Toughness

Supernatural creatures are difficult to kill. Sometimes they’re just impossible to damage without a specialized means, like magic or a weapon made of inherited silver. But more often, they can simply take more punishment than a normal person can.

Like any of the physical “building block” categories (see also Speed on page 178, and Strength on page 183), Toughness is divided first and foremost into three levels—Inhuman, Supernatural, and Mythic. You must have a high concept that fits taking one of these abilities. The Mythic level is nearly always reserved for potent NPCs, as is the special Physical Immunity ability.

Toughness abilities require you to define the circumstances under which the ability is effective — this is represented by a stunt attached to your toughness abilities called the Catch, defined below.

Cost Power Extras
var The Catch
-2 Inhuman Recovery
-2 Inhuman Toughness
-4 Supernatural Recovery
-4 Supernatural Toughness
-6 Mythic Recovery
-6 Mythic Toughness
-8 Physical Immunity
var Stacked Catch

Your Toughness abilities are limited in some way.

The Catch You must specify something that bypasses your Toughness abilities. This will give you a discount on the total cost of any and all Toughness category powers that you take, based on how likely it is that the Catch will be met in play. Add all the relevant discounts from the list below:

If your abilities only protect you against something specific, you get a +2 discount. If they protect you against everything except something specific, you get nothing.

If the Catch is bypassed by something that anyone could reasonably get access to, but usually doesn’t carry on them (like cold iron), you get a +2. If it is bypassed by something only a rare class of people in the world have (like True Magic), you get a +1. If it is bypassed by something only one or two people in the world have access to or could produce (like a Sword of the Cross), you get nothing. Even the mere presence of the thing that satisfies your Catch will cause you discomfort (and may be grounds for a compel or something similar).

If almost anyone with an awareness of the supernatural knows about the Catch or could easily find out (like from the Paranet, or Bram Stoker’s Dracula if you’re a Black Court vampire), you get a +2. If knowledge of the Catch requires access to specific research material that could be restricted (like a wizard’s library), you get a +1. If knowledge of the Catch requires knowing you personally to learn about it (like the effect of Judas’ Noose on Nicodemus), you get nothing.

Any Recovery powers you have are affected by the Catch, and so will not speed up the recovery of an injury caused by something that bypasses the Catch.

Catches cannot reduce the total cost of your Toughness powers below –1. You may specify more than one Catch if you so choose, but you can only receive the discount once; take the best one.

You have an incredible fortitude, able to exert yourself longer and heal faster than a normal human can. Musts You must attach this power to a Catch (see this page).

Total Recovery You’re able to recover from physical harm that would leave a normal person permanently damaged. You can recover totally from any consequence (excluding extreme ones) with no other excuse besides time; simply waiting long enough will eventually heal you completely.

Fast Recovery Out of combat, you may recover from physical consequences as if they were one level lower in severity. So, you recover from moderate consequences as though they were mild, etc. Consequences reduced below mild are always removed by the beginning of a subsequent scene.

Vigorous Physique never restricts (page 214) other skills due to a lack of rest. You may skip a night of sleep with no ill effects. Shrug It Off. In combat, once per scene, you may clear away a mild physical consequence (page 203) as a supplemental action (page 213).

You're unusually tough and have incredible fortitude. You’re able to take more punishment than a normal human can. Musts You must attach this power to a Catch (see this page).

Hard to Hurt You naturally have Armor:1 against all physical stress.

Hard to Kill You have two additional boxes of physical stress capacity (page 201).

You can exert yourself constantly without issue and, given just a little downtime, you can recover from particularly nasty wounds. Musts This ability replaces Inhuman Recovery. You must attach this power to a Catch (see page 185).

Total Recovery As with Inhuman Recovery.

Faster Recovery Out of combat, you may recover from physical consequences as if they were two levels lower in severity. So, you recover from severe consequences as though they were mild, etc. Consequences reduced below mild are always removed by the beginning of a subsequent scene.

Unfaltering Physique never restricts (page 214) other skills due to a lack of rest. You may skip a week of sleep with no ill effects.

It’s Nothing Twice per scene, you may clear away a mild physical consequence (page 203) as a free action (page 213).

Your body can take punishments that would easily kill a normal man. Musts This ability replaces Inhuman Toughness. You must attach this power to a Catch (see page 185).

Harder to Hurt You naturally have Armor:2 against all physical stress.

Harder to Kill You have four additional boxes of physical stress capacity (page 201).

You heal faster than anyone should be able to. Prometheus’ liver has fits of jealousy. Musts This ability replaces Inhuman or Supernatural Recovery. You must attach this power to a Catch (see page 185).

Total Recovery As with Inhuman Recovery.

Really Amazingly Fast Recovery Out of combat, you may recover from all physical consequences before the beginning of the next scene after you receive them!

Indefatigable You never need to sleep.

Ha! You Call That a Hit? Three times per scene, you may clear away a mild physical consequence (page 203) as a free action (page 213).

Issues of the flesh rarely trouble you. Your body has, to a great extent, transcended the petty concerns of mortality. Musts This ability replaces Inhuman or Supernatural Toughness. You must attach this power to a Catch (see page 185).

Nearly Impossible to Hurt You naturally have Armor:3 against all physical stress.

Nearly Impossible to Kill You have six additional boxes of physical stress capacity (page 201).

You simply can't take physical damage from anything normal. Musts You must attach this power to a Catch (see page 185).

Physical Immunity You take no stress and no consequences from physical attacks and other harms, unless someone satisfies your Catch.

This does not make you unusually tough to such attacks; if you want to be tough in all cases, even when your Physical Immunity is compromised, take Inhuman, Supernatural, or Mythic Toughness as well with a less susceptible Catch—or one of the Recovery abilities if you merely want to heal quickly when your invulnerability is pierced. If a character spends more than one fate point on a successful attack only to discover you are completely immune to it, that character should be refunded all but one point.

Normally, all your Toughness powers can only receive the refresh rebate effect of one Catch, so you line them all up and choose the best one.

If you take Physical Immunity, and have other Toughness abilities already covered by a Catch, you may also receive the refresh rebate of a second Catch. This second Catch may only affect how the Physical Immunity works, and it’s called a Stacked Catch. If you take a Stacked Catch, the first Catch covering the other Toughness powers does not include the Physical Immunity as one of the abilities covered.

For example, let’s say a fire demon has Supernatural Toughness with the Catch that he’s vulnerable to cold. Normally, this would give him a refresh rebate of +3: +2 because cold is easy to come by, and +1 because research would normally uncover it.

In addition, he has physical immunity to damage from any kind of fire. The Catch is that it only applies to attacks with fire. Normally, this would give a rebate of +5: +2 for protecting against only one specific thing, +2 because “not fire” is easy to come by, and +1 because research would normally uncover it.

Because you can stack these two refresh benefits, the demon gets a total of +8 toward his Toughness powers, so his total refresh cost is only –4 (–4 for Supernatural Toughness, –8 for Physical Immunity, +8 for the stacked benefit).

A character with a Stacked Catch that that inverts the conditions of the first Catch is strongly discouraged. A Physical Immunity to Fire layered on top of Supernatural Toughness that can only be pierced by Fire just never happens in reality, and if it did, one or both Catches would be rightly valued as worth zero