Shaman of the Urban Wing

[HumAnnoyd]

I have a player who wants to make a character who has a connection to all the pigeons in a city allowing him to know all that they know and even giving him control of them. He calls it the "Urban Wing".  Now I figure the Ghost Talker ability is perfect as written to give him a chance to know things that his birds witness using his Contacts skill.  I will just change the name to Bird Talker.  But when you get to figuring how he would control his birds in a combat situation is where I was having some difficulties.  Below is what I came up with using some of the mook rules from LoA and I wanted to see what you guys think.

BIRDS ARE MY FRIENDS (-2)
To summon a Flock of birds the shaman must make a Empathy roll with a difficulty equal to the amount of Effort he wishes to summon each round. A shaman may spend several turns on summoning to gather his Flock. He can summon Effort equal to his Presence with no difficulty. For every point summoned over his Presence he takes a point of Mental Stress. If a roll is failed then all the Effort is lost and the summoning must be started anew. Additionally the Shaman suffers Backlash equal to the amount of Effort he has summoned to that point.

EXAMPLE: Andrew has a Presence of Fair and decides to summon a Flock of Birds. He attempts to Summon 2 points of Effort and incurs no Mental Stress. He rolls his Good (+3) Empathy and exeeds the Difficulty of 2 gaining 2 points of Effort. Next round he is forced to gather power quickly and attempts to summon 4 points more points of Effort which forces a 2 point Mental Stress hit on him. He must roll a +1 or better on the dice or all of his Effort will be lost and he will be forced to start over. Additionally he would suffer a 6 stress hit.

This roll can be modified by circumstances as determined by the GM. Some example difficulties include being far from an urban area (+1 to +4 difficulty depending on how far away), high winds during a storm (1 to 4 depending on the severity) or the height of winter when many birds have migrated south (an additional +1 to +2), previously lost many birds in a conflict (1 to +5). For each successful roll he gathers birds and gains Effort Points. Each level of Effort the player gains can be spent to make up the swarm of birds in the following way:

CONTROL – This represents how well a Shaman can direct his flock. The lower the Control the more likely a flock will disperse when they are faced with adversity. All Flocks start out at Mediocre (+0) Control with a single stress point per Unit. For every point spent you can increase the Control of the Flock up to maximum of Good (+3). Control determines all the skills of the Flock as well as how much stress each Unit can take with a minimum of 1. Note that each point of stress would likely equal many birds. So a Good Quality Flock would cost 3 points which would give them a +3 to all their skill rolls and grant them 3 points of stress per member.

QUANTITY – For every point of Effort spent on Quantity the shaman increases the size of the flock. This will determine how many Units make up the flock. Each Unit will have Stress Points equal to its Control. The Table below shows the bonus to skill rolls a flock will receive due to numbers:

2-3 = 1
4-6 = +2
7-9 = +3
10 = +4

When a Unit of a Flock takes damage, any overflow of stress is applied to the next Unit. This means that a single attack can take out a whole swath of Units. As the flock takes stress and Units are eliminated it will decrease the bonus to skill rolls. In combat each Flock can use spray attacks (p.326) to attack multiple targets in a zone or can attack a single target.

EXAMPLE: Having summoned 6 points of Effort Andrew decides to spend 1 point on Control giving his flock Average (+1) ability on all skill rolls and one point of stress per unit. He then spends the remaining 5 points of Effort on Quantity giving him 5 units. This means that his flock can take 5 stress before being completely dispersed or destroyed. He could instead choose to spend 2 points on Control giving him Fair Control and allowing him to summon 4 units. This would provide better skills and allow the flock to take 2 stress per unit for a total of 8 stress.

Only one Flock may attach to a character at a time, taking hits to its stress track instead of the shaman. A Shaman can also choose to take stress in place of his Flock. An attached Flock can’t act alone. But it does provide the Shaman with an bonus equal to the Quantity of Units in the Flock. Unattached Flocks can attack or maneuver as the shaman directs. Leaving or attaching to a Flock is a free action.

[Sanctaphrax]

Not a fan, I'm afraid.

I'd rather see this as a variation on Ritual. Here's why:

I don't understand the way attachment works.
Control seems vastly better than quantity.
A flock of birds can be ludicrously powerful with this system.
There's no real consequence for failing.
There's no limit to the strength of the flock a character can call.

I'm pretty sure that this is vastly overpowered. Especially when used as preparation for combat.

[HumAnnoyd]

I don't understand the way attachment works.

If attached then the flock can only act as a damage soaker.  If not attached then they can act as the player directs but cannot help with Stress or consequences.

Control seems vastly better than quantity.

I would limit Control to +3.  Which I didn't state in my post.  Sorry. I was in a rush and came up with this on my lunch break.

A flock of birds can be ludicrously powerful with this system.

I think the limit to +3 Control might change that quite a bit.  Am I wrong?

There's no real consequence for failing.

Not sure what consequences there should be.  Can you make a suggestion?

There's no limit to the strength of the flock a character can call.

With the limit of +3 on Control and the fact that beyond 10 units you don't get a bonus to your Flock there is an inherent limit. Except as a damage soaker which the player has stated he would rarely use because his character cares more for the birds than he does anyone else. 

Admittedly this is a fast and dirty concoction but I feel it could work.  What do you think with the limit to Control?

[Sanctaphrax]

That helps enormously.

Maybe use the backlash and fallout rules from normal thaumaturgy?

With the control limit and the clarification on attachment, it looks better.

Still, I feel a little nervous about this. Needs playtesting.

[sinker]

I kinda don't like the fact that a few mundane birds are capable of dealing damage on the same order as most explosives, or a skilled swordsman. That's more of a thematic issue though.

[Rubycon]

Never seen Hitchcock's "Birds"-Movie...?

[sinker]

Yeah, but in this case we're talking two to ten, not hundreds...

[HumAnnoyd]

Yeah, but in this case we're talking two to ten, not hundreds...

Actually in my head I picture hundreds.  Thousands even.  The numbers I have presented don't represent an equal amount of birds. 

[HumAnnoyd]

I kinda don't like the fact that a few mundane birds are capable of dealing damage on the same order as most explosives, or a skilled swordsman. That's more of a thematic issue though.

Umm. But they can't do the same damage as an explosive.  They are Weapon 0 attacks which is the same as a human with their fists.  The skill might be high but that is because there are so many birds attacking. 

[Sanctaphrax]

To clarify:

Can units be attacked individually?

What skills does the flock have?

What does the numbers bonus apply to?

[HumAnnoyd]

To clarify:

Can units be attacked individually?

Whenever an individual character attacks a flock any stress he generates is applied to the entire Flock not an individual Unit.  So if he did 8 Stress to a Flock with 5 Units of Fair (+2) ability (which would total 10 Stress) it would destroy or disperse all but one of the Units.  That Unit would not get any bonus to its abilities for Quantity so it would make all of its rolls at Fair ability.

What skills does the flock have?

A flock would have any skill it needed within reason.  Probably just Athletics, Fists, Alertness, Stealth and maybe Investigation. I could see a case made for Intimidation.  Imagine a huge flock of pigeons all stopping and turning to look at you all at once.  It would creep me out.  Other than physical skills and Intimidate I don't see any social skills or knowledge skills being available.  Common sense would rule the day in this case.

What does the numbers bonus apply to?

I assume you mean the Quantity.  It would apply to almost all rolls except maybe Stealth.

[Sanctaphrax]

Oh, so their stress track works like D&D hit points?

I think that applying the Quantity bonus to defense rolls might make these guys too tough.

By the way, how do area attacks affect flocks?

[HumAnnoyd]

Oh, so their stress track works like D&D hit points?

Pretty much. 

I think that applying the Quantity bonus to defense rolls might make these guys too tough.

Well I am simply applying the Minion rules found in Legends of Aglerre, Spirit of the Century and Starblazer Adventures to DFRPG.  I imagine they were extensively play tested.  In fact I used them recently to represent a mass Red Cap attack and they worked quite well. 

By the way, how do area attacks affect flocks?

The same as every one else. Essentially a Flock is treated as a single character in all regards.   

[HumAnnoyd]

OK.  I made some clarifications in the text and added Backlash for a failed roll.