Guardian Knacks
Mortal Guardian Knacks gift you with the vast fortitude and sharp senses, to better protect those you have sworn to guard. Guardian Knacks are driven by the concepts of durability and protection. Guardian Knacks revolve around choosing a specific person to protect. When choosing who is worth of your divine protection, bear in mind that — unless they’ve completely neglected to invest in any sort of combat abilities — your bandmates do not need you to be the wall between them and your enemies. They should, for the most part, be able to handle that themselves. This is not to say that the Storyguide should forbid you from using these abilities on your bandmates, especially when it would be cool or dramatic, but that the intent is that a Guardian Scion protects those who are weaker than herself.
Some Guardian knacks allow the Guardian to declare a place their charge. This may be as large as a large castle or town, and the Guardian counts as defending their charge when protecting noncombatants or lower tier characters who live or have sworn allegiance to their charge.
• A Fortress
At the start of a combat scene, roll your Knack Skill with 1 Enhancement. Gain the following Stunts which you may spend the resulting successes on, each time you successfully Defend (e.g. an attack targeting you does not hit).
- Get Out of Here (1s): A target you are protecting immediately makes the Disengage action.
- Second Wind (2s): Heal a −1 Injury you have taken, including Injuries sustained by your Armor.
- My Turn (1s) Make one additional attack action against an opponent that attacked your charge this round.
Guardian Knacks Master
Guardian Heroic
• A Promise
• A Promise
You make a promise to someone you consider yourself a Guardian over, and it is infused with Fate. This promise becomes an additional Deed. While this Deed is unfulfilled, you receive the benefit of 9-again on any rolls made towards the fulfillment of the promise. However, on rolls for tasks not devoted to this Deed, you lose the ability to reroll 10s. Characters should take care when swearing such a promise, as it lasts until fulfilled. Not even the death of the target or the Scion releases the promise, it merely makes it far harder to fulfill. A character can break their promise at any time. Doing so, however, grants them the Oathbreaker Condition (See Below).
Oathbreaker (Persistent)
You broke a sworn vow, staining your honor and your Legend. So long as this Condition persists, reduce the Attitude other characters feel towards you by 2.
Momentum: Add Momentum to the pool whenever you fail a roll due to this Condition.
Resolution: Resolving this Condition requires an act of penance equal to the oath which was broken.• A Purpose
• A Purpose
Dedicate yourself to an ideal of your choosing (fight for love and justice, defend the weak, save the World from invasion). When you take action to defend this ideal, gain +1 Enhancement to all applicable rolls and to any Stunts you may have gained from Knacks.
• A Refuge
• A Refuge
You’re always able to find a place to keep someone safe, if only temporarily. It takes (13 − Legend) hours to set up a safe refuge. This can be shortened with the proper Stunt. Make a Knack Skill roll with Enhancements equal to your Guardian Calling and spend them on the following Stunts:
Right around the corner (3s): The refuge is close and can be found within the next scene.
You’ll be safe a while (1+s): Each success spent on this Stunt allows the refuge to remain safe for 24 hours.
No one will find you (1+s): Each success spent on this Stunt increases the Difficulty of others’ attempts to locate the refuge by one.• A Sentinel
• A Sentinel
Choose a person or group of trivial targets to be your charge. When you guard your charge, you both gain +1 Defense so long as you stay in the same range band. You also gain +1 Enhancement to rolls to keep track of or defend your charge.
• A Talisman
• A Talisman
Bless an object (usually belonging to someone you wish to protect, but not required) and make a Knack Skill roll. If any successes are achieved, it then grants the bearer 2 Enhancement to rolls made to defend or protect against a particular person, thing, or situation as defined at the time of blessing. If you are making a talisman for your charge, this happens automatically without needing to roll.
• A Vanguard
• A Vanguard
At the start of a combat scene, roll your Knack Skill with 1 Enhancement. You may spend those successes at any point during the scene to protect characters in your range band as if you had made the complicate action (Scion: Origin p. 118).
• A Vigil
• A Vigil
When you stand guard over a person, place, or thing, you do not need to eat or sleep so long as your vigil persists. This benefit extends so long as the protected target remains within your sight. You may do other things — talk, interact, move around, etc. — but must devote most of your time to keeping your vigil. You may only keep vigil over one thing at a time.
• A Warning
• A Warning
You sense the presence of danger before it emerges. Spend Momentum and double the successes on any roll to detect ambushes or to discern whether a person means harm. If you are protecting your charge, you do not need to pay the cost.
• A Watch
• A Watch
As long as you are watching over your charge, you receive Enhancement equal to half your Legend on any rolls to avoid being swayed or distracted. This includes attempts to seduce, intimidate, or even deceive the character, be they mundane or magical.
• Aggravated Defender
• Aggravated Defender
Sometimes you need to make it very clear someone’s under your protection. Spend 1 Momentum. Your attacks gain the Aggravated and Messy tags when defending your declared charge for the duration of combat. You gain +2 Enhancement to intimidation rolls against any who have witnessed your brutal display of force until the end of the scene.
• Ear to the Ground
• Ear to the Ground
You automatically know when someone is trying to slander you, your Bandmates, or anyone you have a Bond to, and add your Guardian dots as Enhancement to rolls to disprove their claims, clear the air, or identify the source.
• Honied Words
• Honied Words
Choose a person to be your charge. Spend a Momentum and give them a direction or suggestion. When they act on that direction, they gain +2 Enhancement to do so as long as you are watching. If you have a Bond with the person, you can forgo the cost
• A Bulwark When a friendly character in your range band would suffer an injury condition, you may expend health levels from Heavy Armor you’re wearing to prevent the injury. If all damage is prevented this way, all other effects of the attack are also negated.• The Hearth Warden
• The Hearth Warden
When you declare a place as your charge, your presence grants Enhancement 1 to those working on tasks for its protection or wellbeing. You are instantly aware if anyone works to sabotage or suborn your charge, forcing a Clash of Wills with anyone hiding such with supernatural powers.
Guardian Immortal
•• A Juggernaut
•• A Juggernaut
Whenever you suffer an Injury Condition, you gain Momentum and recover a Heavy Armor health level. If you’re fighting to defend your charge, if you take an Injured or Maimed condition, you may immediately heal a Bruised condition.
•• Adamant Admonishment (Pālas Specific)
•• Adamant Admonishment (Pālas Specific)
Upholding your sacred duty to protect the living, you exhort the violent and the aggressive to cease. Once per scene when confronting a violent foe, spend your action explaining the flaws in their behavior and how they might act rightly. So long as you continue lecturing and none take hostile actions against them, they must listen nonviolently. Even if they succeed at a Clash of Wills to attempt a violent action, you may reflexively make a social action or an attack targeting them, imbuing Legend for power Scale. If you succeed, their violent action immediately fails in addition to the regular consequences of your action. You may spend Momentum to use this Knack a second time in a scene.
•• Alarm Beacon
•• Alarm Beacon
When attempting to warn masses about an imminent danger (an approaching Titanspawn, climate change, Ragnarök), you may spend one momentum to Imbue for Scale.
•• By Your Side
•• By Your Side
Spend a point of Momentum to move to be next to someone you are protecting in an instant, re- gardless of the distance between you. You receive an innate warning whenever this Knack would come into play. If you are protecting your charge, you do not need to pay the cost.
•• Champion of the Community
•• Champion of the Community
Spend one Momentum. For a scene, you may declare everyone in one local community as your charge (Scion: Hero, p. 225) for the purposes of relevant Guardian Knacks.
•• Divine Layup
•• Divine Layup
Once per session, you may Imbue to lend Scale to a single action made by your charge to defend themself. This does not stack with any other supernatural sources of Scale they might have.
•• Eternal Guardian
•• Eternal Guardian
When you protect a person, place, or thing that can be measured with Scale (standing guard at the entrance of your pantheon’s afterlife, keeping a watchful eye on a city all night), imbue a point of Legend, rather than spending, to invoke your legendary Title as a Feat of Scale.
•• Just Do What I Do
•• Just Do What I Do
For one scene per session, you may give your charge access to a Knack you possess. Their use of it counts against your maximum number of simultaneous Knacks active, and any Momentum or Legend is spent from your total.
•• Living Pillar
•• Living Pillar
When you protect someone else with your body, you are immune to environmental hazards: The flames of a burning building do not scorch you, a landslide does not crush you, water cannot drown you, and so on. As long as you keep your charge close (within arm’s reach), they benefit from the same immunity, but still need to eat, sleep, etc., so it’s best to leave a hazardous area as quickly as possible.
•• Matsya’s Promise (Devá-Specific)
•• Matsya’s Promise (Devá-Specific)
You declare your charge to be under your dharmic protection. You may Imbue for Scale to protect your charge, or to give Scale to their actions to avoid harm. This does not benefit rolls to attack, even in self-defense, nor does it stack with other magical sources of Scale. If they have a Legend rating, they may, one time ever, do the same to repay you, after which they are no longer your charge.
•• Puppet Show
•• Puppet Show
You take command of your charge’s body and mind, directing her actions and guiding her thoughts. Roll your Guardian Knack Skill. Success allows you to direct your charge to take a single action. You dictate how she takes the action, and even if she speaks or talks while taking the action. You must be able to see your charge to use this Knack, though you do not have to verbalize or speak the command out loud. This Knack does not work unless you have a Bond to the target, and they are a lower Tier than you
•• Rescue Mission
•• Rescue Mission
Once per scene, Imbue for Scale when saving someone who is imprisoned or hopelessly lost in a way that no mortal could ever escape (kidnapped by a god, trapped in a labyrinth, dead and rotting in the Underworld).
•• The Fastness
•• The Fastness
Your sanctuaries and sigils are always under your protection, no matter the distance. Imbue Legend to consecrate a place of safety or static symbol of your protection; those who seek shelter there benefit from additional defensive Scale when fighting to protect themselves. This may create a Realm Condition (p. 67) that KnacKs 181 reduces the cost for Earth, Epic Stamina, or Epic Strength Divine Rule actions taken through it by 1.
•• The Greater Kami (Kami-Specific)
•• The Greater Kami (Kami-Specific)
Young, weak kami are loath to harm you. Spend a point of Momentum; for the remainder of the scene any mundane weapons newer than 100 years are at +2 Difficulty to injure you or your charge.
•• The Heart
•• The Heart
Peoples and nations respond to your call to action. When rallying large numbers of people in defense of their home, loved ones, or another shared bond, imbue a point of Legend, rather than spending it, to invoke your Legendary Title as a Feat of Scale.
•• The Return
•• The Return
When you declare a place as your charge, you may spend Momentum to access it for a scene and then return to your previous location, no matter the distance. You may spend an additional Momentum to bring your Band or another small group with you. You are always aware if your charge or its inhabitants are endangered, which removes the cost to access it.
•• The Threshold
•• The Threshold
When you declare a place as your charge, you are always aware when someone attempts to enter or harm it. As long as you are unvanquished, lower tier characters simply fail without your permission. Equal or higher-tier characters may attempt a Clash of Wills to force their way in without otherwise defeating you.
•• The Watchtower
•• The Watchtower
To approach you is to be known. Enemies never benefit from attempts to ambush you, your charge, or any characters in your immediate presence that are under your protection. Attempts to escape your notice in Divine Rule play require an additional point of effect, even if using a subtle method.
•• They Cannot Be Touched
•• They Cannot Be Touched
Spend a point of Momentum and designate one person to be immune to all source of damage until the end of the session. This only applies if the character is someone you have a Bond with, or is of a lower Tier. If a target does not need to be protected (such as your best friend, the Warrior-Calling Scion), this Knack does not apply.
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