A whole bunch of Banes and Boons

I’ll be honest, many of these sound too strong for my ears.

The ones that reduce Defense mostly and Vulnerability especially. These sort of Banes aren’t included in the rules on purpose because of the way that the probability curves work, in short even a small reduction in Defense practically guarantees Exceptional Successes, and with multiple players Attacking it can cut combat times in half.
There are of course effects like Sickened, Knockdown, Blinded and Invisibility, which reduce Defenses (mostly Guard) by 1 to 4. However, those usually have some situational counter and are kept low on purpose.

Polymorph is a notable outlier, however it’s the only powerful Bane Alteration has (like Nullify and Protection) and its effects are kept firmly in the GM’s hands.

Weaken seems too strong for the simple reason that it’s just a double-strength Demoralized except against opponents that have more than one primary Attribute, and even there it effectively removes one of those.

Debuff can ruin opponents that rely on certain PL of effects and synergizes much too violently with Demoralized. I can see where the idea comes from, but Demoralized already has that kind of effect. And again, Polymorph is a single-Attribute Bane for Alteration which the GM has much say over and it can only affect certain Attributes.

Hold, honestly, seems to me like how Incapacitated should be in the first place in my opinion, meaning no Finishing Blows but otherwise the same. The distinction based on size and intellect I’m not sure about, it could work.


The Defense raising Boons raise some of my eyebrows, but aren’t immediately alarming against some of the other effects here. Though I’d make it one Boon which can only apply to one Defense at any time and maybe rethink the numbers.

Enhancement I am definitely no fan of. Some effects are gated by PL on purpose, and with this being a Boon it’s eligible for Boon Focus and Boon Access which sounds much too dangerous for my tastes. Not to mention the way that Attribute dice enhancements stack with Advantage, which also overpowers this Boon by quite a bit.

I think you may have forgotten that every character already has a swim speed of half their usual speed with Diving. Sustenance is exactly for breathing under water. I’m unsure why this would need to be a distinct Boon, but it’s not alarming either.

Accelerate’s PLs are too low, I think. I can see why you’d separate it from Haste, but it poses that problem that those two Boons would stack. Now I’m not averse to theory-crafting supersonic characters, but I think that particular aspect needs revisiting.

I see where Reactionary comes from, but there’s a reason Haste doesn’t allow its extra Actions to be used to Defend. The Disadvantage penalites seem lax.

I’m unusure as to why Sharp Shot would be necessary when Longshot just costs 1 Feat Point. It’s missing the clause about choosing the specific type of Attack, though I like how it can be Invoked by Logic and Perception.


As for how your players spend Attribute Points, that’s a bit unfortunate. Though just having low Logic/Learning doesn’t make a character stupid, Attributes are better thought of as control and the ability to apply your aptitude in often heated situations. In calm moments a low Logic character might still be excellent at planning, or the low Learning character might know a bunch of near useless factoids that never seem to fit the moment.

Personally I’m not a fan of choosing Attributes based on their access to Banes and Boons over arriving at them based on character concept, but even then just the sheer numbers don’t mean versatility exactly. For example Phantasm, in the right (wrong if you’re the GM) hands can probably single-handedly out-versatile any Attribute just with creativity. Prescience can carry entire parties.


I don’t mean to just brush aside any of your ideas, even if it may seem that way. But many of these seem far too powerful in practice and have already been discussed in the past or are redundant in some way. I hope you can take it as constructive criticism.

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