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Wolf-o-mancer

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CalibanX9

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« on: <06-08-12/1647:59> »
I'd like to make a creature control character. Not sure if I want to go adept or not, I'd like to have sense link, but that could probably be done with cyberware, too.

Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

UmaroVI

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« Reply #1 on: <06-08-12/1710:23> »
Can you say a bit more about your core concept? There are various ways of doing stuff like this, but I'm not sure exactly what you want to do. Here's the list of ones I can think of offhand:

-Training mundane wolves. You can do this as an adept, but you don't have to be. This is not, IMO, a good plan - they will never really be able to stand up to modern weapons and armor and such, even with the adept powers. The adept powers make them a bit better, but also a really fragile karma sink.

-There are doubtless wolf-like paracritters out there in Running Wild. They do tend to be very glass-cannon-y, of course, but that's also an option, although it shares much of the same issue.

-Beast spirits, while among the worst 'base' spirit types, have probably the single strongest Great Form power. You can easily make a magician who focuses on being able to Bind a pack of Great Form Beast Spirits that have a form that looks like wolves. This takes a little while to come online, and costs money over time, but is effective.

-A possession tradition magician can prepare one or more wolves (or wolf-like paracritters, for that matter) as vessels, and possess them.

-You can use the Warform and/or Biodrone rules to play Pimp My Wolf. Unfortunately, what you're likely to get is an obscenely expensive wolf that's not worth the enormous price tag. You can also be a rigger this way, but you still run into the problem of biodrones being fundamentally not cost efficient.

CalibanX9

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« Reply #2 on: <06-08-12/1755:07> »
Cool, I hadn't thought of the great form beast spirit invoking. I may try a karma build and do that. Not really what I had in mind though.

More, I was just using the wolf-o-mancer as a catchy name, I don't really want a wolf centered character, just one that uses animals extensively. Kind of like a drone rigger, but with pets. Using running wild it seems that this is an option, just not very practical (buying a ton of pre-trained animals at start up is cost prohibitive). However, once you're in game it really just takes time to train your own animals once you've acquired them.

I'll put together a chummer character and put that out.


ShinigamiWolf

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« Reply #3 on: <06-08-12/1806:48> »
I will apologize aforehand if this ends up high-jacking the thread but could you explain the great form bit a bit more. I currently run a Beast Spirit Wolf Shaman (Wolf Mentor spirit) And was kinda curious of a way to maximize on the Beast Spirit itself  as it is a little on the more lacking side, compared to the other battle/guard spirits like Air and Earth.

CalibanX9

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« Reply #4 on: <06-08-12/1823:42> »
Sure, the best way to maximize it is to initiate your shaman and take the invoking power. Then, after summoning your beast spirit, use invoking.

UmaroVI

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« Reply #5 on: <06-08-12/1837:55> »
Yeah, it's pretty much all about the Invoking metamagic. The main thing to note is that it is a binding check, so specializing your binding in Beast, having a mentor spirit with a Beast bonus, doing it in a aspected background count if possible (you can get one from lifestyle cheese in Runner's Compendium, for example), and having a Power Focus all help.

The drain from Great Form is really spiky so I don't recommend doing Invoking on a spirit with force above your magic unless you are really desperate and have edge to spend.

What makes Beast Great Form good is 100% the great form power - Paralyzing Howl is crazy, because it lets a beast spirit affect things that can hear it but can't see it. There's lots of ways to use this, but the basic setup is make your team immune, put the spirit in a box, and have it spam Paralyzing Howl as soon as you get in a fight. Protecting yourself can be done in various ways like putting in earplugs and routing your audio through drones (hearing a recording of the howl isn't dangerous, only the howl itself). The box is pretty simple; put the spirit in something like an armored vehicle or whatnot that isn't soundproof, but is as bulletproof as possible. Very few things can hurt a decent-force spirit through a barrier.

UmaroVI

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« Reply #6 on: <06-08-12/1840:30> »
Cool, I hadn't thought of the great form beast spirit invoking. I may try a karma build and do that. Not really what I had in mind though.

More, I was just using the wolf-o-mancer as a catchy name, I don't really want a wolf centered character, just one that uses animals extensively. Kind of like a drone rigger, but with pets. Using running wild it seems that this is an option, just not very practical (buying a ton of pre-trained animals at start up is cost prohibitive). However, once you're in game it really just takes time to train your own animals once you've acquired them.

I'll put together a chummer character and put that out.

So far as this goes, my suggestions are to either be a Possession mage (having spirits possess critters is a perfectly viable tactic, since critters often have really high augmented attribute maxima and combo well with the melee-centric options many spirits get), or to be a paracritter trainer and focus on utility animals rather than combat. Merlin Hawks, for example, are really, really useful. Tracking animals are useful. Lots of paracritters have bizarre powers that can be used to solve mysteries and stuff. Barghest-in-a-box works similarly to beast-spirit-in-a-box, as above. However, paracritters tend to be extremely glass-cannon-y so I don't recommend combat-oriented paracritters (aside from the Barghest box).

Cass100199

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« Reply #7 on: <06-08-12/1916:25> »
Kind of like a drone rigger, but with pets.

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