Dumpshock Forums > Nasty Mystic Adept Spellcaster

Larme

Mar 28 2008, 12:58 AM

Here is the latest iteration of the mage I plan to play on New Seattle MUX when it opens (in the next decade or so). I'm posting her for build advice, and for help spot-checking her for rules errors, and just to show her off cuz I'm proud

Her concept a radical, Dianic Wiccan feminist. Her general background is that she grew up on the streets of Seattle after running away from an abusive father, only to suffer and witness more Bad Things at the hands of men. At some point, she found out about a local Dianic Wiccan coven (not an entirely magical group, more like a religious worship group), and it was during her first ecstatic Goddess ritual that she Awakened, and was touched by her Mentor, the vengeful Dark Goddess, who placed a tear-shaped mark on her face to contain all of her sadness and pain, and allow her to focus on vengeance. She took the name Solitary Tear, and set out to exact punishment on men in general for all the evils they have collectively wrought. She adheres to a strict code of not killing other women, unless they turn on their sisters in favor of men, in which case they are traitors and can be executed. I would have made that a Geas, but there's nothing in the book to represent it... Anyway, Tear is a runner because it allows her to strike at the male dominated hierarchy, each run bringing it one step closer to toppling, or so she believes.

[ Spoiler ]

CODE

Name  Solitary Tear
Race    Human    0
Magic    Mystad    10
Tradition    Dianic Wicca (int)

Att    Nat    Aug    BP
B    3        20    Att total    190
A    4    6    30
S    1        0
R    5        40
I    5        40
L    2        10
C    2        10
W    5        40

Ed    2        0
Ma    6    5(3m/2a)    65
Es    6    5.45

Init    10
Pass    1

Qualities
Mentor Spirit (Dark Goddess)    5
Incompetent Summoning    -5
Incompetent Binding    -5
Incompetent Banishing    -5
Geas (Ritual, dance naked at midnight)    -10
Geas (Condition, barefoot)    -10

Skills    Rating    BP        Skill total    118
Spellcasting (combat)    4(6)    18
Counterspelling (combat)    6(8)    26
Infiltration (urban)    4(6)    18
Dodge (ranged)    4(6)    18
Perception (visual)    3(5)    14
Influence    1    10
Shadowing (tailing)    2(4)    10
Gymnastics (dance)    1    4

Spells & Foci    BP    Total    30
Stunball    3
Manabolt    3
Powerbolt    3
Increase Reflexes    3
Heal    3
Improved Invis    3
Combat Sense    3
Gecko Crawl    3
Health Sust Focus    3
Detect Sust Focus    3

Powers
Improved Infiltration 2    0.5
Sustenance    0.25
Traceless Walk    1
Enhanced Perception 1    0.25

Gear    Cost    99960    BP    20

Contacts    C    L
Fixer    3    1
Talismonger    2    1

Ware    Ess    Cost    Total
Cybereyes 2 [8]    0.3    750
>Lowlight [2]        1000
>Eyelights [2]        750
>Flare Comp [1]        750
>Vision Enhance 3 [3]        4500

Muscle Toner 2    0.4    16000

Junk    Cost
Sust Focus (Health) 3    30000
Sust Focus (Detection) 3    30000

Armor Vest    600    6b/4i
Shin Guards    150    0b/+1i
Forearm Guards    200    0b/+1i

Subvocal Mic    50
>Skinlink    50
Meta Link    100
>Skinlink    50
Micro-Transceiver 6    1200
>Skinlink    50
Directional Jammer 4    2000
Earbuds    10
>Skinlink    50
>Audio Enhance 3    300
>Spatial Recognizer    100

Medkit 6    600

Fake SIN 4    4000
Fake license 4 (health focus)    400
Fake license 4 (detect focus)    400
Fake license 4 (muscle toner)    400

Dodge Scoot    3000

Squat 5 mos    2500

What I like about the sheet is that I gain really neato Adept powers without losing much off of my spellcasting. I think I might be able to make a full mage more effective, but for some reason I want Tear to be a spellcaster. With her very combat focused abilities, she almost looks like she's trying to be a weak sammy, but it's important to me that Tear start out physically self sufficient. I want her to be able to take all comers, within reason -- someone with her kind of militant ideals, and the Dark Goddess mentor that will sometimes cause her to use deadly force to settle a minor tussle, will need to be fairly rugged to survive. I think she serves her purpose on any team, which is providing a powerful shield against enemy magic (especially the bad head exploding kind) while contributing well to combat, as well as being very stealthy. My only worry is technological sensors like ultrasound and radar, against which she has no real defense; my only recourse would have to be spotting them first and silently blowing them up with a spell.

And here is a piccie, btw!

Abschalten

Mar 28 2008, 02:40 AM

Nice character idea, however I do have a few things I'd like to add.

I understand starting with 2's in attributes, but I consider starting with 1's, from an RPing viewpoint, to be EXTREMELY iffy, especially in an environment like Seattle MUX's. I'd get a 2 in Strength to represent the fact that she's not weightlifter (and below even Mr. Average). I see 1's in any Physical or Mental attribute as being crippled in that regard.

I like your skill spread. I always cheer diversity regardless of character concepts or archetypes.

Mystic Adepts arguably need to focus more than their pure-bred counterparts (adepts and magicians) due to the fact that splitting their abilities two ways makes them weaker in each regard. That said, I don't think that the benefits you're getting from your 'ware (the eyes and the toner) are really that great for the damage it does to your magical abilities. Most of the eye mods you can easily get with contacts and goggles (which are easily and cheaply purchased in chargen) and the toner doesn't really help you out much at all. In fact the only skills I see it really helping you in is Infiltration and Gymnastics, and that in my opinion isn't really enough. You might be better off just doing without 'ware and sticking to your base Agility, which isn't that bad. Suggestions might be to take out the ware and drop your Magic down to 5, leaving your abilities where they're at and having 25 extra points to play around with. Or you can keep your Magic at 6 and have an extra die on spellcasting tests, or a whole PP worth of extra adept abilities.

I have no problem with you cribbing free points out of forsaking any and all Conjuring abilities via Incompetancies. However, the RP folks at Seattle MUX may take issue with it. If you can get it past them, more power to you.

All in all, I dig it. I hope that some good things come out of this build, and I hope you have fun with her.

Edit: Added some Suggestions.

Larme

Mar 28 2008, 03:02 AM

QUOTE (Abschalten @ Mar 27 2008, 10:40 PM)

I understand starting with 2's in attributes, but I consider starting with 1's, from an RPing viewpoint, to be EXTREMELY iffy, especially in an environment like Seattle MUX's. I'd get a 2 in Strength to represent the fact that she's not weightlifter (and below even Mr. Average). I see 1's in any Physical or Mental attribute as being crippled in that regard.

Duly noted

My perspective is 1) the rules allow it and 2) it's not any more crippling than the system makes it. A str 1 person can do normal things, they're not Infirm, they just can't do things that require a roll. Which is ok with me. It's a disadvantage I can live with. And New Seattle's chargen limits are going to be seriously relaxed when they finally open

QUOTE

Mystic Adepts arguably need to focus more than their pure-bred counterparts (adepts and magicians) due to the fact that splitting their abilities two ways makes them weaker in each regard. That said, I don't think that the benefits you're getting from your 'ware (the eyes and the toner) are really that great for the damage it does to your magical abilities. Most of the eye mods you can easily get with contacts and goggles (which are easily and cheaply purchased in chargen) and the toner doesn't really help you out much at all. In fact the only skills I see it really helping you in is Infiltration and Gymnastics, and that in my opinion isn't really enough. You might be better off just doing without 'ware and sticking to your base Agility, which isn't that bad. Suggestions might be to take out the ware and drop your Magic down to 5, leaving your abilities where they're at and having 25 extra points to play around with. Or you can keep your Magic at 6 and have an extra die on spellcasting tests, or a whole PP worth of extra adept abilities.

The toner is arguable, but it helps my infiltration, and isn't expensive, and it doesn't do any extra damage to my magic once I have eyes. On the eyes though, I vehemently disagree. My eyes eliminate all darkness and glare modifiers. Those mods are KILLER for mages. And goggles cannot be used to target spells. The only way to negate vision mods for a mage is with cyberware, adept powers, or sustained spells. And adept powers aren't very efficient, and sustained spells obviously would impose a lot of negative sustaining mods which negate the negation of vision mods

I need the eyes to be a truly bitchin spellcaster, so I might as well pile on some nice cheap muscle toner too.

Thanks for the comments though! Keep em coming people!

Abschalten

Mar 28 2008, 03:16 AM

QUOTE (Larme @ Mar 27 2008, 10:02 PM)

Duly noted

My perspective is 1) the rules allow it and 2) it's not any more crippling than the system makes it. A str 1 person can do normal things, they're not Infirm, they just can't do things that require a roll. Which is ok with me. It's a disadvantage I can live with. And New Seattle's chargen limits are going to be seriously relaxed when they finally open

If that's how you interpret the rules, then go for it. It's not my style, but "not my style" doesn't equal "bad." Just different.

QUOTE

The toner is arguable, but it helps my infiltration, and isn't expensive, and it doesn't do any extra damage to my magic once I have eyes. On the eyes though, I vehemently disagree. My eyes eliminate all darkness and glare modifiers. Those mods are KILLER for mages. And goggles cannot be used to target spells. The only way to negate vision mods for a mage is with cyberware, adept powers, or sustained spells. And adept powers aren't very efficient, and sustained spells obviously would impose a lot of negative sustaining mods which negate the negation of vision mods

I need the eyes to be a truly bitchin spellcaster, so I might as well pile on some nice cheap muscle toner too.
Thanks for the comments though! Keep em coming people!

I take back what I said about the cybereyes. I didn't realize that goggles didn't help spellcasting... I always assumed they did (I read page 173 in the BBB more closely.) In light of that, the toner doesn't HURT you any more, though I still wonder if the BPs in Resources you spend on that could be used on other things.

I also just noticed you don't have any lodge materials. You'll need those if you ever want to increase your Magic skills or your Magic rating. I believe they go for 500 x Force, and you can get up to a F:6 in chargen. Granted she's living in a Squatter-style home right now, she could still have them ready to take with her whenever she upgrades her home.

Malicant

Mar 28 2008, 08:35 AM

Double Post! No!

Malicant

Mar 28 2008, 08:37 AM

I'm nitpicking here, but you forgot to list the Mystic Adept quality. ~~Also, you have 10 spells, with the maximum at chargen being twice (ritual) spellcasting.~~ forget that, I'm bad at counting right now, it seems.

You might want to consider those incompetencies. That's 3 points notoriorety, which makes you famous really fast and you can totally forget any social rolls. Ever.

How about switching to, let's say, Aspected Magician (Sorcerer Aspect) and Spirit Bane (Spirit of Man. Pun intended). That's only one point of notoriorety and you can expect to have an unusual tendency for mishaps when the mood strikes the GM, but it sounds better to me this way. Can lead to some fun RP, too.

masterofm

Mar 28 2008, 09:23 AM

Take out some of those Incompetent qualities (like say summoning and one other whatever) and get a geas that will not allow you to kill women? <- fits with the character and if your going to gimp your character (in that way at least) you might as well take a quality that supports it. Maybe take out walks barefoot? <- it's cool, but man does it make your character stick out like a sore thumb. Also having no shoes in a world like SR just seems like a really nasty/bad idea. You have Gymnastics with a specialty but do not list the bp for it. Should she be an urban infiltration specialist if she is all about the goddess and tearing down the mistakes men have created?

Go for gymnastic dodge and free up some points on dodge. Remove some of the specializations and maybe go for the group skills involving spell casting at 4? Then she can summon spirits that will aid her in her quest. The karma it takes later to specialize in this is next to nothing where build points can take you so much further.

Larme

Mar 28 2008, 02:31 PM

QUOTE (Malicant @ Mar 28 2008, 04:37 AM)

I'm nitpicking here, but you forgot to list the Mystic Adept quality. ~~Also, you have 10 spells, with the maximum at chargen being twice (ritual) spellcasting.~~ forget that, I'm bad at counting right now, it seems.

You might want to consider those incompetencies. That's 3 points notoriorety, which makes you famous really fast and you can totally forget any social rolls. Ever.

How about switching to, let's say, Aspected Magician (Sorcerer Aspect) and Spirit Bane (Spirit of Man. Pun intended). That's only one point of notoriorety and you can expect to have an unusual tendency for mishaps when the mood strikes the GM, but it sounds better to me this way. Can lead to some fun RP, too.

Actually, the Mystic Adept quality is at the top of the sheet, I just didn't put it with the other qualities. And I can fix the spell cap by changing both spellcasting and counterspelling to 5.

I like your idea for finagling qualities, though! Especially cuz spirits of man, though they have annoying powers, are fairly pissant

QUOTE (masterofm @ Mar 28 2008, 05:23 AM)

Take out some of those Incompetent qualities (like say summoning and one other whatever) and get a geas that will not allow you to kill women? <- fits with the character and if your going to gimp your character (in that way at least) you might as well take a quality that supports it. Maybe take out walks barefoot? <- it's cool, but man does it make your character stick out like a sore thumb. Also having no shoes in a world like SR just seems like a really nasty/bad idea. You have Gymnastics with a specialty but do not list the bp for it. Should she be an urban infiltration specialist if she is all about the goddess and tearing down the mistakes men have created?

Go for gymnastic dodge and free up some points on dodge. Remove some of the specializations and maybe go for the group skills involving spell casting at 4? Then she can summon spirits that will aid her in her quest. The karma it takes later to specialize in this is next to nothing where build points can take you so much further.

The problem with a geas of not being allowed to kill women is that there's no type of Geas to fit it in the book. Condition has to be some state of being for yourself, Ritual is an affirmative act, not something you're forbidden to do. Obviously Gesture and Incantation are right out. I think the closest I could come would be Ritual (must ritually murder a man every 24 hours) but that would be pretty stupid

As for bare feet, I like it a lot -- I can wear shoes, I just have to take them off before casting spells. And with improved invis, if I don't want to be seen I don't have to be. And with traceless walk I won't leave incriminating footprints everywhere.

I also deleted the specialty for Gymnastics because I couldn't afford the bp, I just forgot to fix the entry. EDIT: Oh yeah, and I couldn't afford gymnastics with her because there is no way in hell for her to afford a melee skill. Dodge is cheaper because it works in both melee and against ranged, and I can get a cheap +2 dice from a specialization.

As for spirits... meh! I just feel like they don't work for this character. I could change her completely of course, but I'd like to try a mage without spirits for once. I'm not a noob who is making a bad sheet because I don't know any better, I'm experimenting with focused builds to see how they play out

ElFenrir

Mar 28 2008, 02:54 PM

I like it. It's got some flair to it. Nice skillset, has strengths and weaknesses, all gels together nicely. Mystic Adepts are a proverbial pain in the ass(ok, a literal pain in the ass) sometimes, and you do have to somewhat kind of focus them, which i think you did nicely. Thumbs up here, perhaps ill think of something to add or whatnot

EDIT: Ok, the only thing i can think of, she might have to be in a pretty specialized campaign. Like, with all women runners who won't have a man in there. Now, is there any chance of her ever working with a man? What about a man who'se cool with women?

Larme

Mar 28 2008, 06:09 PM

QUOTE (ElFenrir @ Mar 28 2008, 10:54 AM)

EDIT: Ok, the only thing i can think of, she might have to be in a pretty specialized campaign. Like, with all women runners who won't have a man in there. Now, is there any chance of her ever working with a man? What about a man who'se cool with women?

I think part of her charm is the difficulties she will have in an ordinary campaign. Every time someone makes a sexist comment, she will need to make a willpower + charisma (3) test to avoid escalating it into a screaming match, and if she provokes someone into a fight, she'll need another test to avoid frying their brains. I see this as an advantage, in roleplaying terms. Too often, characters are emotionless badasses with no flaws. They can't be provoked into pointless fights, and they have no moral code. I think Tear's wacky beliefs and mentor spirit disadvantage will add fun to pretty much any group. I think she could run on a team with men; she doesn't have to kill them just for being alive, she isn't crazy... They'd just better be politically correct on gender issues

fool

Mar 28 2008, 06:26 PM

I'd drop out all those specialisations. You're better off buying them with karma and dropping the bp's into other stuff. Like raising your L or C
I'd change the neg. qualities. Summoning is a very useful part of mages. And there's nothing that says spirit of man has to be male. And their ability to cast spells for you makes them one of the most important spirits available.
Manabolt and powerbolt are redundant; go with powerbolt b/c you can take out cars, srones and choppers that way. Take levitate instead of gecko crawl. why climb when you can fly?
What are pros and cons of the dark goddess? and how does that fit into her rp'ing. The Rp'ing is going to be the hardest part. She sounds like she won't ever be able to work with men. That will be very limiting in what jobs you can take, and quite frankly who you can play with.
A good possile geas for this character would be vegetarianism. Slaughtering animals for food is a very male aspect of society.

fool

Mar 28 2008, 06:28 PM

I'd drop out all those specialisations. You're better off buying them with karma and dropping the bp's into other stuff. Like raising your L or C
I'd change the neg. qualities. Summoning is a very useful part of mages. And there's nothing that says spirit of man has to be male. And their ability to cast spells for you makes them one of the most important spirits available.
Manabolt and powerbolt are redundant; go with powerbolt b/c you can take out cars, srones and choppers that way. Take levitate instead of gecko crawl. why climb when you can fly?
What are pros and cons of the dark goddess? and how does that fit into her rp'ing. The Rp'ing is going to be the hardest part. She sounds like she won't ever be able to work with men. That will be very limiting in what jobs you can take, and quite frankly who you can play with.
A good possile geas for this character would be vegetarianism. Slaughtering animals for food is a very male aspect of society.

Whipstitch

Mar 28 2008, 06:47 PM

Today is double post day!

I'm just happy you recognized that a Mystic Adept Sorceror typically needs to concentrate on the spells first and Adept and physical skills second. As a GM and frequent contributor to "Help me build..." topics, I've noticed that the number one problem people have with mystad sheets that try to do way too much with them, or else try to do silly things like blowing points on their drain stats, Increase Reflexes, and a sustaining Focus despite only having something like 4 dice to try cast it with.

Anyway, it's not the most powerful sheet I've seen you come up with, but I've seen enough of your characters to realize that if you wanted to really max it out in a few areas, you would have done so already. At the very least it could certainly make a good NPC because she's got a very clear theme and has the skills needed to succeed in the roles she claims to fill, which is really all I shoot for when making characters. For the most part I agree with fool about the specializations though; I generally believe that specializations are often best purchased later, although in this case I'd certainly keep the Spellcasting and Dodge specializations-- she's a fairly lackluster spellcaster otherwise and skimping on dodge in the short term can leave you dead in the long term.

Larme

Mar 28 2008, 10:39 PM

Specializations in chargen are definitely a personal preference thing. Yes, they have a favorable bp:karma ratio, but they still aren't exactly BP hogs. To me, the first concern in creating a character is their immediate power when walking out the door for the first time. Growth is a secondary concern. They have to survive, and be fun to play, right off the bat. In a tabletop RPG, I don't think there's much thrill to growth, despite how much some people fetishize it. Tear will have plenty (PLENTY) to spend karma on in game, so I'd rather not have to play remedial catch-up buying specs during gameplay. And I think all of her specs, with the exception of Tailing, are actually important for her survival and core utility, they're not just throw-aways that I could drop without noticing.