nWoD Werewolf advice

[bigstipidfighte]

A while back I signed up for a Forsaken game on these forums. I have my character all built now; he's a Catholic priest, been a werewolf for a few months (no extra xp to start). What I want to know is if there are any holes in my character's capabilities, or anything I've taken that is particularly suboptimal. My character is probably going to be the main face-type guy, and the worst fighter.

Other character I know about so far are:

A slasher-villainesque (http://sheetgen.dalines.net/sheet/14797?message=true) girl who is excellent at sneaking around, killing things with swords and scaring people.


A blue-collar criminal (http://sheetgen.dalines.net/sheet/14828?message=true) who's good at just about everyhting you'd expect from that archetype.

A wildman (http://sheetgen.dalines.net/sheet/14802?message=true) who's good at kicking butt and surviving in the wilderness.

There's another character in the works, might be an Elodoth but I can't swear to that.

Here's my sheet:
http://sheetgen.dalines.net/sheet/14810?message=true

The thing I'm mainly worried about is merits. Is Inspiration worth 4 dots? Do you think its reasonable to hold down a real job in WtF? Because otherwise, I'd likely lose the Resources and Status merits.

Also, has anyone had experience with a gun-toting character in a werewolf game? This character won't be using silver bullets, as its a sin against harmony.

[Fouredged Sword]

Resources are nice, just make sure your income can do without you for a few days. Something that is a three day a week job is much more sustainable than a 5 a week job. Consider a job as a mediator. You have enough achedemics to have the knowledge of law, and that persuasion would make you an excellent mediator. (a person who tries to get both sides of a civil disagreement to settle out of court.)

Low status in the church. I assume that is to actually be a priest? What church? Catholic or another major religion would be useful.

The only real hole I see is a lack of subterfuge. You need to be able to look someone in the eye and say there is no such thing as werewolves. If you can't you will be causing endless problems. Consider taking one dot from persuasion and putting it (you get two dots) in subterfuge.

I get the whole priests don't lie thing, but not being ABLE to lie is a crippling fault in nWoD.

[bigstipidfighte]

I can see a lack of Subterfuge being a problem, but that brings me to wonder- do I need Empathy and Subterfuge? Empathy is nice for guessing at people's motivations, but Persuasion seems like the main social ability for making truces, alliances etc, which ought to be very useful.

So, maybe trading 2 or 3 dots from Empathy to Subterfuge and keeping Persuasion. What do you think.

One thing I forgot to mention before is that we're starting in Pure territory, don't know if that affects anything. From what I gather they're pretty much impossible to reason with, they'll either attack us as soon as they find us or wait for reinforcements and come at us hard. Also, we'll be starting in a podunk little town of about 1,000 people, and my character is going to be the new priest there. So being a priest is his actual job.

[Burnheart]

One thing I forgot to mention before is that we're starting in Pure territory, don't know if that affects anything. From what I gather they're pretty much impossible to reason with, they'll either attack us as soon as they find us or wait for reinforcements and come at us hard. Also, we'll be starting in a podunk little town of about 1,000 people, and my character is going to be the new priest there. So being a priest is his actual job.

I should add as the ST for this game there is another priest there, he's just quite old now so you'll be there to slowly take over from him (At least thats the plan) Sorry if i've not explained that to you yet, i'm still making some adjustments to the setting to help incorporate the players backstories (When i get them all) and about the pure, it should be noted that this is set in scotland and uses the Shadows of the UK setting book which has a differnet Pure vs Forsaken dynamic than normal werewolf.

Also hi Fouredged Sword :smallbiggrin:

[Fouredged Sword]

I would definitely consider trading a point of empathy for a point of subterfuge. I would leave that as an upgrade later category for your character, so don't go too much out of your core functions (persuasion and empathy).

If there are pure in your area I would suggest more of a combat focus. Pure are unreasonable. Empathy is great for understanding them and predicting their actions, and persuasion will ensure the local spirits are on your side not theirs, but if you face a werewolf level threat you need a bit more punch in your pocket...

But I don't see an easy way for you to rearrange your character sheet.

I would then put combat focus in the back burner and just pick up a big shotgun (something nice with 9 again). Being in half man form lets you use a quite large shotgun. In fact if you are not going to focus on stealth I would consider moving a point of stealth to firearms because buying a third dot is more expensive than buying a second dot, and it makes you a bit more powerful in early combat.

Another note, a way to consolidate your points for combat a bit more is to respec yourself for archery and throwing. Athletics all of it. It would allow you to move all the stealth point and all your firearms points to athletics, giving you 4 dots. That is a 7 die pool of lethal for throwing knives and a 9 die pool for broad head arrows. You would need to quickly acquire the first point of fighting style archery, but that is cheep. Also get two bows, one with your human strength and the other for your half man strength. Archery is the only for of ranged combat that I know that can use the benefits of your half human form. (and partial change will let you get the size and strength without the wolfish features)

I find I prefer archery to firearms in a werewolf game. Note firearms do not always function well in the shadow world, arrows always function. Survival ranks can fake a craft roll for making a crude bow and arrows in the woods. Athletics is a skill that will help you out in all your forms.

[bigstipidfighte]

I like the idea of Archery a lot, it does sound much more fitting for a werewolf.
edit: I see now that the Armory book has actual stats for bows and that they go off Athletics as you said. Its not a book I own myself, so I wasn't aware until I did some digging. Definitely going to go with archery now.

I honestly don't see myself spending too much exp on skills throughout the game, they seem very expensive compared to attributes. I'm inexperienced with nWoD though so I could be wrong.

Also, I see you signed up in the recruitment thread. We don't have a big bruiser yet, so that'll be nice.

[Fouredged Sword]

I couldn't help myself.

He has a bit of a bruiser streak in him, but he is more the mean SOB who you really don't want to chase into the woods. He will let you chase him into the bear trap he set earlier before turning around and putting a few arrows into you. I am going for the self sufficient survivalist who straps his forge to his horse and disappears whenever he wants to, coming out of the woods fully armed and ready to take on an army.