Latest revision as of 20:19, 8 June 2010

Knacks for Heroic Mortals in the Exalted Setting

A while ago, on the Exalted forum, someone mentioned giving Knacks from Adventure! to Heroic Mortals in Exalted. When I started working on theGarden/Ripples campaign I thought it might be one way to give the heroic mortals that bit of an edge. So I set about converting the Adventure! Knacks for Exalted, and then making up a bunch of my own to fill in the gaps that were left.

Here's what I came up with (with some help from CorlanDashiva). Not exactly sure how best to structure all this yet, so I apologise if it's somewhat unweildy.

Knacks

Ad Hoc Armoury

While others are confined to throwing their little knives, or shiny pieces of circular metal, to you anything left lying around is a deadly weapon. A dinner plate suddenly becomes a lethal frisbee of decapitation; a gerbil, thrown with skill and cunning, lands in someone’s mouth and prevents them from breathing; both the mundane and the bizarre are your personal arsenal, people aren’t going to know what’s hit them.\\ System: You can pick up and throw… anything that you can pick up and throw really. The maximum weight of the object is dependent on your strength, and the object can be no longer than your forearm. These improvised weapons are thrown with the following stats:\\ \\ Accuracy = Conviction\\ Damage = Valor\\ Range = Temperance\\ \\ The rate of improvised weapons is limited to 1.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Thrown (Character creation: Thrown as favoured ability)\\ \\

Bloodhound’s Nose

It’s rare that your prey ever escapes you. Be it a rabbit you’re hunting for the stew pot, or an escaped criminal destined for the gallows, the chances of them getting away from you are minimal.\\ System: The character has the ability to spot the little details that signify someone or something moving through an area that most people miss. The character gains bonus dice equal to her Conviction – number of hours passed (down to a minimum of 1) for rolls for tracking his target. In addition, due to her knowledge of the signs that trackers look for, she is able to avoid leaving them herself. For the expenditure of 1 Willpower the character can add her Conviction in extra dice to her attempts to cover her tracks for a scene.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Survival (Character creation: Survival as favoured ability)\\ \\

Brem Marst Protégé

You could sell wood to the Haltans. Your cunning and wily sales techniques are no match for most men. Not only that, but you have a good sense of how much items are worth, and therefore how much to overprice them.\\ System: You gain +2 dice to all bureaucracy attempts involving sales techniques, +1 dice to all appraisal roles (raised to +2 if the character has a Craft or Lore speciality relevant to the item being appraised). You also have an innate sense for finding the right buyer for the right item, add +1 die to rolls for assessing customers.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in Bureaucracy (Character creation: Bureaucracy as favoured ability) and Wits 3.\\ \\

Chi Stimulation

You’ve learned the ways of chakras, and meridians. You can help others with the ancient arts of Chi Healing but only for a short time. Chi Healing only goes so far and is no substitute for bed rest and convalescence. However, in a pinch it can be just the thing to keep yourself or your compatriots going.\\ System: The character must possess either Martial Arts or Medicine. The character spends a point of Willpower and then rolls Stamina + Ability. For each success, he may heal 1 level of bashing damage up to the level of his Stamina. Any additional successes that are received on the roll will also heal the patient, but only temporarily. These phantom levels fade after sleep. The Chi Healer may also heal Lethal damage for each 2 successes on the roll, again up to the level of his stamina, the same rules apply to phantom damage. Any damage sustained after the healing comes off of phantom levels first (this, happily, makes it less likely for the player to die in his sleep…). Even if the player fails the roll, the subject is stabilised and suffers no further blood loss or other worsening of condition. A botch, however, inflicts one additional level of bashing damage on the patient. No subject may benefit from this power more times in 24 hours than he has points of Stamina. This, of course, includes the user himself. \\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Martial Arts or Medicine. (Character creation: Martial Arts or Medicine as favoured ability). \\

Complete Privacy

No one’s ever caught you talking about something you shouldn’t be discussing. No matter how hard someone tries to listen, there’s always a convenient string quartet or a loud market trader nearby. Your hair or hat always seems to block the line of sight over your shoulder, or your hand conveniently shields your notepad. You’ve never been caught in a bedroom you shouldn’t be in, and the local law enforcement has the devil’s own time following you through the streets. This knack is particularly subtle, as it doesn’t do anything to affect your own actions. Rather, it interferes with other people’s attempts to listen in on your conversations or pry on your writing. It’s nearly impossible to monitor you without being blatantly obvious.\\ System: All attempts to eavesdrop on the character, read her lips, tap her phone line, read over her shoulder or otherwise subtly monitor her personal actions automatically fail without the use of magic. Attempts to shadow or tail her are at –2 dice. This knack provides no defence against obvious, direct scrutiny, nor does it keep people from breaking into her hotel room and searching her luggage. It’s only good against covert attempts at invading her privacy – listeners who don’t want to be seen listening and the like.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in either Larceny or Stealth (Character creation: Larceny or Stealth as favoured ability).\\ \\

Criminal Genius

In a major crime there are at least 35 things that can go wrong. Most people aren’t smart enough to think of 5, but you are. You routinely clean up after yourself at a crime scene to the point where it’s automatic and in fact you almost never leave behind traces of your presence for the authorities to find. Whether you are a criminal or a maverick cop or P.I. who must occasionally work outside the law, you are almost never caught, and even if you are they never have enough to convict you.\\ System: This knack functions much like Complete Privacy. The user is always careful to use gloves and rarely leaves behind footprints, hair follicles, or other incriminating evidence. Their mask never slips during a robbery and people might have trouble identifying the culprit even if they saw him outright. Ordinary mortal investigators will be completely unable to solve cases where a Criminal Genius is involved. Other investigators will still be able to make rolls normally, but with a penalty to the roll based on the Criminal Genius’s Conviction (see table below).\\ Note that this knack does not protect the Criminal Genius from being observed or being caught red-handed.\\ \\ Conviction: Penalty\\ 1-2: -1 die\\ 3: -2 dice\\ 4: -3 dice\\ 5: -4 dice\\ \\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Investigation or Larceny (or Investigation or Larceny as favoured ability).\\ \\

Cunning Linguist

You certainly have a way with words. Whether it’s the written word, or the oral tradition, words flow from you in the most poetic and impressive way imaginable.\\ System: Ordinary mortals are held captivated by reading or listening to your words, and will only stop should their lives, or the lives of their loved ones and close friends be in danger. Should they wish to break away, they must make a successful Conviction roll, with the difficulty based on their reason for wanting to leave. Other people are more resistant and a contested roll between the character’s Charisma + Performance or Intelligence + Linguistics (depending on whether the medium is spoken or written) and the target’s Wits + Temperance, or the target may spend a Willpower point to break the hold over them.\\ In addition, the character may spend a Willpower point to add her Compassion to her roll. Note: This knack only works if the target audience understands the language you are using.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Performance or Linguistics (Character creation: Performance or Linguistics as favoured ability).\\ \\

Dance of Death

You have learned how to enter an ecstatic combat trance that gives you very quick reflexes as long as you are using a pair of matched, short, hand-to-hand weapons.\\ System: The user spends a point of Willpower and for the rest of the scene ignores penalties based on multiple actions as long as he doesn’t go over two. If he goes over two actions those penalties are at standard difficulty. The weapons that the user wields must be short, one-handed weapons (stilettos, knives, ballisong blades, straight razors, nothing longer than a short sword, sais, jittes, or other small clubbing/defensive weapons would also be permissible). The weapons must also be matched in weight and balance. If the dancer throws his weapons during a combat round and has additional weapons of a similar sort on his person he may re-arm himself as a reflexive action.\\ While it’s obvious that this is a way for a character to have two attacks per round, it also enables the character to reserve a defensive (block, dodge, etc) action for use at any time. It also enables a character to move, attack and move again in a single round. This knack does not stack with Untouchable, and Storyteller’s are cautioned to be careful allowing this to be stacked with One Man Army as well.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Martial Arts or Melee (Character creation: Martial Arts or Melee as favoured ability) and Dexterity 3.\\ \\

Davy Crockett

You grew up in the forests, or the deserts, or the mountains. Wherever it was, that environment is a second home to you, your natural environment. You laugh at the hapless travellers who try to navigate through your land with barely adequate supplies, and can only raise your eyebrows at them when they gawp at you in amazement, wondering how you could possibly live out here in the wilds.\\ System: Choose an element, Air, Earth, Fire, Water, or Wood. For the types of land associated with that elemental pole you are a master of survival skills (i.e. for choosing fire you would be good at desert and hot climate survival). You never set out without the correct supplies for your chosen environment (though it is possible for you to run out of supplies should your expedition get delayed unexpectedly, even though you have emergency rations). In addition, the character is at –1 difficulty to rolls involving finding shelter, foraging and predicting the weather (down to a minimum of difficulty 1).\\ This knack can be bought for multiple environments.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Survival (Character creation: Survival as favoured ability).\\ \\

Death Defiance

Your cohorts have seen a building collapse on your head. They’ve heard your screams as you’ve toppled off a 200-foot cliff. They’ve watched you fall in the spray of a score of archers. Yet, no matter how many times you’ve faced certain death, you’ve resurfaced - rent, bent, but very much alive.\\ System: In situations that are likely to result in the character’s death, the character’s player may spend his remaining Willpower points and come back from the dead. The only limitation is that the character is apparently dead for at least one scene – perhaps his friends see him fall off a cliff, only to find him hours later, broken but alive. Perhaps they watch him drown, only to learn that he washed ashore on the Blessed Isle and is still breathing (for the moment, anyway). The exact time and location of the character’s resurgence is left to Storyteller discretion. This knack is by no means guaranteed to work, the character may find that doing something really stupid and relying on this knack to save him is not a good idea.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in either Endurance or Resistance (Character creation: Endurance or Resistance as favoured ability) and 8 dots of Willpower.\\ \\

Double-Shot

Most people have to content themselves with one arrow per bowstring, not you. You can quite happily fire two arrows at once and have them both hit home, be it either both at the same target, or at two independent targets.\\ System: The character spends 1 Willpower point and can then fire two arrows simultaneously. These arrows can either be fired at the same target, in which case double successes before soak, the attacks count as separate for the purposes of defending; or at separate targets, the targets must be within a 90 degree arc of each other, but the player need only roll once and the same roll is applied to both attacks. Should the character be splitting his dice pool and utilising the full rate of his bow, he must spend additional Willpower if he wishes to double-shot on subsequent attacks.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Archery (Character creation: Archery as favoured ability) and Dexterity 3.\\ \\

Doughboy

Not all heroic types are paragons of physicality; in fact some are downright gruesome. This knack simulates the possibility of a heroic mortal who isn’t exactly svelte, and yet manages to find some positive effect.\\ System: This knack confers 2 Bashing levels of Soak and 1 Lethal Soak and 1 extra level of Bruised damage (-0). The character is also incapable of sinking in water or quicksand, all that fat is naturally buoyant.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Resistance or Endurance (Character creation: Resistance or Endurance as favoured ability) and Dexterity no greater than 2.\\ \\

Dr Dolittle

Animals are your friends. While you can’t actually talk to them, you seem to have an innate connection with them that makes them trust you more. You’re one of those people who can happily walk through a forest and have butterflies flying round your head, birds chirping on your shoulder, and fawns eating from your hand. Yes, you are a cheesy Disney movie.\\ System: The numbers of successes required for you to tame animals are reduced to Total Successes divided by Compassion rounded up.\\ There is no limit to the number of animals you can tame in this way, however, you can’t really get animals to betray their inner nature, so trying to put more than a few of a solitary species together may not be the wisest of ideas.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Survival (Character creation: Survival as favoured ability).\\ \\

Dramatic Entrance

You’ve just got it. You may not know quite what it is, but everyone else sure does! Whether it’s your stunning features, your gleaming smile, your distinctive mode of dress or your aura of palpable menace, something makes people stop and take notice of you when they first see you. This reaction isn’t a sustained one – the novelty of your presence soon wears off – but if you’re clever, you can milk it for quite a bit while you’ve got your new acquaintances sandbagged.\\ System: The player gains three bonus dice on all social rolls against any given individual during the entire scene of their first meeting. This Knack has no effect during subsequent encounters – only during the initial acquaintanceship (one hour maximum). Any botches on a roll dealing with first impressions or a dramatic entrance count as ordinary failures.\\ On the downside, the character is at +1 difficulty at any attempt to remain inconspicuous in any situation where more than half the observers haven’t seen her before. This includes most crowd scenes.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in Performance, Presence or Socialise (Character creation: Performance, Presence or Socialise as favoured ability) and at least 3 dots of Appearance. You’ve got to have some raw material to work with…\\ \\

Dumb Luck

You have a particular talent for squirming out from under the Hammer of Destiny. While you don’t go around regularly winning the lottery your friends wonder how you managed to survive for so long.\\ System: Every hour of game time you may spend Willpower for dramatic editing, costs vary according to the following table:\\ \\ Willpower: Effect\\ 1: Minor off screen effect\\ 1: Minor extension of an other player’s effect\\ 2: Minor onscreen effect\\ 3: Major onscreen effect\\ 4: Obvious continuity violation\\ +1: Plot ramifications\\ -1: Plot complications for a character\\ \\ Once per game session the character may also roll Conviction when making an expenditure for dramatic editing. For each success on the Conviction roll, you save one point from the expenditure. However, dramatic editing use will always cost at least one Willpower.\\ Prerequisite: God protects fools, the oblivious, and those who are slow on the uptake. As such you must choose one of your mental attributes. This attribute may never go above 2, if they do, through magic or some other agency, then Dumb Luck is suspended until they return to regular levels. If the player buys additional permanent Attribute dots for the chosen trait, he permanently loses this knack (and gets no points for it).\\ \\

Eagle Eyes

Whenever you’re travelling, you constantly irritate your companions pointing out things they can’t see. Your eyesight is second to none. This uncanny visual acuity even allows you some degree of perception in weather conditions that leave most people blind to anything more than five feet in front of them.\\ System: The character gains two additional dice on all rolls related to long-range or precise visual perception. All difficulty penalties imposed on any vision-related roll by poor visibility (darkness, fog, smoke) are reduced by two. All difficulty penalties for long-range attacks with ranged weapons are halved, rounding down.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in Awareness or Survival (Character creation: Awareness or Survival as favoured ability) and Perception 3.\\ \\

Enhanced Impact

Your attacks drive your victims staggering back several metres in pain and shock. This can be a tactical advantage by opening the range between you and a closing opponent or a fatal attack in its own right if you can strike at the proper angle to drive your enemy into something harmful. However you use it, it sure looks impressive.\\ System: A character may purchase this Knack separately for each of the following Abilities: Archery, Brawl, Martial Arts, Melee and Thrown. When the character makes a successful attack against another character while using an Ability for which she has Enhanced Impact, the victim is hurled one metre in the direction of the attack for every health level of damage the daredevil inflicts. This impact does no additional damage, though it can propel the target into a hazardous or fatal situation (through a campfire, off a cliff, into a vat of acid). A magical target may be able to utilise a charm or other magics to negate this effect.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in the relevant combat Ability (Character creation: the combat Ability as favoured ability).\\ \\

Essence Channeler

Your mind and body has been altered in some way, be it through drugs or exposure to the Wyld. Whatever it was, you now have an understanding of the ways in which Essence flows through Creation and the ability to manipulate these flows in some small fashion.\\ System: The character gains a pool of Essence Motes equal to (Essence x2) + (Willpower) + (the Sum of Virtues) and may buy his Essence above 1, to a maximum of 3. The downside of this is that you are highly susceptible to possession and influence by spirits. Subtract two dice from and Willpower roll revolving around influence by spirits, demons or ghosts.\\ Essence Channelers can use their motes to power any knack that that uses Willpower; 2 motes can substitute for a single point of temporary Willpower – but only for activating knacks. Motes cannot be used to buy extra successes, to substitute for Willpower costs in Charms, or for any other purposes.\\ Motes can also be used to power mortal sorcery, the cost is dependent on the ritual being cast. Some Essence Channelers are also able to learn a limited number of Spirit Charms. An Essence Channeler can never learn more Charms than he has dots of Willpower and may not learn more Charms of a given Virtue than he has dots in that Virtue.\\ One desiring to learn new Charms must first find a suitable teacher (typically a little god who has the Charm in question) and then must convince the teacher that he is a suitable student (typically involving heavy chiminage). New Charms can take Essence Channelers months to learn, generally requiring a number of weeks equal to the Charm’s minimum Virtue multiplied by its minimum Essence. Each new Charm costs 15 experience points to learn.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Occult (Character creation: Occult as favoured ability) and Willpower 7.\\ \\

Fists of Stone

Your gnarled, knobby hams have probably seen more than their fair share of other folks’ jawbones. You’ve got a grip like a vice, and you tend to leave dents when you knock on doors. Why bother with tricks such as a roll of coins or brass knuckles? Your collection of scars and calluses works just fine for you.\\ System: The character’s barehanded attacks inflict a base (Strength + 2) dice of bashing damage. His Strength + Ability pool is considered two dice higher for any role dealing solely with the power of his grip. His hands never suffer minor mishaps (scraped knuckles, sprained wrists), though they’re not all that pretty, and he probably doesn’t play piano. Finally, he receives no damage from punching anything less sturdy than solid metal.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in Brawl or Resistance (Character creation: Brawl or Resistance as favoured ability) and Strength 3.\\ \\

Forgettable

It’s not that you don’t make a good impression; just that no one ever seems to remember it once you’re gone. They may be able to recall everything you did or said with perfect clarity, but your name, your face and the sound of your voice consistently escape memory. Even portraits of you tend to be blurry or faded. This knack is invaluable if you don’t want your actions to come back and haunt you, but it also makes it hard to get a second date.\\ System: The character is just what this knack’s name implies: forgettable. The knack has few mechanical benefits, but the Storyteller should strive to ensure that only the character’s most extreme impressions have any lasting effect on witnesses’ memories. Note that this does not apply to the current scene the character is in. The character suffers no penalty to social rolls involving direct interaction. Only after he leaves the immediate area do people begin to forget him.\\ While the character’s closest associates and family members aren’t likely to forget him, pretty much everyone else will. Any casual acquaintance or witness attempting to recall the character’s name or face after he’s left the immediate scene must succeed in Intelligence + Awareness roll with a dice penalty equal to the character’s Temperance rating.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Socialise or Stealth (Character creation: Socialise or Stealth as favoured ability).\\ \\

Gadgeteer

You have no problem using the majority of devices. Intuition and a good deal of mechanical sense give you the uncanny ability to operate almost any piece of machinery you encounter. You may not always know exactly what you’re messing with, but you know how to make it do… well, whatever it’s supposed to do.\\ Plus, you’re no slouch when it comes to making improvements to standard technology. Coming up with technological breakthroughs is as easy as falling off a log – and given a couple of minutes you could figure out a way to improve on that too.\\ System: The character can operate any relatively simple device within seconds of seeing it. Complex machinery requires a few minutes of inspection. Gadgeteer does not grant familiarity with the principles behind the device, just an operator’s familiarity with the controls and settings. Any additional Ability requirements required to operate the device still apply, but otherwise the character faces no difficulties from unskilled operation. If the character has an appropriate specialisation in Craft, Lore or Occult, this knack also adds her Conviction in bonus dice to related research and development rolls for designing new devices. You much purchase this knack separately for each relevant speciality.\\ Prerequisites: 4 dots in Craft, Lore or Occult (Character creation: Craft, Lore or Occult as favoured ability) and Intelligence 3 and Wits 3.\\ \\

Gal Friday/Pal Friday

While this knack isn’t exactly proper for most characters, it is a staple of the heroic sidekick. You know your boss (or master) so well that often times you are able to anticipate his needs and fulfil them before he asks.\\ System: The player may add his or her Compassion score to any rapport related rolls that involve a particular person to whom they have pledged allegiance. This means that many times they know what the character needs many times before the character does and usually has it on hand before it’s asked for (within reason of course). A sidekick with this knack will know that a scratch on the nose and a certain tone of voice means “Get ready to toss me the dagger in the small of your back."\\ Users of this knack who have a Compassion higher than 3 occasionally catch prescient flashes whenever their special person is in danger (Storyteller’s discretion) they will also know inescapably if their friend/boss/master dies. Granted, your secretary Della might not be a lot of help half a continent away while your airship is flaming out over the Southeastern jungle, but she’ll know if you live and she might be able to organise a search party.\\ If there is a downside to this power, it is that your sidekick becomes impossible to intimidate or lie to; they know you far too well for that.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in Bureaucracy or Socialise (Character creation: Bureaucracy or Socialise as favoured ability) and Compassion 3.\\ \\

Grasshopper

Through a combination of your swift reflexes, uncanny luck, and sheer audacity, you can stand in the middle of a bunch of guys swinging blades around, whilst you yourself are armed with nothing but your wits, and stand a good chance of not getting hit.\\ System: Whenever the character is close combat and is not armed with a weapon, all close combat attacks against him suffer a difficulty penalty dependent on his Valour, as determined by the following table. This only applies if he began the combat without a weapon on his person – no fair throwing down the sword once the fight stats in order to gain these benefits!\\ \\ Valour: Penalty\\ 1-2: -1 die\\ 3-4: -2 dice\\ 5: -3 dice\\ \\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Dodge (Character creation: Dodge as favoured ability) and 4 dots of Martial Arts or Athletics and Dexterity 4, Wits 4.\\ \\

Greased Lightning

Whether you are a trained athlete who knows how to pour on the speed or you are a skeevy little guy who has been running from trouble all your life, you really know how to book it when it comes down. People are often shocked by your running speed.\\ System: For the expenditure of a point of Willpower, the character effectively doubles his running and sprinting speed. This effectively doubles the area that a character can move and attack. Not only is this knack appropriate to very athletic characters, but it is also appropriate for villains who need an extra burst of speed to get away. The effect lasts for as many turns as the character has dots of Stamina + Endurance.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Athletics (Character creation: Athletics as favoured ability) and Dexterity 3.\\ \\

Indomitable Will

You laugh at feeble attempts to invade your mind as if they were but the wheedling of children. Indeed, you may even be completely unaware of the effects of such powers, should they be used upon you. Whether you’re incredibly disciplined or simply thick-skulled, most paranormal attempts to influence your mind fail – even those of considerable strength meet significant resistance.\\ System: All mundane attempts to hypnotise or brainwash the character require three times as long and three times as many successes as normal. Any magical attempts to directly invade the mind, whether for purposes of probing, communication, alteration or outright attack, are at +2 difficulty. Indomitable Will does not affect magic that creates illusions affecting the character’s perceptions, only those that actually touch her thought processes.\\ Unfortunately, the character cannot turn off this knack. Telepathic contact from friendly minds meets with this resistance just like an unwelcome invasion does.\\ Prerequisite: Willpower 8 and 4 dots of either Temperance or Conviction.\\ \\

Inspirational Leadership

Some people have got what it takes to be a leader; others take it that step further. You are one of the latter. Put you in front of a crowd of pitchfork-wielding peasants, and you could lead them into the Underworld itself to fight a war for you. And the more people, the better. It just gives you more to work with.\\ System: You gain additional dice for leadership rolls dependent on the number of people you are leading. For one person there is no bonus, for two people, and every doubling of the crowd thereafter you receive an additional +1 die, up to a maximum of +4 (sixteen people and above). In addition, on a successful roll, all the people under your leadership (up to a maximum of Presence x 10 receive +1 die on all tasks related to your orders.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Presence (Character creation: Presence as favoured ability) and Charisma 3.\\ \\

Instant Expert

You have the uncanny ability to recall any single feat you’ve seen performed – once. This knack doesn’t allow you to repeat the deed with any degree of consistency, but it may allow you to reach for a usually unattainable level of performance in a field you normally know nothing about, at a moment when nothing less than the world’s best effort will suffice.\\ System: The player spends a Willpower point. For one physical task (though it may be a lengthy action, such as surgery), the character gains a number of dots equal to her Conviction in a single ability in which she possesses zero dots. This knack may only produce this effect for any given Ability once per game session.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in Lore (Character creation: Lore as favoured ability) and Wits 3.\\ \\

Jack of All Tongues

You’re a refugee from the Tower of Babel, or so it would seem to anyone who speaks to you. While other students were struggling with one foreign language, you were struggling with the limited number of languages known by your language tutor. Some people consider you a freak of nature, while others just want to drag you along on their next expedition to the Eastern jungles.\\ System: The character knows double the normal number of languages for her Linguistics score and pays half the normal experience cost to learn new languages. When speaking, she displays no foreign accent – her pronunciation and idioms are perfect for the local culture. If the character has no dots in Linguistics, she knows one extra language. At the Storyteller’s discretion, the character may decipher a completely new language or script with a linguistics roll at +2 difficulty – no translator needed.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Linguistics (Character creation: Linguistics as favoured ability) and Intelligence 3.\\ \\

Joe Average

It may not be the most complementary thing to say that people can’t pick you out from the crowd, but it sure can be useful. Something about you just makes you look like Mr Average and makes it very easy for you to dissolve into a room of people.\\ System: You gain +3 dice to Stealth when trying to hide yourself in a crowd. Should you do anything to make yourself stand out it will automatically negate this bonus, the bonus only applies when you are actually making an effort not to stand out.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Stealth (Character creation: Stealth as favoured ability) and an Appearance of no less than 2 and no more than 3, this knack works by the character blending in with the crowd, the extraordinarily beautiful or the extraordinarily ugly stand out naturally.\\ \\

Kali’s Embrace

You have learned the secret of suspending the body’s natural processes and appearing to almost all tests to be nothing more than a corpse. You even appear dead to mental probes and only certain types of magic might be able to discern that you are still alive. This knack is most often used to play possum, but also has some use in order to survive inclement conditions until you can be rescued (like locked in a sarcophagus underwater, or trapped in an avalanche or mine cave in).\\ System: This knack comes from the assiduous study of one of four fields: Martial Arts, Endurance, Survival or Medicine. The character puts himself into a cataleptic trance, which requires a certain amount of time to do. 5 minutes requires a basic skill roll, 5 turns requires 2 successes, and 1 turn requires 4.\\ The character appears to all current medical tests to be completely deceased. His mind appears to be blank, and his body appears to be cooling. While breathing is not completely ceased, it is so shallow as to be imperceptible. The character remains aware of everything that goes on around him with the perceptual apparatus he has available to him (if someone throws a sheet over him or shuts his eyes, he’s out of luck for sight). The body is effectively in a state of suspended animation and can only heal during this time (a positive boon to anyone who also possesses the knack, Resilient). The time that a character can maintain this state is determined by his Temperance.\\ \\ Temperance: Length of State\\ 1: 1 Scene (or 30 mins, whichever is longer)\\ 2: 1 Hour\\ 3: Stamina x Hours\\ 4: 1 Day\\ 5: Stamina x Days\\ \\ The character may return to full animation by rolling on his skill, which takes the same amount of time as entering the trance as above.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in Martial Arts, Endurance, Survival, or Medicine (Character creation: Martial Arts, Endurance, Survival, or Medicine as favoured ability).\\ \\

Lie Detector

People simply can’t lie to you. You may have a way of looking at them that makes untruths freeze in their mouths, or your ears might burn whenever you hear a lie. However this knack works for you, it’s nigh impossible to pull off a fast one on you – unless the liar is using magic…\\ System: Non-magic using characters suffer a +2 difficulty to attempts to lie to the character. If the liar has two or fewer dots in the relevant ability, he simply cannot fool the character. While the character might sense that a lie was just told, this knack does not automatically reveal the truth to her.\\ This knack is cancelled out if the liar has the Master of Dissimulation knack.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in Investigation or Socialise (Character creation: Investigation or Socialise as favoured ability) and Perception 3.\\ \\

Lightning Reflexes

Your reaction times are far faster than the human norm, and you rarely, if ever, falter. While you’re not capable of the bursts of blinding speed that some Exalted display, your reflexes nonetheless operate at a steadily higher level than do those of most people. You habitually snatch insects out of the air, and ambushes never catch you flat-footed.\\ System: Whenever a die for the character’s initiative roll comes up a 1, 2, or 3, it counts as 4.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Awareness (Character creation: Awareness as favoured ability) and Dexterity 3 or Wits 3.\\ \\

Look! A Yeddim!

You’re particularly good at the sort of misdirection that allows you to rifle through people’s pockets, steal their watches from their wrists, and their underpants from… well... under their pants...\\ System: The character is –1 difficulty for all pickpocket attempts (down to a minimum of 1). In addition, following a successful Manipulation + Larceny by the character, the target is at +2 difficulty to spot the attempt.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Larceny (Character creation: Larceny as favoured ability). \\

Master of Circles

Your martial arts prowess is such that you have learned the secret of redirecting the energy of attacks back upon the attackers, or onto their friends. In hand-to-hand combat you have the uncanny ability to take one attack and turn it against the attackers.\\ System: You have the ability to throw attackers and to direct the energy of one attacker into another one. You are at no multiple action penalties to do this, and may default to this option at any time with a successful Wits + Martial Arts roll. The character must be standing and have both his hands unencumbered in order to use this knack. Redirected attacks use the character’s strength, not the attacker’s.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Martial Arts (Character creation: Martial Arts as favoured ability) and Wits 3.\\ \\

Master of Dissimulation

No one is more confident than you are, buddy. Your binding webs of double-talk and immense vocabulary bamboozle even the most astute listener. As long as there’s no one present who can call you on your bluffs, you can fake nearly any sort of professional credentials. Just don’t try to act on your professional knowledge – you may talk the talk, but you most likely can’t walk the walk.\\ System: With a successful Socialise or Performance roll, the character becomes an instant authority on anything – as far as observers are concerned. She could claim to be a detective and gain admission to a crime scene by mumbling under her breath about the preservation of evidence, or could infiltrate an infirmary by masquerading as a doctor called in to consult on some rare disease. As long as her deception remains within the realm of verbal misdirection, only those observers whose Perception rating exceed the character’s successes on the roll and who are experts in the field, or are using some sort of magic, can tell that she’s not what she appears.\\ The character’s duplicity is revealed if she attempts to act on her purported knowledge. She could infiltrate an infirmary by spouting pseudo-medical gibberish, and even most of the doctors there would accept her, but she would quickly be revealed as a fraud if she tried to perform surgery. Of course, if the character actually does have the Abilities required for her roll, there’s no reason she can’t back up her bluff!\\ The thing that separates a Master of Dissimulation from an ordinary scam artist is her complete independence from physical guises (“I left my badge on my dresser, Johnnie…”). This knack functions regardless of the character’s appearance. Even if she’s just crawled out of the sewers, a straight posture and an arrogant tilt of the chin will convince just about anyone that she’s a law enforcement official that’s supposed to be there.\\ This knack is cancelled out if a target has the Lie Detector knack, but only for that person, in that case a standard roll is required, at whatever difficulty the Storyteller determines, in order to fool that person.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Performance or Socialise (Character creation: Performance or Socialise as favoured abilities) and Manipulation 3.\\ \\

Monolith

Whether through sheer bulky mass or through Chi rooting techniques, you have the ability to withstand being knocked off your feet by anything short of a major force. Even in an earthquake, you tend to stay on your feet.\\ System: Your character is rendered immune to sweeps, throws, and similar attempts to bear him off his feet. Attacks that do less than 5 dice of damage (after soak) don’t even require a Dexterity check in order to stay on his feet. The player can calmly be hit by cannon fire and still maintain his footing… assuming it doesn’t kill him of course.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Resistance (Character creation: Resistance as favoured ability) and Willpower 6.\\ \\

Mr Fix-It

Things break, it’s the way of the world. But in the wake of the gods of cracked plates and rusty clockwork bits comes you. You take the broken thing and now exactly which bits to poke and which bits to glue in order to make things work again. Whether it’s giving an automaton a swift kick up the rear end to jar things loose again, or more fine detailed work of finding that last sliver of pottery to mend a priceless vase, you da man.\\ System: You have a natural aptitude for fixing things and so are at –2 difficulty (down to a minimum of 1) on repair rolls, you are also allowed to roll twice as often on extended rolls as you would otherwise be able to (i.e. for the default period: twice a day instead of once a day).\\ In addition, if the character has an appropriate Craft specialisation, this knack allows her to add her Compassion in bonus dice to her roll.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Craft (Character creation: Craft as favoured ability).\\ \\

One-Man Army

You’re never outnumbered – you just have larger and larger target selections. The more enemies you’re facing, the happier you are. In fact, you prefer situations where you’re being assaulted by more than just a couple of opponents. If there’s one of you and five of them, chances are good that they’ll wind up doing some of the work for you!\\ System: The character receives none of the usual penalties for facing multiple opponents in close combat. Instead, she receives one bonus die on all close combat manoeuvre rolls for every opponent past the first that she faces, to a maximum of +4 dice. In addition to this bonus, each turn the character faces four or more opponents directly in close combat she gains one additional action. This extra action can only be used for close-combat manoeuvres. Remember to adjust the total bonuses as the number of opponents change.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in Brawl, Martial Arts or Melee (Character creation: Brawl, Martial Arts, or Melee as favoured ability).\\ \\

Perfect Poise

They never see you sweat. You’re capable of remaining unruffled even in the tightest of situations. If you gamble, even the most savvy of opponents remarks on your poker face. You never panic at the threat of violence, nor in the face of the most excruciating insults. You are the very epitome of “suave and debonair”, never less than completely composed and in control of yourself. Note that you aren’t necessarily immune to surprise – you can be ambushed just as easily as the next person. You’re simply better able to control your reactions than most ordinary folks.\\ System: The character is completely immune to panic unless it’s induced by magic powers. She is completely incapable of displaying any sign of discomfort, shock or surprise unless she chooses to. The character gains two bonus dice in stare downs and all social rolls involving poise, grace or composure (Storyteller’s Discretion). She also receives one additional die in any gambling situation where a “poker face” is a factor.\\ As a side effect of this knack, the character is immune to minor embarrassing mishaps such as tripping, spilling her drink or getting splashed. Also, her clothes almost never suffer damage or get significantly dirty outside of combat. If they do become rumpled or soiled, a brief brushing-off usually restores them to near-pristine condition.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Performance or Socialise (Character creation: Performance or Socialise as favoured ability) and Willpower 7, Wits 3\\ \\

Relentless

Maybe you’ve got the tenacity of a bulldog, or maybe you’ve got the constitution of a prizefighter or a psychopath. Either way, it’s very hard to put you down for the count.\\ System: You gain 2 bashing soak and 1 Lethal Soak. In addition, you never have to roll to see whether you are stunned in combat. For the cost of 1 Willpower you may also ignore wound penalties all the way down to Incapacitated for the rest of the scene. However you may only initiate this expenditure after you have been damaged. This goes equally well for combat as it does for fending off frostbite.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Endurance (Character creation: Endurance as favoured ability) and Willpower 6, Conviction 4.\\ \\

Resilient

You’re up and around while the doctors are still trying to decide how to break the news of your crippling injuries to your next of kin. You’re not any less likely to be critically injured, but you bounce back from even the gravest wounds or illnesses in a matter of days – as long as you survive them.\\ System: For the expenditure of 1 Willpower per Health level healed, the character heals at Exalted rates rather than mortal rates.\\ Prerequisites: 4 dots of Endurance or Resistance (Character creation: Endurance or Resistance as favoured ability) and Stamina 3.\\ \\

Sense Memory

You have the ability to memorise things via disparate forms of sensory input. Perhaps your character is a professional “Nose” in the perfume industry, or has the weird ability to recall perfectly any song he’s heard once. While you may not be eidetic, you might have the ability to vividly recall the scores of every boxing match ever held. Maybe you can identify wines by taste or you can reassemble a clockwork automaton in the dark. It’s up to you.\\ System: The player must choose a sense that is affected and typically, they ought to choose a particular field to devote himself to the study of (like Sherlock Holmes did with his study of tobaccos) and this knack may be purchased multiple times to indicate a character who has honed his sensory apparatus to a razor’s edge. When using the sense in question the character may add his Conviction rating as additional dice to any Perception or Intelligence rolls involving the use of that sense.\\ Prerequisite: The character must have at least 4 dots in the skill that he wishes to apply sense memory to. A person desiring a sense memory of music must have a 4 or better in Performance. Many fields will fall under Awareness or Investigation by default.\\ \\

Sherlockian Awareness

Master criminals may think that they’ve got every angle covered, left no clues of their identity, no incriminating strands of hair lurking on the carpets, but they’d be wrong, and you are just the man to prove it. Whilst others lack the minute attention to detail that is required to scrape every little piece of evidence from a room, not you. If it’s there, you’ll find it.\\ System: The character gains two additional dice on all rolls related to minute details or precise visual perception. The character also has an innate feel for where evidence is likely to be hidden, reduce all difficulty penalties for deducing the location of evidence by 2 (down to a minimum of 1).\\ In addition, the character will never disturb evidence so as to give a false reading of the scene. However, the same cannot be said for any companions who may also be on the scene.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in Investigation or Awareness (Character creation: Investigation or Awareness as favoured abilities).\\ \\

Spider Monkey

You have naturally excellent balance. You leap from rooftop to rooftop, or treetop to treetop, with the greatest of ease. You can cling to walls as if you were glued and have always spotted the next handhold long before you need it. In short, you’re as surefooted as a cat.\\ System: The character gains +2 dice on all rolls involving jumping, climbing, acrobatics, etc.\\ In addition, the character can be assured of finding a foot or handhold on anything but the smoothest of surfaces.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Athletics (Character creation: Athletics as favoured ability).\\ \\

Spurious Logic

You can double talk the best of them. All those people who throw technical jargon and legalese at you, you can throw it right back and add a few twists of your own. The purpose? Confusing people. It can be a great help in all manner of tasks, be it delaying a bureaucratic procedure to give you time to get your affairs in order, or fast talking your way through a bunch of red tape.\\ System: You gain +3 dice for all bureaucracy rolls involving you double-talking your way through the situation. Because of your innate ability to throw spurious logic about, you also gain +1 die in other social situations where you are trying to confuse people.\\ In addition, it’s very hard to confuse you in return. You are at –2 difficulty to resist any attempts to confuse you.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Bureaucracy (Character creation: Bureaucracy as favoured ability) and Wits 3.\\ \\

Steely Gaze

It’s said that the eyes are the windows to the soul. This may well be true in your case, for one glimpse of your blazing orbs convinces even the most hardened observer of your inner steel. Very few men can stand nose-to-nose with you and not back down. Your cobra-like stare can even pin particularly weak-willed individuals in place as if they were particularly appetising field mice.\\ System: The character automatically wins stare downs against normal mortals and gains two bonus dice against everyone else. The character may also temporarily stun a normal mortal target with the sheer force of personality that his gaze contains. To do this, the character makes eye contact with the intended target (who must have a Willpower lower than or equal to the character’s Charisma rating). The player rolls Charisma + Presence at +1 difficulty. Success forces the subject to lose her next combat action (if in combat) or automatically fail her next opposed Social roll (if out of combat). A character may use this knack against any one individual no more than twice per day.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Presence (Character creation: Presence as favoured ability) and Charisma 3.\\ \\

Target’s Luck

Mob history is filled with many abortive attempts on mobster’s lives. Many times these attempts have failed, not because of canniness on the target’s part, but because of sheer dumb luck. The target often seems to be asleep when he’s actually not, and often bends over to pick up a silver dollar when a sniper’s arrow would have taken his head off.\\ System: The user adds his Awareness score as a difficulty penalty to the first attack in any scene that is directed at him. This means that he is rarely hit by the first shot, and may seek cover or return fire as appropriate. This operates even if the character is completely unaware of his assailant.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in Awareness (Character creation: Awareness as favoured ability).\\ \\

Trick Rider

You were riding a horse before you could walk, or were born with a sheet in your hand. Whether you’re a renowned skipper or a master horseman, you are virtually unassailable in any vehicle or on any mount that navigates your chosen medium. You can overcome any damage to the craft or your mount short of its total destruction, assuming anyone can hit you at all. Even in the direst of circumstances, you can keep moving as long as your conveyance is capable of motion – stories abound regarding fatally injured characters who defied death itself to finish one last journey.\\ System: This knack may be purchased for four different areas, though all use the same rules. A Trick Rider is a natural at controlling living mounts; Sea Dog is the nautically inclined version; the two less common versions are Landsman and Pilot, Landsman being for land-based craft and Pilot for aircraft.\\ Whenever the character is controlling a vehicle to which the knack applies, it’s top speed increases by 10 percent for each dot of Compassion she has (a living mount increases by 20 percent). The character’s Compassion also adds to the vehicle or mount’s total manoeuvre score, giving the character a potentially larger dice pool to perform amazing stunts.\\ While the vehicle or mount is moving, all attacks against it that the character is aware of have their difficulty raised by half of the character’s Wits rating (round down). Once the vehicle or mount is hit, the character takes no dice pool penalties for damage to it, short of its total destruction. If she herself is in control and receives injuries that drop her below the Crippled health level (including those that would otherwise kill her instantly), the character continues to function as if she were only crippled until the vehicle or mount is destroyed or stops moving.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Ride or Sail, depending on version of knack (Character creation: Ride or Sail as favoured ability). For the land and air versions a speciality of Sail (land craft) or Sail (aircraft) is needed.\\ \\

Trick Shot

While your usual marksmanship is nothing to sneer at, you truly shine when attempting the impossible. The more difficult the conditions under which you’re shooting, the more skilled you become.\\ System: The character purchases this knack separately for bows or thrown weapons. When performing a tricky manoeuvre while using a weapon for which she has Trick Shot, the character’s difficulty penalties are halved (round down) for called shots, target size, high winds, target movement, character movement, unsure footing or virtually anything else except wound penalties or poor visibility. In addition, the character gains a number of bonus dice equal to the original difficulty penalties that were imposed! She may not gain more bonus dice through this knack than she has dots in the Ability she is using to make the attack. Any successes that result from the Trick Shot are halved (round down) before applying them to the attack’s damage effect. This reduction reflects the fact that the knack’s focus is on performing amazing shots.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Archery or Thrown (Character creation: Archery or Thrown as favoured ability).\\ \\

Universally Deadly

In your hands, any weapon is extremely deadly. You may never have seen a given weapon before, but you intuitively understand how to use it as soon as it’s in your hand. You’re more a prodigy than a savant – your talents are the product of precise aim and an intuitive understanding of range, weight and speed.\\ System: The character gains one die to attack rolls with all weapons and reduces by one all wound penalties involving weapon use. The character is never penalised for using unfamiliar or exotic weapons.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots in at least two combat abilities, preferably one ranged and one close combat.\\ \\

Untouchable

Through a combination of indomitable courage, swift reflexes and uncanny luck, you can face down bow-wielding maniacs with only your bare hands and have a better chance of surviving – and even winning – the fight than your bow-toting companions.\\ System: Whenever the character is in combat and is not armed with a ranged weapon, all ranged attacks made on him suffer a difficulty penalty dependent on his Valour, as determined by the following table. This only applies if he began the combat without a bow on his person – no fair throwing down the longbow once the fight starts in order to gain these benefits!\\ \\ Valour: Penalty\\ 1-2: -1 die\\ 3: -2 dice\\ 4: -3 dice\\ 5: -4 dice\\ \\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Athletics, Dodge, or Martial Arts (Character creation: Athletics, Dodge or Martial Arts as favoured ability) and Dexterity 3.\\ \\

Vitae Sensing Method

You are so in tune with how the human body should work you can sense the energies of life and where the energy is not flowing free. Others look at someone and see a rather ill looking person; you see the flows of energy into and around his being. You see the blockages where he has infections or illnesses and you can see how to apply pressure to assist his natural defences.\\ Poison, as a thing intended to stop the flow of life force is visible to you as a wrong-ness, and all manner of weapons look wrong to you.\\ System: The character gains +2 dice to diagnose diseases and spot the symptoms of poison. Once the source of the ailment is discovered the doctor may add his Compassion to the treatment roll.\\ In addition, if the character has appropriate specialities in Medicine (or Craft, should he have take Craft (potion making) etc.) then he may add his Conviction in bonus dice for rolls to make preventative measures or antidotes.\\ Prerequisite: 4 dots of Medicine (Character creation: Medicine as favoured ability).\\ \\

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