List of Playable Creatures in nWoD

[Blackdrop]

Another werewolf 2e question, it says that when your shapeshifting your shifting one step towards your goal form each time, and it also says that you can only go gauru once per scene. So... if your going from human form to wolf, your going to enter gauru during that, and then you'll be stuck in wolf and near-wolf forms until the next scene since you can't go gauru again, even though you only went gauru because you have to as part of going from one end of the scale to the other....?

Can we get a page number on this? Cause I can't find anything about it being a step-by-step process in any of the relevant sections in the book. I'm not saying I don't believe you, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if the Onyx Path editors left some piece of fluff that contradicts the crunch in the book.

Edit: Wait, it also says that if he takes gauru form he goes into death rage... that... how are you meant to transform into wolf form?

You only enter Wasu-im if you remain in Gauru pass the Hishu Stamina+Primal Urge time limit. And since I question the "step-by-step" transformation, it isn't a problem at all.

Edit: oh for godsake, eating cereal or toast is a breaking point for werewolves... that's just stupid. So if you eat 99% of foods, within a week you'll probably have 10 harmony and thus will basically be unplayable...

And you'd be absolutely correct...if the blurb you're referring to didn't have a note that that breaking point only applies if you're Harmony was below 3.

Edit: Is there any way to resist triggers... I mean... they're so harsh.

No.

However, for clarifications sake, since you seem to be new the system and miss a few things (no shame in it and it certainly isn't helped by the fact that whoever edits these books shouldn't be trusted to the make sure 5 year olds are spelling their names correctly, let alone making sure that a book that we geeks are going treat as a legal document is arranged correctly), you only pick one set of triggers and you only use the trigger that your Harmony level says to use.

Edit: Goddamnit Snark, no one had posted to the thread for, like, 4 hours! Why did we post within 10 minutes of each other!

Edit Edit: BTW Snark, you're still thinking of/using the old copy of the text. The final version has the "Harmony 3 or Below/Harmony 8 or Higher" as proper header, rather than a bullet

[Milo v3]

I... don't think you have to shapeshift one form at a time? I can't remember any rule to that effect, anyway, and you're right that it would create weird issues. Pretty sure you're supposed to be able to shift straight from any form to any other form, no intermediate steps required.

Re-reading it, it seems that the steps thing happens when your stressed:

When the character is stressed — during combat, a chase, or when she feels threatened — she shifts one form towards an appropriate form each turn.

So out of combat should allow the transform right to wolf form... I think.

Important caveat: that's only a breaking point if you have Harmony 3 or lower.

The formatting here is kind of bad, but if you look at the list you'll see that there's a line saying 'Harmony 8 or higher' under Towards Flesh, and a similar one saying 'Harmony 3 or lower' under Towards Spirit. I'm 99% certain that this is supposed to indicate that the breaking points beneath them only apply when you have extremely low/high Harmony.

So if you have Harmony 1-3, it's very easy to gain Harmony: ordinary human acts like spending time outside the spirit world or eating cereal will be breaking points towards flesh. If you have Harmony 8-10, then the opposite is true: relatively normal aspects of werewolf life, like spending time in the spirit world or leading a hunt, will start being troublesome. Extremely high/low Harmony is hard to maintain - this actually ends up being sort of beneficial, since balanced Harmony is generally the best way to go.

Unfortunately, the text saying 'Harmony 3 or lower' is listed as a bullet point rather than a header, so it blends right into the list of breaking points. I suppose it's possible that these are meant to be breaking points, not headers, but that interpretation just doesn't make sense: it becomes literally impossible to have Harmony above 7 or below 4. So I'm pretty sure this is another case of "the rules make sense, but the layout/formatting is bad".

Thank god. Yeah I didn't notice the Harmony 3 or lower since it just blends into the others, that makes things much more manageable. Now my brother is joking about the idea that if your harmony goes to 3 it automatically is a breaking point and it goes back up to 4. That really should be underlined or something @_@

Sort of? You can avoid them by trying to keep your Harmony balanced (at 5 you don't even suffer the specific trigger). If you run into a trigger, you can't resist it outright, but you enter 'soft rage' first; in this state, you can roll Resolve+Composure to spend a turn not attacking, and if you get an extraordinary success on that roll you can snap out of it entirely. Extraordinary successes aren't easy to get, but you can keep trying, and there's a Merit (Controlled Burn) to make it easier.

There are also some supernatural powers (the Elodoth auspice power, the Wisdom facet of the Gift of Rage) that can help here.

Thats pretty horrible. If a changeling uses a clause to heal a werewolf, suddenly the werewolf goes into Wasu-Im unless they have harmony 5. Or your packmate uses a power to buff you...

you only pick one set of triggers and you only use the trigger that your Harmony level says to use.

Oh. So I just don't ever pick The Other ever.

[The_Snark]

Re-reading it, it seems that the steps thing happens when your stressed:

When the character is stressed — during combat, a chase, or when she feels threatened — she shifts one form towards an appropriate form each turn.

So out of combat should allow the transform right to wolf form... I think.

Ah - that passage is talking about involuntary shifting under stress, which only applies to low-Harmony characters. As long as you have Harmony 4+ you don't need to worry about that.

(If you have Harmony 3 or lower, then do you suddenly lose the ability to go straight from Hishu to Urhan while under stress? I don't know how this is supposed to work. Don't have Harmony 3 or lower, it's a headache.)

Oh. So I just don't ever pick The Other ever.

Pretty much. Some of the triggers are harsher than others. Blood and Pack are probably the easiest to avoid, as long as you keep Harmony balanced; Moon and Territory will crop up occasionally but not too often; Wounds is very situational, but if/when that situation pops up then you're in trouble.

The Other is definitely the hardest to deal with. I feel like it might work better if you houseruled that other werewolves don't count? That way, you at least don't have to worry about your pack setting you off, although mixed-splat groups are still unworkable. And dealing with spirits would still be an issue, I suppose... I don't really know what they were thinking with this one.

(Although, it's worth noting that Death Rage is an advantage in a straight-up fight: no limit on time spent in Gauru, no wound penalties, and some Gifts get better. So for a certain type of character, I guess this might appeal? Maybe?)

[Anonymouswizard]

Wait, I thought the Forsaken swapped shapes, instead of shape shifting. I want to be a wolf? Bam, wolf. Garau? I put my wolf form into my aura and take out my garau form.

[Sith_Happens]

(no shame in it and it certainly isn't helped by the fact that whoever edits these books shouldn't be trusted to the make sure 5 year olds are spelling their names correctly, let alone making sure that a book that we geeks are going treat as a legal document is arranged correctly)

From what I can tell, Onyx Path has exactly one editor and she's working full-time on EX3.

[Anonymouswizard]

From what I can tell, Onyx Path has exactly one editor and she's working full-time on EX3.

Wait, that's happening? I thought it was just a myth!

Next you'll say there's been a lot of argument over whether Sardonyx represents super strength well enough.

[TheCountAlucard]

From what I can tell, Onyx Path has exactly one editor and she's working full-time on EX3.

Ex3 already went through its editing phase, like, two phases ago. We're on the last step, where the layout's being bounced back and forth, and sending backer PDFs is the very next step.

Also I was sure the editing for Ex3 was done by Stephen Lea Sheppard. But I could well be wrong.

[Sith_Happens]

Ex3 already went through its editing phase, like, two phases ago. We're on the last step, where the layout's being bounced back and forth, and sending backer PDFs is the very next step.

As far as I'm concerned editing and layout are the same thing.

[TheCountAlucard]

And I'm saying, they're not.

Also, Michelle Lyons-McFarland edited Demon: the Descent in addition to SLS editing Ex3. Onyx Path has more than one editor in their stables.

[Sith_Happens]

And I'm saying, they're not.

Also, Michelle Lyons-McFarland edited Demon: the Descent in addition to SLS editing Ex3. Onyx Path has more than one editor in their stables.

[One Tin Soldier]

Wait, I thought the Forsaken swapped shapes, instead of shape shifting. I want to be a wolf? Bam, wolf. Garau? I put my wolf form into my aura and take out my garau form.

No, werewolves definitely shift their actual shape. It's just that most of the time it's pretty quick, and their clothing will (usually) shift with them. You might be thinking of demons.

[Anonymouswizard]

No, werewolves definitely shift their actual shape. It's just that most of the time it's pretty quick, and their clothing will (usually) shift with them. You might be thinking of demons.

I'm sure it was 1e werewolves I was thinking of.