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Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters


Killer Shrike

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

Sabrina looks good on first review.

 

As an aside, just a little Hero Designer Fu advice for you, instead of using the very verbose Limited Power Limitation you can instead use the Custom Modifier button at the bottom of the add modifier screen, put in the explanation, and set the limitation value directly to whatever you want it to be. Takes up less space on the sheet.

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

I will be e-mailing this to you shortly.

 

----

 

The Dark Doc

 

Darren Walters

 

Player: The Rose

 

Val Char Cost

10 STR 0

16 DEX 12

10 CON 0

10 BODY 0

14 INT 4

13 EGO 3

11 PRE 1

 

 

2 PD 0

2 ED 0

2 SPD 0

4 REC 0

20 END 0

20 STUN 0

 

12m RUN 0

4m SWIM 0

4m LEAP 0

Characteristics Cost: 20

 

Cost Power

9 Psychic Surgery: Healing BODY 2d6; Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4), Requires A Roll (13- roll; -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Unified Power (Tied to Psychic Scalpel & Psychic Sight; -1/4), Side Effects (-1/4)

11 Psychic Scalpel: HKA 1d6, Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Power Defense; +1/2); No STR Bonus (-1/2), No Knockback (-1/4), Unified Power (Tied to Psychic Sight & Psychic Surgery; -1/4)

3 Psychic Sight: Detect A Class Of Things (Psychic Engergy flows) 12- (Sight Group); Limited Power Power loses about a fourth of its effectiveness (Reduced field of vision - Left eye only.; -1/4), Unified Power (Tied to Psychic Surgery and Psychic Scalpels; -1/4)

Powers Cost: 23

 

 

Cost Skill

2 PS: Street Surgeon 11-

2 CK: Campaign City / Area 11-

2 CuK: Supernatural world 11-

2 Forensic Medicine 10-

0 Language: English (idiomatic; literate)

2 PS: Hunter 11-

5 Paramedics 13-

5 Power 13-

3 Scholar

2 1) KS: Medicine 12-

3 2) KS: Monsters 13-

1 3) KS: Occult 10-

2 4) KS: Supernatrual world 12-

3 Scientist

3 1) SS: Anatomy - Human 13-

3 2) SS: Anatomy - Paranormal 13-

2 3) SS: Biology 12-

2 4) SS: Chemistry 12-

2 5) SS: Micro-Biology 12-

2 6) SS: Para-Biology 12-

4 7) SS: Surgery 14-

3 Shadowing 12-

3 Sleight Of Hand 12-

3 Stealth 12-

3 Streetwise 11-

3 WF: Small Arms, Surgical equipment (scapple)

Skills Cost: 67

 

Cost Perk

1 Positive Reputation: Honest Street Doctor (A small to medium sized group) 8-, +1/+1d6

Perks Cost: 1

 

 

Total Character Cost: 111

 

Pts. Disadvantage

15 Psychological Complication: Monsters aren't people! (Common; Strong)

10 Distinctive Features: Scarred eye (Easily Concealed; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)

5 Negative Reputation: Speciest , Infrequently

10 Hunted: Paranormals (monsters) Infrequently (As Pow; Harshly Punish)

Disadvantage Points: 40

Base Points: 75

Experience Required: 0

Total Experience Available: 0

Experience Unspent: 0

 

----

 

The character is suppose to be a cheep version of a Psychic surgeon. He is a trained(ish) surgeon who has honed his craft on the streets. He uses his psychic powers to augment his skills and vice versa. He has a seething hatred for non-humans and his prone to "experimentation." Humans find him agreeable, Monsters simply try not to wake up on his operating table. He is either best as a support PC or NPC, IMO.

 

He has 2pts left for powers and 2 pts left over beyond that (to buy some equipment maybe?). He only has 40pts in disads but that can easily be increased and thus render him with even more points to spend.

 

---

In retrospect, maybe it would be worth generating those 10 complication points so that he could buy some favors / contacts to reflect his stance in the community. It would make him a bit more versatile and not just a one shot pony.

 

La Rose.

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

I haven't had a chance to go over everything but is there a place for monsters (with justification) to join a monster huntin' squad A La Buffy/Angel?

 

Well...first off I want to be clear that this isn't intended to be campy like Buffy / Angel. It's meant to be serious, very gritty, and dangerous.

 

 

As to your question, yes with good justification. The Innatus Origin document covers some types of allowed Supernatural Beings broadly under "Archetypes":

 

Innatus

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

I didn't see any rules referring to the use of power frameworks. Is it safe to assume that they are thusly allowed?

 

La Rose.

 

On the Mystic side, the two formalized systems thus far described give guidance on Framework usage.

 

Hermetic Wizard

 

Occultist

 

 

On the Psychic side, broader direction is given, under "Restrictions"; short version is lower point Psychics can have an EC or Unified Power, and higher point characters eventually unlock access to a Multipower.

 

Psychics

 

 

Believers cannot use Frameworks at all for Faith powers. Holy items might be built as frameworks w/ GM permission.

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

I will be e-mailing this to you shortly.

 

----

 

----

 

The character is suppose to be a cheep version of a Psychic surgeon. He is a trained(ish) surgeon who has honed his craft on the streets. He uses his psychic powers to augment his skills and vice versa. He has a seething hatred for non-humans and his prone to "experimentation." Humans find him agreeable, Monsters simply try not to wake up on his operating table. He is either best as a support PC or NPC, IMO.

 

He has 2pts left for powers and 2 pts left over beyond that (to buy some equipment maybe?). He only has 40pts in disads but that can easily be increased and thus render him with even more points to spend.

 

---

In retrospect, maybe it would be worth generating those 10 complication points so that he could buy some favors / contacts to reflect his stance in the community. It would make him a bit more versatile and not just a one shot pony.

 

La Rose.

 

Overall looks good, but two points come to mind:

 

1) I'm not completely following you on the left eye / scarred eye bit

2) 11 Psychic Scalpel: HKA 1d6, Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Power Defense; +1/2); No STR Bonus (-1/2), No Knockback (-1/4), Unified Power (Tied to Psychic Sight & Psychic Surgery; -1/4)

 

This wont do any Body, making it pretty weak. AVAD's are STUN only unless you apply Does Body (+1)

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

I'm working on a Hermetic Wizard character with an arcane magic variable power pool. During the design process, which always with me anyway is a state of extreme flux until it gels, I wrote out a description for a defining power that I bought 'the hard way', meaning as an innate power, sitting beside his power pool (40 AP). The power was a 'hermetic circle' that created an immovable circle within which all who were friendly gained a reasonable amount of resistant PD/ED, Mental and Power defense. Having done that I then realized that the hermetic circle was not much bigger in active points than was his power pool and that it would make much more sense to simply predefine that as one of the typical powers he keeps in his pool. So I toned the power down from it's original 53AP to 40AP and tried to move it into the power pool framework.

 

Whereupon I discovered that I appear to have not the slightest clue how variable power pools are implemented in Hero Designer, and quite possibly therefor am completely lacking in my understanding of Variable Power Pools themselves. I was informed that the power exceeded the capacity of the power pool even though it only used 40AP. I assumed that I had apparently not properly composed the control cost (which by your published guidelines should work out to 5 real points per 10 real points in the pool). So I added the modifiers of 'limited class of powers' and 'variable limitations' to the pool as a 'VPP-only Modifier'. (What is the difference between common and private modifiers? I tried it both ways and it works out to the same point cost for the VPP.) Then I had to boost the control cost all the way to 80 points (!!!?) to get the power to match the published cost for the pool. There is clearly much I am not understanding.

 

What followed next really drove me to make this post. I was then able to move the 'hermetic circle' into the VPP, ok, so far so good. And then in a typical hacker fashion, I tried to boost the power of the circle once it was inside the VPP. And I was able to do so!? Eh? Having boosted the 'control cost' up to 80 active points, I was able to boost the active point cost of the power up to 80AP. I had always thought the AP limit was the 'Pool' points and the control cost defined the number of 'real' points one could use. It appears that this is in fact the opposite?

 

The greatest conundrum likely is caused by the fact that for some reason I am utterly unable to fathom, a 40 point control cost only costs 10 real points after adding a total of -1 modifiers to it. When by all rights that should drop it to 20 AP, exactly what your guidelines stipulate and exactly what would be needed to force this Hermetic circle into only 40 active points.

 

Can someone rescue me from my confusion?

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

It sounds like you are having issues w/ HD, rather than bumping into problems w/ Hermetic Wizardry itself.

 

I don't have HD here at the office, so I can't pop it open and sort it out for you.

 

6e apparently does VPPs a little differently, and I haven't sat down yet and absorbed that info yet, so this is from my 5e understanding. When I get home this evening I'll try to make time to sort thru the 6e rules and see if anything significant has changed. However, in the meantime:

 

A) Ignore the "Active Points" calculation of the VPP itself; it's misleading and only marginally relevant at all and not relevant during character creation.

B) 40 Pool, tracked in a separate input box, should have a Control Cost of 20 automatically calculated

C) Common Modifiers apply to ALL POWERS you take in the VPP. You generally want VPP-only modifiers.

D) if you apply a -1 VPP-Only Lim the Control Cost should drop to 10, and the entire VPP should cost you 50 points.

E) the Control Cost has nothing to do with the powers you take in a VPP, its just a point premium you pay for the flexibility of having a pool of points that you can reassign. It only matters for purposes of how many points your character has spent.

 

EDIT:

 

In 6e the Control Cost equals the Active Point cap for the VPP, while the Pool equals the Real Cost.

 

The actual net cost for the Wizard Rote VPP is actually a little bit less expensive in the 6e version, and this also opens up some useful room for nuance.

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

Overall looks good, but two points come to mind:

 

1) I'm not completely following you on the left eye / scarred eye bit

2) 11 Psychic Scalpel: HKA 1d6, Attack Versus Alternate Defense (Power Defense; +1/2); No STR Bonus (-1/2), No Knockback (-1/4), Unified Power (Tied to Psychic Sight & Psychic Surgery; -1/4)

 

This wont do any Body, making it pretty weak. AVAD's are STUN only unless you apply Does Body (+1)

 

2) Ah, I forgot about the "Does Body" Adder. I just dropped it by one DC and added it. It now cost 12 pts, so that is good.

1) Yeah, perhaps in hind sight (get it :)), the eye thing doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I was thinking of something akin to the Byakugan of Naruto. Rather than chakra, I was intended for a more generic "psychic energies." Of course, this makes a presumption about the game world. Without that, it does leave open more points to work with. The story behind it was suppose to be that he was attacked and lost the normal use of his eye, but that was the trigger for him to start tapping into his psychic powers. His now blinded eye can works using a psychic sense.

 

---

 

Anyway, I'm re-writing some of it and should have an updated copy today.

 

La Rose.

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

1) Yeah, perhaps in hind sight (get it :)), the eye thing doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I was thinking of something akin to the Byakugan of Naruto. Rather than chakra, I was intended for a more generic "psychic energies." Of course, this makes a presumption about the game world. Without that, it does leave open more points to work with. The story behind it was suppose to be that he was attacked and lost the normal use of his eye, but that was the trigger for him to start tapping into his psychic powers. His now blinded eye can works using a psychic sense.

 

I don't watch Naruto, so I don't get your reference, but I like the concept - it just wasn't spelled out so I was unclear on what you intended. I don't know if Left Eye Only is worth a lim however.

 

There is a defined way to detect the supernatural that any character can take under Abilities called Supernatural Awareness for 10 points. You could come up with a "cooler" version that gave you even more info.

 

Another cool idea would be if the scar worked like a rent through which the character's powerful latent psychic energies shine thru. Norms just see the scarred flesh, but for supernatural types its like staring into the sun - a constant flash vs supernatural sense and maybe even sight that requires eye contact.

 

You could probably re-tool the build to work the eye angle and make a pretty unique and really interesting character.

 

Also, is there any chance this could become this iconic?

 

(from earlier post)

Doc Allosious Jones - Psychic - Supernatural Resistance: 5

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

I don't watch Naruto' date=' so I don't get your reference, but I like the concept - it just wasn't spelled out so I was unclear on what you intended. I don't know if Left Eye Only is worth a lim however.[/quote']

 

I thought there used to be a limitation to reflect a limited field of vision but I couldn't find one so just added it in. But the difference is only a point on this build, so not enough to worry about.

 

There is a defined way to detect the supernatural that any character can take under Abilities called Supernatural Awareness for 10 points. You could come up with a "cooler" version that gave you even more info.

 

I guess I overlooked that last night. I am a bit confused by it though. Would one buy that as an adder for a normal sense group? I.e., would one buy "supernatural awareness" for sight? Or is it its own sense for the unusual group?

 

Another cool idea would be if the scar worked like a rent through which the character's powerful latent psychic energies shine thru. Norms just see the scarred flesh, but for supernatural types its like staring into the sun - a constant flash vs supernatural sense and maybe even sight that requires eye contact.

 

You could probably re-tool the build to work the eye angle and make a pretty unique and really interesting character.

 

Interesting ideas. Some psychic powers run through the eye. I hadn't thought of that (other than the sight itself). I was aiming for the character to be at 125pts total, so I don't know if he would have the points to do anything else through it (without buying things through an MP).

 

Also, is there any chance this could become this iconic?

 

(from earlier post)

Doc Allosious Jones - Psychic - Supernatural Resistance: 5

 

Yeah. The intent was to build to the Iconic specs. I hadn't thought of building "Doc Allosious Jones" specifically, though (this version has no Supernatural Resistance). This character was an idea I had for my Horror game and thought I'd see if I couldn't build to the Iconic specs.

 

Now that I am thinking of the Eye and Doc Jones, I might end up cutting the eye idea from Darren Walters and writing up a Doc Jones with it. I'm thinking of a variety of interesting ideas that I could run through the eye.

 

La Rose.

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

Well, the good news is, we are currently sitting at 2 complete characters and 2 more in the pipe (one from you and one from Panpiper) awaiting review and finalization. So, theres still plenty of room on the field to make interesting iconics without bumping into any other characters shtick.

 

It also just occurred to me that Sabrina has Supernatural Resistance 5, so I could just change the EXAMPLE text to use her for that ability instead, which makes a good deal of sense. So, no worries.

 

 

A quick note, I'm going to change the cost of Heroic Recovery to probably 5 / d6, I just havent had time to do it yet. I noticed on Killroy that Regeneration 1/Day costs 4 points in 6e, and a d6 Heroic Recovery is clearly better than that so it needs to cost at least one point more.

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

Iconic Characters:

 

Michaila Bast - You Pick - Miraculous Survival (at least 2 levels)

Hmm... The 'Murgatoyd' I just sent you has one level of Miraculous Survival already, and we did discuss the viability of dropping his speed. Two levels would completely fit with his conception. Sorry, I should have been paying closer attention to those previously mentioned characters instead of wandering off on my own. Leo Gattling would just be too easy to do after Killroy. Maybe I should tackle "Big T", a big tough martial arts trained 'priest' who does exorcisms?

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

Hmm... The 'Murgatoyd' I just sent you has one level of Miraculous Survival already' date=' and we did discuss the viability of dropping his speed. Two levels would completely fit with his conception. Sorry, I should have been paying closer attention to those previously mentioned characters instead of wandering off on my own. Leo Gattling would just be too easy to do after Killroy. Maybe I should tackle "Big T", a big tough martial arts trained 'priest' who does exorcisms?[/quote']

 

Sound good to me...just keep in mind:

 

A quick note, I'm going to change the cost of Heroic Recovery to probably 5 / d6, I just havent had time to do it yet. I noticed on Killroy that Regeneration 1/Day costs 4 points in 6e, and a d6 Heroic Recovery is clearly better than that so it needs to cost at least one point more.

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

A quick note, I'm going to change the cost of Heroic Recovery to probably 5 / d6, I just havent had time to do it yet. I noticed on Killroy that Regeneration 1/Day costs 4 points in 6e, and a d6 Heroic Recovery is clearly better than that so it needs to cost at least one point more.

Ouch. I gotta tell you, trying to build a 'Mr T' big guy priest with some martial arts on only 100 points (after spending 25 on Heroic Recovery) results in a 3 speed character with an OCV of 4, no skill levels and no 'resistant' defenses! Note that for 15 points, Tyrone could by a professional pool for five points and then buy "Only a flesh wound" for 5PD/5ED for another 10 points. And that would work against most every hit. Here for 25 points, he can recover five body from 'one' hit. If I put that 25 points into his Believer pool, I'm sure for 25 points I could by him a 5D6 simplified heal that could be used on himself or anyone else repeatedly (in fact I'm quite certain I could do that for 15). In short I'm not sure it is a good idea to compare the constant nature of Killroy's ability to heal over time to a one shot heal that is frankly not much better for that single use than the combined effect of Killroy's wearing of some body armor at the same time as having his "Only a flesh wound" talent.

 

Edit: A 5D6 heal usable anytime, on any one, can be easily had for 13 points. Though for game balance reasons I only gave Tyrone originally a 1D6 'Pray for Recovery' talent.

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

Ouch. I gotta tell you, trying to build a 'Mr T' big guy priest with some martial arts on only 100 points (after spending 25 on Heroic Recovery) results in a 3 speed character with an OCV of 4, no skill levels and no 'resistant' defenses! Note that for 15 points, Tyrone could by a professional pool for five points and then buy "Only a flesh wound" for 5PD/5ED for another 10 points. And that would work against most every hit. Here for 25 points, he can recover five body from 'one' hit. If I put that 25 points into his Believer pool, I'm sure for 25 points I could by him a 5D6 simplified heal that could be used on himself or anyone else repeatedly (in fact I'm quite certain I could do that for 15). In short I'm not sure it is a good idea to compare the constant nature of Killroy's ability to heal over time to a one shot heal that is frankly not much better for that single use than the combined effect of Killroy's wearing of some body armor at the same time as having his "Only a flesh wound" talent.

 

Edit: A 5D6 heal usable anytime, on any one, can be easily had for 13 points. Though for game balance reasons I only gave Tyrone originally a 1D6 'Pray for Recovery' talent.

 

I'm reading between the lines that you think 5 / d6 is too expensive.

 

Obviously, at some level I agree as I priced it a 3 per d6 originally.

 

It's possible that the Regen cost, which has always been a squirrelly thing, is throwing the comparison. I'm open to convincing.

 

 

One nit picked however, its not "from "one" hit"; its just a straight up Heal; the damage being healed may have accumulated from many hits. Also, its an immediate when you need it effect

 

It's normally 10 Character Points for 1d6 of Healing which costs END

 

This is basically a 0END, Self Only 1 Charge version of it, which actually works out to...

 

Healing BODY 1d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (15 Active Points); 1 Charge (-2), Self Only (-1/2) = 4 points

 

So...4 points seems to be the right cost. It's clearly better than 1 Regen / Day at 4 points, so that looks like the problem ability post analysis

 

Am I missing anything?

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Re: Urban Fantasy Setting: Here There Be Monsters

 

Ouch. I gotta tell you, trying to build a 'Mr T' big guy priest with some martial arts on only 100 points (after spending 25 on Heroic Recovery) results in a 3 speed character with an OCV of 4, no skill levels and no 'resistant' defenses! Note that for 15 points, Tyrone could by a professional pool for five points and then buy "Only a flesh wound" for 5PD/5ED for another 10 points. And that would work against most every hit. Here for 25 points, he can recover five body from 'one' hit. If I put that 25 points into his Believer pool, I'm sure for 25 points I could by him a 5D6 simplified heal that could be used on himself or anyone else repeatedly (in fact I'm quite certain I could do that for 15). In short I'm not sure it is a good idea to compare the constant nature of Killroy's ability to heal over time to a one shot heal that is frankly not much better for that single use than the combined effect of Killroy's wearing of some body armor at the same time as having his "Only a flesh wound" talent.

 

Edit: A 5D6 heal usable anytime, on any one, can be easily had for 13 points. Though for game balance reasons I only gave Tyrone originally a 1D6 'Pray for Recovery' talent.

 

 

How about...Tyrone "Big T" Jackson? I went w/ 4 points on the Heroic Recovery, and morphed him into more of a brawler.

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