Character Critique, Conjurer Aspected Shaman Options

[Thain]

Please, examine and critique honestly. Supportive and helpful input appreciated far more than "Somunerz suxor! LOL!!1"; I am fully aware that the -4 dice to Sorcery skills is a hardship, but I want to have it that way. (Besides, 10 Karma and some roleplayign will remove it if the party's Full Magician gets geeked.)

[Thain]

Anybody? Anybody?

Bueller?

[Fortune]

Do you really think 'Shellfish' qualifies as a Common Allergy?

[DireRadiant]

50 points in negative qualities. Not allowed.

Always a bit leery of negative qualities that are never going to come into play. Like Sensitive Neural Structure in this case.

I'd take a look at the Conjuring, Influence and Sorcery skill groups and consider if you are really going to use all the skils in those groups.

[cristomeyers]

[lorechaser]

I'm not a fan of the conjuring skill group, or aspected magicians.

Conjuring gives you Banishing, Binding and Summoning.

4 is 40 bp. 40 bp will buy you Binding 4 and Summoning 4, with 8 bp left over. Put 4 of that in to specializations. Banishing is really not worth the cost. If you really want to be a bad spellcaster, you'll need binding, but you're really better off with a manabolt.

Same with sorcery - especially with a -4 penalty, you aren't going to be using ritual sorcery. Pick up sorcery 1, counterspelling 1, and a specialization in sorcery. If you aren't the primary mage, you can get by w/CS 1, but you might want to put that quick.

Aspected Magician is a crock for the points, unless you use the +2/-6 version. Just take incompetent: Ritual Spellcasting for the 5 points, and only put a few points in to sorc. Heck, just put the 1 point with 4 bp left over from the group.

You've also broken the rule on only -35 pts of neg. quals - you have 50.

Finally, I'm not sure you need influence 3. I'm guessing you picked that up simply because you have a Cha 5? I'd drop it to 2, and then pick up spec. in a couple after chargen.

[Thain]

Our GM allows up to 50pts in Merits or Flaws; and as a follower of Gryphon, he gets a bonus on Leadership tests, and is generally intended to act as a social character outside of combat... we are short a Face in the party makeup.

I think I'll break up the Sorcery group, in retrospec..

[ShadowDragon]

Why do you have the sorcery group when you don't know spells?

I also don't consider shellfish a common allergy in the context of shadow running. It's never going to come up in game; in fact I wouldn't even consider it a flaw...

[Thain]

He doesn't know spells at CharGen, but he will learn them in time. I will be beginning play with enough Karma to learn Inc. Reflexes and one or two other spells that willonly be cast on myself or other willing recipents, and are not too dependent on Hits or Force. Fashion, perhaps.

Sorcery Group should now be:

Sorcery (Health) 1(3)
Counterspelling 1

With regards to Allergy (Shellfish), well, food allergies are suggested by the book; The character will always strive to maintain a Middle or High Lifestyle (or better), and thus will be eating more than NutriSoy and Soylent Green.

Further, our runs take place in Seattle, the Carribean, coastal Aztlan, and Hong Kong. Seafood is a staple, and shellfish are frequently used. Shrimp, for example, is used everywhere... our GM likes social situations, so we do in fact dothings like eat and use the toilet during the game.

Is it twinky, maybe. Is it more twinky than some of the other Allergys I seen? I don't think so.

[Fortune]

[Thain]

The final call rests with my GM, if it becomes Uncommon, then I will increase its severity.

Points will remain the same.

[Thain]

[Pyritefoolsgold]

The thing about shellfish, is that coming into contact with it involuntarily is not very likely. It's would be uncommon for you to have to worry about accidentally eating some. Now if it was Peanut butter, for example, a food product found commonly in almost everything, I would consider that common, but there's not much that has seafood in it and isn't obvious.

[Thain]

Yeah, I know... Shellfish is going to become something else.

What about the rest ofthe character?

[Glyph]

I know you want to play someone specialized in conjuring, but personally, I think you could do that simply with your skill selection (low sorcery skill). If you had nothing but conjuring skills, it might make more sense, but you have invested 24 build points and 10 Karma points in arcana (you are only not penalized for ally spirit design), assensing, and astral combat, skills which you will suffer a -4 dice penalty to because of a piddly five-point flaw. And on spellcasting, you will wind up rolling three dice, barely enough to cast the simplest, unresisted spells.

The flaw is only worth it if you are extremely specialized - your character isn't, really. It's like taking the Uncouth negative quality and then buying lots of social skills.


Otherwise, a fine conjuring specialist/face, although you should probably ditch some offensive capability in favor of a better Reaction and dodge. You definitely want to be rolling more than 4 dice to dodge attacks.

[Thain]

We will be using the +2/-6 option for Aspected Magicians, which I considered worth it.

Spells known are all the simple and unresisted spells, which either myself or teammates as targets. Heal, detox, improved reflexes. I'll be tossing three dice on all Health spells, plus a Health focus, and (if really nessecary) I can add Edge.

Let's try this:

Positive Qualities [35]
Ambidexterity (5)
Magician (15)
Mentor Spirit (Gryphon) (5)
Spirit Affinity (Beasts) (10)

Negative Qualities [-50]
Addiction, mod (alcohol) (-10)
Allergy, mild com. (iron) (-10)
Incompetent (ritual spellcasting) (-5)
Incompetent (counterspelling) (-5)
Sensitive Neural Structure (-5)
Sensitive System (-15)

Same net cost as before, with my Allergy more playable than it was. The character is still very good at Conjuring, and is an "also ran" when it comes to Sorcery. But, I don't give up any Astral Combat, Arcana, or Assensing.

[the_dunner]

[Thain]

Magic 6 dice, Spellcasting(Health) 3 dice... that's nine dice, which should average 3 hits. When I get my hands on a power focus, I should be able to bump it up to 4.

Ideally, these spells will not be cast in a combat situation. I throw an Imp. Reflexes ten minutes before the run, and pass it off to a spirit to sustain. A bound Spirit of Beasts handles most of my magical combat needs, and my "trusty HK familar" handles the combat spell role.