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Marked for Death: A Rational Naruto Quest

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[X] Plan Stealth Assassin
-[X] Defect from Hidden Mist
-[X] Currently in Fire Country
-[X] Hideout: Remote cave system in a large, heavily forested mountain range. The jounin have drilled some rudimentary hidden escape tunnels.
-[X] Use the Stealth Assassin build

Although, honestly, I feel like the soul-stealing bloodline would be more useful than the Iron Nerve bloodline for a stealth-focused character. @Rihaku, would you mind considering using that as the bloodline for the Stealth Assassin build?
 
It's a bit late, but I finally got the character builder I made to a presentable state. It's a Google Docs spreadsheet, so I think if you want to try figuring out a new build, you should be able to save a copy and mess with the numbers/booleans on your copy. It doesn't do a lot of validation, especially in skills, so it won't stop you from making invalid builds, but if you want to sanity check your build in the last few hours before voting closes, it's available. @AugSphere If you see any errors I made in calculating the rules, let me know. [For example, I've double-checked with WolframAlpha that x/2*(n^2+n) is the right math for x*(1+2+3+...+n), but I'd appreciate someone else sanity checking me.]
 
Rihaku said:
...That said, this is interesting! Snow would be a great country to defect from, and we could even loot sweet chakra armor from any invaders. But, on the other hand, we lose the refugee-nin status that Mist defectors debateably get, which is probably more directly relevant to our goals (being tolerated/used as deniable assets by a Major Village) than a shiny armor.
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The shiny chakra armor is also notably less intrinsic to us than a bloodline limit, and is likely to be confiscated by even the 'nicer' villages as proof of loyalty or somesuch. Not that there isn't a risk of that for bloodline limits as well; if we're from the Mist, we should never forget that a bloodline is a double-edged sword. Cloud in particular would be happy to cut us up into tiny pieces for even a shot at acquiring the Sharingan, given that they were willing to risk provoking outright war for an unsealed Byakugan. It's a bit of a shame, since I'd like to see other corners of the Elemental Countries, but the Leaf's probably the safest option in that regard. They pay at least lip service to the notion of morality, already possess the Sharingan, and let us exploit the bulk of our meta-knowledge. Our chances there are fairly good, though we should beware of Danzo and his ilk.
Silver719 said:
Feh. I'm still sad we can't be utility, with people focusing so much on raw combat effectiveness.
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While there's life, there's hope; if we don't optimize for our survival in the short term, we won't have a chance to do interesting things like travel or branch out.

Anyway, I'm on board with:

[X] Plan Stealth Assassin
-[X] Defect from Hidden Mist
-[X] Currently in Fire Country
-[X] Hideout: Remote cave system in a large, heavily forested mountain range. The jounin have drilled some rudimentary hidden escape tunnels.
-[X] Use the Stealth Assassin build
 
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will408914 said:
[X] Plan Stealth Assassin
-[X] Defect from Hidden Mist
-[X] Currently in Fire Country
-[X] Hideout: Remote cave system in a large, heavily forested mountain range. The jounin have drilled some rudimentary hidden escape tunnels.
-[X] Use the Stealth Assassin build

Although, honestly, I feel like the soul-stealing bloodline would be more useful than the Iron Nerve bloodline for a stealth-focused character. @Rihaku, would you mind considering using that as the bloodline for the Stealth Assassin build?
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Click to shrink...

Yeah, the soul-stealer bloodline seems Rinnegan-tier, so I'm assuming there's either some misunderstanding in how it works between the player who wrote it and the GM who approved it, or there's some horrible catch. If it did actually work exactly as MadScientist described, it would be so overpowered I don't know if the quest would be any fun.

Silver719 said:
Feh. I'm still sad we can't be utility, with people focusing so much on raw combat effectiveness.
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From a player's standpoint, we can direct the research of our allied / friend science-nins via conversation (especially if our ideas are any good), without the extreme vulnerability of actually being one. Doubly so since we are the ideal testbed for proven augmentations. Q makes the toys, but James Bond actually uses them.

I think it's extremely unlikely that even a full Scientist build would be able to avoid combat altogether, though there is still a lot of science that can be done with Encode Program. Ultimately, a utility build has trouble completing a direct engagement without the help of a combat build, whereas a combat build is fully self-sufficient.
 
Orm Embar said:
While there's life, there's hope; if we don't optimize for our survival in the short term, we won't have a chance to do interesting things like travel or branch out.
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Survival in the short term involves being so valuable to our group OTHER ninja take a kunai for us. That means being able to sense ninja coming and being able to heal, two skills so worthwhile it makes us almost as worthwhile as a jonin.
Rihaku said:
From a player's standpoint, we can direct the research of our allied / friend science-nins via conversation (especially if our ideas are any good), without the extreme vulnerability of actually being one. Doubly so since we are the ideal testbed for proven augmentations. Q makes the toys, but James Bond actually uses them.

I think it's extremely unlikely that even a full Scientist build would be able to avoid combat altogether, though there is still a lot of science that can be done with Encode Program. Ultimately, a utility build has trouble completing a direct engagement without the help of a combat build, whereas a combat build is fully self-sufficient.
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I'm not even in support of being a scientist. I want to be the medic sensor nin that the group simply cannot afford to lose.
 
Rihaku said:
Yeah, the soul-stealer bloodline seems Rinnegan-tier, so I'm assuming there's either some misunderstanding in how it works between the player who wrote it and the GM who approved it, or there's some horrible catch. If it did actually work exactly as MadScientist described, it would be so overpowered I don't know if the quest would be any fun.
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*goes back and re-reads*

Oh. Yes. I'd been assuming that the other person's stat had to be higher than your own. An S-class jonin couldn't get a point of Awareness by killing some random peasant. And you don't control what skill you get, just whatever their highest is.

EDIT: I was just playing around with the dice roller, and apparently I can't get rid of the results. Oh well, nothing to see here.
eaglejarl threw 3 100-faced dice. Reason: 3 Total: 75
44 44 18 18 13 13
 
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Silver719 said:
Survival in the short term involves being so valuable to our group OTHER ninja take a kunai for us. That means being able to sense ninja coming and being able to heal, two skills so worthwhile it makes us almost as worthwhile as a jonin.
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These are recently betrayed shinobi of the Mist; I wouldn't count on anybody taking a kunai for anyone else at this juncture. As far as seeing ninja coming, the proposed build does make a concession to that in the form of Awareness 2, and I think Rihaku mentioned something about prioritizing development of that further in the future. Healing would synergize well with preventing damage incurred by the Gates, so perhaps that might be useful down the road as well.
Silver719 said:
I'm not even in support of being a scientist. I want to be the medic sensor nin that the group simply cannot afford to lose.
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The other side of that coin is that we can't afford to lose the group; I understand utility, but what guarantee do we even have that this group is going to stay together? Again, these are nukenin of the Hidden Mist. A taijutsu specialist who can effectively wield the weapons and implement the techniques developed by others also serves a vital role, but more importantly it's one that allows us to survive on our own if things go pear-shaped.
 
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[X] Originating from weakest village possible. Snow. I can go for Mist, if they're in the middle of purges and revolts, but the genin graduation...
[X] Hiding as far away as possible, in a minor village's nation. Better yet, a nation without a ninja village at all. Not Leaf.

They would still be able to betray our location if we made our presence known, but these mitigate risks significantly, and if our former village is weak, they probably can't pay a bounty worth the effort that we give our bounty hunters.

[X] Hiding in a cave, itself hidden in wilderness.

dwibby said:
It's a bit late, but I finally got the character builder I made to a presentable state.
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I had a small heart attack, but it's just a character builder. I'm working on a sheet the QMs will be able to use during the quest.
 
[X]Plan Synergy -
Bloodline: Internal Chakra sensing
Int 3, Wits 1, Resolve 1
Str 1, Dex 2, Sta 1
Pre 1, Man 1, Comp 1
Cap 3, Control 3, Regen 1

Affinity: Lightning
Fire 0, Wind 0, Lightning 2, Earth 0, Water 0
Unspent Points: 3

Tanj: 3
Weapons: 2
Resist intimidation 1
Resist seduction 1
Technique Mod/Dev: 2
Stealth: 2
Awareness: 2
Tactical movement 1
Medical knowledge 1
Medical Ninjutsu 2
Transformation 1, clone 1, substitution 1
Basic self-heal off of medical 1
Basic touch lightning technique 1

[X]Mist
[X]Leaf
[X] Tents with a rough palisade

Exiled due to lightning being a bad idea in very wet mist. The goal is to use the bloodline to optimize medical self, and get deceive lightning strikes. Also, lightning + medical is interesting for potential direct muscle control as a bypass, disabling strike.
 
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transfuturist said:
I had a small heart attack, but it's just a character builder. I'm working on a sheet the QMs will be able to use during the quest.
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Sorry about that! :) I whipped it up so I didn't have to do nearly as much math myself. It shouldn't be too hard to convert over to using XP, either, since everything uses x/2*(n^2+n) to calculate point cost, doubling the attribute multipliers should let it handle XP fine.
 
Rihaku said:
Yeah, the soul-stealer bloodline seems Rinnegan-tier, so I'm assuming there's either some misunderstanding in how it works between the player who wrote it and the GM who approved it, or there's some horrible catch. If it did actually work exactly as MadScientist described, it would be so overpowered I don't know if the quest would be any fun.
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eaglejarl said:
*goes back and re-reads*

Oh. Yes. I'd been assuming that the other person's stat had to be higher than your own. An S-class jonin couldn't get a point of Awareness by killing some random peasant. And you don't control what skill you get, just whatever their highest is.
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Yes, that's what I'd been assuming, too.

It still seems useful for a stealth-and-assassination focused character. We wouldn't be fighting head-on anyways, and our past kills would make future kills easier.
 
Orm Embar said:
These are recently betrayed shinobi of the Mist; I wouldn't count on anybody taking a kunai for anyone else at this juncture. As far as seeing ninja coming, the proposed build does make a concession to that in the form of Awareness 2, and I think Rihaku mentioned something about prioritizing development of that further in the future. Healing would synergize well with preventing damage incurred by the Gates, so perhaps that might be useful down the road as well.

The other side of that coin is that we can't afford to lose the group; I understand utility, but what guarantee do we even have that this group is going to stay together? Again, these are nukenin of the Hidden Mist. A taijutsu specialist who can effectively wield the weapons and implement the techniques developed by others also serves a vital role, but more importantly it's one that allows us to survive on our own if things go pear-shaped.
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I'll give you that, I suppose. I guess I just want to go hard mode by being a medical nin as opposed to a frontline combat nin.
 
ClawClawBite said:
[X]Plan Synergy -
Bloodline: Internal Chakra sensing
Int 3, Wits 1, Resolve 1
Str 1, Dex 2, Sta 1
Pre 1, Man 1, Comp 1
Cap 3, Control 3, Regen 1

Affinity: Lightning
Fire 0, Wind 0, Lightning 2, Earth 1, Water 0
13
Tanj: 3
Weapons: 2
Resist intimidation 1
Resist seduction 1
Technique Mod/Dev: 2
Stealth: 2
Awareness: 2
Tactical movement 1
Medical knowledge 1
Medical Ninjutsu 2
Transformation 1, clone 1, substitution 1
Basic self-heal off of medical 1
Basic touch lightning technique 1

[X]Mist
[X]Leaf
[X] Tents with a rough palisade

Exiled due to lightning being a bad idea in very wet mist. The goal is to use the bloodline to optimize medical self, and get deceive lightning strikes. Also, lightning + medical is interesting for potential direct muscle control as a bypass, disabling strike.
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I suppose I'll back this. Put me down for Plan Synergy.
 
Does anyone have a strong preference for our Elemental Affinity? In the fluff, earth and water tend to have the broadest utility, with offense, defense, and mobility options easily available, while fire and lightning are more linear/focused, lightning being more versatile than fire. I know earth is the most popular affinity, but I'm considering water favorably. It's good against fire, it enables Hidden Mist technique, it can be focused into a cutting edge or distilled to produce near-zero electrical conductivity... in a scientific setting, water is really strong. On the other hand, losing the potential of subterranean transit would be a problem.

For those who favor ninjutsu builds, I would consider capacity 4 almost mandatory, as capacity 3 can only make 3 attacks before falling unconscious. Ninjutsu generally underperforms taijutsu at this stage (which I guess makes sense, Rock Lee is the strongest genin), but sub-4 Ninjutsu has serious problems with staying power. The separate XP costs for each individual technique are also concerning.
 
If we're coming from Mist, then I feel like we should really do Water. It's more realistic to have that affinity, and being able to slip into rivers and hightail it out of there would make a good emergency escape plan. You're also right in that we can scientifically munchkin the Water affinity more than Earth, not to mention the fact that Earth manipulation leaves some serious marks on the environment, and that would undermine the whole 'stealth' thing.
 
I'm partial to wind, myself. It's strong at both medium and close range (Asuma's knives) on top of enhancing mobility (Temari's various fan techniques), which I believe one of the GMs said was the preferred method of avoiding damage in this iteration of the setting. Sufficient investment might enable sound-suppression abilities to enhance our stealth, or even Zao-esque sensory techniques that would give us a discount Byakugan to go with our discount Sharingan. Also, there are thematic considerations which may or may not be relevant; wind can enhance and support fire techniques, a relationship which we see reflected in the Konoha/Suna alliance.

Water's definitely a strong choice for a Mist shinobi, though.
 
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Sorry guys, I have been following the discussion so far, but I don't see which specific plan to vote for, so I'll just do this and hope it counts:

[x]Mole-Assassin guy

No Bloodline, abilities tailored to a two uses of Mole Technique and dexterity initially, plus room for trap-making afterwards,

Mist sounds great.

I have a feeling that tracking the 11 or so ninja is goingto be a great burden on the GM, so most will die quickly or we're going tobe separated from them rather early.
 
[X]Plan Synergy

Rationale: If we're here to play Rational!PC in Naruto-verse, we want the PC to have the necessary neural development. An INT 1 PC might be a touch below average in the mental department.

Also, direct muscle control as a disabling strike is a good start, but I have far greater ambitions there. With proper technique research & development, we should get into inhibiting all muscular control and taking over, body puppeteering via ninja wire at first, chakra threads later, and invisible chakra threads at higher mastery levels. For that matter, screwing with nervous systems is on the table: genjutsu can be dispelled, but nerve damage can leave an enemy blind/deaf until medi-nin treatment.

As we advance in electric & medical combination techniques, along with the level of perfected chakra flow understanding our bloodline allows, we should be able to begin ripping the electric information bouncing around the nerves of our targets and take it for ourselves, making our puppeted enemies into full drones we both control and perceive the world through.

Thus, rather than picking off isolated targets, we will acquire isolated targets. At the highest levels of accomplishment, this may begin to include mastering the microexpressions necessary for puppets to pass as uncontrolled, lie to comrades, and act as infiltrators. Where Sasori pursued mechanical perfection and raw quantity of controllable puppets, we pursue only the art of puppeteering living opponents (and using sith lightning area effect nerve disruption techniques on groups.)
 
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PetyrWiggin said:
Rationale: If we're here to play Rational!PC in Naruto-verse, we want the PC to have the necessary neural development. An INT 1 PC might be a touch below average in the mental department.
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Since INT can be trained, the attribute clearly doesn't correlate with total intellectual potential. It should be easy enough to fluff it as "talented, but lacking formal education in favor of physical training," or the like. This was confirmed earlier in the thread where a GM clarified that low levels of any stat would not have unpleasant mechanical consequences.

If we are to realistically consider a ninjutsu build, we should aim for at least level 4 in its relevant technique, and that technique should be an AoE long-range attack. Currently, Synergy's combat actions are a 3 dice Taijutsu attack, and a 1-die Lightning melee attack that costs 33% of its Chakra. If Sasuke has Taijutsu 4 at chargen, Synergy should struggle/tie against most competent genin and will die swiftly to ambush against an optimized genin*. The Stealth Assassin, by the same metric, should steamroll the vast majority of even competent genin before they even understand they're in a fight. The gulf represented by even 1 die is fairly large.

I am not opposed to a ninjutsu build, but I've yet to see one even approach the power of a straightfoward Taijutsu or Weapon build. It's extremely easy to develop weird techniques with a fraction of mid- or lategame XP, even from a position of 1 Int/Wits/Tech. Surviving to mid-lategame in order to benefit from that largess requires extreme specialization in survival-relevant skills.

*I would say such ninja ought to be rare, but an unoptimized chunin is probably about the level of an optimized genin.
 
@dwibby It is complete!

Here's my prototype character sheet, with conditional formatting to alert you of a good number of validation failures, including the starting constraints and starting levels! Make a copy or and toy around, and if you think you find a bug, let me know here or in the comments of the sheet! I would protect the relevant fields but I'm too lazy AND ALSO PSYCHED.

Commentable character sheet.

Plan Stealth Assassin character sheet, version 2.

@eaglejarl @Velorien@AugSphere Unless there are any bugs (and unless there are any system changes), this will be suitable for the QMs to keep a master copy of the character sheet available for anyone who wants to see it. I went through the system specification item by item. I'm not sure how damage is going to be kept track of, but that can be added in later, naturally. This was a lot of fun to work on. Is time for ninja. :ninja:
 
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