Chapter 4 - Systems

You've the devil in you!
-Dougal

This chapter details how immortals advance, and also how combat
involving immortals is done (namely, how does one remove a head
anyway?).

Experience

You've no knowledge whatsoever of your potential!
-Ramirez

Immortals gain experience in the same way as the other characters in
the Storyteller system, and so much of the chart given here is simply
repetition.

Trait				Cost
New Ability			3
Willpower			current rating
Abilities			current rating x 2
Attributes			current rating x 4
Quickening			current rating x 6*
* Quickening can only be increased by an equal split of Quickening
Experience and "normal" experience

Healing

Who wants to live forever?
-Queen

Immortals recover from wounds much more rapidly than mortals.  In
Chapter Three, using Quickening to heal was discussed.  Without the
use of Quickening, however, immortals still recover from crippling
wounds in a short period.  Examples given in the series include
immolation, falling from a cliff, being shot in the head, and others.
Without the use of Quickening, immortals heal using the following
chart. 

Health Level			Time
Bruised				One Round
Hurt				One Minute
Injured				Five Minutes
Wounded				Thirty Minutes
Mauled				One Hour
Crippled			One Hour
Incapacitated			One Hour

Rules for Combat

Don't lose your head!
-Ramirez

How does one remove a head?  Well, in the Storyteller system
(specifically, in the Anarch's Cookbook), a head shot is Difficulty
+3, and damage that renders the opponent one level past incapacitated
is enough to decapitate them.  Often in the duels fought in
Highlander, however, the two fight until one loses his weapon and is
driven to the ground, admitting defeat.  It is rarely a lucky shot
that chops off the head, but more often a defeat of the spirit...

One of the failings in the Storyteller system is that the combat
system lacks the detail that the Highlander movie shows in the duels
for Quickening.  Hence, the storyteller is encouraged to embellish the
combat greatly... a combat between two immortals will often be only a
few dice rolls (no more than four or five rounds, most likely), but
the importance of the combat deserves as much attention as possible.
Remember that the player is fighting to increase his power, in a
battle where he has a decent chance of dying... the player is fighting
for his knowledge and power, pitting it against another to the death.
