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Paseo H
2011-03-30, 07:48 AM
Was just musing over a character concept for the hero's rival to have as an ally.

Given that so many mysterious waifs seem to be good and of the 'staff chick' variety, anyone got some ideas for alternative traits to give them?

Here's what I'm thinking for mine so far:

Former member of a magical research facility who went off (amicable departure from said facility) to do her own thing, she takes interest in the hero's rival and agrees to help him, though it may or may not be in a way the rival wants.

She may or may not end up being something like a Dragon With An Agenda.

jseah
2011-03-30, 10:18 AM
A mysterious waif is only mysterious because the characters know nothing about her. You just need a reason.

Can't fix the "waif" bit unless you like shapeshifting magic.

Eg.
The waif is from the future and here to make her parents get married (and thereby ensuring she gets born and completes the loop)
She doesn't explain anything about herself to avoid giving away too much information (hence mysterious, and to maintain free will for the characters), and she knows for certain that she will succeed. (since she exists in the first place)

Unfortunately, she doesn't know the exact history of her parents and only that her father went on some kind of quest against an evil *insert name here*.

... ...
So in order to have better influence on events, she's assasinated the evil guy and took his name. Now she's going to let her father succeed while making it hard enough that her mother will have time to get to know him.

OR

She joins his 'party' and aims to create "moments". As well as adding firepower so her parents don't die.

Coidzor
2011-03-30, 10:20 AM
Only so much you can really do with a child without straining credibility.... Can't think of anything offhand, really, other than that grain of cautionary salt.

Paseo H
2011-03-30, 10:30 AM
Wait doesn't always mean child.

Yukitsu
2011-03-30, 12:04 PM
Only so much you can really do with a child without straining credibility.... Can't think of anything offhand, really, other than that grain of cautionary salt.

I once played a 5000 year old Elan with an eidactic memory who transformed when she was 9. She was considered fairly creepy for someone who looked 9.

TheThan
2011-03-30, 12:41 PM
Quest time:
Your mysterious waif is a sorceress with a demonic bloodline. For unknown reasons, she’s growing more and more powerful, and her powers are getting more and more uncontrollable. The hero has to find out what’s causing this flux in power and put a stop to it before she causes more destruction or hurts herself, or unwittingly lets a greater daemon into the mortal realm.

Toliudar
2011-03-30, 03:44 PM
As noted before, 'mysterious' comes from the PC's not knowing her motivations, or sometimes even her actions. Other waifs whose personae or story arcs you might steal from:

River Tam
Dorothy
Lizzie Bordon
Jean Grey

and of course

Wednesday Addams

Mewtarthio
2011-03-30, 04:01 PM
Isn't an evil mysterious waif just a Creepy Child? Like Alma or that girl from The Ring?

SilverClawShift
2011-03-30, 07:26 PM
Someone being a waif basically means it looks like a stiff breeze could carry them off a few hundred feet.

Paseo H
2011-03-31, 06:08 PM
I've been working day and night on the character design and here's what I have so far:

No certain name yet, for now I'm just calling her 'Shinobu-chan'

Race: Newman (basically a space elf)

Age: 19

Alignment: Neutral Evil, formerly Chaotic Neutral

Class: Former soldier/magic researcher

Hair: Pink

Eyes: Blue

Height: 5'3"

Other features: Eyepatch, along with a scar near the eye, and her left arm is replaced with a clearly mechanical bionic prosthetic.

Outfit: Normal outfit is a long ragnarok online nun type outfit.

Disposition: Regards herself as a normal girl who might be a bit selfish, occasionally taking it too far (through Kick The Dog and basically screwing with people/trolling) but otherwise not a bad person. If she likes someone she will be friendly but still keep them at a distance and not allow them to see too much of her true self, will be enigmatic even when out to do what they ask of her, and might well do things her own way if she feels it's the better way. If she dislikes them she will either ignore them or bully them with mind games, hannibal lectures, and general trolling. If she's neutral, it depends on her whim.

History: Lived a normal childhood until at age 10 she lost her left eye and left arm in a hovercar wreck. After that, became bitter because those who weren't looking down on her and bullying her were going the opposite direction and pitying her. Those few rare friends she did made, she swore her life to. One of her friends, through no fault of their own, ended up betraying and abandoning her, thus leading to depression and putting the edge on Shinobu's personality. At 17 a family friend who was a high ranking commander in the armed forces convinced her to illegally join and she took to the work of researching magic. After 2 years of training she felt competent to stand on her own two feet both magically and physically. She was discharged and she wandered her own way, taking life as it came. One day, she met the hero's rival and they became friends, almost as good as the one that left her.


I would certainly welcome input on how to make her more in line with the trope.

Volthawk
2011-04-01, 02:22 PM
Well, if you're playing 3.5, and want a little freakishness to her (as well as giving her combat capabilities without compromising the waifishness), there's always Ozodrin (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=153536).

The Big Dice
2011-04-01, 02:30 PM
There's always Pekkle no Oni (http://l5r.wikia.com/wiki/Pekkle). Which is pretty much a shapeshifting demon in a childlike form. It might be in OA, Creatures of Rokugan or one of the various Legend of the Five Rings dual stat books.

Paseo H
2011-04-01, 05:00 PM
Hmm...

Maybe some of her angst comes from one of the ideas I neglected to include, that she had a mishap with an experiment in forbidden magic, perhaps it gave her Lovecraftian Superpowers i.e. the Ozodrin thing.

Not that I'll incorporate everything there but it certainly helps.

DeltaEmil
2011-04-01, 11:51 PM
You could also apply the tainted-template from Heroes of Horror.

Crafty Cultist
2011-04-02, 01:38 AM
I think part of the mysterious waif package is a great power that is for the most part uncontrolled. I'd make the character considerably more powerful than other characters, but don't have them act to the best of their ability. Just make sure they have the defensive power to be hard to kill.

Paseo H
2011-04-02, 07:39 AM
I'm not sure if I agree with that entirely, though I have done that with one mysterious waif in the past...they basically got a bargain basement version of Dragon of the Darkness Flame from Yu Yu Hakusho, but they would lose the use of the arm that cast it for an entire day, and on top of that she was a good person so she feared its fell power, as well as those who were trying to turn her into their own weapon.

In this case, though, I could see her having some secret powers that play into a sort of absolute defense without making her overpowered offensively.

Amiel
2011-04-04, 02:49 AM
I would suggest copying "borrowing heavily" from the image of Sadako/Samara as your mysterious evil waif prototype.
She can kill with psychic projections.