Viewing Effect - Melee Mastery
Master your weapon

Create a Melee Mastery Power

Description

This Power grants access to an array of effects improving your ability to fight with a chosen type of melee weapon. It can also be used with the Unique Weapon Drawback to acquire a new weapon. In that case, the base stats for that weapon should be based off of an existing mundane melee weapon, and it should not behave much differently.

Mastery powers are not obviously supernatural.

Eratta

As always, bonuses to the same dice pool do not stack. Instead, the highest bonus is used. This is also true of Damage, Armor, and Armor Piercing.

System

Passive, always in effect. Attacks with [[weapon-type]] will do [[additional-damage]] more damage. The target's Armor is [[armor-effectiveness]].

Enhancements

Whirlwind (You may Exert your Mind to apply your next attack to any number of targets who are within melee range.)
The activation cost may also be paid with Source.

Riposte (If you successfully Defend against a melee or unarmed attack, you deal damage equal to your excess Outcome plus Weapon Damage back to your attacker.)

Heavy Strikes (If you are attacking with a blunt weapon, if your attack causes an Injury you may choose to knock the target down and back 15 feet. Standing up is typically a Quick Action.)

Fancy Footwork (You may move your full Dash distance and attack with your Melee weapon in the same Round without penalty. You may also split your movement before and after your attack.)

Mjolnir (You may call your weapon back to your hand as a Quick Action [-2 dice] if it is within 50 feet. Works on any weapon this Mastery applies to that you have held in the past hour.)

Blade Breaker (If you successfully Defend against a melee attack or if an opponent is unsuccessful at Defending against your melee attack, you may break your opponent's weapon.)

Dismember (If one of your attacks causes a Battle Scar, you may choose for it to be some form of dismemberment, depending on the Severity of the Injury you caused.)

Cleave (If your Attack kills a target, you may apply any excess damage not needed to make the kill as a successful attack against another target within range.)
The damage is the amount of damage the successful attack deals AND is treated as the number of successes on an attack roll for the purposes of Reactions. Does not grant weapon damage again.

Bullet Parry (You may React to and Defend against firearms and other projectiles.)

Dual Wielding (You may wield a two-handed melee weapon in one hand and receive no penalties when using a melee weapon in your off-hand.)

Weapons Master (All benefits gained from this power apply to any type of melee weapon.)
Cannot take with the Unique Weapon drawback.

Sheathing the Sword (When you would Clash with an opponent, before the dice are rolled, you may opt to have both sides deal full damage. If you do, your attack roll is at -1 Difficulty.)

Shredder (If you successfully hit your target, the value of any armor they are wearing is reduced by 2. This penalty lasts until the armor is repaired.)
For types of armor where "repairing" doesn't make sense, including many flavors of the Armor power, the penalty will instead last until the Injury is healed. The penalty does stack if the target is hit multiple times.

Assassin (If your attack injures someone, they cannot make a sound, even incidentally, for a single Round.)
Even the sound of their body and equipment dropping to the ground is silenced.

Drawbacks

Active (This Power is no longer passive. Spend an Action and Exert your Mind to activate it for one hour.)
Conditional (This Effect is only available when a certain condition is met. This condition must be severe enough that this Gift is unusable the majority of the time.)
The condition must be significant. Subject to GM approval.
Unique Weapon (This Power takes the form of a specific, unique weapon, which can be borrowed, lost, or stolen.)
This Drawback either applies to an existing weapon or can be used to create an entirely new weapon. If a new weapon is created, its base stats are equal to a similar, mundane weapon.
Maddening (Possession of this Gift causes a Trauma that cannot be cured by any means. The chosen Trauma must be particularly dangerous and/or restrictive.)
This Trauma should require a Mind roll to avoid serious issues and loss of Character control. For example, "you must roll Mind to surface from any body of water," or "you must roll Mind to avoid jumping into fire when you see it," or "you cannot trust your life to someone else without rolling Mind." etc.
Monstrous (Possessing this Power causes a mutation that elicits a strong, negative social response from the average person in your setting. The mutation is visible even if you are wearing long sleeves, pants, and shoes. Maximum one per Contractor.)
This mutation is ALWAYS present, even when the Gift is not being used, and ALWAYS extreme and difficult to conceal. This mutation may complicate social situations at the GMs discretion. Maximum of one Gift with the Monstrous Drawback per Contractor.

Parameter - Armor Effectiveness

Default Level: 0

Seasoned Threshold: 2

Veteran Threshold: 3

  1. Fully Effective
  2. Reduced to 1/2, rounded up
  3. Reduced to 1/4, rounded up
  4. Completely ignored

Parameter - Bonus Damage

Default Level: 2

Seasoned Threshold: 3

Veteran Threshold: 4

  1. +0
  2. +1
  3. +2
  4. +3
  5. +4
  6. +5
  7. +6

Parameter - Armor Effectiveness

Default Level: 0

Seasoned Threshold: 2

Veteran Threshold: 3

  1. Fully Effective
  2. Reduced to 1/2, rounded up
  3. Reduced to 1/4, rounded up
  4. Completely ignored

Parameter - Bonus Damage

Default Level: 0

Seasoned Threshold: 2

Veteran Threshold: 4

  1. +0
  2. +1
  3. +2
  4. +3
  5. +4
  6. +5
  7. +6

Example Powers

Yūrei's Whisper is a magical Ninjatō sword with a stark-white blade. It was given to the Ninja by the ghost of an ancestor to be used in a mission of vengeance.

The ancestor's ghost muffles the sound of anyone gravely injured or killed by the sword, and guides the blade to separate its victims from their extremities.

This Artifact can be used as a Sword/Axe. It is roughly the same size as a Sword/Axe and just as difficult to conceal.

Attack by rolling Brawn + Melee, Difficulty 6. Successful attacks deal 1 Weapon Damage +3 Bonus Damage. The target's Armor is fully effective against this damage.

You also gain the following effects:

  • Assassin: If your attack injures someone, they cannot make a sound, even incidentally, for a single Round. Even the sound of their body and equipment dropping to the ground is silenced.
  • Dismember: If one of your attacks causes a Battle Scar, you may choose for it to be some form of dismemberment, depending on the Severity of the Injury you caused.