Author Topic: Help please  (Read 3684 times)

Offline reflection49

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Help please
« on: April 15, 2011, 05:38:51 PM »
A buddy of mine is going to start a new dresden files campaign and he is having trouble with two of his characters his group is trying to make. The first is an ectomancer, not sure how to spend refresh or how this creature would work.
The second is an Emissary of Power, who is Zeus' right hand with a staff of zeus, who also wants to do lightning/electricity based magic.
Any suggestions?
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Offline vonpenguin

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Re: Help please
« Reply #1 on: April 15, 2011, 05:53:07 PM »
What power level are you playing at? Though for the ectomancer ritual ectomancy should be all you need. maybe the Ghost speaker minor power as well.

Offline MorkaisChosen

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Re: Help please
« Reply #2 on: April 15, 2011, 05:55:30 PM »
Not sure what you want the Staff to do, but the magic on the Emssary shouldn't be too tough- Sponsored Magic with a lightning/electricity and possibly "Turn myself into a goose to seduce ladies" theme.

Offline reflection49

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Re: Help please
« Reply #3 on: April 15, 2011, 06:06:29 PM »
They are playing at a submergerd level. He says th staff of zeuss is an item of power.
Also how would an ectomancer work in combat?
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Offline WillH

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Re: Help please
« Reply #4 on: April 15, 2011, 06:20:30 PM »
Not sure what you want the Staff to do, but the magic on the Emssary shouldn't be too tough- Sponsored Magic with a lightning/electricity and possibly "Turn myself into a goose to seduce ladies" theme.

I wouldn't do sponsored magic. I would just go with Channeling electromancy and tie it to the IOP. Lightning/electricity is a little narrow for a sponsored magic. If you wanted to use sponsored magic I would recommend something like Sponsored Magic Olympian Magic. But then you need to decide what Olympian magic would encompass. That's not really newbie friendly.

Offline MorkaisChosen

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Re: Help please
« Reply #5 on: April 15, 2011, 07:23:47 PM »
Yeah, good point, and if you're his Emissary with his Staff, that covers the "This Is Not My Power" theme.

So yeah, Channeling Electricity looks best.

Offline reflection49

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Re: Help please
« Reply #6 on: April 15, 2011, 07:26:52 PM »
Thanks alot guys, the only othe thing is about the ectomancer, in battle would the player have to use a ritual to summon a ghost to help with the battle or would they be able to do something like that as an evocation
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Offline MorkaisChosen

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Re: Help please
« Reply #7 on: April 15, 2011, 07:33:56 PM »
If all you have is Ritual: Ectomancy? Yeah, in a straight fight, you're not gonna be able to do much supernatural stuff. I'd say combat rituals aren't gonna work too well- too much risk of the enemy disrupting it.

Offline EdgeOfDreams

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Re: Help please
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2011, 07:42:37 PM »
Not all forms of magic are well-suited to combat.  An Ectomancer will definitely have advantages in investigations and such (call up the murder victim's ghost? Hell yeah), but his contribution to combat might merely consist of pulling out a gun.

Offline Buscadera

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Re: Help please
« Reply #9 on: April 15, 2011, 09:00:12 PM »
I play an ectomancer musician in a PbP on another site and I though you might find his character sheet useful. He's not much in combat situations, but he's useful in social situations and investigation. The idea is that you're not spending much refresh on supernatural abilities with an ectomancer (-3 total, for Ritual (Ectomancy) and Ghost Speaker), so you can afford some other stunts as appropriate. The ectomancer cop/detective seems to be a fairly popular character type that both speaks to ghosts and holds his own in combat.
"Gus, I'm a lyrical gangster. I'll use some colorful vernacular and if necessary, you'll engage in fisticuffs" -Shawn Spencer

"Doesn't that suck? I just hit you for no reason. I don't even know why." -Harry Lockhart

Offline BumblingBear

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Re: Help please
« Reply #10 on: April 15, 2011, 09:56:49 PM »
There are more than just physical fights, though.

If an ectomancer could call up a ghost during a social conflict to scare the hell out of someone, I'd give him a +2 for the maneuver, and give the opposed vanilla mortal a minor or moderate mental consequence of, "WTF GHOSTS!?" that the ectomancer could tag for a total of +4 to a intimidation roll.
Myself: If I were in her(Murphy's) position, I would have studied my ass off on the supernatural and rigged up special weapons to deal with them.  Murphy on the other hand just plans to overpower bad guys with the angst of her short woman's syndrome and blame all resulting failures on Harry.

Offline HobbitGuy1420

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Re: Help please
« Reply #11 on: April 16, 2011, 12:54:30 AM »
As mentioned earlier, for the Item of Power, the main question is "what do you want it to do?"  If lightning control is all you need, then tying it to Channeling: Electromancy will be sufficient (with a +1 Item of Power rebate, this adds up to a -1 Refresh item.  If you want it to be less versatile but less draining, you could instead replace Channeling with Breath Weapon (Lightning), for the same cost.  If you want it to be more versatile, you could tack on Ritual: Electromancy, allowing more fine control of electricity in the surrounding area through thaumaturgical rituals.  If you want to add a protective side, it could give him Physical Immunity to electricity only.

Otherwise, you could attach other powers from Zeus's purview.  One or more of the Inhuman suite could, of course, be appropriate.  If you want to tie into Zeus's nature as the majestic king of the Gods, you could give him Incite Emotion: Awe (or fear).  If you want to tie into Zeus's shape-shifting seduction schtick, you could group in some Shapeshifting and/or Modular abilities.

As for the ectomancer, it's true that Ritual: Ectomancy doesn't offer much by way of combat ability.  You could supplement it by adding Channeling: Spirit (to represent ectoplasm-sculpting ability learned from dealing with ghosts), though that might hew a bit closely to necromancy for some Wardens.  Otherwise, just give him skill at Fists, Weapons, or Guns, and a couple Stunts to supplement.

Other appropriate Powers for an Ectomancer (per Morty's writeup) would be Ghost Speaker and one or more Supernatural Senses attuned to spirits and the like. 

Offline reflection49

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Re: Help please
« Reply #12 on: April 16, 2011, 01:40:34 AM »
Another question, i made a wererhino in the game i currently am playing in and theres a little disputr ver whether or not i should get inhuman speed when in the form of the rhino. We looked up rhinos and they can run 35 mph but we arent sure if that would countfor reactions and stuff like that.
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Offline sinker

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Re: Help please
« Reply #13 on: April 16, 2011, 05:07:03 AM »
That seems like it would really be up to your table/gm. I could see a were-rhino having super speed, they are after all supernaturally enhanced versions of the animals, not just normal animals. However I could also understand people being unable to rationalize speed for something so big.

Offline MorkaisChosen

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Re: Help please
« Reply #14 on: April 16, 2011, 11:33:24 AM »
I wouldn't give a rhino Speed, personally- the wereform template suggests up to two of Strength, Speed, Toughness and Recovery, and to me, rhino says Strength and Toughness, not Speed. It might be worth giving them an ability that lets them run faster- maybe the Fleet of Foot stunt? - but the full Inhuman Speed set, with its bonuses to Initiative and Stealth, don't seem right to me.