Our characters

[Blackrat]

He told me that bonus points can take 'em to 5. I'd suggest you assume you can do so, and then we'll all refuse to play if BSR disagrees

[oneiros]

What are best spells to go for?

1. Am thinking Death of Obsidian Butterflies and Emerald Countermagic for definite.
2. Transport-wise either Stormwind Rider or Cirrus Skiff (more likely if we have another ranged attacker who would benefit more than I).
3. Others I liked: Flying Guillotine, Song of the Waves, Fugue of Truth, Sprouting Shackles of Doom.
4. Is Virtuous Guardian of Flame a must? It seems rather expensive, though if it's cast first thing in the morning, is it likely the motes will have recovered by the time any action starts?

At the moment, I have 5 slots available for spells - though might have to cut back on other charms to accommodate more if necessary.

[johandenerad]

admin said:

You can use bonus points to take it up to 5.

Right?

Oh God I hope so

Yeah, we can.

Aren't the motes committed for Virtuous Guardian of Flame? Also, Thunder Wolf's Howl is the best Terrestrial attack spell out there: (Intelligence+Occult) attack roll, which cannot be parried or dodged, doing (Essence+successes) damage that ignores armour, also imposing a -2 internal penalty on all living creature's actions for five ticks after per success. The effect is a 20 yard radius within 100 yards of the sorcerer and the cost is only 10m. The only downside is that the damage is bashing.

Erm, yeah, not sure why I wrote all that. The spell is good though. Corrupted Words also kicks ass.

[Learned Hand]

Emerald Countermagic and Stormwind Rider are always very useful.

Death of Obsidian Butterflies is always fun, and Flying Guillotine is amazing for taking out leaders. You might only want to take one at game start though. Once you go to essence 4 (you'll want to do that asap) the available battle-magic becomes mental.

Song of the Waves is hilarious, but it is something else you'd be likely to cast in battle, which you may not have the essence to do, once you've used your first two battle spells. If you want spells that let you fuck with people you'd be better off taking something like Peacock Shadow Eyes or Silent Words of Dreams and Nightmares.

Sprouting shackle of dooms is also more battle magic, and is actually pretty useless against anything the scary side of a mortal, and mortals aren't too bad anyway.

Virtuous Guardian of Flame is not necessary. It uses up motes and you may not get them back. A combination of armour for soak, the fact that you'll be standing in the middle of a bunch of fighters who can protect you, and your Twilight anima ability will keep you alive. That said, the guardian does make sure.

Fugue of Truth is a great spell to use before going into social situations.

[oneiros]

Okay folks - got a character breakdown for your critiquing:

Azir Lerayn
Twilight Caste - Apothecary/Sorceror

STR 1, DEX 4, STA 3
CHA 4, MAN 4, APP 2
PER 4, INT 4, WIT 3

Archery 3 [F]
Integrity 3, Presence 4 [F], Resistance 3 [F], Survival 1
Craft (Water) 2, Investigation 1, Lore 3, Medicine 5, Occult 5
Awareness 3 [F], Dodge 3
Bureaucracy 2, Linguistics 2, Socialise 3 [F]

Comp 1, Conv 5, Temp 3, Val 1 - VirtFlaw: Heart of Flint
Willpower 8, Essence 3

Charms - 20
1st Archery Excellency
2nd Awareness Excellency, Keen Sight Technique
Frugal Merchant Method
Reflex Sidestep Tech, Shadow Over Water
Flawless Diagnosis Tech, 1st Medical Excellency, Contagion Curing Touch, Ailment Rectifying Method, Wound Mending Care Technique
Spirit Detecting Glance, All-Encompassing Sorcerer’s Sight, Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
First Presence Excellency, Irresistible Salesman Spirit, Hypnotic Tongue Technique
Essence Gathering Temper, Ox-Body Technique (-1 ×2)
Mastery of Small Manners

Spells - 5
Song of the Waves
Cirrus Skiff
Emerald Countermagic
Fugue of Truth
Death of OB or Thunder Wolf Howl ??

Background
Resources 3, Backing 2

BAckground-wise, I see him as an apothecary/doctor figure, has a shop, probably well liked in his neighbourhood but secretly a member of a shadowy organisation (e.g. thieves guild) where he's a mid-level officer responsible for creating poisons, potions, etc. So he's a good medic/herbalist but also has the social skills to 'pose' as merchant and order people around.

Don't know where to actually base him though/what groups this fits with. Or what to pick for Motivation. Also, not sure if I should give up Ailment Rectifying Mehtod for one of the Archery charms.

Apologies for spiel but what do folks think?

[Blackrat]

Just a few thoughts on first glance - I'll try and have a closer look later.

1. Looks good

2. I'd be tempted to make Dodge favoured, since it has some good charms in it which will save you from death. Up to you, though, really - you've got enough Dodge to be going on with.

3. Thieves'-Guild-esque background fits very well in the city of Nexus, I'd say, which conveniently is one of the entry points into the campaign - see the other threads. (Can't remember which one, sorry...) So I'd have him start there. However, I think we'll be moving around quite a lot so I wouldn't think of it as a "base" as such. (Though BSR may correct me.)

4. Motivation is always tough. Why has your character become an apothecary? I'm guessing not from his strong desire to heal everyone, given the penchant for poisoning. So what's behind it?

Typical Twilight-y Motivations might include things like: wanting to know everything there is to know about a particular subject; develop the best <something> - poison? medicine?; discover the ancient secret of <whatever> that he's heard of / read about; learn a particular group of spells (Solar Circle Sorcery?) or perhaps develop one of his own.

That's just a brainstorm, really - but there might be something there you can draw on.

[johandenerad]

It might be cool to think why he came along with the expedition too. (assuming you joined us at Nexus) Did you come as a medic simply for the cash, or the adventure? Or were you spying on someone going for the organisation? Maybe even meant to poison someone? It could even be one of the other characters, so that when we all Exalt you're not really sure what to do.

A Motivation that revolves around accruing power and then using it for good works well for Solars - I mean, they're pretty much the Superman type Exalt. BR's right about Twilight's often having knowledge-based Motivations. Usually, if I can't think of one I come up with a bunch of Intimacies for the character based on their backstory and then try to get a Motivation from mushing them together. Your Dawn Caste loves hats, travelling and his country? Then his Motivation could be reforging the his nation's lost crown that was scattered to the four corners of Creation by some big demon thingy. Obviously that's a particularly poor example, but looking at your character's Intimacies can help, honest.

[Blackrat]

oneiros said:

Also, will look to finalise Azir shortly. Are we still in need of Eclipse melee-ist?

I think we're still in need of an Eclipse full stop. And a Dawn wouldn't go amiss either, though that's less important. Don't we have:

1 Zenith
1 Twilight
3 Nights

... ?

I may be remembering wrongly. Anyway, slightly unbalanced towards the Night. Which is find provided those who aren't Night are ok with it - i.e. they're not going to be left out all the time, i.e. they probably have some Night overlap. Although that will mean large overlap in the party as a whole, which in general is a bad thing as it means whoever isn't the absolute top of the pile has wasted a load of points. (Something Exalted suffers from a lot because of its small number of skills.)

As far as Fox is concerned, this is probably not too big a deal. He's an Awareness monster, though not the only one. He also has a little bit of Stealth and is working on Larceny too. So he's probably got enough Night to cope with a Nightly party. Also he has enough other stuff (Soc. combat in particular) to not feel overshadowed, if you'll excuse the pun, by the Night castes who beat him at Stealth etc.

Oneiros, I reckon you should be looking to do something similar with Azir.

BSR, you said the character issues are mostly resolved. Does that mean you're not worried by the above, or that you've done something about it?


Sat 2nd is in my diary.

[Learned Hand]

MDV has announced that she will be in (but seems to have given up on this board for the time being). She is going to be a Twilight craftsman.

[oneiros]

Azir has a fair bit of Awareness but that's about it at present. Had to cut the Stealth/Larceny angle to focus more on social. Will probably tinker a bit more to maybe boost lore. But the general spellcasting bit kinda precludes much stealth

[Blackrat]

oneiros said:

But the general spellcasting bit kinda precludes much stealth

True. I'm just concerned that with 3 Night castes, they'll be all "Let's stealth it up!" and you and I will have to find something else to do. We'll see how it goes, I guess.

[oneiros]

Question is prob most appropriate here...

According to the table on p274 (Experience Point Costs), to take 1 dot in a new Ability costs 3xp. If this is in a Favoured/Caste ability, then to take it from 1 to 2 only costs 1xp.

Am I reading this correctly and there is a kinda 'activation energy' cost to start up?

[bravesirrobin]

yeah, first dot is harder than second. we apply discount though, so first dot is only 2xp.

[oneiros]

Oh, ok, so the -1xp for favoured applies to that as well. Nifty.

Am prob gonna start putting dots into Craft (Alchemy) if that's okay with you? Then I think I'll save for those Craft charms we're working on.

Might look at creating some Lore or Presence charms that better suit Azir at some point as well.

[bravesirrobin]

cool cool. you can indeed increase Craft(Alchemy) whenever you wish.

i've long had visions of a lore tree involving learning and knowledge charms, but so far never got round to writing it.