New Totem, Toaster! Options

[Beast of Revolut...]

Yes, it's a whole new class of shaman totems: Technological totems. Because Platypus isn't wierd enough. I'm designing a toaster shaman, but I need to flesh out his totem. Here is the current version.

Toaster
Toaster shamans are technophiles. They love machines, especcially simple machines that use a lot of raw power, like laser guns, industrial fans, and of course, toasters. They like to mess around with machines as much as they like to mess around with magic. They love crispy, crunchy food, and often tend toward pyromania. Magic-wise, they prefer strong spells, and love to channel large amounts of raw power. They are very energetic, and sometimes jumpy, and even other shamans think they are strange, if not bcause of their personality, then because of their totems. Toaster shamans prefer warm weather, and often wear warm clothes. Toaster shamans maintain a normal body temperature of 100.8 degrees, and at GMs discretion this may make them easier to target with vehicle sensors and see with thermographics.

Advantages: +1 to elemental manipulations, +2 to hearth spirits. +1 to all drain resistance tests when in an environment warmer than 60 degrees. +1 to spell pool and combat pool when in an environment warmer than 80 degrees. +1 to body tests to survive temperature extremes. +1 to tests to resist negative side effects of drugs, including both mental and physical addiction and magic loss.


Disadvantages: Must have an intelligence and quickness of at least 4, and must have at least one technical skill at rating 3 or higher at character generation. +10% lifestyle costs due to increased apetite. Toaster shamans love powerful spells, and must make a willpower(6) test to cast a spell at less than maximum force. They must make a willpower(5) test to summon spirits at a force less than their conjuring skill. Must make a willpower(5) test to refuse to imbibe stimulant chemicals such as caffeine and methamphetamine. Must make a willpower(4) test to resist pyromaniacal urges when confronted with an opportunity to light fires.

Note that the temperature for determining whether they get their bouses to drain resistance and spell and combat pool is the temperature their body experiences, not necesarily the ambient temperature. They can still get it in cold environments if they wear warm, insulated clothing, provided said clothing keeps at least 95% of their skin surface area at the needed temperature. They may also get this bonus if their body temperature is so high as to raise the temperature of the surrounding air, but not by merely giving themselves the illusion of increased temperature, such as that caused by alcohol.

So, what do you guys think? Is it too powerful/too insane? Should I increase the needed temperatures to get the bonuses, or eliminate the combat pool bonus? Should I have them suffer drug temptation or pyromania, but not both?

[Diesel]

I think they should suffer a goodly amount of fatigue from the heat.

But snork drugs to maintain the hyperness.

[KillaJ]

[Diesel]

Stimulants. Done! :D

[KillaJ]

Fair enough :facelick:

[BitBasher]

Methamphetamines? I was about to ask if this was the official totem of truckdrivers :D

[Kanada Ten]

[BitBasher]

[simonw2000]

How strong does a stimulant have to be before it affects your Magic Attribute?

[simonw2000]

And for the props, I KNOW you got the idea from Sprawl Survival Guide!

[gknoy]

You might consider making them drink more water, since at a higher body etmperature they probably are sweatign a lot ...

On the plus side, those rare women that follow the toaster totem probably could get away with wearing the daisy dukes and skimpy top in the seattle night ;D

[RangerJoe]

For some alternative discussion on Toaster and other modern totems, you might want to check out a search on Toaster and Totems.

My personal vision of Toaster is a little bit more subdued:

Quoting from "Shamanic Masks, What about non-animal totems"

[toturi]

How about a Remote shaman? A bonus to Telekinetic manipulation and Detection spells.

[Slapstick]

Ooooookay. I made a Cartoon Shaman once (he was 12), but...jeeze.

-Slapstick

[Eyeless Blond]

How 'bout this: Computer Shaman

The shamanistic mask for a Computer shaman makes his face look like a printed circuitboard.

Advantages: +2 die to physical manipulations, +2 dice to summon Spirits of Man.
Computer shamans have an easier time affecting manufactured objects than natural objects. The base Object Resistance of any object for a Computer shaman is 14 - normal OR, minimum 2 as per usual.
When adding cyberware, so long as a Computer shaman has a datajack implanted he may take the Matrix Addiction Flaw as a Geas. Light addiction will "restore" 1 point of Magic lost to cyberware, Moderate "restores" 2 points, and Severe "restores" 3. The shaman suffers all other negative effects of the Flaw when the Geas is broken, and the Flaw can only be bought off incrementally through initiation.
Disadvantages: -1 die to all Mana-type spells and -1 die to all non-city spirits. When casting a spell that targets a person's Willpower attribute, add half the target's Essence (round down) to the Sorcery test's TN. Computer shamans must start play with the Computer skill and at least two other Technical skills with rating 4 or higher. Computer B/R or Electronics B/R can be substituted for onr of the two Technical skills.

[Moonstone Spider]

I'd like to see a Totem who grants bonuses to magical acts other than straight spell catagories or spirits.

For instance, I could see Beaver and Spider, as totems of creatures that actually build things, granting bonus dice to Enchanting rather than spell catagories. They just couldn't be used as Shamanists.

Or perhaps some totems could grant bonus dice to any spells which are cast ritually, maybe Plant totems or some such.

[Panzergeist]

Platypus adds +2 to the astral pool, so even non-initiates can have an astral pool. Kangaroo shamans can gain the movement critter power as a metamagic ability. Crab shamans get +1 to all damage resistance tests, including drain resistance. I don't think there are any that give bonuses to ritual magic or enchanting though.

[Taran]

Creator grants +2 dice to Enchanting. It'd be neat to have a totem that did something like "+2 dice for spells that create things" (such as Create Food), but it's a more slippery category than "+2 dice for fire spells", for example.

[Adarael]

"You spent 200 build points on a Toaster Shaman with AI and you don't even like TOAST!"

Play spot that reference. GO!

[Large Mike]

Toaster Shaman has been done. You have way to many advantages and disadvantes. Otherwise, decent. And thanks for the nostalgia trip.