The chart on pg. 229 states that witnessing an async sleight deals 1d6-2 SV. The block for hardening says that you can never become hardened to stress from the unknown (which witnessing async sleights falls under).
Do asyncs constantly get stress from witnessing their own sleights? Do their allies also get stress every time their async buddy uses a sleight?
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Yes, but there is no value after a slash ("/"), so no stress if you pass the WIL Check. This is just one small part of why EP is a rough game for any character with a low WIL.
Say I were to make an async with 5 WIL. Once you stop laughing, how would you be able to explain said character not going insane after like a week? If you have a party member with weak WIL, are they just boned if someone decides to play an async?
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Yes they are "just boned" but they chose to have the 5 WIL, so that's likely what they want.
Why even have players pick a WIL stat if having less than x WIL is suicide? Like if I choose to have x COG or x SOM I might not be able to fill certain roles (or I might be horribly inept at those things), but it isn't suicide.
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EP is a complex game. Hopefully GMs and players can quickly find this (and other) trap options and not step into them. I won't waste time defending the game, and it really could have benefited from a sidebar saying that a low WIL can severely impact a PC. Do note that, as written, it would take GM's permission to have < 10 WIL.
Side thought: I do find it interesting that a 5 WIL is considered the baseline for a child. This means that, with all of the horrible shit going on, kids will likely be horribly damaged before adulthood unless heavily shielded from reality. In EP, "think of the children" is a game mechanics shout out.
Pick one of the aptitude templates to determine your six starting aptitudes ▶ 36. These templates are provided as guidelines, and you may raise or lower an aptitude score by taking or giving points from other aptitudes. For example, you can lower WIL by 5 to raise COG by 5. No aptitude score may be lower than 5 or higher than 30.
Looks to me like you can lower any ability score to 5 without GM permission.
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You can't technically do anything without the GM's permission. The GM has to agree to allow your character to exist in the game.
You're implicitly allowed to do anything that isn't listed as requiring permission.
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Only if the GM allows it.
It is a bad idea to make characters with low WIL stats. They will likely go insane and need to be restored from backup (and lose out on rez points), or spend a lot of time getting psychosurgery (or maybe not because they can't handle that much stress).
In this kind of game, hit points are not very important very important because you can easily be brought back to life. It is sanity points that matter because you can carry stress from one body to another (and possibly get more stress because you might remember your death or suffer from lack). WIL is quite possibly the most important attribute you have in this game.
Fortunately, recovering stress does not depend on the WIL stat who is suffering stress. It is either the psychosurgery skill of the psychosurgen or the INT check of the individual.
Asyncs with low WIL stats will likely be in denial of their own special abilities. They would try to live life as thought they didn't have it. They simply can't handle the stress of their own abilities.
There are things that can boost one's resistance to stress, such as the composure trait (improves LUC and other related derived stats), the resolve trait (+5 to WIL checks per level, which improves stress tests), and the stalwart trait (+10 bonus per level to resist fear).
Is there any gear that improves a person's ability to handle stress? I got this idea of an async with low WIL who has turned to drug use to cope. However, I'm not finding much gear that would help with stress.
If not, then it could be written in by the GM. Remember too that your muse is a budget therapist in your head.
I found some drugs that does help with stress. Orbital hash and TGS. Orbital has allows you to ignore 1 trauma but you suffer -10 mod on know and memory checks. TGS is the better version, giving a +10 bonus on WIL checks, allows the user to ignore 1 trauma and 1 wound, but inflicts Enhanced Behavior: Serene (Level 2).
I'm temped to design a new drug that boosts LUC, so you can survive more stress. I'm thinking of calling it "Worry not". I'm not sure how it should work quite yet.
So when I think about design of drugs I think about it as a narrative tool rather than a system tool. Once I have how it works narratively then I work on the system convertion.
So "Worry Not" enhances your ability to handle stress, so its a an anti anxiety med.
The most common side affects of anti anxiety meds are:
Drowsiness
Dizziness
Poor balance or coordination
Slurred speech
Trouble concentrating
Memory problems
Confusion
Stomach upset
Headache
Blurred vision
So lets say "Worry not" causes Memory problems, poor balance or coordination, and trouble concentration.
Now whats that do in the system, give you a bonus to +1 to +3 on your TT, but you also take a penalty to correspond to the side effect.
Cog rolls take a -10 if you have the memory problems
Ref rolls take a -10 if you have the poor balance/coordination
INT rolls take a -10 if you have the trouble concentration
and course this is always has to be an addicted drug...
Now that's just an idea, and it might not work well for your game or even be well balance but it is a starting point for the idea.
Poe
I was thinking the side effect would be apathy. I was trying for something similar to the hardening trait. You don't react as strongly to the horrible things going on around you.
The effects I was aiming for was a +5 LUC, therefore a +1 TT and a +10 IR. My WIL 5 character would have 10 LUC, 2 TT, IR 20. With the drug, the character's stats would become 15 LUC, 3 TT, IR 30.
I'm not sure if that would be an effective solution to someone trying to use drugs to deal with their current psychological trauma. It would help prevent you from getting becoming psychologically worse. Maybe I should go with the ability to ignore trauma, like orbital has does, and let them stack.
Wait, maybe an increase to WIL tests to avoid trauma would work. As you can see, I'm still generating ideas.
Your thinking about it, so your on the right track. Keep up the good work.
Poe
IDK if any devs read the forums, but can one of them explain the reasoning behind asyncs and people that regularly interact with the Factors/Pandora gates getting stress damage from "the unknown?" I've been trying to solve the puzzle since I started the thread and I'm not able to solve it. Is there a mechanical/lore reason for this that I'm unaware of?
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