Monday, March 10, 2014

Eran Jenevan (Rough Draft)

Fuck you, Lance. Prepare for numbers and statistics and tweaking.

I've shifted my expectations up, so we're going with a 225 point character with a possibility of taking 25 points in disadvantages, not counting those that stem from characteristics or racial template.

Sereth
60 Points
Blah Blah Background Stuff.
Advantages: Acute Senses 1 (Vision) [2], Extended Lifespan 2 [4], Flexibility (Double-Jointed...dick) [15], Long Arms x2 [20], Long Legs [20], Nictitating Membrane 1 [1], Night Vision 2 [2], Temperature Tolerance 1 (hot) [1]
Disadvantages: Skinny [-5]
Optional Advantages: Magic Resistance 1 [2], Signature Gear 1 (Sereth Long Rifle) [1]
Blah Blah Height Weight Lifespan Stuff.

That's another big racial template. Yeesh. So what that all means is that Sereth have good eye sight and get a bonus on checks to notice things, they live for over 200 years, get a big bonus on climbing and escape artistry (and a skill called, I shit you not, Erotic Art), they have 1 yard more reach and gain a bonus on their swing damage, have an easier time clambering over stuff and 1 yard more reach with their kicks, a nictitating membrane that gives a bonus on HT rolls for eye based attacks and a DR of 1 for their eye targeting area, a bonus to reduce the penalties for darkness, and they add their HT to the hot temperature they are comfortable in. They're also skinny, which means that have a penalty when resisting being knocked back by blows and it also limits their HT score. They also have the option of giving themselves Magic Resistance (granting a bonus on rolls to resist magic crap) and taking a Sereth Long Rifle. I should probably show that that is in GURPS. Lemme bring up GURPS High Tech, which has insane amounts of technical and statistical information on firearms.

The Sereth Long Rifle is modeled after the M1 Garand, because. This means it does 7d+1 pi damage (for a damage range of 8-43 with no modifier for penetrating damage), has an accuracy of 5 (an aim maneuver adds +5 to your skill level on the next attack), a range off 1100/4500 (it deals half damage at 1100+ yards and has a max of 4500 yards), a weight of 10.1/.5 (a fully loaded weapon is 10.1 pounds and a full reload weight .5 pounds, (a rate of fire of 3 (can fire a max of 3 shots per 1 second turn), 8(3) shots (it can fire eight shots before reloading and needs 3 ready maneuvers to reload fully) but we're changing that to 3(1)i (the "i" indicates each round must be reloaded individually, obviously rate of fire is limited by how many rounds are loaded) and this changes the weight to 9.6/.19, it needs a strength of 10 to wield, a bulk of -5 (this penalty is applied to your attack skill when you move and attack with the weapon), but Sereth Long rifles are super long, so we increase that to -6, a recoil of 3 (when making a rapid fire attack and firing more than 2 shots, for every 3 points you succeed on your attack skill check, you score an additional hit with the weapon), and a cost of $510 (in The Known World this would mean 510 marks).

The weapon also has a scope that increases accuracy by +1, for a total of 6, and increases the weapon's cost by $100 and its weight by 3 pounds for a total price of $610 and 12.6 pounds when fully loaded. The weapon also has the very fine (accurate) modification, which increases its accuracy by +2, for a total of 8. This all ultimately brings the weapon's price tag to $2012. This is why we use the Signature Gear advantage to buy it. Signature Gear grants you 1/2 the campaign's starting wealth per character point spent on it to "buy" special gear you wouldn't necessarily have the cash for when you start out. This is based on your technology level, which is 5 for The Known World, and is $5000, so Signature Gear grants $2500 to "spend" on crap, which works well for the Sereth Long rifle.

Eran has both Magic Resistance and the Signature Gear advantage. His spell resistance in Pathfinder isn't exactly impressive, so we'll only give him one level of Magic Resistance, and we've already discussed the Signature Gear advantage. Also, his Magic Resistance is unmodified, so he can't cast spells. Which is good, because he shoots things and doesn't cast spells at them. Rangers are an idiotic class. Sigh.

Alright, let's do this.

Characteristics
Eran is a skinny, thin-limbed fuck, so we'll leave his Strength at 10. I haven't explained it yet, but the damage you do in melee is determined by your Strength score, then modified by your weapon. So with a 10 in Strength, Eran's thrust damage is 1d-2, while his swing damage is 1d+1 (his bonus for stupid long arms is factored in). If he wields a longsword, his thrusting damage becomes 1d impaling damage and his swing becomes 1d+3 cutting damage. Anyway. Eran is a pretty nimbly bimbly dude, so we'll jack his DX up to 13 for 60 points. He's pretty intelligent, so we'll give him an IQ of 11 for 20 points. He's rather hearty, so we'll give him a HT of 12 for 20 points. He has 10 hit points, and is a tough guy, so let's jump that up to the max of 13 for 6 points. When I say max, I mean that a regular old humanoid character can't vary his hit points by more than 30% from his ST score. Eran has an above average Wisdom in Pathfinder, so we'll jump his Will up to 12 for 5 points. He's very perceptive in Pathfinder, so we'll buy his Perception at 14 for 15 points. His HT is 12, so he has 12 fatigue points, and he's very tough and whatnot, so we'll buy that up to 14 for 6 points.

Eran has a HT of 12 and a DX of 13, for a Basic Speed of 6.25, his dodge is 9 and his Basic Move becomes 6. Serethnem is a TL5 society, so Eran doesn't need to buy up his tech level. Culturally speaking, he's a native of Serethnem so he gets that familiarity for free. He's also a (former) citizen of Haven, so he buys that for 1 point. He knows Serevish as a native, but also knows Malstern, Asosan, Goebleen, and Vyanvish. So we'll buy those four at accented level of comprehension for 16 points total. He has no rank, influence, or wealth, so we give him Dead Broke for -25 points and leave everything else alone.

This puts our points for Eran at 124 from his characteristics. On to advantages.

Advantages
Eran is a Ranger, so we give him Absolute Direction (Absolute Direction) for 5 points so he always knows where north is. Eran has a pet wolf, so we buy the Ally advantage and we say that Garath has about 25% of Eran's points, and is around all the time, which ends up culminating in a 4 point cost. We'll make Garath a minion as well for +50%, totally a 6 point ability. Eran is a hardened desert survivalist type guy, so we'll give him Fit (Fit) for 5 points so he has a bonus on HT checks and such. Eran is accustomed to desert travel, so he has Terrain Adaptation (desert) for 5 points, and well give him that for snow as well due to his time in Orcunraytrel. This just allows him to utilize full DX and Move without penalty in those terrains. This amounts to a grand total of 26 points in advantages, though there are more I think might be appropriate for him to take.

Disadvantages
Obviously, we're giving Eran Weirdness Magnet for -15. Eran is also a curious fellow, as shown by his inner battle to look into the mirror Karrak told everyone was dangerous. He wiffle waffled for a bit though, so we'll give him Curious with a fairly often self-control roll, so on a 9 or less he resists. This multiplies the base -5 by x1.5 for -7 points total. This means every time Eran sees a button, lever, door, he has to roll a 9 or less on 3d or he pushes, pulls, or opens it. Those put us a -22, so I think we're good.

After characteristics, racial template, advantages, and disadvantages we're sitting at 191 character points. This leaves us with 34 for skill points and techniques.

Skills
After much tweaking and poking and prodding I've bought Eran the following skills: Acrobatics 12 [2], Animal Handling 11 [2], Bow 12 [1], Camouflage 13 [4], Cartography/TL5 12 [4], Climbing 13 [2], Fast-Draw (ammo) 13 [1], Fast-Draw (longarms) 13 [1], Guns (rifle) 16 [8], Hiking 14 [4], Jumping 14 [2], Knot-Tying 14 [2], Light Walk 12 [2], Lockpicking/TL5 12 [4], Melee Weapon (knife) 13 [1], Naturalist 11 [4], Navigation/TL5 12 [4], Observation 14 [2], Running 13 [4], Search 14 [4], Stealth 14 [4], Survival 14 [2], Tracking 14 [2], Traps/TL5 11 [2]. This comes to 68 points and puts Eran at 259 points. Close enough.

Have I talked about skills much yet? I can't remember. So skills are purchased for prices based on the attribute they are based on. Guns for instance are a DX based skill and are classed as easy, so it's very cheap to buy. Light walk (moving so as to leave no traps and to avoid setting off pressure plates) is also based on DX, but it's a hard skill. So for 8 points, Eran gets a 16 (DX+3) in Guns, but Light Walk at DX-1 costs him two points. If we bought it at DX+3 like we did Guns, it would cost 16 points. Most skills have defaults as well. For instance, if you don't have Lockpick bought at any level, it defaults to IQ-5, which would be a success on a 6 or less on 3d for Eran if we hadn't bought Lockpick at 12. Some skills don't have defaults, and some have prerequisite. Light Walk actually requires the Trained By a Master advantage and having Acrobatics and Stealth at 14+, which Eran doesn't meet. I should probably remove that...

Ok, so Eran is a 257 point character.

Techniques
Techniques are a lot like skills, but their purpose is to buy off penalties for regular actions. So let's say we want to give Eran a technique for buying off the penalty for shooting someone in the head specifically. This normally carries a -7 penalty, so Eran's effective skill with his rifle would be 9, needing a 9 or less on 3d. If he takes an aim maneuver with his Sereth long rifle (for +8 to his skill level), then shoots at a target's head, his effective skill level would be 17 (16+8=24, 24-7=17). This doesn't mean he automatically hits, a 17 or 18 is always a failure. They're actually critical failures, but a 17 turns into a regular failure if your effective skill level is 16+. Anyway. So let's create a technique so Eran has a reasonable chance of headshots without taking extra time to aim.

Boom! Headshot
Hard
Defaults: Bow-7, Gun -7, etc.
Prerequisite: Bow, Guns, etc.; cannot exceed prerequisite skill.
This technique lets you buy off the penalties for specifically targeting heads. 

Simple enough. Let's halve the penalty, so we'll buy the technique at default+3, which means that Eran will only get a -4 penalty to his skill level when targeting the head specifically in combat. This costs 4 points. Wee!

Edit After The Fact: Apparently there is already a technique for this, and it has a hard cap of only being able to reduce the penalty to skill checks for targeting by half. I like mine better. 

Character Sheet
261 points
Eran Jenevan
36 year old Sereth
5' 11" 150 lbs. 
ST: 10 [0]
DX: 13 [60]
IQ: 11 [20]
HT: 12 [20]
HP: 13 [6]
Will: 12 [5]
Per: 14 [15]
FP: 14 [6]
Basic Speed: 6.25 [0]
Dodge: 9
Basic Move: 6 [0]
Build: Skinny [0, factored into racial template]
Size Modifier: 0
Appearance: Average [0]
Technology Level: 5 [0]
Cultural Familiarity: Serethnem, Haven [1]
Languages: Serevish [0], Asosan [4], Goebleen [4], Malstern [4], Vyanvish [4]
Wealth: Dead broke [-25]

Point From Characteristics: 124
Points From Advantages: 26
Absolute Direction (Absolute Direction) [5]
Ally: Garath the Wolf (25% points, always around, minion) [6]
Fit (Fit) [5]
Terrain Adaptation (sand, snow) [10]
Points From Disadvantages: -22
Curious (resist on 9 or less) [-7]
Weirdness Magnet [-15]
Points From Perks: 0
Points From Racial Template: 63
Acute Senses 1 (Vision) [2]
Extended Lifespan 2 [4]
Flexibility (Double-Jointed) [15]
Long Arms x2 [20]
Long Legs x2 [20]
Magic Resistance 1 [2]
Nictitating Membrane 1 [1]
Night Vision 2 [2]
Signature Gear 1 (Sereth Long Rifle) [1]
Temperature Tolerance 1 (hot) [1]
Skinny [-5]
Points From Skills: 66
Acrobatics 12 [2]
Animal Handling 11 [2]
Bow 12 [1]
Camouflage 13 [4]
Cartography/TL5 12 [4]
Climbing 13 [2]
Fast-Draw (ammo) 13 [1]
Fast-Draw (longarms) 13 [1]
Guns (rifle) 16 [8]
Hiking 14 [4]
Jumping 14 [2]
Knot-Tying 14 [2]
Light Walk 12 [2]
Lockpicking/TL5 12 [4]
Melee Weapon (knife) 13 [1]
Naturalist 11 [4]
Navigation/TL5 12 [4]
Observation 14 [2]
Running 13 [4]
Search 14 [4]
Stealth 14 [4]
Survival 14 [2]
Tracking 14 [2]
Traps/TL5 11 [2]
Points From Quirks: 
Points From Techniques: 4
Boom! Headshot (Guns) 18 [4]

So Eran (Rough Draft) comes in at 261 character points. Fuck off Eran, you're expensive too. Karrak is probably going to be obscene though. Hehe, it'll be fun. 

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