Tatiana "Tanya" Brzinsky

[dalamb]

I had built Tanya for the Commander role, but that's going to PigLickJF's Alex "Duende" Villagros now. Paxon mentioned that Tanya was the only player who didn't dump Cha, so it seems like leaning into "Face" makes the most sense. I thought about replacing Scholar with Unchained Rogue (Phantom Thief) archetype, which gives some bonuses to skills, but that' can't be combined with any of the Spheres archetypes that grant some combat talents because they all replace trapfinding, as does Phantom Thief. So I'd lose the 3 Scholar talents plus 3 from the one use I made of Scholar's Knack, which is 1/4 of the talents I'd previously picked. So I need to stick with Scholar, which has the side benefit of keeping the medic secondary role. I should think about replacing Alertness with Persuasive and one of the Extra Combat Talent general feats with Skill Focus (Diplomacy).

I don't need Int to be so high if I'm using the Knowledge skills less often for scouting; shifting its Origin and Oath bonuses to Cha loses 2 skill points per level, but I can replace the Keen Senses oath boon with Skilled, and dump Disable Device, and keep all the other skills.

I think I can make all these adjustments fairly quickly later today.

[Paxon]

Sounds good, that all makes sense. As I think Piglick is mentioning, I wouldn't plan on diverting from Commander too hard, as having two PCs able to perform the role well is good, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Duende as one of the first to hop out off the tank and freelancing a bit, with his motorcycle and outriding abilities, so having someone more inclined to stick with it ain't a bad thing. Go ahead and make the changes though, no problem with that.

[PigLickJF]

@dalambTook a quick look at your Warleader talents. One thing that sticks out is that (unless I've missed something terribly), you don't need Advanced Notice, as all of your shouts specify that they only affect either allies or hostile creatures, so no fear of inadvertently catching your allies.

 

My suggestion to replace it would be Projecting Voice (especially if you take the one level dip in Commander) so you can use a little trick I discovered (you may have as well, not trying to sound condescending or anything, but I'll describe it just in case). Shouts are normally centered on you and have a relatively small radius, and since probably a fair proportion of our fights in the tank will at least start at range, that really limits shouts. Tactics have a range of basically as far as you can see, and can be re-centered with the swift action used to maintain them. Projecting Voice allows you to center your shouts in your Tactic radius instead of on you. So first round, you use a move to start up a tactic (or maybe you already have one running since I believe you can basically maintain them indefinitely out of combat), which gives your allies its benefits. Next round you use a swift to re-center the tactic on some bad guys out across the battlefield and then use it to center your detrimental shout on them. As long as the tactic specifies it only affects allies, they won't gain anything from it, and now you've been able to use your shout at a much further range. If you have the Lingering Commands ability (or the Persisting Influence talent,  but it doesn't last as long) your allies are still getting the benefit of the tactic. Since you never actually ended the tactic, next round you can use another swift to recenter it again and repeat the process, or start up a new tactic, or just end it to use your swift action for something else, since now both your tactic and shout are going to last for several rounds anyway.

 

Harangue isn't a bad choice to pick up either, especially since you already have the save-boosting tactics. If someone fails a save against an especially nasty effect, you can move/swift into a save booster (assuming it's not already running) then standard action shout to give them a second shot at the save with a nice little bonus.

 

Just a couple thoughts since you asked. I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with my talents, my indecisiveness is terrible, lol.

[dalamb]

@PigLickJF don't apologize for the suggestions - I really appreciate the advice. I'll be revising Tanya throughout the day, and likely will apply what you've said. Definitely going with the 2 1-level Commander dip.

[dalamb]

I've completed the shift to (a) reducing Int to boost Cha and (b) Take a 1-level dip in Commander and (c) remember that I get an extra Scholar's Knack from favoured class bonuses. I now have 4 talents left to choose; the current list is in the second message. I'm thinking that a few appropriate tech talents could help her be backup engineer as well as backup commander, medic, and driver, but I'll have to think over what to take. Or, maybe there are some feats to take that would make her a better backup driver, or gunner?

[dalamb]

I've updated her history to reflect Paxon's version of the tank's naming history (the indented and only slightly edited paragraph). If her history is canon, the Apocalypse was 99 years ago plus additional time depending on whether her ancestors were first or later children. Also I had missed a +2 to saves from the oath boon, which I've fixed here and soon in the Balance thread.

[Paxon]

Great. And yeah 99 is about right — I had set it as "about 100" and don't really need to specify much beyond that, so it could easily be closer to 110 years to have a little wiggle room with your generations.

[dalamb]

Finally settled on talents and material impositions, so aside from copying to the sheet, mechanics are done. Equipment is still unsettled; what I have so far is:

Kept on Person
MW Binoculars	$200.00
MW Night Vision Goggles	$700.00
Rechargeable Battery x4	$400.00
Automatic Pistol	$750.00
Tactical Shotgun	$700.00
Pistol Ammo (50) x10	$100.00
Shotgun Ammo (50) x10	$150.00
Beanbag Ammo (50) x5	$250.00
Rubber Slugs (50) x5	$250.00
Backpack, Masterwork	$50.00
Kept in Tank
Bedroll	$0.10
Blanket	$0.50
Tent, Small	$10.00
Crew Gear Fund (leftover)	$1,439.40

 

I guess I could buy more ammo to keep in the tank. Plus stuff like food.

[dalamb]

It's after 10, so this is about 20 minutes past my promised finish time, but I believe Tanya's sheet and summary posts at the start of this thread are now done except for two things, which depend on answers to questions I only thought to ask earlier this morning in the Discord:

1. One talent, waiting for an answer about applying the Run package to the tank
2. $1137 to spend, waiting for an answer about weapon abilities for ammo vs those for a ranged weapon.

Of course, I could be wrong!

[Paxon]

2 hours ago, dalamb said:

It's after 10, so this is about 20 minutes past my promised finish time, but I believe Tanya's sheet and summary posts at the start of this thread are now done except for two things, which depend on answers to questions I only thought to ask earlier this morning in the Discord:

1. One talent, waiting for an answer about applying the Run package to the tank
2. $1137 to spend, waiting for an answer about weapon abilities for ammo vs those for a ranged weapon.

Of course, I could be wrong!

Gave you some answers on discord. Also probably nothing wrong with using both an AR and shotgun for versatility. You don't need to, but it would be an options.