Werebear for 7 refresh game?

[ashern]

Hey guys, I'm putting together a game to run in a few weeks for some friends that I've gotten hooked on Dresden.  Our group has a long history of having characters who could turn into bears, and the DM of our current game asked me if he could play one when I mentioned it was doable in setting.  I looked through, and I'm not sure what all to give a werebear.  He was thinking something with a silver weakness, which while not technically cannon, makes plenty of sense considering the different ways that you could justify it(popular mental image reflecting in his personal transformation?).  He's completely unfamiliar with fate, but has the gist of aspects and placed his character's skills and power set firmly in my grasp.

High Concept: DIA WereBear (not a typo, they're near DC, so I'm having him be a stateside member of the department)
Trouble: Cleaning up Departmental Messes

Aspects: stuff, working on that with the player


Beast Change [–1] (page 174)
Echoes of the Beast [–1] (page 163)

Human Form [+1] (page 176)
Claws[-1] (page 162)
Hulking Size [-2] (page 164) (he wanted a grizzly, and I figured if the game goes on he could eventually add strength as well)
Inhuman Toughness [–2] (page 185)
Catch(Silver) [+1]

This would put him at -5 Refresh, so not too bad.  Not sure if I should just leave off the toughness and give him a stunt or two, but they're going to be butting heads with some heavy hitters (I'm using large chunks of the Baltimore write-up as is).  Skills have me stumped though, since I've never run fate before, and am still feeling my way around the system.  They have 25 skill points,

Any help would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks.

[Ravangames]

Skills would be depending on the character. I'd keep fists, endurance and presence higher than others unless his background says otherwise. Guns would be low or nonexistent.

 

[Saedar]

I actually play as a werebear in my wife's game. Here are my stats:

High Concept: Spiritual Were-Bear

Trouble: Dead people see me…

Other Aspects: Anyone wanna wrastle?!; Ruggedly Handsome; Ear to the door between Worlds; Fist of Nature; Brightest Cookie only because he’s alone

SKILLS (+30)

Alertness: Average (+1) Athletics: Superb (+5) Conviction: Good (+3) Endurance: Superb (+5) Fists: Good (+3) Intimidation: Great (+4) Investigation: Average (+1) Might: Great (+4) Presence: Fair (+2) Survival: Fair (+2)

POWERS (-6)

Ghost Speaker [-1] Echoes of the Beast (Smell/Hearing) [-1] Beast Change, effecting: [-1] Inhuman Strength [-2] Supernatural Toughness [-4] The Catch: Silver [+3] Claws [-1] Human Form [+1]

STRESS

Physical (+4): OOOO Mental (+4): OOOO Social (+3): OOO

Armor, Etc: Physical Stress becomes 4+4 when shape shifted.

Gain armor 2 when shape shifted.

NOTES

Typical Skill Changes when shape shifted:

Superb: Fists, Endurance

Great: Might, Intimidation

Good: Athletics, Alertness

Fair: Survival, Presence

Average: Stealth, Investigation

Total Refresh Cost: -6

I based the character off a type of black bear in British Columbia that produces a white cub 1/10 cubs. We're set in Vancouver.

[Ravangames]

Nice Saedar.

[Deadmanwalking]

I'd really reccomend going with Inhuman Strength for now and picking up Hulking Size later. He's just not going to be either deadly enough, or mechanically strong enough without it. Seriously. Also, from a logical perspective, his bear form getting larger over time makes more sense.

And finally, I'm not sure Grizzly Bears even have Hulking Size, they're capable of stealth, which, IMO, puts them under the size needed to justify that.

[CableRouter]

Any help would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks.

One thing I used for my own campaign (a feet in the water campaign and someone wanted a werewolf), make them really new to the whole shape change thing.  My player didn't get a second set of skills, but does pick up the beast sense from Echoes of the Beast and had to make one of her aspects reflect the inexperience so I can compel it every now and then.  In return I put the cost of the power at -0 with the requirement that the first time she gets a point of refresh she has to use it to buy the full version and get the second set of skills.  This would let your Bear character add in Inhuman Strength and come in at -6 refresh.

[Nomad]

Btw is the player (or more importantly the character) male or female.
Because the Mamma bears do have some nasty aspects about protecting youth/children/cubs

[CMEast]

Beast Change [–1]
Echoes of the Beast [–1]
Human Form [+1]

Claws[-1]
Inhuman Strength [-2]
Inhuman Toughness [–2]
Inhuman Recovery [-2]
Catch(Silver) [+3]

The Silver catch is worth +3 as silver is common to find (+2) and you can research to find out that were creatures are hurt by silver (+1), if you only take 2 refresh worth of toughness power then you're right to only have the catch as +1, you may as well get the full value from the catch and take 4 refresh of toughness power though. I'm personally a big fan of recovery powers but DMW has gone for supernatural toughness instead of inhuman which makes sense too, it's personal preference in this case.

There is one spendable refresh left and you could use it to give the char some additional flavour, however I'd advise saving it for the next milestone where you can take a level up of your strength/toughness abilities. It's not wasted as that extra fate point is always useful.

[ashern]

Hey guys, thanks so much for all of the speedy replies.  I had no idea this board was so helpful and busy!

Skills after talking with the player some are:
Great: Alertness, Rapport
Good:Guns, Investigation
Fair: Endurance, Athletics, Conviction
Average: Discipline, Resources, Contacts, Lore, Intimidation


After looking at the two and realizing how relatively weaker hulking size is, I'm changing his powers to

Echoes of the Beast (Smell/Hearing) [-1]
Beast Change [-1]
Inhuman Strength [-2]
Supernatural Toughness [-4] T
he Catch: Silver [+3]
Claws [-1]

Human Form [+1]

With a final No Pain No Gain stunt to round it out.  This is going to make one heck of tankish bear...

With skill shuffle skills are looking like:

Great: Might, Fists
Good: Endurance, Intimidation
Fair: Survival, Athletics, Stealth
Average: Discipline, Rapport, Conviction, Investigation, Lore

So in bear mode he's got Armor:2 against non catch stuff, Four physical stress base, with an extra 4 from supernatural toughness, +3 weapon claws(+1 from claws and +2 from strength), and can take two extra mild physical consequences.  That all add up about right?

[Tsunami]

Hey guys, thanks so much for all of the speedy replies.  I had no idea this board was so helpful and busy!

Skills after talking with the player some are:
Great: Alertness, Rapport
Good:Guns, Investigation
Fair: Endurance, Athletics, Conviction
Average: Discipline, Resources, Contacts, Lore, Intimidation


After looking at the two and realizing how relatively weaker hulking size is, I'm changing his powers to

Echoes of the Beast (Smell/Hearing) [-1]
Beast Change [-1]
Inhuman Strength [-2]
Supernatural Toughness [-4] T
he Catch: Silver [+3]
Claws [-1]

Human Form [+1]

With a final No Pain No Gain stunt to round it out.  This is going to make one heck of tankish bear...

With skill shuffle skills are looking like:

Great: Might, Fists
Good: Endurance, Intimidation
Fair: Survival, Athletics, Stealth
Average: Discipline, Rapport, Conviction, Investigation, Lore

So in bear mode he's got Armor:2 against non catch stuff, Four physical stress base, with an extra 4 from supernatural toughness, +3 weapon claws(+1 from claws and +2 from strength), and can take two extra mild physical consequences.  That all add up about right?

Nitpick: The Weapon:3 is +2 from claws and +1 from strength.

Consequences:As it stands it would be only one additional Mild Physical Consequence. The one from the stunt. Endurance is not high enough for an additional one, that's for skill levels of Superb and above.

Yo might want to note the powers a bit different, so you can see what powers are affected by Human Form,
like so maybe:

Echoes of the Beast (Smell/Hearing) [-1]
Beast Change [-1]
Human Form [+1] affecting:
Claws [-1]
Inhuman Strength [-2]
Supernatural Toughness [-4]
The Catch: Silver [+3]

[ashern]

Good point on the structuring of powers to make more sense, however I just reread inhuman strength and claws... and claws say +1 over fists(which I was under the impression don't normally give you damage bonus) and strength says +2 under hammer blows...

[Tsunami]

Good point on the structuring of powers to make more sense, however I just looked it up... and the stunt says two more mild consequences in my book... am I missing something?

Also, I just reread inhuman strength and claws... and claws say +1 over fists(which I was under the impression don't normally give you damage bonus) and strength says +2 under hammer blows...

Are you maybe still using the Early Bird PDF? There have been some tweaks that are not present there yet.

Stunts granting consequences may give you one all purpose consequence of a certain Type, Mental, Social, Physical...
They may give you two consequences when the consequence is limited to certain situations. Like mental consequences that only work when the character is being tortured or something. See the "Resilient Self image" Stunt in YS (which again might be different in the early Birds...)

So, "No Pain No Gain" grants one extra mild physical consequence.

Claws is +2 in the final PDF, as a power granting Weapon:1 it was to expensive and has been tweaked.

You are right about Strength, that's actually +2, i was writing from memory... got that wrong.

So he would have Weapon:4 (+2 claws; +2 Strength) and 1 extra Mild Physical Consequence

[ashern]

Ahh, that's my bad.  I was using that PDF for easy reference.  Getting the books on friday, thanks for the information!

Wow, weapon 4 claws... that's a scary bear, even without any extra combat stunts or anything.

[Saedar]

Yeah, my bear is pretty crazy in combat. You might want to let your player know that against evasive foes or foes who are built like a tank, maneuvers are your best friend. If you can land even one or two maneuvers against a target, it can REALLY make a difference in taking things down.

[ashern]

Thanks for the heads up.

Though now I'm starting to wonder... I had originally imagined setting up the Dragon(trope, not literal dragon) for these guys as a full on Ogre for them to eventually fight, but with a werewolf, a half ogre and a focused specilist in tow as well... I don't know if that would be enough.  I just don't want it to be a cakewalk, since I'm sure my players can figure out the bane for fey... though I do plan on having lots of social complications from him being a big bear in the city...