Well, Mystic Adepts seem to get some flak, and I can understand that...they do seem to be at a disadvantage at the start. But i wanted to make one, and i felt the Odinist tradition was a cool one...he's more of a spellcaster(with some banishing ability for now), and has good physical skills...following the mentor spirit of Odin(we used the old Wild Huntsman idol), the adept abilities handle his 'berserker' side, while the magic the 'wise Odin' side. His spells are mainly detection oriented(gathering knowledge seems to fit.)

I might want to tweak the Wild Huntsman totem a bit tho...the bonuses were in Detection(fits Odin very well), and Illusion(which I don't know if it fits Odin that well). I didn't want to go to Combat spells, but i am trying to figure out if there is a skill that would be fitting instead that can get a bonus(Leadership, perhaps, due to Odin being the leader and all, or possibly something else.) The character has the negative quality of Spirit Bane(Beast Spirits), what with the whole Odin being swallowed by Fenrir during Ragnarok. He's got 410 BP to work with(what was left after i purchased the positive and negative qualities. Another positive quality is Pain Tolerance: 2, which fits into his backstory). I figured Pain Tolerance was good for a Berserk type(not feeling pain), and for the fact he cut out his own right eye like Odin did in the legend(yes, he gets a -2 dice pool for ranged attacks...but it fits the character), and hung from the tree with the spear in his side. Yeah, he's hardcore.

For a bit of the backstory, his devotion to Odin is what 'awakened' his magical abilities...after going thru those 'trials', he was found magically active.


We just used the basic Troll stats in the book, the GM said he could be a 'Giant' just to fit the character. (Since he's from the Scandic regions, they were the Scandic Troll offshoot.) So he's about 3 meters tall, lacking the tusks of a regular Troll, but some Giants do have horns, and he does have a set that curve forward starting a bit behind his ears. I figured they'd look pretty cool. To picture the character physically, just picture a Giant whose first thing he'd probably hear walking into a place would be 'Please don't pillage our city!!' Modern day Viking would be the best description, with black BDUs, boots, a leather jacket with a big fur collar, and whatever shirt he felt like. The whiteout right eye, varied scars, big reddish blonde beard with some braids, and near waist length reddish blonde hair. All kinds of old Viking/pagan fetishes and stuff are found around his body. Born and raised in far north of what used to be Sweden(but it's all Scandinavia now it seems in 2070.)

Ok, so here's the attempt:

Anders 'Rimfaske' Lindström:

Race: Giant(40 BP).

+ Qualities:
Mystic Adept(10)
Mentor Spirit, Odin(5)
Pain Tolerance 2(10)

-Qualities:
Allergy(Mild, Nutrisoy +10)
Spirit Bane(Beast Spirits, +10)
Sensitive System(+15)

Net Bonus 10 BP

Attributes(240 BP)
Body: 8
Agility: 3
Reaction: 2
Strength: 8
Charisma: 3
Intuition: 4
Logic: 3
Willpower: 5
Edge: 1
Magic: 5(3 Magic, 2 Adept)
Initative: 6
Essence: 6

I went with a good Intution score(that strikes me as 'Wisdom' of sorts), and a high Willpower(to gouge out your eye for your mentor spirit and hang from a tree i suppose says something.) Body and Strength wise, well, he's a frigging huge viking MF. Reaction is a little low for now, as is Edge, but some Karma will take care of that rather easily. I might want to bump his Charisma score for later on when I invest in Leadership.

Active Skills: (104 BP)
Sorcery Skill Group: 3
Banishing: 2
Unarmed Combat: 4
Exotic Melee Weapon(Spear/Gungnir): 4
Artisan(Rune Carving) :1(+2)
Throwing Weapons(Axes) :1(+2)
Perception: 2
Dodge: 2
Etiquette(Magical) :1(+2)

Knowledge/Languages(21 points free)
Norse Mythology: 5
Literature(Odinist) :2(+2)
Magical Groups: 2
Music(Viking Heavy Metal) :1(+2)
AK: Northern Europe: 1
Mead: 1
Swedish: N
English: 3
Runes: 4

Adept Powers:
Killing Hands(.5)
Mystic Armor 1(.5)
Critical Strike 2(.5)
Attribute Boost(Str and Agl, lv. 1 each) : (.5)

I know he doesn't get many dice to roll with the Attrib boost, but it fits the whole 'berserker powering up' thing. I can always increase the levels when I increase the magic, tho i think his next power would be Astral Perception.

His low Reaction is a bit of a hinderance, but at least he can take some hits for now til I get some Karma to up it...the Dodge skill can at least help with that though for now. His one eye gives a ranged penalty, but he isn't a big ranged character, I can increase his Throwing skill for not too much karma.

Spells(15 BP) :
Lightning Bolt(F)-Fetish is the 'Gungnir'
Detect Enemies(F)-Glass Eye fetish, around neck
Mind Probe(F)-Raven pendant
Detect Magic(F)-Bag of Runes(made himself)
Heal(F)-Drinking horn, taken from some critter he killed

I realize that these guys start spread a bit thin and are giant Karma sinks, but i liked the idea so much i had to run with it. With some time I know I can help out some of the lacking areas...priorities are first bumping his Edge and Reaction scores up one, rounding out his magical skills(getting a little more Banishing and a bit of Summoning...he doesn't believe in Binding spirits into slavery so i'd forgo that. Summoning isn't his strong point anyway.) A couple more spells would be nice, and of course a good Odinist strives for a real 'Gungnir'...ie a weapon focus. Upping Magic will come in there with initation, as for his other skills, will be nice to tack a bit onto Dodge, Throwing, and invest in a Leadership skill for his role. Possibly a point in Pilot Nautical Craft to get the whole Viking thing down.

Contacts(8 BP)

Odinist Group Member(Mentor Spirit Thor) : C3/L3
Talismonger: C1/L1

Resources: 3BP(15,000)


Total BP: 410-10=400

The Wild Huntsman grants +2 dice for Detection and Illusion spells, and +2 dice for Storm spirits(air i suppose). Disadvantage is the Berserker thing. He can summon Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Man spirits.

Whew: So any suggestions here? I think I got the guy well balanced for his role...he's definately a Berserk type damage dealer, but i will work to pretty much balance the Berserk side with the Wisdom gathering side. But he is spread a little thin, no doubt about that. But, can't have it all right at the start, at least.

I like it, I think the character works well. he seems a bit spell shy, but I think probably makes up for it in melee power.

Very nice character concept, and it's nice to see another troll being played, there aren't that many it seems.

As to your statement on attribute boost: pg 187 "For all other purposes, including the determination of
the maximum level for adept powers, the character’s full Magic
attribute is used."

That means that he still would roll hiw normal magic plus the power. He's just limited in his spellcasting...I guess...

Thanx. I was shooting for something a little more original in the concept. Yeah, he's a little on the lower side of the spellcasting, but in time that can be improved. It seemed that the old Magician's Way adept and the Mystic Adept's real strengths lie in versatility, and in the long run...after a good amount of karma under their belts they become some formidable folks. But it's more of a 'long term reward' thing than an 'instant gratification' thing.

I considered perhaps lowering a skill by one to gain a sixth spell, but i can't think of what i want to lower. If i gained a sixth spell, it would probably still be a detection type spell, or maybe a manipulation. I feel he's best as a 'support' spellcaster role, since he'd have to overcast to make any direct combat spells be truly effective, unless he was fighting some low willpower goons. The Lighting Bolt fits the concept, as well as having some nifty secondary effects at least. I forgot to add his Detect Magic spell is the Extended range variant.

As for the troll thing, I like trolls myself, i originally planned him human but when when i reread the Giant bit i thought that fit him real well. The Giants were the first people alive in the worlds, after all in the legends. I do notice they aren't played as often these days. They have a hefty BP cost, but you DO get what you pay for.

The Mystic Adept is a really odd build...I immediately figured it was going to be spread extremely thin at creation, especially because I find SR4 spreads characters really thin to begin with. This guy looks pretty good though, and I'll like seeing him grow.

Personally, I would degroup Sorcery. How many other magicians are going to be part of the Path of Odin? No, by picking an obscure tradition, you are virtually guaranteeing that you have no use for Ritual Sorcery.

Secondly, Banishing doesn't work well. Especially if you have a reduced dice pool (like, for example, you're a Mystic Adept). But Summoning is really useful even at small values. A force 2 spirit can still Guard.

If you drop Ritual Spellcasting and Banishing, you can get a Summoning skill of 3 and have points left over. That's 6 dice to summon spirits, so you'll usually be able to get a service or two.

-Frank

Well, he has a 3/3 Odinist on his contacts - with Connection 3, that Odinist could bring a few more - Ritual Sorcery could do you some good, actually.

Ever hear of Winternight?

well, he does indeed belong to an Odinist group...not an initiate group, but a group of friends in Sweden who all happen to be Odinists. Not even all of them are magically active, but they have their beliefs in common. A lot of them are magically active, indeed, his contact is one of them...so this is where the Ritual Sorcery comes into play. And when finding other Odinists, especially where he lives, happens, so it fits the character there.

As for the Banishing...ive heard mixed things on it. He's more of a spell dealer than a spirit dealer, so I wanted to give him more the ability to deal with spirits. However, i would buy a Summoning skill for him later...but the switchoff doesn't sound that bad. Even a summoning of 2 might be able to have him get a couple services out of a spirit. He gets bonus dice to air spirits at that...which would give him seven dice for that one. Not too shabby. I'd consider that.

And he's not QUITE as bad as Winternight. He's more or less a modern day Viking. Tho in his backstory if he and his group got involved in a raid on a small corporate installation(he doesn't like too many corporate fingers into his 'land'...the little area of the North he lives in is one of the few areas still fairly clean), occationaly the installation would end up on fire old school style, with 'Heimdal' blowing a big horn to call the attack if it was a frontal assault type.