Playing as character archetypes of real (or imaginary) people

Post here about the skillsets you would use (modded or otherwise) to best represent a real or fictional character as a hapless adventurer in Dungeons of Dredmor. I was inspired to ask this after seeing various threads made by tylertoo in the Stories section, like the one about Lindsay Lohan going down there. Any takers?

 

Jack Black:

Staves [Sesame Staff]
Shields [Power Word Octagon]
Mathemagic [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
Golemancy [How, Elmo, how?]
Magic School [of Rock]
Kung Fu [Panda]
Self-Righteous Aspirant [Prop 8: The Musical]

(Requires RR and Faxpax.)

 

Harry Dresden:
Wind Magic (His whole evocation wind magic)
Promethean Magic (See above, with fire)
Staves (Always walking around with a staff)
Alchemy (He mixes multiple potions every book, I think)
Crossbows (He like having an (old) gun handy)
Magic Training (How do you think he got his powers)
Wand Lore (A blasting rod is another one of his usual weapons)
And he should get a debuff that always when a clockwork item is used (like he is hit in cw armor or hits with a cw sword) there is a 50% chance of him violently exploding.
(Requires the Wind Magic mod)

 

What sorcery is this

 

What do you mean?
If you do not know the Dresden Files, it is basically a modern day 'verse where magic is still mostly unknown.
It is basically like our own, if magic was true, and the attitued of people to it did not change.
Most people "know" it does not exist, open practicioners are ridiculed, etc.
Also, the more powerful you are as a mage, and, since you fuel magic with emotions, the angrier/sadder/happier etc. you feel, the more technology around you goes kabloee.
The more advanced, the easier. The main character should -never- get closer than 5 meters to a PC. It just is not worth it.
Also, from what was already said in the books I've read (6 up to now), it had a different effect in, say, the middle ages, and it will likely change again sometime, so it may be some "Clap your hands if you believe" kind of thing where whatever most living beings think magic has as side-effects it does.
To the effect, CW gear is the most advanced in the game, so I thought it'd fit.

 

Clockwork stuff is not electronic, Frelus. It might as well be powered by a spring system, and is really just mechanical.

Thus, I think he should have no problems with that.

 

That's true, too, but, as I said, the effects change with the ages.
DoD seems to be in a medieval kind of age, at least where "typical" swords and armor still are the standart.
Clockwork tech to that is like a today's mobile phone to the first ones that were produced.
So, since I guess the level of tech required for a given object to go haywire on a mage is really low, like clockwork mechanisms, in the Dredmor 'verse.
That's my reasoning, at least.

 

I've read all of the Dresden books to date (not counting the graphic novelizations of the first book or two) and I don't recall anything about the effects changing with the ages (that doesn't mean you are wrong as admittedly, my memory has been failing me quite a bit lately). In any case, it's the high-tech device itself that can misbehave in his presence, so robots may simply cease functioning properly in his presence (admittedly, some chaos may ensue as a result). I'm assuming that those robots are not purely clockwork since they do have an A.I. of sorts.

 

somehow I believe that clockwork tech is more advanced than you'd think. *points to Rogue Scientist and death ray* Also, don't forget magnetronic equipment.

 

It's in one of the latter ones, maybe ghost story. In the old days it used to be the old school type effects, like curdling milk, wilting flowers, etc. I think there was something else in another age too(early industrial era), but I forgot what.

 

I always thought the death ray was just a random reference to a certain man with the first name "Nikola" instead.

 

More likely to 50s-60s sci-fi.

 

I tried some Homestuck characters on my heavily-modded game. Of course, none of them ended well. But that's mostly because 1. I suck and 2. GRPD. <_>

John Egbert:
Maces (Hammerkind)
Thrown Weaponry (He has perfected the art of sylladex weaponization)
Wind Magic
Breathstealer Aspirant
Lunar Heritage (It sounded like a cheesy nerdy thing John would be into)
Perception (Because... glasses? Yes I'm reaching here and Yes this build is terrible.)

Rose Lalonde:
Needlewand Lore
Berserker Rage (You have officially gone grimdark.)
Necronomiconomics (Fnlth gohluyng j'rg HOTHAHT)
Astrology
Demonologist (Those hours spent studying the Zoologically Dubious weren't for nothing)
Emomancy (I guess she's kinda emo?)
Self-Righteous Aspirant

Dave Strider:
1/2Swords
Artful Dodger (ACROBATIC FUCKING PIROUETTE)
BROPFISTERY... (This would be in Comic Sans but this forum doesn't support it. Fortunately.)
Deaf Knight (Have you seen all of his audio equipment?)
Clockwork Knight
Ninjutsu (He learned a thing or two from his weird anime bro and his shitty ninja swords)
Dragonfire Aspirant (He also learned some things from Land of Heat and Clockwork... I guess.)
^ This last one should actually probably be Chronomancy, but I've never tried that mod.

 

ARCHIMEDES!

 

I'm surprised people even remember that. Concave mirror + sun + flammable structure = instant oh bugger.

 

It was in a classic Mythbusters episode that featured Barack Obama in it. I don't think I could forget that.

 

Also @Haldurson: It's also the most goddamn cool thing ever myth/realistic/realitied prior to the 1800s.

 

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN LASER BEAMS.

(I'm serious, that's literally exactly what this is)

 

Well, it's a really cool myth, but the myth busters were unable to replicate the myth, largely because of the difficulty of keeping all those mirrors synchronized and focused on one spot. I'm not saying that they definitively proved that it could not have actually happened, but it certainly added to my personal skepticism. My estimation is that you'd pretty much have to have computer-coordinated mountings and maybe even laser tracking on the ships sails to make it really work. But it does make for a really good story.

 

It's a pretty tall story, but the idea is sound, and also pretty cool - it's also way less efficient than, say, throwing rocks or what have you yarr. But, it may have roots in the fact that polished mirrors make it really hard to make out stuff - it's like the "I'm going to reflect the sunlight off my watch into your eyes" principle.