Day 31: Mammoth the Combat Mage
#CharacterCreationChallenge
And for the final day - a bit on the late side - we have a changeling mage. Changelings first appeared in Shadowrun in 3rd edition, so they have been around for a while - in-setting, their appearance was triggered by Halley’s Comet in 2063. They are basically normal metahumans that have highly variable changes, from skin that resembles an elephant to electrosense or prehensile tails. What differentiates them from metatypes and metavariants is that every one of them is different, and their “mutations” are not inherited. Recently, changelings with similar expressions have started to group together in so-called “collectives”.
Appearance and first impression
Almost the size of a Troll, with greyish, rock-like skin, nobody would mistake Mammoth for a regular ork (assuming anyone notices he is an ork at all). Given his appearance, he rarely bothers with subtlety and almost always wears a heavy armor jacket and carries a combat axe - the runes etched into it are much harder to notice, however. He is usually curt and somewhat abrupt, not bothering with social niceties.
Backstory
Mammoth grew up on one of the “Anglo Reservations” in the Salish Sidhe Council, with a family that was proud of its Scandinavian heritage. As one of the first changelings that were born that way, he was an outsider among outsiders, and spent as much of his time exploring the wilderness near his home as possible. When his magical ability first appeared, he used what he knew of norse mysticism to channel it, despite not actually subscribing to the belief system. The conservative inhabitants of his reservation were less than impressed with his “witchcraft” in addition to his metatype and appearance, and he eventually found his way to Seattle and is trying to get a foothold in the shadows.
Priorities
Mammoth is designed to be a close-combat (and astral combat) focused sorcerer, and to make this concept work, he needs a lot of attributes, so they go on A. Skills are almost as important, so they go on B. This leaves Magic on C, but by making him an aspected sorcerer instead of a full mage, he still gets a starting Magic of 3 (and six spells to go along with it). Metatype on D gives us enough adjustment points to max out Magic, and this leaves Resources on E, which means a fair amount of Karma will have to go into additional resources…
A: Attributes (24)
B: Skills (24)
C: Magic (Aspected Sorcerer, 3)
D: Metatype (Ork, 4)
E: Resources (8,000)
Attributes
Somewhat unusually, none of the main attributes gets maxed out. We need all the physical attributes at a decent rating for close combat, Willpower for Astral combat, Logic for resisting Drain from spellcasting, Intuition for astral perception… at least we can dump Charisma. Magic, of course, needs to be maxed out for spellcasting:
Body 6
Agility 5
Reaction 3
Strength 6
Willpower 4
Logic 4
Intuition 3
Charisma 1
Edge 2
Magic 6
Skills
Close Combat ist at the top of the list since it is also used in astral combat when using a Weapon Focus (see below). Astral and Sorcery are right below; as an aspected mage we don’t need anything else for magic. We do want a bit of Athletics, Perception, Stealth and Piloting, as well as Outdoors but that has to wait. For now we have:
Close Combat 6
Astral 5
Sorcery 5
Athletics 2
Perception 2
Stealth 2
Piloting 2
Knowledge Skills
English is Mammoth's native language, but he also understands a little Salish, and knows a few things related to his approach to magic.
Qualities
Focused Concentration at rating 1 allows a spell to be sustained without penalty - only one though, and Mammoth has several he might want, so he may have to make tough choices at times.
Impaired (Charisma) at rating 2 gives us 16 Karma, and Charisma is properly a dump stat anyways, so it’s not much of a loss (not that super-low Charisma isn’t a problem). Uncouth further hinders the use of social skills. Scorched has a similar effect to using the Matrix.
In Debt makes the extra gear we need cheaper in terms of Karma, but it means we start of 35,000 Nuyen in debt to the Yakuza, and they expect to be repaid… with interest.
And then, we get to the part that makes him a Changeling - the Changeling Collective (Alpine - Monolith) quality collection. It does not technically count as a quality, but I am listing it here. It contains the following metagenic qualities:
Dermal Alteration (Granite) Adds significantly to defensive rating and may completely block damage from some sources, but also incurs a negative modifier to fine manipulation of small objects.
Magnetosense allows him to feel magnetic fields and changes to them nearby - while this has mostly niche uses, it can be quite useful for navigation.
Thermographic Vision is nothing new, but in combination with the orkish Low-Light Vision it covers most of the cases other characters need visual enhancements for.
Stubby Arms reduces attack rating in close combat, which is not great but can be worked around, as well as dice pools for numerous other tasks involving use of the arms.
As an Ork, Mammoth also has the Built Tough (1) quality.
Altogether, there is a net +1 Karma from qualities.
Spells
Somewhat unusually for a combat mage, Mammoth knows no combat spells. Instead, he mostly focuses on supporting himself in combat and afterwards…
Combat Sense gives him a bonus to Defense Rating and surprise tests while the spell is sustained.
Detect Enemies lets him know if there are any living beings hostile to himself nearby, again while sustained only.
Heal is great to deal with any injuries sustained.
Increase Reflexes increases both Reaction and Initiative and is good if an offensive boost is needed, but again it needs to be sustained.
Shape Stone makes stone (or items made mostly of stone including, say, many walls) soft and malleable.
Thunder makes a lot of noise in a specified area, which is great for distractions.
Gear
Weapons
A Combat Axe that is also a rating 2 Weapon Focus is the only weapon he has - the lack of ranged combat options may need to be addressed at some point. The weapon focus gives a bonus to attack rolls, and can also be used in astral combat - an astral version of it can even be taken along for projection. It does cost 6 Karma to bond, however.
Armor
The Armor Jacket is unsubtle, but effective. No fancy enhancements or anything.
Vehicle
A Yamaha Growler offroad bike is noisy and not that fast, but it can go almost anywhere.
Other stuff
Aside from the Magical Lodge in the form of a runic circle in his small apartment, most of the gear is very basic and standard. Climbing Gear and a Survival Kit may help if he ends up being the wilderness guide.
Adding it all up
Altogether, the gear costs 40,910 Nuyen, quite a bit more than the 8,000 from the priority table. With the In Debt Quality, this “only” costs 7 Karma.
Spending our Karma
After qualities, bonding the focus and gear, we have 38 Karma left. 15 of those go into buying two points of the Outdoors skill, and another 20 into specialisations in Close Combat (Blades), Astral (Astral Combat), Sorcery (Spellcasting) and Outdoors (Alpine).
Finishing it up
Contacts
With a Charisma of 1, there’s not much room for contacts, particularly useful ones. A stripper, a Street Mage and the loan shark that mostly puts up with him in order to get repaid are where it’s at.
Calculations
Attack Rating:
Combat Axe (Physical): 14
Combat Axe (Astral): 10
Defense Rating
Physical: 16
Astral: 3
Initiative
Physical: 6 + 1D6
Astral: 7 + 2D6
Notable Dice Pools
Physical Attacks: 15
Astral Combat Attacks (with weapon focus): 14
Astral Combat Attacks (unarmed): 11
Spellcasting: 13
Assensing: 8
Piloting: 5
Outdoor Navigation in Mountains: 8
Condition Monitors
Physical: 12
Stun: 10
And there we are
The final version of the worksheet can be found here .That’s it for the final day of the #CharacterCreationChallenge
Published at NZDT