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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: vultur on December 14, 2011, 01:58:58 AM
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High Concept: Eldest Gruff
Other Aspects: Sense of Honor; Mageslayer; Enjoys A Good Chat
Skills
Legendary: Discipline
Epic: Conviction
Fantastic: Alertness, Lore
Superb: Contacts, Intimidation
Great: Endurance, Presence
Good: Empathy, Weapons
Fair: Burglary, Rapport
Average: Athletics, Might, Stealth
Powers
Claws [-1]
Echoes of the Beast (Goat) [-1]
Evocation [-3]
Glamours [-2]
Refinement [-16]
Seelie Magic [-2]
Supernatural Toughness [-4]
Supernatural Recovery [-4]
The Catch [+3]: cold iron and trappings of Winter
Thaumaturgy [-3]
Specializations
Evocation: Elements (Earth, Fire, Spirit); Control: Seelie Magic +5, Earth +3, Fire +1; Power: Seelie Magic +6, Earth +4, Fire +2.
Thaumaturgy: Complexity Divination +1, Transportation & Worldwalking +2. Control Divination +1.
Focus Items
Oak Staff: +3 Offensive Power and Control with Seelie Magic
Shield Ring: +1 Defensive Power and Control with Seelie Magic
Enchanted Items
Enchanted Robe: Armor:5 or 10-shift block, three uses/session
Rotes
'Summer Lightning': Requires Oak Staff, 16-shift attack. Weapon:16 blast of green-gold light.
Immobilize: Requires Oak Staff, 16-shift block against movement for one target manifesting as a paralyzing bolt or wash of power; generally applied with a block strength of 10-12 and 4-6 shifts in persistence.
Shield: Requires Shield Ring, 14-shift defensive block formed of golden light, generally applied with a block strength of 12 and 2 shifts in persistence.
Total Refresh Cost: -33
Notes: The Eldest Gruff prefers to begin combat with a single overwhelming blast of power, to make the most of his offensive strength.
In a pure evocation duel he'd be more than a match for any wizard alive, even Ebenezer or the Merlin, but his thaumaturgy's very limited - he's a duelist and fighter first and foremost.
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Athletics is too low. Relying on magical blocks will only take him so far.
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Yeah, they suggest a much higher level of purely physical challenge than it looks like you have there.
Also might want to look at Refinement and True Seeming.
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Yeah, they suggest a much higher level of purely physical challenge than it looks like you have there.
I know the DFRPG book does, but I'm not sure if that really makes sense for him.
As for defense: provided he uses his Seelie Magic, he can put up a Legendary block with six shifts of persistence... and he has his enchanted item for when he's caught without one up. Even if he had Great or Superb Athletics, I really *don't* see him using non-magical defenses much.
Also might want to look at Refinement and True Seeming.
He has 16 refresh points of Refinement, so not sure what you mean.
As for Greater Glamours, I wouldn't see any reason to give it to him besides 'a lot of high-powered fae have it'.
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Lily
High Concept: The Summer Lady
Other Aspects: Gentle and Sweet; Former Model; Manipulative
Skills:
Superb: Discipline, Contacts, Resources
Great: Lore, Conviction, Deceit
Good: Athletics, Performance, Presence, Rapport
Fair: Alertness, Empathy, Endurance, Intimidation
Other skills default to Average.
Stunts
Takes One to Know One (Deceit)
Sex Appeal (Rapport)
Powers:
Aura of Influence [-0]
Greater Glamours [4]
Marked by Power [1]
Seelie Magic [-4]
Sponsored Magic: Place of Power - Heart of the Summer Court? [-3]
Supernatural Speed [4]
Supernatural Recovery [-4]
Supernatural Toughness [4]
The Catch [+3] (for both) is cold iron and the like, as well as trappings of Winter.
Focus Items
Summer Ring: +1 to Offensive and Defensive Power with Seelie Magic (Evocation)
Stress:
Mental oooo +1 mild consequence
Physical ooo(oooo), Armor:2
Social oooo
Total Refresh Cost: -24
Notes: In these stats, Lily is about as weak as a Faerie Lady can conceivably be; she's still got a lot of 'growing into' the position to do. Her skills are still developing (her cap is only Superb), and she has only the bare, basic magic of the mantle - she hasn't developed her spellcraft at all (thus she has only Seelie Magic), and she doesn't yet have any abilities above Supernatural.
Later in the series, she gains Thaumaturgy [-3] and possibly one point of Refinement, reducing the cost of her Seelie Magic to -3 and her Place of Power Sponsored Magic to -2; this makes her total Refresh cost -25, or -26 with Refinement. Her thaumaturgical specializations are in Biomancy.
Her Place of Power Sponsored Magic applies to whatever Summer's equivalent of Arctis Tor is (the Hearth of the World?) and possibly to the Stone Table as well. It grants her +1 Control for evocation or thaumaturgy affecting Summer fae or the land of Summer Faerie (and structures on it).
As she is the Summer Lady, sponsor debt incurred from her Seelie Magic generally manifests as compels of her own high concept.
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Maeve
High Concept: The Winter Lady
Other Aspects: Cruel and Vindictive; Party Girl; My Whim Is Your Command; More Power Than Smarts
Skills
Fantastic: Contacts, Lore
Superb: Conviction, Resources, Weapons
Great: Deceit, Discipline, Intimidation
Good: Alertness, Athletics, Might
Fair: Empathy, Endurance, Presence, Rapport
Other skills default to Average.
Powers
Aura of Influence [-0]
Evocation [-3]
Greater Glamours [4]
Marked By Power [-1]
Mythic Recovery [-6]
Refinement [-6]
Sponsored Magic: Place of Power (Arctis Tor) [-1]
Supernatural Senses (Strange Senses) [1]: Can feel and smell the presence of Summer-related people or objects.
Supernatural Speed [4]
Supernatural Toughness [4]
The Catch [+3] is cold iron and the like, as well as trappings of Summer.
Thaumaturgy [-3]
Unseelie Magic [2]
Specializations: Evocation Elements (Air, Spirit, Water); Control: Unseelie Magic +2, Spirit +1; Power: Unseelie Magic +1.
Thaumaturgy Complexity: Entropomancy +4, Transportation & Worldwalking +1; Control: Transformation & Disruption +2, Entropomancy +3.
Focus Items
Frost Necklace: +1 to Defensive Control and Power with Unseelie Magic (Evocation)
Curse Ring: +2 to Complexity with Entropomancy
Stress
Mental oooo +1 mild consequence
Physical ooo (oooo)
Social ooo
Total Refresh Cost: -32
Notes
Maeve's Place of Power Sponsored Magic grants her +1 Control for evocation or thaumaturgy affecting Winter fae or the land of Winter Faerie (and structures on it).
Maeve is a 'mature' Faerie Lady. Her power is crippled, however, by her comparatively low Discipline and focus on personal-scale, instantaneous power: she's far from Aurora's match as a thaumaturge. Even so, though, she can cast 12-shift no-prep entropy curses 'at the drop of a hat'. In combat, Maeve uses Weapons primarily, though she might use an evocation defense to stop an especially powerful attack.
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Why no Strength powers?
Also, I think you made the skills too high. The Ladies never struck me as supremely capable in mortal terms. I think that they're the sort of being that stacks 30+ refresh onto a barely-above-Submerged skill pyramid.
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Why no Strength powers?
Why should they have them?
Harry physically held down Aurora in SK; sure, she was being cut up with cold iron, but that doesn't get rid of Strength powers. If he had been holding down even a dying Blampire or Rampire, I think he would have gotten banged around some.
Also, I think you made the skills too high. The Ladies never struck me as supremely capable in mortal terms. I think that they're the sort of being that stacks 30+ refresh onto a barely-above-Submerged skill pyramid.
Possible, but then they'd really not be very powerful opponents for high-end characters. Maybe they don't need to be, though...
Also, it's only their magical skills and Contacts that I have above Superb. They really should be magically powerful, IMO -- given what's said about the Archive maybe being only a little above them, and Harry saying in PG that a fair fight (unlike the Aurora thing) would be like a little fish trying to go up against a shark. And it strikes me they ought to have pretty awesome Contacts, too.
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The archive was being dramatically underestimated there. I sincerely doubt Ivy would have needed an assist from Jenny green teeth and a needle to handle Slate.
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I see no particular reason for them to have any physical powers beyond them being really powerful supernaturals. I figure that Strength is just as reasonable as Speed.
I agree that the Ladies ought to be really powerful magically, but I'd rather not represent that with Fantastic+ magical skills. Use more Refinement, I say. Otherwise they end up with too much knowledge and mental toughness.
As for Contacts, I'd probably give them Superb Contacts with a few stunts. But that's just personal taste, I see where you're coming from on that one.
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Hate to be blunt here but, thats just my nature.
They shouldn't have strength. I liken the ladies to elves, elves are not famous for super strength...speed on the other hand...
I also think supernatural recovery and toughness might be too high.
Strength (as in the power) sort of makes having heavy hitter bodyguards useless to some extent.
It also sort of fail to make a ogrte scary if little Lily can also break down walls without magic. Ladies shouldn't be able to "hulk out".
Why does Maeve have evocation and thaumaturgy? (does her book write up? I can;'t recall.)
Why does Lily not have Supernatural senses?
Do they really need incite emotion.
I agree the skills are way too high. Maeve has acted sort of scared of Harry.
I also feel the athletics skill seems quite low on all of these Fae. Once they don't have spells to fall back on...they will get pwned like n00bs><
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Basically, we have very little canon idea of the power of the Faerie Ladies. About all we know is:
-Harry and a bunch of pixies were able to kill Aurora with cold iron; Harry was able to physically hold Aurora down during the process.
-Harry considered Lily and Maeve to be well out of his league in anything like a fair fight (as of PG, at which point he has Hellfire, but not Soulfire or ...)
-The Wardens' files list the Archive as on par with the Faerie Ladies; after seeing Ivy in combat, Harry considers this underrating her.
-Lea is second only to Mab in Winter, thus presumably stronger than Maeve.
But "somewhere between Harry on the one hand and Lea or Ivy on the other" is a pretty big range. These Lady stats are about where I personally see them falling (about equal in some theoretical sense of 'power' - and thus in game terms in Refresh cost - to the strongest mortal wizards, but weaker in most if not all direct applications of that power), but I'm not necessarily claiming this represents a 'canonical' power level. Also, these are based off the Our World writeups but more powerful, not totally-from-scratch creations.
I also think supernatural recovery and toughness might be too high.
OK ... why? (Honest question, not complaint.)
Cold iron bypasses, so Aurora still dies fast even if she had Mythic in both (which IMO she might well have had if she had been Lady for thousands of years or whatever). IMO high powered fae are supposed to be *really tough* short of cold iron (or opposite-court magic/trappings).
Strength (as in the power) sort of makes having heavy hitter bodyguards useless to some extent.
I agree. Also, holding down even a dying being with Supernatural Strength would probably be pretty nasty for Harry. I don't get the feeling Aurora had any more physical strength than a human of her size.
Why does Lily not have Supernatural senses?
Maeve only has it because her OW writeup does; Lily's doesn't. I tried to add powers to/raise skills from the OW writeups (given what they say about being a minimal version) rather than totally rebuilding the characters from scratch; this is one case where I followed OW; it made sense to me - given that Maeve's held her position waaaay longer, her senses would plausibly be more refined.
Do they really need incite emotion.
Probably not!
I felt they ought to have some way to inspire/cause feelings associated with their courts; but rethinking it what they really need is some sort of 'aura of influence' power that places relevant scene aspects that can reflect that as well as stuff like plants sprouting from the woodwork when Lily walks into MacAnally's (in PG).
I'm not sure how that should be balanced/what it should cost; it doesn't strike me as something they actively do, a maneuver, as much as something that just *happens* (though they can likely restrain it).
(Shagnasty from TC would have something like this too, now that I think of it, since he creates fear & distorts ley lines just by being around.)
something like...
Aura of Influence [-0]
As a highly potent supernatural being, your very presence affects the area around you, altering it in subtle or overt ways that correspond with your nature.
Description:
Musts: You must have a High Concept which reflects being some sort of supernatural major player or heavyweight, such as The Summer Lady, Angel from On High, God of War.
Skills Affected: None
Effects: Powerful Presence - Simply by being present in a scene, you apply a sticky scene aspect which must somehow relate to the associations of your High Concept (for example, the Summer Lady might apply Heat of Passion or Rampant Plant Growth; an angel might apply Holy Light or Feeling of Divine Nearness). You may attempt to suppress this ability when you enter a new scene by making a Discipline roll (default difficulty Superb, though areas directly hostile to or unusually resonant with your High Concept may affect this), in which case no aspect is applied.
I agree the skills are way too high. Maeve has acted sort of scared of Harry.
OK, I will reconsider the skills.
I don't think that particular example applies though (assuming you're thinking of PG... I don't remember it in SK, and that's the only two books they interacted) ... Harry has a long history of killing, defeating, or successfully defying beings well above his notional 'power level' - and Harry had just reminded her that he killed Aurora. Harry was bluffing Maeve, and got away with it. (Plus, Harry's Intimidation is Great; Maeve, both in OW and my version, has only Fair Empathy).
I also feel the athletics skill seems quite low on all of these Fae. Once they don't have spells to fall back on...they will get pwned like n00bs><
This strikes me as a bit conflicting with the other comment on skills :)
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Despite wonky formatting, I agree with the most recent post about almost everything.
I'd make Aura Of Influence free. As long as you can't tag the aspect, I don't think it'd be unbalanced. Might need to remove or make difficult the suppressability though.
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I agree with Sanctaphrax about the pricing of Aura. The cost is that your High Concept has to be powerful and you can't turn it off. Also people could plausibly invoke it against you, though they'd have to be creative to do so. In Shagnasty's case, I'd say his aspect of "Epic Wrongness" was compelled while he was on Demonreach, as the genius loci really disliked his presence and (I think) was implied to be muffling his power somewhat.
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I think at least Maeve would actually have inhuman strength. Remember, she was in the fight in the thunderdome with Harry and the Alphas. She was decked out in armor and riding a warhorse leading a bunch of knights in battle.
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OK, I lowered both Ladies' skill caps by one; they have broader flatter skill pyramids now.
Lily may need full Thaumaturgy and a Refinement or two, still undecided.
I think at least Maeve would actually have inhuman strength. Remember, she was in the fight in the thunderdome with Harry and the Alphas. She was decked out in armor and riding a warhorse leading a bunch of knights in battle.
Superb Weapons, Supernatural Speed and Toughness, and 7-shift defensive evocations make her quite competent in combat without it. I don't remember her demonstrating superhuman physical strength specifically...
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Aurora
High Concept: The Summer Lady
Trouble: Unstable
Other Aspects: Artists Heart; Sidhe Grace; Whether You Want It Or Not; Schemes and Machinations; Rest and Forget Your Pain
Skills
Fantastic: Contacts, Conviction, Lore
Superb: Discipline, Rapport, Resources
Great: Alertness, Empathy, Presence
Good: Athletics, Deceit, Performance
Fair: Craftsmanship, Investigation, Stealth
Other skills default to Average.
Powers
Aura of Influence [-0]
Greater Glamours [4]
Marked By Power [-1]
Refinement [-10]
Seelie Magic [-3]
Sponsored Magic: Place of Power (Hearth of Summer?) [-2]*
Supernatural Senses (Strange Senses) [1]: Can feel and smell the presence of Winter-related people or objects.
Supernatural Recovery [-4]
Supernatural Speed [4]
Supernatural Toughness [4]
The Catch [+3] is cold iron and the like, as well as trappings of Winter.
Thaumaturgy [-3]
Specializations: Thaumaturgy Complexity: Biomancy +6, Transportation & Disruption +3, Transportation & Worldwalking +2; Control: Biomancy +4, Divination +1, Transportation & Disruption +5.
Focus Items
Fire Ring: +1 to Offensive Control with Seelie Magic (Evocation)
Leaf Ring: +2 to Complexity with Biomancy
Pendant: +1 to Control with Transformation/Disruption
Stress
Mental oooo +1 mild consequence
Physical ooo (oooo)
Social oooo
Total Refresh Cost: -33
*Operates only within Summer's 'center of power'; grants Aurora +1 Control for evocation or thaumaturgy affecting Summer fae or the land of Summer Faerie (and structures on it).
Notes: Now THIS is what happens when a Faerie Lady goes fully in the thaumaturgical direction... 14 shifts no-prep biomancy and effective Discipline of 9 to control it, plus biomancy with evocation's speed and methods; effective Discipline of 11 to control transformation/disruption.
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Is there a reason for the aberrant costing on Sponsored Magic: Place of Power?
For that matter, is there a write-up of the benefits it provides?
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Is there a reason for the aberrant costing on Sponsored Magic: Place of Power?
Because, apparently, I can't keep the costing straight. It ought to be -1 for Maeve, but -2 for Aurora and -3 for Lily...
For that matter, is there a write-up of the benefits it provides?
Added to writeups.
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Because, apparently, I can't keep the costing straight. It ought to be -1 for Maeve, but -2 for Aurora and -3 for Lily...
...Are you giving a discount for already having another version of Sponsored Magic? Or are you placing it's base cost at only -3?
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...Are you giving a discount for already having another version of Sponsored Magic? Or are you placing it's base cost at only -3?
The latter. Your Story says that Place of Power sponsored magic that can only be used in the Place of Power is -3 base cost.
In the particular case, though, even that does seem high for Lily at -3, because there's so much overlap with her Seelie Magic... I'm not sure that representing it as a separate Sponsored Magic is really right, but I do think the Ladies should have some sort of 'rulership power' tied in with Arctis Tor, Stone Table etc.