[In Nomine] Cherubim

[pyrephox]

In the In Nomine Core Rules, it says that the Cherub resonance is for 'location'. However, I've always thought this was a little odd for what are supposed to be the quintessential guardian angels. It's unfortunate that their resonance is ill-defined, and only of variable usefulness. The expanded rules in the APG (notably the bonus to defense of their charges, the ability to take blows for their charges, and the nemesis attunements) help a lot in this regard, but those are side-abilities, and not really adjustments to the resonance, itself. Fiddling around with the idea of the Cherub resonance, I'm considering something like (some things have not been changed):

A Cherub can attune themselves (with a successful touch and Perception roll) to a number of targets equal to their Celestial Forces. The CD of a successful roll means that's the amount of information that they can access on their attunement, at will. The angel may make attunement checks by means of a Perception roll to gain a brief (CD minutes) burst of information at a higher CD...succeeding at a lower CD just means that no additional information is obtained. Failing at an attunement check acts as a resonance failure; a Cherub's connection to their attuned is fuzzed out for the appropriate amount of time. A Cherub automatically knows if one of their attunements is in /immediate/, /mortal/ danger, defined as a threat that could kill the attuned within 3 rounds, although they recieve no specifics on the nature of the threat. (With a low CD attunement, they may not know that an attuned has gotten into a fight, but they'll know when their opponent gets the upper hand and pulls out a gun.)

To sever an attunement, a Cherub must make a successful Will roll, of a CD higher than the initial attunement, /or/ if the attuned is Aware, they can voluntarily and knowingly release the angel from its charge. (A Cherub attempting to manipulate an Aware attuned into releasing it /does/ count as 'betraying' the attunement.) If they fail the Will roll to sever an attunement, the Cherub takes a point of dissonance. Additionally, harming, betraying an attuned's best interests, or voluntarily allowing a charge to come to harm is also worth a point of dissonance. Finally, a Cherub will take dissonance when their charge is destroyed, regardless of the circumstances. 'Destroyed', for celestials, can mean either vessel, soul, or mind death...although the first and the last do not technically destroy the celestial, the shock and damage is great enough that it wounds their protector's heart. Exception: Shedim and Kryiotates in host do not count as 'destroyed' if their host dies. Additionally, a Cherub can only attune to a Kyriotate or Shedite through touching their celestial form...a host does not have a strong enough connection to the celestial's soul for the attunement to take. This applies to any circumstances where someone is possessed; an attunement attempt will only get the host, not the soul controlling it.

On a successful attunement roll, the CD will make the following information available to the character:

CD 1: The angel will know the current location of the attunement, precisely. (Note that since this can be accessed at will with a successful attunement, it will track moving targets.)
CD 2: The angel will know current location, and current physical well-being. (In short terms: "Healthy, damaged, sick, deathly ill, near death.")
CD 3: The angel will know the above, and active, local threats (as a short sentence saying 'what' and 'where') against the attuned, within a mile of them. (Active meaning intentional or in motion. A sniper moving into position, a falling rock, or a drunk driver weaving his way on the same street. A Calabite nearby who isn't planning at the moment on attacking the attuned, a weak spot on rock the attuned is climbing, or a cut brake line before the attuned has gotten in the car don't count.)
CD 4: The angel will know the above, as well as the general spiritual and emotional well-being of the attuned. This will pick up Soul and Mind damage, as well as mental instabilities. (This information is general. A celestial with Ethereal Discord, a human suffering from depression, and a celestial who's just staggered out of dream combat badly wounded will all register as having 'mental damage' to varying degrees, but without details.)
CD 5: The angel will know the above, as well as potential threats (as a short sentence saying 'what' and 'where') to the attuned, within yards of the attuned equal to the angel's Perception. (This will pick up things such as a demon (as well as another dangerous, unstable person) in the area, the weak section of rock, or the cut brake line.)
CD 6: The angel will know the above, as well as knowing exactly how much damage, dissonance, Discord (or Disadvantages) their attuned has, in all three realms. They will not know what kind of Discord/Disadvantages are present, only that they exist and the extent of them.

Further Notes: Cherubim cannot attune (without special gifts from Superiors) without touch, and they do not get CD bonuses to their attunements for touching, even if those special gifts are present.

Comments

[letiwolf.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I would probably make further tweaks, myself, like letting a Cherub attune to at least a Kyriotate in host (reasoned as stated on Sammy the other day: God made both attunements, so they probably ought to work together well). Similarly, I fear detecting demons in the attuned's vincinity could effectively serve as a silent and sure demon detector. (Because if the Cherub pumps Essence into the CD when he or she attunes...)

But I really like some of the changes here. Automatic knowledge at CD level is a GOOD thing.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

I like the idea that Kyriotates are slippery and hard to attune to, and why there's some tension between the two Choirs. And a lot of the time, if a Kyriotate really /needs/ to be attuned to, you can manage it.

And yeah, it does serve as a demon detector around the attuned at higher levels (or as a hostile angel detector if the attuned is a demon), IF you don't mind your Cherub getting all sorts of dissonant by deliberately sending their attuned in to brush up against people in the hope that they're hostile. (And to pump Essence into the CD, the Cherub would have to pump enough to get Perception to 12 and then wrap around, which is likely to take, for an average angel, at /least/ 6-7 Essence per attunement. Which leaves the Cherub with a lot less Essence to use actually /protecting/ that attunement, rather than using them as demon-bait. This is something that GMs should look out for, much like the Seraph going around asking random people questions, hoping to get Truth. Personally, I'd probably say, "Oh, hey, there's a demon two yards away from your attuned, yup. And look, he just summoned a flamethrower. Guess you didn't think about those Game assassins that had been sent out, huh?")

Thanks! :)

[letiwolf.livejournal.com]

The thing is, Cherubim are often attuned for months at a time - and said Essence expenditure would be a one time thing. A Cherub who intends to be attuned for a while would be lax in /not/ spending the Essence to boost the CD so they can detect all threats to their attuned automatically.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

Sure. And they can do that. But consider:

The average angel's perception is 6/7. That means they're getting a radius for potential threats of...18 to 21 feet. That's barely enough to get across a street. Unless your world is crawling with demons, an attuned is likely to accidently run into one (or a Hellsworn, or an Undead, etc.) only on rare occassion. /Unless/ the Cherub is deliberately using them for trolling, in which case, dissonance, or the Cherub is being a good Cherub and tuning in when he thinks the attuned is actually /in/ danger, in which case he probably already knows that there are hostiles around, and just wants to figure out which ones they are, and get the attuned out of danger, not stick around and have a brawl.