Character Creation

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drpete
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Re: Character Creation

#21 Post by drpete »

18 is as high as you can go in int, sorry.

There's no such thing as a self taught mage, unfortunately. We can work on that, though, if you still want a mage. The idea of a quiet loner social skills monster is also pretty strange. If you want heavy social skills, especially something like this, your background can't be loner bookworm.

You also might think about doing alchemy, or a bunch of knowledge skills or something. Magic component harvester requires you to know a lot about animal biology, for example... (if you shift this way we can max you out on this)

The various social proficiencies are definitely not going to work like that... that element of acks is clearly somewhat cracked. The maximum stacked bonus/penalty is going to be +3, though these could stack to overcome penalties. So this is heavily nerfed relative to what you're thinking.

To have your Charisma work for encounters, you'll need to be in the front, which is a dangerous place for a mage. Diplomacy and Seduction are quite different behaviors, and require you to be talking to get a benefit.

Now, the other key question is that watching everyone else take their rolls into a more physical direction was making me consider shifting over to the new Heroic magic system, since it would, near term, be immaterial.

The new system has a few features of note: magic is ceremonial, so mostly ritual, though you can get things to let you cast a few spells normally. The spell list is different (Eldritch instead of arcane). Finally, magic, especially "battle" magic, corrupts and will slowly turn you into an evil monster.

The equivalent to the mage in this system is the loremaster. It gets read languages and loremaster at 1st level, along with the ability to do 2 first level ceremonies per day. It also has a talisman that lets it cast one like a spell per day.

This may be too hard to get into over a pbp forum, though, so maybe just plain mage... hrmmm....

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Re: Character Creation

#22 Post by Lamech »

Hmm... she could have been taken in by the local librarian mage and taught by him/her. Would that work better?

And if the stacking limit is capped at three I'll drop diplomacy/seduction. Mystic Aura already hits the cap. Not a whole lot of incentive to learn social skills when you can just radiate magic at people.

What's this Heroic Magic System? The new source book? Wait, is that out?

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drpete
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Re: Character Creation

#23 Post by drpete »

Sounds reasonable, and I sense that this character isn't much of a talker. Aside from a sense that healing and social skills are good, not sure I'm seeing a character emerging here, yet.

So, you get 1 class proficiency, and...

4 (different) general proficiencies, plus 3 (that dont need to be unique) for high int.

On addition, your mage is...

Mage Age Roll: [3d6+17] = 11+17 = 28

28 years old! As a result, he gets one more general proficiency (that doesn't need to be unique).

Since you seem to be quite interested in the idea of your character spending a lot of time studying books, you might consider some knowledge skills. Also, my gut tells me you should be part of a magical "college" rather than a lone wolf. I'll whip something along those lines up (though you can describe your mentor, etc), if you'd like...

Generally, mages encode their spellbooks in obscure languages. Want to name an ancient magical kingdom's language, or a distant, exotic kingdom with great scholars whose language you learned? Something exotic, like the equivalent of Hieroglyphs or Chinese for this world.

Also, we need a "spell signature" for your character. When he casts his spells, this is the "flavor" that they get... electrical crackling, the smell of flowers, the moaning of un quiet souls... something that is like a personal signature.

Based off of things like your descriptions above, I'll pick out and/or roll your starting spells. You get a bunch, but you don't get to pick them. I do, and bland, generic mage will just get random spell selection.

We'll also need to figure out the language situation...

As for this alternate magic system, I'm thinking it doesn't make sense for us at this juncture, but yes, backers of the kickstarter have the rules for the new system.

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Re: Character Creation

#24 Post by Lamech »

I was trying to avoid making something like a magical college. Hmm... as an orphan she got mentored by the local librarian and taught some basics. Then she was able to get a scholarship to the big fancy university on merit, and now she's back to her home town.
4 (different) general proficiencies, plus 3 (that dont need to be unique) for high int.
Wait, that makes 7? Does it include Adventuring?

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Re: Character Creation

#25 Post by drpete »

You get 8. Adventuring effectively makes it 9. You must have at least 4 different ones, so that is a lot of things, but you can be very good at a few things.

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Re: Character Creation

#26 Post by Lamech »

I think I got a good list of proficiencies, but I'm gonna sleep on it. For contacts, with just two how about:
1) Helpful Librarian, Bob: Occasionally fed the two sisters, sometimes let them stay in the library taught them to read and finally got the character her scholarship.
2) College advisor: Sort of her favorite teacher.

Seem reasonable?

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Re: Character Creation

#27 Post by drpete »

Lamech,

I think I would be looking for 3 contacts from you, given your charisma, and I would really like a bit more than "favorite teacher" to describe a mage contact.

The magic college system should probably be considered more like competing guilds than as a modern college you attend on scholarship. You write your spellbook in a secret language so that people from the other schools can't read it if they find it. You can recognize the different ways the different schools do magic, etc. If you want input into what your guild/college wants, this would be a good time to think about that... are they more griffindor, or more slytherin? The sense of saving orphans and nurturing them reminds me more of a hufflepuff vibe.

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Re: Character Creation

#28 Post by Lamech »

Yeah, I was doing sort of a rough sketch first to make sure I was heading in the right direction. Today's been busy, but I'll have more time for creativity tomorrow. :)

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Re: Character Creation

#29 Post by sulldawga »

drpete wrote:Also, is it your intention to buy 2 *days* worth of iron rations? (1 item per day, you have them pretty clearly tagged as single items...?)
Sorry, I was going by the weight in the Core rulebook. I didn't see your house rule. I'm going to wait and see where we're traveling before I buy food and water.

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Re: Character Creation

#30 Post by Lamech »

Alright then:
Character Name: Willow
Stats: Strength: 9, Dexterity: 5, Constitution: 16, Intelligence: 18, Wisdom: 13, Charisma: 15
Proficiency: Adventuring, Healing, Healing, Healing, Bargain, Mystic Aura, Seduction, Leadership, ???

Can healing be taken more than three times? And how long does healing take anyway? Can it be used in combat for example?

Contacts:
Job: Job runs the library. Or a library at least. He's collected a surprising number of books and scrolls on a surprising number of topics, but they aren't well organized. The library is large and well-built, but it doesn't have many visitors. Most books have titles like Nesting Habits of Songbirds or Analysis of Ancient Useless Writings. He teaches kids reading and writing in his spare time. He introduced one of the Academy's scouts to Willow, so she could get her scholarship.

War Mage Riza: Riza is a "war mage", which really means she has training in first aid. Most of her spells aren't actually for combat. Communication, fortifications, scouting etc. are her focus. Was essentially Willow's Mentor.

Scribe Nolan: Another mage from the Academy. He spends most of his time encouraging Seekers to go out and collect knowledge so he can copy it and take it to where-ever the Academy collects its research. Well, that and traveling to check in with the Seekers. He actually brings a trade caravan with him since he travels enough to make it worth it. Taught Willow the art of Bargaining.

The Academy: Its sort of a mages guild with pretensions of being a school and claim to be all about the spread of knowledge and stuff. They actually aren't well liked by any of the other magical guilds. They make most of their money by educating children of the rich, but as charity work they also educate sufficiently talented people. Most students then head out into the world and are officially called "Seekers", and have a duty to let higher ranked people copy any spells or formulas they create/discover and generally share their knowledge with the higher ups in the Academy. The higher ranking types presumably have plans or something, but they don't tell the Seekers. Other than an education Seekers don't get much of anything except when the Academy offers scraps of knowledge in exchange for doing something for the Academy.

Short Version: A for profit school is gathering mystical knowledge to itself for unknown purposes. Really smart kids get a free education, presumably because the school expects them to make big discoveries it can copy.


P.S. All draft and I can change it if you want. Let me know if the Academy was too much detail or doesn't fit or something.

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Re: Character Creation

#31 Post by drpete »

Sulldawga,

That's cool. The house rule is from a clarification from the author of the game from a few years back, to reflex more realistic food/water weights.

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Re: Character Creation

#32 Post by drpete »

Lamech,

Looks good, so far.

Healing, generally takes a turn to do the various "cure" functions, though things related to saving someone I. Imminent danger of death are quicker. So, to things like doing a cure wounds on someone who needs to get up to 1 hp or die can be fast, but to get someone from 3 to 5 hp are one turn. So it only works in combat on downed foes.

3 levels is what you can get. This will also count as 2 levels of the equivalent proficiency for animals.

Academy: This is pretty good, though I'd like to tweak it a bit... consider the various houses in harry potter... the way they have rivalry with each other, etc. Now, imagine that centuries ago, they were each a separate school, with the rivalries, etc intact. Your school would be very jealous of its secrets, and so on. Thus, you have a choice of keeping their secrets and helping them or cooperating/sharing with mages from other colleges. Otherwise, you're good.

We also need a spell signature, a bit of flair that emerges with your magic.

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drpete
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Re: Character Creation

#33 Post by drpete »

Lamech,

Some proficiencies to consider...

Collegiate Wizardry (to let you know about the other colleges).

Military Strategy (you will make an excellent general if we get that high in level)

Alchemy (if you get 3 of this, you can start out able to make potions in the collegiate alchemy lab. They're expensive, but it's possible)

Note: Seduction is for romantic seduction. Slightly more likely to come up in an adventure-type situation would be diplomacy and intimidation. Seduction is probably more useful in a city environment.

Adventuring doesn't count as one of your picks... I'm giving you guys that "free"

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drpete
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Re: Character Creation

#34 Post by drpete »

Lamech,

Here are some spells for you:
Floating Disc
Magic Mouth
Summon Berserkers
Choking Grip

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Re: Character Creation

#35 Post by Lamech »

Woot! Spells! Oh wow, summon Berserkers is good.

Hmm... how about this for proficiencies:

Proficiency: Adventuring, Healing, Healing, Healing, Bargain, Mystic Aura, Diplomacy, Leadership, Engineering, Engineering

Need to think of a spell sig...

Seems reasonable about the Academy.

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drpete
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Re: Character Creation

#36 Post by drpete »

The proficiencies sound good to me...

Choking Grip and summon berserkers are trade secrets of your academy, taught to you by your mentor. It's important (to your academy) that they not fall into anyone else's hands.

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Re: Character Creation

#37 Post by sulldawga »

Did I see that you were taking away proficiencies for PCs with below average INT? I'm checking because that's not in Core and I didn't see it in the House Rules section.

If that's the case, then I'm done (I took Navigation).

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Re: Character Creation

#38 Post by sulldawga »

Ari Gaza - Ari is a local grocer who gave Hazrahi a job when he was a kid and had to help support his family, before he entered the service of his god. Ari knows everyone in the local bazaar and seems in-tune with all sorts of local happenings, as well as the traveling merchants.

Mehmoud - Mehmoud is a paladin in the Order of the Seven Saints. Mehmoud is older and doesn't adventure anymore. It was his stories of the great victories the Order once had against the forces of Chaos that motivated Hazrahi to join the Church (tho he's too inexperienced to be invited to join the Order).

Kalissa - A Bedi girl from the Triangle who Hazrahi befriended when they were kids. Right about the time that he started thinking about getting romantically involved with Kalissa, he joined the Church. He still remains on good terms with her, despite their religious differences.

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drpete
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Re: Character Creation

#39 Post by drpete »

sulldawga wrote:Did I see that you were taking away proficiencies for PCs with below average INT? I'm checking because that's not in Core and I didn't see it in the House Rules section.

If that's the case, then I'm done (I took Navigation).
It's actually a bit more generous than that... your Paladin can have 3 general proficiencies, and one class proficiency... I'm giving you the proficiencies available to a normal man who becomes an adventurer, and throwing the "adventuring" skill on top of it. Because your Paladin is below average intelligence, he gets 3 rather than 4 (the -1 from int). They should be distinct, though.

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Re: Character Creation

#40 Post by sulldawga »

drpete wrote:It's actually a bit more generous than that... your Paladin can have 3 general proficiencies, and one class proficiency... I'm giving you the proficiencies available to a normal man who becomes an adventurer, and throwing the "adventuring" skill on top of it. Because your Paladin is below average intelligence, he gets 3 rather than 4 (the -1 from int). They should be distinct, though.
Right, got it.

I took Language because he can't read or write with his INT but it made sense for him to have studied hard to learn how to do it.

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