[Reaver]

"well as the changes to infected if going to a 5e game"

As it says in the title its 4e

Well got a mini test against 3 of the group later to see how both my trolls will work. Should be fun

I caught that up there

But last time you posted you mentioned (at least I think it was you) that you might be making the transition to 5e... so it was worth bring up the change...


Hope the characters and the game works out well for you!

[Novocrane]

The diet req is less of an issue than the Essence Drain / Loss - Dzoo have regen and are metahuman, which puts all the flesh they'd ever need at arms' length. (assuming they're crazy / tough enough to do it) Look up Renfield (Running Wild?) if you want to solve the other half of the feeding problem; it's possible to get someone addicted to an essence increasing awakened drug and drain them repeatedly until they burn out and die from either addiction.

[Reaver]

The diet req is less of an issue than the Essence Drain / Loss - Dzoo have regen and are metahuman, which puts all the flesh they'd ever need at arms' length. (assuming they're crazy / tough enough to do it) Look up Renfield (Running Wild?) if you want to solve the other half of the feeding problem; it's possible to get someone addicted to an essence increasing awakened drug and drain them repeatedly until they burn out and die from either addiction.

I don't think Renfield does what you think it does....

“Renfield ”
Duration: 7 days
Effect: Agility +1, Intuition +1, Strength +1, Euphoria, Immunity
(Age), +1 Initiative Pass
“Renfield” is an alchemical compound made from the blood of
someone Infected with HMHVV I, and it is used by these creatures
to create vampiric pawns. The creator draws some of his own blood
and performs certain enchantments on it; this costs him a point of
his own Essence. He then injects this drug into his chosen pawn (who
may or may not be a willing volunteer).
Once the pawn has become addicted to the drug, he gains
the Carrier (HMHVV I) Quality (p. 66) and the Dietary
Requirement (“Renfield”) and Essence Loss weaknesses. Once
transformed, the pawn is dependent upon the drug for his own
Essence. Each dose gives him 1D6 points of Essence. “Renfield’
has a threshold of 3 for the Addiction Test, and it is both mentally
and physically addictive.

Renfield makes you slaves, at the cost of the targets Essence as they gain the Essence Loss weakness and lose a point of essence a week. Renfield is the only way these people cab gain their essence back!! So, once you have them addicted, they have 6 week max life before they expire (essence of 0) unless they get a dose of Renfield (which costs an infected a point of essence to make...)

Make you willing slaves to feed off of? Yes. Would they be tasty and keep for a while, while they feed the infected..... not so much....

[Novocrane]

Ok kids

And I thought this was out of place at the time.

I don't think Renfield does what you think it does....

Lets lift it up a notch, Reaver. Someone has misread things, and it's not me.

Beings with Essence Loss lose 1 point of Essence every lunar cycle (1 month).

The creator [pays] a point of his own Essence ... Each dose gives [the addict] 1D6 points of Essence.

As for taste ... at least try to stick to your own goalposts. Either this is an emergency measure for when there's no other option but to be stuck in a safehouse with the group, (and, presumably, a slave) or you're applying it to standard play and complaining over head canon sensory details you both introduced and don't need to deal with.

[Reaver]

opps on the lunar cycle.. I thought I read once a week, my bad.


Look at the Renfiled posting Dude....

"Once the pawn has become addicted to the drug, he gains the Carrier (HMHVV I) Quality (p. 66) and the Dietary Requirement (“Renfield”) and Essence Loss weaknesses.."

Now, thanks to my being wrong about the rate of essence decay it's not as bad as I made out originally.... now you little Renfield slave dies in 6 months if not fed Renfield. for an 1d6 essence top up. (the only way apparently this poor addicted individual can regain essence!


Still doesn't really provide a means of feeding. It does provide however, someone who is mentally and physically addicted to the Renfield who you can force to allow you to take essence from in exchange for their next fix... but this is really feeding Peter or pay Paul... As the infected has to give up 1 essence to make the Renfield, then has to feed off the addicted person to recover the essence plus "top up". so he is taking at least 2 essence and there is no guarantee the addict individual will recover those 2 essence (the chances are fair however) As time goes on, the feeding/top with Renfield gets a little more dangerous as the addicted also suffers essence drain.... So if the infected keeps with the "take 2 esscence to offset the Renfield creation" now the addicted loses 3 essence (2 from the infected, 1 from essence loss) but only gain 1d6 essence from the Renfield... so a 50% chance they do or do NOT fully recover the essence...


With care, you might get  the addicted individual to last a year....

which, honestly, is not that bad....


More of concern is the entry for essence drain:

ESSENCE DRAIN
Type: P 􀁲 Action: Complex 􀁲 Range: Touch 􀁲 Duration: Permanent
The Essence Drain power allows a being to drain the Essence from
another character, adding drained Essence to the critter’s own. Essence
Drain can only target physical sentient beings (characters and nonastral
critters with the Sentience power).
The critter cannot drain from a resisting victim; the victim must
either participate willingly, or be subdued into helplessness (restrained,
paralyzed, knocked unconscious, mentally controlled, etc.). Essence
transfer only occurs in the presence of strong emotion. This can be
a lover’s passion, the terror of an unwilling victim, or the rage of a
defeated enemy, for example. The emotions must be strong, and they
must be focused personally on the critter using the power. Sometimes
the transfer of a token amount of physical material takes place, such as
blood for a vampire or flesh for a wendigo, though this usually serves
to enhance the passion or terror of the moment.
Draining a point of Essence takes a Charisma + Magic (10 – target’s
Essence, 1 minute) Extended Test. If the critter is disturbed or
interrupted before this test ends, the Essence point is not drained. The
critter may drain as many points of Essence as it currently possesses,
with a minimum of 1 point. A critter can only increase its Essence to
twice its natural maximum.
Lost Essence will affect a character’s Magic or Resonance rating, as
noted on p. 68. If a character’s Essence is drained to 0, the character dies.
The psychic stimulus of the act of draining has a side effect of
creating ecstasy in the victim. A victim being drained must make a
Willpower (2) Test. Failure indicates addiction, causing the subject to
seek out the creature for another “rush.” Treat this as a Mild Addiction
negative quality (see p. 93). This will, of course, lead to a rapid loss of
Essence and eventual death if the character is not restrained or does
not “kick the habit.”
If pressed, a critter that has drained Essence within the past hour
can siphon the stolen life force into other attributes, including (and
often especially) Magic. Every 2 points of drained Essence temporarily
boosts one Physical or Mental attribute, or Magic, by +1. Only one attribute
may be boosted at any time. This attribute boosts wears off after
12 hours, and half the Essence points used to fuel the boost are lost

Best to clear the bolded part with your GM, some seem to take it as you have to "eat" the person to gain the essence, Some read it as optional and the Essence Drain and Dietary Requiremnt as separate. (meaning you have eat meta-human flesh at a different time as essence drain. I personally don't see the difference in the distinction... if the infected wants his Essence AND dietary requirement, fine... if he just wants one of the other at this feeding, again fine.)



and I belive this will be my last post on this topic as the OP has made a choice and is playing. (and I am hoping he is enjoying his character!)

[Nobody]

Means of feeding? High loyalty street doc. Nobody open the freezer in the cellar.

Superiority? I went with a Fomori Fomoraig melee tank and have seldom had so much fun with a character. Big dumb gentle giant (until he bought off his mental handicap and got a cerebral booster) with common sense. Wrestled an augmented juggernaut into submission (couldn't hurt it, but it definitely wasn't going anywhere). I made up for not having regeneration by loading his soak so high that nothing could really hurt him, then put in a pain editor to handle the occasional stun. Arcane Arrester is (.)(.), though.

Frankly, I find the "all Infected must be ravenous monsters" line tired and uncreative, and a version of The Stormwind Fallacy. Interesting characters are made by their quirks, their interactions, and their flaws, not their bonus and templates. Burke's crew loved that guy. When the rigger got herself some whiz new cyberlegs, she had the old ones butcher wrapped for him. He was a dapper gentleman about town, with a dazzling kitchen to support his Artisan 5 (Cooking +2). At game start his only goal was to get a digestive expansion system so he could eat real food (Media Junkie - Cooking Shows). Once he got that, he immediately failed his addiction check for augmentation and spent the rest of the campaign obsessively upgrading himself (Mental Handicap x2 = fail on most addiction tests since it corrodes both sides of your dice pool, I discovered). His standard engagement tactic was to put on his post apoctalyptic (18 inch pink metal spiked mohawk, tyvm) riot helmet, hit the AR go time button to turn on his extra loud Troll-core noiz, AR and holographic images of violence and war, and then bust a Kool-Aid Man to get to where the fight needed to happen. Once hit a helicopter with a bowling ball. 2 players got weepy when, after getting put down in a fight and rescued by the team, he hid in his escape tunnel's bog cave where he kept the only things left of his mother and childhood and listened to a recording of a lullaby.

Humanizing an oddball character can be a fun RP challenge, and should be attempted when someone is ready to really test their RP chops.

On topic, though, screw the troll infected, play a Wendigo if you're looking for the superior build. No matter how much philosophy or RP rationalization I give, nobody ever lets me play a Wendigo.

[Nobody]

Oh, and on your Corrosive Secretions question, a chemical protection second skin should be able to withstand it and save the rest of your armor. I went with thrown weapons for ranged, since it took advantage of his ridiculous strength.

[lord_shadow_666]

Sorry I haven't been back to look, got distracted with other games

First off, thanks for the Renfield idea, I will keep a batch or 3 on hand for when I want it. The food side of things are sorted, thanks to being mildly cannibalistic with a friend in the morgue.

Well my guy is slightly famous but has managed to keep the infection hidden from the public for a few years to the point no one cares he stays hidden away, he is a bounty hunter so people expect him to be covered up in armour. I took the Dzoo in the end with a high body rating and stupidly high armour rating I am rolling over 40 dice when it comes to armour rolls.

Humanizing an oddball character can be a fun RP challenge, and should be attempted when someone is ready to really test their RP chops.

While my guy isn't an odd ball he needs to keep himself hidden to the group.

So thanks for all the tips and help guys