Advantages

The following advantages are organized alphabetically. I also have an old PDF (will update shortly). Oh, yes, and my Guilds.

Adventurer

[6 pt. Advantage] An adventurer is a man of action, eating danger for breakfast and intrigue for dessert. Gain the Athlete, Dirty Fighting, Doctor, Rider, Streetwise, and Wrestling skills; for each skill that you already possess, reduce the cost of this advantage by 1 Hero Point, to a minimum of 1 Hero Point.

This advantage is designed to make the skills in question ubiquitous among Heroes; I find that these skills are the ones most often neglected and later desired by Heroes in my own Stories. Each GM should customize the advantage to his own tastes. As a secondary goal, I wanted to discourage abuse of the University and Academy advantages.

Androgynous

[2 pt. Advantage; 1 pt. if Montaigne] You can easily pass for the opposite gender. Gain +2k0 for all Disguise rolls. You cannot buy the Dangerous Beauty advantage.

Arthritis

[3 pt. Advantage] At odd moments, your joints ache, acting almost as a sixth sense. You gain +2k0 to all Weather, Ambush and Street Navigation rolls. However, your GM may spend a Drama Die to require you to make a Raise on all your Finesse rolls for the remainder of the Scene.

Batty

[8 pt. Advantage - Glamour sorcerers only] People don't understand. They aren't delusions, they're your friends. And they help you out in oh so many ways... Gain an additional Glamour Die.

Best of Both Worlds

[12 pt. Advantage] They may call you mutt, half-breed, and bastard, but you happen to have found a nice use for your mixed lineage. You may choose two nationalities, and gain the advantages for both (bonus point in two traits, lowered cost of languages and advantages). You may not purchase Weak-blooded or Full-blooded sorcery.

Blind

[1 pt. Advantage] The inability to see isn't as bad as it's made out to be... You suffer a penalty of only -2k0 on Martial knacks* when in complete darkness (unfortunately, you are always in complete darkness), and gain +1k0 on any Perception rolls not involving sight (you may still take the Keen Senses advantage). Needless to say, there are many activities in which you cannot participate in (such as reading or writing), but blind Heroes should not suffer penalties on all tasks involving sight, only those which significantly rely on eyesight.

* I assume Kevin Wilson was in error when he said that darkness imposes kept die penalties in the Montaigne sourcebook; such extreme penalties would render all activity completely useless.

Defensively Trained

[New Advantages - 4 Hero Pts. or 12 Experience each] Every melee combat technique has advanced defense strategies, and you have spent long hours learning the those of your own discipline. For example, a defensively trained Aldana apprentice with a 3 each in Dancing and Parry(Fencing) would have a Parry(Fencing) Passive Defense of 18. This advantage is only available to students of the proper school, and may be purchased multiple times for multiple schools.

I tried to keep each advantage unique, which makes it hard to come up with stuff for all the fencing and knife schools. I couldn't think of anything for, or perhaps forgot about, some of the schools. If you have any suggestions...

Grotesque

[4 pt. Advantage] You have some form of deformity, ailment, or scarring that utterly horrifies people. Add 1 to your Fear Rating, which can be canceled by a successful Wits+Disguise roll (TN 15). You cannot take the Appearance or Dangerous Beauty advantages, but it is highly recommended that you take the Unnerving Countenance advantage.

Hemophiliac

[2 pt. Advantage - Porté Sorcerers only] Your blood is thinner than most; there is recent theory that this is due to your noble lineage. You can blood 4 items per mastery level (as opposed to 3, as normal). However, all First Aid and Surgery rolls made on you are at +10 TN. This advantage may be bought twice (4 pts., 5 items per mastery rank, +20 to First Aid rolls).

[4 pt. Advantage - Porté Sorcerers only] (Using my Alternative Porté rules)
Your blood is thinner than most; there is recent theory that this is due to your noble lineage. Double the number of Blood points you have and recieve. However, you may not allocate more than two Blood points to any item, and all First Aid and Surgery rolls made on you are at +10 TN.

Huge

[10 pt. Advantage; 8 pt. if Vesten] There are large men, and there are giants. You look down on them both. Gain +2k0 on damage and Intimidation rolls, and +2k2 on feats of brute force (e.g. Lifting rolls, contested Wrestling rolls, etc.). Your size, however, is not advantageous in all circumstances - you lose -2k0 on Stealth, Disguise and Charm rolls.

Before you dismiss this one, think "Fezzig."

Idiot Savant

[1 pt. Advantage] Your brain works in different ways from most. Gain +2k2 on all Gambling, Gaming, or Mathematics rolls or rolls involving memory. However, you social graces leave something to be desired. As such you suffer a -2k0 penalty on any Repartee roll.

Juggernaut

[10 pt. Advantage; 8 pt. if Ussuran] There are rumors of Ussurans who are part beast; while this is highly dubious, there are instances of savages who can survive in the snow without protecteion, and even shrug off a hefty blow from a woodsman's axe. Gain +2k2 on Wound checks, but your weight slows you down; you lose two Raises each round of a Chase, and must make a raise on all Finesse checks (these two effects are not cumulative).

Natural Bamboozler

[2 pt. Advantage; 1 pt. if Vodacce] You can bring out the benefactor in people - whether they want you to or not. For some reason, these people just don't understand that you'll have their money by Voltadi... The Debt and Hunted backgrounds have no cost in Hero Points or Experience for you.

This might get a little broken if you don't enforce strict Background rules.

Penchant

[1-3 pt. Advantage; may be taken any number of times] For some reason, you just have an innate talent for a certain activity. Choose a knack - any knack; this advantage costs the same in Hero Points or Experience as the next rank in that knack. Whenever you make a check using that knack, you roll Trait + Knack as normal, but keep a nuber of dice equal to the higher of your Knack and you Trait. Thus, if Alvin has a Panache of 2 and a Fashion of 4 with a Penchant for Fashion, he would roll a 6k4 instead of a 6k2 for Fashion checks. Note that advanced, Sorcery, and Swordsman knacks may all be chosen.
(Thanks to Edwin Rosa for help with this one)

As an attempt to reconcile the official rules with a common house rule.

Professional

[6 pt. Advantage] You have trained yourself as a professional in your field. Choose a single Civil skill; all advanced knacks from that skill require only 1 Hero Point, instead of 3.

School of Hard Knocks

[12 pt. Advantage] Life's tough, and so are you. Perhaps you weren't dealt the best hand in life, but it's YOUR hand, by Theus, and you can do more with what you've got than any of those pompous nobles can! Your traits cost 6 Hero Points, rather than 8, to purchase at character creation. You cannot buy the Noble advantage.

Unhindered

[2 pt. Advantage] You may be a bit slow, or drab, or clumsy, but you are nonetheless a Hero! When you take this advantage, choose a Trait. When determining Drama Dice, the Unhindered Trait does not count. Thus if a Hero were Unhindered by Resolve, he could have a 3 in Brawn, Finesse, Wits, and Panache, while sporting a 1 Resolve, and would still have 3 Drama Dice to begin each session with.

Wiry

[3 pt. Advantage] You have always been on the slender side, which has more than once kept you from being struck with a blade. Subtract your Brawn Trait from 5, and add this to your Passive Defense. You may wish to take this with the Unhindered by Brawn advantage.

Last updated: April 1, 2004
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