Changeling: The Lost, Play By Post?

[luffy316]

incidentally, should be posting soon. want to make sure everything's good with my character contract-wise before getting into it. don't want to read the thread and then forget it because it's not on my Unread Posts list

[Clockwurke Bear]

So I need one piece of advice- I'm going with Dual Kith, but I need to decide on which 2 of Lurker, Mirrorskin, and Whisperwisp for my kith. Anyone got any ideas?

EDIT: Also Am I allowed a free starting weapon, or are we too stripped? I'm good with either, because there is a weapon I really want, but improvising is awesome too.

[Juju-Monster-Man]

What you want to do?

Jaci (my character) is a Dual Kith Palewraith/Leechfinger. So basically on a good day she is a scavenger who runs away and hides at the slightest sign of danger and on bad days she becomes a living shadows who hunts down things and eat them.

It seems like from the 3 kiths listed your combo choices would be.

Lurkglider (I'm assuming that is what you mean by Lurker) / Mirrorskin = Flying and Shape changing
Lurkglider and Whisperwisp = Flying and Distant Communication
Whisperwisp and Mirrorskin = Shape changing and Distant Communication

I kinda like the Whisperwisp/Mirrorskin or the Lurkglider/Whisperwisp because it seems like a cool combos.

[Clockwurke Bear]

Well no, lurker isn't lurkglider- It's lurker, a kith added in Victorian Lost. 9 again on larceny rolls with no penalty for bad equipment, can spend glamour for +2 to larceny temporarily, and 8 again on stealth rolls. So I know I want to be stealthy and induce fear- I want Mirrorskin either way I think. But as for the last one, I'm not sure.

EDIT: Basically master thief or master spy.

[Juju-Monster-Man]

Oh, I don't have Victorian Lost so that explains why I couldn't find that Kith.

I like the Mirrorskin/Lurker (master thief). But I've never been able to do a good face guy (spy) so that kinda sways my vote.

[Clockwurke Bear]

Okay, here's my sheet. Tell me if you'd like any changes- http://sheetgen.dalines.net/sheet/19381

[darkfire]

Well then Clockwork, I've taken your questions and looked at your sheet and have a good deal of suggestions to improve your character build. As for a Dual kith, it is a legit merit to take for your character so long as you pay the proper amount of Merit Points for the Merit at character creation. As for your character, I feel you don't quite get the point of making a World of Darkness character. World of darkness characters should represent actual people who could exist in the world. From looking at your sheet, you did a lot of Min-Maxing with your skills while not taking some vital skills that would better round out your character. Remember that having a 4 in a skill means you're an Ultra-Professional. Using medicine as an example, a 3 dot medicine person would be an experienced practiced doctor who would likey have their own practice, while a 4 dot in Medicine would make you a world class brain surgeon and 5 would make you one of the best medical doctors in the world. For this reason, I have a restriction at character creation that no more than 1 skill can start ranked at 4 (And no rank 5 skills to start), although you're free to raise them with XP in game.

As for suggestions to round out your edges, here is my breakdown.

For attributes, your Manipulation Score is WAY too high. First of all, NEVER buy 5 dots in an attribute at character creation as the 5th dot costs 2 allocations. Your attributes appear to be ultra-high for a standard build. The spread is 5/4/3, which is 5 dots in one area, 4 dots in another area and 3 dots in a 3rd area.

Now if you want to be Ultra-Manipulative, a 4 is more than enough, heck even a 3 and increasing your composure to 3 would be a good idea, as while manipulation is good for bending people to your will, Composure is useful for keeping that "Poker Face" in a social situation and gives you more willpower. So a 2/3/3 spread might be the more ideal. Now if you're putting social as a secondary, then a 2/3/2 would be recommended.

For physical attributes, it seems you're a stealth buff so a 2/4/2 spread might work well for a stat spread. Of course if you want to stronger or have more health levels and endurance then a 3/3/2 or a 2/3/3 would be a good spread.

For Mental attributes, a flat 2/2/2 spread is the safest bet. Although as you seem to like being perceptive, you might get away with a 2/3/1 spread so long as you can back it up with a 3+ composure score to balance out a low Resolve.

Now down to skills.

For your Mental Skills, 3+ in investigation makes you on the level of an experienced police detective. The problem is that you lack the education to justify such a high skill. You have 0 dots in academics which means you have poor formal education and an inability to do research (Which is a wits or intelligence + academics pool). My suggestion would be to lower your Investigation to 2 and put a dot in Academics so you're not completely boned when it comes to intellectual pursuits. Remember that if you have 0 dots in a mental skill, its a harsh -3 die pool penalty meaning unless you got some MAJOR bonuses you'll be rolling a chance die for any research based checks.

For Physical Skills, you're slightly more balanced here. A high athletics is fairly justifiable as that covers climbing and general physical pursuits. Your high stealth fits considering you're a darkling although you might consider lowering it to put the point somewhere else. A 3 in weaponry is somewhat iffy though considering that makes you on the level of a professional fencer but you're free to support it in character by some kind of background justification. The only real thing I would ask is that you put a dot or two in survival. Darklings often have to live in hostile environments and thus having a dot or two in survival is something many of them pick up. Not to mention Survival is needed to navigate the hedge, without any dots and you'll easily get lost and that can be a BAD thing in the hedge. Maybe raise your larceny to 2 if you're going the thief route as that covers slight of hand, lock-picking and bypassing security.

Your Social Skills are a REAL mess. I can see having a good Persuasion and Subterfuge as good, but you should also buy some Streetwise or else you'll know little about the Street-level interactions. Some empathy would be good to sense lies, intimidate to make the best use of your dark nature. Maybe a dot in socialize if you want to work a crowd.

Your merits even out ok, that's just fine on your sheet.

Now as for Contracts, I would not recommend spending all your allocations on one Contract Group. Be more diverse in your picks. Contracts of Smoke could be useful for stealth stuff. Contract of Mirror would be good to improve your disguise ability. Or if you want to affect luck, take contract of Heath 1 and 2, no 1 for the ability to inflict curses on a target causing them to lose dice or Favored Fate that can give a +4 die bonus to a roll. Hearth contracts are good as they don't require a roll to use, just a point of glamor and they work. Just remember though that they have Bans that need to be adhered to.

Now as for some final issues:

1. You need to pick 4 Specialties for your skills. Suggestions include Stealth (Moving in Darkness), Weaponry (Knives), Persuasion (Fast Talk) and Investigation (Enigmas). Of course feel free to pick a spread that works best.

2. Remember you also have 20 starting XP to round out your character. Maybe buy yourself an extra attribute, some skills or perhaps some more merits.

Anyway there is my 2.0 cents on how to improve your character. Hope that breaks things down for you Clockwork Bear

[Clockwurke Bear]

Okay, I know world of darkness quite well, and so I'd like to mention mine- My character is built around what she's been forced to do since being dumped into Arcadia as a child. That is being a spy. She's stealthy, and good at convincing people. I know it's a legit merit, as I did take it. There is a two dot, and three dot version- Two dot letting you get a second kith in the same seeming- 3 in another.

Now, I didn't see your restriction I will change based off that.

BUT my stats are using basic, my exp going toward improving attributes.

Academics are not needed as each skill is a separate pool- One can become quite skilled in investigating through practice and training without book learning.

Why would survival be needed though, as not all darklings had to have harsh physical environments- She did not. She suffered emotional and mental abuse.

She isn't meant to work with people on the street, she was meant to run around it, only going in to important places, high caliber parties and the like. The empathy is a helpful tip, I didn't think of lies like that, thank you. But working as a seductive trickster was her game, so intimidate was not her strong suit.

As for contracts, I looked at them all, and decided that not only did I like the darkness ones, but that's what she would've trained in. Plus, it's expensive to buy the last dot any other time.

Finally I did use specialties- They are in notes at the bottom as the sheet had no room for them.

I don't mean to sound rude, and I will change based on your 4 dot restriction, but I didn't just choose to minmax- She was designed to be a spy, and I filled her out as such. I've done this before, and just decided to try something new.

Edit: I will change as much as you'd need me too.

[darkfire]

I gave you a good reason to take at least 1 dot in Survival, so you can Navigate the Hedge as its a Survival Check to do so. As for streetwise, its not just covering knowing the "Bad Crowd" but it also is the City-wise skill to know where to find places. If you're a thief, you'll likely know how to find drug dealers, fences and other people on the other side of the fence as well as navigate the city, hence my suggestion. And the Academics dot would be useful investment as believe me, you're going to be hampered having 0 in that skill. If you can live with it, fine, its just we don't have many characters with academics in the group, the Ogre for sure didn't put any dots in it as he's the Dumb Brute Ogre Archetype. I did give XP to round out the edges, surely you can spare 3 xp to get a dot in it. Remember you can also gimp your Clarity down to as low as 5 for more XP (5 XP for each clarity you trade off)

[Clockwurke Bear]

Well yes, but she doesn't have skill navigating it. The hedge is the in between area, and Arcadia is on of the many results. She hasn't gone through it except when being carried away by a true fae.

She's not a thief, she's a spy, and was taken by her fae to parties and things, as a shiny servant who would hear thing she wasn't supposed to.

And academics is book learning and memory, there wouldn't be too many times where it's needed unless we want research, or have to solve something. Not that I'd hate for her to have it, but it doesn't make sense within her character. She was trained to do a specific set of things, and that's what I tried to portray. Being taken as a baby and raised here really restricted her repertoire.

[darkfire]

Actually Clockwurke Bear, you can't be a Baby when you're taken to Arcadia considering in part having something mortal to cling to is what drives a changeling to flee Arcadia and return to the mortal realm. A baby in Arcadia has little to no mortal connections which can be a problem. Many babies die in Arcadia because the Gentry themselves are poor parents to a baby and would often neglect them in such ways that they would die before they got a chance to mature. Those few changeling babies that survive, end up on a fast track to becoming hobgoblins as they have no frame of reference for human morality and would grow up knowing only the ways of Arcadia thus become something that lacks humanity. More likely you were captured as a child or a teenager, some age where you can have a frame of reference for your human feelings and connections.

[Clockwurke Bear]

Well that's effectively what I meant- But a young child around 5 would still have minimal skills.