So I wanted to check in and see if anyone had any ideas or opinions about this.

My play group and I have started a new campaign in the Varja with the Asian/Japanese theme. Due to the setting I thought I would be really fun to make a character based upon a lot of tropes and themes seen in classic Anime. I was excited to create someone with a past that they have no recollection of and has multiple types of different powers dormant inside of him.

Naturally the first thing I thought of was "Hey! That Latent Blood thing is all about dormant powers awakening as your character levels up". I really like the idea of having these mixing blood legacies. I like the idea that my character was some lab experiment or some weird incarnation of something.

However as I started to create him…. I realized that taking Latent Blood seems like suicide. I would be fine with the 1 level modifier, but each time I want to add another blood legacy to the mix it tacks on another level modifier. I've been talking with my GM about this and both of us are stumped. The way we see it it's like the Latent Blood advantage is there, but it's just foolish to take it.

I guess my question is, has anyone dealt with Latent Blood in your play groups? How have you dealt with it? Is it worth pursuing? The thought of getting to level 2, taking another legacy over a characteristic, and immediately going back to level 1 for it seems cruel.

Appreciate any input. Thanks!

Firstly, I think you've misunderstood how Level Modifiers work. You don't "immediately go back to Level 1". What happens is that it becomes more difficult to move up levels because you need more XP to do so. I may get the XP values wrong here, so please check them, but the principle is as follows:

Normally, you level up as below….

Level 1: 0XP

Level 2: 100XP

Level 3: 120XP (220 total)

Level 4: 140XP (360 total)

Level 5: 160XP (520 total)

….. and so on. Now, if you have Latent Blood at Level 1, you have a +1 Level Modifier. This means you need 120XP instead of 100XP to get to Level 2 (as if you were going from Level 2 to Level 3). If you then take another Legacy at Level 2 (I'll amend this in a minute, but for explanation purposes…) your Level Modifier is now +2. So to get to Level 3, you now need 160 more XP (as if you were going from Level 4 to Level 5). In the simplest possible terms, the Level Modifier tells you how many levels higher you assume your character is, just for the purposes of calculating how many XP you need to get to the next level. It's the same if you choose to play a Non-human Race.

So you still progress, but increasingly slowly. It's not as bad as you think.

But it's still bad. And nobody would ever take it.

Now to the second thing. It's really not clear how Latent Blood works with Level modifiers in the book. I can only tell you how we play it. I believe Anima Studios have confirmed this somewhere, possibly in the Official Anima Forums, but I've never seen it personally. And this makes it a lot more manageable.

- If you take Latent Blood and no additional Legacies at Level 1, you have a +1 Level Modifier. Any subsequent Legacies you take at higher levels still have a CP cost, but no increase in the Level Modifier. Latent Blood takes care of that.

- If you take Latent Blood and one or more other Legacies at Level 1, those Level Modifiers stack. So if you start off with LB + Eyes of the Soul + Eternal Blood (for example), you will need 160XP to get to Level 2. Again though, any Legacies gained at later levels have no modifier.

And if you do the 2nd route above, you're kinda missing the point of Latent Blood anyway.

If you use Latent Blood the way I've described here, it makes it much more playable.

Hope that all helps.

Very much so

Thanks for the awesome reply Beadle! I'll discuss this with my GM. If it does work the way that you explained it then I could see this making way more sense. While not all the blood legacies are worth it even with the different ruling, thus is Anima, and at least it makes it so you don't get totally punished for trying to roleplay an awesome story!