| title | subject | keywords | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Heroic Abilities |
Legend Core Rulebook |
|
What separates a hero from an Adventurer?
Actions, deeds, reputation and history, obviously, but in some cases a hero is defined by his capabilities. A lucky few demonstrate innate talents that distinguish them from the rank and file. These talents and capabilities are known as Heroic Abilities.
Heroic Abilities are powers and enhancements available through seeking reclusive masters, HeroQuesting supernatural gifts, divine blessings or progression within a cult. Adventurers gain these abilities, which augment their existing skills and magic, as rewards for heroic aspirations and actions.
Gaining a Heroic Ability is not as simple as training in a skill or buying a spell. Heroic Abilities need to be earned and usually in one of the following ways:
- Attaining a certain rank, usually Level 3 or Level 4, in a faction.
- Undertaking epic or heroic quests, either as part of cult business or some other endeavour decided by the Games Master.
- Studying with another hero – learning from them, emulating them and, eventually, developing a similar technique.
At their simplest, Heroic Abilities are gained once an Adventurer has accrued enough Hero Points to buy one. However, this should never be the sole criteria for gaining a Heroic Ability. Games Masters should bear in mind that a Heroic Ability is not a piece of merchandise that an Adventurer can pick up at the market after accumulating enough 'money' in the form of Hero Points. These are rare and wonderful abilities, not merely an 'Adventurer sheet upgrade'. In order to learn these abilities, an Adventurer must have proved himself heroically and not simply on a one-off endeavour. True heroes continue to live up to their reputations and are prepared to undergo countless hazards with a more or less selfless outlook.
Thus, although an Adventurer might reach the rank of, say, Priest in a church and thereby become eligible for a Heroic Ability (if his cult offers them) he is not necessarily entitled to add it to his Adventurer sheet. The Games Master may very well require the Adventurer to earn the Heroic Ability through a specific scenario or further adventure.
On some occasions Adventurers will encounter heroes who already have Heroic Abilities and seek to learn from this master. This is permissible of course but no self respecting hero will ever gladly, easily or freely impart knowledge and expertise that he has spent years earning unless the prospective pupil demonstrates his own worth. Even though a student wanting to learn a Heroic Ability might have the right amount of Hero Points to spend, the Games Master is fully within his rights to insist on the Adventurer proving himself in some fashion before the Heroic Ability is taught.
The description of the ability indicates how it is used in game play. However, invoking a Heroic Ability always costs the Adventurer one Magic Point whenever it is used. Although Heroic Abilities are not magical powers, they are, to some extent, fuelled by the same reserves that power Common Magic. Invoking a Heroic Ability involves delving into one's own character, channelling the intangible forces that fire deeds of heroism.
To invoke a Heroic Ability no Skill Test is needed; simply the spending of one Magic Point and the clear statement of the ability to be used in advance of any Skill Test it applies to.
The duration of the ability is given in its description and at the end of the ability's duration, its effects end. The Adventurer can invoke the ability again immediately afterwards, as long as he has the Magic Points to do so and as long as the ability's effects do not leave him incapacitated (through fatigue, for instance).
Requirements: DEX 15 or higher, any Close Combat Style at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 10
Duration: A number of melee rounds equal to CON
Your reactions are preternatural, allowing you to parry missile attacks with melee weapons instead of being limited to a shield.
Requirements: STR 15 or higher, any unarmed or bludgeon Weapon Style at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 12
Duration: One melee attack
Invoked whilst wielding a bludgeoning weapon or using Unarmed combat, you cause an automatic knockback of one metre per two points of rolled damage before it is reduced by parrying, armour or magic. If the victim strikes any obstacle they smash into it, fall prone and automatically receive the attacker's Damage Bonus to a random location, ignoring any protection.
Requirements: CON 15 or higher, any Close Combat Style at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 12
Duration: A number of melee rounds equal to CON
You are a terrible foe on the battlefield, as fearsome and unstoppable as a raging wild boar. You can enter a Battle Fury as a Combat Action. While in a Battle Fury, you automatically succeed in any Resilience roll required for sustaining a Serious or Major Wound. You also automatically succeed in any Persistence roll when resisting mental or emotional attacks. Upon leaving Battle Fury, you automatically gain three levels of Fatigue.
Requirements: POW 15 or higher, Riding 90% or higher
Hero Points: 8
Duration: Until the terrain or situation has been cleared, or if in combat, a number of melee rounds equal to CON
Sitting in the saddle is more natural to you than walking. Each time this ability is invoked you may ignore any and all riding based situational modifiers for terrain or the mount's behaviour. In addition you may use your Riding skill instead of your Evade skill when evading missiles.
Requirements: DEX 15 or higher, any ranged Weapon skill at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 10
Duration: One missile attack
Your accuracy with either thrown or projected missile weapons (whichever type you have mastery in) is the stuff of legends. Invoking this ability allows you to increase the range of your chosen type of missile weapons by 50% and if you successfully hit you may automatically select the location struck – permitting you to bypass the effects of anything less than total cover.
Requirements: STR 15 or higher, Athletics 90% or higher
Hero Points: 10
Duration: One extraordinary jump
You are able to defy gravity when performing a single vertical or horizontal jump. You may roll your Damage Bonus and add this value in metres to the distance achieved.
Requirements: DEX 15 or higher, any Close Combat Weapon Style at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 10
Duration: One parry
You may increase the size of your parrying weapon or shield by two steps for a single parry. This might allow an unarmed defender to ward off a halberd, or the user of a buckler to deflect a mounted lance attack.
Requirements: CON 15 or higher, Resilience 70% or higher
Hero Points: 8
Duration: Continuous – body automatically burns 1 Magic Point when it is infected
You are immune to all normal diseases. Each time you are exposed to a disease, your body unconsciously invokes this ability and purges the infection. Magical diseases will still affect you, though you gain a +20% bonus to tests to resist them.
Requirements: DEX 15 or higher, any 1H Combat Style at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 10
Duration: One melee round
Mastery of your chosen duelling weapon allows you, for brief moments, to react with blinding speed. As a free act you can invoke this ability to grant yourself a single extra Combat Action for that round. This extra CA may only be used for attacks or parries.
Requirements: POW 15 or higher, Influence skill at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 10
Duration: One injury
One of the more unusual of the Heroic Abilities, Empathic Wound is a dangerous and taxing ability and is normally only used by those who shun or forswear violence. When invoked, any damage you suffer from being harmed is mirrored upon your attacker, whether it be from torture, stuck by a weapon, or targeted by a spell. Your inviolate sanctity causes the assailant to psychosomatically or mystically suffer the exact same effects of any damage caused to you.
Requirements: CHA 15 or higher, Influence skill at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 12
Duration: One melee round
Your presence is not only heartening to your comrades, you are also a shining example to others. You may take a Combat Action to bolster all allies within your CHA in metres with your presence, either gaining your CHA as a bonus to any Persistence or Resilience tests they are called upon to make, or as a bonus to all Combat Styles for the remainder of the Combat Round.
Requirements: INT 15 or higher, two Language skills (aside from your native tongue) at 50% or higher
Hero Points: 8
Duration: Several hours
Your study of languages has taught you the common roots of all tongues, allowing you to pick up new foreign languages with startling ease. Invoking this ability, you must either converse with a speaker of a strange language for one hour, or simply hear the language being spoken for two or more hours. You then automatically gain the Language skill in that language at its basic score. A successful Improvement roll when improving a Language skill doubles the skill points gained (roll 2D4+2 rather than 1D4+1).
Requirements: INT 15 or higher, four Lore skills at 50% or higher
Hero Points: 10
Duration: One recall attempt
You are a font of knowledge, possessed of more learning than even you can readily remember. Any time you fail a Lore Skill Test, you are entitled to make an immediate Persistence test (with the same modifiers as the original Lore test) to see if you can recall some shred of knowledge relating to the subject at hand. Typically, this will reveal less information than a successful Lore test would have but it should still be enough to be of benefit to you.
Requirements: STR 15 or higher, any Close Combat Weapon Style at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 10
Duration: One melee attack
You can increase the size of your weapon by two steps for a single attack. This helps the blow overwhelm any parry which intercepts it, allowing damage to penetrate.
Requirements: CON 15 or higher, Resilience 70% or higher
Hero Points: 8
Duration: Continuous – body automatically burns 1 Magic Point when it is poisoned
You are immune to all normal poisons. Each time you are poisoned, your body unconsciously invokes this ability and purges the toxin. Magical poisons will still affect you, though you gain a +20% bonus to tests to resist them.
Requirements: POW 15 or higher, Pact, Sorcery (Grimoire) 90% or higher
Hero Points: 12
Duration: One Use
Upon death you are reincarnated as an animal or creature reflecting the runic affiliation or nature of your cult. Your physical Characteristics (STR, CON, SIZ and DEX) become those of the creature you are reborn into but your INT, POW and CHA remain those of the Adventurer. This Heroic Ability does not require a Magic Point to use. It can only be used once and it is gone.
Requirements: DEX 15 or higher, any cutting Weapon Style at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 10
Duration: One melee attack
If wielding a cutting weapon, you can maximise its damage for a single blow.
Requirements: STR 15 or higher, any Close Combat Weapon Style at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 12
Duration: One melee attack
You can smash or cleave an inanimate object with no harm to your weapon. Any damage you roll completely ignores the Armour Points of the object. Thus you could cut a chain, or smash a door with a single blow. If attacking an opponent's weapon, you must succeed in the attack and equal or beat the opponent's level of success to successfully strike the parrying object.
Requirements: CON 15 or higher, Athletics 90% or higher
Hero Points: 8
Duration: Special
Your stamina is Heroic, allowing you to continue fighting or working long after others drop from exhaustion. Each time you invoke this ability you reduce your Fatigue by one level.
Requirements: DEX 15 or higher, Acrobatics 90% or higher
Hero Points: 10
Duration: One round of running
Displaying incredible agility, you can run along or up walls for short distances to escape or gain a better position against an enemy. You may only use Wall Leaping if not Overloaded, Exhausted or Debilitated. The entirety of your Movement in a Combat Round may be made along a vertical surface, allowing you to bypass an obstruction that might otherwise block your path or even climb a wall at lightning speed. However, you cannot continue moving along a vertical surface from Combat Round to Combat Round – you must reach level ground (or a suitable perch) by the end of your last Combat Action in a round or fall.