Mentor spirits for adepts. Options

[emo samurai]

I noticed that pretty much all the mentor spirits give a bonus to a spirit or spell type and very little else, with the occasional social or perception modifier. I'd like to change that.

Miyamoto Musashi

Widely known as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, swordsmen in history, Musashi created the Hyoho Niten Ichi-Ryu style, wielding a katana for wide, sweeping cuts and a wakizashi for short, quick cuts. He is said to have fought over sixty duels without being defeated, many of them with only a crude bokken. He was a dedicated, if brutal and uncouth individual, and it is said that he never bathed for fear of being ambushed without his swords.

Advantages: +2 to blades, +2 to intimidation.

Disadvantages: -1 to etiquette.

Giacomo Casanova

Casanova was a lover, boasting over 132 seductions. He counted himself "the happiest of mortals," and modern critics see him as many Venetian women's gateway to empowerment.

He was also given to incest and pedophilia, trying once to seduce Sophia Williams, his 10-year old daughter.

Those who follow in the footsteps of Giacomo Casanova are charmers, brilliant at seduction and gaining the trust of others. They are sincere and polite, and utterly incapable of containing themselves.

Advantages: +2 to con and etiquette.
Disadvantages: Must make a Willpower+Charisma(3) test to avoid seducing somebody that they are alone with for more than 5 minutes, whether they are man, woman, or child.

Edit: The child molestation part is now removed. I have rethought it over, and the child molestation part is only because in the time of Casanova, it was legal to have a girl of 10. In keeping with the times, he is only compelled to seduce legal persons.

[Trigger]

I am thinking Shift might be seeing his new mentor spirit :D

[Konsaki]

These look pretty good except for I would change Musashi's disadvantage to be Incomp: Etiquette and Casanova's to remove the child entry and add 'Must also make a Will + Logic test to turn away sexual favors instead of monetary or physical objects for payment'

[Moon-Hawk]

I like Konsaki's suggestion for Casanova.

Musashi is horribly overpowered as you have him, emo, and you know it. Incomp: Etiquette would be more balanced, but I question whether a tradition based on a wandering philosopher/poet should have incomp: etiquette. He frequently visited nobles and dojos. Perhaps something like incomp: negotiate or incomp: con instead.

[mfb]

the nobles and dojos he visited appreciated him only if they favored truth above politeness. there were many people who appreciated him for his skill and wisdom, but if someone didn't like him, he wasn't willing/able to change their opinion with words. incompetence: etiquette seems accurate enough. though, with the abilities granted, i'm not sure it's enough. i'd go with incompetence: etiquette, -2 to negotiation, and -2 to con. someone who takes this is going for the melee badassery, and will try to get away with as little social skill use as possible. if they're going to make that choice, it's best to make it an expensive one.

[HappyDaze]

I would shy away from extra diece for Adept Totems and instead have it increase the natural maximum (and thus, the augmented maximum) of the skill or skills (never more than 3 skills or 1 SG) by +1 to 7 (10). With Aptitude, this could become 8 (12) for a single skill of choice. You don't get anything for free but you can buy up higher.

For disdvantages, I'd stick with appropriate behavioral compulsions (3, Cha + Will to resist) similar to what many Mentor Spirits currently have.

[Naysayer]

How about giving the Musashi-"Totem" a compulsory "Uncouth" quality, all free of charge, of course?!
That way, he could still get social skills, but he'd have to bleed BP/karma for them.
The boni would justify that, I think.

The Casanova one?
Well, while playing a compulsive child-molester might fit the setting if you're going for the depressing, gritty CP-feel. It might also get you some very funny looks at the gaming-table, though. So, while in a way fitting and a decent counterweight to the hefty boni, maybe there's some better way to nerf him than making all his followers pedophiles...

But other than that, I find the idea of mentors that corelate to the "ways" of the adept not bad at all.

Who'd you propose for an "athlete"-type? Michael Jordan?

[emo samurai]

Okay, no child molestation. His proclivities pretty much fit the legality of the times, though. 10 was the legal age of "consent" in England at the time, I think. So in keeping with the times, a Casanova social adept will not molest children.

[Naysayer]

Keeping with the times social conventions, no he won't.
Keping with any sort of human decency and common sense whatsoever, he's the NAMBLA-adept.
But this is going off-topic now, isn't it?

[emo samurai]

The child-molestation thing was just there for historical accuracy. But the whole thing about the legality of it was just my clarifying that he'll do anything within the limits of legality, something that I hadn't made clear to others, or myself.

As for bringing things back on-topic...

Tsukiyomi

According to the Kojiki, Tsukiyomi no Mikoto was born when Izanagi cleansed his sins through bathing and washed out is left eye. Tsukiyomi ended up becoming god of the moon. Endlessly polite and enamored of beauty, Tsukiyomi is nonetheless a stickler for the always uncertain rules of etiquette. He is famous for killing Uke-Mochi, the goddess of food, for providing food for a feast by vomiting up the animals and plants that were to become the feast.

Advantages: +2 to etiquette and negotiations

Disadvantages: Must make a willpower+charisma(3) test to avoid becoming violent in the presence of breaches of etiquette.

[mfb]

[emo samurai]

Dude, it was there for the sake of historical accuracy. Casanova was known for seducing girls that were young compared to modern standards, but the sources that I read say that this was within the bounds of the law. So for any modern Casanova adept/magician, their mentor spirit will obey the bounds of modern law. I put that part in because I hadn't read the part about the differing laws of the time.

For the fucking record, I am not a child molester, I do not condone child molestation, and I think age of consent laws were far too lax in Casanova's time.

[mfb]

heh. actually, i disagree. i think age of consent laws are pretty much retarded, and that the principle they're based on is a major contributing factor to the declining ethical standards and growing lack of personal responsibility in western society.

regardless, conceding "Okay, no child molestation" is... funny, i guess? striking, anyway.

[emo samurai]

[mfb]

about my disagreement? it's simple: the way you raise a kid has a huge influence on the kind of person that kid grows up to be. in the US, and to an extent the first world at large, we try to raise our kids in a protective bubble where they never find out about life's dangers and ugliness--in effect, never showing them the possible effects of making bad decisions. they grow up thinking they're free from consequence, that they're entitled to do whatever they want and not have to pay for it. that sense of entitlement doesn't magically disappear when they turn 18.

do i think kids should be having sex at 13 and 14? no. i simply don't think it's the government's job to enforce it specifically. if someone has sex and one partner is unwilling, it's rape--doesn't matter if the rape victim is 9 or 90. if two teenagers have sex and the parents find out, that should be something the parents and teenagers work through themselves; one of them shouldn't go to jail just because s/he happened to be 18 instead of 17.

basically, as a society, i don't think we're allowing kids to fall down and get hurt often enough. if you don't learn real early that skinned knees hurt, you'll never learn to walk on your own properly.

re: overpowered, i don't think his bonuses are. i do think that he grants bonuses in areas that abusive players are likely to try to abuse. that should be taken into account when picking penalties.

[Glyph]

[Nasrudith]

It sounds like a runner team with a Tsukiyomi adept and a Miyamoto Musashi adept are a disaster waiting to happen. Then again a Tsukiyomi adept sounds like a disaster waiting to happen in the first place, especially if they follow a strict standard of ettiqute or they have a vindictive GM. A surly bartender asks him what the frag he wants and the adept has to make a will save not to attack him. I can see the notoriety he would build up quickly canceling out the mentor spirit bonuses. Maybe a clarification that they must be severe breeches of ettiquite?

[emo samurai]

Okay, severe breaches of etiquette.