[Unadept]

Hi, guys, first time poster.

I'm interested in making a functional human Voodoo magician who specializes in using Possession spirits and Homunculi as weapons.  I've never made a magician character before, so I thought I'd see what I could have done wrong before the life test of the first run.

Grand Mal Human Hougon

B 2, A 2, R 1, S 2, C 5, I 4, L 2, W 5, E 2, M 6

Skills: Sorcery (g) 4, Conjuring (g) 4, Influence (g) 3, Enchanting 3, Survival 4, Swimming 4, Astral Combat 3, Assessing 3, Perception 2, Artisan 3, Arcana 3

Knowledge Skills: Undefined as of yet, but will include Zoology and Botony for reagent collection.

Qualities: Magician 15, Mentor Spirit (Snake, +2 to Detection, +2 to Binding, -1 to Combat) 5, Fame  (Local) 5, Enemy (Local Wiz-Gang) -12, Braggart -5, Poor Self Control (Heavy Smoker) -5, Incompetent (Automatics) -5.

Spells: Detect Object: Reagent (not sure if this is OK, checking with GM), Mindprobe, Reinforce (to cast on Homunculi), Increase Reflexes (to cast on servitors and perhaps homunculi?), Oxygenate, Stunball, Decrease Willpower (to facilitate possession, perhaps cast through the Innate Spell of a Spirit of Man), Spatial Sense Extended.

Contacts: Talislegger 2/4, Voodoo Cultists 4/1 +1 for size

Gear: Armor Jacket 8/6, Riot Shield (transparent, good target for Reinforce, perhaps possession if it doesn't seem too cheap) 2/6, Commlink (R: 2, S: 3), OS (F: 1, Sy: 2), Tool Kit, Flashlight, Light Sticks x5, Survival Kit, Lodge Materials x6, Spirit Binding Materials x12, Assaying Kit, Wood Homunculi Materials x12, Machetes x2

I hope to use the Assaying Kit, Survival and Enchanting to grab and refine my own reagents.  I hope to use a Water Spirit, Oxygenate and Swimming to go underwater and grab reagents from the shallow parts of the ocean.  I might also Stunball Critters and use them as living vessels, though I know that's more difficult.

Thoughts, criticisms, critiques?

Thanks,
Unadept

[UmaroVI]

Okay, going through:

*Elves are better at Houngan than humans are, especially with a 2 Edge.

*That 2 body is pretty dangerous; if you aren't possessed that leaves you really, really vulnerable. I'd try to get at least a 3.

*Don't take the Conjuring group. Banishing is useless; just use Stunbolt for that.

*Have some skill at 6.

*Sorcery is debatable; Ritual Spellcasting is kind of niche and you can probably get away with 4/4/1 or 6/4/1, if you really want it.

*I'd try to get Influence, Assensing, Enchanting to 4, it's a lot more karma-efficient and all are useful.

*Are you sure about Survival? That's a lot of bp for a niche skill. You might just want 1 if it's fluff.

*You don't need Swimming. You get the skills and powers of the spirit if possessed so you can just swim while possessed by a water elemental.

*Astral Combat is not worth it. Use Stunbolts.

*Why do you have Artisan 3?

*I don't really like skills at 2-3 for karma efficiency reasons. I'd either try to get Perception to 4 or leave it at 1, and I'd probably drop Artisan and Arcana to 1. Arcana 4 might be debatably worth it if you really plan on doing a lot of downtime stuff with it.

*I'm not entirely sure Poor Self Control (Heavy Smoker) is legal. I think that should be Addiction.

*Reinforce is way less good than you think it is. It increases the Armor and Structure of objects. This does not mean it increases the Armor value of homonculi, because they aren't objects when possessed. It also won't do anything to help a shield protect you more, it will just make the shield harder to break. Lastly, it takes Object Resistance.

*Increase Charisma and Increase Willpower are good if you plan to be very summoning-focused; you can sustain them on yourself before summoning. Summoning is more drain-limited than dice-pool limited, so this lets you be better at it.

*You have way more armor than you can wear when not possessed, and you don't have form-fitting body armor. I'd suggest having a suit of FFBA plus exactly enough other armor to hit your normal cap, then things you can easily add on (shield, helmet, maybe some PPP, stuff like that) to attach when possessed.

[Unadept]

Replied by point, but somewhat reorganized.

Okay, going through:

*That 2 body is pretty dangerous; if you aren't possessed that leaves you really, really vulnerable. I'd try to get at least a 3.

Valid, I'll fix that, so long as Reaction and Agility are good dump-stats, to quote a phrase.

*Don't take the Conjuring group. Banishing is useless; just use Stunbolt for that.

*Astral Combat is not worth it. Use Stunbolts.

I'm nervous about dropping both of these for Stunbolt.  As great as Stunbolt is, I was led to understand that Banishing was very effective, reducing services rather than doing Stun damage.  I was also informed, and I haven't gone over the rules as extensively as I will, that Astral Combat was essential.  I know I'll have spirits to soak up some of that love, but shouldn't I be worried about something with 3 initiative passes dropping on me while I'm dual natured?

*Are you sure about Survival? That's a lot of bp for a niche skill. You might just want 1 if it's fluff.

*You don't need Swimming. You get the skills and powers of the spirit if possessed so you can just swim while possessed by a water elemental.

*Why do you have Artisan 3?

These are all pretty central to collecting reagents and creating homunculi - I'm not sure how practical this is, given that reagents are rather cheap, but I like the image of it.  Until I get Channeling, I can't use Swimming from a possessed critter at the same time as using my Botony, or whatever, to collect underwater herbs (or whatever).

*Have some skill at 6.

*Sorcery is debatable; Ritual Spellcasting is kind of niche and you can probably get away with 4/4/1 or 6/4/1, if you really want it.

I might drop Ritual Spellcasting, or keeping it cheap.  I was wondering about the plausibility of keeping Counterspelling cheap and instead using Spirits with the Magical Guard power as my Counterspelling source.

*I'd try to get Influence, Assensing, Enchanting to 4, it's a lot more karma-efficient and all are useful.

*I don't really like skills at 2-3 for karma efficiency reasons. I'd either try to get Perception to 4 or leave it at 1, and I'd probably drop Artisan and Arcana to 1. Arcana 4 might be debatably worth it if you really plan on doing a lot of downtime stuff with it.

Gotcha.

*I'm not entirely sure Poor Self Control (Heavy Smoker) is legal. I think that should be Addiction.

OK, I was thinking about changing it, anyway.

*Reinforce is way less good than you think it is. It increases the Armor and Structure of objects. This does not mean it increases the Armor value of homonculi, because they aren't objects when possessed. It also won't do anything to help a shield protect you more, it will just make the shield harder to break. Lastly, it takes Object Resistance.

That's a shame, but better to hear about it now than later.

*Increase Charisma and Increase Willpower are good if you plan to be very summoning-focused; you can sustain them on yourself before summoning. Summoning is more drain-limited than dice-pool limited, so this lets you be better at it.

Cool!  Yeah, that's a great idea.

*You have way more armor than you can wear when not possessed, and you don't have form-fitting body armor. I'd suggest having a suit of FFBA plus exactly enough other armor to hit your normal cap, then things you can easily add on (shield, helmet, maybe some PPP, stuff like that) to attach when possessed.

Ah, yeah, I'm not too clear on armor rules.  I'll look that up, and maybe raise my Strength to carry more.

Thanks for the input, by the way, I appreciate it.

[UmaroVI]

Following up:

Banishing really isn't very good. The main problems with it are:

1) It costs a lot of bp for a skill that only helps deal with spirits. Stunbolt is 3 bp.

2) It isn't as reliable as Stunbolt. Spirits may well have a lot of services. Bound spirits can be really resistant to it. Free spirits with solid Edge scores can shrug it off.

3) It has really, really unreliable amounts of drain. If you try to banish, say, a Force 5 spirit bound to a Magic 5 mage, it rolls 10 dice and you resist drain equal to twice its hits. That can easily be very bad; compare to Stunbolt, which just does a fixed amount of drain. Also, you have no way of knowing the magic of the binding mage. Lastly, spirits can blast you with huge amounts of drain if they Edge to resist banishing.

Astral Combat is similarly not a good way to fight on the astral. Seriously, it's basically the ability to limply slap spirits. Stunbolt is how you get things done. Also, you have serious problems hitting spirits; Willpower 5 + Astral Combat 3 is 8 dice. Spirits roll Fx2. And you have a base damage of 3, and they soak that with Force. Meanwhile, they can take you out of the fight in one Fear. Seriously, try fighting a Force 5 spirit on the astral with astral combat, then try again with Stunbolt.

You can buy Swimming just for that...but it really isn't worth it. Survival, I guess I can see, although I think 4 might be overkill. Swimming: really, just wait until you have the 13 karma and get Channeling. Artisan I can see, since the checks to make Homonculi take so long; I was going to suggest just using Task spirits, but with 1 week intervals you really can't.

You can rely on spirits with Magical Guard for counterspelling, it's just risky. Keep in mind that you can (and should) teamwork counterspelling. It's not the worst place ever to cut points, but I wouldn't advise it unless you are really, really hard up for the points.

[Unadept]

OK, cool, that clarifies things quite a bit.  The GM wants non-power-gamed characters, so I'll probably keep Swimming to some degree, and drop at least a point into Banishing, but there's no way I'm walking out that door without Stunbolt.

Thank you, that clarified things quite a bit, and my character will be a lot more capable for it.

[UmaroVI]

Actually, now that I look at it:

First, Water spirits can't help you swim or dive that much. They can give you Movement so you swim really really fast, but you don't get the spirit's movement rate while possessed, and oddly enough they get none of the skills that help you swim or dive. Task Spirits, however, can, because they also have Movement and can pick up Physical skills.

Second, Swimming isn't the skill you use to know how to do deep-water herb collecting. Swimming is the skill you use to swim fast. You should probably have Diving based on what you want to do. Diving is about as Underwater Basket Weaving a skill as you can possibly get, seeing as it totally lacks any rules for its use, of course.

[Lethe]

*Don't take the Conjuring group. Banishing is useless; just use Stunbolt for that.

*Astral Combat is not worth it. Use Stunbolts.

I'm nervous about dropping both of these for Stunbolt.  As great as Stunbolt is, I was led to understand that Banishing was very effective, reducing services rather than doing Stun damage.  I was also informed, and I haven't gone over the rules as extensively as I will, that Astral Combat was essential.  I know I'll have spirits to soak up some of that love, but shouldn't I be worried about something with 3 initiative passes dropping on me while I'm dual natured?

You can attack a spirit with a stunbolt, but you can't defend against their astral combat attack without astral combat yourself. Its like having no defense. Of course some spirits have other options to attack, but astral combat should be the most common one, i assume.

*I'm not entirely sure Poor Self Control (Heavy Smoker) is legal. I think that should be Addiction.

OK, I was thinking about changing it, anyway.

A nicotine addiction is explicitly forbidden in the book, because it has no detrimental effect on the characters health.

*Reinforce is way less good than you think it is. It increases the Armor and Structure of objects. This does not mean it increases the Armor value of homonculi, because they aren't objects when possessed. It also won't do anything to help a shield protect you more, it will just make the shield harder to break. Lastly, it takes Object Resistance.

Why not? The spell is increasing the armor rating without any limitations. That would mean both ballistic and impact armor of a shield. If its harder to break, its also harder to break through for bullets. Can't see one without the other. For vessels you are right though.

[Orvich]

Increasing the armor value of the shield doesn't help it defend you any better if you can't interpose it between yourself and the threat quick enough (reaction + unarmed combat) . In that way, a harder shield isn't any better.

[Unadept]

Does anyone have any suggestion as to what I should take as a Combat Skill to use once Channeling grants me Real Ultimate Power?

Unarmed Combat is attractive, because it seems simple and accessible, and can be used with Touch spells, and may be important for shields, but lacks Oomph.

Blades are cool because of Weapon Foci and that Guardian spirits will use machetes when Possessing.

Firearms are of course the easiest and most obvious.

Thanks.

[Lethe]

Increasing the armor value of the shield doesn't help it defend you any better if you can't interpose it between yourself and the threat quick enough (reaction + unarmed combat) . In that way, a harder shield isn't any better.

According to the rules you are always behind the shield and therefore get a -1 to all actions. That's why a reinforce spell would add directly to the shields armor and therefore directly to your own. Not sure where you got that shield pull test from.

Blades are cool because of Weapon Foci and that Guardian spirits will use machetes when Possessing.

Firearms are of course the easiest and most obvious.

You can give Guardian spirits any combat skill as an optional power, but that should not matter. It doesn't effect your own choice of skills. Spirits should mostly use their powers, while you attack normally. As a mage you have other means to defeat other spirits and don't need a weapon focus for that. Unarmed combat has the spirit, so i would concentrate on firearms.

[Unadept]

Channeling doesn't actually let my character use the Spirits Skills, right?  I'd need to use a service to make it do something.

It increases my character's Physical Attributes by the Spirit's Force, replaces my Mental and Special Attributes at the Spirit's Force and Immunity to Normal Weapons.

Thanks.

[UmaroVI]

Astral Combat: no, actually, most spirits have much more effective things to do than Astral Combat. Astral Combat 1 is debatable, so you aren't untrained when defending yourself, but more than that really isn't worth it. Also, spirits aren't the only things you find on the Astral; other mages can just stunbolt you and will laugh if you try to astral combat them back.

Shields: Reinforce adds to the Armor and Structure ratings of objects. The Armor rating that a shield has as an object is not the same as the Ballistic Armor and Impact Armor it provides.

Spirits and Skills: that actually is not how Channeling works. Possession gives you a set of modifiers, including that you use the spirit's skills and the spirit can use its powers (and some powers are always active, like Element Aura). Channeling adjusts the base way Possession works in a few ways: you can use your own skills and have fine motor control over your own body. You have to use a service to use one of the spirits powers. Powers are not skills, and Channeling doesn't change how skills work.

The generally effective ways to fight are:

Possess yourself with a really high force Spirit of Man. This is useful because it replaces your Spellcasting and Magic with its values, so you can just cast spells while having better defenses.

Possess yourself with a Guardian spirit and use a gun.

Possess yourself with any type of spirit that has Element Aura, get some Hardliner Gloves, and punch people in the face.

Possess yourself with any type of spirit that has Element Aura, make sure you know Blades yourself, and hit people with a combat axe (also works with other weapons; note the AP doesn't matter, only Reach and Damage, since it converts over to elemental and AP half).

You can also do various amusing shenanigans with Invoking a great form spirit.

[Unadept]

OK, I've read through all the stuff on Channeling again - it works as you say, and seems incredibly powerful.

Wow.

[raggedhalo]

Until I get Channeling, I can't use Swimming from a possessed critter at the same time as using my Botony, or whatever, to collect underwater herbs (or whatever).

Until you get Channeling, whilst you're possessed you can only use the spirit's skills and not your own.

Unarmed Combat is attractive, because it seems simple and accessible, and can be used with Touch spells, and may be important for shields, but lacks Oomph.

Guardian Spirit w/Natural Weaponry as an optional power.  Hilarity ensues.