For those who know who the fictional guy is: Paldemar has been killed.
He's been slain in a thrilling encounter where people got down to 0 or 1 HP repeatedly, where the two second-biggest threats have been killed with just enough damage, where a PC had been brought to 2hp from negative bloodied.
Except now everyone wants to change their characters, and our Leader wants to play a leader that does some more damage. I have no ieda if leaders with a secondary striker role exist and if they're good at keeping the party alive.
if I still did have the PDF's or the Character builder, I could look through it a little and give some possible builds/advice, but I scrapped the PDF's and have never had a real reason to pay for that builder since I stopped actually having any 4E campaigns
at the risk of sounding quite egotistical, I was once THE guy making characters that fit the mechanical bill for the half of my 4E group that didn't want to have to make and maintain characters, but did know what they wanted said characters to DO
"In addition, this criteria makes most direct Harry Potter systems non-viable; all the ones I'm aware of have significant investment in the house system and Hogwarts, where this is a campaign about adults who never went there."
So far I think Fate Core is probably my best bet, with one of the equipment-related extras and turning spells into Stunts, but I don't have any experience with the system, so I don't think a self-answer is appropriate.
Also, it's pretty likely that I'm totally missing a system like Ars Magica that might do what I want better.
as well as how much baggage you want the system to be bringing in
should it just be a system that you can build your setting in, or should it provide its own setting assumptions that you'd need to work around or build upon
I was actually just about to comment: I think that's a solid answer, but I would appreciate a link to a place I could get more information on SW in general.
I'm googling it now, but I feel like that info would improve the answer.
Oh, do SW and DW not have anything to do with eachother?
My group was looking for a new system recently, and someone proposed Savage Worlds. Since we were thinking of a sci-fi setting, I proposed Apocalypse World since I was under the impression that was basically a post-apocalyptic version of Savage Worlds. Someone else said no, it was significantly d...
So you use an Aspect to decide how magical a character is, instead of a pyramid of skills which you're not necessarily going to dig into since it's about magic
well basically, FAE replaces Skills with Approaches
So if you want to attack with your highest approach, you're going to have to justify it.. you might be very Quick, but you can't Quickly (+3) tear through a wall
Now, I haven't played a lot of Fate at all, mostly I'm just theorising until I can get the timing right to meet up with my group, but we'll be doing FAE
@Wibbs I looked at some descriptions of the DFRPG spell system, and Fate generally looks like it does what I want, so that might be the way to go. I'm looking into SW right now, to see if it's easier to wrap my brain around.
Because while I can see the appeal of Core, I'm going to need more than "I attack with Fight +4" to keep it lively, at least at first, to get my group used to roleplaying
Savage Worlds will be closer to the D&D and Gurps you're used to so should be easier to get. Whether it's better than Fate, and whether Fate is so good it's worth spending the time to get your head around is something I don't know the answer to
I just know I could quite easily knock up a Savage Worlds based Harry Potter game, speaking as someone who is both very familiar with the system and the setting
Maybe Wingardium Leviosa would be Careful rather than just Clever, I mean sure, wizards are smart, but it'd not just make Clever a super-approach, it'd take away from what FAE is in the first place
I certainly would like to play something more like Fate or DW at some point, but it may be better to play in a game like that before trying to GM one, given how used to more traditional gaming I am.
Whereas in Core I'm not sure how you could add a lot of flavor to magic, the first thing that comes to my mind would be a Magic skill, but then everyone would cast everything with their Magic bonus
@AlexMitan The way I've been thinking about doing it in Fate would be to make each spell a Stunt. You'd cast magic with a single skill, but you only have a few spells, so it's not really a problem. You still need to use other skills to do most tasks.
@DuckTapeAl It's up to you, really, just be careful not to make the Stunts be basically a spell inventory, because then your characters will be unable to do anything other than magic well
One of my players, a kind of rogue mage pyro, has a stunt for sneak attacking, and another stunt for when she's using fire to sabotage things, both of which she'd really miss if she had to take a stunt for every spell
@DuckTapeAl Mhm... I think you could do "spell inventory", and your players, not just your characters, would have to know the spell's name (as well has have their characters trained to be able to cast it)
Someone could find themselves in both "realistically" incapacitating situations where they can be as Sneaky or Careful as they want, if they want to unlock a door magically they're going to have to know the spell's name and intricacies
Alternatively, they could just go "Yeah, I want to cast a Careful Alohomora on this" "Yeah, great, I watched the films too, but your character has no training in the spell whatsoever"
Oh, okay... I'm not very well-versed in the 'verse
And yeah, again, don't use Clever for everything magical, it'll just make everyone blow their Clever stat out of proportion.. even the FAE handbook insists on Forceful being used to cast a massive fireball as well as crushing someone with a warhammer
It's up to the aspects to point out whether the character in question is or isn't good with both fireballs and warhammers
Hell, [Fireballs and Warhammers] is a pretty badass aspect in itself if you ask me
That's certainly catered for in the core rules although its not the systems strongest point. A couple of fan made extensions exist though that introduce the concept of zones rather than specific grid positions, and I know plenty of GMs who don't use maps at all
I mainly ask because all the positioning-related stuff I'm seeing references inches, which often means that the system doesn't work as well if you're not using the tactical combat stuff.
There hasn't been a point yet where I've been like "I don't get, at all, how that would work". Which is a good thing for a system that I'd like to start running within a week or two.
Another thing I did, but never really tested, for D&D was this: I took some plastified paper strips and cut them down by inches, and wrote down the distance in-game that they represent:
@Wibbs I'm a little confused about Powers. Do you have to learn each power that you can use, or can you just say "I'm using Armour now", whether or not you've specifically learned that power?
theres an arcane background in Hellfrost where you learn runes, which are groups of 3 powers
the original version of Miracles in Deadlands Reloaded gave you access to all powers available to you, with penalties according to the rank of the power
Ok, guys, if I asked something along the lines of "What are the differences and similarities between Fate and Dungeon World" on the stack, would I get knocked for it?
@trogdor maybe more context is in order. We're level 7 now, planning to go to 10. We don't use hybrids, and Dragon material is only ok if this chat tells me it's not OP. The rest of the party is going to be a blackguard (forced to work for a common cause), a scout, and maybe a bard, maybe a pacifist cleric, maybe a cavalier (but, seen as the current shaman player wants to play leader, I guess it's going to be a cavalier).
If someone creates an advantage that suggests they're aiming and such, something temporary, like Aiming carefully or In my sights, they gain an aspect with a free invoke, right?
First, it's the responsibility of the party to make sure that an aspect's phrasing roughly coincides with its intended duration.
So something like In the zone or The perfect vantage point would make better sense.
Second, regardless of what the mechanics say about an aspect's duration, if the story moves away from the aspect making sense, the aspect changes or disappears appropriately.
Getting an aspect of Bulletproof Forcefield! with a free invoke could be just as good at countering an aspect of In my sights with a free invoke, as just Overcoming in the first place.
@AlexMitan having one enemy that acts multiple times per round would be pretty cool, just keep the activity low.
Having six mooks combine into two mobs is done so that you can keep the spotlight on the players, and avoid having six whole turns on the NPC side. (BORING FOR EVERYONE, probably GM included!)
Nah, I dominated the first scene, so for this one I leapt across a 10-metre ravine nobody else could cross. While they continue the scene, I'm fighting baby rust monsters and tossing them across for the necromancer to use for raw parts.
@Zachiel ok, well that means that you won't be able to apply paragon paths or feats beyond heroic to this issue
which of these characters wants more dps but also still wants to heal some?
and does the player care all that much what class they are?
cause if you have like, a cleric and a shaman, I would even go so far as to say you don't need more healing than they both can provide as long as everyone else is also doing their jobs
but if one of them is the one who wants to deal more damage that makes a difference
if the player in question plays a divine striker, like an Avenger, I believe they might be able to take a feat that lets them take some kind of healing power
I think it is daily, so it wouldn't exactly be spam able , but if the feat I think I remember actually exists and is able to be taken at heroic levels, I think it might help
but to be honest, I don't even remember what it was called, let alone exactly how it worked
I would look it up if I still had the PDF's that I foolishly trashed, but I cannot do that
as is, I also don't know what class said player is willing or wanting to be, or if they are due any magic items right now that they could take
ok, I believe that regardless of which kind of shaman you are, you still get normal healing abilities
I could be mistaken on that
but if she wants to heal better without taking away feats she could use to do damage, I think there are some neck slot items that might give an extra healing power
As of now her equip is: a lance that lets her beast powers hit at range 2 an accurate totem, and totem expertise (ignores light concealment and light cover) a healing brooch (the item you suggested) a healing armor (a similar item)
and well, I guess she's grown a little envyous of the striker's high to hit and damage bonuses (slayer with +2 to basic attack damage arms item and +2 damage to bloodied people gloves, and a fullblade)
She's not really willing to keep being a shaman, but she likes the healing role. I guess she wants to feel useful and maybe the troupe play of 4e where the only true protagonists are strikers (the group hepls them kill monsters) is not really her thing
I hope we find some other player to take up the peader or defende role should she decide to go full striker. We already got a PC whose player left that we're using as some sort of companion (I RP her, but they have a word on the battle strategies I suggest)
What's important to the setting?
Rude words are rude only because we decide they are. The word and phrases that a society feels are inappropriate say a lot about the people and culture, so you're going to need to start with a solid understanding of the values and beliefs of the society.
Conside...
