Character checks (and many, many......MANY corrections) needed.

[Scotbloke]

Hi there,

So, since my friends and I are actually gonna play the game in a month’s time. I thought it high time I went ahead and created a character. Gulp!

So if you guys wouldn’t mind, would you be able to check this dude out and let me know where I’ve went wrong (and I expect I’ve went wrong in MANY a place).

I’m especially not sure if I’ve done the Rote Spells and his items correctly (He’s got crafting (strength + 1) in Thaumaturgy specialization just to confuse things), and I’m not completely sure how his specializations add into his rotes.

Feel free to use this chap (no doubt once he’s been ‘fixed’) in your own games. Evil him up if need be.

Also, please let me know if I’ve posted this in the wrong place and feel free to delete if so.

So without futher ado... The man himself......


Warden John Smith

High Concept: Favoured Son of the White Council

Trouble Aspect: Doing the ‘right’ thing

Other Aspects: Can we talk? His father’s sword, Sucker for a sob story, Crackerjack timing, The wife

Skills:
Superb: Conviction
Great: Discipline, Weapons
Good: Alertness, Endurance, Lore
Fair: Athletics, Presence, Fists, Stealth
Average: Contacts, Empathy, Guns, Investigation, Scholarship

Powers:
-3 Evocation
-3 Thaumaturgy
-1 The sight
+0 Soulgaze
+0 Wizards Constitution
-2 Refinement

Refresh Cost:
-9

Specialisations

Evocation (Elements: Fire, Water, Spirit)
Control (+2 Spirit, +1 Fire)
Power (+1 Spirit, +1 Fire)

Thaumaturgy
Strength (crafting +1)

Focus & Enchanted Items

Wardens Sword (Cuts through anything and counts as a Weapon:3 sword at minimum in all circumstances); 3 times/session acts as either a Fantastic (+6) counterspell or a Weapon:6 item;

Enchanted Suit (Armour 4, 3 times a Session)

Spirit Ring (+1 Spirit Defensive Control)

Annoyance Ring (Weapon: 4 spirit (Force) attack, once per session)

2 spare enchanted item slots
(Potions, etc)

---

Physical: 4 Boxes
Mental: 4 Boxes
Social: 3 Boxes
+1 Mild Mental Consequence

---

Rote Spells

Shuas (Spirit block, 6 shifts)
This rote creates an invisible shield in front of Johns closed fist, acting as either armour or a block. One shift could be used for persistence allowing John to do something else in the following exchange without renewing the shield. This rote requires John’s spirit ring.

Iadh (Spirit block, 6 shifts)
This rote veils John and one or two additional people standing with him. Seeing through the veil requires a roll against a difficultly of Fantastic (+6) unless he spends a shift into persistence.

Moran (Spirit attack, 5 shifts for a Weapon:5 attack)
This rote sends out waves of ‘angry’ force, attacking a nearby enemy.

---

Character Phases

Background (Can we talk?)
Fairly ‘normal’ life for a magically active kid. John was trained by his warden father in the hope that john himself would become a warden.

John still visits his mother and sister (both with no magical abilities) and they are a fairly close family.

Rising Conflict (His fathers sword)
John's father died when John was 23. Killed by a powerful black court vampire that was preying on, get this, orphans!

John took up his fathers sword, tracked the vampire to its lair and barely managed to destroy it. He Joined the wardens soon after.

The Story (Sucker for a sob story) ‘Och Aye!’
With the vampire war in full swing, the white council can only spare a single warden to investigate an isolated Scottish town seemingly under the sway of some dark power.

Unfortunately for this warden, he's not all that's heading into town, and given the fact it's a pretty small town it's going to be one HELL of a job.

Guest Star (Crackerjack timing) ‘Speak ‘o’ the Devil’
Inverness, known as the capital of the highlands. Although recently the sheer amount of supernatural goings on there had caused many to refer to the place as 'spook central'. One lucky warden finds himself to be first choice for keeping Inverness on the straight and narrow.

Perfect timing too. Rumor has it the devils having a party in town, and everyone's invited!

Guest Star Redux (The Wife) ‘Hauld Yer Wheesht’
Married only a few weeks and his wife's managed to go and get herself kidnapped, not only that but an infamous and what looks like now superpowerful witch has chosen now to make her reappearance and have her revenge on the world.

Find the girl, save the world, just another week for everyone's favorite warden.


John Smith: Factoids

•   Is actually called 'John Smith' no-one believes this is his real name (it is). A source of much annoyance to John;

•   Married to 'Jakki Smith', a medic who he rescued in a previous adventure. She lives Inverness for the moment;

•   Dresses in a black suit and a red tie (this is his enchanted ‘armour’);

•   His mother lives in a remote croft in the highlands and his sister stays in Edinburgh where she works for the council (the actual Edinburgh council, not the White Council);

•   John is allergic to cats (just enough to make him sneeze when they are around);

•   Reserves a special hatred for the Black Court of vampires (see phases sheet for why), and goes with the general assumption that they are all evil, so far he has been mostly correct in this regard;

•   Generally is seen as one of the more sympathetic wardens (or one of the weaker ones depending who you ask). Known for taking to individuals first instead of just wading in sword swinging;

•   John speaks Gaelic. His language of choice when using spells with vocal components.


Thanks muchy for any corrections you can throw my may, appreciate it,
Scotbloke

[Tsunami]

Evocation (Elements: Fire, Water, Spirit)
Control (+2 Spirit, +1 Fire)
Power (+1 Spirit, +1 Fire)

Thaumaturgy
Strength (crafting +1)

Specializations are correct.

Focus & Enchanted Items

Wardens Sword (Cuts through anything and counts as a Weapon:3 sword at minimum in all circumstances); 3 times/session acts as either a Fantastic (+6) counterspell or a Weapon:6 item;

2 Enchanted Item Slots

Enchanted Suit (Armour 4, 3 times a Session)

Is this Armor or Block?
because
Block 4/ Uses 3, would be 2 Enchanted item Slots
Armour 4 (meaning block 8 )/ uses 3, would be 5 Enchanted Item Slots

Spirit Ring (+1 Spirit Defensive Control)

1 Focus Slot

Annoyance Ring (Weapon: 4 spirit (Force) attack, once per session)

1 Enchanted Item Slot

2 spare enchanted item slots
(Potions, etc)

See the Question about the block Item,
in the first case you only have 1 slot for potions left.
In the Second case... well, you'd have to rethink the items completely

Rote Spells

Shuas (Spirit block, 6 shifts)
This rote creates an invisible shield in front of Johns closed fist, acting as either armour or a block. One shift could be used for persistence allowing John to do something else in the following exchange without renewing the shield. This rote requires John’s spirit ring.

Iadh (Spirit block, 6 shifts)
This rote veils John and one or two additional people standing with him. Seeing through the veil requires a roll against a difficultly of Fantastic (+6) unless he spends a shift into persistence.

Moran (Spirit attack, 5 shifts for a Weapon:5 attack)
This rote sends out waves of ‘angry’ force, attacking a nearby enemy.
--

The Rotes look fine to me.

Except for the Item Slots, i can see nothing wrong with the character.
He's pretty much an extreme combat specialist... you might want to rethink that, I made the same "mistake" with my first wizard, and he's not always easy to play.
You might want to round him out a bit more, skill-wise.

One thing more: You might want to change one of the Aspects to include the Warden-Status. It's definitely an aspect worthy trait.

[Papa Gruff]

Concur with Tsunami. Everything seems O.K. but the Items.

The warden status should be reflected in an aspect. Depending on how you want to play him the warden status should even be reflected in the high concept, but only if you planing him to be a hard core warden like Morgan. It would make it a huge part of who he is...

[Scotbloke]

Wow, quick responses. 

So I didin't muck him up as much as I thought then, thats good news.
I'll make sure to change that enchanted suit, good catch.

Hmm, maybe his high concept could be changed to 'Favoured Warden of the White Council' since he comes from a long family line of wardens? I'll ask the other players what they think it means, and if they make a good guess, thats what i'll go with. 

Thanks a lot for checking him out for me guys. Now I'm all the more closer to playing the game.

Scotbloke.

[newtinmpls]

"Shuas (Spirit block, 6 shifts)
This rote creates an invisible shield in front of Johns closed fist, acting as either armour or a block. One shift could be used for persistence allowing John to do something else in the following exchange without renewing the shield. This rote requires John’s spirit ring."

I don't think a rote can have an either/or to it - it's a rote armour OR it's a rote block.

"Iadh (Spirit block, 6 shifts)
This rote veils John and one or two additional people standing with him. Seeing through the veil requires a roll against a difficultly of Fantastic (+6) unless he spends a shift into persistence."

Again, depending on what you mean by "spends a shift into persistence" - if that's changing how the spell is initially cast, then I don't think it's actually a rote.

"Moran (Spirit attack, 5 shifts for a Weapon:5 attack)
This rote sends out waves of ‘angry’ force, attacking a nearby enemy."

5 shifts for a weapon:5? Does that seem too powerful? I'll have to look it up.

[crusher_bob]

My main worry about this character is that he has no other skills beyond being a wizard and cutting people into giblets.  This may make him very uninteresting to play in situations that don't involve either of these things.

Sample skill alternative:
Superb: Conviction
Great: Discipline, Fists
Good: Alertness, Contacts, Lore
Fair: Athletics, Investigation, Presence, Stealth
Average: Empathy, Endurance, Guns, Rapport, Scholarship

Then, drop your second point of refinement (and lost your fire related specializations) and get the armed arts stunt, which will allow you to use your fist skill with weapons.

------

Or even:
Superb: Conviction, Discipline
Great: Contacts, Fists
Good: Alertness, Lore
Fair: Athletics, Investigation, Presence
Average: Empathy, Endurance, Rapport, Scholarship, Stealth

-1 Armed Arts
-1 Refinement

Evocation (Fire, Water, Spirit; +2 spirit control, +1 spirit power)
Thaumaturgy (+1 crafting strength)

Stuff:
Wardens sword (2 enchanted item slots)
2 potion slots
enchanted suit (4 block or 2 armor 3 times/session, 2 enchanted item slots)
Ring (focus item, +1 defensive spirit power, 1 slot)

-------

This version gives you a base evocation control of 7 and base power of 6.  You have effective power 7 and control on the defense, allowing you to produce power 7 blocks. 

You don't have the slots left for an offensive item, but you now have a high fists score, so at least you can try to beat normal opposition up instead (or have your second armed arts weapon be something useful for non-lethally beating people up).

[BumblingBear]

"Shuas (Spirit block, 6 shifts)
This rote creates an invisible shield in front of Johns closed fist, acting as either armour or a block. One shift could be used for persistence allowing John to do something else in the following exchange without renewing the shield. This rote requires John’s spirit ring."

I don't think a rote can have an either/or to it - it's a rote armour OR it's a rote block.

I'm pretty certain that regardless of the spell or where it comes from, even enchanted items, there is always a choice of whether one wants to use a shield as a block or armor.

[newtinmpls]

Bumblingbear, thanks for the correction on armor/block.

One other thing, if the PC speaks Gaelic as his language of choice, does that mean it's NOT a good choice to use with magic - the insulation factor?

Dian

[sandchigger]

In the first book, Harry mentions using faux-Latin as his casting language because it acts as an insulator but in subsequent books it's shown that he speaks Latin (poorly) as it's the lingua franca of the WC. So I'd guess that as long as it's not your primary language it's a good enough choice.

[Tedronai]

I think that distinction, there, is an important one, though.

Harry uses FAUX latin for his spells.

It's NOT latin.  It's not even really a proper latin-derivative.  Harry uses words that sound SORT-OF like latin, and then warps them and twists them, adds suffixes and prefixes that just don't work that way, swaps letters for ones he just likes more, etc.

[Tbora]

That may be well and good for canon but for RPGs that stuff really shouldn't make a difference being essentially fluff and any good GM likewise shouldn't penalize you for it.

[Tedronai]

Except perhaps in obscure plot-assisting scenarios possibly involving a compel, of course.