Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[Yog]

I'd rather wait for another opportunity at a new Circle Mate, I think.

I think compared to say D&D non-PC support is more helpful and you have fewer bases to cover.
The three of us, plus occasionally Harry or Michael as their time permits works.

Click to shrink...

Even under that paradigm, Olivia as an occasional supporter, like Harry or Michael, works well, and makes this vote worthwhile. She's probably going to be doing a lot of order of Cauldron / Paranet stuff on her own that we don't get time to do anyway.

Also, we should totally do some nepotism and have her star in some movie - we have a movie studio after all. Which we haven't done anything with so far.

 

[Tsotate]

[X] uju32

@DragonParadox would MiS work on the frenzy chance of Black Wind?

@uju32 I do appreciate the cut and paste, as I no longer have access to anything but M20 and W20.

I do really look forward to applying some of uju32's formor crafting to the Alphas someday. Do you think that they are Dog enough for Lydia's canine training charm to work?

Click to shrink...

Keep in mind that she only gets 2*Essence slots for animals. (I'm a giant hypocrite here, as I really want her to burn one of those slots on Mouse, who is even less plot-relevant)

 

[Artemis1992]

Even under that paradigm, Olivia as an occasional supporter, like Harry or Michael, works well, and makes this vote worthwhile. She's probably going to be doing a lot of order of Cauldron / Paranet stuff on her own that we don't get time to do anyway.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I't not like I'm voting against giving her anything here.

I don't think it will work narrativly if we try to integrate her into the main-group, but no reason not upgrade her a bit.

 

[DragonParadox]

The Will and the Way ​

18th of January 2007 A.D.

Harry Dresden knew he was not what one might call an expert on the fairer sex even when the fairer sex was human and not a partial incarnation of a Fallen Angel, but even he knew going quiet over a box of Kung Pao Chicken was not a good sign. The glowing eyes were probably a worse one of some kind. "What's the matter?" he tried lamely.

"This is so pointless! I mean look at you," she motioned at him vaguely as he lay on the couch, more or less straight, more or less not in pain as long as he didn't move too much. Really it was just nice to have a doctor on hand without having to pester Butters. OK so maybe she didn't have a license, but she could no doubt get one anywhere in the country if she had the patience to sit for an exam and could manage to come up with an explanation as to where she had learned it all.

"I'm fine," Harry said, reasonably. He had been worse off before and without the assurance that he'd be able to heal through it. Truth be told he was more pissed off at losing the coat, he'd been working on that thing for years. While it hadn't been the most elegant bit of wizardry it had seen him through thick and thin, claws and bullets.

"No, you are not fine, this is stupid, I'm stupid, can't make sense of that matter transposition mess because all I remember how to do is heal the material, the mundane. Fuck Harry I grew wings of crystal and exhaled fog? Does that sound biologically feasible to you?"

The wizard held out his hands. "Couldn't tell you. One thing I do know is that you are not stupid. Scarily smart is how I'd put it." Maybe try for a joke... "You don't really want to know how Bob puts it but he agrees."

"Oh I can guess," she sniffed, a small smile turning at the corners of her mouth, but her eyes still burned with frustration. "I can't get away from this..." she tapped her fork on the edge of the box. "The feeling that I should know more than I do, that I should be more than I am, the closer I get to feeling like back then the more obvious it is."

"Feeling?" he asked. He knew these were dangerous waters, but what were wizards for if not to sail them?

"The fight back in Vegas. I wanted to hurt that little bitch, smash her head into the ground and remind her that she's just a worm wriggling her way towards the monsters that want to eat her along with everyone and everything else. I enjoyed it."

It was quiet for a good half minute after that, both of them busying themselves with their dinner.

"I've been there too." Harry reached out across the table and took her hand. It felt just as small an delicate as it had before, but the grip was stronger by far. "Sucks when you come down from it."

Tiffany's Stamina and Strength Increased to 5

For some reason Lash looked startled then thoughtful, like he had just said something profound instead of just obvious.

"Crashing both ways," Lash said so softly he almost didn't pick it up. "This is pointless and senseless, it means nothing and serves nothing, just weakness and pain and suffering. You do not deserve this." With each word she came closer until at last she set her hands on his shoulders. Harry could feel something building in the air, the magic around them vibrating, almost singing.

There was a small voice at the back of Harry's mind telling him to get off the couch, get away, run. Good thing he was used to ignoring that voice.

"My will be done." The words peeled like bells in the air, complex harmonies rippling outwards through the magic of the world like a stone thrown in a still pond, like a challenge cast. A warmth that was just a little too hot sank though Harry's shoulders and into his wounds taking away the pain.

Harry Healed 3 Wounds -> Now at 7/8

"There, all better," Lash let out a long breath and Harry had the distinct sense that she was waiting for something to happen. Nothing did, the only sound the creak of the armchair as Mister jumped onto it and gave Lash a look. Now Harry was even worse at reading cats than he was women but he could swear that was a look of faintly exasperated approval.

OOC: Harry does not get a roll to understand what the Lore of Awakening is sadly, far beyond the scope of his occult training. His reaction to figuring that out would have been... interesting.

 

[DragonParadox]

[X] uju32

@DragonParadox would MiS work on the frenzy chance of Black Wind?

Click to shrink...

Yes, she cannot frenzy at all.

Rolls
Shape Flesh 1, 2, 3
HEAL

 

[BoredMan]

What was the ruling on how much malcoffee we can make before having to use AP on it?

 

[Ivar]

Honestly incredible chapter here, @DragonParadox. This is certainly not a world of darkness... But in my opinion, you perfectly conveyed one of central themes of the Fallen. Namely, the border between the eternal and the mortal and moral torment... which are endemic to mortals. but new to the fallen. Even if Lash was technically free, and not in prison like ordinary Fallen.

 

[Yog]

Ok, in the absence of opposition, I am doing this change

Changelog:
1) removed Clear Sighted Merit for 5 points
2) Added Graceful, Crack Shot and Higher Purpose merits in its stead

This makes Olivia have more motivation, and a power up when pursuing said motivation, makes her both a better fighter and dancer, and gives her more independence. She suffers a bit from making it harder to see through the veils, but Higher Purpose partially compensates for that.

[X] Plan stealth Archer v.4
-[X] Character generation v.5

Spoiler: Chargen v.5

Willpower 10

Attributes

PHYSICAL	SOCIAL	MENTAL
Strength ●○○○○	Charisma ●●●○○	Perception ●●○○○
Dexterity ●●●○○	Manipulation ●○○○○	Intelligence ●●○○○
Stamina ●●○○○	Appearance ●●●○○	Wits ●●●●●

Abilities

TALENTS	SKILLS	KNOWLEDGES
Alertness ●●●○○	Animal Ken ○○○○○	Academics ●○○○○
Athletics ●○○○○	Crafts ○○○○○	Computer ○○○○○
Awareness ●●○○○	Drive ●○○○○	Finance ○○○○○
Brawl ○○○○○	Etiquette ○○○○○	Investigation ○○○○○
Empathy ●○○○○	Firearms ●●●○○	Law ○○○○○
Expression ○○○○○	Larceny ●○○○○	Medicine ○○○○○
Intimidation ○○○○○	Melee ○○○○○	Occult ●●●○○
Leadership ○○○○○	Performance ●●●●●	Politics ○○○○○
Streetwise ○○○○○	Stealth ●●●●●	Science ○○○○○
Subterfuge ○○○○○	Survival ○○○○○	Technology ○○○○○

Paths:

Spoiler: Psychic Invisibility ●●●●●

While some mages take advantage of Arcane to walk
unnoticed through society, psychics can make use of this
Phenomenon. A sort of mass hypnosis, it projects "don't
notice me" into the minds of everyone nearby. It isn't
true invisibility: the psychic still shows up on cameras
and electronic surveillance equipment in general, animals
are unaffected because their minds are so different, etc.
Even some people might shrug it off because they can
tell something is wrong indirectly. Those looking for
something amiss can roll Perception + Stealth against
the psychic's roll, and if they have more successes, they
can see the psychic with no difficulty.
The number of successes on the roll determines how
thoroughly hidden the character is: one success makes the
characters still noticeable but people will tend to avert
their eyes, whereas with three or more successes almost
no one will noticed them. Mind Shields, of any sort, do
protect against this. The levels of this power dictate how
the psychic can behave and still remain hidden, and at
the higher levels, they can interact with select others and
even disappear from memories.
Cost: One Willpower.
Roll: Wits + Stealth
Duration: As long as the psychic actively maintains
the effect (this counts as an action).
Cost of Failure: On a botch, the psychic instead sends
out a "look at me!" signal to everyone in the vicinity.
Effects
• Hide: The character must remain completely still
to remain unnoticed. If they move, speak or do anything
else, the effect ends.
•• Slow Movement: Now the psychic can move while
maintaining their invisibility. However, they can only
move slowly, and cannot do anything that would draw
attention to them while maintaining the effect.
••• Invisibility: Now the psychic can walk and behave
normally, so long as they are not attempting to disappear
while being directly observed.
•••• Selective Invisibility: At this level of control,
the psychic can be invisible to some people but not to
others. This requires a Wits + Empathy roll (difficulty
7) and each success allows another person to see them
while everyone else is fooled by the Psychic Invisibility.
••••• Forget You Ever Saw Me: At the peak of power,
the invisible psychic is able to make a group of people forget
seeing them. The group's highest Perception + Alertness
pool is rolled (at difficulty 7) against the psychic's roll. If
the psychic gets a single success more than the observers,
they simply vanish from view. If they get at least three
successes more, they not only vanish but the observers
forget the psychic was there, losing memories one turn
back for every two successes.
Associated Spheres: Mind

Backgrounds:

Spoiler: Technê •••••

Sorcerers are unable to shape the raw essence of cre-
ation like mages can. They need a slightly more refined
energy to aid in their work. This energy, called chi, ki,
essence, mana, orgone, prana, ionized electrolytes or
any number of other things, can be harnessed to aid
the techniques that sorcerers use. The ability to use it is
referred to as technê, or practice/the craft.
Sorcerers find this energy, most commonly called
mana (despite most sorcerers not being Polynesian) diffi-
cult to obtain. Those who are particularly skilled can draw
it from Nodes with resonance matching theirs, though the
Path of Mana Manipulation gives more options. They can
roll Perception + Meditation at difficulty 7, each success
restores a point of mana, but each point of mana drawn
will drain two points of quintessence from the Node.
Mana can be spent to decrease the difficulty of sorcery
rolls, by up to -3, on a one-for-one basis.
X You have to get by on your skill alone.
• May store a pool of/expend one Mana
•• May store a pool of/expend two Mana
••• May store a pool of/expend three Mana
•••• May store a pool of/expend four Mana
••••• May store a pool of/expend five Mana

Merits and Flaws

Spoiler: Strength of Psyche (2-pt. Merit)

Your mind is mystically empowered. So much so, that
instead of being restricted to use mana only on sorcery,
you can use it to reduce the difficulty of any mental task.
This has the same restrictions as spending mana to aid
sorcery. The specific form this takes depends on the task,
perhaps making the sorcerer more insightful, perceptive,
or quicker to solve puzzles.

Spoiler: The Flow of Ki (3-pt. Merit)

Mostly used by sorcerers with the Martial Arts Practice,
this merit indicates a deep understanding of the flow of
magical and life energy. A sorcerer with this merit has
prowess beyond what mere skill can accomplish, and in-
stead has learned to use their Mana to enhance themselves
physically. A sorcerer with this merit can spend Mana to
decrease the difficulty on physical actions in addition to
sorcerous ones.

Spoiler: Acute Senses (3 pt. Physical Merit)

Your physical senses are unusually sharp, capturing nuances
that few people ever notice. In game terms, your character
reduces the difficulty of her Perception-based rolls by -2.
At the 3-point level, all five physical senses are equally sharp.

Spoiler: Graceful (2 pt Merit)

You move with uncanny agility and efficiency. Coordination and balance come naturally to you. Even when you fail to achieve some feat, you avoid embarassing yourself. In game terms, your Difficulty for Dexterity-based actions is one less, while botches, even serious ones, fail to affect the finesse of your movements. You may die trying, buy you will never, ever appear ungainly.

Spoiler: Crack Shot (2pt. merit)

Whether pointing a gun, arrow, or dart, you hit your target with great accuracy. You receive no increased difficulty when targeting any specific location and reduce the difficulty of rolls not involving specific targeting by one.

Spoiler: higher purpose (1pt. merit )

All changelings have some vision of their path, but you've a
special commitment to it. You don't concern yourself with petty
matters, because your higher purpose is everything. Though you
sometimes behave in ways contrary to the needs of survival,
your purpose grants you great personal strength. The difficulty
of any roll that has something to do with this higher purpose is
reduced by two. Decide what your higher purpose is, and make
sure you discuss it with the Storyteller.

Spoiler: Artistically Gifted (1 pt. Merit)

The Muses work their will through you, or so it appears.
Whenever you employ your artistic talent (as in, the Talent:
Art in Mage 20, p. 275), reduce the difficulty of those rolls by -2. As
with other Merits of this kind, this Merit does not reduce the difficulty
of magick-casting rolls, but may reduce the difficulty of Attribute
+ Ability rolls that are involved with magickal acts. (For more details, see
Abilities Enhancing Magick, Mage 20, pp. 533.)

Spoiler: Concentration (1 pt. Merit)

Even by mage standards, you're especially good at tuning
out distractions. When you're attempting some sort of feat that
demands focus (as most do), this Merit eliminates modifiers
that would be caused by distracting circumstances – gunfire,
thunderstorms, rampaging critters from beyond the stars, and
so forth. Truly distracting situations (trying to hack a computer
system during a tornado, for instance) might demand a successful
Willpower roll in order to wipe out the potential penalty;
the difficulty would depend upon the circumstances. For the
most part, though, you get in and get stuff done, whatever else
might be going on around you

Spoiler: Vengeful (2 pt. Mental Flaw) or Obsession for the same cost

They've hurt you, and now they'll pay! Someone has committed
a crime you cannot and will not forgive, and whenever you get
the chance, you'll shower them with red-hot vengeance. This
grudge has become your highest priority in life – everything else
is merely a distraction. You may put this quest for revenge aside
temporarily if you spend a Willpower point in order to do so.
Until the guilty parties have been punished, though, vengeance
drives you to become that most dangerous of creatures: a mage
on a mission that ends only with blood.

Spoiler: Debts (3 pt. Flaw)

Mages still need money in order to function in the human realm.
And in your case, you're kinda fucked financially. Student loans,
credit-card debts, child-support payments, gambling losses, legal
judgments, medical bills, car and /or mortgage payments… the
ways in which a modern mage can get in over her head financially
are as numerous as the parties who prosper from such debts.
And then there's the possibility of financial manipulation from
Awakened sources – mages or Night-Folk who, intentionally or
otherwise, are keeping you broke in order to assert their hold over
you (see Technocracy: Syndicate, p. 28). Maybe you just suck at the
whole paying-your-bills thing. For whatever reason, your income keeps
going back out. You might indeed have the Background: Resources,
but the money just doesn't stay in your bank account for long.
As a Flaw, these Debts represent a minimum amount of
money you owe your creditors. The more you owe, the more
this Flaw is worth:
• (1 point) Minimal debt (less than $10,000).
• (2 points) Moderate debt (less than $50,000).
• (3 points) Significant debt (over $50,000).
• (4 points) Crushing debt (over $100,000).
• (5 points) Overwhelming debt (over $500,000).
From the three-point level onward, your creditors will
expend a fair amount (perhaps a great deal) of effort to collect
those funds from you. Certain creditors, like loan sharks,
will start far lower than that. Tactics could range from roundthe-
clock phone calls and red-envelope letters to lawsuits,
repossessions, threats, eviction, and physical violence. For folks
with small and /or irregular incomes, the pressure from debt
and debt-collection harassment can cause intense emotional
and psychological distress… which, in turn, affects one's ability
to make money… which deepens the debt… which deepens
the stress… in a desperate cycle that can lead to desperate acts

Spoiler: Bizarre Hunger: frozen raw meat (2 pt. Flaw)

You prefer – maybe even need – to eat weird shit… quite
possibly in a literal sense of that expression. Perhaps you've
sworn a vow, suffered a curse, been treated (or created) with
unhallowed rituals or arcane hyperscience, or initiated into
an occult fellowship with… interesting admission demands. In
any case, you must consume substances that may be degrading,
unpleasant, expensive, or downright illegal.
The more inconvenient the substance, the more this Flaw
is worth:
• (2 points) Easy to procure, though not as easy to devour
(paper, fresh eggs, poop, etc.).
• (3 points) Unpleasant, hazardous, and perhaps illegal
to consume (rotten meat, swamp water, raw cannabis,
and so forth).
• (4 points) Specialized, foul, criminal, and /or expensive
chow (human blood, custom-brewed potions or meals,
and the like).
• (5 points) You really shouldn't eat such things… but
you must (live humans, toxic sludge, gold dust, highly
specialized food-like concoctions, and other similar
forms of sustenance).
For each dot in your Stamina Trait, you can go one day
without satisfying your special dietary requirements. After that,
you lose one health level per day until you either consume
your particular substance, or else die of hunger or thirst, suf-
fer the punishment of a vow unfulfilled, or otherwise endure
whichever other consequences might result from denying your
bizarre hunger.
For a related (and probably essential) companion Trait,
see the physical Merit: Cast-Iron Stomach, p. 36. And for a
potentially related focus-instrument, see the Chapter Three
Expanded Instruments entry for Cannibalism, pp. 206-207.

Spoiler: freebier point tally

start 21 points
-4 points for Willpower 9 = 17 points
-4 points to Performance 5 = 13 points
-4 points to Stealth 5 = 9 points
-2 points for Strength of Psyche = 7 points
-3 points for The Flow of Ki = 4 points
-3 points for Acute senses = 1 points
-5 points for Clear sighted = -4 points
-1 point for Artistically gifted = -5 points
+2 points for Vengeful = -3 points
+3 points for Bizarre Hunger = 0 points

-[X] XP spending v.3

Spoiler: Statsheet after XP spending v3

Attributes

PHYSICAL	SOCIAL	MENTAL
Strength ●○○○○	Charisma ●●●○○	Perception ●●●●○
Dexterity ●●●○○	Manipulation ●○○○○	Intelligence ●●●○○
Stamina ●●○○○	Appearance ●●●○○	Wits ●●●●●

Abilities

TALENTS	SKILLS	KNOWLEDGES
Alertness ●●●●○	Animal Ken ○○○○○	Academics ●○○○○
Athletics ●●○○○	Crafts ○○○○○	Computer ○○○○○
Awareness ●●●○○	Drive ●○○○○	Finance ○○○○○
Brawl ○○○○○	Etiquette ○○○○○	Investigation ○○○○○
Empathy ●●○○○	Firearms ●●●●○	Law ○○○○○
Expression ●○○○○	Larceny ●○○○○	Medicine ○○○○○
Intimidation ○○○○○	Melee ○○○○○	Occult ●●●○○
Leadership ○○○○○	Performance ●●●●●	Politics ○○○○○
Streetwise ○○○○○	Stealth ●●●●●	Science ○○○○○
Subterfuge ●○○○○	Survival ○○○○○	Technology ○○○○○

Paths:

Spoiler: Clairvoyance ●●

Psychics, spies and magicians have all desired the
ability to see things that are far away from them as they
happen. This power allows psychics to cast their senses
out and observe places far away from them. Though sight
is the easiest, as they advance in this power, they can
use their other senses as well, though even their sense
of touch will let them feel sensations without affecting
the place they are observing. Despite sensing whatever is
happening at the place being viewed, the psychic is not
actually present in any sense. For that, Astral Projection
is necessary.
Once they pick a location to view, they can move their
vision around the area. However, they cannot leave the
area with their senses, and to even go to the next room,
or the forest around the clearing they are viewing, they
must make another Clairvoyance roll.
Cost: One Willpower
Roll: Perception + Awareness
Modifiers: -2 to +2 difficulty modifier based on how
familiar the psychic is with the location.
Duration: Concentration
Cost of Failure: On a botch, the psychic has sent their
senses away but gains nothing from it, they are rendered
blind (and otherwise insensate depending on the level)
for one turn per success.
Effects
• Though hazy and often dreamlike, the psychic can
see anything within approximately a mile of them.
•• At this level, sight clears up and faint hearing is
available. The range also increases, to 4 miles plus one
mile per success.
••• Sound is now clear, and a limited sense of touch
becomes available to the psychic. Texture is too subtle to
detect, but solidity can be managed, as though through a
heavy pair of gloves. The range now extends to 10 miles
per success rolled.
•••• Touch improves to the point where textures can
be made out, and strong scents can be perceived. The
location can now be 100 miles away per success rolled.
••••• With mastery of this power, the psychic can use
all five senses as though they are there, and can do so for
a location that is 1000 miles away per success.
Associated Spheres: Correspondence

Spoiler: Psychoportation ●●

This power allows a psychic to travel from one place
to another without visiting the intervening space. They
simply disappear from one place an then reappear in
another. How this works is mysterious, but most of the
psychics who do it don't particularly care, they only care
that they can get where they're going very, very quickly.
When the psychic teleports, they can carry a reason-
able load of personal possessions with them. No psychic
has ever been recorded successfully transporting more
than about 100 pounds of materials, however. Whenever
this is attempted, a feedback loop of some sort occurs
causing the psychic to take 6 levels of bashing damage.
Cost: One Willpower point
Roll: Perception + Alertness
Time: Instantaneous
Cost of Failure: One a botch, the psychic ends up
inside a solid object, taking 8 dice of Aggravated damage
and the same to the object teleported into. Alternatively,
the psychic ends up somewhere wildly different than
their intended location, often leaving behind valuable
equipment and even their clothing.
Effects
• Short Hop: The teleporter can appear 12 + Intel-
ligence meters from where they started. Through some
means, they must be able to perceive their destination.
•• Simple Jump: Exactly like Short Hop, but with
range 20 + (3 x Intelligence) meters.
••• Long Jump: Similar to Simple Jump, though
the distance is now 40 + (6 x Intelligence) meters and it
can be doubled by spending a full turn in concentration
to prepare.
•••• Very Long Jump: Exactly as Long Jump, though
range is now 80 + (12 x Intelligence) meters.
••••• Blind Jump: Finally, with this power, the psychic
no longer needs to be able to see their destination, but
can teleport to places they are familiar with. This requires
that they spend a scene memorizing a location and spend
a point of Willpower. These locations must be stationary.
Associated Spheres: Correspondence

Spoiler: Mana Manipulation •••

Some sorcerers have a natural ability to work with
mana (represented by the Technê background), but others
study it and train to use it. This Path focuses on more
complex uses of mana, and some powers that will allow
its use even without Technê. Through the powers of this
Path, a sorcerer learns to detect and manipulate the flow
of mana in a variety of ways.
This Path rarely goes by the name "Mana Manipula-
tion." It is usually processed more fully through the lens
of their Practice. Often it goes by names like Geomancy,
Feng Shui, Channeling Ley Lines, etc. The Path, more
than any other, is shaped by the views of the sorcerer and
the tools that they use to perform it.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Roll: Manipulation + Ability
Modifiers: -1 difficulty near a Node
Time: One turn per level
Duration: Varies
Cost of Failure: While on failure, nothing happens,
a botch results in burns, a number of levels of bashing
damage (unsoakable) equal to the rank of the spell.
Effects
• The sorcerer can detect concentrations of Mana.
With a brief meditation or invocation, they can find
anything and anywhere that it (or similar substances) have
gathered. This includes Mana, but also Quintessence,
Vitae, Essence, Nodes, etc. If they score at least three
successes, then they also get hints of the resonance.
•• Now the sorcerer can see magical energy directly.
They can determine if someone is using magic (broadly
construed) near them, and even determine how potent
a concentration of magical energy is. Furthermore, they
can detect disrupted magic, including blocked chi, curses,
and other negative effects.
••• While before they could detect when something is
disrupted, now the sorcerer can alter and obstruct mana
flows themselves. They can block flows, causing Nodes
to go dormant (for one turn per success), they can push
it around, causing it to flow in a different direction or
along a different path, and they can even store a single
point of Mana in an object, albeit briefly.
•••• The ability to manipulate mana gets substantially
more fine-grained. The sorcerer can now increase the
amount of mana that they can store temporarily, draw
mana directly from a place of power, or even draw it directly
from others, stealing their vitality. When drawing from a
place of power, each success grants the sorcerer a point of
mana they can use the next turn. Drawing energy out of
a person is point-for-point with other sorcerers, but two
successes for one point with other supernatural beings,
including Essence from spirits, Gnosis from werewolves
and Quintessence from mages. Drawing the energy away
from anyone, including completely mundane people, has
no health effects immediately, but will cause long-term
health problems if repeated, and can cause some long-
term benefits if used to infuse energy into them rather
than take it away.
••••• With mastery of this Path, mana can be used to
create a magical "shield." This spends mana to decrease
countermagic difficulties. Other things that the sorcerer
can do include blocking the use of mana (each success
cancels out a point of mana being used by an opponent,
two successes can cancel Quintessence, Essence, Gnosis,
etc.). At this level, the sorcerer can even alter the resonance
of mana, with one success weakening it, three successes
canceling it out and five or more allowing the sorcerer
to reverse the resonance.
••••• • Legendary sorcerers can call up a surge of
magical energy in an area. For a few moments, mana
becomes available, with successes spent on number of
turns and number of points of mana per turn. Anyone
who can access mana can access this source, but it's dan-
gerous. For each success on magic channeling this mana,
the sorcerer takes one level of bashing damage in burns.

Spoiler: Mind Shields •••

Many psychic Phenomena and sorcerous Paths allow
the invasion of other minds. Telepaths can read your
thoughts, Psychic Vampires can feed on you, Alchemy
can brew truth serums and Oneiromancy can invade
dreams. And of course, there are far, far worse things
in the world than psychics and sorcerers. Vampires have
Dominate, mages have the full and unbridled power of
the Mind sphere, and that's before worrying about what
wraiths and changelings can do to an unguarded mind.
So some psychics either naturally have or train
themselves to have mental defenses. Their minds are
arranged in some way that makes them harder to attack.
Depending on the psychic, though, this can take the form
of being disciplined to the point of being able to force
the invader out, thoughts that are too chaotic to make
sense of, or even just a projection of a blank state where
nothing, useful or useless, can be read.
This only affects mental attacks. A Mind Shield is
useless against Pyrokinesis for instance: no hope that an
exceptionally ordered mind can just ignore a fireball! So
any psychic power that stays outside of the mind works
as normal. For those occasions when the psychic wants to
allow access, they can lower their shields, but this leaves
them vulnerable to others and to betrayal. At level three,
however, the psychic can tell when an intrusion is friendly
or hostile, and can selectively allow the friendlies in while
maintaining their defenses.
When the psychic with a Mind Shield is mentally
attacked, they make their roll and successes are subtracted
from the successes on the attack's roll, which fails if the
difference is less than the number of successes required
by the action. If the defender would normally get some
kind of defense, such as a Willpower roll, the Mind Shield
dice are added to that defense.
Roll: Against arbitrary mental attacks, the psychic
rolls their Mind Shields rating at difficulty 6. Against
other psychics, they roll twice as many dice.
Time: Instantaneous
Duration: Instantaneous
Associated Spheres: Mind

Spoiler: XP tally

Perception 4 - 8 + 12 XP = 20 XP
Intelligence 3 - 8 XP
Alertness 4 - 6 XP
Awareness 3 - 4 XP
Firearms 4 - 6 XP
Subterfuge 1 - 3 XP
Expression 1 - 3 XP
Empathy 2 - 2 XP
Athletics 2 - 2 XP
Clairvoyance 2 - 4 + 3 +6 = 13 XP
Psychoportation 2 - 4 + 3 = 7 XP
Mind Shields 3 - 4 + 3 + 6 = 13 XP
Mana Manipulation 3 - 4 +3 + 6 = 13 XP

-[X] Awakened Sleeper
--[X] Black Wind 3 dots
--[X] Hellweaving 3 dots
--[X] Iron Mountain 1 dot

 

[Ivar]

Speaking of progression. Lash can either just buy lore... Or make a breakthrough and reach the Earthbound scale without falling into madness. I don't consider absolute redemption because then she becomes unplayable

Lydia is an exalt. She is weaker than Molly yes. But she has room to grow and grow.

They can both grow tall and wide without Molly's help. Of the current allies, only Dresden has the same potential... But his potential stuck behind arete 6 and a rework of the higher spheres.

 

[Goldfish]

So Lash could easily heal that girl in a coma who Marcone has been taking care of for years now, right?

EDIT: I wonder how much Faith Marcobe has available?

 

[Ivar]

Yes. But we must find out about her first... Although, was Dresden there with Lasch when Marcone told this? Or was it before?

or Marcone must come to the fallen angel. We know that he is ready to become a coin carrier in the canon. So it's not beyond the realm of possibility...

but yes, I think we need to meet him soon

 

[Ness]

Alrighty, back after the plan was finalized to vote once I could read em over properly.

I think a lack of a moratorium really hurt this time around, as it seems many people (definetely not all, but some) voted for the first plan available and didnt return to read over the new one, therefore whatever posted first wins because people dont give it enough deliberation bur rather votes then disappears until the next update.

Not sure there is a way around that though, as this quest updates often enough that a proper moratorium isnt really possible, and on most votes would be a hindrance rather than a help.

Perhaps going forward it could be useful to have votes of a mechanical nature like this come with an automatic moratorium, and updates focusing on other stuff until the mechanics vote is finished?
[X]Plan Gunslinger

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

[x] Yog

Ambivalent about Clear Sighted merit given that everything can manage a veil in DF. But she already has another DC reducer so it fine.

And personally I see teleportation as vastly for a character that fights at range then raw speed is. If an enemy is going after a ranged person, moving fast just means they might be able to outpace enemies, but they still know where she is. Teleportation means she can instantly break line of site, restealth and get back into the fight. Functionally teleportation behind a wall is much better then running around it. To say nothing of the ability to jump to locations enemies just cannot easily reach, go up a floor or two, and she is suddenly 4-5 turns of an enemy running to catch up to her. While they could just chase her down if she can only run, in which case if Molly and the others are busy she has to solo fight.

 

[DragonParadox]

Alrighty, back after the plan was finalized to vote once I could read em over properly.

I think a lack of a moratorium really hurt this time around, as it seems many people (definetely not all, but some) voted for the first plan available and didnt return to read over the new one, therefore whatever posted first wins because people dont give it enough deliberation bur rather votes then disappears until the next update.

Not sure there is a way around that though, as this quest updates often enough that a proper moratorium isnt really possible, and on most votes would be a hindrance rather than a help.

Click to shrink...

That does sound sensible, I could do a 24 hour moratorium before important/complex votes if you guys like with an interlude built in.

 

[BronzeTongue]

I've spent the better part of two days making time to do the research and actually try to copy paste what I was doing, because I understand that not everyone has the book access to do so. Only to find out that noone besides Yog has actually been interested in the numbers or the details, and its been a vibes vote all along.

This is not fun anymore

Click to shrink...

For what it's worth I have been paying attention, I just don't agree with many of the things you're going for or the assertions you're making about the setting/state of the game.

I had lengthier reply to this, but going point by point would probably just make this worse.

My apologies if the way I was engaging with this conversation was part of the problem.

 

[Ivar]

I've spent the better part of two days making time to do the research and actually try to copy paste what I was doing, because I understand that not everyone has the book access to do so. Only to find out that noone besides Yog has actually been interested in the numbers or the details, and its been a vibes vote all along.

This is not fun anymore.

Click to shrink...

I understand your irritation. But I'm voting based on your numbers and mechanics as well as feel. I see the goal of giving Olivia as much power as possible at the expense of a cloud of disadvantages through the Formor. And I don't agree with how much you rely on them. in my opinion, such massive shortcomings are dangerous from a narrative point of view. The juice is not worth the squeeze.

It's not a problem that Olivia won't be strong enough. Or even that she is too strong. This is a problem of Price and direction of power. And yes, I said that I like Dhampir better. Not just for aesthetics though. But also in terms of mechanical balance.

 

[BronzeTongue]

Now Harry was even worse at reading cats than he was women but he could swear that was a look of faintly exasperated approval.

Click to shrink...

It's funny how well powerful supernaturals map to cats. Dragons, Fallen, and most celestial exalts if you squint a bit.

… or really, really, disquieting if you consider what cats do for fun.

 

[Mithrill]

It's funny how well powerful supernaturals map to cats. Dragons, Fallen, and most celestial exalts if you squint a bit.

… or really, really, disquieting if you consider what cats do for fun.

Click to shrink...

I guess that out of all entities that humanity has interacted long and often enough to get some sense of their psyche, the cats are most inhuman in behaviour. Just the fact that we are social animals and they're not does a lot.

 

[powergoat]

Also, how are we feeling now about a possible Stargate to our hell? We have a perfect shaping defense so trying ritual shenanigans in our hell would be pretty pointless, and there are some pretty good precautions we can take-

1. Have the Hellside portal not within the Cities, but within a base in the Frozen Wastes. Maybe the interior Wastes, but either way it would mean that anyone who sneaks through the portal would still have to reach civilization somehow, and any army that manages to make a foothold is dead in the water, especially with Molly having lord of the land.
2. Having checkpoints with required implant interfacing will make it exponentially more difficult for infiltrators to navigate or leave said gate-facility, since no other faction has anywhere near the technomancy skills besides maybe The Wicked City.
3. Self destruct mechanisms are obvious, though it wouldn't kill any invaders in our Hell, just scatter them.
4. Having highly limited designated transports to this facility, full security at both ends of the checkpoints with a whole magitech worlds worth of security precautions.

Now, are there beings that can get past all this? Maybe. On the first, second, or third attempt? Almost certainly not. The Fivefold Courts have a lot of unique properties that would make any attempts to infiltrate require A Lot of time researching countermeasures and trial and error, and that's a timescale in which by the time they DO figure out ways to do so Molly will be far more powerful then she is now.

As for why? Troop transport and trade obviously, the Molly bottleneck is very limiting.

 

[Ivar]

Also, how are we feeling now about a possible Stargate to our hell?

Click to shrink...

Now I picture the Jaffa in FFCF world and our main opposition in the labyrinth is Teal'c and Bra'tac

 

[Goldfish]

Also, how are we feeling now about a possible Stargate to our hell? We have a perfect shaping defense so trying ritual shenanigans in our hell would be pretty pointless, and there are some pretty good precautions we can take-

1. Have the Hellside portal not within the Cities, but within a base in the Frozen Wastes. Maybe the interior Wastes, but either way it would mean that anyone who sneaks through the portal would still have to reach civilization somehow, and any army that manages to make a foothold is dead in the water, especially with Molly having lord of the land.
2. Having checkpoints with required implant interfacing will make it exponentially more difficult for infiltrators to navigate or leave said gate-facility, since no other faction has anywhere near the technomancy skills besides maybe The Wicked City.
3. Self destruct mechanisms are obvious, though it wouldn't kill any invaders in our Hell, just scatter them.
4. Having highly limited designated transports to this facility, full security at both ends of the checkpoints with a whole magitech worlds worth of security precautions.

Now, are there beings that can get past all this? Maybe. On the first, second, or third attempt? Almost certainly not. The Fivefold Courts have a lot of unique properties that would make any attempts to infiltrate require A Lot of time researching countermeasures and trial and error, and that's a timescale in which by the time they DO figure out ways to do so Molly will be far more powerful then she is now.

As for why? Troop transport and trade obviously, the Molly bottleneck is very limiting.

Click to shrink...

I'm opposed.

 

[Earth-Destroyer]

We need to wait until the FFCF people get training in Summoning/Warding. Once they have that they can start scaling properly.

 

[Degorium]

We need to deliver the Reckoning, the prisoners are waiting for their grand Warden, we must show them steel and sword. To guide them to the way with Fire and Blood. They await their Reckoning and we shall give it to them. Mostly because that's how they want it to be. At least that's how I interpreted the fluff of the labyrinth.

 

[Yzarc]

Also, @Yog went through your build and yeah, can't find a way to fit in Jack of All trades.

 

[BoredMan]

We need to deliver the Reckoning, the prisoners are waiting for their grand Warden, we must show them steel and sword. To guide them to the way with Fire and Blood. They await their Reckoning and we shall give it to them. Mostly because that's how they want it to be. At least that's how I interpreted the fluff of the labyrinth.

Click to shrink...

I've been wondering for awhile now but how would the soul killer charm interact with the wheel? Would Molly be able to permakill the rebels in the FiveFoldCourts?

@DragonParadox What was your ruling on the coffee we can make before having to use AP on it? Couldn't find it anywhere.