Request A Character

[regitnui]

There's been a few attempts.  You'd have to searh for It though. 

Alright. It seems like an interesting fit for Dresden Files; a spellcaster who communes with elementals, even if the faeries are completely different in that series.

[Taran]

Alright. It seems like an interesting fit for Dresden Files; a spellcaster who communes with elementals, even if the faeries are completely different in that series.

found them
http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,45896.msg2178048.html#msg2178048

this link has all the links.

[Sanctaphrax]

I don't remember anyone but Luke fighting him.  Usually people just run from Vader.  Vader captures Solo and the group in the Sky City and, even though Solo fights back, Vader disarms him pretty easily.

I'm pretty sure his ship goes down in the Death Star fight. That might've been Luke again, though.

He's definitely a cut above the PCs. But only a cut. He's beatable.

Telekinesis seems to fit but I'd give it all the upgrades.  He can choke and all that and rip heavy objects off of walls.

With Superb Conviction-as-Might, he can do that sort of thing. And upgrading Telekinesis fully would let him fly, which he can't.

His suit is supposed to give him boosted strength and endurance.  In the first movie, he lifts a guy off the floor with one hand and crushes his throat.  I'd probably give him Inhuman Strength and Toughness.  Not sure about recovery, though...doesn't seem to fit.  The strength would boost the damage on his Telekinesis and let him lift heavier objects with his mind.

I considered giving him Strength and Toughness, actually. Left them off because, when in doubt, I prefer to stat lower.

I'd give him supernatural senses: sense the force; sense Force users; identify force users.   He can 'feel' when Luke is on a ship 100's of km's away - or even on the same planet.

He could maybe do that with Guide My Hand, but...eh. You're right, Supernatural Sense would fit.

He also deflected bolts with his hands...so I'm not sure if that power should be part of his light saber.  Maybe just the defensive upgrade of telekinesis.

I could move True Aim to the lightsaber and give him bolt-deflection as a stunt. The defensive upgrade of telekinesis uses Discipline, and his isn't great.

Marked BY Power (Empire?)

Yeah. Not really necessary, but it felt appropriate. Should probably have gone with Supernatural Sense instead.

I'm kinda curious if anyone has done a politician, something like a generic president of the US, or an evil mayor in the style of Richard Wilkins III from Buffy.

Not that I know of. I'll take a shot tomorrow.

Cool! I like what you've done with Phreddie and John. I never would've thought of making John a Superlawyer. He might even be worth a player instead of just an NPC with those stunts. Thanks!

Thanks and you're welcome.

[Mr. Death]

I'm pretty sure his ship goes down in the Death Star fight. That might've been Luke again, though.

He's definitely a cut above the PCs. But only a cut. He's beatable.

It's actually funny if you watch closely -- Han doesn't even hit Vader. He hits the TIE beside Vader, and the other wingman just panics and crashes into Vader's TIE.

At least, in the original. I think one of the special edition edits was to add a blaster bolt hitting the second wingman.

That said, yeah, he's powerful, but still beatable. I'd put him a step or two above most PCs.

[Sanctaphrax]

(click to show/hide)

Generic Politician (Chest Deep)

These stats should be suitable for a cabinet minister from a major country or a mayor for a massive city. Most of the Aspects are half-blank, because they really should vary from politician to politician.

There's room for more stunts. Many politicians will have a decent set of social stunts.

High Concept: Job Title
Other Aspects: It's Harder Than It Looks, Agenda Aspect, Level Of Honesty Aspect
Skills:
Superb: Contacts, Presence
Great: Deceit, Rapport
Good: Conviction, Intimidation
Fair: Resources, Discipline
Average: Scholarship, Empathy
Stunts:
Political Influence (Contacts): Add a "determine policy" trapping to Contacts, which is used to make the government do stuff.
Government Money (Contacts): May use Contacts instead of Resources by using the government's money. Costs a point of sponsor debt in situations where this is improper/illegal.
My Base (Contacts): +2 Contacts among some group. Maybe the rich, maybe the civil service, maybe the Liberal Party, maybe the local evangelical community.
Actually Pretty Competent (Contacts): Use Contacts for tasks of general political knowledge and skill, like knowing exactly what laws exist/can be passed and understanding what the civil service says.
Campaigner (Presence): Use Presence to make speeches, look good on stage, appear in annoying advertisements, etc.
Total Refresh Cost:
-3 (Pure Mortal)
Refresh Total:
5

[PirateJack]

I wouldn't mind seeing Gaius Sextus and Araris Valarian done. I have a liking for metalcrafters when it comes to Alera.

[Sanctaphrax]

It's been a long time since I read those books. Jog my memory.

[PirateJack]

Gaius Sextus is the eighty year old First Lord of Alera during the first five books. If there's an element he isn't a master of, nobody mentions it. He's also one of the two furycrafters to be able to manifest metal furies, which take the form of living armour that covers him from head to foot. He's also an astute politician, cunning and manipulative as Johnny Marcone, and married to Gaius Caria (daughter of High Lord Atticus Quentin) who has been poisoning for the best part of six years.

Araris Valarian is the best swordsman in Alera. He's also the second metalcrafter able to manifest a metal fury. He was a Singulare of Gaius Septimus, brother of Sir Miles Valarian (whom he pushed in front of a cart to stop him from fighting Aldrick ex Gladius) and (late in the series) husband of Isana. After Septimus died he branded himself with a slave's mark so he could protect Isana and Tavi without anyone recognising him, taking on the name Fade when he did so.

[Sanctaphrax]

(click to show/hide)

Gaius Sextus (Deep One)

Most furycrafting stuff can be handled with Evocation, Thaumaturgy, physical building blocks, and Supernatural Senses. So that's what I used here. The Senses use Lore.

Sponsored Magic (Furies) lets you use Evocation specializations for Thaumaturgy. Power counts as complexity. It doesn't allow foci, but it does let you trade in free focus item slots for evocation elements or specializations.

Dunno how balanced it is, but it doesn't matter much. Especially since this guy's splitting his specializations in a dreadfully suboptimal way anyway.

High Concept: First Lord Of Alera
Trouble Aspect: I don't remember nearly enough about this guy to write Aspects for him
Other Aspects:
Skills:
Epic: Discipline, Conviction
Fantastic: Presence, Contacts
Superb: Resources, Lore
Great: Athletics, Deceit
Good: Endurance, Empathy, Rapport
Fair: Alertness, Scholarship, Intimidation, Might
Average: Stealth, Fists, Survival, Investigation
Stunts:
First Lord (Contacts): +2 to Contacts among Aleran officials and lords.
Armies At My Disposal (Contacts): May use Contacts to have minions.
Master Politician (Contacts): May use Contacts as a general "politics" skill.
Master Metalcrafter (Discipline): May use Discipline to wield metallic weapons.
The Weight Of Reputation (Presence): May use Presence for Intimidation against people who know who he is.
Powers:
Marked By Power [-1]
Evocation [-3]
Sponsored Magic (Furies) [-3]
Refinement [-10]
Supernatural Senses (elements, emotions) [-3]
Wings [-1]
Supernatural Speed [-4]
Limitation (must be touching ground) [+2]
  Supernatural Strength [-4]
  Inhuman Toughness [-2]
Limitation (must manifest metal fury first) [+1]
  Supernatural Toughness [-4]
Magic:
Evocation (Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Metal, Wood): +1 air power, +1 air control, +2 earth power, +1 earth control, +2 water power, +1 water control, +2 fire power, +2 fire control
Total Refresh Cost:
-37
Refresh Total:
1

(click to show/hide)

Araris Valerian (Submerged)

Can you use metalcrafting to physically manipulate metal objects?

Hope not. No space left on his character sheet for that.

High Concept: Alera's Greatest Swordsman
Trouble Aspect: Again, I dunno. Something about Isana, Tavi, and Septimus? Something about being a slave?
Other Aspects:
Skills:
Superb: Weapons
Great: Discipline, Deceit, Craftsmanship
Good: Endurance, Conviction, Lore
Fair: Athletics, Might, Alertness
Average: Presence, Fists, Intimidation
Stunts:
Pain Tolerance (Endurance): Consequence tags only give +1 or a three-die reroll against Araris.
Sense Metal (Weapons): +2 to defend against attacks with metal weapons.
Powers:
Supernatural Sense (Metal) [-1]
Limitation (metal weapons only) [+1]
  Supernatural Skill [-4]
Limitation (must manifest metal fury) [+1]
  Supernatural Toughness [-4]
Total Refresh Cost:
-9
Refresh Total:
1

[PirateJack]

You can, but the only characters known to do that have been the First Lord and High Lady Antillus Dorotea. External metalcrafting is incredibly rare, apparently.

[Sanctaphrax]

That's convenient for me.

[AgentSchneider]

Do you do suggestions or critiques for character builds at all? I've got a write-up for a descendent of the Grimm Brothers who is working together as a mercenary with one of my PCs and am looking for some advice.

[Taran]

Do you do suggestions or critiques for character builds at all? I've got a write-up for a descendent of the Grimm Brothers who is working together as a mercenary with one of my PCs and am looking for some advice.

Probably doesn't 'make a difference where you get advice (and might not be worth reviving an old thread)but we had an optimization thread here where people/Sanctaphrax did exactly that.

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,45405.0.html

[Sanctaphrax]

Here, there, or anywhere, I'd be happy to tell you what I think of your character.

[AgentSchneider]

Probably doesn't 'make a difference where you get advice (and might not be worth reviving an old thread)but we had an optimization thread here where people/Sanctaphrax did exactly that.

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,45405.0.html

I had looked through it before and it helped, but after seeing some of the creative uses of skills and stunts in this thread I thought some good ideas could come from posting it here. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Here's the character write-up. He's a descendant of the Grimm brothers who works as a Supernatural Mercenary. He works together with one of my PCs who is a Supernatural Martial Artist. Jacob is kind of like a combination of the Winchester Brothers as well as something of a social butterfly, whereas the PC is a bruiser with no social skills who stumbles into situations Jacob has to bail him out of. The build is a Pure Mortal with 34 skill points and 10 Refresh (I'm trying to keep him at the power level of the PCs):

(click to show/hide)

Jacob Grimm
Character Aspects:
High Concept
Supernatural Mercenary for Hire
Trouble
My Family and Monsters Go Way Back
Other Aspects
Yes, THAT Grimm
Knowledge is Power, But a Gun/Knife/Blessed Shinto Spear Works Too
“Let’s Make a Deal”
Don’t Mess With That Guy Riding Shotgun
Skills:
+5 Deceit
+4 Guns Rapport
+3 Athletics Investigation Lore
+2 Alertness Discipline Empathy Weapons
+1 Endurance Presence Scholarship Stealth

Stunts/Powers:
Pure Mortal (+2)
What’s the Catch? (-1) - +1 to Lore for arcane research, get an extra +1 when researching supernatural weaknesses
Deceptive Persona (-1) – substitute Deceit for Presence when determining the length of your social track
I’ve Got Just the Thing (-1) – spend a FP for a clip to satisfy something’s catch for one scene (within reason)
Poker Read (-1) – can use Deceit instead of Empathy to detect lies
Got Em Where I Want Em (-1) – get a +2 to combat-related maneuvers involved with positioning a target or setting them up at a disadvantage for another friendly character
I Think We Can Come to an Agreement (-1) - +2 to Rapport when negotiating with somebody, whether that’s negotiating a deal or trying to kindly coerce information
Chat Up The Crowd (-1): The difference between small talk and an information-gathering campaign is nothing more than scale. You may use your Rapport skill for the Gathering Information trapping of the Contacts skill.

Known languages: German and English (native)


Adjusted Refresh: -6/-10