Double post:

If people are still doing requests than I would like to see the mythological version of Cu Chulainn, and more specifically I want to see how the Warp Spasm would impact the character. Use whatever Refresh level you think is necessary.

Warp Spasm is pretty easily done with an Aspect that's used for invokes and compels.

For a little more effect, I would attach a few extra powers to Human Form. Exactly how you want to build it is pretty flexible; I'd give him a Fighting stunt or two, a boost to Strength and maybe Toughness, and call it a day. If you like the Inhuman/Supernatural/Mythic Martial Arts powers (couldn't find the link), you could give him one of those.

Cu Chulainn is the type of character I see as having a lot of FPs to work with, based on the legends. Inhuman Strength in base form and likely not much else. A few stunts, and that's it other than the spear Gáe Bulg (which I'd model with Natural Weaponry) and Warp Spasm.

As for Superior Ectomancy, I'd only charge 1 Refresh for ectomantic evothaum. It's not as powerful as ghost-themed Channelling, after all.

Agreed, and I charged another one for being able to use your foci for evocation and as catch-all Power/Discipline instead of offensive/defensive only. That might be a bit powerful, and maybe you should make them choose offense/defense.

I find It really depends on the GM, though.  Some GM's have a minimum 3 shift threshold for maneuvers/declarations.  I find this, generally, makes having skills under 3 useless - or, at least, almost never worth it.

Not to derail the thread, the "3 is minimum for everything" isn't correct per RAW...The book suggests 3 as a minimum for maneuvers with Evocation...that's it. Everything else should be based on what's appropriate, how difficult the maneuver is based on the Adjective ladder, etc. Often, thanks to what players tend to attempt with maneuvers, this becomes three or higher.

Obviously GMs can run their games the way they want, but given the way skills work in this game and the RAW descriptions of setting difficulties, I personally find that to be a bad way to run things.

Sweet, thanks for the replies.  Did anyone ever come up with an in game use for the iron gloves?

Not in our game. Our Scion doesn't have Mjolnir, as Thor still carries it. He has his own IoP hammer, but it doesn't have the same history as Thor's and therefore doesn't need special gloves. The only reason Thor needed them, as I understand it, is because Mjolnir's handle was forged too short thanks to Loki-in-the-form-of-a-gadfly biting Brokkr in the eye during forging.

If you were interested in the gloves, you could consider them "part" of the hammer, and therefore if you don't have the gloves the hammer can't be used. Alternatively, you could attach the gloves as a Limitation to the hammer if your table/GM is okay with it.

Just the difference in cost, -2.

That sounds like how the Greek government does math.  At the end of the day, you still only have 4 stress boxes... which means three usable stress since filling the last box takes you out.

Filling the last box of your stress track doesn't take you out, either...exceeding it does. I would second Cadd's advice and review the stress rules.

I don't think I would measure death curses in shifts. To me, that's something highly significant, it's a plot device more than anything. So I would treat it as such. Killing a player character with a death curse is boring and I would probably just say that the dying character just can't do that. Well, unless it's a player sacrificing themselves to kill the big bad, but not the other way around. Instead, I would go for something more dramatic.
DIE ALONE!

Agreed, Haru:

Except the power you can throw into a death curse is measured in shifts.

It's far less interesting, to me, to throw a 30-shift attack (or whatever) at players than it is to work with them to come up with what happens to them when they're slammed with a Death Curse. Plus you have to pause play to do the math for the Curse, and then the math to stop it...that's a lot of not playing.

The numbers are there to make some sense of the game, not define it...that's what the narrative is for. If you don't want to do things by the numbers...you don't have to.

I've had...I think 4 different PCs take a Death Curse at one time or another. Only one took a straight blast to the dome in terms of shifts, and it was by far the least interesting and least memorable of all of them. Losing an eye, having an arm burned to a cinder, being cursed to never find satisfaction in life, those are interesting and fun. Other than the one instance of "blasted in the face," I worked with my players to come up with something that made sense given the narrative and their opponent that they thought would be fun, and they took an Extreme Consequence (at least) that was the "effect" of the death curse. And those have resulted in some great character development and RP for it. In Harry's case with DIE ALONE, I wouldn't fill his Extreme Slot for that but I'd have him change an aspect to fit the curse.

Death Curses are a big deal and don't happen every time a practitioner is killed, remember...you have to have a second's time, know you're about to die, and Harry implies you've got to be trained to actually pull one off, as in Wizard-level training. Those enemies don't show up all the time to start with, and when they do, they're often the Megalomaniacal Bad Guy who doesn't believe they could ever lose to some meddling kids, and that darn mutt! So when the time comes for a real Death Curtse, they should be plot devices. Every time one goes off in the books, it's a rather serious event--and a plot device. Even Simon Petrovitch's Death Curse is one....the dead Red Court don't make a practical difference at the PC (Harry) level--but they play a part in spurring on a Compel to throw Harry into another crazy adventure. One of my favorite developments in the entire series was
So my opinion is forget X shifts and just come up with something reasonable that will drive more good story because of it.



Now, to answer the question of how to Block something like that? Well, in practical terms, I'm not sure you really can. A Death Curse isn't something you can do if you're Taken Out--you have to do it, effectively, as a Concession. I guess it's possible to set up a giant block ahead of time in anticipation of the Bad Guy shooting off a Death Curse, but that seems far-fetched and unlikely...if you could do that, why didn't you just shut down his power completely from the get-go and avoid the fight and possibility of a Death Curse?

So if you're the one trying to stop the Death Curse-as-Concession, you have no mechanical way to stop it, practically, in my eyes--but you can bargain with the GM, as always. And that's where, if keeping the guy alive would be a big deal to the story or the PCs, "Cool! Let's figure something out..." And then we come up with a way to allow you to stop or block the Death Curse by invoking your HC and taking a consequence or three in exchange.

Maybe you do a cold-blooded takeout like when and take a Moderate-Severe Mental [Am I A Murderer?] consequence, for example. For the necromantic "stop him from reaching Death" style prevention you specified, maybe your PC starts thinking he's above the Laws of Nature/Magic and starts skirting the edge of Lawbreaking more, and you take a Mental Consequence or change an aspect to represent that. (I don't know the PC well enough to make a specific call, but I think you get my point?)

Whatever exactly happens...it should (a) be a Big Deal when someone uses or tries to use a Death Curse and (b) create some effect that drives/creates more interesting story.