Request A Character

[Sanctaphrax]

How's that?

I had a player who focused heavily on evocation attacks. As a result, their evothaum ended up better than their actual thaumaturgy. It was kinda weird in play, and made an extremely-powerful character even stronger.

A few stunts, and that's it other than the spear Gáe Bulg (which I'd model with Natural Weaponry) and Warp Spasm.

I don't know much about this guy, but why would you use Natural Weaponry to represent a spear? Wouldn't an IoP or an item with an Aspect be more appropriate?

[dragoonbuster]

I don't know much about this guy, but why would you use Natural Weaponry to represent a spear? Wouldn't an IoP or an item with an Aspect be more appropriate?

Yeah--case of poor abbreviation. I'd set it up like this:

Rebate +2
It Is What It Is: Weapon 3 spear -0
Never Far from Reach -1
Selective Area Weaponry -2
True Aim -1

EDIT: Added True Aim and corrected Selective Area Weaponry costs.

[dragoonbuster]

Double post. Edited the IoP above, some. Then I decided to give a shot towards a full char build for the original NPC concept:

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.

Hard to judge Power Level of the great heroes of the Ulster age, but given the legends of him killing hundreds of men on his own, etc...I'm going with Scuba Diving.
 

Scuba Diving (45 skill points, 17 refresh, skill cap fantastic)
You're one of the best in the world at what you do. Faerie Queens, Vampire Kings, and Senior Council members know who you are.

Also, just a note, I prefer the translation of the ríastrad of "Torque" to "Warp Spasm", because based on the description of what happens to him it sounds like his whole body is being twisted. Anyway:

Name: Cú Chulainn
High Concept: Ulster Champion
Trouble: Destined For A Short But Famous Life
Other Aspects: Culann's Hound, Born With the Ríastrad, Trained By Scáthach, Champion of the Cattle Raid of Cooley and Bricriu's Feast


Skills:
+6 Might, Weapons
+5 Endurance, Fists
+4 Presence, Intimidation
+3 Athletics, Rapport
+2 Survival, Conviction, Discipline
+1 Scholarship, Lore, Stealth


Stunts: -2
- Footwork (Weapons)
- Riposte


Powers: -7
-2 Inhuman Strength
-2 Inhuman Toughness
-2 Inhuman Recovery
+3 The Catch: Consuming Dog Meat
+1 Human Form: Ríastrad/Torque/Warp Spasm
-2 Supernatural Toughness (Ríastrad form)
-2 Supernatural Strength (Ríastrad form)
-1 IoP: Gáe Bulg (Trained By Scáthach)
   [-0] It Is What It Is: A magical barbed "belly spear", Weapon: 3
   [-0] Indestructable
   [+2] Rebate
   [+1] Barbed Death: If this weapon is used to take an opponent out, it always kills.
   [-1] True Aim
   [-2] Legendary Weapon: This weapons attacks inflict +4 Weapon Damage
   [-1] Ritual Throw: The Gáe Bulg is intended to be thrown ritually from the space between the big and second toe for maximum effect, and only used as a last resort, as it invariably kills all but the toughest opponents. You must invoke this IoP's Aspect for effect when throwing it. When this weapon strikes, it must be cut out of the target with a supplemental action before it can be used again (if the victim manages to survive the initial throw, 4 shifts or more worth of consequences must be taken/inflicted to remove the weapon). All Ritual Throws with the Gáe Bulg are made at +4 to strike.


Starting Refresh: 17
Refresh Spent: 9
Final Refresh: 8

I had a player who focused heavily on evocation attacks. As a result, their evothaum ended up better than their actual thaumaturgy. It was kinda weird in play, and made an extremely-powerful character even stronger.

That is kinda weird. I'm thinking that I like this approach the most:
- if your evothaum opens up new possibilities for an evocation element you use, then it can make sense to allow evocation Specializations and Foci to apply.
- if your evothaum doesn't really fit into an evocation element you use, then you should use Thaumaturgy specializations and foci....but you pick whether they apply as offensive or defensive foci for the purposes of evocation

When I have OP spellcasters I've found I just have to up my own game as a GM. Perfect? Nah, but oh well. I look at 'em like a challenge now. And if they scene-steal too much, talk to them honestly about the role of the spotlight.

[ghostviking]

I'd handle this the same way, minus the summoning rules.

If you have an ancestor spirit like Sir Stuart, make it an Aspect you can invoke. AS far as multiple ones, I'd say it's possible but unlikely, given the nature of how ghosts are created and stick around in Dresden...of course, a sort of "Spirit Council of Elders" is a really cool concept.  If you have refresh to burn you could make them an Item of Power.

Instead of Summoning Rules, I note that Mort gets tired when he directs ghosts on-the-fly and the prevalence of thaumaturgic-level magic with the speed/method of Evocation. This tells me that you can pretty easily model what he does as Ritual: Ectomancy, and Superior Ectomancy, effectively using "Ectomancy" as an evocation element in combat. Availability of ghosts to do this is handled simply with compels.

Spinning off the idea of a "Spirit Council of Elders," here's how I might build a "21st Century Shaman" ectomancer at Chest-Deep:

Hey, thanks! I hadn't considered a council of elders but that opens up so much stuff for backstory construction, the ancestors in Mulan come to mind, haha. Thanks everybody for the resources and advice!

[Sanctaphrax]

Skills:
+6 Might, Weapons
+5 Endurance, Fists
+4 Presence, Intimidation
+3 Athletics, Rapport
+2 Survival, Conviction, Discipline
+1 Scholarship, Lore, Stealth


Stunts: -2
- Footwork (Weapons)
- Riposte

Isn't he supposed to be really good at jumping? I vaguely remember something about a "salmon leap".

If I were you I'd drop Fists, give him a stunt to attack unarmed with Might, and raise Athletics to Superb. Maybe add in a jumping stunt or Power too. You can probably do without Footwork if you do that.

-1 IoP: Gáe Bulg (Trained By Scáthach)
   [-0] It Is What It Is: A magical barbed "belly spear", Weapon: 3
   [-0] Indestructable
   [+2] Rebate
   [+1] Barbed Death: If this weapon is used to take an opponent out, it always kills.
   [-1] True Aim
   [-2] Legendary Weapon: This weapons attacks inflict +4 Weapon Damage
   [-1] Ritual Throw: The Gáe Bulg is intended to be thrown ritually from the space between the big and second toe for maximum effect, and only used as a last resort, as it invariably kills all but the toughest opponents. You must invoke this IoP's Aspect for effect when throwing it. When this weapon strikes, it must be cut out of the target with a supplemental action before it can be used again (if the victim manages to survive the initial throw, 4 shifts or more worth of consequences must be taken/inflicted to remove the weapon). All Ritual Throws with the Gáe Bulg are made at +4 to strike.

I dunno about this. Stuff like Barbed Death should usually be Compel-based. And while 1 Refresh for +2 stress is fine by me, 2 Refresh for +4 stress seems a bit iffy.

As for Ritual Throw, I'm really not sure how to judge it. But it seems worryingly strong.

[dragoonbuster]

Isn't he supposed to be really good at jumping? I vaguely remember something about a "salmon leap".

If I were you I'd drop Fists, give him a stunt to attack unarmed with Might, and raise Athletics to Superb. Maybe add in a jumping stunt or Power too. You can probably do without Footwork if you do that.

I didn't see any "salmon leap" but I am definitely no expert. Those are all good optimizations.

I dunno about this. Stuff like Barbed Death should usually be Compel-based. And while 1 Refresh for +2 stress is fine by me, 2 Refresh for +4 stress seems a bit iffy.

As for Ritual Throw, I'm really not sure how to judge it. But it seems worryingly strong.

NPCs get to have powers that PCs don't. I'd never give this to a PC. It's definitely overpowered.

[Sanctaphrax]

I just wanted to thank you for writing these up at my request.  I've been busy lately, but I will comment on them in more detail.

Not to nag, but...I'm curious about what you were going to say.

[Trum4n1208]

Howdy. Need a character for a Las Vegas setting, Paranet Papers. We're doing a lower refresh game, feet in the Water: 6 Refresh, 20 Skill Points, Skill Cap at Great. 
 
Name: Dan Hollander
Basically, I'm envisioning either a vanilla mortal, or maybe a minor talent who is kind of like a modern Old-West type of guy, thinner and wiry, wears cowboy boots, a light leather fringed jacket, has a .45 Colt on his hip (Colt M1917, my personal favorite revolver from the 20th century). Has had some experience with the super natural world. Maybe works as an investigator, and not at all a bad guy. If this were traditional D&D, he'd be Chaotic Good.

I can make the guy, but I'm a little press for time, so I figured if you could help me come up with something, and I can tweak it as need be.

Thanks a ton!

[Sanctaphrax]

This thread isn't active at the moment, but as it happens I have some old cowboy stats that you might find useful.

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Cowboy (On The Beach)

High Concept: Cowboy
Other Aspects: Tough Life, Animal Lover
Skills:
Good: Guns, Survival
Fair: Intimidation, Endurance, Athletics
Average: Fists, Might, Alertness
Stunts:
Animal Handler (Survival): +1 to handle animals, +2 to handle cows.
Rider (Survival): +2 to ride.
Lasso (Weapons): May use the Weapons skill and a lasso to make manoeuvres and grapple with a 1 zone range.
Master Of The Lasso (Guns): Use Guns +1 instead of Weapons for using a lasso.
Total Refresh Cost:
-2 (Pure Mortal)
Refresh Total:
2

To raise him to Feet In The Water, add a Great skill and an Average skill. Investigation and Lore might be appropriate, going by your description.

Not sure why the skill changes twice for the lasso stunts, but you can safely ignore that.

[Trum4n1208]

Fair enough, thank you. How does one handle 'signature' weapons, so to speak (Harry's .44, Murph's P90?) For this guy, I envisioned the .45 and a large caliber lever gun if he actually had the time to prepare for a fight. Would that just be an aspect?

[Sanctaphrax]

Yeah, an Aspect is usually a good way to go. A stunt giving +2 stress with your weapon of choice is good too, if you ask me.

[Sanctaphrax]

Bringing this back for another go. Here's the unfulfilled request list.

I have a complex Npc concept that i would love to see your take on.
The character is a genius who wages war against both crime and later "evil" monsters, not with overt force, but with strategy and cunning. some one who could possibly beat Sherlock Holmes at chess. The only power he has are purely mental he would have accelerated perception and edict memory. His religion ,as far as he is concerned, is preparedness and efficiency. He would give Batman a run for his money when it comes to weapons, armor and gadgets.His mental prowess makes him a master of manipulation, he rarely looses debates and has accumulated the wealth required to even economically attack entire factions.Think batman and Sun Tzu with just a hint of Ironman. As such it would be a lovely chance to illustrate your optimization formula, Varying power levels would be most helpful.

If you're still doing this, I'd love a Booker DeWitt from Bioshock Infinite, or Joshua Graham from Fallout New Vegas.

An artificial angel. One of ten created angels created by increasing the amount of one of the 10 Sephirot in the souls of infant children. This particular one has an abundance of Keter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life_(Kabbalah)

since you did Rorschach, could you do Ozymandias cause he was my favorite out of the watchmen.

If theres a Watchman theme going, Id be really curious to see a swipe at Mr Manhattan, mostly just to see how you'd scale his powers.

Most of these I can do. But I know nothing about Booker DeWitt and Joshua Graham. Can someone fill me in?

New requests are also welcome, though I can't promise I'll accept them.

[Sanctaphrax]

Fake angel, Dr. Manhattan, and Ozymandias here.

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Keter-Angel (Hydrophobe)

I don't know much theology, but the idea of loading infants up with the Sephirot to create artificial angels seems incredibly blasphemous to me. So I decided to make this thing a wretched monster, dangerous to everything around it and wanting death as much as it's capable of wanting anything.

The babies overloaded with other Sephirot might not be quite this badly off. But Keter is supposed to be formless, empty, and above consciousness. So I don't think you could retain any kind of mind after being filled with it.

The defense stunt might be overpowered if not for the fact that the counter-measure is obvious. Monster too bright to look at? Buy sunglasses.

High Concept: Artificial Pseudo-Angel
Trouble Aspect: Overabundance of Keter
Other Aspects: Once Human, Inherently Blasphemous, A Fate Worse Than Death
Skills:
Good: Athletics
Fair: Might, Alertness
Average: Endurance, Fists, Weapons
Stunts:
Shines With Blinding Light (Athletics): +2 to dodge the attacks of characters without eye protection or Toughness Powers.
Powers:
Mindless [-0]
Wings [-1]
Supernatural Toughness [-4]
The Catch (unknown, but discover-able) [+1]
Large Super-Dangerous Mental Aura [-6]
Total Refresh Cost:
-11
Refresh Total:
-9

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Dr. Manhattan (Scuba Diving)

Watchmen never really puts any solid limits on what Dr. Manhattan can do. So this is pretty speculative.

I think this is the second-highest-Refresh character I've written.

Athletics, here, represents mobility and defense more than traditional athletic ability. I can't remember any scene where he does anything more traditionally athletic than walking. But you're gonna have a hard time hitting or outrunning the guy unless he lets you.

High Concept: Posthuman Superbeing
Trouble Aspect: Just A Puppet Who Can See The Strings
Other Aspects: Physicist, The Ultimate Weapon Of The United States, Disconnected From Humanity, Relationship Troubles, Superhero-ish
Skills:
Fantastic: Scholarship, Athletics
Superb: Presence, Intimidation
Great: Might, Investigation
Good: Endurance, Fists
Fair: Empathy, Deceit, Rapport
Average: Conviction, Discipline, Alertness
Stunts:
A Miracle Of Science (Scholarship): Use Scholarship for Miracles.
Quantum Senses: Use Scholarship for Prophecy and Supernatural Senses.
Watchmaker (Scholarship): Use Scholarship instead of Craftsmanship for watches and high-tech physics gear.
Physicist (Scholarship): +1 Scholarship for physics, further +1 Scholarship for quantum physics.
Hard To Read (Scholarship): Use Scholarship to defend against Empathy reads and Rapport chit-chat.
Powers:
Miracles [-12] (Matter and energy control)
Miraculous Power x6 [-15]
Immunity (physical stress) [-22]
Prophecy [-1]
Gift Of Tongues [-1] (speaks all languages)
Wings [-1]
No Metabolism [-1]
Supernatural Senses (vaguely defined) [-3]
Long-Distance Teleportation [-4]
Variable Abilities (General Shapeshifter) [-10]
Total Refresh Cost:
-75
Refresh Total:
-58

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Ozymandias (In A Submarine)

The tricky thing about Ozymandias is that he's got a whole bunch of really notable skills. His Fists, Athletics, Scholarship, Presence, Contacts, and Resources should all be sky-high.

Stunts are good for faking that sort of thing, fortunately.

Not sure if I'd let a PC take Physical Supremacy. If I could think of an elegant way to break it into two stunts, I'd do that.

Lot of Scholarship and Athletics in this post for some reason.

High Concept: Smartest Man In The World
Trouble Aspect: Actual Supervillain
Other Aspects: Corporate Empire, I Have To Save The World, The Footsteps Of Ancient Kings, Unbelievably Good At Everything, Famous And Loved
Skills:
Fantastic: Scholarship, Athletics
Superb: Presence, Resources
Great: Rapport, Deceit
Good: Might, Endurance, Alertness
Fair: Empathy, Investigation, Discipline
Average: Stealth, Conviction, Intimidation, Survival, Driving
Stunts:
Super-Science! (Scholarship): May use Scholarship to create impossible stuff like Bubastis and that squid.
Master Planner (Scholarship): May use Scholarship to have impossibly convoluted plans more or less work.
35 Minutes Ago (Scholarship): +2 to Scholarship when using it to Declare the effectiveness of a scheme.
Wall Full Of Televisions (Scholarship): May use Scholarship to assess the state of the world and the direction it's moving in.
Reading Micro-Expressions (Scholarship): Given time to study someone, may use Scholarship instead of Empathy.
Catch A Bullet (Athletics): Spend a Fate Point for +4 to a dodge roll.
Physical Supremacy (Athletics): May use Athletics to attack unarmed.
Everything Is A Weapon (Athletics): May use Athletics to attack with improvised weapons.
Gymnast (Athletics): Use Athletics instead of Performance when performing a gymnastics routine.
Corporate Empire (Resources): Use Resources to have minions and employees.
Hired Help (Resources): Use Resources instead of Contacts to hire help.
Lush Lifestyle (Resources): May be assumed to own stuff with value up to Resources.
Dig Into Savings (Resources): Spend a Fate Point for +4 to a Resources roll.
Convincing Facade (Deceit): +2 to cover up his supervillainous activities.
Total Refresh Cost:
-12 (Pure Mortal)
Refresh Total:
9

As always, feedback is more than welcome.

[Sanctaphrax]

Wow, forum's gotten quiet. Last time I brought this thread back, there were requests all over the place.

Anyway, here's the anti-crime genius.

That's all I can do, unless I get more requests or some backstory on the remaining requests.

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Mtumbe Ngoube (Chest Deep)

High Concept: Brilliant Vigilante
Trouble Aspect: One Man War
Other Aspects: My Religion Is Preparedness, Intricate Strategies, Perfect Memory
Skills:
Superb: Scholarship, Empathy
Great: Resources, Investigation
Good: Presence, Discipline
Fair: Deceit, Lore
Average: Conviction, Contacts
Stunts:
Super Genius (Scholarship): May use Scholarship for strategy, planning, playing games, and generally being really smart.
Eidetic Memory (Scholarship): +2 to any roll related to memory, including most rolls to declare minor details.
I Understand (Empathy): Use Empathy for the defense trapping of Rapport.
Master Manipulator (Empathy): May use Empathy for manipulation-based social attacks if familiar with the target.
Deep Study (Empathy): May use Empathy to assess people from afar by studying seemingly-meaningless details about them. May also use Empathy to predict or Declare how someone will react in any given situation.
Money Is A Weapon (Resources): May use Resources to economically attack people and factions. If the GM would allow that with no stunt, +2 weapon rating.
Total Refresh Cost:
-4 (Pure Mortal)
Refresh Total:
4

[regitnui]

Phreddie Lamar; African-American gang leader who knows just enough about the supernatural to get into real trouble but is regarded as a curiosity and fool by those actually in the know.

John Clarke; a minor official at the UNHQ who inherited the duty of keeping the original of the Unseelie Accords safe from everyone, including Mab.