Need some Infernal-fu

wordman

wordman

Two Thousand Club
I'm building up to the endgame of my long running 1E campaign. Part of this plot will involve some infernals ratting around in Creation, doing what they can to hasten, and prepare the way for, the return of the Ebon Dragon. I'm not entirely sure what tasks they'll be up to yet, but there will probably be a lot of maniuplating Yozi-cults, tracking down tech, taking over manses and so on.


Trouble is, I find myself extremely uninterested in really reaching a deep understanding of the Infernals book, yet I would like the infernals to be somewhat "optimized". So, I'm asking those more interested in infernals than I am for some "design" tricks for a rough circle of bad-ass operatives of this kind. Are there any charm selections that are particularly good? Any mixes of charms with other charms or artifacts. Combos?


By the time these infernals appear in the story, the PCs will be around Essence 5, with 450-500xp.
 
When you say "bad ass circle", in what way do you mean? So hey need to take over manses and motivate cults (gives me ideas as far as social or occult/lore) but what else? Is it a perfect circle? Or are they all mostly oriented towards melée combat. There's a lot of options.


I.e. My GSP antagonists have all have their respective cIrcle placement but with a heavy accent in ranged weaponry and combat.


If you just need some basics than your infernal heroic martial arts equivalent will do. But if you have something specific in mind, post it and I can try throwing some Ess 5 at ya. Also, I'm assuming there will be 5 of 'em. Yes? No?
 
Briartone said:
Is it a perfect circle?
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter to me. Might as well. Five is probably the right number.
Briartone said:
are they all mostly oriented towards melée combat.
Click to expand...
Probably not. Their tasks would be more social manipulation, stealthly infiltration, probably tinkering with magitech etc. At least one should be combat heavy, though.
 
I've found it pretty hard to not make a good Infernal. Their charm set really benefited from coming after all the others.
 
That's no lie; with just a smattering of Adorjani Charms I can make an akuma pretty much ridiculously difficult to put down. Even if the akuma in question is only a Terrestrial.


Akuma and GSPs are feared for a reason.
 
I agree that killer GSP's are easier... But to make them interesting requires some finesse. Social-mongers are tricky. Stealth charms for hiding their nature, blah blah blah.


I'll have some specifics for you when I have my material in front of me. Socially I think you'll be drawing from one or two.... Yozis. But the main wrecking ball is probably straight up Malfean.


Also, keep in mind that GSP's have access to shit tons of spies, cults, and ridiculous artifacts AT BEGINNING PLAY. If these dudes are Essence 5, you can utilize all kinds of artifacts to accommadate any ignorance you have of they're abilities or charms.


But I'll throw you some bureaucracy-slaughterers. This morning after work.
 
If you want some basic antagonists, pretty much any Yozi Charm tree has both martial and social combat charms. Any tree can conform to what you might need, especially at the Essence levels and experience levels you are talking about. At that level, pretty well and combination is not outside of reason. The easiest way to do this might be to just concentrate on the Excellencies and get your GSP's loaded up on them. Then consider the following:


Infernal Charms are not organized by ability. Thus, every tree has a mish mash of abilities with the patron Yozi's spin on things.


That being said...


Malfeas' introductory charm set is the ground floor for combat. Use Malfeas' whole tree for your 'Wrecking Ball' character. It has nice destructive flavor as per the patron Yozi.


Cecelyne and Ebon Dragon have the best options (IMHO) for social subterfuge and manipulation. Balancing Charms from these two trees will really flesh out control over mankind besides the already present spies or cults these characters might have.


Remember there is no wrong answer. If you don't like the feel of the charms int he trees I mentioned, then pick another Yozi. OR check out Kyeudo's Szoreny and Kimberry trees that are actually very very good.


I know I'm being ambiguous. Sorry. It's really hard with these guys to be specific since each one has comparable powers depending on what you're looking for.


Good luck.
 
So you learn Malfeas for when forceful is needed and Ebon Dragon for more subtle occasions, and you have the best of both worlds?
 
Oh, he's great at subterfuge, but any actual manipulation is dependent on the characters actual skills (not counting his Excellencies.) Personally i think Ceceleyne is better and mental influence, but then she's also in charge of demon "religion", so that is to be expected.
 
Thanks for the replies so far. One thing to add to my request: these are NPCs. Being Essence 5, it's likely they'll have a wall of charms in store. Many of these will be useful for background narrative (e.g. "this guy has this charms, so could have done something like X a few days back" or "she would have had her cult to Y with the help of charm Z"). In play, however, I will likely only have time for their "best tricks" and need to be tracking a bunch of other stuff at once. So, I guess what I'm really after here is:


Given an NPC built around A:

  • Off camera, they would play to their strengths and do B.
  • During combat, they would most likely C.


I realize it's hard to provide examples without knowing exactly how the NPC will be used.


One approach might be to think of Infernals you have used for other purposes, and fill in A, B and C. This would let me cherry pick.


Another approach might be to assume this circle is a generic Five Bad Band, and fill in the blanks accordingly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top