FrivYeti/PCEGodBloods

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Children of the many supernatural races of Creation, the God-Blooded are mortal at heart, but can grasp many of the basic fragments of magical power, giving them a leg up over their fellow mortals.

Inheritance

Inheritance functions extremely differently from in Scroll of Heroes. It is a Background that may be purchased as normal for Backgrounds, and provides no extra bonus points or experience. Instead, each dot indicates a higher degree of supernatural blood and talent, as follows:

• 0 - A character with almost no magical blood in her veins. These characters may purchase god-blooded mutations that do not require Awakened Essence, but only with bonus points from their God-Blooded Flaws. They may purchase up to 5 pts of God-Blooded Flaws. They must purchase Essence merits as mortals, and can never learn Charms of their parents. They do not receive the starting powers of their type.
• 00 - A character with a moderately powerful supernatural parent (the most common degree of Inheritance). These god-blooded begin with their type's Heritage Power, and may purchase any God-Blooded mutations, including Awakened Essence, with any bonus points they have. In addition, they may purchase up to (Essence x2) Essence 1 Charms with bonus points or experience, provided they have Awakened Essence. They may not raise their Essence past 3 with bonus points or experience. They may purchase up to 10 pts of God-Blooded Flaws.
• 000 - A character with two supernatural parents, or one powerful parent. This behaves as Inheritance 00, except that the character may purchase any number of Essence 1 Charms, and up to (Essence x2) Essence 2 Charms once she reaches Essence 2. She may purchase up to 15 pts of God-Blooded Flaws.
• 0000 - A character with a truly mighty parent, or two strong supernatural parents. This behaves as Inheritance 000, except that the character may purchase any number of Essence 2 Charms, and up to (Essence x2) Essence 3 Charms once she reaches Essence 3. She may raise her Essence up to 4, and may purchase up to 20 pts of God-Blooded Flaws.
• 00000 - A character with two powerful supernatural parents. This behaves as Inheritance 0000, except that the character may purchase any number of Essence 3 Charms. She may raise her Essence up to 5, and may purchase up to 25 pts of God-Blooded Flaws.
• Legendary - Reserved for the rarest of characters, those with powerful supernatural parents and a lot of luck. This behaves as Inheritance 000000, except that the character may raise her Essence up to 6, and may purchase any number of Essence 4 Charms once she reaches Essence 6. She may purchase any number of god-blooded Flaws.

Determining Inheritance

Determining a new child's Inheritance rating is done according to the following chart. Note that, for all purposes, Exalts are considered to have Essence ratings one dot lower than usual for the purposes of this Chart - the power of the Exaltation was never meant to pass through the blood. In addition, an Exalt who is not at least Essence 4 is considered to be a mortal for the purpose of this Chart.

• First, determine which parent is more powerful. The parent with the higher Essence rating is alwasy the stronger parent. In the case of a tie, the stronger parent is as follows: Solar > Lunar > Sidereal > Terrestrial > God > Demon > Elemental > Ghost > Fair Folk
• For every dot of Essence possessed by the stronger supernatural parent, roll one die. Set aside the number of successes.
• If the second parent is an Essence-user, roll one die for every three dots of Essence possessed by that parent(round up). Set aside these successes.
• Compare successes. The child's Inheritance type is that of the parent with more successes. Her Inheritance rating is based on the number of successes rolled, as follows:
  • If no successes are rolled, the child is totally mortal.
  • If one success is rolled, the child has Inheritance 1.
  • If two or three successes are rolled, the child has Inheritance 2.
  • If four or five successes are rolled, the child has Inheritance 3.
  • If six or seven successes are rolled, the character has Inheritance 4.
  • If eight to ten successes are rolled, the character has Inheritance 5.
  • If eleven or more successes are rolled, the character has Legendary Inheritance.

A character may never have a higher Inheritance rating than her stronger parent's (Essence -1). Legendary Inheritance requires either one Essence 10 parent, or two parents with a combined Essence score of 15.

General Alterations

• Terrestrial half-caste exist. They are not very common, due to mainly being the children of old Dragon-Bloods who don't have a lot of children, and who mostly have kids who Exalt anyway.
• When Dragon-Bloods have children with other supernaturals, the child does not almost always Exalt. Instead, when determining their chances to Exalt, treat the Terrestrial parent as both parents for the purpose of modifiers.
• Any form of half-caste can Exalt as any type of Exalt, provided that they did not have Awakened Essence.
• God-Blooded do not automatically channel Essence. They must purchase a special God-Blooded Mutation in order to do so.
• God-Bloods: The God-Blooded Heritage power does not allow them to spend Willpower to recover motes. God-Bloods with Awakened Essence add their (Essence) to their Peripheral pools.
• Demon-Bloods: Demon-Bloods respire Essence normally. They cannot automatically survive Malfeas, although this is a common mutation. God-Bloods with Awakened Essence add their (Essence) to their Peripheral pools.
• Ghost-Bloods: Ghost-Bloods cannot regain Essence by drinking blood. They respire Essence naturally. Ghost-Bloods with Awakened Essence respire Essence in the Underworld as well as in Creation.
• Fae-Blooded: Fae-Blooded cannot automatically feed on emotions. They respire Essence naturally in Creation.
• Half-Caste: Half-Caste gain the usual Attribute bonus.
• No god-blood may purchase any Permanent Charm that provides them with additional motes or health levels.

Awakened Essence

Awakened Essence is a four-point Merit that can be purchased by any god-blood, regardless of type. It allows the character to raise her Essence above 1, as defined by her Inheritance rating, and to respire Essence and attune to artifacts and manses as though she were an Exalt. Awakened Essence may only be purchased at character creation.

An awakened character has a Personal Essence Pool of (Essence + Willpower) motes, and a Peripheral pool of (Essence x4 + Willpower) motes. They follow the mortal Essence pool rules, but with their animas reflecting a pale fragment of their parent's nature.

All god-bloods with Awakened Essence purchase spirit Charms. Each character purchases Charms that align thematically with the nature of her parent (for example, a child of a Sidereal would purcahse spirit Charms realted to fate and diviniation, and with restrictions based on her nature.) Purchased Charms cost 12 XP apiece, and follow the limits laid down by the character's Inheritance rating. God-bloods increase their Essence at a cost of (Current Rating x12) XP.

As a general setting rule, only about one in ten Inheritance 2 God-Bloods have Awakened Essence, along with about one in three Inheritance 3 God-Bloods, three out of four Inheritance 4 God-Bloods, and nearly all Inheritance 5 God-Bloods. Since most god-bloods are Inheritance 1-3, very few overall have Essence powers.

Altered Mutations

• Dynastic Inheritance: This mutation provides half the Inheritance rating of the parent, not half the bonus points. It never provides automatic Awakened Essence, although it does not bar it, either.
• Beast Speak: This power allows speech with only one type of animal (birds, lizards, canines, etc.) As a Blight, it allows speech with all animals.
• Breed True: This power causes all mutations that the character has that are not Essence-fueled to breed true. Descendants are not considered god-bloods, however, but natural mutants. Awakened Essence, obviously, never Breeds True.
• Material Resonance: This mutation requires the Awakened Essence mutation.
• God-Blooded Prodigy: This mutation is unnecessary given that the Merit exists.
• Immortality: This mutation is restricted to god-bloods whose parents are immortal, and who have Inheritance 5 or higher.
• Essence Abundance: This mutation is removed; god-bloods do not get more motes.
• Supernatural Fortitude: This mutation provides a -2 health level as a Blight, and a -1 health level as an Abomination. It may be purchased up to (Essence) times.
• Crippled Essence: This mutation is removed.

New Mutations

• Malfean Physiology (Affliction, Demon-Blooded Only): The character's demon blood is strong within her. She can survive Malfeas naturally, as though she were a demon.
• The Taste of Blood (Affliction, Ghost-Blooded Only): The character's ghostly nature is growing stronger. She can respire Essence by drinking blood, as ghosts do.
• Ravishing The Created Form (Affliction, Fae-Blooded Only): The character has some of the endless hunger of the fae. She automatically learns the Fair Folk Charm of the same name. If the character has no Graces, she automatically opens one Feeding Grace when she develops this Mutation.
• Banquet of Crumbs (Affliction, Fae-Blooded Only): The character has some of the endless hunger of the fae. She automatically learns the Fair Folk Charm of the same name, even if she does not meet its prerequisites. If the character has no Graces, she automatically opens one Feeding Grace when she develops this Mutation.
• Finding the Spirit's Shape (Abomination, Half-Caste Lunars Only): The character possesses a spirit shape, a totem that she can transform into. The character chooses any animal that would be a valid totem for a Lunar, and may shapeshift into it as a reflexive action costing 1 mote.
• Poor Essence Respiration (Debility, Fae-Blood, Ghost-Blood or Half-Caste Abyssal only): The character cannot respire Essence in Creation. Instead, she can only respire Essence in the locations that her parents are limited to.

Exaltation and the God-Blooded

Exalts may be god-bloods - this is uncommon, but possible. In most situations, children of gods simply do not Exalt, but they are capable of the heroism or dedication that Exaltations seek. Scholars of the First Age theorized that the competing Essence flows with such children drew the distaste of Exaltations, and were empowered only when no other option was available, but as testing this would have required the repeated butchery of Celestial Exalts, the theory remains unproven.

To reflect this, Exalts may purchase the Inheritance Background normally. An Exalt who purchases two or more dots of Inheritance loses a single Charm to reflect her initial difficulties adapting her altered Essence to her new state, but gains the Heritage powers of her god-blooded type. An Exalt may purchase the Awakened Essence mutation, in which case she may purchase Charms of her parent's type under the rules for god-bloods doing so, at the experience costs for god-bloods doing so. Eclipse Caste characters who are also god-bloods may use Charms purchased as god-bloods as prerequisites for Charms purchased as Eclipses.

In general, however, this is a subpar option for Exalts. Heritage powers are slightly weaker than most Exalted Charm effects, and the Background cost for Inheritance provides no actual benefits, only the opportunity to spend more bonus points. Players should be made aware that they will be trading some of their starting power for a bit of versatility.

On the other hand, Exaltation is a funny thing, especially when rival Essence flows are concerned. Sometimes, Exaltation will wipe nearly all traces of Inheritance out of a god-blood's system. In such cases, the character may take a few Merits and Flaws to represent their heritage, and does not actually need to purchase Inheritance if they are not gaining a mechanical benefit from it.

Any type of god-blood may Exalt as any type of Exalt, even if they had Awakened Essence.