My last post, where I posted Jean Baptiste de La Pointe and my thought process in creating him, inspired a bit of discussion. Not here, in fact, I'm not even sure how many people beyond the three that have admitted it even read this, rather in an e-mail thread. The first point in that discussion was the GM clearing up how he intended to deal with heavy combat orientated characters. Basically he intends to take advantage the rules pertaining to multiple attackers in a single round by having a large portion of the bad guys team up on the killing machine characters. The second point in that discussion was about Melee skill versus the Fencing skill. Fortunately we will have a definitive answer on that soon. Bonus when the GM knows Paul "Wiggy" Wade-Williams (author of the game) personally.
In that discussion, one of my fellow players made a comment that inspired me to think a little more about Min/Maxed characters in this game. As previously noted, I am a recovering Min/Max player and to be honest, did do a little Min/Maxing with Jean Baptiste as far as his combat skill goes. I am hopeful that the GM's strategy will be effective should my fear of 'killing machine' characters become a reality. Thus I plan on tweaking my character a little to bring down his Melee skill some, and possibly replace it with Fencing depending on Wiggy's answer.
I do feel that, especially looking at the pre-generated characters in the book, Jean Baptiste was not overly done combat wise as currently devised. I decided to actually build a Min/Maxed killing machine character, just to see how far it could actually be taken. Sort of as a this is what would have made before and how does what I did make compare.
So, Mousier Hinny-Punter (a bad French name for Mr. Ass-Kicker) was born. To start I chose an Archetype of Swordsman and Motivation of Fame because Swordsman and Badass wasn't available. With 15 points available for Primary Attributes and Hinny-Punter being a pure melee fighter killing machine type (I could have done ranged version as well, but didn't feel it necessary) I decided on Body, Charisma, Dexterity, Intelligence and Willpower of 2 for a total of 10 points and a Strength of 5. That gives him all average stats but an excellent strength. Good because all melee combat goes off of strength. Secondary Attributes worked out to be: Initiative 4, Perception 4, Move 7, Size 0, Defense 4, Stun 2 and Health 4. As a pure fighting machine, I'm a little worried about the low Defense and Health ratings. I might consider lowering Charisma to 1 and raising Body to 3 just because that helps add one to both.
Skills are next. Well, that would be 4.5 of 15 points right into Fencing because you may not purchase more than five skill levels in any one skill during character creation and Fencing is the big one for this type of character. With Fencing you have to choose a school, which will be Spanish Style. Why? +1 to Thrust and Slash. He will have to take a -1 to Disarm and Feint, but those are not killing moves, so who cares. It's not like he will be Feinting and the only Disarming he will be doing will be in removing arms with his blade. Additionally, Hinny-Punter will specialize in the Spanish Style for another .5 points gaining him one extra die. The game only allows that once during character creation so for the moment his attack is Strength 5 + Fencing 5 + specialized 1 for 11 dice and any attack will be either a thrust or slash so 12 dice. Nice.
At this point I'll expend another .5 points in each Firearms and Ride will and have spent 6 of 15 skill points. I get one more skill for free at 0 and it will cost .5 to make that a one. For that skill I choose Melee. Why when I already have Fencing? Because I will spend the .5 and 3 more points to get Melee 4 and can now use Skill Synergy giving Hinny-Punter +2 dice to Fencing attacks. I've spent 9.5 of 15 points and will be rolling 14 dice to thrust and slash attacks without adding in the weapon or any talents! Next comes Brawl 5 and something to be determined later at 0.
With Talents and Resources next, I am going to skip any thought of Resources and also use the 15 experience points at the end of character creation to take two talents. I have a couple of choices here to add to my kill-e-ness ability.
I could go with Skill Aptitude Fencing and Strong. That would bump my Strength to 6, Fencing to 7 and move to 8. Take Great Sword as his weapon (because I'm Maxing here) and I'm rolling 22 dice (6 for strength, 5 for Fencing, 2 for Synergy with Melee, 1 for specialized in Fencing, 2 for Aptitude in Fencing, 1 for thrust/slash in the Spanish Style and 5 for the Great Sword) and it's just like playing Shadowrun!
Of course with a Defense of 4 and Health of 4, when the GM throws a group of melee enemies or a couple of guys with pistols at Mousier Hinny-Punter, he's toast. So, I look at another option for Talents. Taking Parry and Riposte he can substitute his Fencing Rating (13 in this case) for his Defense, doing so as a reflex action Parry against all melee or brawl attacks. Additionally, any time he beats his attack with a parry, and with 13 dice that should be often, he deals out damage with the Riposte! Sick.
He is still vulnerable against ranged attacks, but then so is almost everyone in this game. Oh, and he's almost totally useless unless he's fighting someone. And unless fighting lots of really good someone's he's pointless. But isn't that what Min/Maxing is all about?
Now that I've disgusted myself with this exercise... keep rolling my friends.
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