Hunter Backgrounds

For Character Creation refer to Hunter: The Reckoning's Player's Guide. Specifically page 79.

For Virtues and Conviction see below )taken mostly from Players guide.

For XP Costs: Refer to the Wiki experience_costs_guide

For Information about your Creed (Absolutely necessary to properly roleplay it) refer to the respective Creed Book.

Additional books for use - Players guide, the Creed books, Holy War, The Inquisition (parts so ask).

When requesting something not in the Core book Edge, Merit, Flaw, ETC. please include book in pg. number. Due to how often this happens on some obscure item I will disprove them until the information is included.

Apply the following changes to the creation process outlines in Hunter, pp 84-85.

Attributes 7/5/3 all other rules to these apply.

Abilities 13/9/5 all other rules to these apply.

Backgrounds (5), Virtues (3), edges according to your Virtue allocation.

15 freebie points

Convection is no longer used to buy Virtue only XP.

Convection - Each character’s starting Conviction at the beginning of a chronicle is the appropriate level listed in Hunter’s creed descriptions, pp. 64-77. Under the official rules, that’s the score to which Conviction drops after you cash in 10 points to gain a new Virtue point.

At the beginning of each new story, your character’s current Conviction pool drops back down to his modified start rating. Your character’s Conviction pool can rise to a limit of 10 during a story as normal, thanks to successful edge rolls and appropriate roleplaying. But when the story ends, your character’s current Conviction score returns to his modified starting rate.

Although starting Conviction can be raised with experience points, it can never be raised higher than your character’s Willpower rating. If her permanent Willpower rating is ever reduced, your starting Conviction score is reduced to match.

As with the normal rules, if you spend freebie points during character creation to acquire extra Conviction points, they are considered temporary Conviction. They do not raise your character’s starting Conviction rating permanently. Spending experience points allows you to raise permanent Conviction once play begins.

- Note that if no Conviction is spent for your character, he receives none of these benefits and is considered a normal person for the purposes of supernatural effects. That means his mind, emotions and body can be controlled by monsters with such powers. That also means he’s oblivious to, stupefied by or terrified by monsters’ appearance. The typical result is running in terror, rationalizing away the scene to make some mundane sense of it, or putting events completely out of mind as if they never happened.

As per the book. You cannot spend willpower on your edge rolls. Such effects are the exclusive functions of Conviction. By contrast, Willpower applies when hunters perform “mundane” actions such as jumping between buildings, lifting heavy objects or staying awake. However, having an edge to attack roles (I.e Surge) still allows willpower spending on the role.

(1) Risking Conviction – per the under the Hunter core on pg. 136. This is a test to see how it goes at Glyffs request. ( I have not problem stripping it if it is over powered and 100% will if it becomes abused) - The Storyteller (who is running the scene at the time) has final say about what kinds of rolls apply to edges and what kinds do not. As a rule of thumb, any roll made to perform a mundane action — something a normal person could do — is not eligible for Conviction bonus dice. Conviction cannot help your character swim for shore, but it can help her escape the notice of a monster through the Hide edge, for example. (Can gamble only once per scene).

(2) Your character’s Virtues indicate his goals in the hunt — whether to destroy the supernatural, to learn the hunt’s ultimate purpose or to understand the enemy. Your character’s creed gives him direction and context in the hunt — the approach he should take to fulfill the dictates of his Virtues; perhaps to defend, redeem or envision all new possibilities. Your character may gain a Conviction point when he exemplifies or fulfills his creed in a dramatic way. (Basically, if the ST stated you gained WP from a roll you made in an edge and it is in line with your Creed you can add a Temp Convection point as well.)

-A Martyr can always put himself in harm’s way, but when he risks his very life to find the decency within a monster, he goes above and beyond the call of duty. The Storyteller decides if a worthy feat is performed (No more than one point to a character this way per game session)

(3) If your character performs an amazing feat against an evil may regain a point of Conviction at the Storyteller’s discretion. (This is at the ST’s discretion running the scene or the hunter ST. These are rare – (Beating Overwhelming odds, a crazy amount of 10’s rolled. Pulling something off that really, really stands out like will be talked about in the future.)

Adversely you can loose Convection is this same manner (Botch Double botch anyone).

(4) At the ST’s discretion. (Don’t ask I will know when I feel your character deserves this reward.)

(5) The Storyteller may take one or more Conviction points away from your character if she decides that your hunter strays drastically from his creed. (Or violated the direction or / angered the Messengers).

(6) You regain 1 conviction per night slept alongside willpower up to your max pool of Conviction. Anything above is also taken away at the end of scenes if it has not been spent.

It is your responsibility to track your conviction gains and expenditures it is mostly on the honor systems as it is very hard to track. (That being said do not be caught cheating. This is your Warning ).

Changes to Virtues - Because experience points are used to raise Virtues, Conviction is not traded in for more Virtue points. Spend experience points to increase Virtues as indicated on the Experience Cost chart, below. Your character’s Virtue rating determines the highest rated edge he can possess. Per the normal Hunter rules, his highest rated edge should still be in his creed path.

Edges in the same Virtue. Virtue rating doesn’t limit the total number of edges that your character can have in a virtue like it once did. For example if a Defender has 3 Zeal, he can have the level-two Defender edge, as normal. But if you have enough experience points, your character can acquire every other Avenger and Judge edge up to level two as well, as long as his level-two Defender edge is never exceeded.

Furthermore, by spending experience to increase Virtues, your character is not inherently prohibited from acquiring level-five edges as she is in the rulebook. If you have enough experience points, your hunter can get level-five edges. There are still prerequisites for achieving level-five edges, though – Substantial Justification and an ST ran Scene and 100% ST bye off (no character will ever have several level 5 edges and still be in play).

Changes to Edges The number of edges your character can possess is based on how much experience you can spend, but edge levels are still limited by your character’s Virtue hunter (See chart). Your character’s primary Virtue still can’t be exceeded by her rating in any other Virtue, and the highest rated edge in her creed path cannot be exceeded by any other edge she possesses.

*We are not using the optional rule that makes this automatic in response to an attack. You must activate it if you did not say its on it is not on. (If demons can apoc form, Mages can prep cast etc. You can prep too). That being said it is reflexive and does not take an action so you can activate this and attack*

- Enables the Hunter to recognize every single supernatural as a supernatural in some way. This is mostly done by adding additional features when the sight is used. This can be RPed in different ways, from a change in the eyes of the supernatural (Going from normal to black), a certain aura on the other or a change in features. The only two conditions is that the change must be sight based and it can't directly show what the monster is. Circumstances however may reveal the true details of the supernatural foes. See page 133 of the core for more details.

- Does not identify the kind of supernatural (See visibility edges below)

- Immunity to mind/emotion control (Including Delirium and such)

- See through and recognize illusions (they don't disappear, but you recognize the illusion for what it is)

- Efforts to control your characters body or to possess it fail automatically.

- Werewolf claws and bites and Vampire bites are treated as Lethal. (note if they are using a GIFT or DISCIPLINE to make it Agg it is AGG. this only works against the natural attack mode.

- things can outlast it as well, if you burn all your convection the protection drops, if you sleep the protection drops. Things like the Changeling mist are persistent effects they will win through attrition.

- Arcane Due to the team-centric system of Hunter, the use of hunternet and for ease of all involved no Hunter will be approved with an Arcane rating higher than 1.

- Too Tough to Die - Just to make sure we are on the same page in mage 20 it states this merit does not allow you to soak agg. (DOES NOT AGG) yet a few people have pointed out that in Hunter all Agg is the same as Lethal and the merit states you can soak lethal. Just to be Clear there is Agg in this game and it is not the same as Lethal damage (even for hunters). So even for hunters this merit does NOT allow you to soak Agg damage.

When buying an Edge in a path, you can either go with the Core book version as normal or pick the alternative version from the respective Creed book. It's possible to get the alternative version as an Imbued of another Creed, that requires a very solid justification however. Furthermore, in order to prevent an Endgame-level Edge inflation, there is a certain Virtue Point requirement for every level of an Edge, which you need to fulfill before being able to manifest Edges of that level. The chart is as follows:

- Blaze (Innocence 5) deals Aggravated Damage.

- Rejuvenate (Defense 2) Lethal and Agg damage heal according to the chart for this instance.

- Protect (Defense 4) Lethal and Agg damage are treated the same for this instance.

- Ravage (Martyrdom 3) deals Aggravated Damage.

- Respire (Redemption 3) deals Lethal Damage and heals Lethal Damage. It may only be used to heal Aggravated Damage on Hunters or mortal Humans.
You also do not have to kiss the target to heal them. A simple touch will do.

- Restore (Vision 4) heals Aggravated Damage. (All Damage essential)

- Balance (Judgment 3) Cuts a supernatural off from its energy source. (They cannot spend points from that source once affected for 1 hour per success. Difficulty is targets Stam (max 5) +2.

- Burden (Judgment 2) Difficulty is targets Stam (max 5) +3.

- Brand (Defense 3) deals Aggravated on initial hit and then Lethal Damage there on after.

- Burn (Defense 5) deals Aggravated Damage.

- Cleave (Vengeance 1) deals Lethal Damage, aggravated when a Flaming Sword is conjured.

- Surge (Vengeance 4) confers Supernatural attribute bonuses found in Mummy the Resurrection: Core book page 80. When attributes are above 5 however please ping the Hunter STs when the use of it is over.

- Smite (Vengeance 5) deals Aggravated Damage.

- Spiral (Deviance 5) deals Aggravated Damage.

Regarding the relationship of Second Sight and the “visibility edges”

- Illuminate: allows you to identify other supernaturals, but again ones you can see: “This edge makes it possible for your character and fellow hunters to identify supernaturals creatures. Not only does it indicates which beings are inhuman, it suggests what kind…” So it's a “Friend or Foe” system with some details, but it does not reveal invisible creatures.

- Witness: “Witness allows your character to recognize the nature of supernatural creatures in her presence.” This is the only one specifically mentioning; “This edge expands upon the capabilities of second sight”. expands, not duplicates, not replaces.

- Discern: allows you to gain information on a supernatural you already see without it. It allows you to identify a creature. “Second Sight reveals creatures that use magic to hide, …. . Discern exposes the features that identify those creatures.” Discern also adds features associated with the monster in folklore. I.e. Witches have black hands, vampires are more corpselike and werewolves have more demonic features associated with werewolves in folklore (See sign of the wolf). Without lore dots however you have no idea what you're looking at, but it does provide a good starting point.

It's plain simple - These powers don't duplicate second sight, they add powers of deduction and identifying, like rolling Lore or Occult.

Mage takes priority if there is a derangement present. If none is present in the mage book the hunter ones maybe used. Flavour and RP taken from the derangement's description however maybe taken for your PCs. I.e. Paranoia as described in the hunter core with the mechanics of the mage book (Despite them being the same).

-Derangements gained via high Virtue ratings (7+) can be bought off with good RP/journaling at a maximum rate of 1 Derangement per Month. Talk to an ST, and they'll guide you through the entire process. Once a single virtue gets to 10 there is no longer helping you. The Hunt is all consuming you loose yourself to it and must retire the character (or possibly move them to main-stage if you have planned well)

Bashing - Standard Bashing damage as in Hunter Core or most books.

Lethal - Standard Lethal damage again as in Hunter Core or most books.

Aggravated Damage “Agg damage“ - Yep even as a hunter Agg is Agg to you it is not Lethal. See Mage 20 or most other books.

As the Healing Damage charts show, different types of damage heal differently. Those recovery times assume that an injured character has rest and basic medical attention; under especially good conditions – like state-of-the-art facilities, skilled medical therapy, and uninterrupted healing space – the listed healing times can be one or even (under the best circumstances) two categories better than the ones given on that chart. Even so, medical treatment (that is, help from a character with Medicine 2 or better) is essential for bashing injuries of Wounded or worse, and for lethal or aggravated injuries of Injured or worse. Without such treatment, an injured character suffers more-or-less permanent impairment until someone with magical healing has an opportunity to fix that damage. Infections, deep-tissue trauma, torn ligaments, and other such problems require either Magical or medical assistance. Time alone cannot heal severe injuries completely.

The more injured you are, the longer it takes to recover from those injuries. Game-wise, the Recovery Times listed on the Healing Damage chart add up.

If, for example, Jennifer Rollins takes three levels of lethal damage from that pit bull in she needs 11 days to recover from those bites and scratches. (One day + three days + one week = 11 days.)

If she took two additional levels of bashing damage escaping the situation, then she’d need four hours to recover from the bashing damage, plus 11 days to heal from the dog’s assault.

Optional Rule: Patch ‘Em Up

In high-intensity combat tales, your group might need to be patched up and sent back into action long before their injuries have truly healed. Under this optional rule, a character with Medicine 3 or higher, plus the appropriate medical gear, can heal a certain degree of lethal damage long enough for his patients to get back in the fight.

Rolling his Wits + Medicine against difficulty 8, the medic can patch up one level of lethal damage per success. Once the adventure ends, however, the injured character will need at least two months to recover from her injuries

– double that for each time she gets patched up within a single story. (Two months the first time, four months the second, eight months the third, etc.) A patched-up character still operates at a minimum penalty of -1 to all rolls except reflexive actions – she’s hurting bad.

Characters with Stamina's of 1 or 2 cannot be patched up this way, and a character who reaches Crippled or Incapacitated cannot be patched up at all. Patch-up attempts can be made once for every dot of Stamina that the injured character has; a Stamina 3 character, for instance, can be patched up a maximum of three times before her injuries overwhelm the healer’s skill.

A botched patch-up roll actually drops the patient’s condition by one level. Also, each time a character gets patched up this way, the Storyteller may have the player make a Stamina roll at difficulty 8, with failure incurring a lasting Flaw as a result of her trauma. The character will, in any case, suffer long-term effects from such hasty measures unless some sort of Magic gets used to fix the problem later.

As in real life, the patch ‘em up option presents a quick fix with long-term consequences; still, it offers hope for desperate teams who face deadly challenges yet lack access immediate Magics or healing items while also reflecting the utility of battlefield medicine when a long recuperation is not an option.

Hunter can be a lot of fun and is very team oriented, You are welcome to drop suggestions in the suggestion box but do not try and change the splat – If you do not like Hunter please just do not play hunter often people expect their hunter to be able to toe to toe a werewolf or Vampire that is not hunter. If you feel your underpowered choose something you feel has MORE!!! power. If you want to play a good Splat and be a member of a TEAM choose hunter.