Re: Hunter: The Vigil
Stol... I mean recovered from White wolf's site.
"Endowments
Hunters are not supernatural creatures. They do not command the unholy powers of the night (although the case could be made for the Lucifuge), nor do they possess inborn resistance to injury or death. Around the world, the vast majority of hunters face the supernatural armed with little more than their wits, willpower, and whatever supplies they can gather from the local sporting goods store. Some hunters, though, by dint of powerful backers or stores of ancient relics or a supposed fallen angel in the family tree, have access to tools beyond those that ordinary men and women can acquire. Some would argue that these tools make them every bit as unnatural as the things they profess to hate—how much difference is there, really, between a witch who calls down lightning from the sky and a man who has implanted a swarm of insect monsters into his body to use as a weapon? Others counter that, to destroy the monsters that hide in the shadows with any chance of success, a hunter needs every edge he can get.
Endowments, unlike the powers of supernatural beings, are not their own category of Trait. They are simply a new category of Merit, and are purchased with Merit dots just like any other (see "Merits" on p. XX for the specifics of how each Endowment Merit works). Most Endowments have special rules governing their use, and safeguards in place to keep members of rival organizations from using them. These rules are discussed in detail at the beginning of each Endowment's description.
Endowments are weird. Endowments are monstrous and, in many ways, inhuman. Does this make those hunters who use them inhuman? “Humanity” here is in the eye of the beholder.
Sample Endowment
VDSB ()
Ever since Murnau's Nosferatu, the knowledge that vampires are destroyed by the light of the sun has entered the pop culture lexicon. While VALKYRIE's scientists have not yet found the key component of sunlight that causes such deleterious effects on the bloodsuckers, they have developed the next best thing.
Function:The VDSB (Victim-Detonated Sun Bomb) is an explosive device that is rigged to trigger via an infrared sensor and thermal imager; when an object with a core temperature of less than 94 degrees Fahrenheit breaks the infrared beam, the device is triggered. Instead of an explosion, the VDSB (which looks like a generic satchel charge but contains far more complex innards) uses a combination of full-spectrum phosphorescent lights and focusing mirrors to create a blinding flash which is, from an electromagnetic standpoint, identical to sunlight. While the light doesn't actually harm vampires, it can cause a surge of panic that overwhelms their rational mind and leads them to make tactical errors.
Arming the device is simple enough, necessitating success on an instant Wits + Crafts roll. However, unless operating in total darkness, the VDSB must also be concealed, necessitating six successes on a Wits + Crafts roll, with each roll representing 10 minutes worth of work. Disarming the bomb is more difficult, requiring six successes on a Wits + Crafts roll, with each roll representing one minute of work. Once the tampering process starts, though, the disarmer only has four minutes, or four rolls, in which to disarm the device. Once that time ticks down, the device detonates if it hasn’t been neutralized.
Against humans and monsters not afraid of sunlight, the VDSB is treated as an ordinary explosive. It has a “Damage” of 4, but damage is only rolled to determine whether or not the target is Stunned. Remember that to calculate an explosive's damage, you roll a number of dice equal to the Damage, in this case 4, and add the successes to the base Damage rating (see The World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 178). Blind characters and creatures without eyes are unaffected.
When a vampire or other creature vulnerable to bright light is caught within the area of a VDSB, the effects are far more pronounced. The vampire's player must immediately make an extended Resolve + Composure roll, with each roll representing one turn. Each turn in which the vampire's player rolls at least one success, he maintains his composure for one further turn. If at any time the vampire fails to gain any successes on a roll, he flies into a frenzy of fear in which his only objective is to flee from the source of the light. He will attack anyone that gets in his way, but otherwise just tries to get away. If the vampire accumulates five successes on the extended roll, he shakes off the flight instinct and can act normally. "
Also, you risk willpower rather then conviction now. You can either get the three dice bonus, make the roll 9-again, or make it count as an exceptional success on three, instead of five. If the hunter succeeds, he gets that point of WP back, and another one. However, he can't go beyond the max.
