra modifiers for using these on really big and heavy things.
Glide
This is the slowfall/semi-flying shown by a few biotics – the power of Kinetics applied to the self from an 'outward' technique, rather than the inner strengthening of Integration. This one will be straightforwards.
Roll Resolve + Kinetics; this is the number of turns the biotic can slowfall for, at any speed below that of normal falling speed. They can move sideways in any direction up to their Resolve in yards per turn, as long as they continue to have some downward velocity.
For a -3 penalty to the roll, the biotic can choose to glide up to Resolve yards per turn in any direction instead of just slowfalling.
Cost: 1 level of bashing damage.
Lift
The basic screw-someone-over Kinetic technique. Grab someone, pull them up into the air; the key thing about this power is that, as with Lift and Pull, it's a focus on using mass effect fields to get someone up and hold them rather than applying biotics to intense force.
Affects a single target at mid-range. Roll Resolve + Kinetics (with a penalty equal to the number of Shield/Barrier health levels the target currently has) to lift the target a number of yards equal to successes. A gentle drift can be applied to the target as they are lifted, so they will move 1 yard per round in a particular direction. The power can be maintained for a number of turns equal to biotic's Resolve.
Cost: 1 level of bashing damage.
Slam
And here's a Kinetic direct-damage power, using a quick bit of finesse with very powerful mass effect fields to pick up and slam the target into something very hard indeed. Similar end-effect to Warp, really; let's make this one more costly (a Willpower point) for a slightly bigger package of stuff (potential higher damage and prone). Makes Slam better against unarmoured targets, whereas Warp comes into its own vs Armoured and Barrier'd targets.
Affects a single target at short range. Roll Resolve + Kinetics (penalty for remain Shield/Barrier levels again) as a ranged attack roll, dealing Resolve in lethal levels of damage and leaving the target prone. Note that unlike Warp, successes do add to damage.
Cost: 1 Willpower point.
Shockwave
A pseudo-AoE effect. We've got a weird design space here to manoeuver in as we've already covered the knockdown effect with Slam and Throw, and want to avoid too much repetition on a theme.
Sends out an AoE pulse in one direction, range of Resolve x 5 yards and 5 yards wide. Roll Resolve + Kinetics once and apply the results against Strength rolls for every target with no Shields/Barriers in the area; any targets beaten are knocked down. Shielded/Barriered targets take 1 point of damage against their defences as a the kinetic strike assails them.
Cost: 1 Willpower point
Throw
Applied force. This power can also be used to pick up heavy things and throw them at people.
Affects a single target at mid-range. Roll Resolve + Kinetics (penalty for remaining Shield/Barrier levels again) to hurl the target successes x 5 yards distance (and dealing bashing damage equal to successes if the target ends up impacting into something, maybe lethal damage if they're thrown into something really vicious). Target must make a Dexterity + Athletics check to recover and avoid knock-down, with a penalty to the dice pool equal to the Biotic's Resolve.
If used to chuck stuff at people, it's basically a ranged attack dealing bashing (generally) damage equal to successes. Bigger, heavier stuff is a penalty to the attack roll but may add one or two levels of damage.
Using Throw on someone already under the effect of a mass effect field (ie Glide or Lift) = added hilarity. Get some bonus dice or throw them further or something.
Cost: 1 level of bashing damage.
Tech
Split into Engineering, Interface, Medicine & Science.
Tech builds off skills. Using Tech Merits generally either requires a skill roll (ie Science rolls for the Science Merits) or affects an existing skill roll (ie a Merit that gives you 9-again on Medicine rolls). Again, each dot lets you pick a particular power out of that Merit, so a three-dot Engineering Merit might grant Overload, Shield Boost and Vehicle Expert powers. These are mostly self-explanatory; they also include more non-combat options than the Tactics skills.
Engineering
includes various shield-boosting and -breaking, gear-based enhancements, etc.
Interface
gives you hacking-on-the-fly to bork peoples' comms or subvert robots, research-boosters, etc.
Medicine
obviously boosts healing for yourself & others, as well as toxin stuff.
Science
gives you unstable materials use - ie the Incinerate & Cryo type powers - alongside enhanced scientific analysis capabilities.
Combat Training
Split into Assault, Command, Guardian and Squad.
Combat Training is basically new capabilities or boosts to skills. It doesn't rely on skill rolls to use. Each dot of a particular Combat Training Merit basically unlocks another option from that Merit's list, ie someone with Command 2 generates two bonus dice per scene that can be spent in two different ways that he's picked off a list. Note the maximum number of dots for any individual element of Combat Training is five.
Assault Training
Here you find the close-quarter combat talents, the ones for storming a defensive bastion, dropping from orbit into battle and ambushing hapless victims.
Agility: With a mixture of free-running and combat training, the character ignores up to their dots in Dexterity in terrain penalties on movement. Ladders, crates, walls and so forth are easy for this character. Speed is also increased by 1.
Ambush: The character is an expert in close, covert work. When attacking an opponent who is not aware of the character, they add +2 to the damage rating of their attack (ie adding damage levels on a successful hit). Perception rolls to hear the character attacking suffer a -2 penalty.
Carnage: The character is an expert in dealing death with short-ranged weapons. When firing at a target within the short range of a pistol or shotgun, the character benefits from the 9-again rule, or 8-again if the weapon already has 9-again.
Close Quarters Combatant: The character possesses advanced close combat training. They ignore penalties to their Defence caused by multiple melee attackers, may choose to deal Lethal damage with their unarmed attacks, and benefit from the 9-again rule when making unarmed strikes.
Combat Drop Training: The character has been trained for rapid-deployment assaults into hot zones. When dropping into combat with armour-jets, from an aircraft or from orbit, the character is able to act on the same round they touch down and suffers no penalties due to combat drops. They also treat all Piloting checks with armour-jets as rote actions.
Hard Target: Keeping a low profile and moving fast, the character is a hard target. If they move during their turn, all ranged attacks against them suffer an additional -1 penalty on their attack pools. Running increases the penalty to -2. Note that stupid stuff like dancing back and forth a few yards in one spot doesn't count, we'll have none of that daftness here.
Shock Trooper: The character has the training or experience of a hardened shock trooper, used to running through hails of bullets and explosions to close on a target. The character reduces all penalties suffered from the combat environment by 1 (such as suppressive fire, concealment granted by smoke grenades and so forth) and benefits from a +2 bonus to any dice pool to resist knock-downs, stun and other disorientation effects. Speed is also increased by 1.
Slam: Harnessing their raw strength, the character slams foes to the ground. After a successful melee attack at the end of a charge action, the target of the attack must make a Strength roll, with a target number of successes equal to the damage taken from the attack. Failure results in them being knocked down. (A favourite of Krogan).
Command
Every dot in Command puts one die into the group's Command pool (so the party can benefit from having more than one person with Command – one PC with Command 4 and one with Command 2 would give the team 6 dice in the pool). These dice can be drawn on for specific purposes, mostly combat-related, and they refresh each scene. Characters who aren't in communications range of a character with Command can't draw on the pool.
Anyone can take dice from the pool as long as the Commander allows it, including the person with the Command Merit themselves. A character can grab up to their Wits in dice from the pool in a turn, and can spend them all on one roll if desired.
Dice can be used for:
Concentrate Fire: Added directly to an attack dice pool before rolling.
Priority Target: Added as levels of damage to an attack, before rolling, against a target who is knocked down, held by a mass effect field, on fire or otherwise suffering from a similar debuff.
Ready For Action: Applied as a bonus to a character's Initiative score after rolling in the first round of combat, adding +1 per die used.
Take Cover: Applied against on an attack roll against a character who is in cover, augmenting the normal cover penalty by -1 per die used, before rolling.
Vigilance: Added directly to a Perception dice pool before rolling.
Guardian Training
These are the resilience, protective and defensive talents for building a bodyguard, defender or just all-round hard bastard.
Bastion: The character knows how to angle armour plating, shift their profile and minimise the damage from incoming fire. If wearing armour, the character benefits from a +1 to their Armour against any ranged attackers in front of them, as long as they haven't moved this turn.
Berserker: When taking at least 1 point of lethal damage, the character may choose to enter a berserker rage, gaining a temporary +2 bonus to Stamina and Resolve and becoming immune to penalties inflicted by suppressive fire. This does result in them gaining two health levels during the rage but, while the health levels are lost once the rage subsides, any damage taken to them is kept. A favourite of Krogan.
Bodyguard: The character has the reflexes and training to protect others with their own body. They can choose to serve as cover for allies when they are between the ally and the attacker or adjacent to the ally, inflicting a -1 cover penalty on attacks that increases to -2 if the character is directly protecting the target by doing the whole full-body-shield thing, increasing again to -3 if the character is in heavy armour or is carrying a ballistic shield and serving as a wall of metal and composite betwene the ally and danger.
Fitness: The character is in excellent physical condition and has two additional health levels.
Resilient: Fists, batons, concussion grenades... Not much phases this character. They benefit from an additional point of Armour against all bashing attacks (even when not actually armoured) and a +1 bonus to dice pools to resist stuns and knock-downs.
Second Skin: The character has the training or experience to wear armour like a second skin, entirely comfortable with its power servos and weight. The character benefits from +1 to their Defence and Speed while in armour (this basically counteracts Cumbersome by one point, but also means that characters wearing Recon or Assault Armour still get a benefit from the talent).
Survivor: The character is too tough or just too damn stubborn to stay down, regardless of his injuries. He never falls unconscious as a result of having all his health boxes filled with damage, and doesn't need to succeed on a Stamina roll to do so.
Vigilance: The character is ever-vigilant for danger. If the character is or becomes aware of an attacker targeting an unaware ally, and the character has comms range to that ally, the ally becomes aware of the impending attack immediately. The character's Initiative stat is also increased by 1.
Squad Training
These are the firepower combat talents, the ones for controlling the field of battle, putting down foes with precision fire and reacting swiftly and smoothly to the changing combat situation.
Advancing Fire: The character may fire on the run, suffering a -3 penalty to attack rolls for doing so.
Heavy Weapons Training: The character is experienced in handling support weapons, and ignores the Heavy Weapon penalty; they may also take the aim action with heavy weapons (although as usual cannot combine this with autofire if the weapon has that option). (I figure I'll call it Heavy Weapon rather than Unwieldy, the Unwieldy trait can go on Sniper Rifles. Heavy Weapon means there's a... maybe -3 penalty to firing a heavy weapon while moving, and prevents aiming).
Marksman: Whenever the character takes at least one aim action with a weapon that has the 9-again trait (apart from shotguns), they benefit from the 8-again rule for that attack.
Outflank: Attacking a target in the flank or rear that an ally has engaged from the front grants the character a +1 benefit to attack rolls.
Sniper: After using the aim action and firing at a target, the character does not lose his aiming bonus if he continues to fire at the same target and does not have his line of sight to the target broken. He may even continue to take aim actions and increase the aiming bonus further, subject to its usual +3 cap (so he could aim once for +1, fire, aim again for a total of +2, fire again).
Squad Reflexes: After rolling for Initiative at the beginning of combat but before the first round begins, the character can choose to shift their Initiative to match that of one ally in comms range. The character's Initiative stat is also increased by 1.
Suppressive Fire: There's a line between effective suppressive fire and just wasting bullets. The character may sacrifice bonus attack dice from autofire to apply it instead as a penalty to the ranged attack rolls of the targets for one round. This can be applied to multiple targets as per the normal autofire rules but it does incur the usual penalty (so hosing down three targets with long-burst autofire does apply a -3 penalty to all of them but is very unlikely to actually hit anything). Doesn't work if they're unable to take cover (or too heavily armoured/mindless to care).
Weapon Drill: Unloading, reloading and returning to the task of providing fire support is a well-oiled process for the character. Reloading is a reflexive action as long as the replacement heat clip is to hand (ie in armour webbing or laid out within reach).
