Scion Character Aid Request

[Welknair]

Hey all! I doubt anyone remembers, but I made a previous thread asking for help with a Scion character for an upcoming game. I recently learned that my build has been effectively "Thrown out" and as such I'd like some advice.

I introduced a friend of mine to Scion and they took to it immediately. As the summer has finally arrived, they wish to run a game. I am the only person in the group that has read all the books, as well as the only individual with some substantial gaming experience. I have never actually played Scion before, though.

I am unlike most experienced players I've encountered in that I do not wish to exploit the rules to my own benefit and for person power. Rather, I'd like to ensure the rest of my group, who will all be low-op, stay alive. My original build used a pretty standard technique of spending 14 of my 15 bonus points on Legend, to allow me to use my healing boons more often. The Storyteller has just informed me that we are no longer allowed to spend BP on Legend, much to my chagrin.

So far a character aiming to ensure the longevity of my group, what would you guys recommend build-wise?

[TheOOB]

Every character should take as much Epic Dexterity they can, and untouchable opponent. Epic Dexterity is the single most important factor in combat(following by Epic Strength and Epic Stamina, but those become more important later). It gets to the point where if your Epic Dexterity is higher than your opponents, they can't hit you, and you can't miss them.

[Welknair]

Every character should take as much Epic Dexterity they can, and untouchable opponent. Epic Dexterity is the single most important factor in combat(following by Epic Strength and Epic Stamina, but those become more important later). It gets to the point where if your Epic Dexterity is higher than your opponents, they can't hit you, and you can't miss them.

I'd realized as much some time ago. My problem is that the rest of the group is very low-op and won't think of this, nor do I want to direct everyone towards pumping Epic Dex. I'm not trying to outshine the rest of my team. I'm trying to ensure some longevity here, not take down all the baddies myself.

[Selrahc]

I'd realized as much some time ago. My problem is that the rest of the group is very low-op and won't think of this, nor do I want to direct everyone towards pumping Epic Dex. I'm not trying to outshine the rest of my team. I'm trying to ensure some longevity here, not take down all the baddies myself.

With a legend cap of 2... Epic attributes are capped at 1. And similarly no Boons above 1 dot either. So it's not really possible to create a build that can sustain a lot of punishment, so my first thought of creating a build to run interference against enemies, while not having a lot of offensive power won't work.

I would recommend becoming a minion master. It becomes ineffective at later legend, but being able to throw a crack team of giants, soldiers or ninjas at things really does solve most combat problems at hero level.

Also... ugh.. max 1 dot in boons kind of kills a lot of build concepts.. but take some information gathering stuff. Maybe a birthright with a unique purview, or a wise guide alongside a dot in mystery, and epic intelligence. Make them stay alive by making sure they're prepared for what they face, then take a back seat in battles and let the minions do your work, while your friends outshine the minions on an individual level. You'll be contributing the most to the groups success, but in a way where other players get to have a big role (especially in the fights).

[Welknair]

With a legend cap of 2... Epic attributes are capped at 1. And similarly no Boons above 1 dot either. So it's not really possible to create a build that can sustain a lot of punishment, so my first thought of creating a build to run interference against enemies, while not having a lot of offensive power won't work.

I would recommend becoming a minion master. It becomes ineffective at later legend, but being able to throw a crack team of giants, soldiers or ninjas at things really does solve most combat problems at hero level.

Also... ugh.. max 1 dot in boons kind of kills a lot of build concepts.. but take some information gathering stuff. Maybe a birthright with a unique purview, or a wise guide alongside a dot in mystery, and epic intelligence. Make them stay alive by making sure they're prepared for what they face, then take a back seat in battles and let the minions do your work, while your friends outshine the minions on an individual level. You'll be contributing the most to the groups success, but in a way where other players get to have a big role (especially in the fights).

Talked to the ST a bit more and they said that the power wasn't so much the problem as was it being "Too complicated". :smallconfused: I'm unsure as to what I did that was so complicated. I made a beginning character with boons, knacks, epic attributes, relics and so on, like everyone else in the group..? Grahumph. I suppose I'll have to try to get clarification on what they mean by "Too complicated". To my knowledge the only out-of-the-ordinary thing I did was the Legend trick. Perhaps it was that I had a substantial number of purviews and boons?

[Friv]

Talked to the ST a bit more and they said that the power wasn't so much the problem as was it being "Too complicated". :smallconfused: I'm unsure as to what I did that was so complicated. I made a beginning character with boons, knacks, epic attributes, relics and so on, like everyone else in the group..? Grahumph. I suppose I'll have to try to get clarification on what they mean by "Too complicated". To my knowledge the only out-of-the-ordinary thing I did was the Legend trick. Perhaps it was that I had a substantial number of purviews and boons?

He probably meant that having a Legend 4 character in a game with Legend 2 characters is wildly complicated to adjudicate, and just generally leads to nothing but trouble. Trust me, I always threw out buying Legend with either bonus points or experience, and just handed it out as a reward after major stories.

Anyway, if you want to work on keeping your friends alive...

1) The Loyalty Virtue is great, obviously.
2) Epic Dexterity and Stamina lets you fight and take hits, and if your ST is kind of dumb there's also Teaching Prodigy. I do not recommend in good faith that you take it. Opening Gambit (in Epic Wits) lets you go first and get battlefield control going without forcing all the other players to Tick 6.
3) Guardian, obviously, is a good Boon set for you. War lets you boost your allies' combat ability even at one dot, so you might want that.
4) If you take Itzli, you can burn yourself for power to help your friends. Won't be as great at Legend 2, but it'll build.
5) There are a lot of Magic spells that can help you out. You'll have to wait until Legend 3 to get Bona Fortuna and Trading Fates, but once you do you can lend good luck to all of your friends.

[Giarc]

Well, you could only spend BP to raise your legend once from what I remember, but on topic: Teamwork. At legend 2, you're just a bit better than most mortals. Having a good Athletics score will be good too for a Defensive Do-Over (See: Scion: Hero's section of legend points for what you can do with them.)

Also you should talk to the players and tell them to think of action movie scenes when they are planning their actions and tell them about Stunting which can really help at low Legend.

Also, all that is required to takes Knacks is but a single dot in the Knack's epic attribute. And prerequisites of course. This means that they can have many knacks while still having an epic attribute rating of 1.

If any players are making social characters, try to encourage them to discourage battles between you and whoever. If that doesn't work, fight. If it does work, that person just saved everybody a few health levels.

[Selrahc]

Well, you could only spend BP to raise your legend once from what I remember,

You remember wrong. "A scion starts with Legend 2, and may raise it with bonus points" is the only comment made in the character creation section. Legend costs 7, and Scions start with 15 bonus points. The sample hero characters in the book are built as starting character and Eric Donner has legend 4.



tell them about Stunting which can really help at low Legend.

Stunting can help at any legend, it's just the important part changes. At low legend the bonus dice and the extra legend are the more important parts. At high legend, it can be a way to influence the course of the battle.

[Mira_Man]

Given your limitations, I reconmend making careful chioces.

Since your legend 2, Take an Epic in both Dex and Stamina. You are going to need every defensive boost you can get. Knack choices like Sophisitc Wellbeing and Self Healing from Stamina are good for keeping you alive at the lower levels of the game. Dex knacks like Roll with it! and Untouchable Oppoent (frequently houseruled, so check with the ST) are also helpful and have the benifit of scaling better than the Stamina knacks

Look out for other support based knacks too. A bunch of Charimsa knacks help your group regain willpower, so it is worth picking them up if you don't want to be stealing Combat-king's thunder. Since willpower can be ever so useful when you are down on your luck...

Fight with your Head, an intelligence knack, gets special mention it allows you to negate some of your oppoents Autosucesses. This will heklp your allies hit harder, hit period, or survive a hit depending on how you use it.
All from knacks.

[IdleMuse]

Another thing that's worth pointing out is that Scion (in my experience) is frequently NOT a high-combat game. Fights happen far less than once a session, more like once every three or four sessions, so do think about gearing your character to have utility in investigative or planning scenarios. As has been said, there's not much that can be said at Legend 2, you're really limited, as most 1-dot boons are pretty situational. IIRC Stars 1 and Dark 1 (or whichever lets you see in the dark) are useful enough to put points in if it fits your concept?

My single most important suggestion is to roleplay it; think about a character, and what he wants to represent and utilise in terms of domains, rather than power level and survivability and all that; sure, these things are important to think about, but at Legend 2 there's really little you can do to significantly improve that, beyond buying the obvious Stamina and Dex knacks. And you'll benefit from have a character you enjoy roleplaying and who feels unique (unlike the vast majority of optimised Scion sheets i've seen).