Urban fantasy – Cthulhu Mythos investigator

[CoreBrute]

For the game I've been working on, I made this character as a mentor NPC for one of the PCs (don't know who, as I haven't even made the game yet). I offer the sheet to your scrutinizing eyes and if there is anything further that can be done to help/improve the character. There are no bad suggestions (Yet).

Character Name: Leonard Marks
Alternate Identities: The Broken Man

CHARACTERISTICS Val Char Base Points Total Roll Notes 8 STR -2
14 DEX 12
8 CON -4
10 BODY
18 INT 8
21 EGO 22
20 PRE 10
6 COM -2
2 PD
2 ED
2 SPD
4 REC

Points[/B]SKILLS Cost Name 3 Acting 13- 3 Bribery 13- 3 Conversation 13- 4 PS Calligraphy 13- 13 Ritual 18- 3 Lockpicking 12- 3 Bureaucratics 13- 3 Cryptography 13- 3 Disguise 13- 2 Forgery (Documents, Identity Cards, Papers) 13- 3 Inventor 13- 3 Persuasion 13- 3 Scholar 2 1) KS Arcane and Occult Lore (3 Active Points) 13-
2 2) KS Artifacts and Enchanted Items (3 Active Points) 13-
2 3) KS Cults (3 Active Points) 13-
2 4) KS Elder Ones (3 Active Points) 13-
2 5) KS Law Enforcement (3 Active Points) 13-
2 6) KS Legends and Lore (3 Active Points) 13-
2 7) KS Literature (3 Active Points) 13-
2 8) KS Supernatural Creatures (3 Active Points) 13-
2 9) KS Symbols (3 Active Points) 13-
2 10) KS The Old Ones (3 Active Points) 13-
2 11) KS Things Men were not meant to Know (10 Active Points); Extra Time (5 Minutes, Character May Take No Other Actions, -2 1/4), Side Effects (Each phrase the Character uses it, roll 1d6 and minus the result from his EGO; -1/2) 20-
10 +2 with Chtullu Mythos Knowledge skills 2 5) CK Paris 11-
2 6) CK London 11-
2 7) AK Transylvania 11-
1 8) AK Planes of Madness (3 Active Points); Side Effects (When used, Roll against EGO. If roll failed Leonard gets Psy Limitation Madness for 2d6 turns; -1) 13-
2 9) AK Rockies 11-
4 Weaponsmith (Crossbows, Firearms, Swords And Daggers) 13- 94 Total Skills Cost PERKS Cost Name 1 False Identity Dr Robert Stuart 1 False Identity Officer Barbrady 0 Equipment Points: 60 0 Vehicle/Base Points: 10 0 Follower/Contact Points: 5 0 Miscellaneous Points: 0 2 Total Perks Cost
POWERS Cost Power END 4 Detect Corruption Taints: Detect A Single Thing 13- (Sight Group), Discriminatory (8 Active Points); Always On (-1/2), Side Effects (Roll 1d6 for every full turn he uses this power. Minus this roll from his INT; -1/2)0 11 Well travelled mind: Mental Defense (15 points total)0 10 Warped Soul: Power Defense (10 points)0 5 Whippersnapper, I've seen things scarier then that back when you were getting your diaper changed. : +10 PRE (10 Active Points); Only to Resist Presence attacks (-1)
14 Elder Sign Amulet: Multipower, 90-point reserve, (90 Active Points); all slots Independent (-2), Extra Time (1 Minute, Character May Take No Other Actions, -1 3/4), OAF (-1), Requires A Ritual Roll (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4)
1u 1) Portal to the planes of Mythos: Extra-Dimensional Movement (Single Dimension, Any Location corresponding to current physical location), Usable By Other (+1/4), Area Of Effect (One Hex; +1/2), Continuous (+1) (60 Active Points); Independent (-2), Extra Time (1 Minute, Character May Take No Other Actions, -1 3/4), OAF (-1), Gate (-1/2), Requires A Ritual Roll (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4)
6 1u 2) Banishment to the Mythos: Extra-Dimensional Movement (Single Dimension, Any Location corresponding to current physical location), Ranged (+1/2), Usable As Attack (+1) (55 Active Points); Independent (-2), Extra Time (1 Minute, Character May Take No Other Actions, -1 3/4), OAF (-1), Can only affect Targets native to Mythos world (-3/4), Requires A Ritual Roll (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4)
5 1u 3) Protection of the Elder Sign: Killing Attack - Ranged 2d6, Continuous (+1), Damage Shield (Affects Mental And Physical Attackers; +1) (90 Active Points); Independent (-2), Extra Time (1 Minute, Character May Take No Other Actions, -1 3/4), Only Affects those who are Corrupted (-1), OAF (-1), Requires A Ritual Roll (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4)
9 14 Elder Sign Amulet's energy: Endurance Reserve (80 END, 10 REC) Reserve: (18 Active Points); OAF (-1)0 49 Rituals of Corruption: Variable Power Pool, 45 base + 4 control cost, (67 Active Points); all slots Gestures, Requires Gestures throughout (Requires both hands; Complex; -1 1/2), Extra Time (1 Minute, -1 1/2), Side Effects (If used, the user must take a random Disadvantage given by the GM equal to the active points of the ritual used.; -1), Requires A Ritual Roll (-1/2), Incantations (Complex; -1/2)
110 Total Powers Cost
DISADVANTAGES Cost Disadvantage 0 Normal Characteristic Maxima 10 Age: 60+ 20 Physical Limitation: Blind (All the Time, Greatly Impairing) 20 Psychological Limitation: Paranoid and Pedantic (Common, Total) 10 Unluck: 2d6 15 Hunted: Cults around the world dedicated to the Corruption 8- (As Pow, NCI, Harshly Punish) 75 Total Disadvantages Cost
Background: In the 1930s, Leonard Marks was a well paid English Professor in Cambridge. Young, Handsome and intelligent he had the world handed to him on a silver platter. However a spur of the moment trip to the Rockies with some old College friends changed Leonard's life forever.

Discovering a murder mystery involved led the group to try and be amateur detectives, using their logic and reasoning like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. But what they found defied all possible reasoning.

Cultists were sacrificing humans to some alien creature to achieve great power. What was stranger was they were succeeding. Only by quick thinking and an emergency Molotav Cocktail helped prevent multiversial disaster.

Leonard's other friends wanted nothing more to do with the supernatural and tried to convince themselves it was all a dream. Several of the group took to drinking. One published a series of inspired stories after taking the fake alias Howard Phillips Lovecraft.

But Leonard lost more then the others that day. His fiance Rebbecca Peterson was sucked into a portal right before it was destroyed. All the cultists had escaped. So Leonard became a paranormal hunter and took to training his mind with a wide variety of skills. But his dealings with the Corruption began to take it's toll on his sanity.

In the 1950s he was offered a chance to let the last thing he ever saw would be the real Rebbecca Peterson smiling down at him. In exchange he would have to live seeing the world in terms of corruption. Leonard accepted the deal. The problem was he made the deal with Azathoth, The blind.

He saw Rebbecca for the last time, and then the sight went from his eyes. Then he heard her screams as the dark corruption force killed her. And all the while the Old One just watched emotionless, not understanding the crying man on the floor. Never make a deal with the Old One.

Leonard never knew what killed Rebbecca. The corruption was unique and he would be able to see it again. But to the newspapers and the police the evidence made it clear who killed her. The man who had hidden her from the world for 20 years. Leonard Marks.

Leonard has since then been drifting from spot to spot, avoiding the police at every turn, all the while trying to find the creature who killed his fiance. Somehow (will explain more when I have backstories) he ended up mentoring the PC in the process of capturing, warding off or killing monsters.

Well? What do you think? Post your opinions and suggestions.

[Panpiper]

8 STR -2
14 DEX 12
8 CON -4
10 BODY
18 INT 8
21 EGO 22
20 PRE 10
6 COM -2
2 PD
2 ED
2 SPD
4 REC

I found it very hard to read the characteristics you posted. It was largely just a string of virtually undecipherable numbers. I would recommend when posting stats, that the quantity of information be kept to the absolute minimum. Virtually everyone here knows what the base values are, and what the statistics skill rolls will be, etc.. You don't need to include all of that, 'especially' all on a single line. And if each stat is on it's own line, like I reformated yours above, it is a LOT easier to read.

The point balance is largely irrelevant as this is an NPC designed to be essentially a plot device for the players. As such there is nothing wrong with the build of this character. As far as conception goes however, I would have 'huge' questions as to how a 'blind' man is able to wander from place to place, able to avoid capture by both Corruption Cults 'and' apparently the police who believe him to be guilty of murder. Especially having 2D6 of unluck, I find this stretches my credulity way past the breaking point.

Again, because he is an NPC, you can spend as many points on him as you need to to make him work for your game. I would recommend turning his hunted into a watched, including that of the police and redefining his background as having maybe beaten the murder rap using a technicality rather than 'proving his innocence' (even though he IS innocent), so he is still regarded with suspicion by the police but they can't touch him. Also, if you want him moving from place to place, make it perhaps so that his amulet gives him some extra sensory perception similar to sight (cannot discern fine details), maybe he can see auras of both people and objects. This would allow him enough 'vision' to actually move from place to place. A 'real' blind man would be virtually housebound, the prospect of a trip even to the train station being one of mortal dread.

[CoreBrute]

Thanks for that, didn't see how bad the stats were written.

Also my explanation for the blind thing is that Leonard can see. He sees corruption taints on objects and people, traces of the Lovecraftian dimension having touched it. This allows him to see outlines of human beings and walls so he doesn't go bumping into things. And how he gets around? He has an apprentice (PC) to help explain things to him in his old age. Before that he had a guide dog. No one ever links a blind man to a murder.

The reason he has unluck but has avoided capture is when something bad happens to him it's never mundane. All his friends and loved ones are dead, and the Lovecraftian mythos creatures keeps destroying him further.

He has two cover identities he uses to get around and he can always forge new identities. Like how in Supernatural, Dean is wanted by the FBI but avoids him using fake ID etc. Also the crime was done 50 years ago. Many think he's dead.

He doesn't go monster hunting but he helps his apprentice with his reservoir of knowledge. I might need to give him a big base as a hideout.

[CoreBrute]

Actually now that you've mentioned the idea, I can't stop but think it would be a good idea if he was aquitted of the murder for reasons like "Who would blind blind themselves and then kill their fiance" and "Where could he have kept here, never stayed in same place etc".

That would make the police suspicious and even worse when he starts breaking the law by forging documents and pretending to be a doctor and a Detective.