Character idea: faerie exchange student

[Belial666]

A changeling that recently embraced - or is very close to embracing - her sidhe nature but still does not aknowledge it; she prefers a life closer to her human contacts. Besides, the abandon of campus life is not that far from summer court. She works either as an NPC or as a character that started as changeling but has advanced since then. She occasionally takes part in athletic contests (toning down her skill, of course) using the prize money to support her lifestyle, and has taken up human martial arts as a hobby.

SKILLS

+6 Athletics, Lore
+5 Discipline, Craftmanship
+4 Endurance, Presence, Awareness
+3 Scholarship, Rapport, Fists
+2 Conviction, Might, Performance
+1 Driving, Empathy, Guns

POWERS AND STUNTS

[-4] Supernatural Speed
[-1] Supernatural Toughness - Catch is Faerie Weaknesses
[-2] Item of Power: Bonds of Summer
      Bracers in the form of an elaborate pattern of vines that make the wearer's connection with Faerie stronger.
      Gives Inhuman Strength and raises speed to Mythic.
      Draws the attention of Summer forces more often than not.
[-2] Ritual: Summer Magic
[-2] Wardings: +2 to defense rolls vs magical attacks.
[-1] Watching the Watchers: you know when someone is watching you and you may make a perception roll vs stealth to locate him. This is a supernatural sense (using Lore)
[-1] Altered Time Sense: You have adapted to the demands and reactions of extreme speeds. Your conscious thought is now as fast as your reflexes, allowing you to focus on defending for several subjective seconds against attacks that appear lightning-fast. Use Athletics to defend against physical or mental attacks or maneuers.


[-1] Acrobatic Attack: You may use momentum and great speed to land your blows past opponents' defenses before they can react. If you use a supplemental action to move at least one zone as past of an unarmed attack, you may use your athletics instead of your fists for the brawling trapping.
[-1] Find the Gap: you can find the chink in most armor. Against your unarmed attacks, armor is treated as 2 lower.
[-1] Lethal Blows
[-1] Artisan: +1 craftmanship for all arts, +2 for fine gem and metalworking.

[Deadmanwalking]

Wardings seem odd. For a single point of Refresh more she could have Physical Immunity to magic.

Beyond that...well, her offense sucks, and I certainly wouldn't allow anyone with only Fair Fists to get Lethal Weapon (it's just wrong thematically).

[CMEast]

I am a big fan of Mythic Speed plus high Athletics, very interesting character. What is the characters refresh though, as you've got a LOT of powers there.

On lethal blow, I can imagine a powerful creature that deals lots of damage when it hits, but it's not the best at hitting. I can also imagine an amazingly fast creature that doesn't do much damage, but attacks so fast that they get extra attacks in. This character has an 'acrobatic attack' so if you imagine something like Capoeira at mythic speed... yeah lethal blow is conceivable, even if it wouldn't be as lethal without the speed behind it.

The only one I have an issue with is Slippery Mind. It's within the rules but I can't see how you could use a physical skill as a defense against a mental attack. How is it explained narratively?

[Belial666]

Wardings seem odd. For a single point of Refresh more she could have Physical Immunity to magic.

It reflects the "warding gestures" being done by Sidhe during Summer Knight. It isn't physical immunity, but it works vs mental attacks, too.

her offense sucks

Her effective athletics is Legendary+1. And she gets: [-1] Acrobatic Attack: use Athletics instead of Fists for unarmed attacks. Then her hands are weapon 2 from inhuman strength, treats armor as 2 pts lower and vs anything but the heaviest armor she gets full benefit from Lethal Blows. So you're looking at effectively weapon 6 at +9 attack. Not very high at that level but definitely not bad either.

how you could use a physical skill as a defense against a mental attack. How is it explained narratively?

To act faster, one has to think faster. Consider that she can move 12 zones in a couple of seconds with Athletics, taking no stealth penalties and avoiding most obstacles. How many reactions are that? How faster is her perception of time? Apply that mentally; her concentration isn't any better than anyone else but she uses her much improved perception of time to effectively concentrate for far longer against each mental intrusion.

[evilnerf]

I'm sorry no, I'm just not buying the Althletics as a Mental Defense.  Too big of a stretch and puts way too much emphasis on a single skill.   

[Deadmanwalking]

Ah, I actually missed Acrobatic Attack. The Wardings seem balanced enough, if you like. Though looking at the Stunts, I do have a distinct problem.

I'd never allow either Acrobatic Attack or Slippery Mind as-is. Both are deeply odd thematically and too wide for a Stunt mechanically as they are. Look at the limitations Guns needs to be under to grant a Dodge trapping. Footwork or Weapons can get the whole thing because they already have it partially, but adding Attack or Dodge trappings is clearly limited. Look at Armed Arts, or Hand-Eye Coordination, or the aformentioned Guns granting a Dodge skill examples. Those set the parameters quite narrowly. And since unarmed attacks are very hard to limit, I'm not sure if a Stunt allowing them with another skill is even reasonable, now that I think on it.

Adding a social defense trapping is, but it would need to be under specific, somewhat limited conditions and I don't know what those would be in this case.

[Belial666]

I wanted to do this as 3 stunts instead of as a power and a more limited stunt. Balance-wise, the stunts work even better. But if you insist, replace them with this;


Altered Time Sense (minor ability) [-1]
You have adapted to the demands and reactions of extreme speeds. Your conscious thought is now as fast as your reflexes, allowing you to focus on defending for several subjective seconds against attacks that appear lightning-fast. Use Athletics to defend against physical or mental attacks or maneuers.

It is based on this:

A Few Seconds Ahead (Minor Ability) [–1]
Abby can use her Lore skill to get a reasonably accurate picture of events 1-2 seconds ahead of now (limited to what she will personally experience in those moment s). She may roll her Lore skill to defend against physical or social attacks or maneuvers.

And this modified, limited stunt for using Athletics instead of Fists, only for brawling;
Acrobatic Attack (stunt) [-1]
You may use momentum and great speed to land your blows past opponents' defenses before they can react. If you use a supplemental action to move at least one zone as past of an unarmed attack, you may use your athletics instead of your fists for the brawling trapping.

[Deadmanwalking]

Yeah, those work mechanically (and quite inventively for the Acrobatic Attack, bravo). The first is even debatably too weak, since it only adds a single Dodge trapping instead of two, but they both work mechanically. I'm pretty much with others in the Athletics-As-Mental-Defense not working thematically, though.

And I'm not trying to be difficult, just, y'know, going with the rules as written.

[Belial666]

A Few Seconds Ahead adds a completely supernatural trapping to your Lore skill, which normally is knowledge/awareness of the supernatural. You can't use that to dodge gunfire. But with this power, you have the ability to look into the future using Lore as supernatural awareness. And by knowing just how to position yourself, you do dodge gunfire.


Similarly, Altered Time Sense is a supernatural trapping to Athletics, speeding up conscious thought to be as fast as your reflexes. The faster your reflexes, the more subjective time you have to think. It takes one second for that White Court vampire to wham you with lust? To your sped-up reflexes, it seems as if it takes him ten. By the time he hits you, you've set up a perfect mental defense.

[CMEast]

I like it Belial, it's very thematic and it looks balanced to me. Of course, it's a very powerful character but it's within the rules and the concept isn't broken.

I particularly like the new version of Acrobatic Attack, not only is it more evocative but it also makes sense, in a small one zone conflict you just won't have the space to take full advantage of your speed. Very nice.

Altered Time Sense makes more sense than slippery mind as it's a supernatural power but while the flavour makes sense and the name of the power matches, I don't think the name sounds defensive enough. I keep playing with ideas like 'quick thinking', 'lightning reactions', or 'think fast!', as they sound a little more defensive but... well, it's not important really

[Deadmanwalking]

Personally, I don't think that mental defenses usually work like that. They debatably do if you're using a magical one (ala Harry vs. Corpsetaker), but by default they're just about raw stubbornness and ability to resist temptation...neither of which how fast you think particularly helps with.

I don't have issues with the power on a mechanical level per se, the setting logic of it just doesn't work for me, though others may obviously diagree.