Knacks de Força Épica
Knockback Attack
The Scion is able to perform an attack
that infl icts no damage whatsoever but
sends his enemies fl ying back. On a
successful attack, the Scion can choose
for the attack to infl ict damage and
knockback normally (see Scion: Hero,
p. 198), or he can choose for the attack
to infl ict no harm but to impose one
yard of knockback per threshold success
above the defender’s DV instead.
(Doing so costs one Willpower point.)
Hardness can still cancel out this effect
if it is greater than the attack’s raw
damage.
Shock Wave
The Scion is so strong that he can direct
his incredible power through the ground
or floor to affect enemies at range.
Doing so takes two separate forms.
First, the character can stomp or strike
the ground with his fists or a weapon,
which sends a shock wave outward
from him along the ground across an
area with a radius equal to his Epic
Strength in yards. Striking the ground
thus to send out the shock wave requires
a Strength roll, which receives the
benefit of his Epic Strength. Potential
victims—friend and foe alike—compare
their Dodge DV to the results of this
roll. If their DV overcomes the Scion’s
successes, they manage to jump and let
the shock wave pass beneath them. If
their DV isn’t high enough, they
immediately suffer knockdown as well
as an amount of bashing damage equal
to however many of the Scion’s
successes their DV couldn’t cancel out.
(If his allies know the Scion is about to
use this Knack—if his using it is part of
a coordinated assault, for instance—
they can jump out of the way
preemptively without having to rely on
their DVs.) This attack inflicts no
damage on the floor or the ground the
Scion strikes. All the energy is
expended into the shock wave. The
second form this power takes is more
selective and deliberate. As with the fi
rst form, the Scion strikes the ground
and sends a shock wave along the
surface out to a distance equal to his
Epic Strength in yards. This time,
though, his player makes a standard
Dexterity based attack roll and targets a
single opponent. If that opponent’s
Dodge DV isn’t high enough to get him
out of the way of the attack, the Scion’s
player then makes a Strength roll,
modified by his Epic Strength but not
modified by his extra successes on the
attack roll. The damage this attack
inflicts is bashing, but it has one other
effect that renders the victim almost
helpless for a moment afterward. Any
successes on the Strength roll that
exceed the victim’s soak not only inflict
damage but also hurl the victim straight
up in the air (one yard per unsoaked
success). The victim’s rise and fall takes
six ticks, during which his DVs are
considered to be halved. He can make
ranged attacks at a -5 penalty, but he
can’t move or jump or do much of
anything until he lands again. In fact, if
the Scion’s attack sends him high
enough in the air, the victim might take
damage from crashing back down from
so great a height. Using either form of
this Knack requires the expenditure of
one Legend point.
Making It Look Easy
When a character performs a feat of
strength, doing so takes every bit of
effort the character can muster. He
doesn’t just lift a blue whale by the tail
and hammer throw it back into the
ocean between bites of scone. He grunts
and strains and struggles until he gets
enough momentum behind the whale
for it to leave the ground, and when he
lets it go, it’s with a resounding shout of
strain and a near collapse of relief as it
sails out over the water. The name of
this Knack, however, speaks for itself.
Any action the character can perform as
a feat of strength, he can perform as if
it’s no effort at all. He can lift the
heaviest weights with one hand while
using his other hand to cover a yawn.
He can throw a spear into orbit with a
flick of his finger. He can scoop the
beached whale up in one hand and send
it skipping like a stone out into the deep
water where it can move freely (if
dizzily) once again. Since such feats of
strength are so easy, the character can
execute multiple actions while
performing feats of strength.
Knacks de Destreza Épica
Escape Artist
The Scion can somehow slip out of the
tightest bonds, the most cunning snares
and even her opponents’ very fi ngers.
Whether she’s tied up and left to stew in
her own juices or she’s wrapped in a
clinch with a snarling berserker, she
rarely remains bound for long. When
someone attacks her character with a
successful clinch, the Scion’s player not
only adds her Epic Dexterity automatic
successes to her contested (Dexterity +
Brawl) to escape, but she also adds an
additional automatic success for every
dot of Epic Dexterity her character has.
Should the Scion victim’s player
succeed on this resistance roll, the Scion
slips free of her opponent’s grasping
limbs and well out of his reach. Also,
should a character be physically
restrained—tied up, handcuffed,
strapped down, whatever—she can slip
her bonds with a divine grace that is
nothing short of baffl ing. The player
need only spend a point of Legend, and
her character’s handcuffs come undone,
her straightjacket’s buckles come loose,
or her ropes slough off like a snake’s
dried-out skin. The Scion can’t escape
thus in view of witnesses, however,
unless said witnesses are members of
her own heroic Band or are Fatebound
to her. Remote witnesses watching via
camera transmission don’t hinder the
effect, but even close scrutiny of such
footage doesn’t reveal how the Scion
escaped her bonds. She just did.
Ricochet Symphony
If someone is trying to hit a target with
a thrown object, the best thing for the
target to do is get down behind cover or
tuck in behind a shield. If the person
trying to hit the target is a Scion with
this Knack, however, not even such
measures guarantee total safety. Before
he lets loose, the Scion refl exively
takes in the contours of the
surroundings (as the player spends a
point of Legend). He then throws his
item in a seemingly random direction
that nonetheless sends it ringing and
bouncing off nearby surfaces to
completely circumvent the target’s
cover or shield, thus negating its DV
bonus. The Scion’s throw can
incorporate a number of ricochets equal
to his Epic Dexterity dots, and each
ricochet negates a point of DV modifi er
that comes from cover or a shield. If the
Scion is trying to not only hit the target
but also disarm him or otherwise show
off (more so), each ricochet can
mitigate the penalty for doing so as well
if he has ricochets left over. The general
rule here is that one ricochet takes away
one point of penalty on the throw’s roll
due to cover, a shield, showing off or
attempting to disarm the target. When
the thrown item fi nally hits the target, it
does so at its full force, regardless of
how many times it bounced off walls, fl
oors, light fi xtures, other enemies’
helmets or what have you. This Knack
works only with thrown objects, and it
is not to be combined with the effects of
Trick Shooter.
And the Crowd Goes Wild
By the luck of the divine genetic draw,
the character is superbly suited to
athletic pursuits. She excels at any sport
she plays, even if she’s never so much
as heard of it before. Running, jumping,
climbing, swimming… any athletic
pursuit is second nature to her. As a
result, any dice the character has in
Athletics are considered to be automatic
successes when the player rolls a dice
pool that includes Athletics. Bonus dice
granted by an Arete (see Scion: Hero,
p. 149) are also counted as successes
automatically if the player spends a
point of Legend when her character
performs the action. Values that derive
from a character’s Athletics rating (such
as Dodge DV or the feats of strength
total) are not affected by this Knack, nor
are any Boon activation rolls that might
call for Athletics.
Perfect Partner
The character with this Knack is
extremely good at modifying her
movements—be they gross or subtle—
to coordinate perfectly with other
people. This Knack comes in handy in
the ballroom, the bedroom, even the
thick of battle. The first two
applications might not come up as often
in play, but they shouldn’t be
discounted out of hand. The dance
performance of two characters with this
Knack would put the best work of Fred
Astair and Ginger Rogers to shame. The
sexual prowess of a character with this
Knack would be legendary all on its
own. The third application of this
Knack makes coordinating assaults (see
Scion: Hero, p. 190) that much easier.
Using it, a character can attach herself
to any coordinated assault she sees fit,
without the player of the person
coordinating the assault having to
include the character in the dice roll to
do so. If the character with this Knack
wants to coordinate her attack with only
one other person, neither of them even
has to make a roll to do so. As long as
they act at the same time and attack the
same target, they are coordinated by
default.
Photographic Penmanship
With the expenditure of a point of
Legend and a point of Willpower, the
character can draw, paint or otherwise
create a two-dimensional image with
the clarity of a high-end digital camera.
Anything he has seen and can remember
clearly enough, he can reproduce on a
page exactly as it looks in his mind’s
eye. The base expenditure allows the
character to create an image (or part of
one) that is one yard square. Expanding
the image beyond those dimensions
costs one additional Legend point per
square yard. The character need not add
additional square yards to an image as
consecutive actions if he runs low on
(or out of) Legend points. As long as he
continues his work in an adjacent
square-yard space, he can pick up where
he left off for only a single Legend
point. As a side effect of having this
Knack, the character becomes a master
forger of signatures and works of art.
Roll With It
The character’s body is so lithe and
supple or so unnaturally malleable that
she can bend like the greenest reed and
rarely ever break. In Step Six of attack
resolution (see Scion: Hero, p. 194),
the player can spend one point of
Legend and add a value equal to her
dots in Epic Dexterity to any soak value
she has that is above zero. That way,
even if she can’t get entirely out of the
way of an attack, she can dissipate some
of the force behind the blow and
mitigate some of the damage.
Knacks de Vigor Épico
Body Armor
The Scion’s body is so tough that, even
unarmed, he can parry close-combat
attacks that would inflict lethal damage.
If a berserker hopped up on Jotunblut or
a thrall full of eitr tries to split the
Scion’s skull with a fire axe, the Scion
can take the blow on his forearm and
knock it aside without serious injury.
(That assumes the character’s Parry DV
is sufficient to cancel out the attack
roll’s successes, of course.) While that
benefit remains in effect all the time, the
Scion can also engage a temporary one
that offers even more protection. With
the expenditure of a Legend point, a
measure of the Scion’s ichor wells up
from within and coats the Scion’s body.
This coating hardens into a gleaming,
metallic armor that’s no thicker than a
hair’s breadth. This armor has a bashing
and lethal soak equal to the character’s
Legend, and it inflicts a mobility
penalty of only -1. The ichor coating is
thin enough to fi t comfortably beneath
one’s clothing, so it adds its protective
value to that of any other armor the
character might already be wearing.
Natural armor from this Knack lasts for
only one scene and disintegrates at the
scene’s end.
Skin–Shedding
Not only is this Knack a life-saving
power, but it can also be an effective (if
surreal) means of escape. If an enemy’s
attack against the Scion inflicts enough
damage to cause knockback, the Scion
may spend a point of Legend and a
point of Willpower to reflexively negate
all damage from the attack. The attack
still inflicts its knockback, though,
seemingly knocking the Scion
completely out of his skin. The empty
husk collapses at the attacker’s feet,
disintegrating over three ticks. The
Scion who was apparently knocked out
of his skin lands perfectly unharmed
however far away the knockback threw
him, retaining all of his clothing and
possessions and radiating a golden
sheen until the shed skin disintegrates.
The Scion can use this Knack only once
per scene.
Extended Youth
At the physical age at which the
character takes on this Knack, her body
no longer physically or visibly ages.
Her hair doesn’t turn gray or thin out,
her skin doesn’t wrinkle, she doesn’t get
liver spots, nothing sags due to gravity.
Until the character becomes a God, she
looks like she looked at that mortal age.
(Taking this Knack after the character
becomes a God would, admittedly, be a
little silly.).
Knacks de Carisma Épico
Pied Piper
The character exudes such charm and
élan that people just want to be around
him. When the character engages this
Knack, the player need only spend a
point of Willpower and a point of
Legend. Thereafter, and until the next
sunrise, any mortal who looks in the
character’s direction feels compelled to
be in his company. People fl ock around
him like the paparazzi on Oscar night,
desperate to be near him and get his
attention, and they’ll follow him from
locale to locale for as long as he keeps
leading them. Mortals can resist this
compulsion, but doing so requires a
successful (Willpower + Integrity +
Legend) roll with a diffi culty equal to
the Scion’s Legend. Successful
resistance breaks the spell for the rest of
its duration; a failure means the
character cannot try to break away again
for another hour. The demigod character
can have as many lingering groupies
and hangers on as his Epic Charisma
dots normally grant him bonus
successes on Charisma rolls. Scions use
this Knack not only to gather up fellow
revelers for long, roving parties, but
also to surround themselves with
unwitting human shields. For as long as
the Knack lasts, the compelled mortals
will not abandon the Scion unless he
chooses to end the effect early.
Boys Will Be Boys
This Knack, alternatively known as
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, is a
character’s trusty Get Out of Jail Free
card. When the character gets into
trouble with some angry witness or
authority figure—be it the police, a
mortal parent, one’s long-suffering
spouse, etc.—he need only shrug
haplessly, grin foolishly or do likewise.
(His player also spends a point of
Legend.) At that, the offended party
decides that whatever the character did
wasn’t really that bad. The character
gets a slap on the wrist, a stern warning
or no punishment at all, depending on
when he chooses to use it. This Knack
doesn’t work on anyone with a higher
Legend rating, though. Also, if the
character wants to use it against
someone with an equal Legend rating,
his player must roll (Charisma +
Presence + Legend) against a roll of the
potential victim’s (Willpower +
Integrity + Legend).
Hapless Cool
The character spends a Legend point,
and for the rest of the scene, she’s just
cool. Nobody can explain it; there’s just
something about either what she did or
the way she did it that made her look
cool. Okay, sure, the salt she threw over
her shoulder hit Papa Legba’s dog in the
eyes, but the comedic timing was just so
perfect. Yeah, granted, she laughed so
hard when Hel asked if she wanted any
half-and-half in her coffee that
scrambled eggs came out her nose, but
she owned it. No matter what a
character with this Knack active does,
says or allows to happen that makes a
fool out of herself, anyone who sees her
thinks she’s cool anyway.
Knacks de Manipulação Épica
Advantageous Circumstances
With this Knack, a Scion turns a group
of people into his own Rube Goldberg
machine. Taking only a moment to
glance around the room at what the
people around him are doing, the Scion
decides what result he wants to achieve
and takes the fi rst small step toward
achieving that end. The effect can take
no more than a scene to accomplish, and
it can be no more than a personal,
temporal gain for himself.
For Example: A Scion of Ogoun is at a
bar having a drink when up pulls the
motorcycle of the Scion of Sobek from
whom he stole an expensive and
powerful Birthright. The Scion of
Ogoun needs a distraction so he can
slip out the back before the Scion of
Sobek notices him and turns him into
mincemeat. After a quick glance
around, the Scion of Ogoun motions to
the bartender and orders a drink for a
pretty girl across the room. He also
pays off his tab. As the waitress takes
the drink over, a sour-faced middle-
aged man exits the restroom and walks
back toward the table where his
shrewish wife is waiting. The waitress
hands the drink to the pretty girl and
points back toward the Scion of Ogoun,
but the middle-aged man just happens
to be in the way. The pretty girl waves
and smiles her thanks, and the middle-
aged man smiles back in distracted
confusion as the Scion of Ogoun tips the
girl a wink. It’s at this point that the
Scion of Sobek enters and notices the
Scion of Ogoun putting on his jacket. As
the Scion of Sobek comes toward the
Scion of Ogoun’s seat, the middle-aged
man meets his shrewish wife heading
toward him. Having misinterpreted the
pretty girl’s wave of thanks to the Scion
of Ogoun, she demands to know why her
husband bought a strange girl a drink.
She throws her own drink in his face,
sending him tripping over his own feet
and stumbling backward toward the
Scion of Sobek. That Scion stops and
catches the middle-aged guy before the
poor fellow can crack his head against
the corner of a nearby table. Yet when
the Scion looks back up to fi nd his prey
again, the Scion of Ogoun is nowhere to
be seen.
Knowing Glance
Knowing that someone is keeping a
damning secret can be quite an effective
tool in getting him to do what you want.
With this Knack, however, that
knowledge is not only a tool, but a
powerful weapon. When the Scion is
aware that another character is keeping
a dangerous secret—whether he has
uncovered it through investigation or
has discovered its presence through the
Stench of Guilt Knack (see Scion:
Hero, p. 132)—he need only make eye
contact with the guilty party. As the
Scion’s player spends a point of
Legend, the character with the secret
suddenly realizes that someone else
knows, and he loses all of his unspent
Willpower points from his pool. The
Scion can affect the same character thus
only once per day, and the Knack has
no effect if the victim is not actually
hiding the secret the Scion thinks he is.
Rumor Mill
The demigod Scion can play make a
lyre of the media, lending credence and
giving unexpected life to the wildest of
rumors. He need only come up with a
seed rumor and cast it adrift in
conversation with someone (even a
stranger) and watch it bloom in the
fertile fi elds of the public imagination.
In order to make his rumor catch on, the
Scion’s player need only spend a point
of Legend and make an instant
(Manipulation + Politics) roll. The
number of successes this roll
accumulates determines the height of
public attention to which the rumor will
rise before it is either accepted as true
(if it is true) or proven to be poppycock
(if it’s something the Scion made up).
For a rumor or a fact to make its way
from the Scion’s lips to its highest level
of exposure takes one month minus a
number of days equal to the Scion’s
(Manipulation + Epic Manipulation +
Legend) total— with a minimum of one
hour. Once it gets there, a false rumor
maintains its level of exposure for a
number of days equal to the Scion’s
Legend before being proven false. A
true fact remains at that level of
coverage for the same amount of time.
Sucessos Efeito
1 Some nut-job’s blog
5 Local ’zine and newspaper
coverage
15 Major metropolitan
newspaper coverage
20 Local TV news coverage
30 Several popular websites
and blogs
35 National newspaper and
magazine coverage
45 National cable TV news
coverage
50 Worldwide news media
Secondhand Persuasion
With this Knack, a character spends a
point of Legend and becomes able to
use her Epic Manipulation through the
typed or written word. She must
specifically address her attempted
persuasion through a Manipulation
based roll to a single person—whether
it’s in an e-mail, a registered letter or
just a piece of graffiti with the victim’s
name attached—and the person resists
with the standard (Willpower +
Integrity + Legend) roll. The written
communication gets only one chance to
supernaturally influence its victim, and
the victim gets only one chance to
resist, regardless of how many times the
victim might read the missive thereafter.
Knacks de Aparência Épica
Blinding Visage
Mortal beauty or ugliness can take one’s
breath away, but divine beauty or
ugliness can do so much more. When a
Scion grows angry at a mortal—such as
a tabloid photographer who just won’t
leave him alone—his player can spend
a point of Legend and sear his visage
into the mortal’s retinas. Doing so
blinds and disorients the mortal for the
remainder of the scene. If the Scion’s
Epic Appearance represents beauty, the
victim meanders aimlessly, dazzled by
the character’s divine radiance. If the
Epic Appearance represents ugliness,
the victim staggers around in a blind
panic unable to get the awful visage out
of his head. Rules for dealing with
blindness appear on page 186 of Scion:
Hero.
My Eyes Are Up Here
As Scions build up ever more dots of
Epic Appearance, they grow ever more
unearthly. As such, whether they’re
beautiful or quite the opposite, it
becomes increasingly diffi cult to deal
with mortal humans on their level. The
Scion’s Epic Appearance can’t help but
get in the way. This Knack, however,
mitigates that factor. When the Scion’s
player spends a point of Willpower to
activate it for the scene, any mortals
who see the character completely ignore
his Appearance score (both Epic and
mundane). Witnesses might vaguely
remember that a beautiful Scion was
kind of pretty or that a disgustingly ugly
Scion was dirty and a little scary, but
that’s it. They won’t recognize the
Scion again later unless the Scion uses
this Knack in their presence again, and
they won’t be able to describe the Scion
in great detail to anyone else. They
might get height, hair color, skin tone,
build and style of dress right, but details
beyond those generalities prove elusive.
Scions themselves are immune to this
effect, as they are more than capable of
dealing with the extremes that Epic
Appearance represents. This Knack
lasts for the scene, though the Scion can
choose to turn off the effect before then.
Also, while he’s using this Knack to
deal with a mortal, he cannot use any
other Epic Appearance Knacks against
him. Nor can he apply his Epic
Appearance to rolls pertaining to
dealing with that mortal at all until he
lifts the effect.
Perfect Actor
The Scion can put on an emotional
display so convincing that anyone who
can see him clearly enough, and in
person, to read his emotion feels that
same emotion just as strongly as the
Scion seems to. That emotional state
lasts for the rest of the scene. When the
effect wears off, the affected victims are
unable to explain what came over them,
and are likely embarrassed by letting
their feelings run away with them like
that. Activating this Knack costs one
Willpower, and it works whether the
Scion is beautiful or awful.
Doin’ Fine
No matter what happens to hurt a
character with this Knack, he always
looks like he’s in the prime of health.
Bullets disappear into his body;
cleaving through his flesh with a blade
or claw has as much outward effect as
attacking a pool of water. Even the
hardest blunt impacts clothing that
looks and feels like any sort of armor,
but armor created thus offers no soak
benefits. No Mobility Penalty or Fatigue
value either, though, so that’s nice. A
character can take off an article of
clothing she has created with this
Knack, and pieces can be torn in
combat, but once a piece leaves contact
with either the character’s body or the
rest of the outfit, it disintegrates.
Knacks de Percepção Épica
Broad–Spectrum Reception
This Knack not only magnifies a
demigod’s mortal senses, but steps
beyond them altogether. His eyes can
now perceive waves in the infrared and
ultraviolet ends of the electromagnetic
spectrum. He can see magnetic fields,
hear electricity humming within
insulated wires and detect ultrasonic
vibrations. He can smell the free
electrons of a radioactive substance. He
can even feel television and radio
waves, though he can’t quite translate
them into discrete pictures or sounds.
The only catch is that the Scion must be
actively searching for each sensation—
the default assumption is that his senses
are those of a regular mortal. Attuning
his brain for this higher awareness and
overlaying it on his mortal
consciousness costs one point of
Legend for the scene, but he can switch
between the various sensations freely
during that time.
Spatial Attunement
The Scion is so aware of his
surroundings that his other senses
(primarily those of hearing and smell)
compensate for his eyes in identifying
nearby objects outside his line of sight.
The Scion could recognize the person
sneaking up on him by that person’s
telltale scent and mark exactly how far
away that person is by the sound of his
passing. With one quick glance around
the room, the Scion could mark in his
mind exactly where every wall and
piece of furniture is within. Having
done so, he could then navigate the
room with his eyes closed, even
slipping through a milling crowd of
people without bumping into anyone or
anything. To a certain extent, the
character can perceive what’s going on
around him in a 360-degree arc. Also,
he suffers no penalties for fighting blind
as long as he can hear or smell his
opponents.
Telescopic Senses
A Scion’s Epic Perception allows him
to hear, see and smell things from much
farther away than mortal senses do.
With this Knack, the Scion can not only
perceive these sensations, but perceive
them as if they were happening right in
front of him. If he’s within the range at
which the sound of someone’s voice can
travel, he can not only hear that voice,
but follow its conversation as clearly as
if he were participating. If a sniper is
crouched high up on a ridgeline within
his line of sight, the Scion can not only
see him but also recognize him and
count the notches on his rifl e stock. If
he’s wandering in the woods and the
wind brings him the distant scent of
someone’s camp fire, he can not only
smell it but tell what kind of wood
they’re burning, what brand of
marshmallows they’re roasting and how
long it’s been since they’ve had a good
bath.
Parallel Attention
The more sensations a character can
experience, the easier it is to be
overwhelmed by them. If he doesn’t
learn to focus his mind on one sound,
one image, one sensation to the
exclusion of all others, he can all too
easily be carried away by the riot and
cacophony all around him. With this
Knack, a character need never worry
about such a thing. He can divide his
attention equally between every source
of input to which he is exposed, to the
detriment of none. He could absorb and
comprehend every conversation in a
room. He could watch and follow every
television program on the bank of
monitors before him. By smell alone, he
could point out every flower in a flower
shop with his eyes closed. With the
preceding Knack, he could hear every
prayer addressed to him at the same
time. With the second application of
Clairvoyance, he could instantly judge
the results of a chili cook-off from
across the room. Regardless of how
many things he can sense
simultaneously, however, he can still do
only one thing at a time unless he has
the Multitasking Knack (from Scion:
Demigod, p. 65). Also, using this
Knack for a scene costs three Legend
points
Sense Fatebond
When people who are bound by Fate
move around, the threads that connect
them vibrate. The closer they are to one
another, the higher the frequency of that
vibration grows and the more noticeable
it is. Most people and Gods instinctively
ignore this sensation, but a character
with this Knack can choose not to tune
it out. When he’s in the presence of a
Fated character whose role has been
activated by proximity to someone to
whom that Fated person is bound, he
gets a tingle up the base of his neck. If
he spends one Legend point, he tunes
that sensation in, which reveals which
character is the Fated one and to whom
she is bound, if the object of the bond is
also nearby. This Knack doesn’t reveal
the nature of the bond—such as what
Fatebound Role a character might play
—only its presence.
Knacks de Inteligência Épica
Cipher
The Scion’s brain is his own personal
Enigma machine. He can break any
encryption and decode any message
created by someone without Epic
Intelligence, without the need for a roll.
He can also design a onetime code for a
specifi c recipient that cannot be broken
by anyone without Epic Intelligence
(regardless of how smart such a person
is or what decryption equipment he
might have on hand). Only a fellow
Scion with Epic Intelligence can even
attempt to break the code—calling for
opposed (Intelligence + Academics)
rolls. The person for whom the coded
message is intended can automatically
read the message as clearly as if it were
written in his native language.
Language Mastery
The Scion can understand any language
that is spoken to him. Once he’s heard a
few sentences, he can then speak that
language back as if he grew up among
native speakers. Writing the language is
a bit trickier, as he can only transliterate
his written words in the alphabet of his
native language until someone teaches
him the alphabet and punctuation of the
new language. For instance, say a Scion
with this Knack whose native language
is English has picked up French at Orly
Airport in Paris and would like to leave
a thank-you note for a bartender who
gave him helpful information. That
Scion might write, “Maresee Maresee du
mah-vay zayday,” to express his thanks,
when what he really means is, “Merci
de m’avez aidé.” Likewise, reading the
new language can be diffi cult if that
language uses characters that don’t
appear in an alphabet with which he is
already familiar.
Multitasking
The Scion can carry on as many
separate primarily mental activities as
he has dots of Legend simultaneously
and with his full attention. A Scion with
Legend 6 could play a game of chess
against a recognized master while also
playing go against a ninth-dan
professional, translating a James Joyce
novel into a different language,
reprogramming his computer, planning
a raid against the titanspawn entrenched
in the historic ruins across town and
itemizing his various businesses’ tax
deductions for the year. The character
never suffers distraction penalties for
mental actions, nor are his separate
simultaneous mental actions penalized
as per the multiple action rules (see
Scion: Hero, p. 179).
Wireless Interface
If the Scion devotes his total attention to
doing so, he can mentally interface with
an active computer without so much as
touching it. He need only be able to see
the computer, though not necessarily the
monitor, in order to communicate with
it. (Also, the computer must be turned
on. Anybody can talk to a computer that
isn’t on. Same thing happens too.) The
degree to which the Scion can program
the computer or access its fi les is the
same whether he’s sitting at a keyboard
in front of a monitor or just staring at its
CPU, though, so it behooves him to at
least know his way around an interface.
Mentally interfacing with a computer’s
programming absorbs the Scion’s
attention, imposing a -2 distraction
penalty on him unless he also has the
Multitasking Knack.
Blockade of Reason
Charmers and hucksters and blowhards
can get their way with even the Gods
themselves, as the Gods can be tricked
and led astray almost as easily as
mortals can. Characters with Epic
Intelligence and this Knack, however,
can block out even the most charming
words with a simple application of
reason. When some other character uses
a supernatural persuasion effort—
including the addition of bonus dice
from an Epic Attribute—that calls for a
mental resistance roll of (Willpower +
Integrity + Legend), the character with
this Knack can apply her bonus
successes from her Epic Intelligence to
that roll. Doing so costs her one Legend
point per resistance roll.
Speed Reader
The character can read and comprehend
with perfect clarity an entire block of
text—such as two facing pages of an
open book—in the amount of time it
takes her to blink. She need only be able
to see the entire block clearly enough to
focus her eyes on any given word in it.
Knacks de Raciocínio Épico
Cobra Reflexes
The character is so quick on the draw
that even a surprise attacker is not safe
from him. If someone attacks him from
surprise but the character’s player fails
to get enough successes on the (Wits +
Awareness) roll to notice the attack
coming, the Scion may still attack his
attacker back at the same time. This
counterattack is so lightning quick that
it catches the attacker off guard as if he
were also being caught by an
unexpected attack. The Scion himself
might not realize he’s taken the attack
action until the ambusher’s attack has
already hurt him.
Eternal Vigilance
Similar to the Environmental
Awareness Knack (see p. 64), a Scion
with this Knack is never taken by
surprise by unexpected attacks. He joins
battle as soon as the attack occurs, and
he applies his full DV to his own
defense. It doesn’t matter whether the
attackers use supernatural means of
concealment or not. They simply cannot
catch him off guard. Unfortunately, this
Knack doesn’t help the Scion’s
comrades. The Scion reacts as the
surprise occurs, but he does so
practically subconsciously and not in
time to warn anyone else. What’s more,
this Knack works even if the Scion is
asleep, though to a lesser extent. If the
Scion is sleeping and someone tries to
spring an unexpected attack, the player
rolls the Scion’s full dice pool to notice
the attack as he would if the character
were awake (awake and didn’t have this
Knack, that is). If the roll succeeds, the
character wakes just in time to react to
the attack, though still not in time to
warn anyone else.
Instant Assessment
With a quick glance, and the
expenditure of one Legend point, the
Scion can size up a foe with whom he
intends to join battle. This assessment
comes across in terms of how the foe’s
combat abilities compare to the Scion’s
own. He gets a sense of whether the foe
has more or fewer dots of Physical
Attributes (Epic and otherwise) than he
does. The same goes for their relative
number of dots in Brawl,
Marksmanship, Melee and Thrown, as
well as their relative Join Battle dice
pools and their soak totals. Also, if
some power or special quality renders
the foe especially vulnerable or
completely invulnerable to something to
which the Scion has ready access, the
Scion gets a sense of that as well. What
the Scion decides to do with this
information is up to him. This
information occurs reflexively to the
Scion who uses the Knack, and he may
assess as many foes automatically as he
spends points of Legend.
Monkey in the Middle
When multiple attackers gang up on a
single opponent, their combined efforts
can disconcert and intimidate even the
best trained martial artist. A character
with this Knack, however, keeps his
cool despite how high the odds might be
stacked against him. As a result, he
suffers no coordinated attack penalty or
onslaught penalty in combat when
multiple attackers try to rush him all at
once.
Jack of All Trades
If a character has no aptitude for a
particular Ability (i.e., no dots in it), he
cannot apply any bonus successes from
his Epic Attributes to rolls that use that
Ability. He simply doesn’t understand
enough about what he’s doing to apply
his full talent. With this Knack,
however, the character gets a feel for
any activity remarkably quickly. As
such, he can apply some of his
appropriate Epic Attribute bonus to the
appropriate roll, despite the fact that he
has no dots in the relevant Ability. In
such a circumstance, a player can
enhance a roll with this Knack and add
a number of bonus successes from his
character’s Epic Attribute equal to the
number of dots he has in the Epic
Attribute. Enhancing a roll with this
Knack’s benefit costs two Legend
points.
Opening Salvo
The character’s tongue is sharp; with it
she can wound a foe to the quick. When
the character says something witty (or
just catty) to a person and that remark is
designed to trip him up or humiliate
him, the victim loses one Willpower
point. Inflicting this sting with such a
venomous put-down (even if it’s
actually just a tired Yo-Momma joke
the player came up with on the spur of
the moment) costs the user one Legend
point. The only caveat to this Knack is
that the player must actually come up
with the gibe in question. It doesn’t
have to be good; she just has to say
something.
Psychic Profiler
Within seconds, the character with this
Knack can size up a character with a
lesser Legend rating than his own. Just
by looking at the person, he can tell her
weight, height, age, sex (if it’s unclear
to casual inspection) and whether she
has a divine heritage or not. With just a
few lines of conversation, he can also
tell the subject’s Nature, calling and
primary Virtue (if any). Finally, if the
subject is Fatebound to someone and is
acting out a Fatebound Role, he can
figure out what that role is. He might
not know to whom it applies, but he can
probably figure it out from context if he
watches the person long enough.