Dumpshock Forums > Character Critique

ElFenrir

Aug 4 2008, 09:29 PM

Alright, so I am attempting here to build a nice, balanced combat mage. As many know I love the martial arts rules, and wanted to build a good combo of hermetic magician and bookworm who could kick your ass if the proverbial crap hits the fan. He has some weaknesses...I'm not necessarily looking for uber-optimization here(I know there are things I could have done differently, like take an Intuition based tradition and drop/switch some skills). I also wanted to try this without skillwires. They are cool, and they do help the combat mage concept a lot, but I just wanted to see if I can roll without them.

We've been using FrankTrollman's house rules as of late, and we love them. (We love the way characters can be so much more rounded. They don't grow up at chargen, per se...since the caps are still in place, but they can grow OUT, which we like, by getting other skills to round them out with.) So the rules are here, for those unfamiliar with them. So this character was built under those rules; this is why his skills are less, and his magic was maxed out with 50 BPs rather than 65.

We also don't bother with Availability rules at chargen, so all gear he has is kosher to begin with in our campaigns(he's only got one piece of ware and a couple pieces of gear that would have gone over, anyway.) We also have a couple pieces of gear we use in our home campaigns(like hardliner boots as well as gloves.) We also use the old Companion's Edges and Flaws as well as SR4's, with converted costs. (The Dark Secret flaw is interesting...as the entire *table* ended up having them. Needless to say we would have to be very, very careful around each other and others. The whole party with Hung Out to Dry or Bad Reputation would suck ass. <_< Then again, it opens up tons of roleplaying opportunities...do we help each other? Sell each other out? Blackmail? Help some/blackmail others...?)

The lower Conjuring skills are more or less due to the fact he would rather depend on his own magic or his own body to get him out of trouble, and besides some watchers and the like, doesn't like to use spirits unless necessary. This is also why he lacks guns...he would rather rely on his own skills...likewise, he lacks Ritual Sorcery for a similiar reason(other mages would probably screw everything up.) He does lack a stealth skill at the moment, but he can pick one up fairly quickly(and can toss 4 dice on a default infiltration check if he needed to anyway.). He does have some decent social skills to use if needed(Etiquette and Intimidation). He's got room to grow in skills, and I like that. His Edge is a base 2, but also can be improved. Naturally, he's a mage, so he'll be a karma sink. I'm pretty happy with his physical stats and skills at this point(I might get him another point of Body and maybe Reaction if I can afford it after mage-stuff), but you can't have everything.

As usual, I'm more or less looking to see if he has any glaring problems I might have forgotten/not noticed.

He's not meant to dump craploads of dice at everything, but he has strong pools in both his combat and magical skills, as well as a good set of stats with no uber-high ones, but now glaring weaknesses either. With 13 dice in unarmed, a modified 4 Body and the ability to wear good armor(he has a decent armor collection that doesn't send him overboard), with his focus active he throws 12(13 dice with Kick Attack) unarmed, at a base 6P damage with hardliners with 3 Initative passes, making him a substantial physical threat; his manuevers can help with this, too. His Magic is a 5, he has an array of offensive and support spells(some which fit his slightly...odd personality), that he can use to good effect as well. His Drain is likewise decent. I have considered maybe switching a spell out for a Stealth-like spell to help out until he can pick up the skill(but it won't cost him *that* much Karma.)

Don't have a background written up here, but I know where I'm going with him, basically. I put a few quotes up to give him an idea of his personality. He's sort of a ''madness and greatness-two sides of the same coin'' kind of guy, with his studies...the party members might help determine which way he could go. A bit eccentric, haughty, and a little dangerous, to be sure.

[ Spoiler ]

But yeah. It was kind of fun tinkering with this guy. I'm still trying to pick a tradition of sorts(Hermetic, but I'm not sure which way I want to go here. I might want to check more sourcebooks.) Ideas, questions, comments?

EDIT: Dropped Conjuring group, picked up Summoning 1 and Improved Invisibility. Still has 1 BP left.

Hank

Aug 4 2008, 10:06 PM

What? No Infiltration? No Physical Mask? No Invisibility?

Looks pretty good to me, although the lack of stealthy abilities seems like a chink in your armor. You could drop your conjuring group to just summoning...if you need to banish something, you can always banish it with a good punch in the face, maybe augmented with a touch spell.

Oh yeah, that's another thing. He's a melee mage...where are his touch spells?

Cool guy, though...he might show up in one of my games...

ElFenrir

Aug 4 2008, 10:13 PM

I actually considered dropping the Summoning group. That frees up 5 BPs, and the extra BP left over is 6. I could pick up Physical Mask or Invisibility(bringing him to his max of 10 spells), for 3 BPs, and Summoning of 1, just for now. I can maybe see him playing with spirits a bit later, but yeah...he more or less would stick to watchers and the like, given his personality. (Games can change things, though...)

For 1 BP left, I could specialize in something, or take another 7k nuyen.

As for the melee mage part...his martial arts are sort of his in-close fighting(at 6P damage they pack plenty of punch, but spells do have that advantage of being a bitch to resist); his other spells are his ranged attack, though eventually with a little gametime I could pick up Death Touch or something of that sort for him. I could always buy him the Death Touch formula now, he does have nuyen left.

Thanks for the input, though. I knew the lack of invisibility stuff was a bit of the armor chink...but I think I'll change that around. (I can pick up a point of Infiltration later with little problems.)