New Atavisms for Ironclaw

Below are a bunch of new Atavisms that I've written up for our Ironclaw campaign.

Danger's Whisper
Requirement: the Gift of Keen Nose and the Gift of Keen Ears
Difficulty: 2d8 & your own Mind Dice

By honing their other senses to an astounding degree, the Atavist gains the ability to react to foes who cannot be seen. For the next scene, they can apply their Race Trait to all Sixth Sense rolls and opponents do not gain bonuses for making attacks that the atavist cannot see, provided that they are within 3 paces. Attacks from further away receive bonuses normally.

Example: Carravis has activated the Atavism of "Danger's Whisper". When an opponent attacks her from behind with a sword, he does not get the normal +1 bonus because he is within 3 paces of her. Her heightened senses will warn her of his attack. If he were shooting at her with a bow from at least 4 paces away, he would still get the normal bonus.


Echoes of the Earth
Requirement: the Gift of Keen Ears or Race Trait that applies to Listen
Difficulty: 2d6 & your own Mind Dice

This Atavism greatly enhances the atavist's ability to hear tiny noises. Whenever they put their ear to the ground or another solid surface, they can invoke this Atavism to hear the distant echoes of riding beasts, identify the presence of underground caverns, or even pick out the tiny sounds of ants or beetles burrowing. An Overwhelming Success indicates that extra detail is learned, such as the exact distance or number of the riders, the size of the underground area, or the extent of the ant mound.


Hibernation
Difficulty: d4 & your own Mind Dice

As the character rests, they can put themselves into a state of hibernation, falling into a dreamless sleep that can last months at a time. When you successfully invoke it, the number rolled is the maximum number of months that you can remain in hibernation. During this period, you need neither food nor water, but as soon as you awaken you will be both parched and ravenous. You will need to acquire both food and water immediately or begin to suffer the effects of starvation and/or thirst. You will not be able to use Hibernation again until after you are fully fed and your thirst slaked.

If a hibernating character is disturbed by loud noises or being jostled, they will come briefly awake. They will be groggy and only half-awake. If they stay awake for only a few minutes and do not engage in any physical exertion, they will be able to re-enter hibernation. Otherwise their sleep will end early and they will become ravenous and thirsty as above, assuming that they have slept long enough for that to occur normally. Unless awakened early, a hibernating character will sleep for as many months as they chose to (but that chosen number cannot be greater than the result they rolled when invoking this atavism). It is impossible to control the time period any more finely than months; an atavist cannot choose to hibernate for just a week or for a month and a day, for example.


The Long Run
Difficulty: 2d6 & your own Mind Dice

This Atavism enables you to travel enormous distances at a steady pace without tiring.

If you Fail to beat the difficulty dice, then there is no benefit and you cannot invoke "The Long Run" again until after you have gotten a good night's rest.

If you roll a Tie, then for the rest of that day you will take fatigue from long-distance travel at the rate of 1 point every 3 hours instead of 1 point every 2 hours. If you roll a Success, the rate changes to 1 point every 4 hours, and an Overwhelming Success changes it to 1 point every 5 hours. A forced march still doubles these rates.

If you invoke "The Long Run" while sky-clad, then you must travel sky-clad in order to maintain the benefit of this power. If you stop and get dressed then the effects will end, but since you didn't fail the initial roll you will still be able to try and reactivate it if you choose.


Ram's Charge
Requirement: the Gift of Horns
Difficulty: 3d6 & your own Mind Dice

This variant of the "Battering Charge" (see the Phelan supplement) is commonly used by the goats of the Chevernaise mountains. At the end of the round (in the Third Rank), you lower your head and run forward in a mighty charge, ramming into a foe with your horns. You must choose the direction you will launch yourself in before invoking this power.

If you roll a Failure or worse when invoking this power, then nothing happens.

If you get a Tie or better when invoking this power, then you hurl yourself forward in a straight line equal to the result you rolled in paces. If you collide with a target before reaching the end of your path, the target must test Soak against your roll plus an additional d6 as though it were a Homing Attack. For every damage die that scores an Overwhelm against their Soak (inflicting 2 wounds), the target is also knocked back 1 pace. If they are knocked back even a single pace, they must also test Speed & Acrobatics against the highest damage die rolled or fall down.

Once you strike a target, you stop immediately. Unlike the "Battering Charge" Atavism, you cannot attack multiple foes. If you collide with a solid and immobile object such as a wall, you will have to roll Soak against your own roll (but do not add the extra d6).


Scent the Wind
Difficulty: 2d6 & your own Mind Dice

This Atavism allows the character to better predict the weather. For the next scene after invoking it, the results of any Weather Sense rolls are upgraded one step. Failures become Ties, Ties become Successes, and Successes become Overwhelming Successes.


Squeeze
Requirement: a Race Trait that applies to Contortionist
Difficulty: 2d8 & your own Mind Dice

This Atavism allows the character to squeeze their body into tiny areas that it normally couldn't fit into. They can dislocate bones, stretch limbs and otherwise contort themselves much more than normal without causing any permanent harm. The results of their next Contortionist check will automatically be upgraded one level, with Overwhelming Failures becoming Failures, Failures becoming Ties, Ties becoming Successes, and Successes becoming Overwhelming Successes. The effects can last for up to a scene, but the character must begin the Contortionist check immediately after invoking this Atavism or the benefit will be lost.


Terrible Worry
Requirement: the Gift of Teeth
Difficulty: 2d6 & your own Mind Dice

As per Jadeclaw (p.140), once you have successfully grappled a foe with your teeth (by scoring a Bite to Grapple Special), you can use the special follow-up of Worry. Worry automatically hits and inflicts your Strength & Teeth damage, which your opponent must soak normally.

Rather than using the normal Worry, however, you can choose to invoke this Atavism instead. If you successfully invoke "Terrible Worry", then your opponent will take an extra 2d6 damage. If you fail, however, they will take no damage at all.

You must be able to use the regular Worry follow-up in order to be able to use this Atavism.

Example: Corrigan attacks a Chevernaise warrior with his teeth and scores an Overwhelm. He chooses the Bite to Grapple Special and has now grappled his opponent with his teeth. The next round he uses the regular Worry follow-up and inflicts his Strength & Teeth damage. Unfortunately, his heavily armored opponent soaks all of the damage. The round after that, Corrigan elects to use "Terrible Worry" instead of the regular Worry follow-up. He rolls and successfully invokes "Terrible Worry". This time his opponent will take Corrigan's Strength & Teeth & 2d6 damage. If he had failed to invoke "Terrible Worry", his opponent would have taken no damage at all. The next round, assuming that his foe hasn't somehow broken free, Corrigan can once again choose to use Worry, invoke the "Terrible Worry" Atavism, or do something else, possibly even letting go of his opponent.


Tree Walking
Requirement: a Race Trait that applies to Climb and a Racial Habitat of Forest
Difficulty: 2d6 & your own Mind Dice

This Atavism allows a character to jump or swing from tree to tree in a dense forest at a rate equal to their normal Dash (unmodified by any Gifts). They can move at full speed without ever touching the ground, allowing them to traverse great distances and making it very difficult to follow them. The effect lasts for a scene. If special circumstances hinder their movement (such as an unusually large gap between trees), they may still be required to make an appropriate skill roll (e.g.- Speed & Jumping to cross a large gap) but they don't have to stop unless they fail the check.


Optional Rules for Atavists

For my own Ironclaw campaign, I've also instituted some minor house rules, two of which are listed below. The "Swifter Atavisms" rule was added to allow further room for advancement for the dedicated Atavist (the further you improve your skills, the more likely you are to Overwhelm when invoking that Atavism) and because I felt that they were not maintaining pace with other combat types.

The change to All-Fours was done mostly because I felt that it was underpriced in its original form. The restriction was placed to avoid the odd circumstance of a kangaroo dropping to "all-fours" to go faster when their animal ancestors didn't travel that way.

Optional Rule: Swifter Atavisms

When an Atavist Overwhelms the difficulty when invoking an Atavism, it is invoked so swiftly that it does not actually use up the character's action for the turn and he may take another action instead. This benefit only applies to one Atavism roll per turn and does not work with Atavisms that use repeated rolls (like "Inner Might", "Feral Swiftness" or "Reserves of Strength") or which already specify a special effect for rolling an Overwhelm (like "The Salmon Leap").

Yes, if you invoke the "Riastradth" Atavism from Phelan, you get an additional free Atavism each turn, and this one you don't have to roll an Overwhelm on. You could conceivably activate up to 3 Atavisms per turn in this way.

Optional Rule: The All-Fours Gift as an Atavism

All-Fours
Requirement: a Race whose animal equivalent would normally walk on all fours
Difficulty: 2d8 & your own Mind Dice

By invoking this Atavism, the character throws themselves back to their animal roots and runs on all fours. For the next scene, they can add their Race to their Speed when calculating their Dash and Stride. In addition, you can now Dodge while "lying down" with no penalties, but will still suffer penalties from being knocked down or being sent Reeling from failing a Resolve Test. Both hands must be free in order to use your increased movement rate.

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