Shadowrun
Shadowrun Play => Character creation and critique => Topic started by: Hadenwolf on <02-25-12/1316:37>
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Would appreciate some critique on this character,
based on one of the Arcgetypes posted here by UmaroVI, I hereby thank thee for helping us in need in the gaming community :)
Name: Cleo Foxman
Archetype: Spirit Medium Mage
Street name: Leo
Metatype: Elf
Characteristics:[/b]
B- 5
A- 2
R- 3
S- 1
C- 6
I- 6
L- 2
W- 5
M- 5
Qualities:[/b]
Magician (Rastafarian tradition, but believes in materialization)
-Drain: Willpower+Intuition
Restricted gear (power focus)
Mentor Spirit (Dark King -> Jah)
Moderate Addiction (Marihuana)
Incompetence (Banishing)
Prejudice: Wagemages (Outspoken)
Weak Immune System
Skills:[/b]
Spellcasting (Combat) 6 (8)
Counterspelling 2
Binding 2
Summoning 4
Influence group 1
Infiltration (Urban) 1 (3)
Assensing 1
Perception 1
Knowledge skills
Parazoology (Spirits) 6(8)
Magical Background 4
Radical Groups 2
Street drugs 2
Music 2
English N
Sperethiel 4
Spells:[/b]
Stunbolt, Stunball, Laser, Increase Reflexes, Heal, Increase Charisma, Improved Invisibilty, Physical Mask
Foci Bonding
Contacts:
Dirk White C2/L3
Specialities:Magical Theory, Magical Groups, Magical Objects
Dirk took Cleo in when he escaped the community, and is somewhat of a foster father to Cleo. He really helped when Cleo was at his worst.
Dirk is a talismonger who deals in not so common and legal arcane objects. He's a white haired elf of about thirty years age, always seen in faded
clothing.
Gear:[/b]
Magical Gear (160000)
Force 4 Power Focus (100,000) ->gold ring with a roaring lion on it.
Force 3 Sustaining Focus (30,000)
Force 3 Binding Focus (30,000)
Drugs (120)
Marijuana (120)
Fake Documents (3600)
Rating 3 Fake SIN (3000) -> Vane Breeble
Rating 3 Fake License (Carry Foci) (300)
Rating 3 Fake License (Practice Magic) (300)
Commlinks (800)
MetaLink with Vector Xim (300)
runs in public mode with fake SIN
CMT Clip with Vector Xim
runs in hidden mode for SR purposes
Contact Lenses Rating 2 with Skinlink (150)
Flare Compensation (50)
Vision Magnification (100)
Simrig (1000)
Glasses Rating 3 with Skinlink (125)
Vision Enhancement 3 (300)
Ultrasound (1000)
Image Link (25)
Equipment
Certified CredStick
Rating 6 Medkit (600)
Overcoat (20)
History:
Cleo was raised in a rastafarian community. He had no parents, their exact identity was a mystery, as in the commune, somethings were just a little bit too relaxed to define who was his father exactly, and so he became one of the many "children of the commune". At the age of 18, he was selected by the community's elder to become a witch-doctor, a medium of the so called "loa", or spirits. Cleo was overjoyed, and although he undertook very tough tests and training he persisted and came to love his new skills. With his new skills came new knowledge, and so he came to believe all teachings of his elders, that all loa are invisible and that they only appeared in this world through the possession of the witch-doctor.
But over the nights, when he was smoking weed in his hammock, e mourned the fact that he could not see the loa, as he saw other mystical beings while hallucinating after smoking.
One day, whilst dancing to the beat of his beloved reggae music in the community, he fell into a trance. The weed, the drumming, the singing, all this made him feel calm and wild at the same time, wanting to cry with happiness. It was at this time that his mentor spirit, The Dark King, showed up. Cleo saw him as Jah, the Black Christ and the rastafarian god. Over the years, Cleo had dreamed of him at least a thousand times. But that was the first time that he had actually seen a spirit, least of all Jah.
At that moment, he understood that all the other witch-doctors lived in oblivion. Spirits did have forms, and they could materialize in the physical world. Afterwards, he tried to persuade the others, but what could one person do against a thousand years of tradition? He was thrown out of the community, as an exile, a "traitor" to the world of Jah. Nowadays, he still lives in belief that he found the right way of Jah. He hates wagemages and anyone who treats spirits as their "slaves" or as their "toys". He knows that the wagemages are destroying this world, both the physical and the Astral.
Description: Leo is an elf of medium stature, quite young, with dark skin (not black, but almost), dreads, and a smile on his face that vanishes only when face to face with a wagemage.
Images:
(http://www.designcatwalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/steampunk-rasta1.jpg)
What Leo looks like a bit... More hippie-like, darker skinned and natural than this guy.
(http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff178/acazii/ring2/DSCN8893_lion_2.jpg)
Leo's power foci, a silver ring of a roaring lion he got from his Spirit Mentor
(http://gamerbling.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/mononoke.jpg?w=428&h=268)
Leo's watcher spirits (the most basic form of spirit for him)
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25 points for the last point of Intuition isn't worth it, but 10 points for 1 more Charisma is.
Binding focus doesn't stack with Power Focus. You can only add one focus to a given roll.
You should definitely wear armor but I'm assuming you just haven't gotten to that.
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So I should drop the Binding focus and use the Power focus for all Binding rolls??? I kinda didn't get that in the rules book...
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you call this char a Spirit medium, yet the Conjouring skills are very low. With a Spellcasting 6, you're not a spirit medium, you're a Spellcaster. Period.
Since Rhasta is a Possession tradition, you forgot the Enchanting skill. I recommend an advanced lifestyle from Runner Compendium with the Aspected Domain advantage. This gives you +2 on Summoning, Binding and Enchanting (Vessel Preparation!!!) while at home.
Edge 0 is a bit too low for my taste. I'd drop Int 6 and put 20 points into Edge.
I had a simmilar concept once. Talk to your GM, about cost and mechanical effect of Marihuana, it's not in the books. Persoanlly, I'd switch to something that is, like Novacoke, Deepweed or even Tempo in case you have Ghost Cartels.
Last but most important: The tradition's descriptions hints a very strong tie to the believe that music and drugs accompany magic. Do you think, you can cope with a Geas "Must be high to do magic". Because this would be so awesome. 8)
Edit: Actually, doing drugs is not very restricting. One can always use the detox spell. Force 6 is enough for common drugs to get rid of all side effects.
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So I should drop the Binding focus and use the Power focus for all Binding rolls??? I kinda didn't get that in the rules book...
Power focus applies to all Magic + (something) tests. That means it applies to Binding (and Summoning, and Enchanting, and Spellcasting, etc).
Makki is right about needing Enchanting; I missed that.
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Leo's apparently a materialization Rastafarian from the description of his tradition. If so, he actually doesn't really need to prepare vessels. He might still want create foci however.
I would switch the values of Conjuring and Binding. Conjuring isn't really a dice limited roll. It's limited by your drain resist. With a drain resist of 10-11, that means you can only soak 3-4 drain from a summon. Right now, you're rolling 15 dice for a spirit of man which will let you summon a force 8 spirit 78% of the time. However if said spirit rolls say 4 hits on its resist (which is only above average), you could be looking down 4-5 points of P.
Binding however needs a decent roll since the spirit rolls Force x 2 for it. However, it's even more limited by drain. You do get more time to heal during downtime so that makes things easier.
I would also buy Counterspelling to 4 since its rating is important for providing you and your friends a passive bonus to resist spells.