Spiritual Damage and the Supernatural Dimensions House Rules

[indy523]

Here are the house rules I created based on our discussion on spirit based attacks damaging EGO and not BODY.  They are still raw but I put some effort into them and took notes from your brainstorming.  I have three more pages hopefully the program will let me reply three times to post them.  Enjoy!

 

Some attacks directly affect the Spirit of a target and do not cause physical damage to the target's body.  Examples of this are secret martial arts techniques that use simple touching of the target in the points of the body that affect the flow of chi which can cause the victim to keel over as if hit by a Mack truck even though there is no mark on the victim except maybe a slight discoloration.  Other examples are a science fiction weapon that shoots a stream of "energy" designed to affect a spirit which causes them harm.

 

All attacks which can use this power must be bought with these two advantages.  One is Affects Desolid that can affect spirits +1/4A (the +1/2A affects all desolid characters including spirits so this counts) and the other is a new advantage Damage vs Ego +1/4A.  These attacks work exactly the way they did before with one exception. The attack uses OCV or OMCV to determine if it hit just as it normally does.  The attack is defended against by the DCV or DMCV of the target just as it normally did.  The defense against the damage is determined as normal using PD, ED, MenD or whatever defense the attack normally has.  The attack still does stun damage determined the way it was before.  The difference is that the BOD damage is instead counted as EGO damage as it affects the Soul of the target.

 

Just as it is with BOD damage when a character's EGO is reduced to zero by a Damage vs EGO attack they are bleeding and will continue to bleed until it stops.  The bleeding is stopped by someone slapping their face to break them out of it, consoling words or therapy.  Should the EGO damage be -10 or worse the character become catatonic and enters a coma like state where they can be led around and forced to move but cannot respond or act.  At double the EGO value in the negatives the character no longer has the will to hold onto the body and the character dies.

 

Characters heal Soul damage the same way the body heals physical damage by healing back their recovery in EGO per month.  Should a character have access to calm surroundings, caring help and psychiatric therapy the amount of healing can be doubled.  Any character with telepathy and mind control powers may use them to attempt psychic surgery.  This requires a link to the mind using telepathy and then a mind control attempt at +20 level.  IF successful they may make a psychic surgery skill roll to heal 1d6 EGO damage for every five points over EGO+20 they score.  Note that the ego value is the undamaged value.  The target may not allow the attack to occur.

 

For purposes of determining EGO other effects or attacks will use either the Soul EGO which is the undamaged total EGO representing the strength of the soul or the body EGO which represents the level of the EGO score they are at including the damage.  This represents the Souls current level of will to grasp unto the body.  In this respect EGO damage is different from the EGO loss through Drain.  With the Drain power the Soul and Body EGO are both affected while EGO damage only reduces the body EGO and not the Soul.

Spiritual Plane

 

Spirits reside on the ethereal plane which is a ghostly mirror of normal reality.  The ethereal plane consists of the prime ethereal and the astral realms.  The Prime ethereal is adjacent to the natural world in location and time.  This means that there is an ethereal replica of objects in the real world.  If there is a church in the material realm then the walls and gates to that church exist as spiritual objects in the prime ethereal.  Objects in the prime ethereal match their physical real companions.  Each object in the real world is defined by the body it has and the PD and ED it has to resist damage.  The ethereal version of that object has no form in the physical world but it has an EGO score equal to the BODY of the object, mental defense MD equal to the energy defense ED of an object and Power Defense PowD equal to the physical defense or PD of an object.

 

Generally speaking, an ethereal object will tend to move with the physical object that it is tied to however disturbances from psychic powers or strong emotional resonance in an area can disjoin objects from their ethereal counterparts creating orphaned spiritual artifacts.  Usually when this happens the physical object will eventually develop a new ethereal form however in that period until this happens it is as if there is no resistance to spirits in the ethereal prime.  Ghosts sometimes have the power to do this on purpose creating spiritual entryways to an area that is blocked off.

 

In some circumstances orphaned objects can be purposefully created to form barriers and tools useable in the spirit world.  This is done by magicians when they use rock salt or blessed water to create magic circles that create barriers to the spiritual energies.  These are objects in the prime ethereal with MD and PowD and EGO which have no counterpart on the material plane.  Thus a barrier that keeps out spirits but not material beings.

 

The Prime ethereal is adjacent to the material place in spirit.  The material plane and the Prime ethereal in a sense exist in the same place.  Material walls and doors tend to occupy the same position or location and the spiritual side envelops and fills the material side.  When a physical door is opened the spiritual door also opens.  It is possible to use spiritual energy to open the spiritual door but this takes spiritual energy and will eventually move back to its place on the ethereal barring some permanent disjunction.  The material does not tend to move when the spiritual side is moved however a chill in the atmosphere or buzzing in the energy within that area can be felt to those who are sensitive.

 

There are spiritual powers that can move the material such as the ability of poltergeist spirits but this is

done by focusing energy in the material place and guiding it with spiritual energy.  The initial movement is the physical item and the spiritual replica moves with it.

 

The Prime material has many wells and chasms which feed into the deep ethereal.  These are areas of the ethereal plane that exist outside a material counterpart.  These wells or chasms are always finite sometimes limited to a apace no larger than a closet.  These chasms or wells usually are just that holes or caves in the fabric of the spiritual realm of the ethereal but many of them end in a doorway or passage to an outer spiritual plane that connects to the heavens, the abyss and many other realms in between.

 

Spirit Rules

 

Objects in the material have a spiritual counterpart in the prime ethereal unless some other spiritual

force has worked to sever that connection or to move them apart.  Such cold objects will appear as black voids in the ethereal realm but unless psychically attacked with some permanent damage will eventually develop a new spiritual replica to surround the item.  All spiritual objects have an EGO score equal to the BODY of the physical object, a Mental Defense MD score equal to the ED of the object and a Power Defense PowD equal to the physical defense PD of the object.

 

All spirits Powers have the advantages Does Ego +1/4A and Affects Spiritual World +1/4A and the -1/2L does not affect the material world.  These even out so they are combined into a 0L Spiritual Form.  Spirits only have the following attributes:  Dexterity, Intelligence, Ego, Presence, OMCV and DMCV, REC and Stun.  Most spirits have some level of PowD and MenD which protects against the only normal attacks to spirits.

 

All spirits must buy their power with Affects the Physical World +2A in order to move any material matter.  This is for any active power that can affect the physical plane.

 

Any sense the spirit has which can detect the physical world must be bought at the ten point level for a group of related dimensions for a single sense or a 20 point addon for a sense group.  This includes every sense that the spirit has this ability.  This allows a spirt to sense the prime material plane, the prime ethereal plane, the deep ethereal planes and the astral plane.  A sprit must buy the sense with this addon and cannot just add the prime material plane and not the astral plane.  Without the addon the spirit can only sense the ethereal plane (prime ethereal and deep ethereal).  Many ghosts and other spirits trapped on the ethereal plane do not have this dimensional sight and can only perceive the spiritual world.  While this mirrors the prime material world the replica is not 100% complete and the spirit has no way of knowing when the psychic copies are distorted from the prime material plane.  In essence the dream like state of the ethereal plane is their reality.

 

Material Plane Creatures in the Spirit Realm

 

Creatures of the material plane that want to affect supernatural constructs in the ethereal or astral plane must have the advantage Affects Desolid Spirits only +1/4A or the +1.2A Affects desolid that also affects spirits.  This essentially allows the material creature to touch and move objects in the material but they cannot damage them.  To do damage to an object the creature requires the advantage Does Ego +1/4A.  This advantage will not be able to be effective at all unless the affect desolid ability is also purchased or available.  This is because in order to do ego damage one must be able to touch a spiritual entity.  Damage can be done to any living creature of the prime material plane so long as it is self willed and has an EGO score.

 

Creatures of the material plane may buy enhanced senses at the level of a single plane of existence such as the ethereal plane or both the ethereal, deep ethereal and astral as a group.  This sense at the group level will not allow sensing to the deep ethereal or astral planes unless the prime material creature can somehow perceive those planes as they are not adjacent to him on the prime material plane.  This means that they character must have some means of travelling to those planes such as astral projection or they must have the appropriate clairsentience power that has the dimensional modifier applied.  Usually the character gains this power to perceive the cosmos from the material world through spells are magical devices used as a focus.

 

Most prime material creatures can only travel to the ethereal plane through astral projection.  Most spirits can only travel to the material plane through possession.

 

Some material creatures such as dragons or powerful magicians have the ability to transfer direct to the

ethereal plane through extra dimensional movement.  Other powerful spirits such as demons or angels have the ability to create avatar bodies and step through to the material plane.  This is usually handled by some form of Multiform power however there are special Summon spells that provide a material form for these creatures when they are summoned to the material plane.  In either case the new physical form for the spirit, demon or angel has all the physical attributes as well as their attributes as a spirit.  For some very powerful entities the transfer happens through duplication allowing the  spirit an avatar on the prime material plane while they remain on the spiritual plane.