Magic Tattoo observations.

[kaid]

I used to think maybe we could combine dripping blood + flaming (even though the cost was never clear) but SOTA said you can only use dripping blood on the SDC ones

Page 154 says otherwise.

Ugh. I hadn't noticed that, was checking out the Enhancement section and noticed all that "SDC only" stuff on 155, didn't notice the changed it to be one of the basic types. That seems new, and I like it.

I guess there's no way to do a Blood/Snake combo for x6 against dragons though?

The stuff about flaming weapons only doing SDC damage to SDC targets also appears to be a change, I don't remember that in WB2...

I guess since you can't giblet squishies for 10 PPE anymore the next best thing would be to spend 20 on the Bleeding Heart Power Punch?

*reads Demon Slayer*
+8 damage to all types of demons, including Deevils

In Secrets of the atlanteans undead slayers the most tattoo focused OCC can only get 2 tattoos per level and a minimum of 6 months between pairs of tattoos. Having a Chaing ku in your party basically makes sure you can get your tattoos as fast as you can get them but there are still some hard limitations on how often you can get them. Given the insanity effects on T men it is pretty clear why this is the case.

58 "The most tattoos any T-Man can get at any time is two. There must be at least six months between the acqui­sition of another pair of tattoos."
62 "The most tattoos any T-Man, even a Monster Hunter, can get at any time is two. There must be at least six months between the acquisition of another pair of tattoos."
73 "The most tattoos any Atlantean can get at any time is two, and there must be six months between the acquisition of another pair of tattoos."
83 "The number of Power Tattoos that the Assassin can get at any one time is one and there must be at least six months"

83 is just for an OCC, 73 is just for a race, so the most powerful are the "any T-Man" statements on 58/62, even if that's arguably somewhat hidden under OCC descriptions.

This is a carryover I forgot about which was present in WB2, albeit on page 94 under the Tattooed Man OCC:
The numbers of tattoos any T-man, even a Maxi-man, can get at any one time is two (2). There must be at least six months between the acquisition of another pair of tattoos.

Strangely they don't reprint that on 95 for the Monster Men OCC but it does appear on 97 for the Maxi-Man OCC and 99 for the Undead Slayer OCC.

Females get more MDC from tats than males... if not for the explicit notation of female members of these OCCs I would speculate as to a hidden class of T-Women this wouldn't apply to.

It's pretty confusing with "T-Man" referring to both an OCC and a class of OCCs, kinda like Deevils being a specific "Lesser Deevil" as well as referring to Dyvalians in general. Kind of wish we could tweak those names a bit to be slightly different somehow so it's clear when statements refer to class or category.

In this case I think it's category, but I would like to know what is excluded...

SOTA142's "Individuals with six or fewer magic tattoos are not categorized as Tattooed Men." sounds like it means the "maximum 2 per session" + 6 months waiting period wouldn't apply and you could jam 6 on an untatted person all at once?

Perhaps that's one of the upsides to having to pay double the PPE requirements?

Also the damage inflicted cannot be healed magically. It has to be natural recovery or it interferes with the tattoo magic.

174 mentions this for Dimension Tattoos:
because the tattoo and accompanying pain and damage is magical in nature, trying to stop the pain or shorten its duration with healing magic or by other means risks undoing the magic ritual to create the tattoo, and therefore rendering the tattoo pow­erless

It seems an odd place to introduce a rule that applies to ALL tattoos rather than just this new type, so I figure it's just for DTs since they're more intense.

I think the limitation on time between seems to be more once you get enough tattoos to turn you MDC. Otherwise some of the starting ages for undead slayers and other T men get a bit questionable as they would have had to start getting their tatts pretty damn young.

[RockJock]

No problem Mack, I took it as a response to my comment. Thanks for clearing it up.

[Axelmania]

I think the limitation on time between seems to be more once you get enough tattoos to turn you MDC. Otherwise some of the starting ages for undead slayers and other T men get a bit questionable as they would have had to start getting their tatts pretty damn young.

Page 84 of Atlantis mentions a 2nd-level Maxi-man can be 16 years old. Page 96 reiterates that.

If you can get 2 per 6 months, that's 4 per year, and they start off with 18 tats, and there's a GM option where you get 5 extra if you start as a runaway. 23 tats at 4/year would take 6 years to get so you'd have to start at 10 years old.

I could see the Splugorth doing that. Given the halved damage/penalties period ends when you turn 13, they might even try to get all of them in before then to maximize chances of survival.

Given the damage for new tats is listed as HP/SDC does anyone know if it's ever specified whether you take damage from new tats once you have 7 and become MDC (or are MDC from the start like a Chaing-Ku) or if it's just the d20 penalties?

[kaid]

If you don’t care about mental trauma the rate you get them can probably be accelerated.

[The Beast]

I used to think maybe we could combine dripping blood + flaming (even though the cost was never clear) but SOTA said you can only use dripping blood on the SDC ones

Page 154 says otherwise.

<snip>
*reads Demon Slayer*
+8 damage to all types of demons, including Deevils

Yeah. Deevils are explicitly a kind of Demon ("Deevils, Another Horde of Demons") and have been for a long time.
Which is why anti-demon measures work on them... because canonically they are demons.

That's not always true though. I know there's things that'll damage Hades demons more than Dyval devils and visa-versa.

[eliakon]

I used to think maybe we could combine dripping blood + flaming (even though the cost was never clear) but SOTA said you can only use dripping blood on the SDC ones

Page 154 says otherwise.

<snip>
*reads Demon Slayer*
+8 damage to all types of demons, including Deevils

Yeah. Deevils are explicitly a kind of Demon ("Deevils, Another Horde of Demons") and have been for a long time.
Which is why anti-demon measures work on them... because canonically they are demons.

That's not always true though. I know there's things that'll damage Hades demons more than Dyval devils and visa-versa.

That's a specialization effect.
That doesn't change the fact that Deevils are, when you get to the root of it, Demons.

[RockJock]

You can always go with the idea of the Spulgys sending their Tattoo Warriors in training to another dimension where time moves differently to speed up the process.

[Axelmania]

Yeah. Deevils are explicitly a kind of Demon ("Deevils, Another Horde of Demons") and have been for a long time.
Which is why anti-demon measures work on them... because canonically they are demons.

I remembered it from the conversion book but it's nice to see it re-emphasized. Just noticed they did keep the title intact on page 29 of Dark Conversions.

Given "the Dyvalians" I just wish the term "Hadesians" were introduced for "demons of Hades", and some explanation as to why all the Dyvalians for some reason get referred to based on one of the lesser types of Dyvalians. It'd be like referring to al of the Hadesians like "Lasae" or something.

The nickname didn't exist back when they were collectively called "Devils" so I think they just wanted some similar collective term to go opposite "Demons" for Hades, but given they're ANOTHER horde of them, that probably shouldn't been abandoned as a Hades designation from the start.

I mean even as early as Vampire Kingdoms, Kev knew he was doing non-Hades brands of Demons... so Hadesians/Dyvalians is the perfect replacement for the Palladium RPG's Demons/Devils designation.