Silver is the metal of the moon, and Garou are uniquely vulnerable to it. Silver affects your werewolf character like so:
- Silver weapons and arrows deal an extra level of Aggravated damage to you.
- If you attempt to shrug off an attack ("soak"), the additional damage from silver cannot be soaked. If you successfully win such a challenge, you shrug off whatever base damage the weapon does, but you still take the level of damage from the silver. You have to dodge or parry it if you want to avoid it completely.
- You suffer one level of Aggravated damage every round you're in nonviolent contact with silver.
- Carrying silver imposes a penalty to your Gnosis, thanks to the spiritual interference of the threat. For every five silver objects you carry (round up), you lose a Gnosis Trait: miniature items such as Arrow heads or drachma count as 1 object per 10 units. Carrying a great many silver objects, particularly arrows, may also cost you Honor or Wisdom. A klaive costs you a Gnosis Trait all by itself, and a grand klaive costs you two Gnosis Traits. The lost Gnosis returns after a day if you avoid carrying the silver items.
- Being in violent contact with silver prevents crossing the Gauntlet. Example: having a silver arrow still inside your wound, a blade impaled and not removed, being in silver bindings, or being surrounded by a silver cage.
- The Breed Form Exception: Natural humans and wolves aren't affected this way by silver, so Garou who have a similar nature share in some of that immunity. A Homid-born Garou in their Homid Shape only lethal damage from silver. The same is true of Lupus-born Garou in their Lupus shape. Metis are never able to soak the damage from silver without certain gift/merit exceptions.
- The Gnosis penalties apply no matter one's Breed or Form.
Every ten feet of distance you fall inflicts one level of Bashing damage. If you fall 100 feet or more, you hit terminal velocity and take ten levels of Lethal damage instead. Needless to say, armor can't protect you against this.
Fire
Fire deals Aggravated damage. Small fires up to the size of a torch deal one level of damage each turn you're in contact with them. Larger flames like bonfires that could cover half your body will deal two levels of damage per turn. Raging infernos and the like deal three damage per turn. Garou can resist some of this damage by "soaking" with a Static Physical Challenge against a variable difficulty: three Traits for a small fire, five for a medium-size fire, seven for a large or intense fire, nine for chemical fires, and ten for molten metal. If you succeed at the challenge, the damage is reduced by one level that turn.
Balefire
The element of fire gains new properties when it is warped by the power of the Wyrm. When you take Aggravated damage from this toxic green flame, its influence twists your body. Each time you suffer damage from Bale Fire you gain a point of Wyrm Taint, subject to normal Wyrm Taint Rules.
Disease
Equipped with perfect immune systems, Garou rarely suffer from disease. Colds and flu never catch, and even more serious diseases don't seem to have much effect -- although an infected Garou can sometimes still be a vector for transmission. Any disease potent enough to affect Garou is usually of supernatural origin.
Poison
Poisons can do little when faced with a werewolf's amazing metabolism. Even getting drunk or high usually means a Garou needs to stay in Homid form, which has slightly less innate resistance. The Rite of Awakening can overcome this, empowering the spirit of a toxin to take full effect. The most potent of these do aggravated damage.
The affects of various poisons or drugs are broadly broken down into the following categories which have the following base effects - note certain skilled poison crafters or creatures may be able to make more powerful versions of the below poisons:
- Alcohol: When you ingest a dose of alcohol, make a static challenge using your Stamina + Survival against a difficulty rating of 5. Each time you ingest a new dose, you must test again against a cumulative +1 difficulty. For example, if you have three drinks, you must make three challenges. The first has a difficulty of 5, the second has a difficulty of 6, the third a difficulty of 7. Each time you fail to resist a dose of alcohol, you gain a cumulative -1 penalty to all Mental Challenges and all challenges involving coordination or manual dexterity (including combat). The negative effects of alcohol fade at a rate of 1 point per hour.
- Hallucinogen: When exposed to a hallucinogen, your ability to tell the difference between fantasy and reality is impaired, and you suffer a penalty to all challenges based on attempting to notice or see such as Investigation, Awareness, or certain Primal Urge tests equal to (7-your intelligence). That is a character with two dots of intelligence would suffer a -5 penalty, while a character with 4 would suffer only a -3. The effects of a dose of hallucinogen last for one hour. Additional doses do not increase the penalty, but add to the duration on a one-for one basis. For example, if you inhale a hallucinogen for three turns, you experience hallucinations for the next three hours. The effects of hallucinogens fade if you sleep for eighth hours, no matter how many doses are affecting the character. Characters can notice you are under the affects of a Hallucinogen by making a successful Wits + Investigation static challenge against a difficulty of 5, if successful they can tell you are seeing things that aren't there.
- Knock Out: When exposed to a dose of knock-out drug, you must make a static challenge using your Stamina + Survival against a difficulty of 3. Each turn that you are exposed to a knock out drug, you must test again with a cumulative +1 difficulty. For example, if you breathe knock-out gas for three turns, you will need to make three challenges. The first difficulty rating is 3, the second is 4, and the third 5. If you fail such a challenge, you lose consciousness for an hour, or until you suffer a point of damage which immediately wakes you up. Note that undead characters cannot be knocked unconscious.
- Stimulant: When you ingest a does of stimulant, you become twitchy and hyperactive, and you cannot sleep or rest for the next hour - this does not grant immunities to gifts that would put you to sleep; however would prevent your character from falling asleep mundanely. Additional doses do not increase the penalties, but add to the duration on a one-for-one basis. If you are exposed to more doses of a stimulant than you have dots of Stamina + Survival you suffer major organ failure and will die without medical attention. Undead characters are immune organ failure.
- Toxin: When you're exposed to a toxin, nothing happens for three turns. After that time passes, you must make a static challenge using your Stamina + Survival versus a difficulty between 2-15 depending on the poisons virility as determined by the Storyteller. If you succeed, you resist the poison. Failure causes you to take one point of damage (likely lethal, though some toxins may cause different damage) that cannot be reduced or negated, and you must test again in five minutes. This process continues until you succeed or die. Undead characters are immune the effects of most toxins. Toxins that specifically target the victim's blood are effective against vampires, but they destroy the vampire's blood points rather than inflict damage.
- Sample Virility Ratings:
Hemlock - 5
Snake Venom - 7
Yew Extract - 15
- Sample Virility Ratings:
The number of stamina Traits you possess indicate how long you can hold your breath: one Trait, for 30 seconds; two, for one minute; three, for two minutes; four, for four minutes; five, for eight minutes; six, for 15 minutes; seven, for 20 minutes; and eight or more, for 30 minutes. One this time is up, you can spend Willpower for more time: each Willpower you spend gives you 30 seconds.
You use oxygen faster when you're working hard, so each Stamina Trait gives you one turn of holding your breath if you are fighting.
If you can't breathe once the time's up, you start taking one level of Lethal damage each turn. You can't heal this until you can breathe again. When you reach Incapacitated, you go unconscious, reverting to breed form and dying in a number of turns equal to your total Physical Traits.