Homebrew Atavisms
Below are a number of additional Atavisms that have been generated for use here. These homebrew atavisms owe their life to our good friends, Iron Al and Emmett, who helped design and balance them all. If you have balance concerns, or just questions, please feel free to ask, and we can work something out!
Wight's Touch
Normal Effect: Heal 1B per 1L done on brawl or grapple attacks,
Low Sat: Heal 2B or 1L per 1L dealt.
Spend: to steal traits (such as striking looks, or the target's appearance) for 1 scene.
Ink Cloud
Normal Effect: 10 yard Ranged attack to give Blind tilt for scene
Low Sat: Poisoned Tilt (grave) , Tox= lair
Spend: Spit 15yd cone.
Claws of the Salamander
Normal Effect: 0L Claw attack
Low Sat: +Fire Damage equal to Lair
Spend: Set the target on fire.
Corrosive Touch
Normal Effect: deal damage to structure ignoring durability
Low Sat: able to reduce armor for a scene
Spend: Spit corrosive substance lairx10 yards.
Tunneling Claws
Normal Effect: move through soft earth at full speed, hard stone at half
Low Sat: Double speed through soft earth, and Full movement speed through hard stone
Spend: Drag someone down with you. Targets may be partially or fully submerged. Partially submerged persons are immobilized, fully submerged targets are suffocating.
A Beast may take 1 ally per dot of Lair with them in this way, though they must hold on to the ally as long as they are tunneling, or else that subject is fully submerged wherever they get released. The Beast is slowed by 1 speed for every 5 Size worth of allies.
It Came from Beneath
Normal Effect: You can create tunnels through soft earth equal to your size, plus or minus 1. You can move half your speed while making these tunnels, which last for a chapter.
Low Sat: You can move your full speed to create tunnels, tunnels may be plus size plus or minus Lair.
Spend: You may create tunnels in hard stone at half speed.
What Walks Between
Normal Effect: Honorary Spirit rank based on .5Lair. View into Twilight,
Low Sat: Act upon things in Twilight
Spend: Move to Twilight or back as an Instant Action. Can bring bring up to +Lair willing subjects or Immobilized targets with you.
Banshee's Wail
Normal Effect: The beast can blast individual targets in range with a sonic scream (5/10/15). This counts as a ranged attack with a thrown weapon, and requires a roll of Dex+Athletics- opponent's defense. Damage is Lethal and adds the Beast's Lair as a weapon modifier. Brittle items, such as glass, crack and shatter instantly.
Furthermore, the beast is immune to being deafened, and cannot be hurt by sonic effects. She can hear just fine despite a raging hurricane or jet flying by at supersonic speed.
Low Sat: The hungry banshee's wail is cacophonous, and unending. The Beasts's Wail is capable of autofire as well as single plasts, including short, medium, and long bursts.
Spend: The beast's next Wail has double it's normal range and inflicts aggravated damage. Items that take damage from this ignoring durability equal to the Beast's Lair dots. This is in addition to the normal and low satiety effects.
Taking You With Me (Anakim)
Sometimes, a monster is so powerful, simply attacking it means sacrifice: the hero manages to wound the Basilisk, but its blood poisoned him. When the demigod stroke at the Golem, its skin shattered the blessed blade. The Chosen One subdued the Phoenix, but was burned to ash. In short, there is no hope of defeating it and life to tell the tale. Whether the skin burns, is covered with scales that scratch open or thorns that pierce flesh, the Beast has a natural defense mechanism that is not meant to protect him, but rather harm those that seek to harm him.
Action: Persistent
Dice Pool: N/A
Normal Effect: When the Beast suffers at least 1B from a brawl attack, he may deal up to his Lair in Bashing damage returned.
Low Sat: When the Horror Hungers, his defenses harden. Any Melee attack against the Horror now returns (Lair)L damage. If a melee weapon was used, the weapon takes damage instead.
Sat Spend: [Lairx2]L, ignores Structure on weapons.
Bio-cannon
Your horror is equipped with some sort of nightmarish body cannon, able to shoot parasites from it's body. Parasites fired from this atavism die off after a scene or one hour.
Normal: The Beast delivers the parasite at high speed and Long Range. Pool: Dex+Firearms. Lethal damage= Lair. Capacity: Medium
Low Sat: The hungry horror must feed, and so must it's parasites. The parasites attach to the target and drain it's life. Attacks with this atavism gain 9 again and Bleeding Tilt.
Sat Spend: The Horror hardens the parasites shells, desperate to feed. They ignoring ballistic armor.
Strangle Thorn Pod
The horror produces explosives, like a living artillery in the form of a strange seed.
Normal: The shell fires as though from a grenade launcher, and explodes into a spray of shards on impact. Dex+Firearms attack. Short range, Lair Damage, Blast Area 10, Force 3.
Low Sat: The hungry beast needs to feed. The Cannon increases it's Range to Medium. The seed now grows rapidly on impact, and can cause Immobilized Tilt to targets within ground zero and primary blast radius. For the purposes of breaking free, the Durability of the vines is = Lairx2.
Sat Spend: The beast imbues the seed with venom and force. Double Blast Area, inflict Grave Poison tilt.
Witch's Woods
When one thinks of monsters, plants do not immediately come to mind. Plants are sedentary, slow things. They cannot chase you, nor can they tear your flesh with claws and teeth, nor can they set your city aflame. All that plants can do is wait and watch and grow, ever so slowly. But that is enough. It is enough for roots to pull down your houses, brick by brick, inch by painful inch. It is enough to know, to know things about the world that humans cannot even dream of. It is enough to outlive generation upon generation of humankind.
Action: Instant
Dice Pool: N/A
Normal: The Beast is a creature of infinite patience and his heart beats in sync with the pulse of the earth itself. As an instant action, the Beast may root itself in soil, like a giant plant. This allows the Beast a number of minor benefits: Resistance to poisons equal to his Lair, immunity to being moved or Knocked Down by others. However, he cannot move while Rooted.
Low Satiety: As the Beast’s hunger grows, so too does his awareness of and connection with the natural world around him. While Rooted, he is able to see and hear through plants within Lairx10 Yards of himself
Spend: With the expenditure of a dot of Satiety, the Beast can channel power into nearby plant life, vastly accelerating its growth. In exchange, the Beast becomes able to shape the growth of any plant that he is bolstering. For each dot of Satiety thus spent, the beast can increase the Size of a plant by his (Lair*5). If the Beast directs the plants to grow into a structure, they deal damage to Structure equal to the Size increased and ignore Durability equal to the Beast’s Lair. The growth takes 30 seconds per point of Size gained.
Innsmouth Look (Makara)
Your Horror knows how to direct occult energies and adrenaline to a beneficial effect: it can actually heal other people. This comes at a price, however...
Roll: Persistent; Intelligence + Occult + Lair vs. Stamina + Supernatural Tolerance (Sat Expenditure)
Normal Effect: The Beast gains the 9-again quality on all rolls meant to heal. However, she infuses her patient with some of her occult energy, which means they register as Supernatural (specifically, as Beasts) to corresponding powers, which could lead to a lot of trouble for them - though sly Beats could use this to shake off a particularly stubborn Hero. This energy disperses after a week. During this time, the Beast has a good impression with the patient that is nearly unshakeable - the patient gains the Trusting Condition.
Low Satiety: The hungry Horror wants something in return for its help - while the beast gains the 8-again quality on healing rolls, she leaves a physical mark on her patient (e.g. a curiously shaped scar, a new pattern of birthmarks etc.). The next time the Beast is attacked, she can reflexively steal one point of willpower from her patient (which resolves the Trusting impression). The patient's mark lasts two weeks. If during that time no willpower was taken from the patient, he keeps the Trusting impression. Furthermore, the Beast can operate even under the worst circumstances (e.g. on a rainy battlefield in the mud), and still count as operating in a hospital (does not change the bonus of tools).
Satiety Expenditure: The occult energies within a patient mutate his body, disfiguring him - the Beast can distribute one Attribute dot as she sees fit on Intelligence, Wits, Strength, Stamina and Dexterity. The patient loses access to Striking Looks for the next scene and acts as a Retainer. Furthermore, he gains an ability related to he Beast's family: Makara Spawn can breathe under water and gains two dots of Area of Expertise, Ugallu Spawn gain Trained Observer (ooo), Eshmaki Spawn gain Killer Instinct (ooo), Anakim Spawn gain the Demolisher (ooo) Merit (if they already have that, they gain Giant (ooo)) and Namtaru Spawn gain Iron Skin (ooo).
Spending the appropriate amount of xp, this mutation can be made permanent.
Manticore's spines
Action: Reflexive
Normal Effect: The Beast can shoot projectiles generated by her Horror at a target in range (Strength+Dexterity+Athletics), doubled for medium range, and doubled again for long range.
This counts as a ranged attack with a thrown weapon and requires a roll of Dexterity + Athletics – the opponent’s Defense. Damage is lethal and adds the Beast’s Stamina as a weapon modifier.
Low Satiety: The projectiles become aerodynamic, doubling their range.
Spend: For the rest of the scene, the Beast can apply the Immobilized Tilt to his opponent after any single attack inflicts more damage than the target’s Stamina as the projectiles pin the target to the ground or the walls.
Weave Cocoon (Eshmaki)
Normal Satiety: Through some conduit on the body (wrists, mouth, rear, est), the Beast is capable of secreting an adhesive resin which quickly dries upon exposure to the atmosphere. This resin can be used as a restraint to bind, blind, or gag a victim after initiating a successful grapple. Weave Cocoon's durability is equal to the Beast's Lair rating. The adhesive's consistency starts to rapidly break down in sunlight, losing 1 point of durability for each round of exposure. When durability is reduced to zero, the resin crumbles and flakes off like dirt.
Low Sat: The Beast no longer needs to initiate a grapple to their ensnare their victim. They can now fire their resin like a projectile with an effective range in yards equal to their Lair rating.
Spend: The Beast is able to produce traps in advance by secreting large quantities of resin around the environment. Those who come into contact with an area coated in their resin are in danger of being snared, even if the Beast is not presently there. Each point of Satiety used in this fashion allows the Beast to produce a patch of resin measuring 3 yards in radius.
