Draganna Tesla (development)

AHH!

This is what I thought before, but you told me it was additive. So in the case of Acutus, he has a Presence of +2, Essential Virtue: Intimidating and Leadership (Intimidation) 3.

So, would his Intimidation roll be +9 or +7?

This works for me, though I prefer the Good Language Instructor option.

My only objection to the lab/classroom idea is it means Marius's totals will get even crazier. :stuck_out_tongue:

It is additive to rolls, if taken that way. Remember the "either/or" part of the equation. So for Intimidation rolls, your total wold be 9 plus a Stress Die. It would provide no bonus to an Intimidation score, if there would ever be a call for one. That total would be just 6. If to took Essential Virtue as an Essential Trait, which would replace Presence, then total score total would be 7 and the roll would be a stress die + 7.

Good Language Instructor it so shall be then :smiley:
The Lab is only a tiny +1 bonus. But I can purchase it as her personal own and Marius cannot benefit from it. :mrgreen:

An option would be for her to grant 46XP in 2 seasons (23 per season). 2 seasons of exposure (or 1) raises the total to 4. Makes good the total of the student easily by him practicving once the magus reaches destination and she is still a top resource for the tremeres, but it might get a slightly lower teaching total than the "true geniouses out there". If that was something you wanted, that is :slight_smile:

Cheers,
Xavi

Here is hoping that the third time's the charm :wink:
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Draganna Tesla:
Characteristics: Int +3, Per -1, Com +0, Pre +3, Str -2, Sta -1, Dex 0, Quik 0
Size: -1
Age: 44 (30)
Season: Summer 1235
Decrepitude: 0
Warping: 0 (0)
Confidence: 1 (3)
Virtues: +3 Entrancement, +1 Minor Essential Virtue-Good Language Instructor, +1 Good Teacher, +1 Book Learner, +1 Linguist, +1 Piercing Gaze, +1 Privileged Upbringing, +1 Second Sight; Scholomance Training (+1 Arcane Lore, +1 Educated, +1 Hermetic Experience)
Flaws: -3 Driven (excellence), -3 Lycanthrope, -1 Close Family Ties, -1 Continence, -1 Temperate, -1 Small Frame
Personality Traits: Driven +5, Temperate +3, Loyal +1, *Good Instructor +3 (bonus when teaching by instruction)
Reputations: Talented Instructor 2 (Hermetic), Werewolf 1 (Hermetic)
Combat
Dodge: Init 0, Def +2
Catfight: Init 0, Atk +2, Def +2, Dmg -2
Dagger: Init 0, Atk +4, Def +2, Dmg +1
Soak: +0
Fatigue: OK, 0, -1, -3, -5, ko
Wounds: -1 Lt (1-4), -3 Med (5-8), -5 Hvy (9-12), Incap (13-16), Dead (17+)
Abilities: South Slavonic 5 (Serbian, sharp words), Transylvanian Tribunal Area Lore 2; Artes Liberales[sup]1[/sup] 4 (literacy), Awareness 2 (details), Brawl 2 (dagger), Concentration 2 (Study), Dominion Lore 1 (auras), Entrancement 4 (questioning), Faerie Lore 2 (vampires), Folk Ken 3 (women), Guile 2 (straight face), Infernal Lore 1 (dragons), Intrigue 3 (gossip), Leadership 3 (intimidation), Legerdemain 2 (sleight of hand), Magic Lore 3 (regios), Magic Theory 3 (teaching), Mythic Europe Lore 3 (sequence of history), Order of Hermes Lore 4 (Tremere dogma), Penetration 3 (entrancement), Philosophiae 3 (metaphysics), Profession-Scribe 4 (composition), Second Sight 4 (spirits), Stealth 2 (hide), Teaching 6 (languages), Arabic 4 (classical), Aramaic 4 (Assyrian), French 5 (Norman), Greek 6 (Romaic, Classical), Hebrew 3 (written), Latin 6 (classical, Hermetic)
[sub]1 alphabets include Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew, and Arabic[/sub]
Equipment: ivory crucifix on a silver chain, silver dagger, knife, bloodstone ring, moonstone ring, gold apothecary ring, hair pin, writing materials, journal, intimidating good looks and a chaste temperment
Encumbrance:
Background:
[tab][/tab]Dragana Tesla is the daughter of Rajko Tesla and Illiyanna Ivororvich. Her uncle is Dragor Ivorovich and the Ivorovich family has a long history of service with House Tremere. They also have a family history of lycanthropy and vampirism. She is a werewolf, but not a vampire (uncle Dragor is a damphir though). She started being taught the family trade by uncle Dragor when she was seven, developing her abilities in Entrancement and Second Sight. When she was 23, her uncle got her into the Scholomance. She learned much in her time at the school, demonstrating a proficiency for languages and aptitude for teaching others. After graduation, her uncle migrated to serve as a Tremere agent in Normandy. Dragana was given a position as a language teacher for the next fourteen years, valued for being able to teach Tremere magi and agents to speak new languages fluently in a mere two seasons (base 3, Com +2, Teaching 5 (languages), +6 single student, +5 Good Teacher, +3 Good Instructor; equals 25xp per season to a single student, 22xp to a pair of students, or 19xp to a class of up to 30 students). In 1234, she as recruited by Vocis along with her colleague Maris to serve teaching positions at the prestigious and ancient Covenant of Andorra.

Specialized Classroom (Teaching Lab)
Characteristics: Size 0, Refinement 3, General Quality -1, Upkeep -3, Safety 0, Warping 0, Health 0, Aesthetics +1
Virtues & Flaws: +0 Magical Heating & Lighting, +1 Gallery, +1 Living Quarters, +1 Opulent, -3 Elementary (only Teaching),
Specializations: Teaching +2
Notes: Upkeep cost is less than a third-pound-silver per year. Teaching bonus equals +1. Cost as a Purchased Lab equals 15q.p. for three Minor Virtues).

Chronology & Development: Born 1190, taught family ways starting at age 7 in 1197, began Scholamance training at age 22 in 1213, gained three minor virtues over the course of that time (costing 60xp, as per Advancment for Companions), finished training in 1220 at age 30 and started on Longevity level 40 costing 50xp, taught for ten years at the school before transferring to Andorra under the authority of Vocis in 1234 at age 37; the seven years of training and fourteen years of teaching each count as three "cycles" in which Book Learner is applied three times for a total of +105xp.

Why not?
Especially as teaching is not fun per-se IMO: you just help others progress faster. Having a learned character is, to me, much more fun.

It also goes well into the "misunderstood genius" trope. Hell, there's even an Incomprehensible flaw for these guys that are good at what they do, but fail at teaching it. In fact, it would have been an awesome flaw for vulcanus "You don't understand me, not because I'm unclear, but because you are so dumb while I am so brilliant!"

:smiley:

Maybe, but not always. Clearly, you didn't notice me [strike]trying[/strike] failing to explain things :unamused:
And didn't you get teachers that knew a lot, but were just bad at conveying it?

Also, there's a difference between poor teacher, average teacher, and crazy teacher :wink:

As I understand it: He rolls 2 + 3 + 4 = +9

I noticed. I'm just not buying it. There will be examples of people bad at their jobs, and they will likely have dismal careers. And that's not fun to play. Not for me anyway. Somone who is a bad teacher would only get teaching gigs if the client was deperate and had no other choice. Like, for example, "I want to hire a professor in Tuscany. This guy is good, but he charges ten times more than I can afford. So I hire this guy with a lidp and a drinking problem, he works for bread. Nah, fire that drunk. My buddy charlie can do better and he's a sailor."
Back in the day playing D&D, sometimes I'd roll up a fighter character with Strength 8 and Constitution 7. He would "fall on his sword", and I would start over. We all did it, it was traditional. We declared a minimal bar and for those under it, there was no shame in throwing them in a put of spikes.

Because we have plenty of opportunity to suck at what we do in real life :laughing:

To me, it is fun having an asset I can use as a bargaining chip, something that makes me valuable to those in power.

Vulcanus is not a teacher. Thank God.
Dragana has her own quirks that make her interesting. She's a frikin' werewolf! She has piercing gaze and is and Entrancing & beautiful woman yet totally chaste and serious minded. And dedicated to House Tremere. Her ungle Dragor is a Tremre Consor, other family is in the business too.

There may be a confusion: I wasn't talking about draganna per se, but more on the general topic of "every character that's related to book and/or teaching has very positive com AND good teacher". You might add "instead of just investing massively in teaching" :wink:

Likewise, not being the best with insane totals doesn't mean that you're dismal. What 's the problem with a teacher that has, say, Com 1, teaching 5? That's a professional teacher, with a source quality of 1+5+3 = 9, +6 if teaching one-on-one, for a +15, a little more than an excellent tractatus.
Talking about mundane books, we have only one that exceed that (with a SQ of 23 :open_mouth: ), 4 that equal it, and a lot more that are clearly inferior.

To take back your example, you rolled back your warrior because you wanted him to be a great warrior and he was dismal. And that's fine, he's a hero and supposed to be an exceptional character. But what if just every NPC city guard of whatever had Str and Con of 16+?

Yeah, like your knowledge of Lores :wink: Or the fact that, in teaching them in AL or philosophiae, you're still better than reading a book, despite you not being, at least potentially, one of the best teachers in the whole world.

For exemple, look at this guy:

Com +2, teaching 2, SQ one-on-one of 4+3+6 = 13. Still quite good compared to most books (and I'm refering to the Andorra Library here). Despite not being a professional teacher, he's still useful as one, because he can train magi a little better than most books, to a better level, especially in Artes Liberales, where he'll push you farther than just about every book. Hell, even in Philosophiae, he might be worthwhile! :wink:

I have definitely had professors with negative Com scores. Usually I could chalk it up to one of two things. First, was age. Some professors I had were past their prime and didn't seem to be trying anymore. Mechanically I'd say that was them taking aging penalties to Com. Second was professors who were more into research than teaching, but were clearly forced to teach a few classes.

There's an example closer to home. Vocis has +1 Com, Teaching 3 (almost 4), and no Good Teacher. He spent qp on a +3 Teaching lab feature to boost his source quality. Mica also has Apt Student, but that wasn't my doing. :wink:

THIS!!!! Thank you Fixer, that is exactly what I was saying! Again, not about Draganna in particular, but about our grogs and specialists in general.

I go back to a question that was asked about another character made previously. Is Draganna going to be used for anything other than being a Teaching source quality for the covenant? If she is, then awesome, because her being a werewolf will be interesting, especially since we have a Bjornaer in the covenant (or hopefully will shortly) and they do not always get along. But if not, then she’s just an NPC…and if that’s the case, do we want out NPCs to be that good?

It would be pointless to make her a werewolf if I didn't get to play a werewolf :unamused:
And being an excellent language teacher is her special asset that she intends to use to her advantage. She has an agenda.
And Draganna does not have a positive Communication score! Not anymore. I dropped it to 0. Her Good Language Instructor Essential Virtue replaces that 0 with a +3, but only when personally instruction, and only for the subject of Languages.
She has good language scores. She is not well versed in Arcane Lore. Magic & Farie Lore 3, Infernal & Divine 1. Meh.
A Professional score is 6, not 5. Six is the mark of pro.
And not every one of our grogs and specialists are super. Only the ones that get names and fleshed out. I have been tossing around a lot of comical names for goons that are not suer or exceptional in any way (Lawrence the Lackey, Percy the Porter, Sally the Scribe, Tony the Teamster, Cecil the Chef; guys that are good enough to do their job and live a hand waved existence.
Arnau and the Flame Brothers are the new hit Rock Stars 8). The Andorran Guard are classic but their heyday is long past. The Gold Griffons are solid but not superstars.
If our teaching staff is crowded by great teachers, then I say it is because our teaching staff is too small. We should have three more great teachers and twelve good teachers if we want to compete with Durenmar.
Someone gave the example of old professors. A hit to Com scores sounds quite plausible. As for the disinterested, they are lab rats at heart and teaching is a side duty. The Professional Teachers, those who are dedicated to the task, have the good scores.
As for This Guy...
:unamused: :unamused: :unamused: :laughing:
You present him to me as an example of a mediocre teacher, better than books and still fun to play. I looked at him and he is a Grog with a score of 9 in Artes Liberal and Medicine, 6 in Chirurgy, and a bunch of Formulae. If I tried to pass along a grog like that, you guys would crucify me :exclamation:
That guy obviously specializes. Dammit Jim! He's a Doctor, not a Teacher!
Draganna is a Teacher, not a Doctor. More accurately, she is a Language Instructor. And a werewolf. And an agent in service to House Tremere. For a season every two years, a Tremere magus might lodge with us for instruction or she might be sent on a mission. Marius has the same deal.

Wow, my doctor companion doesn't have a 9 Medicine (and has fewer formulae).

Hey, Marko, it's fine, cool! :smiley:

I fear that you may be missing entirely my point

THis was to show that you didn't need to be optimised to be quite interesting as a teacher to a covenant. Well, he won't be because he's incomprehensible (here, you have your bad teacher!), but that could be changed easily :laughing:

I think you can understand that. His other scores mean nothing: Whatever he can teach, a SQ 15 is still better than almost all books and would get him hired.
Say, keep his com and teaching as they are, drop incomprehensible. Give him a bunch of languages, lores, whatever you want, at 05. Would he make a fine teacher for a covenant? Of course.
Now, no problem, a score of 9 can also illustrate what I tried to convey you about draganna: Instead of every teacher being "naturally" a good teacher, just increase the damn skill! :wink:

For what it's worth, for that ain't the point:

  1. He's about 10 years older than Bashir (I couldn't find any mention of his age, save him being in his 30's).
  2. Bashir has got an effective score of 8, only one lower.
  3. His recommended maximum is 10 (8 for age, +2 for affinity), so he's near the max, yet slightly below, on par with the Grizzled Veteran in the corebook (45y, max score of 8 ), only with an affinity on top.
  4. No one said anything about your scores. In fact, Fightmaster advised taking medecine 09 with a bunch of formulaes. You lowered it to 8 :wink:
    we also all encouraged you to take formulaes :stuck_out_tongue:

Thing is, yes, he's very good, yes he's pushing it, and could benefit a few more years to have more abilities (or from the andorra rules! That's 13 years worth of XP at the same age!).
But he's not the best. Neither is Bashir, of course, and that's fine!
He's exactly the kind of guys I'd expect to see as one of the best doctors of the scholomance: Highly specialized, intelligent, talented, but not a genius above geniuses.

  • Compare him to a companion who's "the best natural magician there is": Simply adding a puissance, and Great Intelligence*2, would give +4 points.
  • Compare him to a grog like Jesus: Jesus is 15 years younger and has a 11.
    For what it's worth, he was also paid for by build points as a specialist, and has a 15-lines background (say, 9 for bashir, 4 for jesus, 0 for draganna), with a reason to join and pester the covenant, so he's not even as free or nameless as a "let's design a grog to boost us". He's built as a grog, but was conceived with the same investment as a companion :wink:

Draganna has a lengthy background. 11 written lines. And you offered us an apple to compare to an orange, a doctor to a teacher, a grog to a companion, a background specialist to a character intended as a full blown PC.
I also did not want to repeat the same old boring design and assembly and wanted to try an original approach, hence the inspiration for Good Language Instructor.

I wasn't really serious with my comment, just poking a little bit. As you point out, Bashir is only in his 30s (35, to be exact - it's written on his Development thread). He has plenty of time yet to improve. And one of the reasons I didn't bring him to 7+2 was that I was also trying to get his Chirurgery up to high levels as well. So he has that going for him as well.

I have no problem with a specialist Grog ten years his senior being a better doctor than him.

What was the Phoenix saga like? It might be interesting to connect the two histories or even help revive that covenant.

I remember enjoying both versions of Phoenix, and wouldn't mind seeing the second version being used as a backdrop/crossover. I'm not sure about a full-fledged revival, though; I would like to see it (mainly because I like Cygna, and there was a lot of awesome stuff about that covenant), but I'm not excited about it, you know?

(Did we ever have a wiki for that, and if so, what happened to it? I can't find it anywhere.)

If put to a vote, I would say yes.

:smiley:

I bumped Draganna to make her easier to find, because I was considering updating her, perhaps revising her. But it wasn't working for me. The question quoted was from over a year agol. he date got changed because of the "bump" topic feature.

Phoenix is part of Vibria's history, correct?