AlternateMechanics/DSAlternateMortalEssence

A house rule for my current campaign.

Heroic Mortals may raise their Permanent Essence at a cost of either 10 bonus points or 12x Current level in experience, with the normal current level x months training time. However, as mortals don't have Essence pools, this isn't of much use to them.

Raising Permanent Essence does provide a few major benefits to Mortals, however.

• Lifespan extension. A mortal with a Permanent Essence of 2 or greater will not lose dots in their physical attributes as they get older; they are as spry today as they ever were. Furthermore, each dot of Permanent Essence a Mortal buys extends their lifespan by roughly a decade.
• Resistance to some Charms. Many Charms take how well they function as a matter of the Permanent Essence of the target. With mortals, this tends to be a moot point; however, a rare and exceptional few are slightly more resistant to the effects than normal.
• Attributes and Abilities beyond 5. As with the Exalted, a Mortal who gains 6 dots of Essence can increase their Attributes and Abilities to superhuman levels. Such people are very rare, naturally- they are the ancient, wizened monk who has studied the Forms and Katas of the most ancient and venerable style for over a century, and will kick the ass of anyone who tries to disrupt their harmony.
• Possibly, some mortal magics may rely on having a higher Permanent Essence. Just what this means, I'm personally fuzzy on.

I dunno. Random thought at 3 in the morning :) (Actually, the thought is older than that, but the hammering out is largely done now)

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Ox-Body Technique</b>
<b>Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Special
Min. Endurance: 1
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: None

This is the Mortal level Ox-Body Techinque. Each time it is taken, it provides 1 additional -4 Health Level. It can be taken no more than the character's Essence.

Body of Iron</b>
<b>Cost: None
Duration: Permanent
Type: Simple
Min. Resistance: 2
Min. Essence: 2
Prereqs: None 

The character may soak lethal damage with half their Stamina, as one of the Exalted.

Comments

I think this is way cool. - willows

Hm. Not sure how I feel about using this vs the Player's Guide version. Bears consideration. DS