Weakness Gifts
From Edge of Darkness Wiki
While the Storm Lords exemplify the traditional attitude a werewolf holds toward weakness — that is to say, they hate it with the core of their being — all tribes find weakness to be a hindrance even if it’s not physically repulsive. Gifts of Weakness allow a werewolf to dampen his own weakness while exploiting it in others. The Storm Lords don’t favor this Gift list because too many see it as a cheap get-out clause that disgraces their ties to Winter Wolf. Spirits of animals with hidden strengths teach these Gifts, including a wide variety of poisonous spirits. The Gifts are also taught by some spirits aligned with the Maeljin.
Contents |
Gift Levels
• Reflection
In order to know weakness, the werewolf first seeks it out in the one place she knows it resides — herself. While other Gifts allow her to manipulate the weaknesses of others or hide her own failures, this Gift allows her to know her own limitations far better than she could without spiritual understanding. She knows what is holding her back, allowing her to work around that problem.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The character believes one of her strengths is really a weakness. She suffers a –1 penalty on the next roll she makes with her highest Attribute or Skill.
- Failure: The werewolf understands no more about herself than normal.
- Success: The werewolf realizes how her own weakness is holding her back. If she has to make a Chance roll before the end of the scene, she instead makes the roll as if she had one die.
- Exceptional Success: The werewolf gets more insight into how she can work around her weakness. She can reduce the penalty applied to one roll that affects her current situation by 1 (so a –3 penalty becomes –2).
•• Shallow Heart
Focusing on weakness includes inspecting the dark corners of one’s own mind. Many Uratha don’t like what they see there, reliving the moments of shame and wrath that have made them who they are. For a short time, this Gift allows the werewolf to show another — or herself — what she would be like if those little twists had taken a different turn and she had become a different person entirely, with a different core of weakness whispering into her heart. The werewolf can use this Gift upon herself or another, but using it on another werewolf is a sin with a Harmony Threshold of 6.
- Cost: 1 Essence
- Dice Pool:Composure + Larceny + Cunning versus Composure + Primal Urge
- Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The target changes Vice as for a success, but entirely outside of the character’s control. The Storyteller should choose a new Vice for the subject of the Gift, and the player of the subject should play it out fully.
- Failure: The subject sees no other weakness but his own.
- Success: The werewolf inflicts plays around with his subject’s secret weaknesses and triggers, exposing a different set of negative values to the world. The player can select a new Vice for the subject, which lasts until the end of the scene and should be roleplayed appropriately. The new Vice entirely replaces the old one; though, if the subject has already indulged himself, this scene he can do so again.
- Exceptional Success: The subject finds triggers he didn’t know about, leading him to question who he is. This new understanding is akin to his committing a sin with Morality Threshold (Harmony Threshold for werewolves) of 6.
••• Coward's Soul
The weak accept tawdry untruths about free will and nobility. They act as though a moment’s grace, defying their basic weakness just once, will redeem them for the countless little sins of a week or a month. Their actions — however noble — are a pitiful reflection of their own weakness, trying to make up for their guilt over being such a worthless human being most of the time. This Gift enhances that feeling, inducing a depression that robs even the most selfless actions of all meaning besides assuaging the actor’s guilt.
- Cost: 3 Essence
- Dice Pool: Resolve + Empathy + Purity versus
subject’s Resolve + Primal Urge
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The character is overcome by the guilt and depression she had intended to inflict. For the remainder of the scene, any action that would trigger her Virtue does not do so.
- Failure: The werewolf cannot capitalize on the subject’s weakness.
- Success: The werewolf inflicts feelings of guilt and depression in the victim that last until the next time the subject gets a good night’s sleep. If the subject’s Virtue would have restored her Willpower before she awakes, she regains no Willpower.
- Exceptional Success: The subject is consumed by self-loathing. In addition to the effects of a success, the next action that the subject would consider noble is at a –2 penalty.
•••• Hidden Self
A werewolf who masters weakness must accept that it lies within his heart as much as any other’s. The claims of some Uratha that they are beyond weakness are nothing but lies. They hide their weakness, but it still lurks within them. This Gift allows a werewolf to hide his weakness from the world. To those who care, he is without the weakness that defines everyone. While this can be a useful tool to bluff or bluster an opponent, the use of this Gift is never perfect. People can tell that something is wrong, something is missing, and may come to suspect the character because of that.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The character is overcome by the very weakness she was trying to hide. She must find an opportunity to indulge her Vice before the end of the scene, but gains no Willpower for doing so.
- Failure: The character’s attempt to hide her weakness fails.
- Success: The werewolf successfully hides her weakness from onlookers. This weakness can be her Vice but it could be something else; a low Attribute, low Harmony or a derangement may all be considered weakness by the character. She does not suffer the effects of her most obvious weakness for one scene. If her weakness is a Vice, she regains one Willpower in a situation in which she is strongly tempted to indulge but does not, derangements don’t have any effect, a low Attribute is rolled as if it were average (two dice) and so on. Supernatural powers that attempt to discern her weakness automatically fail. This effect only works when people are watching the werewolf, and anyone observing a situation in which the werewolf’s weakness would normally affect her can make a straight Resolve + Empathy roll. Success indicates that the observer knows something is wrong, though only an exceptional success indicates to the observer that the werewolf is hiding her weakness from the world. Storm Lords who make use of this Gift (and are caught) are guaranteed to have a very hard time gaining Honor Renown.
- Exceptional Success: The effects of the Gift extend until the next moonrise or moonset (whichever is sooner). Observers who try to see through the Gift do so at a –2 penalty.
••••• Wrack
All the physical power of a werewolf is sometimes no match for the darkness within a person’s heart. Using this Gift, a werewolf inflicts a person with spirits of weakness that make sure that every little moment of shame plays out a thousandfold in the subject’s head. Every moment of weakness comes back to haunt the target of this Gift, and, in extreme cases, can lead to self-harm and even suicide as the subject tries any means possible to make up for leading such a wretched existence. Even if the target doesn’t harm herself, she certainly has no recourse to defend herself against anyone who would free her from her pit of weakness, though many werewolves find the psychological damage that this Gift produces just as effective as their own teeth and claws. There’s no doubt that this is a cruel Gift, but those who have gained the secret knowledge behind it believe that in some instances it is the only way forward that has any justice behind it.
- Cost: 2 Essence and 1 Willpower
- Dice Pool:Wits + Larceny + Honor – target’s Resolve
- Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive.
Roll Results
- Dramatic Failure: The subject of the Gift is flooded with confidence in herself and her actions. For the next day, any attempt to exploit her weaknesses suffers a –3 penalty.
- Failure: The subject is no more depressed than anyone else in the World of Darkness.
- Success: The subject of the Gift finds herself suffering severe depression and self-loathing as every little moment of weakness plays back behind her eyes. She can take no actions beyond moving half her Speed each turn without spending a Willpower point (which does not grant the usual three-dice bonus). If attacked, her Defense counts as zero. The Gift’s effects last for two turns per success, and if the target survives she must make a degeneration roll as if she had committed a sin with a Morality Threshold equal to her current Morality trait (so if she had Morality 6, she would roll three dice).
- Exceptional Success: The subject of the Gift starts self-harming, gouging long wounds in her arms with any vaguely sharp instrument nearby, or her own nails if no tool presents itself. The subject takes her Strength in lethal damage in addition to the other effects of this Gift.
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