Shadowrun

Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: Kuirem on <07-02-16/1854:10>

Title: [SR5] The Hag, an Adept Face with a knack with animals
Post by: Kuirem on <07-02-16/1854:10>

This character is inspired from Witches in the discworld univers and in particular Esmerelda Weatherwax that despite having strong magic use "headology" (psychology) to help people, the only magic she uses regularly is borrowing that allow to see through an animal sense which I wanted to pick for this character as well. GNU Terry Pratchett.

Is there any book that describe pets and such? There is nothing in the core rulebook about using Animal Handling to train your pets or even the eventual price of a dog/cat/rat/bird/otherpets.

Feel free to give me your ideas on how to improve the character and opinions. Her main role is a face but she also has excellent spotting ability (including in the Astral) and can use animals to spy.

The character sheet in Spoiler and you can also find it in attachment (note that in the attachment Astral Combat (Magician) is Spellcasting (Detection) because of a bug with Chummer). Build with Sum To Ten with Metatype E, Attributes B, Magic B, Skills B, Resources D.


Name: Pamela Benavides
Alias: The Hag
Race: Human
Sex: Female
Nationality: American
Lifestyle: Low

Attributes

Body	Agility	Reaction	Strength
3	3	2	2
Charisma	Intuition	Logic	Willpower
6	5	3	5
Edge	Magic	Essence	Initiative
3	6	6	7 + 1d6

Positive Qualities
Adept
Mentor Spirit (Raven)
The Beast's Way
Negative Qualities
Code of Honor (Avoid Killing)
Insomnia

Active Skills

Influence Skill Group	5
Clubs (Batons)	3
Pistols (Tasers)	3
Assenssing (Aura Reading)	4
Spellcasting (Detection)	1
Animal Handling (Training)	6
Perception (Visual)	6
Sneaking (Urban)	5
Con (Fast Talk)	6
First Aid	2

Knowledge Skills

Area Knowledge : Seattle (Street)	6
Chemistry (Organic) (Academic)	3
Parazoology (North America) (Academic)	5

Language Skills

English

N

Adept Powers

Power	Cost	Notes
Adept Spell (Animal Sense)	1
Animal Empathy (2)	0,50
Astral Perception	0,50	Discounted by Beast's Way
Authoritative Tone (3)	1,50
Commanding Voice	0,50	Discounted by Beast's Way
Cool Resolve (1)	1
Enhanced Perception	0,25	Discounted by Beast's Way
Kinesics (3)	0,75
Traceless Walk	0	Mentor Spirit (Raven)
Voice Control	0	Mentor Spirit (Raven)

Gear

Extendable Baton	Stun Baton	Defiance EX Shocker (Concealed Quick-Draw Holster)
Armor Clothing (Nonconductivity 6)	Armor Jacket (Fire Resistance 6; Thermal Damping 6)	Helmet (Vision Enhancement 3; Vision Magnification)
Handheld Housing Sensor 3 (Ultrasound 3; Atmosphere 3; Olfactory 3)	Medkit 3	Medkit 6
Bunch of other stuff (see the PDF for the details)

Vehicles
Dodge Scoot (Scooter)

Handling	Accel	Speed	Pilot	Body	Armor	Sensor
4/3	1	3	1	4	4	1

Contacts

Contact	Location	Archetype	C/L
Christopher Sears	Seattle	Bartender	3/3
Dibbs	Seattle	Troll Street Dealer	3/2
Grigri	Seattle	Talismonger	2/5
Two-Time	Seattle	Ganger	4/1

[/spoiler]

Now some background and why I pick some stuff :

Pemela is born as an atypical street urchin, she quickly realized that she had powers on people and animals. Between her charisma, her first sight (the ability to see 'what is really there') and her old wives' remedies many people said she is the descendant from the Middle Age's witches giving her the alias 'The Hag'.

Contrary to popular belief she is not capable of casting spells, at least not on people mind like some said, instead she use headology and let their brain do the magic of turning colored water into a powerful medicine. Well, it is true that she is capable of borrowing animal senses and since it is not widely known many think that she can hear through walls, Pamela has seen no reason to convince them that she couldn't.

She did not want much but it is widely believed that she take part of shadowrunning to stave off boredom.

Mentor Spirit : Raven

Shortly after her awakening Raven appeared to her and guided her. While she is generally eager to help people you can be sure that anyone who disrespected her will end up with a strange misfortune. If you've got no respect, you've got nothing.

I was hesitant between Peacemaker and Raven and I must admit that the Min/Maxing decided me to go for Raven for the free Traceless Walk that I really like but is too expensive.

The Beast's Way

The Hag live solitary, only visited by those who seek her wisdom and remedy. At least as solitary as you can be surrounded by animals, her affinity with animals naturally lead her to follow the Beast's Way

Given the character concept it was an obvious pick. I also used it to discount Astral Perception and Commanding Voice saving a whopping 1 PP, what's not to love?

Code of Honor (Avoid Killing)

While she is not against a good cuff on the ear for ill-mannered people Pamela do not like killing and would always seek a peaceful solution

While Code of Honor is generally more to refuse to kill a certain category I thought it would fit more here than Pacifism. The Hag will still stun people on her way but will (and try to convince her companions to) avoid killing methods, she is born in the street and realize that violence is often, if not a solution, innevitable. Accidents happens so I do think that any karma reduction (that seems to be the 'punishment' to not respect the code) should only really apply if she kills on purpose.

Adept Spell (Animal Sense)

That was the closest I could found from the borrowing that exist in Discworld. Because you can not control at all the movement most animals will need to be trained first (which shouldn't be hard with 17 dice). Note that the Spellcasting is a bit low (only 9 dice) but I do not think it would matter too much because subjects will generally be voluntary.

Astral Perception

The main source of her nickname is probably the Hag strange ability to read minds and spot any affliction affecting people. While mundane people often believe it is magic, awakened quickly realize that it is just some simple assensing.

Since I was going for a fairly high Intuition character I thought that I might as well give it some Astral Perception. It also fits with giving the impression that the Hag can 'read mind' since it gives the emotional state of the subject.

Commanding Voice

This Adept Power is absolutely awesome to turn Leadership skills into a powerful multi-use tool. Fighting a group of gangers? Hope they have enough WIL + INT to resist your ~15 dice in Leadership to order them to throw their weapons in the river.

Grigri

Grigri (real name Laurie Gonzalez) is Pamela's childhood friend and one of the rare to know everything about her true ability. She herselft is an awakened with a knack for enchanting and alchemy and quickly became the area's Talismonger. They often harvest Reagents together, the Hag's superhuman perception has proven useful, even if she can not confirm the true nature of the reagents herself she often spot what's Grigri would have missed.

Grigri is a talismonger and a Aspected Magician (Enchanting), she will give a good price for any reagents you will bring her and you might get really cheap Foci if you provide the raw materials.

Dibbs

Dibbs only tried to swindle the Hag once. Since then he has a deep respect and fear for Pamela and proves to be a good source of informations from the street and second hand equipment. In return she promised not to make him bash his own head into a wall again and she even help him from time to time when he has small tasks

Two-Times

Two-Times is the head of a local gang which most member got involved with the Hag at some point (sometimes right at birth). All of his gang members know and respect her and will never attack her companions, they will even lend a hand for the right price.

Title: Re: [SR5] The Hag, an Adept Face with a knack with animals
Post by: Bushw4cker on <07-03-16/0018:36>

Running Wild (4th Ed.) Describes training animals in much detail.

Might want to consider Mystic Adept, along with borrow sense spell, being able to heal your critter could also prove useful.

Title: Re: [SR5] The Hag, an Adept Face with a knack with animals
Post by: Kuirem on <07-03-16/1124:27>

Quote from: Bushw4cker on <07-03-16/0018:36>

Might want to consider Mystic Adept, along with borrow sense spell, being able to heal your critter could also prove useful.

Mystic Adept is a good idea, I tried to made it a pure mage but it wasn't really satisfying.

In attachment the Mystic Adept version. Since the Adept is the Hag it only make sense that this one is the Witch!

I dropped the Beast's Way because Mystic Adept is really karma-vore, depending on the gamemaster it may be possible to pick it up later. Most of the build is similar but I dropped the Club skill to free some Skill points. The priority is Metatype E; Attributes C; Magic A; Skills B; Resources D.

For spells Heal, Improved Invisibility, Physical Barrier and Levitate are a must on any mage. I only took Stunbolt as an offensive spell to follow the non-killing concept.

The addition of Mindlink makes it much closer to the "Borrowing" in Discworld, nothing says you can not use it on a pet to give order and since it require only one net hit it is easy enough to cast after Animal Sense.

Increase Reflexes is THE support skill right after Heal. Spatial Sense, Mindnet and Analyze Truth are all useful spells. Influence coupled with Commanding Voice will really mess up the enemy mind.

Can you cast Analyze Truth without the target realizing?