Building a Psychic Type Character

[joca4christ]

Greetings all!  First post, short time lurker.

I recently purchased the DFRPG and I really like some of the psychic abilities.  I thought these would work best with the Minor Talent template, but it only allows for one power to be chosen.

Anyone know the best way to build a character that has the Ghost Speaker, Psychometry, the Sight, and maybe Cassandra's Tears? 

It looks like it would only have refresh of -3, still allowing for stunt or two. 

Thoughts?

[joca4christ]

I guess I should go in depth a little bit.

My High Concept is Hardboiled Psychic Detective.  And his Trouble might be I See Dead People.

The idea is that he was almost killed in the line of duty.  I'm torn between having the near death experience unlock his latent abilities and having had a heart transplant where the donor had abilities and the surgery has no granted him access.  I like the latter better than the former, because I think it would be fun to have him "haunted" by his donor.  In fact, all of his psychic abilities come thru the shade.  For example, his psychometric powers is the shade telling him details of the past owners.  I'd want his rolls to be him concentrating enough to pick out the pertinent details through the jumble.

It would also be fun to have him investigate murders through interactions with the ghosts of the murder victims.  And as for the Sight, again it would be limited to the donor shade giving him input about the surroundings.  Rolling would help him not be overwhelmed, as usual.

[Sanctaphrax]

Welcome to the forum and the game, joca.

Concept sounds cool, and should be pretty easy to execute. Take enough Investigation, Lore, and Discipline to use your Powers effectively, and there you go.

Might be worth taking a stunt letting your interpret The Sight with Investigation instead of Lore, since your character concept doesn't sound terribly Lore-y.

Don't worry about the Template limitations, nothing bad will happen if you ignore them.

[Ulfgeir]

Well, you could make a focused practitioner.

Welcome to the forum btw, and enjoy the game.

/Ulfgeir

[Taran]

Welcome. 

A detective would have lots of contacts and Contacts skill is used for Ghost Speaker.

[joca4christ]

Thanks for the input everyone!  I was pretty sure that was how templates worked (as a guide, not as a hard and fast thing) but I appreciate the affirmation.

[Shaft]

This might be  fun build for you to use, assuming 6 Refresh and 20 skill points.

High Concept: Hardboiled Psychic Detective
Trouble: Dead People are complicated

Background: Transplanted Psychic Abilities
Rising Conflict: Advice from his heart donor's shade
Other Aspects: The last thing they saw, Let's check out their old haunts, Dead Broke

It would also be fun to have him investigate murders through interactions with the ghosts of the murder victims.  And as for the Sight, again it would be limited to the donor shade giving him input about the surroundings.  Rolling would help him not be overwhelmed, as usual.

Powers:
[-1] Ghost Speaker,
[-1] Psychometry
[-1] The Sight
[ 0] Cassandra's Tears

Stunts:
[-1] Psychic Clues: swap Alertness for Lore when using Mystic Perception
[-1] Hard-Boiled: +2 Discipline to Control Emotions

Skills:
Great(+4): Alertness (Mystic Perception)
Good (+3): Discipline (Control Emotions 5), Investigation
Fair (+2): Athletics, Contacts, Guns
Average (+1): Conviction, Endurance, Lore, Scholarship

Stress:
Physical: OOO, Mental: OOO, Social: OO

Spent Refresh: -5

[Taran]

I'd swap investigation and alertness.  Psychometry requires pretty high rolls with investigation.  Then use the stunt to swap Lore for Investigation instead.  I'd also boost contacts since Ghost Speaker is based on that skill.

I hate buying powers that rely on skill rolls and then have skills that are too low to make use of the refresh you spent.

I like the idea of the Sight being skinned as seeing into the spirit world.  Which is kind of how I've always interpreted The Sight anyways...

[g33k]

I'd probably want to put in an "extra somthing" from the background of the heart-donor.  Because it's the HEART we're talking about!

Maybe his new heart is still in love with the wife/husband/etc of the donor... etc; maybe some loyalty to a group ("Semper Fi!" or "Union Man for Life... and even longer!").

Maybe take an Aspect, "the Heart wants what the Heart Wants" and figure it out in play...
 

[Shaft]

Good suggestions. Here is the revised writeup:

High Concept: Hardboiled Psychic Detective
Trouble: Dead People are complicated

Background: Transplanted Psychic Abilities
Rising Conflict: Advice from his heart donor's shade
Other Aspects: Feelings from beyond the grave, Let's check out their old haunts, Dead Broke

It would also be fun to have him investigate murders through interactions with the ghosts of the murder victims.  And as for the Sight, again it would be limited to the donor shade giving him input about the surroundings.  Rolling would help him not be overwhelmed, as usual.

Powers:
[-1] Ghost Speaker,
[-1] Psychometry
[-1] The Sight
[ 0] Cassandra's Tears

Stunts:
[-1] Psychic Clues: swap Investigation for Lore when using Mystic Perception
[-1] Hard-Boiled: +2 Discipline to Control Emotions

Skills:
Great(+4): Investigation (Mystic Perception)
Good (+3): Contacts, Discipline (Control Emotions 5)
Fair (+2): Alertness, Athletics, Guns
Average (+1): Conviction, Endurance, Lore, Scholarship

Stress:
Physical: OOO, Mental: OOO, Social: OO

Spent Refresh: -5

[Taran]

looks great