Character Building Help

[Deadmanwalking]

Well, assuming you want Zombie Creation as a Scene Aspect Creation rote:

Night of the Living Dead: 10 Shift Maneuver, places 2 Sticky Aspects (Surrounded By Zombies!, and Zombie Horde!) on each person in one entire Zone individually. Gives a 2 Stress Mental Hit.

Zombie Grapple: 10 Shift Effect, places a Block 6 on everyone in an entire Zone for three exchanges and again gives a 2 Stress Mental Hit.

Ripped Apart By Zombies: Weapon: 7 attack, on everyone in a Zone. Usually you will Tag both Zombie Aspects on this attack, making it a 17 shift attack and killing almost anybody. Gives a 1 Stress Mental hit.

Death Bolt: Weapon: 9 attack on a single target. Deals a 1 Stress Mental Hit.

Shield of Souls: 9 shift Block, deals a 2 Stress Mental Hit. Usually extended for 8 rounds the next exchange if it's done at all.

[Tbora]

Well I was thinking more along the lines off a rote to create a zombie minion on the fly.I want him able to summon his zombies in a hurry if need be.Possibly get rid of Zombie Grapple and change it out with minion creator?With Kemmlerian he can do it at the speed of evocation so its possible.

[Deadmanwalking]

Making a Zombie is actually two separate actions, both depending on the power of the Zombie, the first you need no Rote for a basic zombie, the second one could be built as follows:

Zombie Binding: 10 shift Zombie binding to raise a corpse minion for one scene. Deals a 2 Mental Stress hit.



And I'd skip Ripped Apart By Zombies instead of Zombie Grapple, it's already so Control heavy having it as a Rote is unnecessary, just note that that's what you do after the other two.

Long term Zombies are still gonna take a Thaumaturgy ritual to do.

[crusher_bob]

you could try a (long) duration evocation effect that does stuff a zombie can do.

For example,  you can summon up a power 4, duration 6 evocation effect that does 'whatever a zombie can do'.  And have attacks against the 'zombie' reduce it's base duration, or something.

[Belial666]

Mass Zombie
Necromancy as Evocation (supercharged) 10 shifts, tag aspect (nearby corpses)
You raise every corpse nearby as a crude zombie you can control, awakening a quick but short-lived army of the dead.
Effect: every humanoid corpse in one zone becomes a 5 refresh zombie and is controlled by a strength 5 binding. Such zombies typically only have Living Dead, Inhuman Toughness and Inhuman Strength and 20 skill points in skills appropriate for zombies. The spell creates the zombies and controls them but the control only lasts for one exchange. Unless the caster calls up additional power for duration in the very next exchange, the zombies are free to rampage (bad).
Notes: this spell assumes that 5 shifts could call a 5 refresh creature and another 5 shifts could control any zombie, since zombies are practically mindless, rolling mental skills at (probably) mediocre. With a binding of 5, any zombie rolling at mediocre would not escape... until you ran out of power.


Zombie Legion
Necromancy as Evocation (supercharged) 14 shifts, tag aspect (nearby corpses), invoke 2 aspects.
You raise every corpse nearby as a strong zombie you can control, awakening a quick but short-lived army of the dead.
Effect: every humanoid corpse in three zones becomes a 9 refresh zombie and is controlled by a strength 5 binding. Such zombies typically have Living Dead, Supernatural Toughness, Inhuman Strength, Inhuman Speed and 35 skill points in skills appropriate for zombies. The spell creates the zombies and controls them but the control only lasts for one exchange. Unless the caster calls up additional power for duration in the very next exchange, the zombies are free to rampage (bad).
Notes: as per Mass Zombie only a lot more and a lot stronger zombies. Requires invoking or tagging a "Necromancer" high concept plus another aspect, usually costing the caster Fate points and significant Backlash. Plus, it requires three zones worth of corpses so either a major battlefield or a mass grave or a graveyard.

[Deadmanwalking]

Both of those assume 1 Complexity per Refresh, and don't deal in Duration at all. Neither of those are the official rules. I'm not going to argue that they're bad rules, but they are not how the Zombie spell officially works. At all.

[Belial666]

Calling stuff works as a magical equivalent of Contacts, right? Would a Contacts roll of 5 allow you to get the help of a 5-refresh character? I'd say yes.

As for duration, minimum duration for all effects is one round (except for attacks, which are instantaneous). The caster calls up extra power for duration at the very next exchange getting more mental stress in the process. If he doesn't, his zombie horde goes FUBAR and he gets eaten by the zombies he just made.


EDIT:
I just read up on making zombies again. Considering that a Zombie doesn't have much in the way of conviction (mediocre or average), getting 4 shifts over its conviction is 5 shifts to call, 5 shifts to bind most of the time. Considering that even Sue, a 17 refresh beast of a zombie, has mediocre conviction, it's still 10 shifts total to animate. My spell is actually costlier in the end-and usually balanced given that a 20-shift megablast could easily do collateral damage comparable to a small zombie horde.

[Deadmanwalking]

Summoning stuff does indeed work like the Contacts rules, I didn't bother to Rote that because it's pathetically easy (Complexity 6 total for the stuff we're talking about...8 to do it to a Zone). Binding it, contrariwise, uses the Combat rules.


Specifically, you need to Take Something Out to bind it. That's a minimum of 3 (more likely 4 for Average Conviction) shifts of Power more than you're using.

So in short, you need 6 (it's Conviction+5) to beat Conviction for sure, then 4 to beat Mental Stress and Take It Out. So 10 shifts (12 to do it to a Zone). Plus more for duration if you want to keep it that way (though you're right that being able to do it as Evocation allows you to pump more power into Duration next turn).

That's why it's a two-step process.

[Belial666]

Even Sue has all mental skills at Mediocre. So a mental track of 2. In addition, zombies are typically nameless NPCs unless you raise someone like Sue so no conditions for them. Third, your own control roll for the spell isn't going to be mediocre. You are definitely going to generate some extra shifts from your control roll since we're using Combat rules and an Evocation instead of a ritual. And last, the chance that the zombie rolls a +4 is 1/256 so out of 256 zombies, you are going to have one uncontrolled. I don't think that's a problem

So, if you roll just enough and don't generate any extra shifts, you need 7 to bind a common zombie mook, 5 or less to summon it, +2 to zone the effect. That's 10 shifts, tag the "nearby corpses" aspect because the spell needs dead bodies and the "contituous drumbeat" aspect because you usually need the drumbeat (or simply spend a Fate point) and you do it on the entire zone.

To control zombies equivalent to secondary NPCs, you need +6 shifts to your spell to bind them. (they resist up to moderate consequence)

To control Sue the Zombie Tyrannosaurus, you need another +16 shifts because she has full consequences and needs a better contacts roll. That's a total spell of 36 shifts which will be a ritual unless you are a big-ass 30 refresh necromancer. (7 skill, 6 focus, 5 specialization, 1 necromancy, 3 Lawbreaker, 2 tagged aspects, 10 mental stress and 10 backlash)

[Deadmanwalking]

Um, not quite. Binding Spells don't get a Weapon Rating...whether they're used as Evocation or not.

You can indeed drop it to 7 (Conviction 0+4+3) if you assume Mediocre and don't want to really play it as safe as possible, but that's as low as it goes, and legitimately a little risky.

What you're talking about would, I think, actually cost two more shifts (I'm pretty sure you'd have to pay for Zone Wide on both effects separately)...and Aspects don't help with channeling Power. A 14 shift effect would cause him a 5 shift Mental Stress hit, and a 16 shift one a 7 shift hit. Either way it's more than he usually wants to be doing unless it's an emergency...and certainly more than he wants in a Rote.

Now, it's true I neglected to add the Zone Wide thing on the spell I did, and possible I overstated the needed minimum effect a little (though I'll note I did so literally by the book, see p. 301), but you're underselling the difficulty quite a bit.




Here's a revised version. Actually here's two, the first is cheap and counts on he Zombies having Mediocre Conviction, the second accounts for Conviction scores up to Average:

Zombie Horde Binding:10 shifts. 8 shift Zombie binding to raise every corpse in the Zone as a minion for one scene . Deals a 2 Mental Stress hit.

Zombie Horde Binding: 12 shifts. 10 shift Zombie binding to raise every corpse in the Zone as a minion for one scene . Deals a 4 Mental Stress hit.

In either case, you need to Summon the spirits to possess the zombies first (an 8 shift effect at most), and can add duration later if you so desire.

[Deadmanwalking]

Upon reflection, and for simplicity, here's what I'd do totalled up:

Items:

Demonic Pimp Cane [+1 Offensive Control and +2 Offensive Power with Spirit]*
Protective Item (8 shift Block or Armor 4, up to 5 times per session) [6 Enchanted Item Slots]

Rotes:

Night of the Living Dead: 10 Shift Maneuver, places 2 Sticky Aspects (Surrounded By Zombies!, and Zombie Horde!) on each person in one entire Zone individually. Gives a 1 Stress Mental Hit.

Zombie Grapple: 10 Shift Effect, places a Block 6 on everyone in an entire Zone for three exchanges and again gives a 1 Stress Mental Hit.

Death Bolt: Weapon: 10 attack on a single target. Deals a 1 Stress Mental Hit.

Shield of Souls: 9 shift Block, deals a 2 Stress Mental Hit. Usually extended for 8 rounds the next exchange if it's done at all.


Zombie Horde Binding:10 shifts. 8 shift Zombie binding to raise every corpse in the Zone as a minion for one scene . Deals a 1 Mental Stress hit.

OR

Zombie Horde Binding: 12 shifts. 10 shift Zombie binding to raise every corpse in the Zone as a minion for one scene . Deals a 3 Mental Stress hit.**



Other Notable Effects

Ripped Apart By Zombies: Weapon: 8 attack, on everyone in a Zone. Usually you will Tag both Night of the Living Dead Aspects on this attack, making it a 16 shift attack and killing almost anybody. Gives a 1 Stress Mental hit.

Zombie Summoning: 8 shift effect. Summons up Zombie Spirits, one for every corpse in the Zone. Gives a 1 Stress Mental Hit.





*That'll give you only 8 shift Evocation defensively, 9 for 2 shift Mental Stress hits. Offensively it'll give you an 10 Control (12 to kill) at Weapon: 10. The protective Item also gives you a solid, high powered, reflexive defense. I upped the Power and lowered the Control on the Cane to reduce Mental Stress.

**I'd go with the second, you can afford it. And remember on either you can extend the Duration with a subsequent Evocation...using the Thaumaturgy duration table.

[Tbora]

And here is the finished product, just to round it out, I changed it to fit an 18 refresh game.In order to make his law breaking bonuses +3 for killing and zombie raising I gave him a single Law Breaker for the Seventh Law as it fits his character concept and gives him the Trouble Comes in Three's benefit  

High Concept: Kemmlerite Bastard of a Demon Lord
Trouble: Under My Father's Thumb
Other: Student of Kemmler; Master Necromancer; The Council Must Fall!; I Will Conquer Death!; Paranoid Beyond Belief

Skills:

Fantastic: Conviction, Discipline
Superb Endurance, Lore
Great Alertness, Intimidation, Athletics
Good Resources, Contacts, Deceit,  Presence
Fair Fists, Guns, Burglary, Rapport
Average: Scholarship, Craftsmanship, Driving, Might, Survival

Powers:

 [-3] Evocation (Spirit Power +2, Spirit Control +1)
 [-3] Thaumaturgy (Necromancy Control +2, Worldwalking Control +1)
 [-2] Kemmlerian  Necromancy
 [-1] The Sight
 [-0] Soulgaze
 [-0] Wizards Constitution
 [-3] Refinement
 [-2] Law Breaker (Fifth Law)
 [-2] Law Breaker (First Law)
 [-1] Law Breaker (Seventh Law)

Total Refresh: -17

Items:

Kemmler's Ritual Drum [+1 Offensive Control and +2 Offensive Power with Spirit]
Sacrificial Gauntlet (8 shift Block or Armor 4, up to 5 times per session) [6 Enchanted Item Slots]

Rotes:

Night of the Living Dead: 10 Shift Maneuver, places 2 Sticky Aspects (Surrounded By Zombies!, and Zombie Horde!) on each person in one entire Zone individually. Gives a 1 Stress Mental Hit.

Zombie Grapple: 10 Shift Effect, places a Block 6 on everyone in an entire Zone for three exchanges and again gives a 1 Stress Mental Hit.

Death Bolt: Weapon: 10 attack on a single target. Deals a 1 Stress Mental Hit.

Shield of Souls: 9 shift Block, deals a 2 Stress Mental Hit. Usually extended for 8 rounds the next exchange if it's done at all.

Zombie Horde Binding: 12 shifts. 10 shift Zombie binding to raise every corpse in the Zone as a minion for one scene . Deals a 3 Mental Stress hit.

Other Notable Effects

Ripped Apart By Zombies: Weapon: 8 attack, on everyone in a Zone. Usually you will Tag both Night of the Living Dead Aspects on this attack, making it a 17 shift attack and killing almost anybody. Gives a 1 Stress Mental hit.

Zombie Summoning: 8 shift effect. Summons up Zombie Spirits, one for every corpse in the Zone. Gives a 1 Stress Mental Hit.

Stresses:

Mental: OOOO
Physical: OOOO
Social: OOOO

[Deadmanwalking]

With your extra Lawbreaker, all your to-hit numbers rise by one, making "Ripped Apart by Zombies a 17 shift attack instead of 16. Other than that, looks good to me.