Light-Averse
Light-sensitive eyes: bright light hurts and dazzles, the price of a line bred for the dark.
Eyes calibrated for the dark, never adapted back to full daylight. The bearer reads a dim hold or a starlit hull cleanly, but a sunlit landing pad or a reactor floodlamp is a white wall of pain -- attack and perception both suffer, and a sudden flare can dazzle them outright. It is the unselected half of the low-light adaptation, and it is heritable.
Rules Reference
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Category | drawback |
| Conflicts | GENE-TAPETUM-OPTIC |
| Engineering Lineage | under-deck and cavern-colonist stock left unscreened for UV tolerance |
| Point Cost | -2 |
| Point Direction | grant |
Notes
Effect Text: -2 to attack rolls and Perception checks in bright light (daylight, floodlamps, flare); on sudden bright-light exposure, CON save or be dazzled (-1 attack) for 1 round. Grants build points.
Lore Note: Common in the deep-deck and cavern-colony lines that never saw a sun for generations, and in the splice survivors whose eyes were tuned for night work and never balanced. Helix offers a UV-tolerance top-up for those who can pay; those who cannot, or whose House will not, learn to wear a tint and to flinch in a hatch. It is the kind of drawback the Reservation wears openly and the Core hides behind eyewear.
Trait Id: Light-Averse
Mechanical Effects
condition: bright light
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
condition | bright light |
modifier | -2 |
target | attack rolls in bright light |
condition: bright light
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
condition | bright light |
modifier | -2 |
target | Perception checks in bright light |
condition: sudden flare
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
condition | sudden flare |
modifier | CON save or dazzled (-1 attack, 1 round) |
target | sudden bright-light exposure |