Scion help.

[talys_boh]

I'm planning on running a game of Scion with a group of friends with little experience outside of D20 style games.Two of them are good Roleplayers, Two of them are mostly new to gaming in general, and one is a bit power-gamey.

(For Clarification Gamer A is new and good. Player B is good. Player C is new and kind of good. Player D is the wannabe munchkin, but there is hope for him.)

The house rules I use for Scion are:

Additional Ranged damage predicates off of perception (Where melee predicates off Str)

Untouchable opponent is BANNED! (Its truth in advertising in a most literal fashion)

What I am looking for is a way to balance powers of mental and social characters. Done right these can break a game, and abuse fellow players by making them always agree with you and do as you say.

And any story ideas would be welcome, theme being epic journey to godhood. I was thinking the broad meta-plot would be the Titans attempting to wrest control of time from Aztlani (and possibly resurrect Kronos). Naturally the heroes will much this up, and I have no intent to use time powers, just their threat.

Game will start with the Hero level of play. Might even do a pre-visitation story.

I forgot to mention I have discussed a few ideas for power balancing of the aforementioned abilities with some people out in the world, but have since lost my notes (Or forgot to take them). Fight with your head was one such power we discussed and I cannot remember for the life of me what we had come up with (Since depending on your interpretation it sucks as a power or is completely game breaking).

[Gorilla2038]

Instead of banning Untouchable Opponent, i would suggest make it so it adds your legend to your DV instead. It remains useful that way, but not super broken.

[talys_boh]

I might playtest that, but Anything that adds to defense values in Scion tends to make defense a bear to get through. And since your ability to hit and defend is based on Dex, Dex and Epic Dex quickly become player favorite stats (and DM favored stats for that matter). Defense (Dodge, at the very least) are always pretty good (For combat inclined characters, especially so, since you know, it IS Scion) making increased DV's an issue, since you want to challenge your players, or at least make it look challenging.

[Friv]

What I am looking for is a way to balance powers of mental and social characters. Done right these can break a game, and abuse fellow players by making them always agree with you and do as you say.

Remember that equal Legend characters can spend one Willpower to ignore mental influence as a rule. Some powers require two or three Willpower, I think. If a power doesn't allow any Willpower spending, have it require that you spend four Willpower.

Create a special Wits Boon, called "Resilient Psyche". Every two Willpower that you spend resisting mental effects counts as one Willpower spent against all other mental effects used against you that scene.

Remove the lines from any powers that makes them automatic against lower-Legend beings. Instead, have those powers have the "Awe-Inspiring" keyword, which increases the Legend cost to resist them by the difference between your Legend and theirs, no cap. On the flipside, don't make higher-Legend people automatically immune; instead let them roll (Their Legend - Your Legend) to ignore the effect without spending Willpower.