Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

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SkySin
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Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by SkySin »

Hey everyoooone I’m new to the Game and just wanted to leap in with a sorta, splash; having always wanted to do a Fate Campaign but not finding the right system. I found OVA and just love it but of course I’m new so I probably have a lot of things wrong. So I wanted to put my favorite servant up for everyone to see, and get some feedback if I can.

Such as if the TV is to high?
how do the attack rolls and defensive rolls and Armour work?
How would I make her armor, I was going to make it a gear but unsure how.
I put focus and other things in the weakness but how do they apply to her ability and armor?

Anyways thanks for the he,p and look forward to the input!



Mordred, Saber Of Red

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/typ ... 0904081235

Health: 80
Endurance: 100
Def: 11
TV: 26
ATK Roll: 11
DEF Roll: 9
DX: 11
LV-DX[END]-Attack
• 11[20] - “Clarent” (Area Of Affect x2; Barrier Buster; Impairing; Reach x2. Inaccurate x2; Unwieldy x2; Weapon)
• 11[20] - “Clarent Blood Of Arthur” (Area Of Affect x5; Barrier Buster; Armor Piercing x1; Continued Effect x1; Effective x3; Ranged; Strike Through. Activation; buildup; Delayed; Open to Attack; Requirement (Must reveal her identity, this means removing her helm; even if she has her face exposed if she didn’t “remove her helm” her identity is magically hidden; Weapon.)

Spell(s)
• [25]“Mana Burst”(Quick +1, Time Freeze +2. Continuation x3; no gesture. Self Only;


Level-Ability
• +5 Combat Expert
• +4 Agile
• +2 Lucky
• +2 Resistance(Magic)
• +4 Quick
• +4 Sixth Sense
• +5* Strong
• +4 Tough
• +5 Magic, Arcane(Mana Burst)
• +5 Vigorous
• +1 Teleport(Flash Step)
• +4 Iron Willed
• +2 Heightened Senses(Sight)(sound)
• +5 Gear(Red Knights Armor)
• +3 Evasive
• +1 Charismatic
• +1 Beauty
• +5* Attack
• +2 Knowledge(Swordsmanship)
Boss Abilities
• +0 Health Reserve(battle Continuation +40hp when depletes)
• +0 Multi Action(Can take actions equal to half party size)
Level-Weaknesses
• -2 Arrogant
• -1 Code of Conduct(Will not Harm the weak)
• -2 compulsion(Fight those you see as strong)
• -3 Endurance Use(Clarent Blood Arthur)
• -1 - Short Tempered
• -3 Focus(Clarent Sword)
• -2 Impulsive
• -3 ineptitude(marksman)
• -2 Infamous
• -3 limited Use(Clarent Blood Arthur)
• -3 Obsession(Surpass Her Father)
• -2 Quirk(reveling Attire)
• -3 Rival(King Arthur)
• -1 Rude
• -2 Servitude(Servant Pact)
• -1 Stubborn
• -1 Trigger
-2 Berserker Rage(Modred’d Father)
Malancthon
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Re: Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by Malancthon »

OVA is a bit of a subjective game, as what can be seen good for one player or group of players might not be the way others play it. So, if you disagree with what I suggest, that's fine.

My first question, is whether this is supposed to be a playable character or a non playable character? A playable character should start with the Base Zero rule, meaning the Abilities and Weaknesses should equal about 5 points. I counted over 60 points in Abilities and about 30 points in Weaknesses. So, way off as a playable character. For an NPC, they don't have to follow the Base Zero rule, but I still would recommend slimming things down. I like using 15 points in Abilities and 10 points in Weaknesses for starting characters. This way you can have one or two Abilities at level 3 as their focus and a couple of Abilities at level 2 and 1 to round them out. Like, a buttkicker could have Attack at level 3 and Combat Expert at 2 or 3. A mage could have Magic at Level 3 and Vigorous at level 2 or 3. A defender could have Armor at level 3 and Tough at level 2 or 3. And then the rest of your points are to personalize the character.

Next, why so many Abilities at level 5? I understand OVA kind of is like a candy store, wanting to get the best abilities at max level right away. Generally, I recommend a starting character to have only Abilities no higher than level 3. Levels 4 and 5 should be for experienced characters or high end boss characters or rivals. If she's a servant, as you described, she probably should not outshine the player characters. If she's a boss, well, she'd probably win most battles against players.

You might want to try and build her as a Companion, per the Ability. A Companion is built like a character, but they can only have a difference between Abilities and Weaknesses equal to the level of Companion. So, if you have Companion +2, she could have 12 points in Abilities and 10 points in Weaknesses. Or 20 points in Abilities and 18 points in Weaknesses.

To make an Attack, you roll a bunch d6s equal to your ATK roll. Whoever you are attacking usually gets to automatically defend with a bunch of d6s equal to their DEF roll. You select either your highest single dice roll or your highest group of matching dice, whichever is higher. The defender selects their highest roll. Whoever has a higher number wins. If the attacker wins, they do damage equal to the difference between the two numbers multiplied by their Damage Multiplier for their attack.

So, say you attack with 6 dice. You roll a 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 6. The two 5s equal 10, which is higher than the 6, so your attack number is 10. The defender rolls 4 dice, and they get 2, 4, 4, 5. They add the 4s to get a defense number of 8. Your attack of 10 beats the defender's 8. You do 2 (10 minus 8) times your attack's Damage Multiplier (DX) as damage. Armor lowers your Damage Multiplier by it's level. So, say you had a DX x4 for your attack, and the defender has Armored level 2. Your attack only does x2 instead of x4 damage (4 points instead of 8).

Gear is a bit of a weird Ability. It doesn't really do anything except let you describe Abilities as part of your equipment instead of an innate ability. So, you could say Gear: Armored +2 to describe your Armored level 2 as equipment, or you could say Armored +2 (breastplate) to describe it. Either way works. Gear is more useful if you want to group some Abilities together as a special item. So, say you want a scary looking armor that allows you to fly. You could do Gear (Armored +2, Flight +1, Bizarre Appearance -2).

Focus means you need something special to do your Abilities, whether it's a lucky pendent, a blessing, or being in the sun, or something like that. Focus doesn't really apply to Gear, Vehicle, Requirements, or Weapons, because they all do the same function.

Hope that wasn't overwhelming of a response, and welcome to the forums!
SkySin
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Re: Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by SkySin »

Thank you so much for your response it’s very enlightening, now I’ll do the best I can to explain my thoughts! :D

First it’s supposed to be a companion in a way, similar to the show I’ll have summoners or rather “Masters” summon a servant. Servants are leagues above anyone in the world, I mean the strongest magus can’t beat the weakest servant by all standards unless there is a very special circumstance. As for the npc I didn’t follow the base rule and tried to really toss out there how craY servants are, compared to your average magus who would be commanding them. Mordred in particular is a powerhouse, hit her with class B attacks from a noble phantasm (Ex. Could wipe out tanks if it’s let’s say anti-Army it can take out an entire army) can be brushed off by her armor. I wasn’t sure how to make this come across without just statting her the best I could. Think of servants as max level characters that were the best of the best in their time, and are being summoned to fight by just average or above average Mages.

Level 5 abilities, why so many indeed; I honestly just didn’t know how to show that she has just crazy high toughness or strength etc. I mean the example in the book for tough has a impossible feat at 12 lifting a car...maybe I’m missing something but I guess I assumed 5 just meant pinnacle soo I went with it. And a servant outshines the master, it’s just how it works; a servant serves a master because of command seals and the grail which is a long story but the short answer is the servants are superior to the master in almost every way.

As for companion I didn’t want to do that because the companions Ability is linked to the master which is not really true in the show. I mean you have a minor mage who just accidentally summoned a caster servant that made a cuthulu beast in the ocean, he didn’t need a strong master to do that. The only way they are linked is supplying mana and supplying support as well as literally support spells and such...but Shirou Emiya shows us even a nobody mage can have a servant like King Arthur who is a beast. I do like the defender, attacker etc idea; it fits the “theme” of classes for servants but still the actual stats seem very weak.

Thanks for clearing up the attacking bit, I honestly was at a loss and confused by it; and now mordreds attacks seem crazy xD but they will be against other crazy servants so it balances out right? Usually a servant isn’t attacking another master because well, they can’t; they are fighting that masters servant.

Geaaaar ugh I don’t get gear or how you stat it down, do you just put Gear +2 (armored +1, Affinity Fire, endurance reserve, tough +3) etc? What if you have multiple gear, do you put Gear +2 multiple times in your skills?

Focus was because she can’t use her Clarent Noble phantasm without the sword Clarent herself, she’s rather sub par Attack wise without her sword, she’s still strong enough to blow apart trees with a punch and stone golems but..her sword is the one blowing up a fortress or army. So would I have to apply it specifically to the weapon at hand?

Thanks for your reply and hope I’m not seeming to clueless! XD
Malancthon
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Re: Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by Malancthon »

You might want to look at the Scale bonuses. It provides +5 dice for when the character has a distinct advantage. Maybe some sort of Unique Ability that lets a character give his Companion Scale advantage every now and then. If you want to get a more video-gamey feel, My Monstrous abilities house rules could fit instead.

You can still make your character weaker than your Companion, just by not picking up levels of Attack or Combat Expert as well as selecting the Frail Weakness. So, for example, using a Companion and giving them Tough +3 (Health 50) and Attack +3 while taking Frail -2 for the player character. For what it's worth, I generally use Tough +1 (Health 50) and Attack +3 for My heroic fighter type characters. Maybe boost it with a level or two of Strong.

But that's just Me looking at her from a playable point of view. As an NPC, well, I still think it's too over the top, but you do seem to be getting the game. Granted, I'm not familiar with Fate/Stay Night, so I'm just looking at her as either a player character or someone a player could fight.

I would use multiple Gear stats for separate items. It's mostly a book keeping thing, so you know the total points the item is, for when you add together your character's points at a glance.
SkySin
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Re: Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by SkySin »

I did see the scale bonus which was why I put the asterisk next to them to represent that they scale, I thought that was the appropriate way to go about it.as for a ability that lets your companion scale I might do that, it actually sounds fitting. Monstrous abilities I was thinking about, I updated her on my end with them hoping it fit well.

As for making the character weaker then the companion that just doesn’t work to the extent you think. The Companion can’t be beat by s Master, only another companion (servant) can face another servant. It’s unbslanced for a reason, a master won’t fight a servant so there is no reason balancing them against one another. I’d need to balance servant vs servant but that’s easier considering it’s just the same as making Mordred.

Thanks for the advice once again!
Malancthon
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Re: Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by Malancthon »

It might be better to not have the master be statted up, then, instead role-play the master and use the servants as the actual player characters you control.
SkySin
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Re: Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by SkySin »

Hmmm maybe but the masters do actually have a part, usually they are magus; and there the ones pulling the strategy and commanding the servant as well as running into other masters. They don’t just purely sit on the back burner the entire time.
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Re: Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by Sabersonic »

SkySin wrote:Hmmm maybe but the masters do actually have a part, usually they are magus; and there the ones pulling the strategy and commanding the servant as well as running into other masters. They don’t just purely sit on the back burner the entire time.
:shock: Wait.... so they're like Pokemon Trainers?
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SkySin
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Re: Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by SkySin »

Sabersonic wrote:
SkySin wrote:Hmmm maybe but the masters do actually have a part, usually they are magus; and there the ones pulling the strategy and commanding the servant as well as running into other masters. They don’t just purely sit on the back burner the entire time.
:shock: Wait.... so they're like Pokemon Trainers?
No no no Pokémon trainer just toss out their Pokémon and give commands. Masters are there to fight the other master also, whether through magic, more industrial means, etc. the servant is also always there, they can go incorporeal but other then that they are always around to fight and protect the master. What I was trying to say is just making a sheet for the servant doesn’t work because the master is supposed to get some action also..it’s hard to explain further then I have without just watching the show.
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Re: Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by Clay »

As mentioned above, I'd be wary of throwing out too many +5s—or really the higher numbers in general. If you glance through the book, even including NPCs, +5 is only used maybe twice. I'm only passingly familiar with Fate, but unless Mordred is the ULTIMATE SERVANT—these numbers are probably too high.

Take a gander at some of the other combat-specced characters (like Raine or Miho) to get an idea of some more appropriate ranges.
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Re: Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by TrueBlueCorvid »

Hi!! I'm pretty familiar with Fate/Stay Night and this sounds like an interesting game premise!

First of all, something that's really important to understand about OVA for a first-time player is that characters are assumed to be average at everything. This is different from other RPGs, where nothing in an ability means that the character is bad at it. This means, for example, that if the character is pretty or smart or socially awkward, you don't need to give them those Abilities or Weaknesses unless it's something that seriously affects the way they interact with the world. Rolls of more than ten are absolutely massive -- the system is built to generally cap out at about 12 dice. While you can play that way, it's not what I'd recommend for a beginner.

Rather than picking and choosing Abilities to always get a scale bonus, it's more about context. For example, since Servants are magically superior to other people in terms of combat ability, you could just give them a scale bonus (+5) when dealing with anybody else in combat. (But not in, say, social situations.) If Servants get a scale boost in combat vs anything but other Servants, you can rank their combat Abilities according to how they compare to other Servants rather than needing to stat every Ability up to +5 and beyond just to push them over the level of human ability.

A question like "how high should my TV be?" is like asking, "how long do my legs have to be to reach the floor?" It depends on what the rest of the characters look like! That many dice can get unwieldy though, so it might be better to tone it down (and leave +5s for characters like Gilgamesh) and use a scale bonus where appropriate.

How I would probably run this:
Because most of the combat takes place between Servants in the Fate series, and Masters are more or less normal people with some magic (which the Servants have to protect), I would basically reverse the base stats of PCs and Companions for a Master and Servant. Give Masters a base of 20 health and endurance and give Servants -- the real heroes -- 40 of each. I'm assuming each player character is a Master with a Servant, and the PCs are probably either good guys teaming up so that a bad guy doesn't get the Grail and/or this is a no-holds-barred PvP smackdown.

(Funnily enough, the evolution of Masters from support characters to combatants themselves is actually kind of a major theme/plot point in the Fate series??? So both "noncombatant mage who backs up their Servant with some buffs and strategic decisions" and "literal hired assassin who's going to try to snipe an enemy Master for an easy win" are actually both valid builds for Masters. Sounds yikes but that's the anime! They're definitely like Pokemon Trainers, but like, if a trainer could just walk up and punch another trainer in the face until they gave up. I actually totally forget how mana works in Fate though. It's been a while.)

I'm not familiar with this character specifically, but I can tell you're using a few Abilities and Weaknesses wrong. For example, the Endurance Use and Limited Uses Weaknesses are meant to apply to Abilities, not to attacks (which should be altered with Flaws instead.) It's unclear how these are applying to that attack considering the huge amount of perks and flaws piled onto it anyway. Also, PCs don't get Boss Abilities, and if this is a Boss-level NPC, you don't really have to justify her stats.

If she only has one spell, which she uses only on herself, and she's not a general user of buff magic, she probably doesn't need Arcane Magic. Just give her Time Freeze (which already has to be activated) with the Endurance Use weakness. You can't give her more than one Ability with one spell (your current version also tries to give Quick+1) and Abilities given by spells are replaced by higher-level versions, they're not cumulative. Using Arcane Magic to give Quick +1 to a character with Quick +4 doesn't do anything. A spell also lasts until the user decides to drop it, so Continued Effect isn't necessary, or even what Continued Effect does. (OVA doesn't have a "duration" flaw but it probably should, now that you've mentioned it. Maybe a similar range as the Ammo flaw: -5 for a duration of five rounds, -10 for three rounds, and -15 for a buff that only lasts one round?)

You can't have both the Focus Weakness and the Weapon Flaw for the same combination of a skill + an item. If your attacks need a weapon in order to use, give them the Weapon Flaw. If you can't attack at all without a special sword, give your Attack Ability the Focus Weakness.

Anyway, I hope any of this rambling helps, haha! Fate/Stay Night is one of those animes with a premise that I would love to see someone run in OVA. My games all tend toward an Inuyasha style of play, I think...
(Formerly StarRaven! Sorry about that.)
Malancthon
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Re: Fate/Stay Night Character- first Character Done For OVA

Post by Malancthon »

That is some great insight, TrueBlue. I especially like the idea of swapping the Health/Endurance for players and their Companion to replicate the feeling of that game.
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