SpiritBuildingGuidelines/Elemental

Building a Fine Fine Elemental

Those poor huge First Elementals got blowed up, and whenever essence flows are in trouble, little bits of them flow back together and give birth to a new wee elemental. That can still destroy your village.

Not gonna bother with Essence 1, though they exist.

Essence 2

Sample, in order, is Brine Curs, Huraka, Mercury Ants, Nymphs, Stick Person, Fire Butterflies, Water Children, Undertows, Artisans, Vine Runners, Llamma-yu, Walkers Among the Trees
|| ||Least||Avg||Med||Most||SDV||Sample|| ||Attribute dots||20||27||25||31||8||24,22,25,31,27,24,26,23,20,32,22,48|| ||Virtue dots||8||11||11||14||2||11,13,14,9,12,7,12,11,8,11,9,10|| ||Ability Dots||15||25||23||37||9||15,19,25,37,20,22,33,29,16,44,19,23|| ||# of Ability||4||8||7||11||3||4,6,8,10,6,9,11,7,7,15,5,7|| ||Background dots||0||2||0||6||3||0,6,0,0,5,0,0,5,3,6,0,0|| ||# of Backgrounds||0||1||0||3||1||0,3,0,0,3,0,0,1,1,2,0,0|| ||Charms||2||8||7||28||7||2,7,6,3,4,8,28,16,8,9,1,5|| ||Elemental Powers||1||3||3||5||1||3,4,5,3,3,3,3,4,1,2,3,4|| ||Lethal Soak||1L||5L||4L||6L||4L||5L,6L,4L,1L,4,0,4,3,3,8,10,16|| ||Bashing Soak||1B||9B||7B||9B||8L||7B,8B,9B,3B,2,1,5,4,4,12,18,30|| ||Willpower||4||6||7||8||1||8,6,7,7,5,4,7,7,4,7,4,7|| ||Health Levels||6||9||9||14||3||14,11,11,7,9,6,11,7,6,8,9,14|| Notes: Can often be only semi-intelligent. Strength up to 12, Stamina up to 18. Up to 5 in specialties.

Essence 3

Sample, in order, is Wood Spider, Need Fire, Heketa, Jokun, Thunderbird, Cloud Person, Serpent-and-Egg, Shemaru the Librarian, Flame Duck, Amabosar
|| ||Least||Avg||Med||Most||SDV||Sample|| ||Attribute dots||21||27||28||35||4||35,24,21,27,28,31,28,30,28,21|| ||Virtue dots||9||12||11||14||2||10,11,13,14,14,13,9,10,11,11|| ||Ability Dots||8||27||29||40||11||40,14,8,32,26,20,25,32,40,33|| ||# of Ability||3||8||9||12||3||12,5,3,9,8,7,8,10,11,10|| ||Background dots||0||3||3||6||2||0,0,6,4,6,3,0,3,2,3|| ||# of Backgrounds||0||1||1||3||1||0,0,2,2,3,2,0,1,1,1|| ||Charms||6||7||6||13||3||7,7,6,6,6,6,13,8,4,3|| ||Elemental Powers||0||4||4||9||2||2,4,9,4,4,2,0,2,4,4|| ||Lethal Soak||3L||7L||5L||12L||4L||5,10,3,8,5,4,3,4,12,12|| ||Bashing Soak||4B||11B||7B||22B||7B||7,20,5,12,7,6,4,6,22,22|| ||Willpower||4||6||6||8||1||6,5,8,4,6,8,6,7,6,6|| ||Health Levels||7||11||10||18||3||7,11,18,11,11,8,10,9,10,10|| Notes: Dexterity and Appearance can go up to 6. Maximum 5 dots in specialties.

Essence 4

Sample, in order, is Garda Bird, Ifrit, Sobeksis, Golax
|| ||Least||Avg||Med||Most||SDV||Sample|| ||Attribute dots||26||31||30||37||5||30,37,29,26|| ||Virtue dots||10||14||15||16||3||15,16,14,10|| ||Ability Dots||14||29||27||49||15||24,49,30,14|| ||# of Ability||4||8||8||14||4||6,14,9,4|| ||Background dots||0||10||11||17||8||15,17,7,0|| ||# of Backgrounds||0||4||5||8||4||6,8,3,0|| ||Charms||3||9||10||14||5||14,11,9,3|| ||Elemental Powers||3||4||4||5||1||4,3,5,3|| ||Lethal Soak||3L||6L||5L||6L||4L||4,3*,6,12|| ||Bashing Soak||3B||9B||8B||10B||7B||3,5*,10,18|| ||Willpower||8||8||8||9||1||8,8,9,6|| ||Health Levels||11||12||11||15||2||15,11,11,10|| * Ifrits can wear armor also.

Essence 5

Sample, in order, is Seventh Amethyst, Lusa Seragon, King of the Wood
|| ||Least||Avg||Med||Most||SDV||Sample|| ||Attribute dots||23||33||36||41||9||23,41,36|| ||Virtue dots||12||16||16||19||4||12,19,16|| ||Ability Dots||28||45||41||66||19||28,66,41|| ||# of Ability||9||12||12||16||4||9,16,12|| ||Background dots||11||26||31||36||13||11,31,36|| ||# of Backgrounds||3||7||7||10||4||3,7,10|| ||Charms||8||15||16||21||7||8,16,21|| ||Elemental Powers||2||3*||3||AL||NA||2,3,AL|| ||Lethal Soak||7L||11L||8L||18L||6L||7,18,8|| ||Bashing Soak||9B||17B||12B||30B||11B||9,30,12|| ||Willpower||5||8||9||11||3||5,11(!!),9|| ||Health Levels||10||11||11||12||1||10,12,11|| * This is the average for Elementals who DON'T have all listed charms.
Notes: Strength, Appearance, and Wits can reach 6. Willpower can reach 11, somehow.

Essence 7

Sample, in order, is Hiru, Ogime, Blue Skulking Bear, Green Frowning Bear, Black Grinning Bear, Red Stalking Bear, White Venerable Bear, Wong Bongerok, Naresh, Verethine, Bloody Sky
|| ||Least||Avg||Med||Most||SDV||Sample|| ||Attribute dots||39||47||46||57||5||51, 39, 43, 45, 45, 43, 46, 51, 57, 53, 46|| ||Virtue dots||13||15||16||19||2||13, 13, 18, 16, 16, 19, 18, 14, 13, 14, 16|| ||Ability Dots||41||58||61||68||9||66, 41, 60, 60, 62, 60, 68, 64, 45, 64, 51|| ||# of Ability||11||13||14||14||1||13, 11, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 11, 12, 14|| ||Background dots||10||30||34||42||9||28, 29, 34, 34, 34, 34, 34, 18, 34, 42, 10|| ||# of Backgrounds||3||7||7||10||2||6, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 4, 7, 10, 3|| ||Charms||22||NA||34||UL||NA||UL, UL, 33, 33, 33, 34, 33, UL, UL, 22, UL|| ||Elemental Powers||4||NA||A||A||NA||A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, 4, A|| ||Lethal Soak||14L||18L||19L||23L||3L||15L, 15L, 19L, 19L, 19L, 19L, 19L, 23L, 19L, 14L, 19L|| ||Bashing Soak||18B||29B||31B||32B||5B||30B, 31B, 32B, 32B, 32B, 32B, 32B, 28B, 26B, 18B, 24B|| ||Willpower||8||9||9||9||1||9, 9, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 8, 9, 9, 9|| ||Health Levels||15||19||19||27||4||15, 18, 19, 19, 19, 19, 19, 25, 17, 16, 27|| ||Essence pool||115||127||129||133||6||132, 123, 130, 126, 126, 132, 133, 132, 120, 115, 129||

Comments

Weird, Essence 3 elementals dip in average willpower from Essence 2. Guess the rush of added power sedates them a slight bit. --UncleChu

I have a feeling some of the elementals in Books/HousesOfTheBullGod will throw some of these numbers out of whack. -- Wordman

In my opinion, IT MUST BE DONE! Damn the consequences. So long as we keep sample numbers listed, STs can determine which level of power they need... but I want the average to reflect all canon spirits. --UncleChu

Furthermore, now that i've added the lower essences from HotBG, you'll find that they're actually rather nicely in line overall. Soak is really the only thing that gets notably boosted.--UncleChu

I included the standard deviation to show levels of variance. For both the average and the standard deviation, numbers have been rounded off. The source of the smoothness in some of the numbers is mainly the Wind Masters, though they aren't that far off from everyone else usually. Burning Sky appears to be the largest source of variance in many categories. I'm not sure including Essence Pool matters much, since it's a derived characteristic. -- IsawaBrian

Wow, this is great. I myself can't recall how to calculate standard deviation, so if you e'er wanted to go back and chunk that in to the other places, that'd be great. I'll get to work adding medians. As for essence pool, it only occurred to me that it might be derived after I had started a bunch. Where's the formula for it? In any case, this'll help as a quick guide to pool size.--UncleChu

Standard Deviation is ... hard to explain in text notation, and relatively complicated-- basically, it's the square root of ((the sum of ever value minus the mean)^2/(number of entries -1)) (approximately, anyway, and I may be writing that wrong. It takes a loooong while to calculate by hand, but any decent spreadsheet program or scientific calculator should be able to produce one from a list; and I'll add stddev as I go around adding things to various levels. The essence pool formula (which, as near as I can tell, applies to gods, elementals, demons, and ghosts) is on p. 290 of the core rules-- it's (Essence x 10) + (Willpower x 3) + (Sum of Virtues x 2). -- IsawaBrian

I just wrote a Std Deviation algorithm today. Let n=number of samples, x = sum of all samples, and y = sum of (sample^2). Then, do the following:

(n*y - x*x)/ (n*(n-1))

to get the variance. The Std. Dev. is just the root of the variance, so it's the square root of the above. Fun times. -- GreenLantern

Awesome, I'll throw the essence formula up on the main page. No need to calculate it for further entries, then. Ah, yeah, just found deviation stuff on Wikipedia... looks scary, but I see the relevance of its inclusion. Yeah, add 'em at your leisure, then, no rush. Probably only more interesting for the math-freak wikizens like... heh, like Green Lantern.--UncleChu

Actually, really, standard deviation is fairly important for most GMs-- in fact, to a certain degree, it's more important than max or min. 68.3% of entries will be within 1 standard deviation from the mean; 95.4% within 2, and 99.7% within three. Admittedly, since we're rounding off, it's slightly less accurate, especially at 3-sigma, but it does mean you can get a good sense of how tough or weak your custom job is... and where to place one to _make_ it tougher or weaker. -- IsawaBrian

Changed Burning Sky to Bloody Sky, which is the dragon's name. Also, Isawa, could you list Attribute and ability maximums? --UncleChu