Hiccup Character Switch

[Cho]

Do you have 20 Tokens? Yes

Are you above Level 3? No

If above Level 3, how much Essence does this New Character have?

New Character Name: Cho

Is this character an OC or a Canon character? Original Character

Starting Location? Inverxe

Physical Tendencies:

• Power(P): 35
• Toughness(T): 10
• Quickness(Q): 30
• Skill(S): 25

Personality Tendencies:

• Aggression(A): 30
• Cunning(C): 30
• Diplomacy(D): 20
• Support(S): 20

Physical Description:

Spoiler

(soon to be updated!)

Character History:

Cho grew up in Republic City, the capital of the United Republic of Nations and one of the largest and most modern cities with a population of millions. His parents were caring enough, though absent, spending more time working and trying to keep food on the table and a roof over their head than actually paying attention to their kids. Cho's aptitude for Earthbending was apparent from a young age. He was able to move small rocks and slabs of stone as if it were already second nature to him.

His childhood was nothing noteworthy, until Cho turned ten. He and the rest of his family were strolling the streets of Republic city. They took a turn onto a less than savoury street. They found themselves surrounded by a group of the Triple Threat Triad, one of the most notorious criminal gangs in the city. The gang demanded anything of worth the family might be carrying on them. Cho's father refused and found himself at the mercy of the thugs. He was summarily cut down, in front of the rest of his family, along with Cho's mother. Cho fled, leaving his younger brother behind, something he regrets to this day.

Cho found himself orphaned and working with the Terra Triad, given his prowess with Earthbending. He barely managed, just about keeping himself off the streets, bringing in coin by working as an informant for the Triad. As his skill with Earthbending grew, Cho took a lot of inspiration from the Pro Bending ring, his style of bending taking a quicker, more agile style. He still showed an aptitude for the more traditional aspects of Earthbending.

Years passed under the employ of Terra, until Cho awoke in a strange place. The Crossroads.

Abilities/Skills:

Earthbending
Variable Creation 2 (400)
--Affects Multiple 1 (100)
--Ongoing (200)
--Ranged (100)
Move Object 2 (200)
--Affects Multiple 1 (100)
--Ongoing (200)
--Ranged (100)
Damage 2 (200)
--Affects Multiple 1 (100)
--Ranged (100)
Total: 1800
Description: Earthbending, one of the four elemental bending arts, is the geokinetic ability to manipulate earth and rock in all their various forms, prevalent in the Earth Kingdom and the United Republic. Cho has adopted a quicker style of earthbending, only rooting himself long enough to throw his attacks.

Seismic Sense
Sense (Physical) 2 (200)
-- Limited (Only works on earth/metal) (-50)
-- Concentration (-50)
Total: 100
Description: Seismic sense is a sub-skill of earthbending that constitutes for physical sense. This skill enables earthbenders to detect vibrations in the ground to perceive objects, people, and other aspects of their environment, essentially acting as sonar, but through earth and metal.

 

[Ahana Varma]

For Earthbending, as it is now, any rocks you make will vanish after a few seconds, any rocks you lift, you won't be able to carry for more than a few seconds.

Also, Move Object and Damage are Effects, not Modifiers, so those are listed incorrectly.

As you've listed Affects Multiple as a Modifier, I assume you would like to be able to lift rocks across the full area, and damage people with them in that area too. If so, MO & Damage will also require the Affects Multiple Modifier. Also, when taking AM, please follow it up with a number, as it is one of the rare Modifiers which can be taken multiple times. In its case, doing so increases the AoE.

I would also like to recommend taking Indirect on your Earthbending at some point, as you will need it in order to attack people on the other side of a wall (or other obstacle) from your character. This wouldn't really matter if you didn't have Seismic Sense, as your character wouldn't be able to see people on the other side of any opaque obstacle. As you do have Sense, however, it would be a worthwhile investment.

Obviously, with the changes, this Ability will be more expensive. As such, here is how I would recommend writing Earthbending for the time being, if you want it to function as I assume you do:

Earthbending
Variable Creation 2 (400)
--Affects Multiple 1 (100)
--Ongoing (200)
Move Object 2 (200)
--Affects Multiple 1 (100)
--Ongoing (200)
Damage 2 (200)
--Affects Multiple 1 (100)
Protection 2 (200)
--Affects Multiple 1 (100)
Total: 1800

As you can see, by reducing the ranks, I have kept it at your previous price of 1800.

As for Seismic Sense:
You don't require the Indirect Modifier to sense things, and you naturally can't claim the Indiscriminate Modifier for being able to sense everything around you, so those will need removed.

And as with Earthbending, you will want Ongoing if you would like the Effect to be able to last longer than a few seconds. Given that you have taken Concentration as a Modifier for this one, however, it could be that you don't intend for it to be used for very long.

 

[Cho]

That makes sense! I knew I'd forgotten something. I'll use the version you posted with a slight change. Going to reduce the rank of protection and add ongoing as well, so however it ends up being used for protection, that would persist for a while afterwards. I'll get indiscriminate and indirect removed from seismic sense as well. Could've sworn I'd removed Indiscriminate, given I figured out how dumb that was And you're correct, the seismic sense isn't something he'd be using for more than a few seconds. It's literally just to figure out the placement of things around him and where people are standing before going back to whatever he's doing.

Edit: I'll use the essence I get back from taking away indirect and bump up a couple of ranks in Earthbending.

Thanks for this, by the way, I knew it was going to be awkward to balance and that I'd forget something along the way.

 

[Ahana Varma]

Just a couple more points to make here:

1) I forgot to mention this previously, but I just want to check to make sure you understand that even with ranks in Move Object + Affects Multiple & Damage, you can't shoot rocks at people outside of your AoE.
If you do want to do that, you'll need to add Ranged at some point.

2) As for Seismic Sense, you've now reduced its cost to 0, which can't actually be done. The lowest an Effect can ever be is 50E per rank.
You can still have the negative Modifiers if you want them for flavour reasons, but you can't save any more Essence after reaching the minimum cost.

 

[Cho]

Okay I'll get that updated now!

 

[Cho]

Am I going to need ranks in ranged for each effect as well, then? Or can I put it on Variable Creation/Move Object?

 

[Yuuka Kazami]

Just gonna pop in here with some advice though it seems Ahana has you mostly covered:

Putting Ranged on the Move Object would allow you to totally control the movement of the rock outside your AoE range.

Putting Ranged on the Variable Creation would allow you to alter the rock while it is outside of your AoE range.

Putting Ranged on the Damage would just allow you to throw the rock and hit stuff, and (without the Move Object having Ranged) you would simply lose control of that throw once it leaves that AoE range.

If you just want to be able to pick up and manipulate the rock in a small area around you and then sometimes throw it at somebody (and not grab a rock 100 feet away to hit them with), you can put the Ranged just on the damage portion. If you do want to grab rocks 100 feet away and make big fists out of them, you'd apply it to the Move Object and Variable Creation. But either way, if you want to hit people not in your immediate area, you'd put Ranged on Damage.

 

[Cho]

Perfect, I figured that was the case. I think I'll scratch the protection side of the ability for now and stack ranged on the other effects. Thanks for that!

 

[Ahana Varma]

You didn't really need to reduce the "(-100)" bits to say "(-50)" for each of the Modifiers on your Seismic Sense. It's probably better to just stick with the accurate numbers for each one... but I don't think there's actually a rule against writing it the way you have, so you can do that if you'd like.
The most important part is that the total cost is accurate, and it now is.

As such, this switch is now Approved.