The Cold Hard Weapons of Midnight
- Description
- The theory surrounding the Discipline technique called: The Cold Hard Weapons of Midnight is a simple one. The Discipline of Fortitude is used to imbue an existing man made weapon with enough supernatural resilience to successfully channel the cold, dark energies of Obtenebration combined with the brutal force of Potence, allowing the aforementioned weapon to sap the physical resistance of both mortals and supernatural beings to the damage the weapon delivers.
- In application however, this technique represents a fairly difficulty feat for the Magister in question, for not only must he channel the force of his Potence through a man made weapon without damaging it, but he must also combine it with the dark, alien energies of the Nocturne power of Obtenebration which drains physical vitality from living and unliving targets. It is this unique fusion of physical force and unearthly cold that mortal and supernatural beings find nearly impossible to resist. When Fortitude is then fused to the weapon by contact with the wielder, the weapon becomes impervious to the forces channeled through it and remains functional throughout a given conflict; without the resilience of Fortitude, the supernaturally cold weapon would shatter with its first successful strike.
- To invoke this power, the Magister must have hold of the weapon he wishes to empower and summons an otherworldly cloud of darkness which immediately swirls around the weapon, collecting upon its surface and sinking deep into the metal which turns a deep dull black; the weapon becomes so cold that it develops a rhyme of frost and smokes in all but the most arctic air.
- System
- The player rolls Manipulation + Occult at a difficulty of six (6). It takes a mental action to imbue a weapon with nocturnal energy and literally any metallic weapon can be so imbued, save for projectiles. A botched roll results in a seemingly successfully imbued weapon, but as soon as the weapon is imbued, it neutralizes the wielder's Stamina traits by one dot for each botch rolled. A failed roll wastes the mental action of the wielder for that turn. A successful roll represents a steadily deepening supernatural cold, that upon contact with a living or unliving target, neutralizes one dot of the target's Stamina per success scored on the activation roll. The target's Stamina is only neutralized for the time it takes the weapon to score damage upon that target, thereafter, the target's Stamina returns to its normal or adjusted rating, as per the circumstances. Should the wielder lose hold of the weapon or voluntarily relinquish the power by putting the weapon down or sheathing it, the weapon reverts to its original mundane capacity. In any case, the nocturnal charge only remains potent for the scene, after which it instantly dissipates whence it originated. This power is far from subtle and those who see it will realize that something is distinctly wrong with the supernaturally imbued weapon.
Requisite Disciplines: Fortitude 2 / Obtenebration 2 / Potence 2
Experience Cost: 14
Commentary
Jamie: I have a few questions that aren't answered here, along with the answers I think should apply:
Bruce's replies are in purple.
- Can the weapon neutralized fortitude? Absolutely not, the power it too weak to affect Fortitude. And nowhere in the discipline technique does it even mention affecting Fortitude -- so why even ask?
- Why ask? Because it wasn't addressed in the description. We have largely grown beyond powergaming, but it's still necessary to spell some things out.
- no. It's only a rank 2 power. Duh
- What effect does the supernatural cold have on non-living objects (armor, etc.)?
- It would make them cold, but not have any spectacular effect on most things. Here we disagree, cold strong enough to neutralize stamina, would probably have a fairly strong effect on items or materials effected by the extreme cold. A weapon so charged would probably shatter a lock like pouring liquid nitrogen on it - but that is just my take on it.
- And, how long does the power last?
- a scene In all honesty, I initially erred in the direction of a number of actions, then I re-read the power of Obtenebration that it is based upon -- which lasts as long as you concentrate upon it. It might be more reasonable to set it up based on that limitation.
- Strangely, the question that should have been asked, is should the power be able to neutralize Stamina thereby bypassing at least half the soak dice most beings can hope to possess? With a fabulous roll of the dice, my little Lasombra could gut an elder Setite with this power because it could bypass the Serpentis Scales almost completely. Even a Tremere who had boosted his generation to 4th and dumped 10 blood points into his or her Stamina could be vulnerable to such a power, suggesting, even to me, that the power is broken.
- Thus, I would like to suggest an alternate way of representing the power of this discipline technique, the focus was supposed to be on the cold and darkness, not so much the Stamina sapping effect which smacks of Necromancy to me. Rather, I think that the weapon becomes supernaturally cold by degrees, thus making the Stamina + Fortitude roll to soak the energized weapon, that much harder by a margin of +1 difficulty for every two successes rolled on the activation roll. In this way, it is makes the energized weapon worthy of respect, but gives opponents a realistic chance to soak the "Cold Hard Weapons of Midnight"; most vampires will be able to deal with the damage dealt by the weapons, but elders and ancients will probably shrug of the effects and punish my character appropriately.
