Nosferatu Beasthandler Mystic Adept, Rife with pitfalls, any helpful hints? Options

[Krishach]

I've created a Nosferatu Mystic Adept for a party mage, with a subset in animal handling, with a spirit-modified psionic tradition, since the Nosf's have a nice intuition boost. I've been round and round the character concept, and I keep coming up with "gotcha's" that I missed, and tuning things a little more. It's certainly the longest I've spent on char gen ever. This is a 500 BP game, or I wouldn't have considered it.

I would like to ask if anyone knows any possible pitfalls and problems to avoid or prevent; either Nosferatu's in general, mystic adepts, or beast handlers, since it is a personal first for all three for me (never played a mage in 4th). I am aware certain animals can sense a lower essence in infected and instinctual don't like them. I have Relieve Allergy to treat the daylight blues. And I have a starting Intuition of 8, and Will of 7.

This is mostly for arc-type pitfalls, not a PC lab. Any thoughts?

[Starmage21]

I've created a Nosferatu Mystic Adept for a party mage, with a subset in animal handling, with a spirit-modified psionic tradition, since the Nosf's have a nice intuition boost. I've been round and round the character concept, and I keep coming up with "gotcha's" that I missed, and tuning things a little more. It's certainly the longest I've spent on char gen ever. This is a 500 BP game, or I wouldn't have considered it.

I would like to ask if anyone knows any possible pitfalls and problems to avoid or prevent; either Nosferatu's in general, mystic adepts, or beast handlers, since it is a personal first for all three for me (never played a mage in 4th). I am aware certain animals can sense a lower essence in infected and instinctual don't like them. I have Relieve Allergy to treat the daylight blues. And I have a starting Intuition of 8, and Will of 7.

This is mostly for arc-type pitfalls, not a PC lab. Any thoughts?

You keep coming up with those holes because Nosferatu are freaking expensive to play. Normal 400BP characters will often have 1 or 2 areas of focus where they really excel, but in that same pool, a nosferatu character will have barely even 1, and less than that 1 if you try to be minimally rounded.

In a 500BP game, you'd be able to make up for some of that, but definitely not all. I recommend you pick your areas of speciality and focus on those.

[Neraph]

I play a Nosferatu Mystic Adept also, which I lovingly refer to as the Blood Lord. A few of the key decisions I've made is to go with a Charisma tradition so you get synergy with your Compulsion and Influence Powers and to only have a Willpower/Drainstat of 4 and use Increase Attribute spells to reach Augmented Max. It'll save you points that you can spend in other areas.

[Krishach]

I ended up using Intuition, both because of roleplaying the tradition I wanted, and Intuition is the primary stat for Animal Handling.

[Patrick Goodman]

My biggest piece of advice? Don't do it to start with; it's (in my opinion) a twink move of the highest order. Infected, the Runner's Companion aside, have no business being player characters.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

My biggest piece of advice? Don't do it to start with; it's (in my opinion) a twink move of the highest order. Infected, the Runner's Companion aside, have no business being player characters.

QFT... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Samoth]

Nosferatu and Vampires, agreed - no. Ghouls and other "normal" infected? Why not?

[Sephiroth]

Haters gonna hate. I for one think it's actually an intriguing and novel idea, although the mysad part and the psionic tradition part aren't really in keeping with SR canon. I would lower the Intuition and Willpower a bit, since you're going to be low on BP as it is, even with 500BP. Have you considered going karmagen and getting the Attunement(Animal) and Empower Animal metamagics? Also, are you planning on owning mundane animals or paranimals? We can give you better advice once we get some more information from you.

[almost normal]

You want to be a Nosferatu, go for it buddy. The same people who will tell you you're being cheesy are the same folks who will tell you their character has 40/43 armor and 4 passes and not bat an eye. Don't let idiots put down your idea.

[Starmage21]

You want to be a Nosferatu, go for it buddy. The same people who will tell you you're being cheesy are the same folks who will tell you their character has 40/43 armor and 4 passes and not bat an eye. Don't let idiots put down your idea.

Like Sephiroth said: Haters gonna hate.

[pbangarth]

Haters gonna hate. I for one think it's actually an intriguing and novel idea, although the mysad part and the psionic tradition part aren't really in keeping with SR canon. I would lower the Intuition and Willpower a bit, since you're going to be low on BP as it is, even with 500BP. Have you considered going karmagen and getting the Attunement(Animal) and Empower Animal metamagics? Also, are you planning on owning mundane animals or paranimals? We can give you better advice once we get some more information from you.

Glad to see you caught this thread, Sephiroth. I was going to point you to it. Good call on the animal metamagics.

[CanRay]

My biggest piece of advice? Don't do it to start with; it's (in my opinion) a twink move of the highest order. Infected, the Runner's Companion aside, have no business being player characters.

Why not? It makes a great persecuted minority, and quite a few Shadowtalkers over the years have been infected.

Ghouls at the very least. Vampires and such... Yeah, starting to get very Twinky.

[Manunancy]

Nosferatu. Mystic adept. Psionic tradition. - that's a lot of oddities in one character (even if it's not (that I know of) a surged metavariant). Mystic adept isn't that of a weird item, but the psionic tradition is defintively in oddball territory and in my opinion doesn't mesh well with a Nosferatu as far as style go. Psionic has in my opinion a new age/sci-fi feel while the Nosferatu has a far more gothic creepyness vibe.

It feels like a 'what bonuses can I pile up into my favorite schtick and screw having a background that holds together' exercise than a character. also beign a nosferatu is going to cause trouble when the character's true nature gets known - maybe not all nosferatus are amoral bastards with an unquenchable lust for power but enough of them fit the trope to make it difficult getting any sort of trust difficult at best.

[mister__joshua]

This is sort of on topic so I'll go with it, has anyone ever played a Wendigo character?

I find them particularly interesting as it's surely one of the only ways a mundane can become magical, and especially with an ork's short lifespan I can envisage a handful of wealthy/powerful orks nearing the end of their life actively seeking Wendigohood out of desperation and a thirst for power.

I could never get past the human thralls and cannibalistic rituals thing though. That and they are one of the least normal looking of the Infected. There isn't a whole lot of info on them.

[Irion]

The point with infected is always: How would a gameworld deal with something like that.
And the point is: Not nice.

So you need to press everything to either keep the nosferatus "condition" a secret. (This is very hard, depending on how you rule on their visual appearance in all ways, down to X-Rays)
Or you need to make everybody live with the fact. Tends to be a bit silly, sometimes.

The next point is the feeding part. Runners who are OK with killing people should not really mind, but the thought that someone looks at you and sees a takeaway meal should be desturbing.

[Manunancy]

Another point that may pose problem is the beastmaster aspect - in an urban setting, keeping a menagerie is going to be expensive. and im any area you won't be able to legally bring in animals on site. It's doubly true for the sort of combat trained dangerous paracritters a shadowrunner is likely to want to have around.

Drones don't need to be house-trained and can be shut off between jobs...

One can note that if the Laws figures oout that a break-in has been done with a bunch of unusual paracritters in support, the list of potential suspects will be fairly easy to narrow down, as very few peoples around will have such a menagerie in the first place.

[Xenefungus]

This is sort of on topic so I'll go with it, has anyone ever played a Wendigo character?

Now this is really not on topic.



I also think that the OPs idea is a bit too special for many rounds. Perhaps ask your players to do a one-time "freak" round where everyone plays something like this?

[mister__joshua]

Now this is really not on topic.

Ok, fair enough. I thought it was sort of on topic, the pitfalls of infected characters and all, but nevermind. I'll start anew.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Like Sephiroth said: Haters gonna hate.

More realistically, the Character will fall to his teammates...
They are carriers of a disease that can fundamentally change you into somehting that must subsist of the essence of sentient humanity. That alone makes them unplayable.

AS a Solo game, they could possibly make for a good story. But in a group, they are just ignorant.

[Starmage21]

More realistically, the Character will fall to his teammates...
They are carriers of a disease that can fundamentally change you into somehting that must subsist of the essence of sentient humanity. That alone makes them unplayable.

AS a Solo game, they could possibly make for a good story. But in a group, they are just ignorant.

Youre kind of pushing that feeding thing pretty hard. Nosferatu need 1 pt of essence every 6 months, or 1 corpsec you were going to shoot in the face for money anyway every 2.5 years. Metahuman blood can be handwaved to lifestyle. Also, outside of a few nations/corps who give rights to the infected, your existence is ideally suited to living life in the shadows. Just like ghouls, it is entirely possible to play an HMHVV-I infectee without having killed anyone at all, nor maiming them for life in any way that they'd notice or care about.
And even if you do play a complete monster, there are more than a few runners out there who are worse than a vamp could ever hope to be, and theyre completely (meta)human.

Shadowrun is not the World of Darkness, where the entire game is centered around a story of personal horror at being a monster and dealing with it. It is Shadowrun, where anyone can eke out an existence doing illegal things for bad megacorporations and shooting people in the face for money, and vampires are just more pariahs with magical AIDS.

[almost normal]

Youre kind of pushing that feeding thing pretty hard. Nosferatu need 1 pt of essence every 6 months, or 1 corpsec you were going to shoot in the face for money anyway every 2.5 years. Metahuman blood can be handwaved to lifestyle. Also, outside of a few nations/corps who give rights to the infected, your existence is ideally suited to living life in the shadows. Just like ghouls, it is entirely possible to play an HMHVV-I infectee without having killed anyone at all, nor maiming them for life in any way that they'd notice or care about.
And even if you do play a complete monster, there are more than a few runners out there who are worse than a vamp could ever hope to be, and theyre completely (meta)human.

Shadowrun is not the World of Darkness, where the entire game is centered around a story of personal horror at being a monster and dealing with it. It is Shadowrun, where anyone can eke out an existence doing illegal things for bad megacorporations and shooting people in the face for money, and vampires are just more pariahs with magical AIDS.

Please don't introduce reason and fact to counter hyperbolic comments. It handicaps folk when you break out the way things actually are, as opposed to how they insist they are.

[Yerameyahu]

There's not much point in being nosferatu if you're only draining 1 Essence every 6 months (and I don't understand why the rules make that so low, anyway). Every build I've seen is focused on tearing through human cattle like crazy in order to fuel huge magical boosts. If you're "handwaving" away the blood, you're seriously missing the point. It's also silly to ignore the fact that shooting someone and eating someone's soul are not culturally equivalent, whatever your (mostly metagame) logic says.

[Neraph]

More realistically, the Character will fall to his teammates...
They are carriers of a disease that can fundamentally change you into somehting that must subsist of the essence of sentient humanity. That alone makes them unplayable.

AS a Solo game, they could possibly make for a good story. But in a group, they are just ignorant.

Assuming your group knows.
Assuming your group is bigoted.
Assuming they can actually do anything to you.
Assuming Infected are so radically alien in thought to mortals that they are fundamentally different (see bigoted, above).

Point in case, the game I play my Blood Lord in has survived many, many encounters where they otherwise probably would have TPK'd (if not then close to it) without the presence of my nosferatu. The Fear, Influence, and Compulsion Powers are astounding, especially with Black Magic as your tradition (so you boost your Charisma).

Essence Drain can easily be handled. You get a 1/6 Contact or find a hobo, right? Then you stack Influence and Compulsion on him/her to stay at your place, right? Then you pump them full of Renfield until they become addicted, right? Now for every point of Essence you pay to make a dose, your new dependent gets 1-6 points of Essence (with no cap listed) that you can siphon straight back off. Welcome to (as Nosferatu) a +6 Magic Rating for 12 hours every 12 hours.

There's not much point in being nosferatu if you're only draining 1 Essence every 6 months (and I don't understand why the rules make that so low, anyway). Every build I've seen is focused on tearing through human cattle like crazy in order to fuel huge magical boosts. If you're "handwaving" away the blood, you're seriously missing the point. It's also silly to ignore the fact that shooting someone and eating someone's soul are not culturally equivalent, whatever your (mostly metagame) logic says.

You can "handwaive" away the blood with either: A) (I know you all dislike it but it's perfectly RAW) Nutrition, or B) paying 30% more in lifestyle or using the expanded lifestyle rules from Runner's Companion and choosing at least Medium for Necessities.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Youre kind of pushing that feeding thing pretty hard. Nosferatu need 1 pt of essence every 6 months, or 1 corpsec you were going to shoot in the face for money anyway every 2.5 years. Metahuman blood can be handwaved to lifestyle. Also, outside of a few nations/corps who give rights to the infected, your existence is ideally suited to living life in the shadows. Just like ghouls, it is entirely possible to play an HMHVV-I infectee without having killed anyone at all, nor maiming them for life in any way that they'd notice or care about.
And even if you do play a complete monster, there are more than a few runners out there who are worse than a vamp could ever hope to be, and theyre completely (meta)human.

Shadowrun is not the World of Darkness, where the entire game is centered around a story of personal horror at being a monster and dealing with it. It is Shadowrun, where anyone can eke out an existence doing illegal things for bad megacorporations and shooting people in the face for money, and vampires are just more pariahs with magical AIDS.

You are entitled to that opinion... Most would disagree... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Please don't introduce reason and fact to counter hyperbolic comments. It handicaps folk when you break out the way things actually are, as opposed to how they insist they are.

Except that his opinion on how a Nosferatu is is not supported by the fluff. So... WHere is the logic then?