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New player...need some help with first character

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Bakajin

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« on: <08-25-12/2034:57> »
Im going for a magician/face man sort of character with some hopefully unique flavor.  I picked a custom negative quality too where I pretty much avoid any voilence or thing that could hurt a kid and will go out of my way to help one.  Not sure how a gm would play that into a game but could be interesting (similar to pacifist but different flavor).  Any thoughts or advice or glaring problems/missing items would be greatly appreciated.  Im looking forward to trying and getting a casual group together in my area (got hooked on it at gencon this year).

Scarecrow71

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« Reply #1 on: <08-25-12/2046:55> »
Downloaded the PDF and it is blank?
I could wile away the hours conversing with the flowers
Consulting with the rain
And my head I'd be scratching while my thoughts were busy hatching
If I only had a brain...

"Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun." - Ash, Army of Darkness

Henzington

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« Reply #2 on: <08-25-12/2113:02> »
worked fine for me only suggestion would be having spellcasting at 6.
Whenever I am at a loss for I should do, I ask myself what would Michael Weston do?

Scarecrow71

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« Reply #3 on: <08-26-12/0100:31> »
Well, that's what I get for trying to review it on my iPhone.  Works on my laptop.

Anyhow, you are attempting to be a face, but you are missing half the Influence skill group.  You are spending 24 BP for Con 2 and Negotiation 4, when for 6 more BP you could have Con, Etiquette, Leadership, and Negotiation all at 3 by taking the skill group.

You should split your Active and Knowledge skills into separate columns.  You've got the space on your character sheet, and it just makes it look cleaner.  Not something wrong, but more of a personal preference of mine.  Which means you can tell me to pound sand on this one.  :D

I like that you've got some type of combat skill to complement your spellcasting, but you really should pick up Pistols.  Pistols 2 is better than Blades 4.  And you really should have at least 2 in Perception.

I'm noticing a serious lack of gear on your character sheet.  You really should have, at the very least, a bonded Foci for Increase Reflexes, as well as Magical Lodge materials.  You can't really learn new stuff without having the gear to support doing so.
I could wile away the hours conversing with the flowers
Consulting with the rain
And my head I'd be scratching while my thoughts were busy hatching
If I only had a brain...

"Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun." - Ash, Army of Darkness

Bakajin

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« Reply #4 on: <08-26-12/1428:02> »
Thanks for the great advice so far.  I wasn't aware of taking a whole skill group etc.  I will definitely head back and retweak that.  Gear was an area I was still working on, I need to flesh that out.  Still reading about what it essential to start with in general and specifically for my class.  I like your suggestion on splitting the skills into separate columns, so definitely no sand pounding required :)

One question, with pistols do you have a penalty for close combat?  Ill look into the perception too.  Thanks for the advice so far.

Glyph

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« Reply #5 on: <08-26-12/1608:32> »
You have a -3 penalty to make or defend against ranged attacks while engaged in melee combat, regardless of whether it is a pistol or some other weapon.  Personally, I would recommend raising spellcasting, instead - why do you need a gun, when can use combat spells?

Also, I would drop the astral combat (manabolt is a better option against spirits) and, especially, the edged weapons.  You have a Body of 2 and an Agility of 3; getting into melee combat is asking to get killed.  Also, no summoning skill?  The ability to summon spirits is a huge part of a mage's arsenal.

With the exception of your Charisma, your stats are average all around.  I would suggest taking 2 points from Logic to raise Willpower by 2, to help soak spellcasting drain, unless your high Logic is an integral part of the character's background.

Knowledge skills are limited the same way active skills are, namely one at 6 or two at 5, so you need to revise them a bit.

WSN0W

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« Reply #6 on: <08-26-12/2039:07> »
I would advise having some form of mundane weapon (ranged for reasons mentioned by Glyph).

Your spells will do more and better than a pistol in most cases, but spells

A: are obvious at the levels worth casting them at to smote foes
B: Can inflict Stun/Physical damage on you
C: Leave a magical finger print that is unique to you that is either one more thing you have to worry about scrubbing from a scene if you don't want Knight Errant, Lone Star, that mob guy's mage or whomeever getting a solid look at it.
D: Spellcasting makes you a prime 'kill it now' target. Firing a pistol is less likely to jump you to the top of the priority kill order list.
E: multiple targets. You can shoot 2 people, you can manabolt 1 person. You can mana ball a bunch...but depending on where your teammates are you might not be able to drop an AoE spell without killing them too.

Bakajin

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« Reply #7 on: <08-26-12/2156:20> »
Ok...tried to incorporate the suggestions into a modified build of the original.  See attached.  Thanks again for the help everyone.