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mellonbread posted:The rituals chapter begins and is interspersed with in-character descriptive text from “Gary The Demon”, a supernatural being who knows a lot of rituals. But remember, Gary loves you. He is a normal human being, just like you and me.
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Mar 29, 2023 06:09
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Xiahou Dun posted:Like some kind of flesh-communist. Thread title
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Mar 29, 2023 07:10
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mellonbread posted:Because of this, no charging ritual (ritual that gives you magickal charges instead of costing them) works anymore. This one really gets under my skin because it's straight up not true. Neptune's Awakening is right there in the core book.
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Mar 29, 2023 07:58
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Xiahou Dun posted:Plus that leaves more space in the fiction. Just because someone is obsessive about something doesn't mean they're possessive about it. Lots of people get really, really into sharing it with everyone. Now think about that in the context of a game that has "pornomancy" in it and... Oh, God, I think I just made my brain throw up inside my skull. I need to talk/think about absolutely anything else. I wonder what RPG would best reflect Drew Hayes's "Spells, Swords and Stealth" RPG?
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Mar 29, 2023 13:17
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For a moment I had thought I read the word "Kafkamancy" in that post and now I'm entirely convinced that it should be a field of magic in UA but I'm having trouble defining it.
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Mar 29, 2023 13:51
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By popular demand posted:For a moment I had thought I read the word "Kafkamancy" in that post and now I'm entirely convinced that it should be a field of magic in UA but I'm having trouble defining it. I made a homebrew school called Blattomancy that was all about cockroach magic?
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Mar 29, 2023 13:55
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Gatto Grigio posted:I made a homebrew school called Blattomancy that was all about cockroach magic? Spend a major charge to make Ogtha real.
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Mar 29, 2023 14:04
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PurpleXVI posted:Spend a major charge to make Ogtha real. Oh gently caress, just looked this up and it's bad. Ignoring the awful internet people though there is much more to get out of Kafka than 'that story where a guy turns into a bug righ?' Something to do with strong themes of paranoia, depersonalization and the world making no sense (or making unbearably terrible sense)
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Mar 29, 2023 14:14
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The Kafkamancy blast spell is incredibly deadly, but only works on the caster's spouse.
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Mar 29, 2023 16:45
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Xiahou Dun posted:The Kafkamancy blast spell is incredibly deadly, but only works on the caster's spouse. You're thinking Burroughs.
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Mar 29, 2023 16:50
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sasha_d3ath posted:You're thinking Burroughs. poo poo You're right. I'll leave that as a mark of shame and have some more coffee before I joke more.
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Mar 29, 2023 16:54
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It was a good bit!
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Mar 29, 2023 17:07
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Xiahou Dun posted:Plus that leaves more space in the fiction. Just because someone is obsessive about something doesn't mean they're possessive about it. Lots of people get really, really into sharing it with everyone. The flesh-communist is actually from another Stolze joint, Progenitor.  IIRC they call themselves The People's Collective and they have the ability to absorb nearby willing people into some kind of superpowered Cronenberg blob, then spit them out safely once the heroics are done.
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Mar 29, 2023 17:09
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Xiahou Dun posted:The Kafkamancy blast spell is incredibly deadly, but only works on the caster's spouse.
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Mar 29, 2023 17:42
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mellonbread posted:I feel the same way about the Rooms of Renunciation and their agents as I do about the Janedoe. Supernatural guys who beam down from space to gently caress with the players because... that's what they do. No connection to the rest of the game world, they only exist to zag when you zig. If a player puts a Room on the board I can work with that, but I won’t include one of my own volition. I mean, in the earlier editions and core books they were connected to the rest of the game world in that if an Archetype got bumped out of the Clergy by a more in-tune Godwalker, they were sent to the House of Renunciation to rip anything left of the Avatar out of them so they were no longer any contest to the new arrival. Basically, they were there to enforce "no tag-backs" on karmic reincarnation. But of course, that hardly ever happens, and it's pretty much never going to involve PCs except as facilitators or observers. Then Statosphere came along and created Rooms that just mess with regular people so that their cool idea could exist in the playing game, but creating the problem you mention. (They seem to forget the whole thing about bumping Archetypes as well. Like, apparently when Alex Abel learns that the Naked Goddess blocked his Ascension, he just did nothing rather than using all his resources to bump her.)
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Mar 29, 2023 18:32
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Everyone posted:Now think about that in the context of a game that has "pornomancy" in it and... Oh, God, I think I just made my brain throw up inside my skull. I need to talk/think about absolutely anything else. Have you seen the film. 'Society'?
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Mar 29, 2023 18:32
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Have you seen the film. 'Society'? We're apparently living in it.
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Mar 29, 2023 22:20
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Mecha_Face posted:We're apparently living in it.
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Mar 29, 2023 22:53
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Humbug Scoolbus posted:Have you seen the film. 'Society'?
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Mar 29, 2023 23:08
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So I'm working on my 1e Masquerade review presently and I had a moment where I paused and said "Do I make this incredibly dumb visual joke or do I play this straight?" The dumb visual joke won because I am but simple man and sometimes the dumb poo poo my brain comes up with needs to be shared.
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Mar 29, 2023 23:26
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joylessdivision posted:So I'm working on my 1e Masquerade review presently and I had a moment where I paused and said "Do I make this incredibly dumb visual joke or do I play this straight?" Remember where you are: Never apologize for the dumb poo poo.
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Mar 29, 2023 23:42
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Mecha_Face posted:Remember where you are: Never apologize for the dumb poo poo. 
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Mar 30, 2023 00:06
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 Here we are, back again, and now with more crunch! Well, this game never really gets that crunchy, but we'll get to more specifics. We actually have some concepts I find neat in this section of the book, but we're not even halfway through the game rules chapter. I'm not really sure how long it'll be this way, but I would like to point out that the Fabula Ultima Patreon has some neat playtest material available for anyone to download, even if they aren't donating. Worth a look, there's some cool special rules in there. Anyway, so first, let's talk HP and MP. We get the usual "HP are not necessarily meat points" talk here, which entirely depends on how you describe things in your games. Ya know, I really like The Unexpectables, but the way Monty describes everyone taking damage really makes me wonder how any of her PCs walk... Ahem. The game states that a character's max HP is their max HP. We don't get temporary hit points or buffer HP, overhealing someone does nothing but waste resources. If a character is at half or less HP, they enter Crisis, and while generally this is simply a bad thing, some Skills or other effects kick in when a character is in Crisis, making them stronger or tougher, so some Players might want their character hanging by a thread. What happens at 0 HP? We'll touch on that in a moment. First, MP.  And appropriately a wizard! There's... Really not much to say about MP, actually. You have a max MP, you have a current MP, you spend MP on Spells (and some Skills), nothing really happens if you're at 0 MP other than not being able to use MP. You can't use any Skill or Spell you don't have the MP to use (if they have an MP cost, in the case of Skills). There's very little to this, actually, so let's get back to what happens when you don't have any HP. First, NPCs are at the mercy of whoever brought them to 0 MP. The Player of that character, including the GM if an NPC beats up another NPC, decides if they killed them, knocked them out, etc. If a Player spares an NPC they've defeated, this is not permission for the GM to say some bullshit like "They immediately cutscene-stab you" or something. The PC won, end of story. A spared enemy is one that will not be an immediate threat, though of course they might get in the way later... That said, some creatures just can't survive 0 HP. Constructs, Elementals, and Undead are just destroyed if they're defeated.  If only they had these medical supplies, they... Probably would still get destroyed because they couldn't benefit from them anyway. Villains, on the other hand, are special. They're always meant to be bigger threats, and reoccurring ones. Players are notorious for coming up with insane ways to defeat a BBEG that their GM didn't think of... But also, sometimes a GM just messes up and doesn't make them strong enough. Oops. Thankfully, they have methods of getting around that! First, a Villain can just Escape. A Villain comes with a number of Ultima Points at creation, the dark counter-part to Fabula Points. While we'll get into the specifics later, for now know that a Villain can spend Ultima Points on almost anything PCs can spend Fabula Points on, but they come with a limited number of them that never refreshes. A Villain cannot get more Ultima Points (usually), but they also get more than PCs start with. That in mind, Villains can spend an Ultima Point to Escape, which means they somehow bullshit their way out of their defeat. This could be the classic scene where they show they were only toying with the heroes, or maybe they set up an escape plan ahead of time. Either way, this option basically allows them to flip the PCs the bird and get away scot free. They can also just... Surrender. In this case, they're treated like any other NPC. Their fate is in the hands of the PCs... Or more importantly, the Players. The book says Villains will only choose this option if it's the only choice they have left, but with the way Ultima Points work, this is probably an exercise in frustration. A good moment is the Well-Intentioned Extremist realizing they can't defeat the ancient evil on their own, so they accept the PCs help. Or maybe repeated defeat breaks their spirit, and the PCs tell the Villain they don't have to be alone anymore. Either way, this could be a good way to gain a powerful new ally, or introduce a new PC (who is appropriately downgraded, of course). Defeat often means friendship in JRPGs, after all. And while I want to gush about how well Villains are crafted as a concept within the conceit of emulating JRPGs, that's best saved for when we talk about Villains in greater detail. When PCs fall to 0 HP, they have two options, though I believe these options are both best saved for when the entire Party is at 0 HP, or at least until the situation is really that desperate. I'll talk about the first last, because personally I believe these are in a weird order. So, first, Surrender. Similarly to a Villain, a Player can throw in the towel. The GM is not allowed to kill PCs that Surrender, but instead, there will be consequences. This could be a consequence for each PC that does this, or for the entire Party, but there are benefits to this! Everyone who Surrenders immediately gains 2 Fabula Points, and in the next scene they appear in, they've healed up to their Crisis score in HP. This won't be enough to get them to full HP, of course: They're still hurting from their experience. As for consequences, here's some the book suggests:  These are assuming only one character is taking the consequences, but it really depends on the circumstances. It won't make sense for someone to be dragged away from the Party when the other PCs will be actively trying to save them, for example. But that's why these are just suggestions. Consequences should always match the situation, after all. The second option is Sacrifice. This option allows the PC who chose it to hit the Win button on the Scene. How is up to them and the GM. But either way, no matter what happens or how, the PC dies. This is not to be taken lightly. There are no resurrection mechanics in Fabula Ultima. If someone dies, they're dead for good. That's it, that's all. This is an extremely powerful option at a great cost, and can only be done if at least two of the three following criteria are met: A Villain is on the scene, the PC's sacrifice would be good for a character they have a Bond towards, and/or they believe their sacrifice would make the world a better place. There is no upper limit on what a Sacrifice can accomplish. The Player can and should go ham. The GM should allow almost anything within reason, but it must be something that solves the CURRENT Scene. No solving the entire campaign here (unless it's the climactic final battle). The Player is about to lose a character they've probably spent a lot of time, care, and love on... So let them make it COUNT. If the Player makes a new character, that new PC will be at the same level and have the same Zenit's worth of equipment, as well. Of course, we can't always have the PCs constantly be on the ropes! The next section of the chapter is about Resting! There's some different rules for whether they're in the wilderness, or settlements, but they aren't exceptionally complicated. When resting in the wilderness, they need access to one of the following!
When PCs rest, they recover all HP and MP, and all status effects, and resting requires at least four hours of not doing anything strenuous. Nurse Cleric says:  Unless of course you're at the end of the campaign and the final boss is waiting to destroy the world until they finish all the side-quests. Resting allows PCs to reassess how they feel about what's happened, the places they've been, and the people they've met or have already known. It's a good opportunity for role-playing as the Party has a quiet moment to discuss their feelings, plan for the future, or ruminate on the past. They can also do one of the following when they're resting: create a new Bond, add a new emotion to an existing Bond, or erase an emotion from a Bond and replace it with a new one. The Player (or maybe even the PC) should tell everyone why and how their views have changed. Notable though: All this resting stuff only applies to PCs. NPCs do whatever the GM wants them to do, including healing to full between Scenes. That's the privilege of GMs, baby! Let's talk damage. Damage comes in 9 "Elements": Physical, Air, Bolt, Dark, Earth, Fire, Ice, Light, and Poison. While PCs generally have no direct connection to these Elements without some effect granting it to them (usually from equipment), most creatures in the game otherwise do. The species of a creature might affect this. For example, all Undead are Vulnerable to Light damage. But even then, two different Undead might Resist or even be Immune to or Absorb different elements! A Fire Wraith would Absorb Fire, while a Drowned is Immune to Ice damage. These are all called Affinities. Learning and exploiting them is a big part of the battle system, just like in most JRPGs, especially if you're using the Battle Superiority rule. Otherwise, some effects grant Extra Damage, like hitting a Vulnerable Affinity, which outright doubles damage done. This can never be applied to Skills or Spells that do no damage, so no Locate City Bombs here, no matter how funny it is. If any Effect says it changes the damage of an Attack, Skill, or Spell, it replaces the previous damage. So if the Spiritist casts Soul Weapon on the Dark Knight's greatsword, it's now Light element. While that's still going, an Air Djinn targets them with a similar enchantment for Air to give themselves an advantage, and that replaces the Light element. You can never stack damage types. Here we also have a table on Improvising Damage, just in case there's something that happens from the environment like a rock slide, or a trap in a dungeon:  These kinds of things can never kill a PC unless they pick the Sacrifice option instead of Surrender. Generally, Environmental damage is a great way to separate the Party via Surrender: Instead of being crushed by the bridge, the squishy Entropist is now on the other side of it than the Party, and finding her way back to them might be a bit rough... Now we hit the Status Effects! We talked about them a bit before, and I went over most of the big stuff, but there's some nitty gritty we should approach now. First, your die size can never be reduced below d6. That's the lowest it goes for all characters, so inflicting Dazed on a dumb Ogre is probably not in the best interests of the Party. Recovering from status effects can come from Spells, Skills, Items, or Resting, but otherwise they will stick around until they're taken care of. This is a pretty nasty thing, too. While only one of your dice being lowered isn't too huge a deal, taking multiple Status Effects is. The difference of going between 2d8 and 2d6 is a mean result of -2. This is a pretty nasty penalty in a game where bonuses are rare and the dice can be pretty swingy. While I've mostly said I haven't seen bad luck that much so far, my last session was a big problem when it seemed all the PCs could not for the life of them roll above a 4, and they almost got taken out by a bunch of MUDMEN. Imagine being taken out by MUDMEN! Don't be like them, respect your Status Effects. You can become Immune to Status Effects via certain effects, but this is rare and exceptionally valuable. If the Party gets the equivalent of a Ribbon, it should be one of the most amazing things they've ever received, and they should only get one. You don't have to wait for an enemy to inflict Status Effects! Go ahead and throw Status Effects at your players for things they can definitely control but chose not to. Being Poisoned might be from being drunk. Alcohol is a poison, after all. Maybe they didn't pack well enough for a trip up a mountain, and PCs get Slow and Weak from the cold and lack of potable water. These are good ways to use the environment to screw with the PCs without just making them take damage: punishing a lack of good sense with damage is boring. It's more memorable if they take on enemies they'd normally destroy, and barely come out on top because they're fighting in waist deep swamp-water! Notable that some effects inflict Sleep, Petrified, Paralysis, etc. These are not considered Status Effects by the game, they're generally treated in special ways, by restricting how the PCs are allowed to act instead of lowering Attributes.  loving with Marlboros without Esuna available is among one of the worst plans you can have. So, Fabula Points! We've mentioned them a lot, talked about them a lot, how do they actually work? I'm probably going to repeat myself a bit here, so be patient while I struggle with the high concept of writing a TTRPG review. Fabula Points start at 3 in character creation. After that, you need to earn them! There's four ways, and a fifth way if the GM wants to use the intentional failing optional rule.
The book shortly lists that you can use Fabula Points to Invoke Bonds and Traits, but it also adds two options here: A Player can alter the story, adding, removing, or changing something to the benefit of the Party, and some Skills are so powerful they need a Fabula Point to fuel them. Of course, Altering the Story is a very powerful effect, and there's a bunch of caveats to it as you might expect: First off, if something has already been established, you need the GM's permission to change or add to it. It's just basic courtesy. Second, if it would affect the backstory, or current situation of another PC, you need that Player's permission. Third, you can't use this to contradict something that you or someone else has already established. Fourth, you can't use this to make mechanical changes to the game like changing a Skill's effect or hurting enemies. And finally, if you introduce a new NPC this way, the GM controls that NPC. This is a very powerful effect, otherwise, perhaps worth more than the Fabula Point you spent to do it. Entire cities could come into being, or maybe that family heirloom sword the Weaponmaster has been carrying around is the long-lost Sword of the Final Kings and it only needs to be reforged to find its former glory. Who knows? The sky is the limit, and Altering the Story can make the table's experience that much more interesting... Or it could be a point of contention. A proper discussion at the table is always important. Communication is key. I could go on here, but the next part is about Villains, and I want to spend a bit more time on those. Until then, enjoy some more cute art: 
Mecha_Face fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Mar 30, 2023 |
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Mar 30, 2023 00:19
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GrandmasterTrash posted:This one really gets under my skin because it's straight up not true. Neptune's Awakening is right there in the core book. Wait, if that WAS true, would someone with ritual caster but no other supernatural ID just be SOL for magic casting?
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Mar 30, 2023 06:13
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I appreciate rules that make death a player choice. It lets you have defeats without derailing things. In a fantasy game, it’s too easy to do the D&D approach which is write a rule and then write a spell that ignores that rule. Raise dead spells to cancel character death. If the ability to raise the dead disrupts the setting too much then more rules are added to limit it. But then more spells are added to ignore those limits.
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Mar 30, 2023 06:50
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Soulbound: Era of the Beast But There's Something In Him That I Simply Didn't See Carcass Donse is what remains of what was, in ages past, an alpha predator of a continent. Now, it lies dying, being slowly consumed by Thondia and Andtor. Once, Donse was the home of the Drogrukh, but when they fell, so to did the land. Their grand constructions and carvings have all been long destroyed by time, crumbled to ancient dust. What little is left of the land are mesas that risk collapse under strain and an air of fallen glory, though Kragnos' return has brought some life back to Donse. Some of its ancient ruins are still raided by treasure seekers, but now they must contend with growing numbers of orruks, grots and Khornate Bloodbound, who war constantly amid the chasms and ravines. The orruks and grots come on pilgrimages to worship Kragnos out of a (rather false) belief that he is more likely to notice them if they do great deeds in his homeland. The followers of Khorne are drawn only by the call to carnage and the chance to flood the leylines with blood. In the north, the poisons of Kruleboy magic have caused several rock pillars to collapse into mud and gunk, which has drawn in swamp beasts to hunt, too, particularly the viciouse Corpse-rippa Vulchas. The undending warfare and the presence of Chaos forces has drawn in other problems. Saurus hunting bands from Mekitopsar and their less intelligent dinosaur friends have begun hunting in Donse, preying on the orruks and Khornates alike. The Seraphon warriors prefer killing Chaos warriors, but they're not picky about who they eat. The awakening of the spirits of the land has also extended to Donse, and while these spirits may be weak and dying, they now remember their glory days. They are angry about this, and some of them are angry enough to rise as Krondspine Incarnates to take out their fury on anyone nearby. The Lost Mesa are the last real remnant of the ancient Drogrukh, created in the twilight of their empire, when they realized that they were going to be wiped out. It was meant as a final marker of their civilization, a grave to honor both their glory and their hubris. It was made by subtle magic, carved deep into the stone itself, and hidden in shadow to protect their last treasures. The final act of the Drogrukh as a people was to place the bodies of their last chieftains into stone tombs in these cairns. After that, they rode out to die in battle. It has been long ages since, and few have realized what truly lies in the Lost Mesas. They are now inhabited once more, this time by Sigmarite hunters, who have turned one of the larger cave-complexes into a sanctuary for traveling warriors. The caves are guarded by a mix of humans, duardin and Stormcast, who rely on it as a safe haven from which to monitor the warfare within Donse. They are aware that there are Drogrukh ruins around them, but know little else of the secrets of the Lost Mesas or the magics that protect and conceal them. Since Kragnos has returned, the hunters that use the caves have debated whether they should try to claim the treasures of the fallen Drogrukh to use against him. Many of them believe this is a bad idea, and would likely draw the wrath of the Earthquake God down on their little refuge or would damage the ancient spells that keep it hidden. Others, however, claim that Kragnos will come for his people's tombs sooner or later anyway, and it's better to take what they can before he does. Andtor is a tundra-covered continent south of Carcass Donse. Its northern lands are cold plains full of shrubs split by massive mountains, and the south is a land of permafrost and cracked earth. It appears at first glance to be empty, but this is pure illusion - it is no less a living place than most of Ghur. Rather, Andtor is a land of cunning and deceit, hiding its dangers behind a facade of stillness. Most of it is geologically unstable, prone to sudden rockslides or earthquakes that can easily kill the unwary, while violent ice storms often appear from clear skies. The tribal peoples that make their homes here believe the continent itself enjoys mocking travelers, trying to crush them with weather and shaking stone unless it is appeased by sacrifice. Few landmarks exist to ease travel, and those that do will often vanish without warning, only to reappear a large distance away. The animals of Andtor tend to be chimerical creatures, appearing as strange mixtures of earth and flesh to better conceal themselves on the open tundra. Besides these strange ambush predators, the continent is home to large, weather-controlling Thundertusks and roving packs of icy squigs that attack the unwary, or beasts like the frost kraken, which have huge and stony tendrils that can debone a human in seconds. The continent is, by Ghurish standards, home to relatively few orruks, most of them Bonesplitterz clans that seek to commune with the ice and rock spirits. Human tribes are few and far between, and even the forces of Chaos largely avoid the place. The most common Chaos tribes are packs of shaggy, powerful Gor-kin, who tend to travel in small numbers of vicious warriors. The human tribes claim that Andtor is currently rearranging its landscape to better deal with the slow predations of Bjarl to the south, though Azyrite scholars consider it unlikely that the land could be sentient enough to prepare for future attacks. Those familiar with the behaviors of Andtor are less skeptical, knowing how cunning the spirits of the land can be. The Greatpeaks of Andtor are easily the harshest of all the mountains in the Ghurish Heartlands. They are huge granite things full of deadly beasts that, fortunately, rarely leave their high peaks to hunt. Many of them are touched by Chaos, monsters such as the mighty Ghorgon, Chimera, Mindstealy Sphiranx or even the mutation-spreading Mutalith Vortex Beast. Ancient idols to the Dark Powers can be found high in the mountains, tended by nomadic Gor Bray-Shamans. The mountains are home to valuable deposits of amberbone, but few miners are willing to risk the journey. The Gor-kin and Chaos worshipping humans of Andtor can often be found traveling into the Greatpeaks to capture and tame the monsters, though many such trips end with the hunters becoming prey. Enough do not, though, that some in Excelsis push for an effort to send forces out to the Greatpeaks to cull the monsters and lessen the threat. Icebrow is a settlement in southern Andtor, hidden in the Shatterland Floes. It is a fortified harbor founded during the Age of Chaos by a human tribe that refused to surrender to Chaos. They fled into the depths of the Andtor on the basis that literally no one else wanted to go there, even the forces of Chaos. Many of their number were slain in the journey between the wild beasts and the continent's own attacks, but they eventually found something unexpected: a raging battle between a giant furry monster and a single, heavily injured ogor hunter whose frost sabre companions lay slain around him. The tribe watched in awe as the ogor slew the vicious beast, then collapsed from his own terrible wounds. The ogor was Jaged Hrothvir, an Icebrow Hunter who found himself unexpectedly alive some days later, his wounds tended and his hunger fed by a hearty stew made for him by the human settlers. This was the birth of Icebrow and its long history of friendship with the ogor hunters. They have long maintained a pact of friendship, with the humans offering up regular collections of fish and crustaceans harvested from the Krakensea to pay the ogors for protecting the settlement. The Icebrow Hunters are solitary sorts to begin with and most of the ones that work with Icebrow are charmed by the novelty of warm food and the friendliness of the humans. They have guarded the small port for generations, though everyone is aware that a bad enough fishing season would risk the hunters eating the town. Fortunately, this risk has never come to pass, not least due to the continued involvement of Jaged Hrothvir, who is very old by ogor standards but still alive. Recently, a band of hunters was discovered on the edge of the Krakensea in comas from which they have not recovered. Jaged Hrothvir has seen this kind of thing before, or so he claims, and believes it was done by a mysterious force called the Dhom-hain, a group of what he refers to as "pointy-eared blighters and beasts wot should stay in the sea." (It's Idoneth. A group of Idoneth are raiding for souls.) He's begun seeking allies to fight the Dhom-hain, whom he believes are gearing up for a raid of Icebrow itself - something he won't stand for. He likes those little humans. Lake Hoarfrost is one of the few constants of Andtor's landscape, a frozen lake in a ravine supposedly left by the mythic figure Ymnog, ancestor of the gargants. Supposedly the area the lake is in was once home to an ancient people who worshipped the gargants. They saw Ymnog and rushed out to pray to him, but he didn't notice and crushed them all beneath his mighty foot, leaving the print that would become Lake Hoarfrost. Supposedly their ancient relics are now buried under the ice, guarded by the frozen dead and mighty predators. It's a very odd story and quite possibly mere fiction, but some Azyrite scholars want to fund an expedition to check anyway in case the answers to why there's so many more mega-gargants around than in times past lie beneath the ice of the lake. Moulderpit is a deep valley in central Andtor, the single greatest stronghold of the Great Clans Moulder in Ghur, possibly even all of the Mortal Realms. It is home to their most devious and monstrous creations, and there are several Skaven clans vying for power within the valley, though none can dispute the current dominance of Clan Dregg, who have the most cunning and twisted fleshcrafters. The clans of Moulderpit are actually currently overwhelmed by success, with new captives (both beast and person) being dragged in daily by the thing-catcher clawpacks that hunt for raw material. This has only driven their ambitions to burn brighter, and they have discovered a method to tap into the oily amber life-blood of Andtor itself, using to further empower their creations. Open warfare seems likely to begin soon, either between the Skaven clans' rival fleshcrafters or between the Skaven of the valley and...well, anyone in Thondia or Gallet who has seen a beloved pet or mount kidnapped by rats, as the thing-catchers have grown ever bolder and more aggressive. Rescuing a beast from them would not be an easy task, either - the Moulder clans are cunning and ruthless and they hate losing a specimen. The Ravening Rivers are some of the most dangerous parts of Andtor - a series of endlessly flowing rockslides that move through the land like water. They change course often and tear through anything in their path, so mapping safe crossings is nearly impossible - by the time you come back, they won't be in the same places. The area is also full of rockgrinder wyrms, predatory worm-monsters that like to attack travelers as they attempt to cross the stone flows. Despite the dangers, however, the Kharadron have begun a joint project with the Collegiate Arcane to fund an expedition to the Rivers. They don't discuss the plans with outsiders much, but everyone knows the Ravening Rivers often bear large chunks of valuable minerals to the surface, to say nothing of gemstones or even chunks of precious amberbone realmstone. The Rimelake is best known as a storm - an ice storm that has raged, unending, for centuries, blessed by the touch of the Everwinter. The Rimelake proper sits at the calm eye of its center, an eternally frozen lake nestled into a jagged hillside. It is sacred land to the Beastclaw ogor mawtribes, a land where all hostilities are paused by ancient law and in which fighting is banned. In this netural ground, ogor warriors compete for the right to lead, claiming the right to be Huskard or even Frost King in ancient rituals. The Huskard Torrs of the mawtribes will sometimes gather at the heart of the Rimelake to perform massive rituals that deepen their ties to the Everwinter. Non-ogors rarely risk the icy storm to approach it, but if they could, many scholars believe the lake holds the secrets to withstanding the Everwinter and perhaps even freeing places from its grip. The Shatterland Floes make up most of southern Andtor, a broken series of icy islands connected by frozen, slushy bridges. The islands were actually connected completely a little more than a century ago, but began changing for unclear reasons. Chimeric ambush predators are common in the floes, along with oceanic predators from the Krakensea, and anyone living in the area has to learn quickly how to adapt to mobile, shifting terrain. It may not be quite as dangerous as the Ravening Rivers, but the Floes are still very unstable. Ghurish mystics claim that Andtor began forming the region on purpose as a response to the encroaching ice of Bjarl, on the basis that the ice can more easily be broken by these mobile, tooth-like islands grinding against it. Sometimes magical artifacts of great power inexplicably wash up on islands within the Floes, and some scholars believe a lost Stormvault or other treasure hold was broken open by the shifting stones and glaciers, drawing some of its contents out over time. Next time:: Final roundup
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Apr 1, 2023 19:27
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Mors Rattus posted:Soulbound: Era of the Beast This one is definitely good. I like the way it shades in the ogres into more realized characters, and there is a lot of room for growing pressures to rapidly complicate the situation from different angles. You could get a really nice 5 adventure campaign out of just Icebrow if the players ended up sticking around.
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Apr 1, 2023 22:27
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avoraciopoctules posted:This one is definitely good. I like the way it shades in the ogres into more realized characters, and there is a lot of room for growing pressures to rapidly complicate the situation from different angles. You could get a really nice 5 adventure campaign out of just Icebrow if the players ended up sticking around. Seconded, that's an excellent hook. Also, thanks again Mors, that's a lot of work you're putting in there.
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Apr 2, 2023 07:39
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Soulbound: Era of the Beast Well, Who'd Have Thought We finish up with briefer overviews of other areas. Rondhol is a land of fast-flowing rivers and raging mountains, largely populated by Bonesplitterz and Kruleboyz clans. It is said to have been the site of the duel between Sigmar and Gorkamorka, who fought for twelve days straight after Gorkamorka was freed from the clutches of the godbeast Drakatoa. The battle site was once home to a giant statue of Sigmar and Gorkamorka clasping arms in friendship, but the Sigmar half of the statue was long destroyed, so now it's just Gorkamorka happily holding a severed arm. Shrines to Gorkamorka are common, with some emphasizing Gork, some Mork, and most built high in the mountains to avoid destruction at the hands of the wild, aggressive rivers. Rondhol's rivers are predatory things, swift-moving and able to gouge out huge channels in the rock or changing course without warning. Sometimes, entire rivers will suddenly vanish, revealing treasure in their basins, but this is always a trap - the river is waiting just over the horizon or behind a hill and will rush out to drown anyone that goes for the treasure in a sudden surge. The mountains hate the rivers for their constant attacks and will deliberately cause rockslides to dam the rivers or force them to change course, only for the rivers to flood in retaliation. The warring terrain of Rondhol has led the animals of the continent to be fast and prone to sudden violence, as are most of the peoples that make their homes there. (On the other hand, most of those are orruks, who are like that anyway.) The orruks frequently war with local Khorne-worshipping tribes, with the Hartgulper Mawtribe of ogors eagerly selling their services to both sides and, occasionally, encouraging the feuds to get worse to have more chances to do so. The Sigmarites of Rondhol tend to live on ships along the coastline or make their homes on rare stable rivers, as farming the land is essentially impossible by conventional methods. Most of their food and textiles are drawn from harvesting the waters, with common Rondholian clothing being made of turtle shells and the skins of oceanic reptiles. This does make them heavily dependent on lumber to build ships, though, which has been a point of contention between the humans and their theoretical allies, the Sylvaneth, who believe Rondhol's forests are overharvested. Lendu is south of Rondhol, another land of rivers, but these are calmer and more patient. They have worn deep valleys into the land, a place full of mist and ancient ruins guarded by huge flocks of both living and undead crows and vultures. Lendu is known for its silence, broken only by the dying screams of prey beasts. Most of it is ruled over by large, calm bodies of water, save for the west, which is mostly veldt populated by fast-moving razorhorn herds. The oldest ruins are believed to even predate the arrival of Sigmar in the Age of Myth, and their design is not reminescent of any human, duardin or even aelven civilization, suggesting they were made by some other species. Perhaps the most infamous of these sites is the Beastgrave, a region around a huge mountain of the same name whose caverns are said to hold ancient, priceless treasures trapped in amber. The Beastgrave mountain is dead, having been destroyed by an engineered explosion caused by the Seraphon. The shattered remnants of it are believed to still be full of treasure, of course, but it's a very dangerous place, and few have returned from seeking its mysteries. They tend to set out from Everquake City, a small Sigmarite Free City on the edge of the continent. Dawnbringer Crusades often use it as a staging point to enter Rondhol in the north, though not all end well. The settlement of Civilia, for example, was doing just fine on the Rondholian Bitingsea coast...until it was entirely destroyed by floods. Everquake City is guarded by the Kraken Blades Stormhost, and they make a great effort to send as many Stormcast as they can spare to guard each new Dawnbringer caravan. The Kraken Blades are drawn exclusively from souls of sea raiders, fisherfolk and other sailing peoples. To the south of Gallet and Andtor is Bjarl, an aggressive and icy continent of furry predators, ice serpents and ice that always seems to have a tinge of red blood in it. Bjarl is steadily trying to encroach northward, sending a glacial flow known as Bjarl's Throat to press up towards Andtor. As yet, the Krakensea has prevented the two continents from coming into direct and violent contact with each other, but everyone can see that it's going to happen one day. The inhabitants of Bjarl are largely either human tribes worshipping the Chaos Gods or nomadic alfrostuns of the Beastclaw ogors. Both hunt for food on the frozen plains, generally killing and eating any living thing they find, and when the two groups come into conflict, the end result is always large, bloody wars avoided by anyone else nearby. Most Azyrites in Ghur consider Bjarl to be a problem for the future, best left for after they've tamed the easier parts of Ghur. The hostility of Bjarl is exactly what has drawn the Ossiarch Bonereapers to it, however. A group of them have settled deep within the frozen continent to raise up what they name Ghurish Necrosia, a new extension of the Ossiarch Empire. It is centered on the Ivory Fortress, a high-towered fort overseen by the Ivory Host. Their expansion has been irritatingly slow, however, as even the Ossiarchs cannot just freely travel the wilderness. The predators of Bjarl are hungry sorts, and often desperate enough to go after Ossiarchs as well, cracking them open for the delicious marrow within.  This ends our tour of Ghur and brings us to the other really exciting section of the book: new player options! We have 10 new Archetypes and one new species - the Draconith. They're dragons. Each is large and strong enough to carry a Stormcast in full armor, and they are descended from the godbeast Dracothion. They actually predate Sigmar's emergence in the Age of Myth, descending from a split-off group of dragons that diverged from the Dracoth and Stardrakes, giving up the celestial nature of Azyr to take on the earthier nature of Ghur. Or maybe they were born directly from stone eggs that emerged from the mountains of Ghur, with their ancestor being some ancient beast that eventually became the fossilized mountain range Vexothia. Certainly Draconith civilization was centered on the Ghurish mountains, and they forged a mighty empire, driving the Chaos-worshipping Thunderscorn out of northern Thondia and even making a peace of sorts with the neighboring Drogrukh. The peace with the Drogrukh was short-lived, broken by the warrior Kragnos, son of the very chieftain that negotiated it. He attacked the Draconith capital for no reason other than to show he could do it, and the war that resulted destroyed both Drogrukh and Draconith civilization. Only the aid of the Seraphon prevented the total extinction of the Draconith, and the Slann preserved a number of Draconith eggs in statis aboard their mighty voidship-temples. It is from these eggs that the modern Draconith emerge, doing their best to adapt to a world that has long forgotten them. Most of them are mentally teenagers, and even the fully adult ones have spent most of their lives aboard Seraphon temple-ships, isolated from the wider world. While the Seraphon educated them on their history, most are horrified to learn that the Mortal Realms fell to Chaos while they were in stasis and feel a need to try to fix things. They are often fast friends with the Stormcast, who seek to aid in reintroducing their people to the world, and most are quite eager to reestablish themselves as a people and civilization. Most are also very eager to fight Kragnos and his followers. No modern Draconith has personally known their ancient home - only the eldest two of the entire species, Krondys and Karazai, can claim that. Draconith names are largely taken from what cultural memory they have based on old records, preserved stories told to them by the Seraphon, and the recollections of Krondys. (Karazai is far too busy killing orruks to tell stories most of the time.) They often take their names from lost ancestors, half-remembered stories told to them while they were still in the egg, and ancient records they don't fully understand, but they're doing their best! Their species bonus is Draconic Form. Draconith have natural Armor 2, and if that natural Armor is damaged, it will regrow and be repaired after a Rest. They have wings that give a Fly (Fast) Speed, and can wield their Teeth, Claws and Tail as natural weapons. Each is a 1+S Damage weapon, with Teeth being Piercing, Claws Slashing and Tail Crushing; they can pair up two of them to count as dual wielding, and can't be disarmed of any. Further, Draconith can spend an action to unleash their Draconic Breath, targeting a Zone in Medium range. Everyone in that Zone must roll Reflexes against the Draconith's Fortitude, taking damage based on how badly they fail the roll. Draconic Breath is either lightning or fire, your choice at chargen. Draconith are Large, and they can't become Soulbound or use Soulfire, just like Stormcast. Draconith do not have "subfactions" in the way traditional PC factions do, but are instead divided into Starborn Clutch and Realmborn Clutch based on how they grew up. It's effectively the same, though. These are technically in the appendix but I'm going to put them here for simplicity's sake. Starborn Clutch Draconith are the more common. They grew up among the Seraphon on the temple-ships, focusing on study of their ancient civilization. The Seraphon provided an excellent education, largely at the hands of Skink Starpriests with occasional lessons directly from the Slann, and instilled a sense of deep responsibility for the legacy of their people. Most of these Draconith find the modern Mortal Realms pretty confusing and mystifying, as the Seraphon aren't especially good at teaching people about things like "what is money," "why do humans wear pants," or "so what actually is non-reptile society like, anyway?" This means many Starborn Clutch Draconith come off as almost painfully naive and are often deeply fascinated by the mundane lives of the Free Peoples. They learn quickly and tend to be very interested in helping people. The benefit of the Starborn Clutch is +2 XP that can only be spent on Arcana or Channeling, as they have learned much about magic, if not mortal society. Realmborn Clutch Draconith are not those who survived the destruction of their people or were raised outside the Seraphon - no Draconith were but Karazai and Krondys, after all - but instead they are those that gravitated to the training of the Saurus and who left the temple-ships at the first chance they got to live in the wilds. Many idolize Karazai and the primal Ghurish nature of the Draconith, and most have spent their recent lives focused on hunting and survival in the wilds as a way to strengthen themselves in emulation of the raging Karazai. Those that survive this harsh lifestyle do so because they embrace their draconic power and bestial nature. They tend to be short-tempered and practical types who have learned to rely on themselves over others. Most also deeply desire vengeance on Kragnos and his worshippers for the destruction of their ancestors and like to team up with similarly martially inclined types to get that vengeance. They tend to be significantly less naive than the Starborn Clutch, but also significantly less scholarly and more prone to violent rages. Their benefit is +2 XP that can only be spent on Weapons Skill or Might, as they have had to master their bodies to survive. Next time: Hurakan Windcharger, Scinari Loreseeker
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Apr 2, 2023 15:05
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Mors Rattus posted:Soulbound: Era of the Beast I'm going to wait on for you to get to the Draconith Archetype before I comment on them and their options fully, but they are an interesting one. One thing that is unclear about how their Natural Weapons and splitting the dice pool work is whether they count for the Ambidextrous and Relentless Assault Talents. I would assume yes in case of RA, since the Sylvaneth Spite-Revenant has its own version of Natural Weapons and it has access to the talent, but Ambidextrous I am unsure about. I asked in the official Discord, but no official ruling has been handed out.
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Apr 2, 2023 17:27
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Soulbound: Era of the Beast Well, Bless My Soul  Hurakan Windcharger is a Lumineth archetype, available only to Lumineth aelves. Every Windcharger has been accepted into a Hurakan temple, meaning they have passed the meditative test of the hurathre. To enter the hurathre trance state causes the aelf to become weightless, allowing them to levitate to the floating islands on which the temples are built, where they learn to charm wind spirits with gentle music. Aspirants often spend weeks in meditation as they seek the hurathre state...and once they are trained, a Windcharger learns to wield it even in combat, entering the trance while mounted and wielding a great bow. The Windchargers rely on their nimble, high-leaping treerunners to transport them across the field while they fire arrows as swift as the wind itself, while wind spirits push their shots around cover and into the exactly right place. Hurakan Windchargers who become Soulbound bring their aelementiri wind spirit with them into the group. Most wind spirits are fine with joining Bindings, so this is little issue, and both spirit and aelf are generally quite eager to get out on adventures and have new experiences. They serve well as scouts in strange lands and as diplomats to non-Hyshian spirits. Indeed, it's generally the treerunner mount that has the most trouble dealing with their new life as a Soulbound's partner. Treerunners are fairly skittish beings and are often uncomfortable and jumpy around strangers, requiring a great deal of soothing. At least this means the Windcharger's generally good at calming folks down. Hurakan Windchargers have all three stats at 3, and their Core Skill is Ballistic Skill, plus a small selection from among Arcana, Athletics, Awareness, Ballistic Skill, Beast Handling, Fortitude, Intuition, Lore, Nature, Reflexes, Theology or Weapon Skill. They begin with the Talents Loyal Companion (Treerunner) and Aelementiri Archer (unique to them, their ranged attacks with weapons that use arrows never get reduced Accuracy due to environmental traits like Cover or Obscured, as the wind spirit guides their shots). They also get one from among Acute Sense, Animal Friend, Point Blank Shot, Pierce Armor or Scholar. They begin play with windscale armor (Light Armor), a Windcharger Bow, a Hurakan Short-Sword, a Treeruner saddle and harnesses, and 50D of Aqua Ghyranis.  Scinari Loreseeker is also Lumineth, so also locked to Lumineth aelves. They are wandering scholar-warriors who attempt to embody both sides of the Hysha-Mhensa, the twin-halved mandala representing Lumineth philosophy. Normally, it is split into the sun or Tyronic half, which is proactive and physical, and the moon or Teclian half, which is contemplative and magical. The Loreseeker seeks to be both, mixing Teclian spells with Tyrionic martial arts. Their goal as an order is to discover and spread lost knowledge...though even they admit that some things must be kept buried for the safety of all. They just don't like it. Scinari Loreseekers are already natural wanderers, leaving their homes in pursuit of lost secrets, philosophical truths and journeys of self-mastery. They are often very similar to Soulbound to begin with, though many lack the inclination to join groups and prefer to operate alone. Typically, for a Loreseeker to actually join a Binding, they must have some pressing reason to give up their solitary existence, such as a specific search they cannot do alone or a need for the understanding of others. Eventually, these Loreseeker Soulbound often come to enjoy the company of non-Lumineth over their own kind, serving as a teacher and revealer of truths, while the more standoffish and quiet types that hide dangerous secrets often find they have much in common with the Idoneth or the calmer Daughters of Khaine. Scinari Loreseekers have base Body 3, Mind 3, Soul 2, and their Core Skill is Channelling, with a moderate selection from among Arcana, Awareness, Channelling, Determination, Dexterity, Intuition, Lore, Reflexes, Survival, Theology or Weapon Skill. They begin with three core Talents - Spellcasting (Light), Unbind and the new Scinari Balance (Loreseeker only, you can wield an Eclipsian Staff and Loreseeker Blade simultaneously, one in each hand, and you double Focus on Dexterity or Reflexes rolls to maintain your balance, keep your footing or otherwise avoid falling Prone for any reason). They also get two from among Ambidextrous, Bulwark, Forbidden Knowledge, Scinari Contemplation, Scholar, or Unbreakable Spells. They begin the game with a suit of Scinari Plate (Medium Armor), an Eclipsian Staff (a Quarterstaff), a Loreseeker Blade (a Greatsword), three books of knowledge and notes shared with other Loreseekers, and 200D of Aqua Ghyranis.  Errant Draconith is our sole Draconith Archetype, and it is obviously Draconith only. They're a hatchling Draconith, born and raised in a Seraphon temple or Stormkeep. The burden of restoring the Draconith empire rests on their shoulders, and they know it. Small wonder so many look for assistance from others, then, since...well, most of these are essentially teenagers, just old enough to fly on their own. They have left the clutch to explore the Mortal Realms and find people they can trust to help them in their quest to restore their people. Their ancestor and leader, Krondys, swore the Pact Draconis with Sigmar, swearing that as long as the Stormcast fought Chaos and supported his people, the Draconith would partner with them as mounts. This means many Errant Draconith are fully aware that at some point they're going to be expected to choose a Stormcast partner to ride them. They don't have to do it any time soon, however. Such a choice cannot be made lightly and often a Draconith will go months or even years before deciding to bear a Stormcast on their back, observing possible riders and seeing how they act and react in war and peace alike. A Draconith whose partner Stormcast works with a Binding is definitely going to help the Binding as well, so that's one avenue for a Draconith to team up with Soulbound, even though the dragons can't become Soulbound themselves. It's also possible a Draconith will help out because they want to observe the Stormcast working with the Binding and evaluate them as a potential partner, or they may just find the Soulbound themselves impressive and heroic and decide to hang out because they think the Binding is really cool. Often, Errant Draconith are very eager to adopt causes or to find someone they really click with, after all, and there's not technically a rule saying their eventual rider has to be a Stormcast. Errant Draconith are absurdly strong - they start with base Body 5, Mind 2, Soul 2, and their Core Skill is Fortitude. They get a small selection of skills from among Athletics, Awareness, Channelling, Fortitude, Intimidation, Might, Reflexes and Survival. (You'll note Weapon Skill is not among these - you'll need to be a Realmborn Clutch Draconith for that, which is perhaps a bit odd.) Their Core Talent is Arcane Heritage (whenever you are the target of a spell, you may attempt to Unbind it using Fortitude). They also get two of Drag Into the Tempest (Draconith only, requires Might Training and Focus 1, when you grapple someone Mediumn or smaller, you can carry them with you when you Move, and allies can choose to just let you grab them for this. Also, you can release folks as a Free Action, and if they fall, they take fall damage based on the distance), Furious Descent (Draconith or Khinerai only, when you take the Charge action while flying, your melee attacks gain Cleave), Guts, Iron Scales (Draconith only, your natural Armor increases to 3), Night Vision or Spellcasting (Celestial). Errant Draconith begin the game with a suit of Draconith barding and a scale from their favorite clutchmate. Next time: Knight-Judicator, Knight-Relictor and Knight-Vexillor
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Apr 2, 2023 18:30
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Terrible Opinions posted:Saint Christopher is lonely over in the Christian approved monster dudes category. A common thread of medieval bestiaries was that all these bizarre creatures were placed on earth by God to act as living allegories for the moral instructions of mankind. So every creature was attributed some peculiar behaviour (like bleeding itself to feed its young) which was supposed to instruct the Christian reader about good behaviour to emulate and bad behaviour to avoid, or to illustrate some theological point. Funnily enough real animals that people would actually have encountered were happily mixed with mythological ones. The point was that the bestiary didn't care about any naturalist perspective, the only point to writing about these creatures was to create fables of moral instruction. Edit: obviously you did have other genres which hewed closer to primarily claiming specific physical reality to whatever they described, travel accounts about the mysterious lands beyond Europe were often more like this, but they could still claim that some strange creature described from.hearsay obviously carries some divine allegorical quality. The writings about Prester John often split the difference, claiming to describe a real kingdom somewhere ready to ally with Europe to crush the evil Muslims, but also describing it in the terms of the author's vision of an ideal Christian utopia. What's more, I can't recall any description of Prester John's kingdom that claim the inhabitants were a lost tribe of Franks, Romans, or whatever, so the authors of those texts seemed perfectly happy to describe a country set in distant Africa or Asia as completely morally superior to any people of Europe, as long as they were Christian at least, while Muslims would just be assumed to be evil. Prester John's kingdom is a land of contrasts. Edit edit: Now that I think about it, the idea of monsters deliberately planted on earth as essentially animatronics to provide moral obstacles or lessons for mankind, with no subjective consciousness or need for any biological or ecological reality of their own, comes pretty close to describing what some people do in their RPGs to avoid the "always Evil sapient" problem... --- Edit, separately on the topic of Japanese colonialism it's worth mentioning that the title "shogun" originated with the position in charge of killing Emishi, the Sei-i Taishōgun / commander in chief for subduing the eastern barbarians, so the title itself can be considered a subtle remnant of ancient genocides. PoontifexMacksimus fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Apr 2, 2023 |
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Apr 2, 2023 18:52
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Mors Rattus posted:Soulbound: Era of the Beast Windchargers are very starved for xp for Skills, and only the Species bonus for Aelves (+2 xp for one Skill) that allows them to function. One problem they run into later is that ranged attacks are made with Body+Ballistic Skill, but Accuracy stat is determined by Mind+Ballistic Skill. I'd probably get both Training and Focus for Ballistic Skill to 3 as the game progresses, so that they can flip into sixes for certain hits and Pierce Armor. In play the suffer a bit from the fact that weapon ranges are super-short in Soulbound. Bow has Long Range, which means it can fire without penalty only two Zones away. Every enemy with Normal Speed can move one Zone as a Move, and the use Charge to move another Zone and make an attack. So Windchargers can't quite hit and run without impunity, and have to spend Mettle if they want ensure they're out of retaliation range occasionally. quote:Scinari Loreseeker Scinari Loreseekers are super-cool and their optional Scinari Contemplation is a very strong Talent eventually, once you actually get enough xp to raise both Channelling and Weapon Skill enough. If you make no attacks, you can double your Focus in Channeling for free the next turn, and if you cast no spells, you can double your Focus in Weapon Skill for free next time. Makes for an interesting play-style. quote:
The reason Weapon Skill is not among their list of Skills is to prevent them from getting Training 2 in it, because that would allow the to have 7d6 Great Melee right away. Errant Draconith are interesting, because there's a couple of very different builds. The Iron Scales is a must-pick for all of them though, imo. You could go Starborne Clutch, invest in Channelling initially, and choose to learn just the easy defensive spells from Common Spells list (more Defense and Armor), buff yourself and then tank with that. Or you could invest your initial xp in more Fortitude, and then spam the Breath attack to decimate Minions and Swarms, and pick up Guts, since it's Toughness increase is tied to Fortitude Skill. Or go Realmbound Clutch, spend those 2 xp on Training 1, Focus 1 for Weapon Skill, and spend the 3 xp on Reflexes Training 2. Iron Scales, Guts, and you'd have 6d6 Good Melee, Great Defense, 3 Armor, 10 Toughness.
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Apr 2, 2023 19:35
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Mechanically, the dragonbreath attack Draconith have works a bit differently than a regular attack. I didn't crunch the numbers to figure out exactly how it compares, but being able to ignore defense and instead test their Body:Reflexes with your Body:Fortitude is really nice if you are dealing with someone who has really high defense values. On the other hand, you aren't going to be able to improve dragonbreath with as many buff options. I am a little concerned that dragons split their focus into too many different things in a world where specialization is powerful, but being a fast flying tank is definitely very nice.
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Apr 2, 2023 20:52
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So given it’s established that a bunch of ancient Drogurkh chieftains are in a tomb and that Kragnos’ dad negotiated a peace between them and the Draconith that Kragnos ruined, it seems like ‘doing a necromancy on Kragnos’ dad to help stop his lovely son’ would be a legitimate plotline for a party. Whether as desperate measure for an order-aligned binding or just a fun idea to try for a Death binding.
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Apr 2, 2023 21:28
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Of course that risks giving Nagash a foot in the door which opens more interesting plot possibilities.
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Apr 3, 2023 04:09
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I kinda wish they did hurakan windmage instead of the windcharger. I would prefer to fly on a puff of smoke instead of kangaroo
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Apr 3, 2023 05:34
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avoraciopoctules posted:Mechanically, the dragonbreath attack Draconith have works a bit differently than a regular attack. I didn't crunch the numbers to figure out exactly how it compares, but being able to ignore defense and instead test their Body:Reflexes with your Body:Fortitude is really nice if you are dealing with someone who has really high defense values. Does not work that way, unfortunately, since Defense is keyed to Body+Reflexes and high Body combined with armor allows enemies to shrug off the breath entirely. A Blood Warrior with Body 4, Reflexes +1d and Armor 3 is functionally immune to it, because Draconith would have to win the opposed Test by 4 successes to do even 1 point of damage. Where it excels is clearing an entire zone of Minions who are not Swarms (like Crypt Ghouls or Kairic Acolytes) or decimating a Swarm with low Body and no Reflexes (Grots, Clanrats, etc.). A Daemonette Swarm with their Body 3 and +2d Reflexes would take very little damage from it, even with the double damage against Swarms from AoEs. So it is a highly situational tool that is completely useless against anything big and tough. Warden fucked around with this message at 10:59 on Apr 3, 2023 |
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Apr 3, 2023 10:56
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Warden posted:Does not work that way, unfortunately, since Defense is keyed to Body+Reflexes and high Body combined with armor allows enemies to shrug off the breath entirely. A Blood Warrior with Body 4, Reflexes +1d and Armor 3 is functionally immune to it, because Draconith would have to win the opposed Test by 4 successes to do even 1 point of damage. Well, directly useless, maybe. Figure "Boss + minions" describes a lot of encounters and clearing out the minions allows the group to concentrate on the Boss.
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Apr 3, 2023 16:31
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| # ? May 12, 2024 06:24 |
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Warden posted:Does not work that way, unfortunately, since Defense is keyed to Body+Reflexes and high Body combined with armor allows enemies to shrug off the breath entirely. A Blood Warrior with Body 4, Reflexes +1d and Armor 3 is functionally immune to it, because Draconith would have to win the opposed Test by 4 successes to do even 1 point of damage. Not arguing with the general applicability range of dragonbreath, but it is important to note that there are ways to boost Defense high without having high Body. The most obvious are the buff spells mentioned earlier in this thread. Most of the Talents would only come into play in a PVP scenario, since monsters generally follow different rules, but if we're fighting a sorcerer who tries shrouding themselves in illusion or a sniper who makes an effort to use cover/concealment, I'd definitely be willing to give a flamethrower a try. Of course, there's more than one way of dealing with high defense. You have to successfully hide before a sneak attack, but they automatically count defense as Poor. That means they get better and better if enemy defenses scale up. There's a surprising number of monsters with bad Natural Awareness stats.
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Apr 3, 2023 21:31
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