To be fair, this was before she took her second breath, or in the process of her taking it.
Looking at Lydia's build... Surprisingly enough, there's a classical character she suits - she's Indiana Jones, or dr. Van Helsing. She's a supernatural mystery novel investigator. Someone who will spend time in a library researching clues, before going to raid a tomb they discovered by decyphering an ancient riddle and consulting a ghost or two. In that tomb she'll fight mummies and zombies, outwit ancient evil and get out with the McGuffin.
We should have an adventure suited for Lydia's profile. Something with investigation and academics, and a murder mystery or two that we can't just crack with the Crown of Eyes because we won't know what questions to ask. Maybe visit Smith College (which I read is the most haunted higher schooling institution in the USA). Or maybe go looking for some ancient tombs.
Eh. I probably wouldnt agree.
She doesnt have the build for it. Above average Academics, but her Investigation is just adequate, and her Occult is...inadequate
And she doesnt have enough juice in the tank for her Excellency to carry her, not with her Essence regen conditions..
She doesnt really have the personality for it either. Still growing of course.
Interesting take on her build.
I could see it.
She still has huge holes in the build of course, lacking in Occult foremost, but also many practical skills like driving, larency or survival.
What I intended to build her as, was ultimatly a modern teenager. A supernaturally smart one with various interests and talents, but still a teenager. (And then I added some slightly higher Brawl than she deserved because I didn't want her to be a complete non-combatant). She will have to grow into any role she might want to take in time, be it as an adventuring academic, a hunter of restless dead as her heritage demands or any other kind of position.
She is just 15 and she will keep learning at a for mortals astounding pace. If she can survive long enough, which her friendship with the Carpenters makes more likely, she will be good at whatever role she picks.
I'd have gone higher Dexterity and lower Brawl instead of higher Brawl and lower Dexterity.
And if your intent was modern teenager, she should have been Charisma primary, not Manipulation. Especially since you gave her the Natural Linguist merit, which keys off clear communication.
My two cents.
🤷
If we put a cyberdevil in her car she doesn't need drive. We really need to get more aggressive about getting Cyberdevils in our friends stuff.
No we dont. They are our
friends, not our minions.
And she can have a car suumoning charm. If we make / buy and improve a small car for her, equipping it with stuff like armor, weapons, deployable cover, making it watertight, etc, that's essentially a summonable tank right there. Lydia in principle is quite suited as a summoner type combatant.
Cars are essentially conveyance in this setting, not fighting vehicles.
If she's calling her car, its probably for a getaway.
Besides, rich girl raised by a rich father in Europe, whose cover story was her father being in high end investment banking, and who had trouble figuring out how public transport worked in Chicago the first time we met her.
Even now, she is personally worth Resources 4.
I'd be surprised if there isnt a leased Porsche Cayman or Panamera in her garage right now.
As for summoning-style combatant?
Yeah, sure, her charmset leans that way. And its one way to get around some of her issues to give her organic backup she can call up. Thematic as well; the hounds of Annwyn are very much a part of the background mythology of the Ankou.
And the bonus goes down if she spends temp willpower on anything. Which means that she's generally going to want to stay topped up. But the biggest obstacle to her spamming Excellencies is her tiny Terrestial-tier essence pool, yeah. She just doesn't have the staying power of a solaroid like us.
Yeah.There's a reason why Jade Talisman is the most important Background she can buy right now.
After that, Familiar. First a Raven or Owl.
Then Dog(s).
Depending on how many familiars the QM will let her keep.
If she's a DB-class Exigent, she gets to gattai shit.
There was something floated earlier about making her armor that acted like a prism under the light of her anima, which is close enough for government work.
Using Molly's potential 18-20 or so dice for crafting something mechanical we could make her a comically complicated weapon like a purse that shifts into chainsaw gauntlets* and she'd be set for a role in a gritty deconstruction of the genre.
… And incidentally the gritty deconstruction of people, but that comes with the territory.
* Possibly with matching boots that can pop chain blades out around the border of the shoe, so that she can tap her heels together and engage Mortal Kombat mode as part of her transformation sequence
I was thinking more along the lines of narrative or mechanical weight than aesthetic flourishes.
Molly wears a chainmail undershirt, but Lydia doesnt as far as we know. Just the jacket and whatever her father gave her.
The Water Dragon spell would allow us to build her armor and she'd still be able to transform its look and dimensions, as long as it weighed roughly the same.
Besides, Lydia already has multiple Brawl-charms in her charmtree.
What she'd actually need is a ranged option. Maybe Molly will make her a railgun.
Or just a mentat stone.
A sufficiently epic quest to trick, trade, or conquer what remains of her father's realm (probably the first two because Winter) culminating in her reaching towards divinity as a modern age mirror of Molly's ascension towards the primordials could be a lot of fun and justify significant improvements without feeling like a cop out.
She doesnt appear to have any ambitions to that effect.
And its worth remembering that kingdoms dont generally run themselves. If you're voting to make someone royalty, you're giving them a fulltime job
And unlike Molly, they dont get fiat-backed loyalty or the ability to spin off a clone to run things.
That doesn't work, at least not in Exalted.
"Join Battle" is considered the ultimate social defence for a reason.
Thats for white room scenarios. Or open combat.
Interrupting a diplomatic meeting or truce hosted or guaranteed by a major player by starting a fight because you are losing a social encounter is unlikely to end well.
And its entirely possible for a social encounter to bleed her of temp WP before an actual fight.
So yes, its a pretty significant weakness in her build to tie her Excellency to temporary willpower.
Not your fault or DP's; balancing new charms is hard.
Still means she's going to need to go outside her charmset to fill in holes.
