TonyC/FiveRealmsDiplomatAnalysis

Diplomat is designed to hinder and limit the opponent's charm use. The basic idea is drop his WP to zero. Combos require WP. No WP, no Combo. No combo = Dead. Sure you could just rely on large dice pool, persistents, and bring the occasional charms up as necessary, but the best charms also require WP, so no HGD for you. And if that fails, you could hinder charm use by dropping one of the opponent's Ability. For example, Lion would be much less scary if his MA gets dropped from 5 to 3. Oh, there are MA charms that require only MA 3, but those are all weak student charms. He'll switch to Melee and Brawl, of course, but Melee and Brawl are straightforward and easier to deal with.

We didn't get to see much of Diplomat in action, but it doesn't seem like there's any major flaw. There is of course the lack of a perfect applicability trumping defense (what a mouthful, just read: HGD). I also feel my artifact and hearthstone selection could be better.

If someone is thinking of reusing this build, try to get a perfect applicability trumping Dodge. You'll have to get your GM's okay for this, but I don't see any problem getting it. Alternatively, convince your GM that a bow can be used with HGD. After all, a bow is usable as a club. A very bad club, but it's still something that can be put between that soulsteel sword and yourself. Consider also getting a Air Dragon armor instead of Obsidian Sheath. The build-in flight and other abilities might be more useful to you. Maybe then trade the hearthstone for Essence Containing Gem (and being an Eclipse, she could learn the arcanoi needed to refill the gem), but it's up to you. - TonyC

FrivYeti's Comments

Ultimately, I don't think Diplomat had a major impact on the fight. Willpower-draining, while awesome on the surface, is easily counteracted by a stunt taking place in the turn that the Willpower gets eaten. Ability dropping is a much stronger use of powers, really.

Also, as an amusing side-note that wouldn't have really affected the fight, we both forgot that the Lion has Cult 5 - he can reflexively gain 1 Willpower at any time in a six-hour period. ;) - FrivYeti

Ah. You see, I'm used to having WP awarded the moment the stunted action is successful, allowing the character to benefit from it right away (very useful when you need to use HGD multiple times) and yet allowing it to be taken away then and there too. You can see how Diplomat would be nastier if the WP is awarded immediately. By delaying action until the very last minute, she can ensure that her opponent will start the turn without WP, thus making sure they can't use a combo at all that turn. And yeah, I forgot about that Cult thing. - TonyC