Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Dragonlord20000 08-06-07, 11:13 PM	I've been watching Full Metal Alchemist for a second time through, and decided that if given the chance I'd like run a character based around Scar. At first I thought this would be best accomplished with a Warlock using Eldritch Glaive, but thanks to Crake's motivational poster I decided to make him a physic warrior. Anyways here's the prototype build, its pretty open in power acquisition since it relies more on feats. Class: Physic Warrior 19/Feral LA +1 Race:Ishbalan (Feral Human) Powers of Note: Dissipating Touch, Detect Psionics Feats: (These are unordered because I don't know what good levels for them would be, assistance on this would be much appreciated :D ) Speed of Thought Mageslayer Pierce Magical Concealment Overchannel Quicken Power Weapon Focus (Touch Powers) Power Specialization Greater Power Specialization Opportunity Power Psionic Fist Greater Psionic Fist Dodge Mobility Spring Attack Body Fuel These feats along with the claws from Feral and Dissipating Touch should allow me to unleash some pretty devastating attacks. My calculations put the damage at 1d8+str+4+22d6+4d6 of pure damage. On a side note feral isn't meant to replicate the flavor of the Ishballens, it just servers to give Scar a mechanical boost with the claws, natural armor, and fast healing. So does anyone know good powers to take with this, how I should arrange the feats, or any way to up the damage done with dissipating touch? Also if anyone has other Scar builds I'd love to hear of them. Thanks in advance for all replies.
Grimmsfeld 08-07-07, 01:44 AM	...with the claws, natural armor, and fast healing. I wasn't aware Scar had any of those things. To me, seems like the most appropriate thing to do would be to give him an strong to artifact level graft, granting him dissipating touch as a psi-like usable at will. Season with rogue levels to taste. I think the psi-like scale is appropriate, given that I wouldn't likely place Scar's ECL anywhere above 5 or 6. You only ever saw* him destroy relatively weak people with it in the anime, so a 5-6d6 touch should be able to one-shot your average mook. Then again, that approach is biased towards a thematically appropriate NPC, not a playable PC.
tenguroEd 08-07-07, 02:31 AM	scar doesn't have claws, so were did you get that from? and I thought Alchemy would be more like what an Artificer gets, infusions, not arcane spells, though I could see the Fullmetal characters have class levels in transmuter. other then that it looks pretty well rounded stats.
TheAnthroDM 08-07-07, 03:05 AM	There's not really a good system for Alchemy FMA style, but dissipating touch works well for Scar's primary form of attack.
Millenia 08-07-07, 02:11 PM	I'd also give him a psionic version of Inflict Damage, since he tends to switch between flesh-destruction and metal-destruction.... though nothing in Dissipating Touch says it can't be used on constructs.
Dragonlord20000 08-07-07, 02:17 PM	I wasn't aware Scar had any of those things. Specifically, no, Scar doesn't have Natural Armor, Claws, or Fast Healing. However he is incredibly hard to pin down (in the anime you see him rarely get hit, even with 10 people shooting guns at him), his grab that starts the dissipating touch ability seems to hurt a bit, and the Fast Healing goes with the hard to pin down thing he has going. To me, seems like the most appropriate thing ... You only ever saw* him destroy relatively weak people with it in the anime, so a 5-6d6 touch should be able to one-shot your average mook. Then again, that approach is biased towards a thematically appropriate NPC, not a playable PC. Your right, this would work much better for an NPC ;). However I don't see me convincing any DM to give that kind of artifact at level 1, so I tried to make a PC available build for Scar. I figured I'd just alter the flavor to "say" the abilities come from his arm without needing mechanics for it. As for Scar's level, he did take down Brigadier General Basque Grand, so I'd put him around level twelve. His level in the show is kinda unimportant though, I want him as a 1- 20 build so I can play him in any campaign :) . Looking at my above post, I probably didn't get his across. scar doesn't have claws, so were did you get that from? The claws are there to give him a natural attack to use dissipating touch with so I don't have to sink a feat into Improved Unarmed Strike. I wasn't trying to say that Scar himself had claws, he does have a pretty hardcore Iron Grip (when he grabs those bikers messing with the Ishballans their faces do seem to contort in pain). I probably didn't make it clear that the claws weren't part of the flavor, so I guess your observation is fair :). and I thought Alchemy would be more like what an Artificer gets, infusions, not arcane spells, though I could see the Fullmetal characters have class levels in transmuter. other then that it looks pretty well rounded stats. As TheAnthroDM says above, alchemy doesn't translate well to DnD at all, however Scar's abilities seemed limited enough that I figured I could get a decent cross-over. Your right that Artificer's fit the bill thematically, but I think the only way to get the right effect is to just overuse Polymorph Any Object. Thanks for the compliment on the stats by the way.
Dragonlord20000 08-07-07, 02:19 PM	I'd also give him a psionic version of Inflict Damage, since he tends to switch between flesh-destruction and metal-destruction.... though nothing in Dissipating Touch says it can't be used on constructs. Dissipating touch works on on both people and objects so I figured other abilities were redundant.
CrimsonDeath 08-07-07, 02:35 PM	Why would he need natural weapons or Improved Unarmed Strike? A character attacking with a touch spell/power is considered armed when doing so, since an attack spell is presumably at least as dangerous as a weapon.
Dragonlord20000 08-07-07, 02:45 PM	Why would he need natural weapons or Improved Unarmed Strike? A character attacking with a touch spell/power is considered armed when doing so, since an attack spell is presumably at least as dangerous as a weapon. Huh, I didn't actually know that, so I guess the answer to your question is so the attack can still trigger Psionic Fist and Greater Psionic Fist. Beyond that your point kinda nullifies their other uses. I'm surprised everyones getting hung up on the claws, if its breaking from flavor to much I guess loosing Feral wouldn't be a huge deal.
Millenia 08-07-07, 02:46 PM	Dissipating touch works on on both people and objects so I figured other abilities were redundant. True, but note that he can only attune to attack either flesh or metal with one attack, as when he tried grabbing Edward, but his right arm took the attack and was unaffected.
InkBlot 08-07-07, 05:07 PM	Scar really needs to use the expanded psionic tattoos from Getting Wired (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20031225a) (or the 3.5 update (http://forums.gleemax.com/wotc_archive/index.php/t-330627)by Bacris). The intricate design of his big tattoo actually contains several smaller tattoos. 1. Tattoo of dissolving weapon, linked to Capacitor, a Transducer, and a Mental Tap. 2. A tattoo of leech field linked to a Capacitor, a Transducer, and an Inducer. The Inducer is set to go off when someone uses a red stone. In D&D terms, I think that a red stone would function as a slotless psicrown. 3. A tattoo of reality revision linked to a Capacitor and a Transducer. This is the power of the Grand Arcanum. Of course, it takes a lot of power points to charge up. This array of tattoos allows Scar to dissolve things with a successful unarmed strike, absorb powers used against him, and potentialy create a Philosopher's Stone if he absorbs enough power. Scar himself could be a monk/fighter type. I see him as being very lawful evil in the start of the anime, and lawful neutral by the time he dies. Crusader/fighter would work well too, with Stone Dragon maneuvers going a long way towards explaining his toughness and aiding his ability to smash things apart with his fists. It would help if he had the Wild Talent feat, so he could funnel powerpoints into his tattoos without having to rely on leech field.
Dragonlord20000 08-07-07, 08:35 PM	True, but note that he can only attune to attack either flesh or metal with one attack, as when he tried grabbing Edward, but his right arm took the attack and was unaffected. I completely forgot about this, good catch. I think this would make for a very good option for roleplaying, making using this power kinda a gamble by writing down what it will affect before I activate it. For instance I try to attack an Ogre, but the ogre turns out to be a effigy, I reveal what type of material I chose to the DM and see if it works. In the above example it wouldn't because I wouldn't have guessed mineral (I know it goes into more depth in the anime beyond mineral, vegetable, and animal, but I think that would be to time consuming. Scar really needs to use the expanded psionic tattoos from Getting Wired (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20031225a) (or the 3.5 update (http://forums.gleemax.com/wotc_archive/index.php/t-330627)by Bacris). The intricate design of his big tattoo actually contains several smaller tattoos. 1. Tattoo of dissolving touch, linked to Capacitor, a Transducer, and a Mental Tap. 2. A tattoo of leech field linked to a Capacitor, a Transducer, and an Inducer. The Inducer is set to go off when someone uses a red stone. In D&D terms, I think that a red stone would function as a slotless psicrown. 3. A tattoo of reality revision linked to a Capacitor and a Transducer. This is the power of the Grand Arcanum. Of course, it takes a lot of power points to charge up. This array of tattoos allows Scar to dissolve things with a successful unarmed strike, absorb powers used against him, and potentialy create a Philosopher's Stone if he absorbs enough power. Scar himself could be a monk/fighter type. I see him as being very lawful evil in the start of the anime, and lawful neutral by the time he dies. Crusader/fighter would work well too, with Stone Dragon maneuvers going a long way towards explaining his toughness and aiding his ability to smash things apart with his fists. It would help if he had the Wild Talent feat, so he could funnel powerpoints into his tattoos without having to rely on leech field. OMG, I'll repeat that because this is awesome, OMG! I'll be working up a new build based on this and posting it soon. However is there any way to make the Dissipating Touch tatoo scale better? For instance have it manifested at 20th level and allow me to spend a certain amount of points from the capacitor to allow for a different effect without causing the tatoo to fade. For instance I can use the power to deal a might 20d6 once a day or I can split it up into 4 uses of 5d6 before I have to recharge the capacitor. I think this would scale better if it were in someway possible. Any ideas? Thanks for pointing this out Inkblot.
Crake 08-07-07, 09:32 PM	First let me say this; Yay, I indirectly started a thread! Second, just in my opinion, I would make Scar a monk/psychic warrior. Just throw in detect psionics, dissipating touch, vigor, stomp, greater stomp* and empathic transfer and empathic transfer hostile. Then use two of my psi warrior feats to net dispel psionics and leech field. With all that I can pretty much emullate exerything Scar did(well except for destroying a city) Then I would throw in the feats Tashalatora and improved initiative, and the pring attack tree. Tashalatora for the AC boost and unarmed damage**. Improved initiative and Spring attack are there for Scar's typical tactics. He would usually try to move before his opponent and try to kill them before they could react(Bosk Grom anybody?). *For when Scar caused structural damage **Which could be hand waved away as minor uses of his power Still, I think InkBlot's idea is pretty awesome and captures the mechanics and flavor of Scar really well. The only thing I would change is replacing Wild Talent with Hidden Talent.
Thomar_of_Uointer 08-07-07, 09:40 PM	I would make Scar a wilder. It fits well with the "I don't really like this" theme, his surge lets him dish out more damage and reflects his totally untrained and unorthodox use of his abilities, and the limited power selection means you don't need to worry much about giving him powers he doesn't need.
InkBlot 08-08-07, 02:07 AM	OMG, I'll repeat that because this is awesome, OMG! Thank you. Thanks for pointing this out Inkblot. You're welcome. However is there any way to make the Dissipating Touch tatoo scale better? It has to be dissolving weapon, not dissipating touch. The target of a tattoo is always the person wearing it, so activating a tattoo of dissipating touch would deal 1d6 points of damage to you. Dissolving weapon targets the weapon you want to imbue with the ability to dissolve things. You activate the tattoo of dissolving weapon, it targets you, and your unarmed strikes get the ability to dissolve things. You just need a level of monk (only monks can target their unarmed strikes with effects that normally only target manufactured weapons). There's the Amplifier tattoo, which increases variable numeric effects (such as damage dice) of any tattoo it's connected to. You could also try applying metapsionic feats to dissolving weapon as you craft it into a tattoo.
UnrelentingHoror 08-08-07, 02:40 AM	Yeah I know you seem to be looking for a psionic means of showing Scar's abilities but this is what I thought of when I saw him in action. I thought his whole breaking people down thing finally gave me mental imagery for the Inflict wounds and harm spells.:mage: I was building Scar a little bit ago and I made him a Cleric 17/Heirophant 3.(With the ranged touch ability, blast infidel, and either spell like ability Harm or a second helping of ranged touch I couldn't decide.) As for his domains he has Destruction(obviously), and war (cause I couldn't think of anything better). Just an alternate view.
turalisj 08-08-07, 02:57 AM	See RHoD in sig. :D
Crake 08-08-07, 09:04 AM	There's not really a good system for Alchemy FMA style, but dissipating touch works well for Scar's primary form of attack. This is true, but certain characters and abilities are easier to replicate in D&D than others. Just off the top of my head, Roy Mustang: Keneticist using his powers as for fire energy Kimbly: Keniticist, and being a fan of the delay power feat Armstrong: Crystal shard and hail of crystals replicate his abilities nicely Greed: Claws of the beast, + Thicken Skin, + Inertial Barrier Envy: Changeling egoist Lust: Claws of the beast + extend reach(except it augmentable and for natural weapons) Marcoh: Sangehirn Miscelaneous: For the creation of things through alchemy, the creation powers, fabricate and repair damage powers work nicely. Trying to bring back the dead could have been reality revision. Whenever Dante used the Gate, that was totally plane shift to send people to a really scary plane. Okay, thats all.
InkBlot 08-08-07, 10:44 AM	Marco as a sangehirn? He wasn't nearly tough enough, and was certainly never shown with anything that looked like it could have been DR or fast healing. An egoist, or maybe an ardent of life and good. And yes, the humonculi are much easier to recreate. Just make them aberrations (like elan), give them some weird psilike abilities, regeneration, a bonus on disguise checks to look like who they were supposed to be, and enumerate their dependence on red stones for their psilikes and regen. I once started writing out classes and things for a "Full Metal Psionicist" game, but I didn't get far with it. I got the skeleton of a State Psionicist prestige class (psion PrC, advances manifesting, gives better BAB, better HD, you get a spending account, a reputation, an alchemy-enhancing watch, a cool codename, and can specialize in one power you know). I spat out the beginings of a stat up of the humonculi. And I wrote up a rough draft of the red stones, the philosopher's stone, and the grand arcanum.
Crake 08-08-07, 11:01 AM	Eh, for Marco I was only picturing a three level dip to apply powers from the Sangehirn list to others. Letting him take the health mantle works too.
Scion of Coldshard 08-08-07, 02:57 PM	This is actually one of those areas where I think that the Ardent would be a great fit if only we had rules for making new mantles to fit certain themes. But there is also the limitation of levels that is built around d&d, multiclassing a manifester is no good in general! Scar in the series is likely pretty high level when we actually get to see him, so scaling him down to low levels can be pretty tough. For the first few levels which part of his life are we talking about? Before or after his brother is killed and he gains his various abilities? It has been awhile since I have watched the show so I am going from memory mostly.. Lets assume that he starts out as an Ardent. In his early life he is more of a martial artist who is highly trained and able to fight off many normal armed men at once. Warrior Spirit Granted Ability: While you are focused you have improved unarmed strike as a bonus feat, superior unarmed strike as a bonus feat, and the monks wisdom bonus to AC as a monk of your class level (wis +1/5 levels). 1 Busrt 1 Thicken Skin 2 Extend Reach 3 Graft Weapon 5 Steadfast Perception 6 Psychofeedback 8 Form of Doom Physical power mantle, Repose mantle This sets him up early on to be something of a man amoung lesser men, so long as his stats are pretty good (as they likely should be). Later on, after his transformation, he could either replace some of these or simply gain them somehow.. the tatoo itself could even grant a couple of mantles. Death, fate, and destruction all make sense.. along with a special mantle created to do just what he is able to do in the show. Something like: While focused you may, as a standard action, make a touch attack against a single creature or object. You must know its primary composition (appropriate knowledge check) in order for this to be effective. If your touch is successful then that creature or object makes a saving throw of DC 10+half class level+wisdom mod. A failed save means that object is effected as though psionic disintegrate had been used on it as a psi-like ability (maximum pp allowable for your manifester level, ie a level 20 ardent would deal 40d6 damage), on a successful save the creature or object takes 1/2 class level in d6's instead.
Dragonlord20000 08-08-07, 08:28 PM	First let me say this; Yay, I indirectly started a thread! Second, just in my opinion, I would make Scar a monk/psychic warrior...Tashalatora and improved initiative... I wanted to give credit where credit was due :) . As for the build I forgot about Tashalatora altogether, however I'm away from SoS so any build using it will come in a few days. I do like this suggestion alot since it lets me get some monk goodness as well as an increase in saves. Sadly I now have two build concepts running around in my head. I would make Scar a wilder... I thought about this heavily, but I thought Scar had a higher Wisdom than Charisma, so I went with a build that featured Wisdom. Scar is one imposing guys so this idea also makes my list :) . It has to be dissolving weapon... would deal 1d6 points of damage to you. Good catch, the idea of a self inflicting tattoo made me laugh :) . There's the Amplifier tattoo, which increases variable numeric effects (such as damage dice) of any tattoo it's connected to. You could also try applying metapsionic feats to dissolving weapon as you craft it into a tattoo. The issue I see with this is that at lower levels this is overbearing if I have these things in place, and at higher levels this would become out powered by more available methods. I guess I could update the tatoos as I go, so maybe I'm making mountains out of molehills. In other words, if I go with the tattoo goodness I'll have to deal with getting updates, which isn't a big deal. Yeah I know you seem to be looking for a psionic means of showing Scar's abilities but this is what I thought of when I saw him in action. I thought his whole breaking people down thing finally gave me mental imagery for the Inflict wounds and harm spells.:mage: I was building Scar a little bit ago and I made him a Cleric 17/Heirophant 3.(With the ranged touch ability, blast infidel, and either spell like ability Harm or a second helping of ranged touch I couldn't decide.) As for his domains he has Destruction(obviously), and war (cause I couldn't think of anything better). Just an alternate view. And a good point as an alternate view, besides his structure destroying powers Scar could very well be a cleric. I might not go this method, because I like using the mechanics behind psionics more. The build you have however, is pretty darn good for what Scar, so nice job I guess. See RHoD in sig. :D This is actually one of those areas where I think that the Ardent would be a great fit if only we had rules for making new mantles... I thought that was the point of this article here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060428a) , it might not be a good system though since I haven't tried it. Beyond that I'm not too familiar with Ardents, Complete Psi is sadly low on my list of books I want to pick up. However how mantles seem to work, your powers are a little strong, but I'm no expert. I thank you for your effort though they look really nice thematically. Thanks everyone, I'll probably post a new build soon utilizing these suggestions. On a side-note, Inkblot if you feel so obliged would you PM what you managed to come up with for the different Homunculi, along with the other ideas you came up with. I'm kinda interested in how you pulled it off.
Dragonlord20000 08-08-07, 08:29 PM	See RHoD in sig. :D I missed your message so... I like the template, but I don't wanna burn to much LA on a PC, for an npc though this seems like a simple route, though the damage is a tiny bit powered down from what I imagined.
tenguroEd 08-09-07, 12:50 AM	This is true, but certain characters and abilities are easier to replicate in D&D than others. Just off the top of my head, Roy Mustang: Keneticist using his powers as for fire energy Kimbly: Keniticist, and being a fan of the delay power feat Armstrong: Crystal shard and hail of crystals replicate his abilities nicely Greed: Claws of the beast, + Thicken Skin, + Inertial Barrier Envy: Changeling egoist Lust: Claws of the beast + extend reach(except it augmentable and for natural weapons) Marcoh: Sangehirn Miscelaneous: For the creation of things through alchemy, the creation powers, fabricate and repair damage powers work nicely. Trying to bring back the dead could have been reality revision. Whenever Dante used the Gate, that was totally plane shift to send people to a really scary plane. Okay, thats all. Give armstrong, those psionic bands they have in Complete Psionics, I think the lightning crystal one would work best.
CrimsonDeath 08-09-07, 04:11 AM	Give armstrong, those psionic bands they have in Complete Psionics, I think the lightning crystal one would work best. In fact, he even wears them in the show...
tenguroEd 08-09-07, 01:31 PM	In fact, he even wears them in the show... I know he wears them in the show, which is why I suggested them.
InkBlot 08-09-07, 01:33 PM	Armstrong needs levels in Exemplar, so he can replace Diplomacy checks with Profession (Body Builder) checks.
Millenia 08-11-07, 05:47 PM	Modified by his strength, of course.