Traits

Traits and You The primary means by which Classes empower people who obtain them are the enhanced abilities known as Traits.

Traits are divided into four broad categories: [Body], [Mind], [Spirit], and [Magic].

[Body] Traits enhance the physical body, both protecting it and making it more useful tool. [Mind] Traits make one more intelligent and able to make decisions, mostly by increasing ones ability to receive, process, and store information; as well as making one more resilient to mental trauma, over-stimulation, and certain exotic mental effects. [Spirit] Traits increase ones ability to communicate with and manipulate one's fellow man as well as making one more resilient to other’s manipulations. [Spirit] Traits also contain the most exotic effects of the three “Mundane” categories.

The vast majority of Traits are noticeably hybridized between the four categories. [Scholars] theorize that all Traits are technically hybridized to at least an infinitesimal extent or they would instead just be the ruling Trait for their category.

Traits enhance metahuman abilities in three primary ways. Each level which one has in a Trait produces a flat bump to one's abilities, a multiplicative bump to one’s natural abilities in that area, as well as a gradual and slow increase to ones natural abilities over time.

Typically the average person will find any given Trait’s enhancement of their abilities to give diminishing returns when the Trait reaches about 20, though for some Trait functions it slows earlier or later. This reduced marginal effect can be ameliorated by acquiring other Traits which support the function of the Trait in question, by mundane training of the capability in question, by furthering of Skills which use the Trait in question, and by simply waiting as over time Traits slowly upgrade the human body.

In addition, Traits have multiple effects with the first one having full effectiveness and then each one after that has less and less effect. Traits start out with 3 of these effects and get a 4th at 20 points and a 5th at 100 points. An example of a 4th effect is [Constitution]'s ability to increase a person's inertia. These 4th and 5th effects are basically unnoticeable unless you have supporting Perks.

E.x.
 * Effect 1 at full effectiveness
 * Effect 2 at reduced effectiveness
 * Effect 3 at largely reduced effectiveness
 * 20 Points: Effect 4 at incredibly reduced effectiveness
 * 100 Points: Effect 5 at massively reduced effectiveness

Known Traits:
 * Agility
 * Alacrity  - "Alacrity is kinda like Swiftness, expect just for fine motor appendages, almost always the hands for most Races. The delineation between the two is similar to Dexterity being Agility for fine motor appendages. Like that other pair, Alacrity is MUCH more effective at fine motor control than the general purpose Trait. Unlike the Dexterity Agility pairing, Alacrity is mana powered, largely to power the increase to thought processing speed needed for it."
 * Celerity  - Magic Hybrid. Uncharged it’s a weak Swiftness copy. Charged it’s a STRONG Swiftness copy with enough mental speed-up to not splat yourself on a wall. Very scary. VERY tiring, both physically and magically.
 * Charisma - S ocial Offensive stat
 * Composure  - Supports Focus for reducing sleep (mostly palliative, not preventative)
 * Constitution  - Reinforces the toughness of every part of your body including your ability to withstand toxins and disease(Doesn't speed their metabolization or increase resistance from infection) as well. To a reduced extent: Also reduces the effectiveness of many exotic affects on you, if those primarily manifest physically. To a largely reduced extent: Also increases stamina, as your body takes less damage from what you put it through. (level 20) To an incredibly reduced extent: Increases the inertia your body produces by motion. This effect is almost nonexistent without supporting Traits.
 * Dexterity
 * Empathy
 * Endurance  - Speeds your physical recovery in essentially every respect, including your physical need for sleep and recovery from toxins and disease. To a reduced extent: Increases your resistance to all sorts of toxins and disease. To a largely reduced extent: Increases your morale and perseverance in the face of unfavorable odds.
 * Focus  -Increases your ability to pay attention to boring events if you abstractly believe them to be important as well as the amount of thinking you can do in a given period of time. To a reduced extent: Increases mental and spiritual resilience as well as morale. To a largely reduced extent: Speeds ability to recover from mental and emotional trauma. (Level 20) To an incredibly reduced extent: Actions for which you possess a Skill require less active thought to perform.
 * Form  - Magical/Physical Hybrid Trait. Uncharged it contributes minimally to certain Spiritual/Magical defenses, Charged it can be used slowly over time to change the makeup of your physical body unique to the methods by which you have unlocked it. Also has social offensive abilities.
 * Fortitude  - Supports Endurance for reducing sleep - Hybrid Physical/Spiritual Defense/Recovery
 * Grace  - Magic hybrid. Uncharged it’s a hybrid spiritual/physical Trait that weakly enhances your motor control ala Agility and makes you look cool doing it. Charged it supercharges that effect and allows for some “creative physics”
 * Infusion  - "good thinking linking the two, [Infusion] is very important for Alchemy, even more important than [Strength] is for lugging shit around. It's a bit academic for me, but it's basically pushing concepts or just raw mana enhancement into objects or mindless living things or transferring them and properties between the same. What does that mean? I'm not really sure I have an answer you'd find any easier to understand. Really important for a lot of other crafts too, at least at the higher level . Wish that [Welder] I talked about earlier was here, he had boodles of Infusion and a way with words." -In response to: "Any chance of synergy with MagiTech? OneArmedYeti, or are they different classes of magical bullshit?" Answer: "Definitely helpful, though there are tools to compensate for the lack of it. Don't think you have to take "Gardening" if you want to be a MagiTechnician though, if you get the class there're a ton more workshop courses availible. Every bit of Infusion would certainly help, though."
 * Insight  - Presence and Form also have social offensive abilities, alongside things like Perception and Insight.
 * Intelligence
 * Intent Without mana charge, it's a sort of "The Secret" goal visualization that increases your ability to see what you want and the steps needed to get there. Before you get excited, we're talking several thousand points before that could PtV. With mana charge it a applies a micro-telekinesis to reach your intended goal. Very weak, but when you're talking projectiles it can be quite effective.
 * Intuition - Mental/Spiritual Perception and instant but poor information processing
 * Manipulation
 * Peace
 * Perception  - Presence and Form also have social offensive abilities, alongside things like Perception and Insight.
 * Power - M agic hybrid, uncharged it’s a weak increase to physical/spiritual force output(Like a small fraction of both Strength and Charisma). When charged with Mana this effect increases and it also adds to the strength of any ongoing magical effect. Can make wands and/or the spells in your own head explode, be careful.
 * Precision
 * Presence  - Magic hybrid, Uncharged it’s a weak Spiritual force enhancer ala Charisma. Charged it supercharges that and is a sort of “Spiritual Pressure” AOE and/or allows for “Killing Intent” shenanigans.
 * Recall  - Supports Focus for reducing sleep. Recall is more holding massive amounts of information in your mind then accessing it. Spreadsheet inputs, spell formula, schematics, stuff like that.
 * Resolve  - Supports Focus for reducing sleep
 * Strength
 * Swiftness - Physical Trait with minuscule Mental effect. Gotta go fast. Tiring to use at it’s fullest.
 * Willpower  - Mental/Spiritual hybrid defense. Nothing flashy but damn is it good at keeping your head on straight.
 * Wits