Character Concept: Micheal Landon, Highway to Heaven!

[Taran]

These posts are probably a dime a dozen, but I'm new to Dresden and the Fate system and need some advice on my character.  I'm a bit worried that he'll get owned in a combat.  Any advice would be great!

We're doing 8 refresh.

He's basically an Emissary of Power who goes around helping the "down-trodden".  I figured Micheal Landon was a bit too "goody-two-shoes" so my backstory adds a bit of grit (we'l call him Mike, for now):

Mike, a "Bad Cop on the take" gets betrayed and killed on duty.  As the demons of "Down Below" reach out to grab his soul, God steps in and gives him an ultimatum:  Repent, help me and you can save your soul from damnation.

Mike figures he has no choice, so he agrees to God's proposal.  He is brought back from the dead, Marked as an Emissary of God and goes around helping people...sometimes reluctantly.  He doesn't mind helping people most of the time but, in general, he feels that he's been forced into this job and doesn't really understand what it is to "repent".  He's really resentful of God even though God protects him etc...  He still has his cop instincts, most of his contacts (both Law and criminal - and now some ghostly ones) and he's still greedy and stuff, but his brush with death has left him more empathetic to peoples plights.

High Concept
Corrupt Cop turned Divine Detective

Trouble
Haunted by the Past

Other Aspects:

Cassandra's Tears:

Background
School of Hard Knocks or something that describes how he used his silver tongue to get by on the streets as a kid and as a corrupt cop
...opportunist manipulator??

Rising Conflict

A Big Fall and a Steady Crawl

First Adventure

Nose for trouble

Skills

Superb: Investigation
Great: Contacts, Conviction
Good: Empathy, Rapport
Fair: Guns, Drive, Presence
Average: Endurance, Stealth, Fists, Alertness, scholarship

Powers

Marked by Power -1
Cassandra's Tears -0
Wizard's constitution -0
Psychometry -1
Ghost Speaker -1
Guide my hand -1
Item of Power: righteousness, bless this house -1

Stunts:

Saw it coming -1 : Use investigation for dodge trapping in athletics

Total refresh left: 2

[wyvern]

As far as combat ability, the main thing you're missing is either athletics, or a stunt to let you defend with one of your existing skills.  Once you've got that, you should be reasonably combat effective - albeit not so hot on your own.  But you can use your good social skills to set up maneuvers to help your allies, and - given time to prepare - can do assessments with Investigation or maybe even Contacts, giving you a pile of free tags for when you do get into combat.

The other issue I see is a very simple question: "Why you?"  Either there's something cosmically important about your particular character (which would be left up to the eventual GM to determine), or - and I think this one's more likely - your character's initial "fall" was due to something else cheating, which would give the powers that be an opportunity to step in themselves (since they'd be acting to correct an imbalance, rather than directly infringing on free will).

[Baron Hazard]

also remember that Cassandra's tears must be someway worked into an aspect.

[MijRai]

I'd use this stunt:

-1 Saw It Coming
Use Investigation for the Dodge trapping in Athletics.

[Taran]

The other issue I see is a very simple question: "Why you?"  Either there's something cosmically important about your particular character (which would be left up to the eventual GM to determine), or - and I think this one's more likely - your character's initial "fall" was due to something else cheating, which would give the powers that be an opportunity to step in themselves (since they'd be acting to correct an imbalance, rather than directly infringing on free will).

I see it that I was recognized as having talents (good investigator, able to get a job done etc...) but they were being focused in the wrong direction.  When the character died, god stepped in and said, "I can prevent you from dying but only if you help me."  There was a choice - and the character always has the choice: to turn away and be damned, or to do good and be saved.  

As you say, it's ultimately up to the DM to figure out the reasoning.

[Taran]

also remember that Cassandra's tears must be someway worked into an aspect.

I haven't figured out, thematically, how this will work, so I don't know how set up the aspect.  Whether it'll be another gift granted to from from his benefactor or a result of "crossing the threshold".

As I saw it, he'd be not only helping the down-trodden but maybe righting wrong he'd committed:  Ghosts of people he's murdered(directly or indirectly) who can't find rest; helping the families of people he's wronged.

Guide My Hand lets him find the people he needs to help and Cassandra's Tears gives him a clue of how he might need to help.

I'd use this stunt:

-1 Saw It Coming
Use Investigation for the Dodge trapping in Athletics.

I like this.  But can you use investigation in situation like that?  I thought it took time.

[HobbitGuy1420]

There's a Stunt, either in the core list or on some NPC, that lets you use Conviction for physical (and maybe social or mental) defense when you say some holy words.  That could be appropriate.

[Taran]

So,

I updated the character with the suggestions people gave me.  I edited the original post with the changes, so that's the character as-is.  We start the campaign this week and am wondering if there's anything else I should do or change.

We have a:
- melee, sword weilding Emissary of the Fae - with some glamours, I think;
- A fist-fighting shapeshifting bear totem;
- A wizard

I feel like I spend a lot of refresh on minor abilities that might have been more useful in the shape of fate points or stunts.  I didn't set him up to be the main combat guy(obviously), but more the guy who deals with people and finds stuff out, which I think I accomplished...didn't I?

I tossed around the idea of taking a stunt to use contacts instead of resources (as the Gear  trapping).  So it'd be like calling in favors or borrowing stuff from people.  I didn't, in the end, because I didn't think it was worth the refresh.

Also, Wyvern mentionned using social skills for maneuvers in combat.  I understand how using contacts and investigation can be used ahead of time to make assessments for tags, but how do you use the other social skills for maneuvers?

Once again, I've never played this system so I have no idea if I'm completely missing something...

[MyNinjaH8sU]

Easy example: just last night, one of my players used empathy to place a maneuver on a possessed girl ego she knew hadn't quite given in to the entity taking control of her. She called upon the girl's humanity, placing the Aspect "Fight It!" on her, that was later tagged to indicate that she was distracted and could not defend herself properly.

Make sense?

[Taran]

Presumably, she made that Empathy check before combat started.  Which is kind of using something you found out through an empathy assessment and then tag later in combat.

I guess my question was, how can you use social skills as maneuvers in combat, even if you've never seen your enemy before.

But I think I know what you're getting at:  In combat you can use Rapport or intimidate or empathy (although, I thought empathy was reserved for assessments) to goad, frazzle, tease etc... your opponent and "throw them off", which works as a maneuver. 

You could, for example, use deceit in combat to say, "hey bub your shoe's untied!" and when he looks down your buddy sucker-punches him.

Do I have it right?

[MyNinjaH8sU]

Presumably, she made that Empathy check before combat started.  Which is kind of using something you found out through an empathy assessment and then tag later in combat.

I guess my question was, how can you use social skills as maneuvers in combat, even if you've never seen your enemy before.

But I think I know what you're getting at:  In combat you can use Rapport or intimidate or empathy (although, I thought empathy was reserved for assessments) to goad, frazzle, tease etc... your opponent and "throw them off", which works as a maneuver. 

You could, for example, use deceit in combat to say, "hey bub your shoe's untied!" and when he looks down your buddy sucker-punches him.

Do I have it right?

Yeah, you have pretty much got it, save for one thing I'm steadily learning myself: Nothing is really reserved for anything. It's all about justification. To answer your question: yes, my player had discovered the NPC's aspect through assessment before the combat, but rather than tag or compel, she used it as the justification that offering her support and encouragement in the fight could cause an internal conflict, and justify a temporary maneuver aspect. We (the group) talked about it, and decided that Empathy made sense as a skill, due to the nature of the maneuver.

Pretty iconic, actually, when you think about it. ("Don't give up! I know there's something left of you in there that hates what you are becoming, so fight!")