Minor trait: Favoured enemy

Delphinus

Life has led you to favour a certain kind of enemy, granting you a 5% damage bonus against denizens of that type. This bonus does not apply to denizens loyal to a city, order, house, or adventurer.

The enemy type must be named when choosing the trait. For example, the syntax for spiders would be TRAIT SELECT FAVOURED ENEMY: SPIDER.

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Possible choices:

Aeraithian
Animal
Arachnoi
Atavian
Bandit
Buckawn
Cyclops
Demon
Dragon
Dryad
Dwarf
Dyissan
Fairy
Giant
Goblin/Hobgoblin
Golem
Gnoll
Grook
Harpy
Horkval
Mermaid/Merman
Mhun
Minotaur
Orc/Ogre
Pirate
Rajamala
Sakuwat
Satyr
Siren
Spider
Spirit
Taryen
Treekin
Triton
Troll
Tsol'aa
Tsol'dasi
Tsol'teth
Undead
Ursu
Vertani
Xoran
Wyrm

While this list can't cover everything, it has the advantage of combining some groups (e.g. mermaid/merman, goblin/hobgoblin). Leaving it open-ended is a possibility, but:

1. There would be no check against failed picks, like choosing "forestal" without that being a denizen type.
2. Something like "human" would either be too wide or too unreliable.
3. It might lead to newbies picking something useless like "imp" or "wildcat," thus wasting a trait slot.
   

I'm leaning toward a 5% bonus, but am open on specifics. Also, you can't take the trait again for another enemy (unless you respec traits, of course).

Blujixapug

I like it. Fun flavour and function.

I'm a little concerned that "undead", for example, would make it too easy to explot UW as a bashing area, but that seems like a minor issue.

Sentinels should get to select a new one every four levels.

Eld

Undead would indeed be quite a bonus for those who regularly bash Azdun/UW/Morindar, but could be worked around if necessary by just using a few of the common undead types (zombie, ghoul, lich, etc). Whether it's a specific list, or open-ended, some sort of limiting would probably needed to prevent, for example, TRAIT SELECT FAVOURED ENEMY MAN.

Silas

I like it. Fun flavour, no ridiculous imbalancing.

Delphinus

While you could abuse it for the Underworld, you could really do that for any place you bash with regularity (Annwyn, Tir Murann, Arcadia). The smallness of the bonus was meant to offset that somewhat.

Melodie

It's going to be a really hard decision between undead, and orcs/ogres.

Totally love this idea, though. Back when Tecton was doing a trait contest, I did submit something similar to this, and I'm glad to see it brought up again.

Sasiya

Actually, I really like this a lot, and would not mind seeing a stronger version of it with the major traits. In fact, a few more major perks that benefits bashing only would be sort of neat. A few examples would be: extra experience gain (5%-10% or so), extra gold drops from mobs (5%-10% or so), damage resistances that only affects non-player damage (10% across the board). These numbers are obviously open to discussion, but I think they'd be worthwhile to consider for any future updates to the trait system.

Anyone else have any opinions on the matter?

Kyrra

Can see Xenomorph picking dragon and go hunting his glorified denizens.

That would actually be a pretty nifty trait, especially for those with pretty established hunting grounds.

Rispok

Not more gold.

Why is Dragon on that list? For that matter, a few things are weird. How many treekin are there for example?

Animal might be too broad, despite being low level.

I doubt I would get this, but I don't particularly care if other people do. It would encourage camping of areas though, which I don't really like.

As wu-tang says, "Diversify your bonds..."

Iocun

"Animal" isn't necessarily low-level. There are plenty of animals in the LHG, Annwyn, and Meropis that are very decent XP at 80+ levels.

(But I guess these days even level 85 still counts as "low level" )

Delphinus

Rispok said:

Why is Dragon on that list?

It's for those who fancy themselves dragon-slayers. Apart from the big-names (Yudhishthira, Geh'shya), there are still things like sea dragons.

Rispok said:

For that matter, a few things are weird. How many treekin are there for example?

Not many, but if people really hate treekin, the option's there.

--

See, it isn't just for chronic bashers. It's like this.

Did...

• ...bandits kill your family?
• ...your god command you to fight atavians?
• ...the Vertani destroy your hometown?
• ...you swear to hunt no sentient being, but animals alone?
  
• ...sirens flaunt their wares one too many times? (hi @Amunet)
  
• ...orcs and ogres terrorise your people for thousands of years?
• ...your fear of spiders turn to seething genocide of spiders?
  
• ...that qt3.14 snake girl spurn your advances, turning you to a life of dyissan hatred?
• ...a dwarf spit in your kawhe because it wasn't ale, leading you to hate all dwarves forever?

Now you can express those vendettas more clearly, by hitting things harder.

Sylvance

I love the RP possibilities of this, but let's be brutally honest with ourselves and say that, much like current Traits, there are going to be choices that provide a far greater real-terms benefit than others and in general people will flock towards these. I'd also love to see a relatively expensive (i.e. not a full Trait reset expensive) way of changing it at some point if part of the argument for this Trait is that it could be an RP hook.

Even having said that, I think it's a cool idea.

Synbios

Would it be possible to take multiple copies of the favoured enemy, thereby having more than one hated foe?

Katzchen

Would be torn between the Tsol'dasi I love to hunt, and the stupid grabby fairy wenches for RP reasons. Katz slaughters pretty much indiscriminately, but those fairy bitches get on her nerves!

Penwize

This is honestly a really, really cool idea.  The amount it would affect things is small enough to not be unbalancing.  +5% damage against a denizen would very, very rarely have an effect on how many hits it takes to kill something, but it would be an interesting RP avenue. 

It would be nice if it has some kind of aesthetic associated with it as well though, so that it's actually apparent when someone is killing their favoured enemy versus any other enemy.  Maybe something like "Penwize has slain a diminuitive fairy, retrieving the corpse with a disdainful glare."  Wording would be tricky to pick, but would be interesting I think.

Eld

Oh, when I first read the OP, I read it as 5% experience bonus. 5% damage bonus doesn't seem troublesome balance-wise.

Kyrra

@Sylvance, I have every crafting trait because none of the others interest me or I have a use for. Something like this would be awesome and would be far better than just randomly select minor traits so I can pick up my next major.

Anaidiana

I like this. When are we getting traits at 100, 110, 120, etc?

Sylvance

Kyrra said:

@Sylvance, I have every crafting trait because none of the others interest me or I have a use for. Something like this would be awesome and would be far better than just randomly select minor traits so I can pick up my next major.

Totally not shooting it down. It's a good idea.

Santar

Undead would be OP.

Edit: So would mhun, Tsol'dasi, and animal.

Xith

man/woman/child/undead/<race>/animal

basically what people have mentioned, but beyond that sure. 

Should have an xp bonus vs a certain type too, make that a trait... cause I'm facing a predicament as a Guardian of Moghedu, in that I need to avoid racial homes, and therefore need a hunting bonus elsewhere to compensate, given how limiting that can be.

lack of xp is a detriment caused by the rp. sorta stinks

Cooper

This idea seems kind of pointless to me because 5% damage doesn't do a whole lot for you (less damage increase than +1 con or +1 int for most people), but at the same time it's a minor trait and adds something to the game, so I approve.

Naisar

How has 'with extreme prejudice' not been suggested yet?

Eld

Naisar said:

How has 'with extreme prejudice' not been suggested yet?

Suggested for what?

Naisar

The flavour line

Talonia

Flavor line strikes me as the most important part of this, who cares about the 5% bonus. If you have to, make it a 2% bonus for certain things like mhun or undead. Minor traits are supposed to flesh out a character, flavor lines upon killing a denizen in group bashing is exactly the kind of thing that leads to conversations about past grievances, etc.

You should give people several options for the flavor lines, depending on what they think suits their character best:

CRUEL: With a cruel smirk, Talonia viciously obliterates a mhun warrior.
SAD: Wearing a dolorous expression, Talonia slays a mhun warrior.

ANGRY: Righteous anger flaring up in her eyes, Talonia sends a mhun warrior to Thoth's halls.

Potential option - killing certain named or "boss" denizens in an area would appear on deathsight for these people. So Mhunna, Vukub, Ugrach (?), etc. 

Zuko

It's an okay idea, but we already have Aim to Kill and Lucky. I don't think the damage increase is enough to where I would take up a slot on it either

Eld

Zuko said:

It's an okay idea, but we already have Aim to Kill and Lucky. I don't think the damage increase is enough to where I would take up a slot on it either

Those are both major traits, which are meant to be much more mechanically significant. This is being suggested as a minor trait, mostly for flavor.

Taraus

Like this idea.

Also, would totally want to see 'Knight' on that list.

Kresslack

I don't hate it.

Arditi

I approve, so long as the words 'snake', 'serpent', 'Naga', or 'bastard' do not become approved targets.