+ Here are some innate abilities that provide a bonus:
- 4 or more attacks a round.
- Active use of ranged weapons, or has long reach.
- Armor Class of 0 or better.
- Cause disease, confusion, continuing damage, etc.
- Dive or trample attack.
- Flight or some other special movement ability.
- Use of intelligence and battle tactics.
- Willpower of 15 or more, if mental combat comes into play.
- Moral is 11 or more.
- Most artifacts and mutations.
++ The following counts as two abilities:
- Any mutation with a Poison/Radiation class that can do 5d6 or more on a failed save.
- Any attack with a maximum damage of 30 or more.
- Ability to recover lost hit points with a one-off effect (e.g. a healing device or the Body Adjustment mutation).
- Can Trample or Swallow a human-size opponent.
- Increased Strength mutation.
- Any mutation that allows for multiple mental defense rolls, or a group-magnified Willpower scores (from Metaconcert), if mental combat comes into play.
- An attack or ability that can effect an area (e.g. a smoke grenade or the Temperature Control mutation).
- Any mutation or ability that the Mutant Lord player deems too strong -- a mutation that provides a number of benefits in combat, but lacks any drawbacks in a one-off battle.
+++ The following counts as three abilities:
- Any attack that could could kill outright — disintegration, petrification, poison class 12 or more, etc.
- An attack with a maximum damage of 30 or more, that can effect an area (e.g. an Inferno Grenade or a Dragon's breath weapon).
- Inflicts permanent stat damage — ability damage, or even loss of mutations.
- Increased Constitution and Vampiric Field mutations.
- The ability to recover lost hit points at a continues rate (much like the regenerative ability of a Troll).
- Any mutation or ability that the Mutant Lord player deems too lethal, to where combat becomes one-sided.
- The following impose a penalty:
- A weak primary attack of 4 or less maximum damage, with no benefit of a special attack or damage effect.
- Slow movement (30' (10') or less) without reach or range attacks, or reaction (attacks last in combat or attacks every other round).
- AC of 8 or worse.
- Easy to trick of avoid (basically stupid or generally inattentive — needs not apply to animals).
- Moral is 4 or less.
- Most drawback mutations.
-- The following counts as two penalties:
- Immobility without reach or range attacks.
- Hemophilia or Increased Caloric Needs mutations, with no means to stop the damage.
- Any mutations that doubles a normal attack.
- Any mutation or ability that the Mutant Lord player deems too crippling, should the players exploit this weakness.
--- The following counts as three penalties:
- Always helpless and in a state where attacks are automatic.
- Weak Will mutation, if mental combat comes into play.
- A weakness that could kill it with a single attack.
- Any mutation or ability that the Mutant Lord player feels that would allow the players to get an easy win.
For example, a Piranha Butterfly (HD 1; 10 EXP; 3 exp/ability) have low AC, low damage, can fly, high moral and no mutations. In the end, it all neutralizes itself out. A Gamma Wyrm (HD 15 ; 1500 EXP; 900 exp/ability) is highly intelligent with high Willpower and moral, can attack at range with mind thrust, has high AC, a primary attack with high damage output, a breath weapon with high damage output and area of effect, and has three mutations. That this 13 bonuses! So yeah, that totals to 13,200 exp! If you just count the mutations, you'll only get 3,100.
The end result is that most monsters would give more EXP than normal, while some might give less. It added a bit more complexity to the award system, but it serves to scale the strengths and weakness of their abilities. Mutant Lords are free to add or deny EXP based on how an encounter was played-out. That is, if the monster died before it could heal itself with it's Body Adjustment mutation, the ML could deny the doubled-up ability bonus to the wining players, as it never had a chance to be used. Or the ML could be magnanimous and allow the players the bonus on the grounds that they killed it before it had a chance to heal itself and prolonged the battle.
So what do you guys think of all this?
