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Theo Anders and the Black Exaltation[Worm/Exalted][Hiatus]

Reader mode
Votes closed!
Vote Tally:

[X] Caste:
Bureaucracy : 3
Linguistics : 1
Ride/Drive : 1
Sail/Piloting : 0
Socialize : 3
Total = 8

[X] Favored
Melee : 5 +2 if using swords
Integrity : 3
Presence : 5
Lore/Hacking : 2
Athletics : 3
Total = 14 +4 ability dots bought with bonus points

[X] Not Caste/Favored
Ranged : 1
Performance : 1
Medicine : 1
Awareness : 3
Martial Arts :
Thrown :
War :
Resistance :
Survival :
Craft :
Investigation :
Occult :
Dodge :
Larceny :
Stealth :
Total = 6

Languages
English (native), German

Specialties
Melee : Swords 2

Bonus Points Spent
Abilities 4(4 pts), Specialties 2 (1 pt), Essence 3(7 pts)
Biigoh, dasstan, 1986ctcel, Anasurimbor, unsafejakal, AZATHOTHoth (5)

[X] Caste:
Bureaucracy : 3
Linguistics : 1
Ride/Drive : 1
Sail/Piloting : 0
Socialize : 3
Total = 8

[X] Favored
Melee : 3
War : 2
Integrity : 3
Presence : 3
Athletics : 2
Total = 13

[X] Not Caste/Favored
Ranged :
Performance : 1
Medicine : 1
Awareness : 3
Martial Arts :
Thrown :
Resistance : 1
Survival :
Craft :
Investigation :
Lore/Hacking : 1
Occult :
Dodge :
Larceny :
Stealth :
Total = 7

Languages: American English (native), German

Suggested Specialties (for bonus points)
Melee : Swords 2
Presence: Noble Demeanor 2
SwiftRosenthal, Jack of Olives (2)

Plan Ayy failed, we must move to Plan Bii!

I think our resident Tanuki took Manipulation 5 Presence 5 (Specialty +3 Fluffy Internet Paws) Socialize 5 (Specialty +3 Forum-fu) when Tanuki drew up their character sheet. 'Cause like, he's winning pretty hard(I think his plans have won 3 or 4 times by now), with only Swift offering another plan this time round. I hope that more people jump in and have stuff to offer, if for no other sake than to have more options. Either way, I expect it to be a bit more spread in results when Theo gets finished up and we get back to looking to marinating the Abyssal Sceptre in the Squish Mitten.

This leaves us with 3 bp.

=====

So this round consists of three plans at once. One for charms, one for virtues, and one for backgrounds.

Virtues are going to dictate a big portion of how Theo acts. Compassion is to see the end of suffering; Conviction is emotional endurance and commitment to a cause; Temperance is cold detachment and self-control; and Valor, courage and unholy fury. Each virtue must have 1 dot, and then you have an additional 5 dots to spend, and none of them can go above a 4 without spending 3 bp. Each virtue can be twisted a bit to be a bit more thematic. Like a high compassion loyal Theo could view ending suffering as 'people don't suffer when they're dead.' You must also indicate a primary Virtue rated at 3+, which will be the Virtue that causes Theo to gain resonance. (The resonance and dooms are listed in the thread marks)

Backgrounds are various things Theo gets benefits from. Like the Resources 1 I'm buying for you already is Theo's pocket money, and its enough to feed a single person, or a small family would often go hungry. Liege 2 (another background I've bought for you) basically The Lover likes him/thinks he's fairly useful enough to give him Resources 2, Mentor 2, Command 2, Spies 2, and a couple other backgrounds rated at 2 that Theo can ask for and she's likely to give him. Most of that he can't use at the moment. However, loyal Abyssal actions will bank goodwill with the Lover, just like renegade actions will upset the Lover. DM fiat controls this. If I feel like the Lover would approve, then it goes up, if I feel like the Lover disapproves it'll go down. If the walls between Creation's Underworld and Earth Bet fall enough the the Lover's organization can begin to act on Earth Bet this can be awesome for Theo, or the Lover could send assassins, kill Theo, and do a mulligan. You have four points in background left to spend.

The struck through descriptions are unavailable to purchase/improve.
• Abyssal Command—Zombie swarms, undead legions and mortal soldiers (loyalist only)
• Allies—Companions and talented servants
• Artifact—Soulsteel armaments and powerful trinkets
• Backing—Standing and rank within an organization
• Contacts—Information sources and mortals who owe the deathknight favors
• Cult—Mortals or ghosts who worship the deathknight directly
• Familiar—An animal companion
• Followers—Undead minions, ghostly servants and loyal mortals
• Influence—The deathknight's pull on the world around him
• Liege—The esteem and generosity of the Abyssal's Deathlord (loyalist only)
• Spies—Informants a deathknight's Deathlord places at his disposal (loyalist only)*
• Manse—A place of power and Essence
• Mentor—A patron and instructor
• Resources—Material goods and wealth
• Underworld Manse—Manse access and hearthstones on loan from one's Deathlord (loyalist only)
• Whispers—The deathknight's attunement to the fathomless knowledge of the Neverborn

*Spies will count towards Theo's own or any organization he belongs/heads if purchased that way. For Example: Spies 1 (Empire 88) would be valid.

Chaaaaaaaarms. Its like the Waaaaaaarp. Not really. These are the things that let you kick physics in the teeth and make physics cry in the corner of a perfectly spherical room. Well, there's also excellencies which make you do things REALLY REALLY well. Which is less of kicking physics in the teeth, and more of being THAT GOOD that you manage to cop a feel. You get 10, 5 of which must be from caste/favored skills. Please put the charms in spoilers, so those who don't have access to a charms description can see what the charms do!

What is affordable with BP this round? 1 dot in virtues and nothing else. 3 dots in backgrounds (at 1 point each) unless raising a background above 3 (that costs 2). Keep in mind that dots Abilities, specialties, Willpower are all still purchasable, if you want to save to the last round (which should be a quickie. Intimacies, and if any BP is left over, spending BP) If we have a stray BP left over, I'll give it back to you as (BPx3)xp.

Formatting in next post, since I'm cutting it so close to 7 as I finish this up. Yes, I did catch Jack of Olives last minute vote.
 
Example:

[X] Skitzy's Virtue Plan
Compassion 2
Conviction 3 Primary
Temperance 1
Valor 3

*reasons*

[X]Skitzy's Charms
Excellencies:
spoiler
spoiler
spoiler
spoiler
Socialize:
spoiler
Melee:
spoiler
spoiler
spoiler
spoiler
Athletics:
spoiler

[X] Skitzy's Background Plan
Resource 1 (Allowance)
Liege 2 (The Lover)
Backing 1 (Empire 88)
Mentor 2 (Kaiser)
Followers 1 (Half-dozen somewhat competent of Mooks)

*Reasons*

No BP spent

=====

Note While you can vote for all of a single person's plans there are THREE separate plans. You cannot just vote [X] Plan Skitzy. I will be asking where the other two votes are.
 
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[X] Virtue Plan evildice/Anasurimbor
-[X] Temperance 4 (primary)
-[X] Conviction 3
-[X] Valor 1
-[X] Compassion 1
-[X] BP expenditure: +1 WP (-2 BP, 1 BP remaining)

See evildice's post here and Anasurimbor's post here.

[X] Background Plan Swift
-[X] Resources 1 (Allowance)
-[X] Liege 2 (Lover)
-[X] Backing 2 (E88, Heir to the Throne)
-[X] Familiar 1 (a crow of some kind?)
-[X] Whispers 1

Whispers is for narrative purposes. Backing 2 would be Backing 3 IMO if we were at all respected, but we're not so it isn't. If anyone could point me to the list of Underworld native life, thanks in advance.

[X] Charm Plan Swift
-[X] BP expenditure: +1 Lore (-1 BP, 0 BP remaining)
BLADE-SUMMONING GESTURE
Cost: 1m; Mins: Melee 2, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Mirror (Call the Blade; Exalted, p. 191), Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The weapons of the Abyssal Exalted fear their masters and swiftly leap to their grasp when bidden by an imperiously outstretched hand.

Mirrors:
CALL THE BLADE
Cost: 1m; Mins: Melee 2, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Obvious
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar's weapons know their master. The Solar holds out her hand and calls to the Essence of one of her weapons. If the desired weapon is within (Essence x 10) yards, and a flight path exists between the weapon and her hand, this Charm draws the weapon into her grasp. She must own the weapon she calls. This Charm can be used to draw and ready a sheathed weapon reflexively.
RESPLENDENT SHADOW BLADE
Cost: 6m+, 1wp; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Emotion, Mirror (Glorious Solar Saber; Exalted, p. 192), Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Blade-Summoning Gesture
The Abyssal conjures a weapon formed of Essence-hardened shadows adorned or intertwined with corpse-elements. Unlike its Solar mirror, Resplendent Shadow Blade is not Holy but imposes an Emotion effect of despair or horror whenever it inflicts any damage, draining one Willpower unless the target spends motes equal to the Abyssal's Essence rating. Mortal extras who somehow survive being hit with this weapon drop prone and curl up in a fetal position for the rest of the scene, too spiritually broken even to defend themselves.

Mirrors:
GLORIOUS SOLAR SABER
Cost: 6m+, 1wp; Mins: Melee 4, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Holy, Obvious
Duration: One scene
Prerequisite Charms: Call the Blade
The Essence of the Lawgiver manifests in a gleaming blade of the sun. This blade is always a glowing weapon that inflicts aggravated damage against creatures of darkness (see boxed text) and sheds sunlight as bright as a torch. The Exalt can summon this weapon to her hand from anywhere it has fallen, as a diceless miscellaneous action.
The player defines the appearance of this blade when purchasing this Charm. She can also define its weapon qualities, as follows. If she chooses a light, agile blade with Speed 3, she can divide a number of points equal to the Solar's Melee score between its Accuracy, Defense and lethal damage. If she chooses a larger sword with Speed 5, she can divide a number of points equal to twice the Solar's Melee score between its Accuracy, Defense and lethal damage. In both cases, Accuracy, Defense and Damage begin at 0 and cannot be lowered. The player can change this choice and allocation only when the character raises her Melee score. This weapon has unlimited Rate.
Characters can use this Charm to summon paired blades, one in each hand. Doing so increases the Charm's cost by four additional motes, to a total of 10 motes, one Willpower.
Players wishing to have multiple options can purchase this Charm a number of times equal to the character's Melee. Each purchase defines a different blade with distinct properties.
DREAM-SLAYING DEFENSE
Cost: 8m; Mins: Lore 3, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Mirror (Chaos-Repelling Pattern; Exalted, p. 216), Obvious
Duration: One hour
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Abyssal may project a bubble of unnatural stasis around herself, shielding everything within from Shaping effects.

Mirrors:
CHAOS-REPELLING PATTERN
Cost: 8m; Mins: Lore 3, Essence 3; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious
Duration: One hour
Prerequisite Charms: None
The presence of the Lawgivers wards away chaos. This Charm surrounds the character with a mystic pattern of Essence—what the Fair Folk call an "island of Creation" or a "dead waypoint." The character's immediate vicinity—out to (her Essence) in yards—functions according to the laws of Creation, even if the character is in the Wyld, Malfeas or some stranger location.
FIRST (ABILITY) EXCELLENCY—
ESSENCE OVERWHELMING
Cost: 1m per die; Mins: (Ability) 1, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive
(Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Lawgivers with this Charm are known for their moments of brilliance. The Exalt's player can invoke this Charm when making a roll based on the relevant Ability. This Charm then adds one die to that roll for each mote spent. This Charm is the paradigmatic dice adder. The rule that Solars are prohibited from increasing a dice pool by more than their (Attribute + Ability) almost always refers to the purchase of dice through the use of this Charm.
Characters can also use this Charm to enhance unrolled uses of the relevant Ability, usually to increase a Defense Value, for example, by increasing (Dexterity + Dodge) to protect against a physical attack. When enhancing static values, her player rolls one die for each mote spent on the First Excellency. Each success increases her effective (Attribute + Ability) rating for the task by two. Therefore, each success on the First Excellency roll increases an applicable static value by one.
Characters cannot use this or other Excellencies or diceadding Charms to "create" actions. For example, if a character attacks on tick 3 and will attack again on tick 8, she cannot buy dice for an attack on tick 4 that only exists because she used the Excellency to conjure dice for it. A character who uses this or other reflexive Charms to add to an attack can also use it to enhance her defense until the next tick when she acts, but she must spend Essence for each separate roll she wishes to modify.
This Charm can be part of a Combo or used together with the Second Excellency, but it is incompatible with the Third Excellency. It can never be used on the same roll as the Third Excellency.
POISONING THE WILL
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Presence 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Compulsion, Mirror (Hypnotic Tongue Technique; Exalted, p. 203), Social, Stackable, Touch
Duration: Abyssal's Charisma in days
Prerequisite Charms: Any Presence Excellency
Deathknights delight in making their victims the instrument of their own suffering, burying hidden commands in the deepest recesses of their psyche. Both this Charm and its Solar Mirror have the Compulsion keyword (although it was erroneously left out of the Mirror's write-up in Exalted).

Mirrors:
HYPNOTIC TONGUE TECHNIQUE
Cost: 10m, 1wp; Mins: Presence 3, Essence 2; Type: Simple
Keywords: Combo-OK, Social, Stackable, Touch
Duration: Solar's Charisma in days
Prerequisite Charms: Any Presence Excellency
It is hard for mortals to resist the shining glory of the Solar Exalted. This Charm exerts unnatural mental influence to create a Compulsion effect. The Lawgiver's player rolls (Manipulation + Presence). If the result exceeds the target's Mental DV, the target receives a compulsion to follow one order given by the Solar. The order can be as complicated as the Solar desires. The target must spend one Willpower to resist the order but need pay this cost only once per day. The influence fades when the Charm expires.
When the Solar uses Hypnotic Tongue Technique, the target is not aware of the compulsion, nor does the Solar need to spell out the order explicitly in words. If the target wishes to recognize the influence or remember it later, doing so costs four Willpower, which must be spent all at once, and the target is thenceforth fully aware of the effect. Recognizing or remembering the influence is not considered "resisting" it, and the target does not gain Limit from doing so.
ESSENCE-DRAINING TOUCH
Cost: 3m; Mins: Lore 2, Essence 1; Type: Simple (Speed 4)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Mirror (Essence-Lending Method; Exalted, p. 217), Obvious, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Abyssal devours motes with a touch. This Charm reverses its Solar Mirror, transferring motes from the target to the deathknight. The target must be willing, unconscious or otherwise not resisting—if only from fear.

Mirrors:
ESSENCE-LENDING METHOD
Cost: 3m; Mins: Lore 2, Essence 1; Type: Simple (Speed 4)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Obvious, Touch
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The intricate Essence flows of the anima are as a child's toys to the savants of the Sun. This Charm allows the Solar to give up to (her Essence x 3) motes to another character. The Solar loses exactly as many motes as the target gains, in addition to the cost of this Charm, but this transfer does not count as spending motes for the purposes of anima banner flare. Transferred motes go first to the target's personal and then to the target's peripheral Essence but cannot increase either the target's personal or the target's peripheral Essence past their normal maximums.
SCATHING CYNIC ATTITUDE
Cost: 3m; Mins: Linguistics 1, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Mirror (Sagacious Reading of Intent; Exalted, p. 233), Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Constantly surrounded by the overwrought melodramas of the restless dead and jaded by the lies within lies of their Deathlord masters, Abyssals become exceedingly difficult to trick.

Mirrors:
SAGACIOUS READING OF INTENT
Cost: 3m; Mins: Linguistics 1, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Lawgivers see others' purposes. This Charm identifies the motivation behind a given statement that the Exalt reads or hears—a one-sentence summary of what the person making that statement hopes to gain. If the Exalt invokes this Charm to defend against a social attack and the attacker's purpose is fundamentally hostile to the Exalt or the Exalt's Motivation, this Charm perfectly negates the attack.
SECOND (ABILITY) EXCELLENCY—ESSENCE TRIUMPHANT
Cost: 2m per success; Mins: (Ability) 1, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: None
Solar Exalted with this Charm are known for their unwavering perfection. The Exalt's player can invoke this Charm when making a roll based on the relevant Ability. The Exalt then spends up to (Attribute + Ability) in motes. This Charm adds one success to a roll for every two motes spent. Each success purchased with Essence Triumphant is the equivalent of purchasing two dice with the First Excellency or some other dice adder. Therefore, if a Solar had a (Dexterity + Melee) total of 8, he could purchase up to four successes with the Second Excellency. Any magical effects that hinge on the character buying dice will then react as if the character had just bought eight (Dexterity + Melee) dice. The character could not add dice from the effects of other Charms because he has reached his maximum of eight by purchasing the four successes.
The Exalt can also use this Charm to enhance unrolled uses of the relevant Ability. Each two motes spent increases his effective (Attribute + Ability) rating for one task by two. This means that every two motes spent on this Excellency increase a static value like a DV by one. The First Excellency is thus considerably more efficient for increasing static values than the Second Excellency, but not reliably so.
This Charm can be Comboed or used together with the First Excellency, but it is incompatible with the Third Excellency, and it can never be used on the same roll as the Third Excellency.
EXQUISITE ETIQUETTE STYLE
Cost: 1m; Mins: Socialize 2, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Mirror (Mastery of Small Manners; Exalted, p. 239), Social
Duration: Until next action
Prerequisite Charms: None
Abyssals are horrid monsters full of lies and cruelty, but that is no excuse for bad manners. As Moonshadows must remind their circlemates, sometimes courtly elegance and sophistication can ruin more lives than all the swords in the world.

Mirrors:
MASTERY OF SMALL MANNERS
Cost: 1m; Mins: Socialize 2, Essence 1; Type: Reflexive (Step 1 for attacker, Step 2 for defender)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Social
Duration: Until next action
Prerequisite Charms: None
The Solar attunes herself to the patterns of human interaction. This Charm makes her responses to social situations so natural and appropriate that in social combat she treats all enemy groups as one point of Magnitude smaller than they are (to a minimum of 0.) It also increases her effective Appearance by one dot. When in doubt, other characters will be more apt to do small favors and provide hospitality than not. Finally, this Charm ensures that the character understands the basic motivations of everyone present in the scene, as if her player had rolled three successes on a mundane Investigation roll to estimate each person's motives.
IMPRECATION OF ILL MANNERS
Cost: 3m per -1; Mins: Socialize 3, Essence 2; Type: Reflexive (Step 2)
Keywords: Combo-OK, Social
Duration: Instant
Prerequisite Charms: Exquisite Etiquette Style, Any Socialize
Excellency
The Abyssal poisons a speaker's words with Essence, inducing her to commit a critical faux pas or shameful lapse of expected social graces. A deathknight can use this Charm to target any social attack she witnesses, inflicting a -1 external penalty for every three motes spent. Whenever a social attack targeted by this Charm fails, the targeted attacker suffers a -1 external penalty on all subsequent social attacks for the rest of the scene against anyone who observed his failure. No combination of instant or lingering effects from this Charm can penalize a social attack by more successes than the Abyssal has dots of Socialize.
Without some way of detecting this Charm at work, no observer can discern any connection between the Abyssal and the effects of this Charm, though suspicion might grow if the deathknight is always present when his political rivals just happen to slip up. Proving such suspicions is another matter altogether.
Heavy on social, with some basic defenses and a UV lightsaber, specifically to get a coup going. We can round things out in the three and a half months we have before the canon era starts. I also included the text for the Solar versions of the Mirror charms.
 
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SwiftRosenthal said:
[X] Virtue Plan Swift
-[X] Compassion 3 (primary)
-[X] Valor 2
-[X] Temperance 2
-[X] Conviction 2
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I think it should be Compassion 2, Temperance 3. Less compassion and more self control. I feel like all his interactions with Jack and just about anyone more powerful than him shows a lot of self control and level-headedness.
 
SwiftRosenthal A crow or raven would be perfectly acceptable. Both are birds that are closely associated with death in the RL West. Owl might be another consideration, many Eastern cultures view those ghosts of the night as spectres of death.

dasstan said:
I think it should be Compassion 2, Temperance 3. Less compassion and more self control. I feel like all his interactions with Jack and just about anyone more powerful than him shows a lot of self control and level-headedness.
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You could make your own plan :D Plus this is early pre canon Theo...
 
[] Charm Plan Swift
For Presence we should really go with the first Excellency. You can try to impress people more than one time and mostly the greatest and the last time will stick in mind. It's exceedingly unlikely suffer failure penalities with even just the first excellency, but it's definitely worth it to get those really good rolls which make the girls permanently putty in your hands.

Also we shouldn't get that Sword creation Charm. I know you want a cool Magical blade... But a Masterwork and later Tinker Tech should suffice until we can make some villains into Soulsteel. And our Father can make us swords on a whim.

Because Tinker Tech holds a lot of potential fun. We could for example steal Armsmaster's Halberds and show him how it's done.(Even if it takes away from our Speciality.)
 
SwiftRosenthal, you do realize that your arrangement of virtues, while perfectly reasonable for a normal person, will give Theo a piddling 5 points of Willpower, right? (The sum of the two highest virtues.) Where willpower is essential to everything and by far the most expensive thing to raise?

Sadly, the only reasonable allocation for Virtues is 5/3/1/1 or 4/4/1/1. Yes, we want to spend our BP here.

theonebutcher A masterwork blade has vastly inferior stats to a Soulsteel Daiklave. Theo is never going to be a crafter, so that charm is the only reasonable way to get a good sword. It's basically the only reason I didn't argue against Essence 3.
 
But think of the fun we could have with lots of different swords! Our father's rich and has ties to the Gesellschaft, who probably have some cool Tinkers to make us stuff, if we attune them we don't need to have them maintained.. We could have Lightsabers!
 
dasstan said:
I think it should be Compassion 2, Temperance 3. Less compassion and more self control. I feel like all his interactions with Jack and just about anyone more powerful than him shows a lot of self control and level-headedness.
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Yeah, but Temperance is also counter to gluttony and Theo wasn't exactly thin pre-Exaltation.

theonebutcher said:
For Presence we should really go with the first Excellency. You can try to impress people more than one time and mostly the greatest and the last time will stick in mind. It's exceedingly unlikely suffer failure penalities with even just the first excellency, but it's definitely worth it to get those really good rolls which make the girls permanently putty in your hands.
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I don't mind switching it. In fact I just did.

Anasurimbor said:
SwiftRosenthal, you do realize that your arrangement of virtues, while perfectly reasonable for a normal person, will give Theo a piddling 5 points of Willpower, right? (The sum of the two highest virtues.) Where willpower is essential to everything and by far the most expensive thing to raise?

Sadly, the only reasonable allocation for Virtues is 5/3/1/1 or 4/4/1/1. Yes, we want to spend our BP here.
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It's cheaper to raise Willpower with BP than- OIC, we only have 3 BP left, not 4+. Willing to take suggestions here.
 
IMHO Theo might have abnormally low Compassion and unusually high Temperance. He's really good at keeping his head down, not indulging, and when he's recruited by Taylor in canon, he becomes a no-fun-allowed ascetic pretty easily. That's all Temperance, possibly working along with Conviction.

Not really sure about Valor & Conviction. He's compatible with Weaver's engagement methodology so not the highest Compassion, but it's possible that he's just channeling Willpower to suppress his Compassion.

Conviction... could be high, and that's also Weaver-compatible, or it could be moderate and he's just putting more dots in Valor during that training arc.

IMHO either:
- Temperance 4 or 5 -- fun is for other people
- Conviction 3 -- when he sets himself on a goal, he's pretty dedicated
- Valor 2 -- he never stood up to Daddy
- Compassion 1 -- not a sociopath himself, but he has no difficulty eating dinner along side them

... or:
- Conviction 4 or 5 -- he's the goddamn Determinator
- Temperance 3 -- fun? maybe later
- Valor 2 -- still never stood up to Daddy
- Compassion 1 -- not a sociopath himself, but he has no difficulty eating dinner along side them
 
I don't know that much about playing Abyssals, but wouldn't having compassion as a primary mess with our ability to manage resonance?

We have to occasionally kill people to avoid resonance but in order to do so we would have to suppress compassion which would result in gaining resonance?
 
SwiftRosenthal Willpower costs 2 bp to raise out of the core book. Not 1. And costs rating x 2 xp to level. You can get seven willpower out of a 4-3-1-1 (Willpower = sum of two highest virtues)
 
TheAlec said:
I don't know that much about playing Abyssals, but wouldn't having compassion as a primary mess with our ability to manage resonance?

We have to occasionally kill people to avoid resonance but in order to do so we would have to suppress compassion which would result in gaining resonance?
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I mentioned it earlier. Compassion is described as 'the desire to end suffering.' If you think in a manner similar but not exactly Adorjan does, then being dead (Adorjan says when you have nothing you love, because love is pain) is the only time you don't suffer. But then he'd gain resonance from -not- killing people, because he'd suppress it everytime he saw someone suffering. *shrug*
 
TheAlec said:
We have to occasionally kill people to avoid resonance but in order to do so we would have to suppress compassion which would result in gaining resonance?
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You don't have to suppress compassion to kill people if you are fighting them or have a good reason, only for senseless murder.

Besides, there is a great Abyssal compassion flaw. It basically makes you avoid the sun for (essence) days and has a limit condition that is pretty hard to trigger.
 
evildice said:
- Temperance 4 or 5 -- fun is for other people
- Conviction 3 -- when he sets himself on a goal, he's pretty dedicated
- Valor 2 -- he never stood up to Daddy
- Compassion 1 -- not a sociopath himself, but he has no difficulty eating dinner along side them
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Going with this, as "Virtue Plan evildice". I had an argument about how Theo was standing up for himself in the OP, just before he died, but I checked and that's not actually how it went. Editing.

Anasurimbor said:
Besides, there is a great Abyssal compassion flaw. It basically makes you avoid the sun for (essence) days and has a limit condition that is pretty hard to trigger.
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Where could I find this?
 
[X] Virtue Plan evildice
-[X] Temperance 4 (primary)
-[X] Conviction 3
-[X] Valor 2
-[X] Compassion 1

[X] Background Plan Swift
-[X] Resources 1 (Allowance)
-[X] Liege 2 (Lover)
-[X] Backing 2 (E88, Heir to the Throne)
-[X] Familiar 1 (a crow of some kind?)
-[X] Whispers 1

[X] Charm Plan Swift
 
[X] Virtue Plan evildice

[X] Background Plan Swift

[X] Charm Plan Swift
 
[X] Virtue Plan evildice
-[X] Temperance 4 (primary)
-[X] Conviction 3
-[X] Valor 2
-[X] Compassion 1

[X] Background Plan Swift
-[X] Resources 1 (Allowance)
-[X] Liege 2 (Lover)
-[X] Backing 2 (E88, Heir to the Throne)
-[X] Familiar 1 (a crow of some kind?)
-[X] Whispers 1

[X] Charm Plan Swift

We are going to want the first melee excellency sometime soon along with a penalty negater.

When designing our UV Lightsaber instead of going for a balanced weapon how about we go for having a 5 speed swords with only 2 points of damage, 1 dot of accuracy, and the remaining 7 dots into defense. That would raise our DV to (melee+specialty+dexterity+defense)/2=(5+2+5+7)/2=9.5 or 10 since exalts round up when it is in their favor. That puts us as being incredibly hard* for even a peak mortal to hit at all just with our passive parry defense. The resulting damage of 5L+accuracy bonus dice is not enough to kill without some threshold successes but is still pretty good damage, and does enough damage that they'll have wound penalties slowing them down in addition the sword making all mortals collapse in agony. When dealing with people to tough to mundanely sword we can kill them via willpower depletion.


*I don't have the will to do the statistics but a peak mortal** on average is going to do around 6.5 successes and exalted rolls have a bell curve.

**By peak mortal I mean a once in a generation genius operating within his specialty.
 
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[X] Virtue plan Anasurimbor
-[X] Conviction 5
-[X] Compassion 3 (primary)
-[X] Valor 1
-[X] Temperance 1

Using our remaining BP, we get a 5-3 split to maximize our Willpower and virtue channels. Theo arguably has lots of Conviction(later, anyway) and it's mechanically the optimal virtue. He has a high compassion. Some might consider this a paradox, as he must kill, but he knows that there are fates far worse than gentle peace of death. He's something of a coward, at least until he shapes up after meeting Jack Slash. His temperance is low, being an average teenager. Or even an above average teenager.
 
Tanuki is out but going home.....

Which means Plan Bii soon.
 
SwiftRosenthal, your plan would be better if you didn't spend 3 BP to get Valor 2. It's not like Valor 2 is really better than Valor 1. Instead you should spend 2 BP on Willpower and 1 BP on raising Lore to 3. Then you could swap Undying Stagnation Defense for Dream-Slaying Defense, which is basically the same, but better as it has an AoE. It's also much more fitting, considering that it would have stopped Kaiser's attack that killed Theo.
 
Anasurimbor said:
SwiftRosenthal, your plan would be better if you didn't spend 3 BP to get Valor 2. It's not like Valor 2 is really better than Valor 1. Instead you should spend 2 BP on Willpower and 1 BP on raising Lore to 3. Then you could swap Undying Stagnation Defense for Dream-Slaying Defense, which is basically the same, but better as it has an AoE. It's also much more fitting, considering that it would have stopped Kaiser's attack that killed Theo.
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DSD isn't clearly better. Comparing costs, 3m for AoE is probably cheaper than 1wp for Self in the vast majority of situations, but it's not clear whether Theo had at least six seconds' warning to cast DSD in time. (A short tick is a second, right?) Kaiser's attack reads as a surprise AFAICT, and I don't think even Theo would anticipate his own father accidentally killing him. OTOH, USD is reflexive and lasts a full magnitude longer. If the cause of death had been bad touch instead, USD would've prevented it.

The BP was actually for Temperance, but okay. I'll edit that in if someone who supported evildice and I's plan seconds your change.
 
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