Need help statting a custom character template, Archer from Fate/Stay Night

[AstralBlade]

For those of you who need a reference;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archer_(Fate/stay_night)

Just scroll down to abilities and you'll get a fairly good idea of what I'm trying to do. For those that don't want to read the wiki page, ill give a short explanation. Archer is a faker, someone who projects, traces and reinforces weapons stored within his mind to make tangible, and often deadly weapons. If he has seen it, he can trace the object in his mind and then project it into reality, its like conjuration at evocation speed, but not as much effort and for more return i guess.

This would only be for weapons or rather "combat" weapons, no Guns, armor, grenades bazookas or etc. So the kills are pretty much, Tracing, Alteration, and Projection. Which corresponds to the following skills in the DV; Weapons(knowledge of weapons and what it looks, history, and capabilities), Craftsmanship(composition of weapon, materials used in forging, durability), and Conviction(making the projected image become a reality). My question is what powers would i use? How could i make this fit into the Dresdenverse? What powers could i feasibly take to imitate or tweak to closely resemble what im trying to do? Also, there is the matter of his Reality Marble in which he takes you to his own reality made up of this barren landscape with every weapon he's ever projected or has recorded data on, it kinda works as a demesne, because he can influence this place to fit his image, granted he would not be able to shift the ground or affect the landscape past what i already make as it's base, he could only affect the weapons.

Any tips, or help would be greatly appreciated, or if people think i should probably just scrap the idea. I always told myself i wouldn't be THAT guy but i find this concept extremely interesting and would like if possible to play around with it.

Archer in action, skip to 3:45 to see the Reality Marble and what i envision.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBe9HZ1wnrw


Should also note, that the power level would be Submerged

[Sanctaphrax]

IIRC, the Tracing custom Power was originally intended to simulate Archer.

(click to show/hide)

TRACING [-2]
Description: You have the ability to project weapons from your mind into reality.
Skills Affected: Craftsmanship, Weapons, Guns
Effects:
Projection. With a supplemental action, you may create a melee or thown weapon out of thin air. Two-handed melee weapons created this way are capped at weapon rating 3, while thrown weapons and one-handed melee weapons are capped at weapon rating 2. Weapons created this way last until the end of the scene or until you make a new weapon.
Reinforcement. By spending a scene and making a successful Craftsmanship roll, you may cause your projected weapon to become fully real. This means that it lasts indefinitely.
Versatile Tracing [-1]. You may create simple objects other than melee weapons with this power. Armour, simple tools, keys, and levers are all possible.
Complex Tracing [-2]. (Requires Versatile Tracing) You may create complex objects with this power. Firearms, explosives, chemicals, and machines are all possible, although at the GM's discretion a Craftsmanship roll may be required for certain items. Explosives, firearms, and two-handed melee weapons are now capped at weapon rating 5, while thrown weapons and one-handed melee weapons are now capped at weapon rating 4.

QUASI-MODULAR ABILITIES [-Varies]
Description: You have the ability to alternate between multiple powersets.
Musts: You must "pre-pay" a number of refresh points equal to the total value of each set of powers that this power affects, plus a surcharge of one refresh.
Skills Affected: Varies.
Effects:
Two Powersets. Pick out two sets of powers, each with a total refresh cost one less than the cost of this power. You may use either set of powers, although it takes a full action to go from using one to using the other. The GM decides what is and what isn't a valid choice for inclusion in the powersets provided by this power.
Item Of Power Collection [-0] You own multiple items of power. Design a number of Items Of Power equal to your Resources skill. At any given time, you may use or loan out items with a total refresh cost up to one less than the refresh cost of this power. You do not receive the Item Of Power discount. If you have the Tracing power, then you may summon and dismiss these Items Of Power out of and into thin air. If not, you must treat them as physical objects.

It's not the only way to go, though. If this doesn't float your boat, I'm sure we can work something else out.

[AstralBlade]

How  did i miss that....? Thank you Sanctaphrax, that is amazing. Curious about what to do with his reality marble though, Quasi Modular Abilities would even work with tracing Swords of the Cross and the like, if i could actually get my character to see the weapon now. Do you think the Demesne trapping would work?

[Tedronai]

Looking at that Tracing power, it seems rather impressively expensive for what it does.

[AstralBlade]

Considering you are pretty much developing weapons from thin air without taking stress, and the fact that you can make up Weapon 3 value weapons kinda makes it OP to me, in fact taking all of the abilities for a measly 5 refresh allows even lower levels characters to wreck shop. It balances pretty well, in my opinion.

[Tedronai]

Comparing to nearest competition in both effect and cost:

The base power used to create any thrown weapon will be strictly inferior to Breath Weapon, requiring a supplemental action to form each weapon before throwing.
The base power used to create a one-handed melee weapon will be strictly inferior to Breath Weapon, being limited to, y'know, melee.  In fact, it will be inferior to Claws+Human Guise, or Claws+something+Human Form.
The base power used to create a two-handed weapon will be, in the first round inferior to Breath Weapon, and in subsequent rounds have a slight advantage against opponents in melee (while being again strictly inferior against any opponents not in melee).

Adding in the Complex upgrade, you have to start comparing to things like Evocation, or discounted Sponsored Magic, which will hold vast advantages in anything other than particularly drawn-out conflicts.

The fully upgraded power, on the other hand, gets to compare itself to things like 5 refresh of modular abilities, or evocation and 2 refinements, or Claws+True Shapeshifting.

[ways and means]

It does seem a bit expensive, I wanted it be more than just a combat power though and provide some utility so at the highest level you can use to bypass most locks (i project the key), one of the benefits of tracing for a party especially a melee party is that it allows the tracer to equip his team with superb equipment with a much higher weapons rating than normal which could stack out quite well especially with stuff like two weapon fighting. If you want to make it better I would give a bonus to armor with higher levels of tracing or perhaps let people trace as a free action. 

[AstralBlade]

Ah. When compared to other powers your point is well taken Tedroni.  Maybe we can also add something to the power about firing off his IoPs /Broken Noble Phantasms? Something like add the refresh value of the IoP to its weapon value.   I.E, my. Character traces the IoP Excalibur which has a refresh 4 and a weapon value of 3, character turns excalibur into a broken IoP adding he refresh and weapon value which now gives it a weapon rating of 7. The broken Excalibur can only be used for that one attack though. That weapon can no longer be traced for the remainder of the scene or session though. How does that sound?

[Tedronai]

The current form of the power provides no higher weapon ratings than the weapons themselves would have had they been acquire normally.  If it was intended to, then it requires a change in language.


The RAW 'create almost anything you want with the power of your mind'  power is called Greater Glamours.  It is capable of other feats, as well, including the creation of seemingly-living creatures.  It costs only 4 refresh.
Keep that in mind.

[Sanctaphrax]

Tracing does look rather weak in retrospect. It looks like it was balanced against Breath Weapon, which is a good way to write a weak Power.

If I were to rewrite it, I'd probably fold Versatile Tracing into the base Power. I'd also define the limits of Complex Tracing a bit more completely, and I'd add an option to make a bunch of weapons all at once as a full action.

I think that'd be appropriately powerful. Complex Tracing basically gives your entire group weapons that exceed normal weapon rating limits by 2.

I might also add a further interaction between Complex Tracing and IoP Collection. It seems weird that my traced Sword Of The Cross would be weapon 3 when I can trace a mundane mono-filament sword that's weapon 5.

How does that sound?

PS: Broken Phantasms I know little about, but my first impression is that they'd be best represented as part of the conjured Items Of Power.

[Tedronai]

I think that'd be appropriately powerful. Complex Tracing basically gives your entire group weapons that exceed normal weapon rating limits by 2.

A version of this power that actually accomplished this would be a significant improvement, but, as I said earlier, the current power does not in fact read this way.
The way it currently reads is that is is incapable of creating weapons that breach the power's cap, not that weapons created can be made to have a higher weapon rating that they otherwise would.

[Sanctaphrax]

Okay, okay, I'll reword it.

But for what it's worth, I suspect you to be the only person who'd read it that way.

[GryMor]

Okay, okay, I'll reword it.

But for what it's worth, I suspect you to be the only person who'd read it that way.

That is how I read it. Spending multiple refresh to be able to conjure WR 2 one handed weapons seems rather silly when you can just have a WR 2, one handed melee weapon by the chart, but I'm pretty sure that is what tracing said it was doing.

[Sanctaphrax]

If I read your post correctly, you had it right. You spend Refresh for the ability to create things out of nowhere in place of buying them with a Resources roll.

Tedronai was saying that even with the upgrade that lets you go beyond what's normally possible with mundane items, the power says that you can't go beyond what's possible with mundane items.

[Tedronai]

The power is not written so as to allow you to create items that are more effective than they would be had you acquired them normally.  It is written so as to restrict what you are able to create based on the item's weapon value.  The items that you create do exactly as they would had you acquired them in some other fashion.

Do you see the distiction?