It really wouldn't have our sword strikes do more damage than the AOE of sandstrike blast and if he got the same soak roll he would have taken no damage from the AOE which means green sunflare wouldn't have gone off either. Then he would have escaped.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
I... might not have. This is a good point, and I don't want to be seen as trying to sneak something unapproved in. @DragonParadox would Proxy Servant Protocol extend to soak rolls, or would those be excluded? What about Willpower rolls? Essence-equivalent rolls?
For soak, as a possible balance patch - if Molly does this, and the damage still passes through, both she and the proxy could suffer damage? Since she's connected to the proxy via the charm?
Some paths scale in scary ways with numbers of successes, such as hellfire, which gives you 2 dots of lethal for every success, with 2 more successes required to turn that into agg. And normally you'd roll at most 3 successes, where if two are allocated to Lethal-to-Agg transference, you are left with only two dice of agg damage. But if you roll 10+ successes, you get 16 agg dice.
There's also non-combat uses. Specifically, Craft. Specifically large scale craft that involves assistants. Like making the fortifications for the portal, where Molly will be in shintai, with all the buffs, with excellency, and with nearly unlimited support of the population. Giving all workers 20+ dice for crafting should speed up and qualitatively improve the construction by a lot.
- Location
- Perth, Scotland
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan Thousand Correct Violent Actions
I'm liking the idea of what can be achieved with both Awakened Eye of the Dragon and Proxy Servant Protocol here, even if the latter can't be applied to Soak.
I'm liking the idea of what can be achieved with both Awakened Eye of the Dragon and Proxy Servant Protocol here, even if the latter can't be applied to Soak.
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VEE is all about building up an army of powerful minions to act through. Thusfar we've been focused on building ourselves up primarily, with minions as backup. I suppose it boils down to opportunity cost, 20 xp just seems like a lot to sink into our secondary. And that, aesthetically, I think a manipulative genie/cult leader that can also fight can be cool, but an Ultra-warrior that can also grant wishes just seems thematically incoherent. And we've been building an Ultra-warrior this whole quest so it seems too late to change it now.
VEE in Exalted versus World Darkness cannot do that. It grants 1 Dot of ability attribute or background and can grant a merit or remove a flaw. Once per year per character. It can't really make powerful servants not unless they already significantly strong to begin with and even th
en it just makes them a bit stronger rather than building up.
That's why I included it in Minion protection because by itself it can be used to remove flaws (diseases and Lasting physical impairments are usually depicted as that in world of Darkness) the ability to grab backgrounds means that we could possibly angle to get more Dragon nests under our control as well but it's really not for creating powerful servants. At very least not martially powerful servants.
It's primary usage is in curing cancer at this point at least for us as a character the wish is kind of secondary.
At least that's how I see it and that's why I was confused by what you mean bending a playstyle around it because to be honest we would really be just doing Miracles asking for really nothing they weren't already giving us and then moving on with our day which isn't really a playstyle so much as having Magic.
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To be fair, 6 dot merit can be quite strong, you can do a lot of stuff with merits in terms of secondary fate manipulation effects, and I am fairly sure that we got a ruling that it was possible to circumvent "once per year" restriction with either ancient magic or perhaps craft by making the universe believe that a year has passed.
Oh yeah definitely six dot merits are amazing but they don't really make a like really powerful character by themselves sphere natural merit even with its like great long-term potential doesn't make an arch mage you know. It can make powerful Fighters even more so but merits alone can't make a fighter especially when paired with the only being able to give single points of attribute and ability. Even with the maxed out Immortal Merit it doesn't make a great Fighter by itself it makes a fighter that cannot be taken out of the picture except by being dissolved in acid or turn to Ash.
You get what I'm saying it by the merits granted by the VEE can't make a great servant by themselves though an immortal servant definitely helpful we can make those with craft. Though I was not contesting the fact that it can make an already good servant even better
At its core I think VEE is best as a "plot" charm. Guardian Angel, Destiny or Legend background, etc, they all set up plot of the story. The mechanical benefits are good, yes, but secondary.
This is true and really good as well but I was focusing on mechanical end because I was responding to
Which verdant emptiness endowment really cannot do.
Ah, I see where the miscommunication is. When I said "building an army of powerful minions" I didn't mean creating powerful minions, I meant finding already powerful minions and recruiting them into our army using wishes as leverage. That's its function, getting already powerful people in your debt. If all you want to do is raise a stat of someone who already works for you by a point it's really not worth the 20 XP. And Tiffany can handle the healing
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Yeah to be honest I wanted it mostly for backgrounds and merits for our people which when paired with met a Maggot plague could mean they all have places to live they all work somewhere they all have their records and no one is left out on the street no one's going hungry while also having superpowers things like that because wishes are capable of essentially granting people birth records and jobs and money and houses just straight up there are backgrounds that like just have houses in them so you can just straight up do the meme "why don't you just get a house forehead" and then it will be true.
Well we don't have to spend any AP to achieve any of that shit just wish ask them to hand us this $5 that we gave them before they got asked for the wish back and let them go on their way no AP cost to just Essence cost that can be recouped in an hour and a half.
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Most of that can just be done by having our connections handle it for us, and really isn't worth 20 XP. VEE can be a great playstyle, (see Yzarc's quest) I just don't think it's ours and we'd end up wasting its potential. I do kind of want MMP, but no one made a vote for it without VEE.
You know what fair enough. We could but then we'd be asking for favors or getting people to do stuff for us on screen rather than just commanding the universe to do it for us without needing to spend any narrative time on it whatsoever.
well my thing is alchemy 5 because I think the benefits are huge and I won't pontificate on it again the votes essentially settled at this point 15 points up games over feel free to say something I need like a bunch of plans on the idea that like people might want to do with some of them so it's like making plans to net votes is kind of the point as it's a consensus on who can get the most voices.
If I knew people were willing to vote for Mana maggot plague without verdant emptiness endowment then I could have put forward a plan for that. As well as vice versa. Well there's always next time
It really is especially since Molly has an entire hell worth of people. Granting them things like the path mastery merit so the pool of top path mages can expand from 2-5 to 500 is a big deal. That moves them from being able to fire off one major ritual with potential to go wrong every few years, to something safe to do every week.
We could also grant new wardens sphere talent in blasting magic on par with Dresden, or healing potential like Listens. Or just plain old firearms talent. Stack that with ETE and the war will swing in the WC favor hard.
And important pretty sure the way DP has been modeling things the higher levels of magic are just not possible without the accompany merit. So nobody can buy blasting 5 without also having the merit.
OK, vote closed, lets do that exorcism
One point of order - "ask Tiffany to raise stats" is for all circle members, not just Molly, for some reason the tally system doesn't count it right.
Arc 15 Post 1: Shades of Hunger
Shades of Hunger
23st of February 2007 A.D.
"I'm going to need a place to do these exorcisms," the sound of your voice echoes though the station, though not unheard by company.
"You mean like some kind of temple?" Isabela teases as she seemingly appears beside the storeroom door, whips of shadow trailing from her fingers. You had seen her thankfully and so had Susan which is why she just reaches for the holster on her belt instead of drawing.
"I get backtalk about that inside my head thank you." While you might not be able to scoff as well as Tiffany it's a decent showing.
"The fact that makes sense is wild, thanks for that, also shadow play, learned it from one of the baby wizards..."
"What do you mean you learned it?" There's no getting around the suspicion in those words. Vampires of the White Court can do some limited magic, Thomas for instance can do a bit of Thaumaturgy, but something that instinctive quick as fleeting shadows on the wall isn't shaped with words and gestures but with spirit and the spirit of a vampire of the White Court is hunger.
"It was entirely above board, they got a bit of a rush I learned how to play with shadows. I was trying to get the little light globes those make great ambiance, but I got shadow because I'm such a dark and tortured soul." She lowers her voice and the light level at the same time to comical effect, at least you think it's comical. Susan looks like she finds it a a tad creepy.
Isabela gains Obtenebration ●
"I think it's because darkness, regular non-metaphorical darkness like this at least, is just the absence of light," you posit after a moment. "Like someone ate it."
"Wait and the Council is just OK with this, trainees getting..." Susan's voice is heavy with revulsion. Consensual vampirisim wouldn't really be in her radar would it?
As you open your mouth to defend your friend she beats you to it. "One of the things they came here to learn is how to protect themselves from people like me. The only way to learn how to fight it is to experience it. Better to find one's limits when you can call time out then when you're out there alone and the would be get-of-Liltih are on the prowl. If I can get more out of the deal in the process by getting them to show me magic from the inside well that's another lesson isn't it? Vampires are always seeking an edge, we always want more. How much to give, how much to take? How far one dares to walk knowing that? It's an important lesson to the learned for wizards and for other folk. I liked your column for the Arcane, it was humorous without appealing to common self-deprecation, took the work seriously when no one would have expected you to. "
"You're telling me people like you read the Arcane?" Despite herself perhaps the former reporter's clearly curious.
"Young ones sometime, it's not like our elders tell us much, trying to piece together what's really happening from headlines is all we're left with... still better than the Raiths."
The look of horror in Isabela's eyes is genuine, it is also like a sorcerer's pet demon, very deliberately invoked to remind the woman she's talking to of shared humanity. Vampires are always looking for an edge.
In the end you do not need a especially set aside for exorcisms. Compared to wrestling with wrestling with Nemesis or even with the lesser creature that had been your first exorcism that parasite coiled around the soul of Susan Rodriguez is a pitiful larval thing like a tadpole made of barbed hooks dipped in blood. With one last mewling screech of hunger it melts into a puddle of ichor on the floor.
"That's... holy shit I didn't even remember what this felt like. Did it do something to me or did I do it to myself because it was too painful to remember?"
"Do you need a moment?" you ask gently.
"Nah, I think I need a few years of therapy, but I don't have the time or the money for that. What do you call a magic therapist anyway? A witch doctor?"
You laugh politely, but answer too. "Maybe for some but I hope I'm not assuming too much to say you're Catholic."
"Raised at least," she shrugs, though there's more pain there than she wants to admit. "Didn't feel right to go after... I felt unclean and then I just got out of the habit."
Well she got that backwards, you think sadly, careful not to let any of it show on your face, instead explaining: "Do you know Saint Mary's? Ask for Father Anthony Forthil..."
"And would that be open even after I get a little less human than I am now?" she asks bluntly.
"I am pretty sure he would love to talk with Tiffany if she showed up asking for an ear to speak to and some advice on life. I have it on good authority he gives good advice too."
She nods and leaves, still 'ungifted', enjoying the sunlight. It's only later when you talk to Martin that you get an inkling of what may have happened below the surface. The Fellowship he explains trains its members to sublimate their hunger into violence since violence is their calling. By removing the parasite, he speculates, you made that drive vanish in an instant.
"The First Change hits you hard, I guess the same is true in reverse," he muses as much to himself as to you. After a moment he asks a seeming idle question that's anything but. "Do you think Bianca would have been able to feel that if she was still alive? Her brood dying?"
"Only if she were looking for it. The 'death' itself was over very quikly and the parasite was very weak," you answer.
"If it were an ancient, one of their elders?"
You shrug, the truth is you do not know enough about the Red Court, but what you do know tells you that the older they are the more they can break the rules.
"I'd rather stay as I am. It's good enough for me..."
The obvious question comes to mind, but should you ask it? It's clear he doesn't want to tell me and I hold a lot of power over him. What do you do?
[] Ask Martin what infected him
[] Do not ask
[] Write in
OOC: Susan just had her conflict drive yoinked out and the effects of DPE annuled. -2 is a lot in this system. Where she goes from here is up to her. I thought about having a vote on where to send her but Father Forthil seemed too obvious so I just rolled with it.
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Remember, her mentor is the one with the esoteric vampire powers. Leinth used his demon to heal someone. She would not have gotten that lore without some consultation in the background.
This reads way too much like she's training a dog.
"Sit"
"Roll Over"
"Eat the light"
*belly scritches*
"Good Demon"
- Location
- Germany
It plays pretty well into their Social focus.
Level 1 alone can add a Dot of Stealth or Intimidation at need, make for some nice narrative effects with the shadowplays and mortals are spooked by it, possibly reducing their dicepools by one for the entire scene, if they fail a Courage roll.
Very universally useful.
Also it fits her build, Manipulation+Occult is the common roll for its other powers and Isabella has a good start in that.
Later powers get very creepy, unnatural darkness, black tentacles and a lot of weird stuff.