Fantasy Sidereals - New Beginnings OOC

[Rykon]

You bring up a good point. I will go ahead and increase the number of Charms you can get from 35 to 50. That should help out a bit.

As a somewhat related issue, I've been wondering if we'll be able to pick up SMA charms after the start of play through XP or if the lack of mentors means we're cut off from learning additional SMA charms barring some sort of supernatural means, like memory gems or possibly a Sidereal ghost.

I'll probably lean into making Tien a little more evenly balanced regardless.

 

[Psychie]

You will still be able to get SMA Charms with your xp, don't worry about that. I am not that evil and heartless.

 

[Psychie]

Referring back to my copy of DotFA, I see you guys were a bit underwhelming compared to another E6 Sidereal. So I boosted your numbers in Character Creation a bit to give you more to work with. You are both still under the typical E6 character in a few areas, but that can be explained by you having just recently hit that level, and are still 'young' for your level of power.

 

[Rykon]

This certainly seems like plenty to take on such a conspiracy with a fair chance at success. Provided we play to our strengths smartly. I should be able to invest a modest amount of points and resources into more conspiratorial and social talents to ease the burden on Random Word . Otherwise, I can double down on the whole mass annihilation thing like dipping into some utility in Prismatic Arrangement of Creation or delving more into Citrine Poxes of Contagion. There's certainly diminishing returns with more combat after a while. More charms doesn't mean more motes after all.

I've got a full day planned tomorrow but hopefully, things will clear up enough to make steady progress on the sheet over the weekend.

 

[Psychie]

With the 4th coming up, I think that a lot of people have plans for the weekend. Take your time, and if you have any questions, comments or concerns to share, feel free to do so.

 

[Random Word]

Alright, now I'm on vacation, and on a train to Chicago for a few days. Turns out American trains don't have wifi! How barbaric. I can tether, though, so I'll have plenty of time to finish this giant character sheet between looking out the window.

 

[Psychie]

Sounds like a remarkable plan. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. I'm so excited to get the game going, but I can't finish up the initial post until I know more about your characters.

 

[Rykon]

Alright, I'm going to see if I can wrap this up as much as possible today. Elder Sidereal builds is a bit of unfamiliar ground for me though so if you see anything that might be worth throwing into the mix Random Word , let me know.

Speaking of, what do we think about using the spells Demon of the Second Circle, Theft of Memory, and Sapphire Banishment to rip intel from the enemy by force? Not something we could do often, no doubt, but between those three spells and Peacock Shadow Eyes we could make a hell of a misinformation game in the background. Mists of Eventide would also help us secure a summoning site.

 

[Psychie]

Cool beans. I'll look over your sheet once you let me know its ready, and we'll just have Random Word's character to get finished. Then we can start out our game!

 

[Random Word]

Making high essence 2.5e builds is a lot of work! I'm not sure how tryhard to be. There's an infernal armour with bells on it that adds performance to dodge dv. If I made an essence silk version of that I could get to ~22 resting DDV, reflexively defend other you and my Amalgams with dodge, and let you all launch coordinated attacks that halve enemy soak and DV. There's no room in this build for SMA but that's fine because it's full of all sorts of fun social nonsense. She doesn't roll Performance, all dice are always hits,which makes her great at Astrology and lets her touch someone to make them give a speech with like 30 successes at some point in the future when a trigger is met. So she can find an Orichalcum, touch them to give them her Motivaton, then touch them to ensure their speech to the council (I forget what the celebrant et al are called) persuading them to intervene to save Creation has like 30+ hits, all without anyone knowing she exists.

There's actually a Sidereal Charm that turns a demon into a god for a year and a day or something and gives them a motivation of 'Defend Creation'. Or at least I think it's a Sidereal Charm. I thought about taking 2CD but I figured TED had to have safeguards in place against betrayal through the surrender oaths.

 

[Psychie]

Wow. Awesome stuff.

 

[Random Word]

Oh! Do we have to buy Ox-Bodies, or do we get 1 free per dot of resistance/something else? Sidereal Ox-Bodies are terrible, but with only the 7 base HLs I might go splat.

 

[Psychie]

Had not thought about that. I am leaning more towards making you purchase Ox-Body Charms, but with a free -2 health level to them to help bolster your characters. Consider your DVs, though. There is going to be few things that will end up hurting you with as hard as it is to hit you guys.

 

[Random Word]

Other than a name, some unspent merit points, and some fluff, my character is mechanically done, I think. I thought about taking the Ring of Being, but it just seems incredibly broken, especially for a game like this one.

What are the must haves you need to know about our characters before they get started? Summarizing centuries-long lives in a way that's short and fun to read can be tricky.

 

[Psychie]

I am looking forward to examining the sheet. I doubt that there is any issues with the character, so that shouldn't be a problem.

For the things that I need, mostly its just some personal info to get to know your character a bit better to get us started. What do you look like? What part of Creation are you from? How did you react when you learned you were destined to be a Sidereal Exalt? What part of Creation do you try to look after? Stuff like that.

 

[Random Word]

Ooh, right at the beginning, huh? Let's see:

I think being born a blind seer in the Varang city-states would be interesting. She couldn't see the stars, but she could feel them, and amongst a people so obsessed with astrology that made her into a minor celebrity, appointed oracle for her neighbourhood at a very young age. Whenever she consulted her own future, she could never see beyond her 16th birthday, but knew it would be a momentous and joyous occasion.

She continues to visit her now very extensive family who, after fifteen generations of subtle manipulation of fate and not so subtle manipulations of important people, have gone from poor day labourers to wealthy merchant princes famed for their patronage of the arts and holding the ear of the Satrap.

 

[Psychie]

Are you still blind? Or have you used the various medical technologies available to the Sidereals to get your blindness fixed?

 

[Random Word]

There's a Sidereal prayer strip that renders you blind but converts all your Performance pool to successes, makes your voice ring with divine truth, and adds your essence successes to your DDV. She's going to have that one up permanently, so I think it makes sense she doesn't consider her blindness something to cure. I might take a hearthstone to let her sense the ground, or maybe air or essence, just so she doesn't - no, actually it's way more funny to have a Sidereal constantly tripping over things. She's just supernaturally graceful and always catches herself, trusting fate to get her where she needs to go.

 

[Psychie]

Ok. Just wanted to make sure I knew what to expect/describe for your character.

Rykon How goes work on your sheet?

 

[Rykon]

Hoping to get it wrapped up tonight. Stuff keeps popping up suddenly when I'd otherwise have time to charm hunt.

For his origins, I hadn't put much thought into past family before being picked up by the bureau of destiny. So I'm mulling that over still.

Once Tien Exalted however, he'd mostly be championing militaristic Dynastic houses, and the whole of the Seventh Legion. A favorite past time was teaching at Pasiap's Stair or the academy at Lookshy and various dojos of the scavenger lands or blessed isle.

He was nominally Bronze faction but of the opinion that misleading people on the nature of Solars made their position potentially weaker if the truth was later proven and becoming the dominant belief.

 

[Psychie]

Sounds good.

 

[Psychie]

This Charm replicates the effects of the Solar Charm Divine Transcendence of Martial Arts.

Where is the write-up of the Lotus Blossoms Charm? I thought it was in Dreams of the First Age, but I haven't spotted it.

 

[Psychie]

Rykon Nevermind. I found it in the Errata. Silly me.

 

[Rykon]

Where is the write-up of the Lotus Blossoms Charm? I thought it was in Dreams of the First Age, but I haven't spotted it.

So here's the dumb part...

It's a Throne Shadow Extension in the DotFA section of the Scroll of Errata.

I'm probably dropping that one as I no longer need it for his SMAs. Then again, I could be evil and dip into Border of Kaleidoscopic logic, but I don't remember if the opener was E7 or E8

 

[Psychie]

So here's the dumb part...

It's a Throne Shadow Extension in the DotFA section of the Scroll of Errata.

I'm probably dropping that one as I no longer need it for his SMAs. Then again, I could be evil and dip into Border of Kaleidoscopic logic, but I don't remember if the opener was E7 or E8

Yeah, I spotted it. I was just trying to get an idea of what to expect from you with your Charms.

You? Evil? I would never believe that! lol