7.3 Parities

Parities grant a meaningful benefit while also imposing a meaningful drawback.

#	Name	Effect	Suggested Physical Change
1	Night Eyed	+1 Tier to sight in darkness or very dim light. −1 Tier to sight in intense or glaring light until your eyes adjust.	Pupils become unusually large and slow to contract; the irises appear exceptionally dark.
2	Farsighted	+1 Tier when visually examining distant details. −1 Tier to fine visual tasks performed within arm’s reach.	Eyes become slightly elongated and the pupils unusually small at rest.
3	Echo Ears	+1 Tier to detecting faint sounds, and you can usually determine their rough direction. Loud noise overwhelms your hearing and imposes −1 Tier to hearing until it subsides.	Ears become larger and more cupped, with pronounced inner folds that twitch toward faint sounds.
4	Smelly	+1 Tier to smell, and sufficiently strong scents can be followed as trails. Attempts to conceal your own distinctive scent are treated as 1 Tier worse.	Active scent glands develop around the neck, chest, and underarms, producing a persistent musky odor.
5	Bird Boned	Your ordinary jumping distance increases, and falls are treated as one step less severe when your light build could reasonably help. Checks to resist powerful bodily force, crushing, or knockback are −1 Tier.	Limbs become slender, joints delicate, and the entire body unusually light-framed.
6	Stone Boned	Blunt impact, crushing, and similar bodily force may be treated as one step less severe where your dense skeleton helps absorb it. Swimming and jumping that depend upon buoyancy or lightness are −1 Tier.	Wrists, knuckles, jaw, and other bony landmarks become visibly thicker and denser.
7	Long Limbed	Your functional reach is noticeably greater, and climbing checks where extra reach is useful gain +1 Tier. Checks involving movement through very confined spaces suffer −1 Tier.	Arms, legs, fingers, and toes lengthen slightly out of proportion to the torso.
8	Loose Jointed	You may deliberately dislocate or compress joints to escape bindings or pass through spaces that would otherwise be too tight for your frame. Checks to resist joint locks, grapples, or forced limb movement suffer −1 Tier.	Elbows, shoulders, fingers, and knees flex visibly beyond ordinary ranges.
9	Webbed	You swim substantially faster and gain +1 Tier to swimming checks. Fine handwork requiring independent fingertip movement suffers −1 Tier.	Thin membranes develop between the fingers and toes and fold against the digits when relaxed.
10	Taloned	Your claws function as natural climbing aids and natural close weapons. Gain +1 Tier where they directly aid climbing or gripping. Fine fingertip manipulation suffers −1 Tier.	Fingernails thicken, darken, and curve into claw-like points; fingertips broaden to support them.
11	Hotblooded	Gain +1 Tier to resisting harmful cold. Suffer −1 Tier against harmful heat, and your water requirements increase noticeably in hot environments.	Skin remains constantly warm and flushed, and noticeable heat radiates from the body.
12	Coldblooded	Gain +1 Tier to resisting harmful heat. Suffer −1 Tier against harmful cold, and prolonged cold noticeably slows your movements.	Skin becomes cool to the touch with a faintly pale or bluish cast.
13	Ravenous	A substantial meal allows unusually rapid recovery from exertion and may accelerate ordinary physical recovery. You require approximately twice the normal amount of food, and hunger begins affecting you sooner.	Jaw muscles strengthen, the abdomen becomes pronounced, and canine teeth become unusually prominent.
14	Torpid	You can survive comfortably on remarkably little food and water and endure long periods of inactivity. Physical recovery is slower, and prolonged rest leaves you sluggish until you have had time to become active again.	Pulse and breathing slow, skin becomes cooler, and movements take on a deliberate, heavy quality.
15	Truthsense	Gain +1 Tier when closely observing someone for deliberate deception. Attempts to conceal or falsify your own emotional reactions suffer −1 Tier.	Eyes become intensely expressive; subtle shifts in pupil and brow make your own reactions easy to read.
16	Open Soul	Gain +1 Tier when reading another person’s emotions. Attempts to conceal your own emotions suffer −1 Tier.	Facial muscles become unusually responsive, causing emotion to immediately show in the eyes, mouth, and complexion.
17	Resonant	You can instinctively sense nearby active Thae and gain +1 Tier when deliberately using or interpreting it. Checks to resist unwanted Thae effects suffer −1 Tier.	Iridescent veins, markings, and flecks beneath the skin brighten faintly near active Thae.
18	Luminous	You may naturally emit enough light to illuminate roughly a 10-foot radius and can dim or strengthen the glow somewhat. Unless completely covered, you cannot remain concealed by darkness while glowing.	Skin, hair, eyes, or veins emit a soft natural light, strongest around the face and hands.
19	Hyperfocused	When deliberately concentrating on one clearly defined task, relevant checks gain +1 Tier, and ordinary distractions cannot easily break your concentration. Checks to notice unrelated events while focused suffer −1 Tier.	Pupils narrow and the eyes become unnaturally still during concentration; blinking nearly ceases.
20	Thaedrenalized	Under immediate danger or extreme stress, gross physical checks gain +1 Tier, and minor physical hesitation may be ignored. Precision handwork and delicate manipulation suffer −1 Tier until the surge passes.	Veins darken or brighten, muscles visibly tense, pupils dilate, and the hands develop a fine tremor.

Thaeborn

Contents

PARITIES