Demon's Innate Powers

Let's talk a little bit about the innate powers of a Fallen. Much like Vampires and Werewolves, D:tF have powers that are common to every one of them, and, believe it or not, they make up the bulk of their benefits. Vampires have the blood bond, healing, soaking and immortality, for instance. While some of these elements don't come up heavily in a Chronicle (it's difficult to properly represent Immortality), it has shaped them as a species and given them great advantages.

Fallen have the following innate powers:
An Angelic/Demonic Apoc Form (Unique to your House, and more specifically to your individual Path focus- but all Fallen have one)
Immunity to Mind Control
Immunity to Possession
Resistance to Illusion
Resistance to Lethal Damage
Faith Healing
Invocation
perhaps most powerful of all- Supernatural Awareness
Resistance to Death itself!

I'm going to speak about these individually in this thread, as they're all very important to how to play the game.

First power- The Apocalyptic Form

Each Fallen has one. To go into this form, you either spend a point of Faith, or you roll your *current* Faith against a difficulty of 6. If you succeed, you enter this form instantly.

When you were building your character, you will have noticed that there are 4 traits for low torment and 4 traits for high torment. The form you assume always has the advantages of the 4 low torment traits. Once your permanent Torment reaches 7, you pick one of the High Torment traits to add to this free package. You can always elect to invoke some of these High Torment traits at a cost of 1 temporary Torment per trait (meaning you gain a torment, not lose one). You can always leave off any of your traits when you take on your form, though you need to specify this when you attempt to evoke it.

The Apoc Form always involves Revelation if the people observing you are vulnerable to such thing.

Immunity to Mind Control is the most straight-forward of the innate powers. It renders the Fallen completely immune to Fear-effects, and other methods of controlling your mind.

I should like to point out that many effects fall into this category without really intending to. For instance, a Vampire's Obfuscate power is a mind-effect. Fallen are immune to this. In Werewolf, effects like Blur of the Milky Eye are also mind effecting and thusly ineffective against the Fallen.

Affects that target themselves (not the Fallen) still function normally. For instance, the Uktena gift Invisibility still works against the Fallen.

It should be noted that other methods of manipulating the Fallen's emotions that aren't fear based are generally still effective. A vampire's power of Dread Gaze will fail, but Entrancement might still ensnare a Fallen.

Immunity to Possession goes without saying: Fallen are already possessed by a demon; there simply isn't room for another creature. Vampires and Wraiths attempting such effects fail completely, and a Fallen that finds itself dead can't attempt to take over another Fallen's body (unless *that* Fallen is out of Faith. Then it's tricky).

Resistance to Illusion:
This is more complicated. Immunity to Mind Control has already given them a great deal of resistance from these sorts of effects. However, this power grants them the ability to see past OTHER methods of concealment as well (bad news, Uktena). With a successful Perception + Alertness (Difficulty 7- or if the effect was created by a Fallen, the HIGHER of their Faith or Torment).

Please note that this *is not* a contested check. If you score a single success on this check, you have foiled the Illusion from affecting you.

Resistance to Lethal Damage
Fallen can soak lethal damage with their Stamina.... while in their Apoc form.

Not a huge boon, but bear in mind that Aggravated forms of damage are difficult for most humans to wield appropriately.

Faith Healing:
The Fallen can heal all of their Bashing damage with a single Faith point, or a lethal for one Faith point.

They can't really heal Aggravated damage unless they have access to the appropriate Lores or are willing to spend the time in recovery.

Invocation-
Invocation's are tricky. To Fallen, names are power. Most Fallen have three names- their given name (or mortal name), their Celestial Name, and their True Name.

In times of old, all Fallen knew their True Name, that name whispered to them at the time of their Creation. However, time in the Pit has twisted their names, and they aren't what they used to be. True Names can also change by absorbing the essence of other Fallen (see below) or through great acts against one's nature (Falling from Grace altering most Fallen's True Name). That said, there are methods of discovering these potent words. They just aren't easy.

Whenever anyone speaks your Celestial or True Name, you have a chance to know about it, no matter where they are in Creation. Roll your Faith (diff 7 for Celestial Names, or 6 for True). 1 success lets you know what the person using your name looks like. 2 successes gives you a picture of the speaker and their immediate surroundings (including who he/she is speaking to at the time). 3 successes means you can listen in on them for a single turn. You can attempt to continue to listen in by rolling willpower, diff 8, but it's hard to maintain that sort of concentration.

Demons have used this ability as a form of low-grade telepathy by speaking over great distances by invoking a name. This can be incredibly effective. For more information, check page 172 of the core demon book.

Supernatural Awareness:

This one is a biggy. In a nutshell, when someone performs a supernatural act within a number of MILES equal to their permanent Faith, they have a chance to feel it. Roll Perception + Awareness, difficulty 7. The more successes, the more you can sense of where and what is happening.

For ease of system, there are a few things that won't be considered supernatural in nature, as they work within the bounds of reality. Mortal Sorcerery with some few exceptions works within the laws of reality, so is difficult to detect with this method, as are Fallen powers that don't spend Faith to invoke. Also note, that unless your character is noted for attempting to feel these sorts of fluctuations, they can be difficult to pick up on.

Resistance to Death
Page 258 describes what happens when your host dies.
Essentially, you have to find a new body to occupy. When you die, the next turn you manifest over your body as a sort of ghostly Apoc form. You can fly at your Willpower+5 MILES per turn. You are largely unaffected by the physical world and can zip off in any direction you wish. However, each turn in this state, the draw of Hell pulls at you, and you are required to roll Willpower difficulty 6 each turn to avoid this banishment.
The demon must find another host. However, hosts are relatively rare. They need to find a human who is so downtrodden that they are barely human. If you CAN find such a creature, you roll your willpower against a difficulty of 8 (6 if the human has a Pact with you personally). In the case of the Pacted, the human can elect to let the Fallen in, and the matter is instantly resolved: possession is automatic.
Your sheet changes when you take over a new human, and you need to re-calculate your sheet from scratch. The good news is that any XP you had on your sheet, you keep. Yay you! Also, dying gives you a permanent Torment.... and strips away a permanent Faith. It sucks. Don't do it.

You do have another option.... you can possess an item and become a little Earthbound. Still better than Hell though, amirite? Few objects are appropriate for such things. It needs to be something that resonates with your primary Lore, and needs to be of good quality. It must be it's own item, not a part of a building or a larger structure like the mast of a boat. Annndd it must resonate with humanity in some way. Possessing an object is still pretty hard, Willpower diff 9. The difficulty drops to 6 if the vessel has a close affinity for your House or demonic personality, or it's been intentionally attuned for this purpose.