Imperialus' dedicated character thread, First 4th ed mage. Comments welcome Options

[imperialus]

This character isn't really optimized in a single direction. Our group is quite small (3 players) so we can't afford to specialize too much or there is no way we could create a complete team. The campaign is also set in HK.

My DM (blakkie) is also using house rules for Clout which pretty much negates the need for contacts and allows him to buy anything under 500:nuyen: for free.

Name: Jean-Lee
Race: Elf (30 bp)
Archtype: Face/Mage

Attributes:
Body: 3
Agility: 2 (edit: typo forgot race modifier 3)
Reaction: 4
Strength: 1
Charisma: 4 (edit: typo forgot race modifer 6)
Intuition: 3
Logic: 3
Willpower: 4
Total 160 BP

Edge: 3
Magic: 4
Clout: 3
Initiative: 7
Initiative Passes: 1
Essence: 6
Total 97 BP

Active Skills:
Influence (group): 3
Sorcery (group): 3
Perception: 2
Assessing: 2
Pistols: 2
Intimidation: 1
Unarmed Combat: 1
Pilot Ground Craft: 1

Knowledge Skills:
SW Megacorp Politics: 3
SW Megacorp Operations: 2
SW Megacorp Research: 2
IN Desert Wars: 2
SW Magic: 2
IN Occult Knowlage: 1
IN Investing: 1

Language Skills:
French: N
Cantonese: N (Second native language positive quality)
Japanese: 3
English: 2

Contacts:
N/A

Qualities:
Extra Native Language (house rule) 5 bp
First Impression 5 BP
Full magician 17 BP (shaman no mentor spirit)

Sinner (standard) 5 bp
Sensitive System 15 bp

Spells:
Stunbolt
Mind Probe
Heal
Mob Mind
Physical Mask

Gear:
Auctioneer Business Cloths
Armoured Vest
Suzuki Mirage
Power Focus 2
Fichetti Security*
Silencer*
Concealable Holster*
Flash Bang*
AR Contacts, image link, vision enhancement 2, vision magnification*
Earbuds*
White Noise Generator rating *


Commlink:
CMT Redcap*
Redcap Nix OS *

*denotes item bought for free through clout.

Lifestyle: Middle

Jean Lee is a Cross company man born and raised. He works the shadows on behalf of Cross with his ear to the ground picking up bits of information they might find useful and helping to direct Cross’s Johnsons in the direction of competent runners. On the streets at least, his loyalty to Cross is unflinching and he’d cheerfully fall on his sword if he felt it was for the good of the company. He knows the shadows though and makes sure to keep his loyalty to Cross in the background, at least during everyday interactions. He won’t hose his team unless something major is in the works against Cross but he keeps a constant steady stream of information flowing from the street to his handlers who use it as they see fit. He’s still very low ranked within the remnants of the Seraphim but he’s ambitious, charismatic and smart, attributes which may serve him well in his rise to power within the company.

Lee spent his formative years shuttling back and forth between Cross’ corporate enclaves in Quebec and Hong Kong. His father was a professional Johnson for Cross who was highly valued in their Asian operations due to the fact that as a native Hong Konger he had an easy time fitting in. Lee followed in his father’s footsteps joining the ranks of the Seraphim after graduating from the corporate high-school. During the chaos that ensued after Lucien Cross died Lee's father was killed in a run gone south. Lee has also taken over supporting his mother who fell into a deep depression after his father’s death.

Goals/Beliefs:
1) He’s a lifer at Cross. His loyalty to them is absolute and he’d willingly die for his corporate masters.
2) He wants to do right by his mom.
3) He thinks he can talk his way into or out of any situation.
4) (possible alternate) He wants to be an integral part of Cross regaining its status as a AAA.

[fool]

good start, a couple things.
Str 1? he'll be dead in the first melee
I could be wrong, but I count the attr. bp's = 140
At least one point in conj sg would be really really useful, even if it means dropping the infl. sg by 1. After all, summoning a force 3-4 spirit with 5 dice can easily save your ass.
Can't comment on the qwhole clout thang, but it looks rather like teh way the d 20 modern system does buying things.
full mages cost 15 not 17 bp.
Why taske unarmed if you have no str5ength, you're better off taking dodge.
another spell would be a really good idea, something like imp inv or det enemies. Personally I preferstuin ball over stunbolt and a powerbolt. In my campaign we got rid of mob mind and control thoughts/ actions, because they were too powerful to the point of being game breaking.
Isn't cross totally out of it?

[Slithery D]

Strength is overrated in melee. Is an extra point of damage really worth 20 BP for a mage? I'd be more worried about carrying capacity, and I'm always leery of metatype adjusted minimal attributes of any kind.

Which is why I don't much like the Agility 2 in an elf. Another point in that will help your Unarmed defense and your Pistols attack.

I'm also not a fan of only 7 dice for drain resistance, even if he's a hybrid and not pure mage. For a face, why not pick one of the many, many traditions in Street Magic that use Charisma as a drain resist attribute?

I agree that a point of Conjuring group (or even just Summoning) would be a good idea, especially since he's got a Force 2 power focus. One point of Conjuring group gets you seven dice; zero skill gets you zero dice.

It's not obvious how many fragments of Cross survived to 2070, or whether they retain any affiliated identity even as a A or AA megacorp.

[blakkie]

[blakkie]

[imperialus]

I do plan on taking a tradition that lets me resist drain with Cha. Unfortunatly Blakkie has street magic, I don't so I haven't been able to go over the book. The conjuring skill is one that I've been debating. Especially since the group is so small an extra body in combat can make a huge difference. I may drop the pistols by 1 point and get a point in conjuring but I'm not sure.

My Str and Agi suck, I know. Unfortunatly I just can't see a way to raise them to an effective level without ballsing up my negotiation or sorcery skills. Since this char is going to stay as far away from flying lead as he can, it's a sacrifice I think (hope) he can afford to make.

As for Cross, I'm of the assumption that the only place where CATco still even has extrateretoriality is Quebec and even then its facilities are limited. There is still a core of people trying to rebuild the company though and Jean wants to be a part of that. The Seraphim still exsist but Jean is too low ranked (he's only about 20 years old and HK is his first assignment) to know why he is doing what he does, only that he's been told to and isn't going to question his orders.

I was origninally thinking of having my character work for a proper AAA megacorp, but Blakkie and I decided that CATco would be more interesting but still recognisable while at the same time preventing him from gaining acess to the potentially game breaking resources that a megacorp could provide.

[blakkie]

Plus it really works well with a tie-in from another character who is Syrian and hates Ares for other village blowing up reasons.

EDIT: BTW check your mailbox for CHRISTIAN THEURGY, which happens to be Cha based.

[imperialus]

yeah the religious debates the two will have will be interesting to say the least. :grinbig: Good catholic boy teaming up with Islamic Jeihadist due to their unifying hatred of Ares, we'll be the odd couple for the 21st century. We'll just have to pool our income and rent a place together.

[Thanee]

Some ideas:

Make him a shaman (or whatever tradition with Cha+Will for Drain).
Logic down to 2, Charisma up to 5.
Edge down to 2, Magic up to 5.
Remove Sorcery Group, Influence Group down to 2, get Spellcasting 4, Counterspelling 4, and Summoning 2.
Pistols down to 1, remove Unarmed Combat, Assensing up to 4.

Bye
Thanee

[fool]

I still only count 140 bps for reg. attr. I could be miscounting that, but hey thats cunj sg @2 tight there.
And if I understand the way the clout is done, your special attr. should cost 80 not 97. Ther's another 17 bp for skills

[blakkie]

[imperialus]

[blakkie]

[Jaid]

but i don't want free errors.


;)