Post Apocalypse Engineer - a Savage World Character (Player help)

[NooDM]

Hello All, the system of the day for me to struggle with is Savage Worlds in the setting Broken Earth.

I am trying to make a technician who makes the most of the rubble using the edge McGyver.
A Super Science device might be neat but I would really like to not die to the first combat die roll.

Not sure if attribute min maxing works that well in Savage World (reading the book, it looks like it is more worrying in this compared to other systems).

Books being used are:
Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition
Broken Earth
Interface Zero 2.0

Thanks to all who can help

[Anonymouswizard]

First point is to bump your Smarts to d8, several skills such as Knowledge: Engineering are linked it, and it boosts your common knowledge rolls. If you aren't using melee weapons you can probably get away with leaving Strength at a d4. Do not drop Spirit, as it will make the important Guts skill more expensive to raise.

You sound like you want knowledge: engineering at a d8 or d10, and possibly knowledge: physics or similar. If you want to have a few gadgets use your human edge to nab arcane background (weird science), the weird science skill, and extra power if you want more than two gadgets. I believe the 1e book has a professional edge that let's you jury-rig a temporary weird science device that works fine but is non-rechargeable and only has half the standard power points, not sure if it's included in the new rules.

[caden_varn]

I don't know the specific setting you are using, so my advice is mainly aimed at generic Savage Worlds. In terms of stats, other than skill costs, the main impacts of stats are:

Agility - nothing comes to mind
Smarts - Common knowledge
Spirit - recovering from being shaken in combat (this will happen frequently, you cannot take actions until you get rid of the condition, and you will take more damage while in that state). Don't neglect it.
Strength - Melee combat damage. You can safely ignore it if you don't want to do this
Vigour - Resistance to damage & wound recovery. You need a reasonable one if you want to survive for a long time.

One other thing to remember - one of the core ideas of Savage Worlds is to make hirelings and henchmen easy to run in combat, so acquiring some of these can help boost in combat, and give something other than the PCs for the GM to kill. Availability will be GM-reliant though.

Otherwise, AnonymousWizards advice looks fairly solid to me.

[Anonymouswizard]

I don't know the specific setting you are using, so my advice is mainly aimed at generic Savage Worlds. In terms of stats, other than skill costs, the main impacts of stats are:

Agility - nothing comes to mind

Yeah, but agility doesn't really need much as all the combat skills are linked to it.

Smarts - Common knowledge
Spirit - recovering from being shaken in combat (this will happen frequently, you cannot take actions until you get rid of the condition, and you will take more damage while in that state). Don't neglect it.

I can't believe I forgot that. Yeah, Spirit is one of the better attributes (not that you can't get away with leaving it at a d4, but then you really want to sink resources into a high parry and use bennies to soak damage), if you have a spare increase or 2 hindrance points left that you don't know what to do with, put them in Spirit. In fact, buffing your Attributes as much as you can at char gen is good, as IIRC you can only increase them once per rank.

Strength - Melee combat damage. You can safely ignore it if you don't want to do this
Vigour - Resistance to damage & wound recovery. You need a reasonable one if you want to survive for a long time.

Yeah, you want a minimum of d6 Spirit and d6 Vigor for most characters. I once ran a d4 vigor elf, and if I had the chance again I'd switch that to d6 strength.

One other thing to remember - one of the core ideas of Savage Worlds is to make hirelings and henchmen easy to run in combat, so acquiring some of these can help boost in combat, and give something other than the PCs for the GM to kill. Availability will be GM-reliant though.

Otherwise, AnonymousWizards advice looks fairly solid to me.

Yeah, just in the interest of correcting myself: Weird Science gives you one power for free, not two.

I really need to play more SW (again I play the original, this might mean my advice isn't perfect).

[NooDM]

Here is my character as I have made for tomorrows game at Beginning Novice level Human

Agility = D6
Smarts = D8
Spirits = D6
Strength = D4
Vigor = D6

Charisma = 0 Parry = 5 Toughness = 5

Skills: Repairs d8, Knowledge (Electronics) d4, Knowledge (Mechanics) d4, Notice d8, Shooting d6, Weird Science d8, Fighting d4, Stealth d4

Edges

Arcane Background (Super Science) Bolt
McGyver
Requirements: Novice, Smarts d6+, Repair d6+, Notice d8+
Have the capacity to make something needed when the situation arises. No penalty for lacking tools

Hindrances
Curious
Delusion - Everything is a game
Quirk - One Liners

I got some skill in fighting and Stealth to try and be more able to avoid damage and more likely to survive stealth without the -2 penalty.
I might have to replace it with Survival as our GM is one of THOSE ones.

At least we seem to not be using Guts for preventing shaken, just got to have high spirits.

One of the differences I have found is that we will be using the alternate rules to power points. It equates to using the Weird Science skill at a penalty of half the power points rounded down (so a 3 point power would be 1.5 so -1 penalty).
With that in mind, I wonder what would be the best first power to get at novice level.
Bolt to get some constant damage or Deflection/Armor to increase survive-ability.

[Anonymouswizard]

No Mr Fix-it?

And why no hindrances?

[caden_varn]

As Anonymous said, hindrances are good to take - the system pretty much expects you to take the max you can. This gives you more character points to use, and you should get bennies when the hindrances come up in play, so having ones that will come up is good.

[NooDM]

No Mr Fix-it?

And why no hindrances?

Sorry about that, I did have hindrances, I was juggling between one or two to choose. Finished at session start.

My spread was because I just knew - even in best circumstances - I was going to get hit if I didn't have some higher Parry. Which is funny when I almost died to the continued attacks of a dozen Corgis/Chiwawas with brain damage, on my intelligence based character.

In retrospect it turns out almost all things in combat had wild die which made even corgis more deadly (especially with the gritty rule for increased chances of injuries).

At least we get 5 experience points for a first session.

[Anonymouswizard]

In retrospect it turns out almost all things in combat had wild die which made even corgis more deadly (especially with the gritty rule for increased chances of injuries).

Was this a mistake? Because you only are supposed to give Wild Card status to people who will directly influence the plot (or need to be beefed up). One of the things I want to do with the system is run a game where an NPC begins off as a minor named character, then gets promoted to Wild Card when he has to actually go against the PCs, when asked I'll tell the players 'he was a bit part, then the writers realised he was perfect for a role'.

[NooDM]

Well all the enemies had the wild die, and at least the mutant bat-wolves and corgis went down after obtaining a single wound as though they were extras.
So I think it was an accidental use of wild die on his part, I will ask about the wild die use next time as that would explain the insane levels of successful hits.
Now to beef up my parry to avoid being hit at all.

[Kaun]

I know im late to the party but you are starting with way to many skills at d8 for my mind.

Your better off buying lots of skills at d4 or d6 and then improving them as you level, its a lot cheaper then getting new skills later.

[Dizlag]

Looks like you've made a pretty fun character there NooDM!

I like the "Curious" hindrance you chose for a MacGyvery Weird Scientist. That can get your guy in trouble. Excellent roleplaying opportunities and ways for your DM to mess with you. =)

Yeah, only Wild Card baddies get a wild die when making checks. Wild Card baddies would be going up against another group of PCs, not bat-wolves. Now, maybe the alpha bat-wolf can be a wild card, but the others wouldn't be. The DM does have a pool of bennies to choose from that is equal to the number of players for rerolls and such too.

About increasing your parry. I think it goes off your Fighting, which is a d4, so by improving that you'll be improving your Parry. Are you planning on going toe-to-toe with the baddies? If not, I think there's the Dodge edge which adds +1 to the ranged target number of 4 to hit you making it a 5 to hit you from ranged. Find some cover during combat and that will help too. MacGyver up that "mirror on a stick" to shoot that Bolt at your enemies. =)

Anyways, sounds like a good time!

Enjoy!

Dizlag