Option 6: Play a strong character and narrate your slotted options with an arcane twist. Also use your groups to give you magical profficiency of a sort. A vocation of weapon enchanter probably unlocks big advantages at finding, recognizing and using magic swords.
Option 7: Use the twisted rules to grant yourself a "minor supernatural ability"
It's probably worth talking a bit about how these different options might play.
1: A Wise with a sword will be fully capable of whatever magic you want, but they won't be great with the sword, and you will have to be careful with how much HP you spend, or you will end up in a sword fight with no buffer.
2: A Deft with magic training will be very capable in combat and if Swordmage is their vocation then they will be very knowledgeable is all aspects of magical combat. You will only be able to use your magical training to bend reality once a session, but it will be awesome when you do.
3: A Brave Swordmage won't be great with the sword as standard but you can have fun adding comeback dice to your rolls when you really need them. This one will give you plenty of opportunities for fun descriptions of your magic, and how it is applied to your sword skills, also Brave a typically very hard to kill. Many of the other Brave abilities will fit nicely too; defending your teammates, turning anything you pick up into a d6 weapon, dodging one attack, whatever it was, once a session.
4: The Cunning is a middle-of-the-road option. Some magic, some combat tricks.
5: I'm letting one of my players play a Deft which will gain a Miracle slot (instead of his Attunement slots) when he reaches level 4. I trust him not to push it too far and he understands that it might not work. Potentially this character will be super-competant and also able to break reality. We'll see how it goes.
6&8: You can do both of these with the same character. The Strong is obviously both tough and good at hitting things. They also get a bunch of abilities which could all be described as being magic. Importantly, this class also gets good armour. So definitly a good option but more limited in what the mage side of the character can actually acomplish
7: Another option to tweak one of the standard classes with a bit of magical power.
The Brave and the Fortunate both have once per session abilities so I guess I got confused from there.
Like I said though, it hasn't been a problem. I always liked that the Deft abilities were more metagamey and vague while the Wise powers were more specific and limited by energy levels (ie sleep).
I only use "once per session" rules if it's a very symbolic or powerful thing that gets old or breaks balance if it is used too often. In Whitehack, the Brave have a once per session ability to "say no," but the Deft can use their slots once per day.
Option 1: Play a Wise, buy a sword.
ReplyDeleteOption 2: Play a Deft, take an attunement, "Mentored by the great swordmage DenMal"
Option 3: Play a Brave, describe your comeback dice as little cantrips and incantations.
Option 4: Use my Cunning class. It's a Strong/Wise hybrid. It may be too powerful.
Option 5: Play a Deft and convince your GM to let you take one miracle instead of two attunements at levels 1, 4, 7 or 10.
Option 6: Play a strong character and narrate your slotted options with an arcane twist. Also use your groups to give you magical profficiency of a sort. A vocation of weapon enchanter probably unlocks big advantages at finding, recognizing and using magic swords.
ReplyDeleteOption 7: Use the twisted rules to grant yourself a "minor supernatural ability"
Option 8: Play a Strong character and let it hold supernatural abilities "transferred through the act of killing" as per p. 7 :).
ReplyDeleteIt's probably worth talking a bit about how these different options might play.
ReplyDelete1: A Wise with a sword will be fully capable of whatever magic you want, but they won't be great with the sword, and you will have to be careful with how much HP you spend, or you will end up in a sword fight with no buffer.
2: A Deft with magic training will be very capable in combat and if Swordmage is their vocation then they will be very knowledgeable is all aspects of magical combat. You will only be able to use your magical training to bend reality once a session, but it will be awesome when you do.
3: A Brave Swordmage won't be great with the sword as standard but you can have fun adding comeback dice to your rolls when you really need them. This one will give you plenty of opportunities for fun descriptions of your magic, and how it is applied to your sword skills, also Brave a typically very hard to kill. Many of the other Brave abilities will fit nicely too; defending your teammates, turning anything you pick up into a d6 weapon, dodging one attack, whatever it was, once a session.
4: The Cunning is a middle-of-the-road option. Some magic, some combat tricks.
5: I'm letting one of my players play a Deft which will gain a Miracle slot (instead of his Attunement slots) when he reaches level 4. I trust him not to push it too far and he understands that it might not work. Potentially this character will be super-competant and also able to break reality. We'll see how it goes.
6&8: You can do both of these with the same character. The Strong is obviously both tough and good at hitting things. They also get a bunch of abilities which could all be described as being magic. Importantly, this class also gets good armour. So definitly a good option but more limited in what the mage side of the character can actually acomplish
7: Another option to tweak one of the standard classes with a bit of magical power.
#1's miracles can be self-buffs that could selectively make the user a more competent swordsman than a Strong character.
ReplyDeleteBrian Ashford, in #2, you wrote "once a session" but the rules say "once per day" -- is session how you play that?
Yes, I have always played Deft attunements as being once per session. Am I wrong?
ReplyDeleteChristian Mehrstam, how do you play?
ReplyDeleteOk, yes, by the book it's once per day. So we've been doing it wrong. Not that it's been a problem.
ReplyDeleteThe Brave and the Fortunate both have once per session abilities so I guess I got confused from there.
ReplyDeleteLike I said though, it hasn't been a problem. I always liked that the Deft abilities were more metagamey and vague while the Wise powers were more specific and limited by energy levels (ie sleep).
I like the asymmetry too! The interpretation of once per day just set off alarm bells that we might be doing it wrong, so I wanted to check.
ReplyDeleteETA: once per (real-life) day is once per session.
Nice conversation guys. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI think in my mind it may come down to ability rolls as well. A wise with a high strength? You could allow them to do their ability bonus in damage
I mean, I wouldn't do that. They get miracles, they can use that for extra damage if they want to. But it's your game. :-)
ReplyDeleteI only use "once per session" rules if it's a very symbolic or powerful thing that gets old or breaks balance if it is used too often. In Whitehack, the Brave have a once per session ability to "say no," but the Deft can use their slots once per day.
ReplyDeleteLooking over my notes, my players tend to get through approximately one day in game per session, so it really doesn't matter much either way for me.
ReplyDeleteBrian Ashford Hi Brian - latecomer here. Where can I find your Cunning class?
ReplyDeleteAngelo Pileggi You can find it here: https://dieheart.net/whitehack-resources/
ReplyDeleteAlong with a bunch of other stuff kindly gathered by Sophia Brandt .
dieheart.net - Whitehack Resources
Brian Ashford Terrific! Thanks to you and Sophia Brandt!
ReplyDelete