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I'll keep a list of questions, answers, and alternatives recommended either by me or players here. If you have something you think ought to be added to this page feel free to contact me. There's also an example of making a Combination Maneuver using the system in the book here; there's also a version of the Construction Excel Sheet for use with the example. What's with the Profession (soldier) skill?The Profession (soldier) bit actually started out as Craft (soldier) since that is a class skill for fighters. But then one of the playtesters mentioned this weird image of seeing high level fighters constructing soldiers out of left over body parts. Also, reading the Craft (soldier) skill more figuratively, as the crafting of young, untrained men into fine soldiers, would be stretching it. Moreover, the Profession skill has the advantage that it's based off Wisdom and that seems more appropriate for a grizzled old sergeant than Intelligence. d20 Modern has a Knowledge (tactics) skill and that's probably the best since it'll end up the standard. In fact, in the Second World Sourcebook I switch over to using Knowledge (tactics) for the fighter "career" skill. I really meant Prof (soldier) to just be a placeholder for whatever tactics or military skill you end up using in your home game. There's not much on that front yet but with more mass-combat systems hitting the market soon there's probably going to be a slew of different skills to fit that role. I do think the fighter needs some sort of skill along those lines and I'd make Knowledge (tactics) or whatever a class skill for all classes that use a good attack progression; that seems pretty safe since it covers prestige classes as well. The skill rank prerequisites still might feel a bit steep; I'm sure I was overly cautious in assigning prereqs for some of the classes. Halving or eliminating the ranks required for skills that don't have any rules to go with them yet would be a good idea but keep in mind that we'll likely see some nice ways to make use of that skill by Summer 2003. Thanks to John H. Jordan for mentioning this and his helpful comments. Also, John suggested using the Profession (soldier) to accomplish battlefield tactics such as forming a shield wall. That strikes me as precisely the sort of thing one does with the "fighter" skill, which, for the sake of standardization, ought to be Knowledge (tactics). Still, we need some mechanics for that skill. Perhaps I'll put something together for the next Wandering Damage column. How do the feats marked with a * work?When you acquire a Feat you may pick one of the maneuvers from the maneuver list for the class. This only works with the specified weapon or weapons for that class (i.e. flail for the flail master); the specified weapon is designated in the Feat special ability for each class. When you acquire a Feat* you may choose one of the maneuvers from the maneuver list and this works with all the allowed weapons in the maneuver. For example, Flail Master maneuvers normally work only with flails. By using one of the starred feats you could make one of the maneuvers, such as Bypass Shield, work with a flail, kusarigama, spiked chain, and Tensile Mercury Weapon. If you don't allocate the * to that maneuver it would only work with flails. This way a flail master could use another weapon and gain partial benefits if he doesn't have access to a flail (or specializes in more than one weapon). Design Notes: You can probably allow all maneuvers to work with all the allowed weapons and not throw things too out of whack. Doing so will make the Masters of Arms a bit better but they'll still be pretty close to the Fighter class in power level. One of the playtesters also allowed characters to choose any maneuver with an appropriate allowed weapon as a feat, even if the maneuver wasn't on the class specific list. For example, he let the Kusarigama master take Bypass Parry (from the Flail Master list) since Bypass Parry has kusarigamas as an allowed weapon. If you want to do this too, download the Maneuver Index since that will make it easier to keep track of which weapons work with which maneuvers. Adding options increases the value of the class but not terribly so and makes it possible for a party to sustain more than one character of each class. Ideally each class would have perhaps 25 to 35 maneuver options. On a related note the Warden classes in the Second World Sourcebook will do exactly this; of course that means they take up more space and I won't be able to include as many. 1.5 Maneuvers per Feat OptionThe 1.5 Maneuvers per Feat option on page 15 is intended for use only with General and Fighter feats; even if you use this option it shouldn't apply to the "feats" granted by the Masters of Arms classes. Honestly I shouldn't have used the name "feat" at all in the class tables and instead just called them "maneuvers" since that's what they really are. Example: You take 4 levels in Dagger Master then go back to racking up the Sneak Attack dice in your Rogue class. You want a few more Dagger Master Maneuvers though so you also devote two General feats to maneuvers. This gives you a grand total of 6 Dagger Master maneuvers, three for the 4 levels in the class and three for the 2 General feats devoted to maneuvers. You'll also have the Filleting and Channel Blade special abilities of course. What are the Class Name Abbreviations?I wouldn't really call this an oversight. I thought about including class name abbreviations and then said to myself “Ralph, people can figure out their own abbreviations and they aren't important anyway.” As you can see sometimes my schizophrenia causes me to make foolish assumptions.* Here's the list: Alpha Beast (ABM)
Axe Power Fighting Master (APFM)
Bashing Master (BasM)
Blinking Master (BlnkM)
Bow Master (BowM)
Cloak Fighting Master (ClFM)
Club Master (ClubM)
Crossbow Master (CrsbM)
Dagger Master (DagM)
Double-Pick Master (DPiM)
Dual Sai Master (DSiM)
Dual Swords Master (DSwM)
Flail Master (FlaM)
Glaive Master (GlaM)
Greatsword Master (GswM)
Immovable Rod Master (ImRM)
Improvised Weapon Master (ImWM)
Kusarigama Master (KusM)
Longspear Master (LonM)
Net Master (NetM)
Precision Sword Master (PreSwM)
Quarterstaff Master (QstfM)
Ranseur Master (RansM)
Rapier Master (RapM)
Rod of Lordly Might Master (RoLMM)
Scimitar Master (SciM)
Scythe Master (ScyM)
Spiked Chain Master (SpiCM)
Sword and Dagger Master (SnDM)
Sword and Shield Master (SnSM)
Telekinesis Master (TeleM)
Tensile Mercury Weapon Master (TMWM)
Three Piece Staff Master (3PSM)
Throwing Hammer Master (ThrHM)
Trident Master (TriM)
Two Axe Fighting Master (2AxFM) Jumping Master (JmpM): you can find this class in issue 2 of Tempest's Lore, available here. I put an M at the back of all the classes since that should make it easier to remember where the class comes from when you've got a huge list of NPCs with scores of abbreviations. Also, I couldn't resist the opportunity to use ABM as the abbreviation for Alpha Beast. * I guess I should have said Multiple Personality Disorder but schizophrenia sounds much more cool than MPD. It is only through blatant disregard for the rules of language that we can transform words into art. |
