[Notebook] The Immortal

[glimmerrat]

IMMORTAL
You are an Immortal, and although you look human you have lived since the Dawn of Time. You have moved silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives, struggling to reach the Time of the Gathering, where the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known your kind were among us - until now.
Common Personality Traits: Fear of commitment, lonely, quiet, strong-willed, suspicious
Common Physical Traits: Alert, non-descript, physically fit, scarred, skilled combatant
Example Names: The Immortals have been found in every culture and nearly every nation since the dawn of human history. They can potentially have any name from any time-period, although they will often have many aliases.
Type: Medium folk with a reach of 1. Your maximum wounds equal your Constitution score.

• 0.5 Attributes: +1 to lowest of Constitution or Wisdom
• -0.5 Base Speed: 30 ft.
• 1.0 Achilles Heel (Called Shot): All damage that you suffer from attacks that benefit from the Called Shot trick is doubled.
• 1.0 Accustomed to Pain: You do not need to breathe, and the keen quality of each attack made against you decreases by 4.
• 0.5 The Buzz: You can detect the presence and distance from you of any character with the everlasting NPC quality within 1 mile.
• 0.5 Edged Proficiency: You gain the Edged proficiency.
• -1.0 Iconic Specialties: You gain your Specialty’s bonus feat only if you’re an Adventurer, Barbarian, Cavalier, Corsair, Fencer, Fighter, Fist, Gladiator, Nomad or Shield Bearer.
• 10.0 Immortality: You gain everlasting, and you may always Cheat Death with a petty fate. However, the GM may ignore this by spending 4 action dice and subjecting you to a successful Coup de Grace action, or a Terminal Situation involving an edged weapon. Additionally, you do not age.
• -7.0 The Quickening: The only source from which you may gain XP is by killing characters with the everlasting NPC quality, and when you kill such a character, you become paralyzed for a number of rounds equal to their Threat Level. At the end of this period, you gain back all of your lost vitality points and all items within 30 ft. are considered to have failed a damage save. However, if you kill such a character on Holy Ground, you receive no XP. Finally, when calculating the XP that you gain from an adventure, your Threat Level increases by 10.
• 3.0 Regeneration: You gain regeneration I.
• -1.0 Reviled: The Disposition toward you of all characters that are not everlasting decreases by 10.

[Catodon]

Great,
I love the source
Also could easilybe adapted to a variety of settings.
I am curious about the costing  of Immortality. Could you break it down?
Slightly off topic in some settings Elves are unaging, I'd just call that 0pt much weaker than the Immortality here. I suppose it might depend on setting and aging rules used though...

[Mister Andersen]

Quickening is unworkable, it's going to leave the immortal unsustainably behind the curve in terms of character  progression compared to anyone else in the team

[glimmerrat]

Quickening is unworkable, it's going to leave the immortal unsustainably behind the curve in terms of character  progression compared to anyone else in the team

Hence the XP granted from one kill is massively boosted. It encourages the immortal to avoid unnecessary combat, since they gain no benefit. It also encourages them to seek out other immortals, since they have a tangible reason to want to kill one another.

I really couldn't think of a better way to represent the permanent boost that the quickening grants without making it really underpowered. You have a suggestion? Admittedly I think they will fall behind the curve - do you think more XP is warranted? I'm reluctant to make it something along the lines of 'kill = level up'.

[Mister Andersen]

New Chance Feat

There can be only One
You seem destined to outlive all friends until the day of the Gathering. Sadly, you often find yourself dawn into conflict with others like you.
   Prerequsites: Agent 9+, Mark of Turmoil, Trouble Magnet.
   Benefit: Your apparent age becomes fixed the first time you die, and you gain no further modifiers from aging after that point. Unless you are beheaded or utterly destroyed, you recover 1 wound per round while you are dead or dying. Further, you may sense when another character with this feat approaches within 100 yards (but do not learn the direction or location of that character). Finally, the starting disposition toward you of any other character possessing this feat worsens by 1 grade.

If you are the sort that enjoys hunting other immortals for the benefits of the quickening, you should probably take that as a subplot (thus the quickening gives you extra XP in a roundabout fasion ). The way this feat is set up, you could gain it with a level-based feat later in life, or skip the prerequisites with the Specialty.

This is something that Scott whipped up 5 years ago

[glimmerrat]

I remember that. It's just that I feel that something as important as your status as an immortal should be summed up with more than just a feat slot.

[MilitiaJim]

I remember that. It's just that I feel that something as important as your status as an immortal should be summed up with more than just a feat slot.

Perhaps, but I do recall some "immortals" dying of old age, as no one had killed them yet.

[glimmerrat]

I remember that. It's just that I feel that something as important as your status as an immortal should be summed up with more than just a feat slot.

Perhaps, but I do recall some "immortals" dying of old age, as no one had killed them yet.

Source? Ramirez was 2500 years old...

[Gentry]

Oooh, be careful, glimmerrat-san. You tip the vessel of "Highlander sourcing", exposing yourself to the whipsaw of the property's canon debates. Watch your fingers and toes, and mind thy sanity in the face of appearances by Mario Van Peebles.

[Mister Andersen]

You don't start life as an immortal, it tends to be violently thrust upon you potentialy quite late in your career -- Richie spent some time as an ordinary mortal in the series before he underwent his first death.

There can be only One: Each immortal grants 10 x threat level Quickening rep when killed by another immortal (defined as a character possessing the Everlasting feat). When one immortal kills another, they become paralyzed for a number of rounds equal to their victim's Threat Level, all items within 30 ft. are considered to have failed a damage save.

Everlasting [Chance]
   Prerequisites: There can be only One campaign quality
   Benefit: Your apparent age becomes fixed the first time you Cheat Death, and you gain no further modifiers from aging after that point. Once per session you may Cheat Death with a petty fate, returning at the end of the current scene, provided your head has not been removed from your shoulders. Further, you may purchase ranks in Quickening Renown but only using Reputation earned by killing characters who possess this feat. Finally, the starting Disposition toward you of all characters that are aware you possess this feat decreases by 10; if they also possess this feat it drops by a further 10.
   Special: This feat is considered to fulfill the prerequisites for the Quick Healer and Unearthly Splendor species feats.

The Quickening [Chance]
   Prerequisites: Everlasting
   Benefit: You begin each scene with an amount of Edge equal to your Quickening rank. This starting Edge may exceed the standard cap but once expended you are limited to the capped amount as usual.

[glimmerrat]

Oooh, be careful, glimmerrat-san. You tip the vessel of "Highlander sourcing", exposing yourself to the whipsaw of the property's canon debates. Watch your fingers and toes, and mind thy sanity in the face of appearances by Mario Van Peebles.

If it ain't in the first movie, at ain't canon. Zeist, my arse.

[Desertpuma]

Actually the TV show was pretty solid on its own grounds... It was the films that followed the TV show that went off the rails a bit. You have to consider that they never expected to make an indie film that suddenly would need sequels.

[Mister Andersen]

Immortal [Specialty]
You have passed through the years, keeping your head while others have lost theirs.
    Requirement: "There can be only one!" campaign quality.
·   Bonus Feat: Everlasting. 
·   Attuned: You may purchase ranks of Quickening for only 40 reputation.
·   Easy Fix: The DC of all Medicine checks targeting you becomes 10.
·   Melee Combat Expert: You are considered to have 2 additional feats for any ability based on the number of Melee combat feats you have.
·   Paired Skills: Each time you gain 1 or more ranks in the Notice skill, you also gain an equal number of ranks in the Blend skill. This may not increase your Blend skill beyond its maximum rank.

[Catodon]

On a related note if your going to have immortals of any kind (elves in many settings) and a an epic feel then you might want to cover hundreds or even thousands of years (I know I do). In this situation you might want aging rules for mortals and some sort of continuity for players of mortals. Has anyone had a go at this kind of thing?
Is this really a new thread?

[glimmerrat]

Is this really a new thread?

I have no idea. I just felt like making this up on my lunch break. I don't really care.