Good wards generally require a good grasp of geometry. Also binding spirits and ghosts in a pentagram.
Also computers. Breaking codes.
Stock trading (narrative justification for Resources 5)
Its a 1 point, so Im not bound to it.
But it seems thematic for the girl who has the equivalent of a Masters(Academics 3) at 15.
But are any of those things Lydia wants or needs to be able to do at a supernatural level of competency? She's already wealthy, not to mention friends with someone who will soon be able to effectively print money, and wards and spirit bindings aren't really in her lane to begin with.
But are any of those things Lydia wants or needs to be able to do at a supernatural level of competency? She's already wealthy, not to mention friends with someone who will soon be able to effectively print money, and wards and spirit bindings aren't really in her lane to begin with.
She is Resources 4, not Resources 5.
She is going to need it, and she isnt going to want to feel like a burden relying on Molly to do so.
Wards and spirit bindings, summonings and banishings are in her lane.
She helped raise the wards around Helen's apartment, remember?
She deals with ghosts, and associated spirits.
Remember the death shen we met in Chinatown? Her lane.Bodyjumpers like Corpsetaker? Also her lane.
Escaped inhabitants from the afterlife like the Nemean lion? Also her lane.
In addition to that, she just made a contract with someone who has Denarian enemies.
And thats before counting the enemies that Molly brings, from skinwalkers to Outsiders.
Very much the sort of thing she has to take into account.
Warding of Divine Ancestry (•••••)
The Exalted solidifies her Essence to resist hostile magic and the powers of chaos.
System: Whenever the character is the subject of any hostile supernatural power that seeks to transform, infect, taint, transport, or control her body or spirit, the difficulty to do so is raised by 1. If affected anyway, she may spend 2 Essence and roll Stamina + Occult against difficulty 8. Success shatters the magic, protecting the Exigent completely. Since this expenditure isn't reflexive, the Exigent may spend a few moments fluctuating in mid-transformation or teleportation, as her Essence battles with the magic seeking to suborn her.
Lydia's a terrestrial, so she's rocking a dragon blood level shaping defense*. The passive difficulty increase to effecting her is nice, but if someone does hit her she has to spend 2 motes to roll her 3 die stamina+occult pool against difficulty 8. An action which is not reflexive, so Lash could hypothetically get something from the first attack if she's surprised or something.
Lydia can only use her excellency on dexterity, manipulation, and intelligence based rolls, so there isn't a lot of motion to be found for that pool and she can botch.
Assuming she succeeds every round, it'd take 9 seconds for Lash to drain her essence pool low enough that she couldn't defend herself.
* Which to be clear she should be. Terrestrials aren't just celestials with small gas tanks.
He doesn't pray to it, but from a certain perspective he lives like a monk dedicated to magic. It's the focus and passion of his life.
Not that I expect this to be the same as that, but faith isn't solely a thing of churches and it means something to invest it in something.
For DtF this is pretty heavily implied by how you get faith potential:
FAITH POTENTIAL Mortals don't have a Faith rating. Instead, they have a Faith potential, a measure of how much Faith
a demon can use to reconfigure their souls. The Storyteller decides what Faith potential a
mortal possesses. Most humans have a Faith potential of 2. Someone such as a devout priest with strong religious beliefs (no matter how twisted) would have a potential of 3. A Faith potential of 4 is the province of the fanatically religious, such as a fundamentalist preacher or Buddhist monk. Only a handful of people possess the determination, belief and devotion necessary for a po- tential of 5 — this is the hallmark of the pope, Mother Teresa or the Dalai Lama. Mortals with a potential of 1 are spiritually weak, with no religious beliefs and little ability to believe in the demon's power. Such mortals make poor thralls, but may have other abilities that compensate. People with zero potential exist, but they are rare. Such spiritually dead, deeply skeptical mortals
cannot enter into a pact with a demon.
You have faith potential is directly based on how faithful a person you are. If you want to improve the thrall later, they have to have grown in belief and dedication to the demon:
It's possible to give new gifts to a thrall you've already empowered, but it's very difficult to do so. In order to further alter a thrall, the mortal's Faith potential must increase - which only occurs if his belief and dedication to the demon becomes significantly stronger. The Storyteller is the sole judge as to whether a thrall's Faith potential increases. If a thrall's belief grows, the demon can spend the extra point of Faith on new improvements — but doing so requires a new Faustian bargain between demon and thrall.
Lydia's a bit of a special case because she's a demigod polytheist and her conception of faith isn't the same as Molly's more Catholic conception of the idea, but it's not and shouldn't be treated as nothing.
She is Resources 4, not Resources 5.
She is going to need it, and she isnt going to want to feel like a burden relying on Molly to do so.
Wards and spirit bindings, summonings and banishings are in her lane.
She helped raise the wards around Helen's apartment, remember?
She deals with ghosts, and associated spirits.
Remember the death shen we met in Chinatown? Her lane.Bodyjumpers like Corpsetaker? Also her lane.
Escaped inhabitants from the afterlife like the Nemean lion? Also her lane.
In addition to that, she just made a contract with someone who has Denarian enemies.
And thats before counting the enemies that Molly brings, from skinwalkers to Outsiders.
Very much the sort of thing she has to take into account.
But is warding and that kind of binding even within her capabilities? Sure, she has power over spirits of the dead, but that's an innate ability, right? And isn't warding more of a mortal type of magic? TBH, I'm not completely sure how her powers are modeled using WoD rules, so I'm probably just looking at this incorrectly.
Even so, I still think it's of marginal utility. Why not increase her Perception instead? That would synergize well with your other Faith purchase for her.
But is warding and that kind of binding even within her capabilities? Sure, she has power over spirits of the dead, but that's an innate ability, right? And isn't warding more of a mortal type of magic? TBH, I'm not completely sure how her powers are modeled using WoD rules, so I'm probably just looking at this incorrectly.
Yes.
Like I said, she was one of the people who helped ward Helen Beckett's home, and picking up the Path sorcery for it is relatively cheap, since she has a tutor in her head.
And she does have the need; her father warded their home before he went away, but Harry had to help replace the wards after Corpsetaker. Not having to rely on Harry's availability helps.
Furthermore, there's a lot of Intelligence, Academics and Larceny rolls that qualify as math/calculation rolls.
From hacking a computer database or cellphone to breaking codes.
Even so, I still think it's of marginal utility. Why not increase her Perception instead? That would synergize well with your other Faith purchase for her.
Perception is an Attribute.
Attributes costs 5 Freebie Points per dot.
Abilities cost 2 Freebie Points per dot.
After buying Willpower plus the 5 point Merit, we have only 1 FP left.
Yog bought another Acute Sense(Hearing), to complement the Acute Sense(Vision) we already have.
I decided this was a better investment.
He doesn't pray to it, but from a certain perspective he lives like a monk dedicated to magic. It's the focus and passion of his life. Not that I expect this to be the same as that, but faith isn't solely a thing of churches and it means something to invest it in something.
For DtF this is pretty heavily implied by how you get faith potential:
Oh sure.
I suspect the QM is treating it more like the RPG's concept of Sponsored Magic, the way Lord Raith bargained for Immunity to Mortal Magic from an unknown patron or how McCoy has access to the Blackstaff or how Dresden uses the Winter Knight Mantle.
Adhoc vote count started by uju32 on Dec 5, 2023 at 7:44 PM, finished with 51 posts and 6 votes.
[X] Plan Graceful confidence -[X] A point of Faith can be converted into 10 freebie points. These points can be used to buy or improve traits such as Attributes, Abilities or Willpower. They cannot be used for improving Backgrounds. --[X] Willpower: 4 points --[X] Self-Confident merit: 5 points --[X] Acute Senses (hearing): 1 point -[X] Supernatural Awareness: Roll Perception+Awareness (Dif 7) to notice the spiritual feeling of a place (Places of loss, pain, etc.) and to notice nearby magical effects, demonic power etc. Just assume they always have a slightly weaker version of the Sight active. -[X] One point of Faith bestows one of the enhancements of the demon's apocalyptic form. To benefit from the enhancement, the mortal must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6). Success allows the mortal to use the enhancement for a scene. The demon can bestow more than one enhancement, but he must spend a point of Faith on each. Lash can impart one of their high-Torment special abilities if desired at the cost of a temporary Torment point. --[X] Low Torment: Marble Flesh, +4 Soak Dice Against all damage
[X] Plan: Immunity and Will -[X] A point of Faith can be converted into 10 freebie points. These points can be used to buy or improve traits such as Attributes, Abilities or Willpower. They cannot be used for improving Backgrounds. --[X] +1 Attribute 5 freebie points, Manipulation --[X] +1 Ability 2 freebie points, Subterfuge --[X] +1 Willpower 1 freebie point X3 -[X] One point of Faith can be used to impart one of the demon's inherent powers, such as immunity to mind-control. The mortal permanently benefits from this power, rolling Willpower (difficulty 7) to activate its effects. --[X] Immunity to Mind Control --[X] Immunity to Possession
[X]Plan Deaths Daughter: 3 Faith points -[X] 1 Faith: Marble Flesh, +4 Soak Dice Against all damage -[X] 1 Faith: Supernatural Awareness: Roll Perception+Awareness (Dif 7) to notice the spiritual feeling of a place (Places of loss, pain, etc.) and to notice nearby magical effects, demonic power etc. Just assume they always have a slightly weaker version of the Sight active. -[X] 1 Faith: 10 freebie points. Can be used to buy or improve traits such as Attributes, Abilities or Willpower. --[X] +4 Willpower: 4 freebie point --[X] +Spark of Life: 5 freebie points --[X] +Lightning Calculator: 1 freebie points
5.1) Self-Condifent. For any roll at DC6 or higher, that uses her divine abilities, Lydia gets to add 1 success. For free. Every time. That's... close to broken, I would say. She can also almost always add this free success to other rolls (depends on how confident we feel). This has great synergy with her excellency. It's adjacent to it, and boosts it greatly. Essentially, her excellency transforms into "add 10 dice, and 1 free success"
Self-Confident (5 pt. Merit)
Mages are confident; you're even more so. When spending Willpower to gain an automatic success, you don't even need to lose that point of Willpower unless:
1) The Willpower-gained success is the only success you get for that action; or...
2) the difficulty for that action is 5 or less. This Merit kicks in only in challenging circumstances, and tasks with a difficulty of 5 or lower are just too easy to demand help from your character's self-confidence.
It has to be an action you can intentionally spend WP for.
It doesnt proc for a whole lot of rolls, including most reflexive rolls like soak or willpower .
Remember, we can already spend Willpower for rolls.
And since Lydia is going to buy Bridge of Dreams 2 in short order for WP regen, Willpower regen is not the issue it would usually be.
My apologies I only brought it up now; I can only claim distraction when I first looked it over.
But this is quite inferior to the 6-dot version, which allowed you to avoid botches.
You are mistaken about how this merit works.
Why do people want the self confidence boost over a healing power? It even works on other people. It would increase her survivability astronomically and anyone around her should she feel the need.
[X] Plan Divine Scion
-[X] A point of Faith can be converted into 10 freebie points. These points can be used to buy or improve traits such as Attributes, Abilities or Willpower. They cannot be used for improving Backgrounds.
--[X] Willpower : 4 points
--[X] Brawl 2 : 4 points
--[X] Eidetic Memory : 2 point merit
--[X] Stamina 2 : 10 points
-[X] One point of Faith bestows one of the enhancements of the demon's apocalyptic form. To benefit from the enhancement, the mortal must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6). Success allows the mortal to use the enhancement for a scene. The demon can bestow more than one enhancement, but he must spend a point of Faith on each. Lash can impart one of their high-Torment special abilities if desired at the cost of a temporary Torment point.
--[X] Low Torment: Marble Flesh, +4 Soak Dice Against all damage
Marble flesh Stacks really well with her durability charm that scales with her stamina. Will power improves her Excellency. Brawl brings her to the best as she could be in her fighter ability to keep up. Eidetic memory because she likes to read and learn and it's something she doesn't already have as well as really useful to have in general.
@uju32 your plan is mostly good, but lightning calculator is a waste of that last point. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch to argue that Lash could let some of her experience rub off when modifying Lydia's soul, which is a justification for the rarest superpower:
Common Sense (1-pt. Merit)
Your mage has an exceptional body of everyday wisdom and a tendency to deduce clear courses of action in puzzling situat ions. Although this
Merit does not give you a benefit to any die rolls, it means that the Storyteller will warn you when your character's actions violate common sense.
He may even give you suggestions. This Merit is good for new players, as it gives the St oryteller an excuse to treat them lightly.
And maybe it'll stop her from making deals with demons for power or hurling her boyfriend into another dimension.
If that doesn't fit, there's also this:
Ability Aptitude (1-pt. Merit)
For every human ability, there are those who have a natural flair for it. Within your character's specific Aptitude, reduce all difficulties by two. A natural linguist picks up languages easily, speaking without any trace of accent, and a crack driver can perform phenomenal car tricks with ease.
This Aptitude functions for one Ability, but it can be taken multiple times for a character who's a natural with, say, computers and technology.
Special or combat Abilities, such as Do, should never have an Ability Aptitude associated with them.
If the goal is for her to use math heavy magic then give her -2 difficulty to all academic or occult checks.
For her current build I'm more tempted by academics, since she can do more with it. We'd just need to be creative about the use cases. Researching things and planning out ways to exploit them would be the main application o guess, since you can't kill Outsiders with your math homework.
Investigation might be a good choice too; she's decent at it and could feasibly do well enough to regularly matter when we're on the trail.
I still prefer common sense though, so I'm going to approval vote that as well.
[X] Uju32
[X]Plan Deaths Daughter and Demon's Disciple
-[X] 1 Faith: Marble Flesh, +4 Soak Dice Against all damage
-[X] 1 Faith: Supernatural Awareness: Roll Perception+Awareness (Dif 7) to notice the spiritual feeling of a place (Places of loss, pain, etc.) and to notice nearby magical effects, demonic power etc. Just assume they always have a slightly weaker version of the Sight active.
-[X] 1 Faith: 10 freebie points. Can be used to buy or improve traits such as Attributes, Abilities or Willpower.
--[X] +4 Willpower: 4 freebie point
--[X] +Spark of Life: 5 freebie points
--[X] +Common Sense: 1 freebie points
Edit;
Seriously though, review a list of the big names in exalted. Now consider how many of them actually had common sense and how different their lives would have been if their power came with it stapled to the side.
@uju32 your plan is mostly good, but lightning calculator is a waste of that last point. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch to argue that Lash could let some of her experience rub off when modifying Lydia's soul, which is a justification for the rarest superpower:
Yeah, Ability Aptitude: Occult seems like something we should want really badly for this one, given the nature of the setting.
Especially since her native countermagic is Occult based (Wits + Occult); that -2DC to Occult rolls might be very important.
Going to swap out Lightning Calculator for it now.
@BronzeTongue I think you're making too big a deal of the Common Sense Merit as well as the idea of common sense. Inherently Common Sense is a knowledge to apply your skills in a practical manner that won't immediately get you fucked up. The common sense of a normal person without magic is distinctly different than a Wizards the same goes for the common sense of a vampire or an exalted. Now if you mean it could prevent them from engaging in activities that are obviously like insane Maybe but that's a very large maybe doing a lot of work. In all likelihood they would pursue whatever grandiose end they have just in a significantly more down to earth manner.
Though it could be argued that Havesh was the only exalt with common sense.
The plan has been updated.
This is the current version; I removed Lightning Calculator and replaced it with Ability Aptitude Occult. VOTE
[X]Plan Deaths Daughter: 3 Faith points
-[X] 1 Faith: Marble Flesh, +4 Soak Dice Against all damage
-[X] 1 Faith: Supernatural Awareness: Roll Perception+Awareness (Dif 7) to notice the spiritual feeling of a place (Places of loss, pain, etc.) and to notice nearby magical effects, demonic power etc. Just assume they always have a slightly weaker version of the Sight active.
-[X] 1 Faith: 10 freebie points. Can be used to buy or improve traits such as Attributes, Abilities or Willpower.
--[X] +4 Willpower: 4 freebie point
--[X] +Spark of Life: 5 freebie points
--[X] +Ability Aptitude: Occult : 1 freebie points
RATIONALE Marble Skin is +4 Soak at will, which applies to all damage. Thats a gimme.
Lydia's Excellency is based on her Willpower, so increasing it from 6 to 10 gives her +4 dice on all Excellency rolls.
Additionally, her use of Shih Arts is also based on Willpower, so that helps as well.
Supernatural Awareness is essentially discount Sight, but it has a range of miles.
And it has no activation requirement.
Also a gimme.
Spark of Life heals all bashing damage in an hour, and heals lethal damage as bashing damage, reduces the severity of Agg Damage, and reduces the DC to heal or treat other people by -2DC. And she can share her healing rate with anyone she is making physical contact with.
All of which appears thematic for someone with a special relationship with death.
Ability Aptitude Occult which gives us -2DC to Occult rolls.
Lydia's native Exalted countermagic, which is her only current defense against hostile magic or shaping? Is Wits + Occult.
So this helps prevent her being turned into a toad. Spark of Life: 5 points
Blessed with great vitality, you heal injuries with heroic speed and ease. Your own injuries from lethal damage heal as if they were bashing damage (see the Healing Damage chart in Mage 20, p. 406), and aggravated damage heals as if it were one level higher than it is. (Wounded-level damage, for instance, would heal at the Injured-level rate.) Bashing damage, regardless of its extent, heals within an hour.
If you're trying to heal someone else, you subtract -2 from the difficul- ty of the roll, even if that roll involves casting a Life Sphere healing Effect. (The usual +3 maximum modifier and minimum difficulty of 3 still apply – see Mage 20, p. 503.) As long as you remain in physical touch with the injured party, that character uses your healing rate as her own. Your touch also soothes minor pains – muscle spasms, headaches, and so forth – within a minute or two.
Beyond its healing powers, this rush of life-energy simply feels good, too. Your aura shines with bright vitality, and your Reso-
nance reflects your strong connection to the primal life-force. On the inevitable downside, vampires find your blood delicious – twice as potent as normal human vitae (worth double the usual blood points, for players of Vampire: The Masquerade) – and
unspeakably refreshing.
Ability Aptitude: Occult: 1 point
Ability Aptitude (1-pt. Merit)
For every human ability, there are those who have a natural flair for it. Within your character's specific Aptitude, reduce all difficulties by two. A natural linguist picks up languages easily, speaking without any trace of accent, and a crack driver can perform phenomenal car tricks with ease.
This Aptitude functions for one Ability, but it can be taken multiple times for a character who's a natural with, say, computers and technology.
Special or combat Abilities, such as Do, should never have an Ability Aptitude associated with them.
Adhoc vote count started by uju32 on Dec 5, 2023 at 10:58 PM, finished with 67 posts and 14 votes.
[X] Plan Graceful confidence -[X] A point of Faith can be converted into 10 freebie points. These points can be used to buy or improve traits such as Attributes, Abilities or Willpower. They cannot be used for improving Backgrounds. --[X] Willpower: 4 points --[X] Self-Confident merit: 5 points --[X] Acute Senses (hearing): 1 point -[X] Supernatural Awareness: Roll Perception+Awareness (Dif 7) to notice the spiritual feeling of a place (Places of loss, pain, etc.) and to notice nearby magical effects, demonic power etc. Just assume they always have a slightly weaker version of the Sight active. -[X] One point of Faith bestows one of the enhancements of the demon's apocalyptic form. To benefit from the enhancement, the mortal must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6). Success allows the mortal to use the enhancement for a scene. The demon can bestow more than one enhancement, but he must spend a point of Faith on each. Lash can impart one of their high-Torment special abilities if desired at the cost of a temporary Torment point. --[X] Low Torment: Marble Flesh, +4 Soak Dice Against all damage
[X]Plan Deaths Daughter: 3 Faith points -[X] 1 Faith: Marble Flesh, +4 Soak Dice Against all damage -[X] 1 Faith: Supernatural Awareness: Roll Perception+Awareness (Dif 7) to notice the spiritual feeling of a place (Places of loss, pain, etc.) and to notice nearby magical effects, demonic power etc. Just assume they always have a slightly weaker version of the Sight active. -[X] 1 Faith: 10 freebie points. Can be used to buy or improve traits such as Attributes, Abilities or Willpower. --[X] +4 Willpower: 4 freebie point --[X] +Spark of Life: 5 freebie points --[X] +Ability Aptitude: Occult : 1 freebie points
[X] Plan: Immunity and Will -[X] A point of Faith can be converted into 10 freebie points. These points can be used to buy or improve traits such as Attributes, Abilities or Willpower. They cannot be used for improving Backgrounds. --[X] +1 Attribute 5 freebie points, Manipulation --[X] +1 Ability 2 freebie points, Subterfuge --[X] +1 Willpower 1 freebie point X3 -[X] One point of Faith can be used to impart one of the demon's inherent powers, such as immunity to mind-control. The mortal permanently benefits from this power, rolling Willpower (difficulty 7) to activate its effects. --[X] Immunity to Mind Control --[X] Immunity to Possession
[X] Plan Divine Scion -[X] A point of Faith can be converted into 10 freebie points. These points can be used to buy or improve traits such as Attributes, Abilities or Willpower. They cannot be used for improving Backgrounds. --[X] Willpower: 4 points
--[X] Brawl 2 : 4 points
--[X] Eidetic Memory : 2 point merit
--[X] Stamina 2 : 10 points -[X] One point of Faith bestows one of the enhancements of the demon's apocalyptic form. To benefit from the enhancement, the mortal must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6). Success allows the mortal to use the enhancement for a scene. The demon can bestow more than one enhancement, but he must spend a point of Faith on each. Lash can impart one of their high-Torment special abilities if desired at the cost of a temporary Torment point. --[X] Low Torment: Marble Flesh, +4 Soak Dice Against all damage
[X]Plan Deaths Daughter and Demon's Disciple -[X] 1 Faith: Marble Flesh, +4 Soak Dice Against all damage -[X] 1 Faith: Supernatural Awareness: Roll Perception+Awareness (Dif 7) to notice the spiritual feeling of a place (Places of loss, pain, etc.) and to notice nearby magical effects, demonic power etc. Just assume they always have a slightly weaker version of the Sight active. -[X] 1 Faith: 10 freebie points. Can be used to buy or improve traits such as Attributes, Abilities or Willpower. --[X] +4 Willpower: 4 freebie point --[X] +Spark of Life: 5 freebie points --[X] +Common Sense: 1 freebie points
