Non-Caster Incentive

[frogspawner]

Thanks again. I use a system with just one main Magic skill for actual spells, not individual spell-skills, but there are also other magic-related skills to spend practice/training time on (Ceremony, Sensitivity, Enchanting, Loremastery, Alchemy, etc). So hopefully it won't be a problem.

But I'm still worried that it might be: Would lots of combat-related Powers be too tempting for sorceror-type characters?

I wonder whether to invoke the "hours in the day" principle: there are only so many hours in the day to practice your magic/combat/sneaky/holy skills, to keep them up to scratch. Characters who want them top-notch should concentrate their "off hours practice" on one type, or they'd lose out...

[AikiGhost]

Originally Posted by frogspawner

I wonder whether to invoke the "hours in the day" principle: there are only so many hours in the day to practice your magic/combat/sneaky/holy skills, to keep them up to scratch. Characters who want them top-notch should concentrate their "off hours practice" on one type, or they'd lose out...

You could just set a hard limit (say 75%) for skills outside your chosen profession. This would create a kind of "class" system to some degree but I guess its the easiest and simplest way of preventing PCs that are good at everything.

Of course you could go the cyberpunk way and just kill off any PC that's starting to get too powerful

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by AikiGhost

You could just set a hard limit (say 75%) for skills outside your chosen profession. This would create a kind of "class" system to some degree but I guess its the easiest and simplest way of preventing PCs that are good at everything.

Of course you could go the cyberpunk way and just kill off any PC that's starting to get too powerful

Harsh!

And I don't want to go too far towards a class system, either. Hard limits for non-profession skills feels like a step too far (but I guess that's the same as the 'type' restrictions I was considering).

Maybe if combat powers were dependent on a range of skills, not just one...?

[Tywyll]

Part of what might help would simply be making sure that players use downtime for training. If they have a month to rest between adventures, which skill do they want to bump? Fighters will probably pick weapon skills and casters not.

Ultimately though, the question comes down to not how to keep the wizards from being as good as the fighter in melee, but how to make the fighters 'special' so their options in combat don't degenerate to, "I attack, I defend, I attack, I defend..."

to paraphrase something I read on a forum recently about Feat systems versus pure skill systems, while feats and the mechanics of them might be flawed, the premise is sound. That is, players like their characters to be special and do things that other people can't. Feats/Special abilities allow them that feeling, of being special and capable beyond the guardsman with X% in his skill.

So the Fate Points are definitely a good idea, as are super powers scaled down for more mundane applications.

Another option for how they are learned, depending on world setting, would be as Cult Powers ala the MRQ Elric system. Only fighter, or followers of war gods, could dedicate pow to gain 'specials'. The concept could be broadened to represent guilds and such as well, I suppose, though the sacrifice might have to be reworked a bit.

[frogspawner]

Originally Posted by Tywyll

Ultimately though, the question comes down to not how to keep the wizards from being as good as the fighter in melee, but how to make the fighters 'special' so their options in combat don't degenerate to, "I attack, I defend, I attack, I defend..."

Oh, I agree entirely.

I'm not trying to limit wizards' normal combat abilities - but letting them get the fighters' new fun Combat Powers (that we're about to invent) as well as all their magic would spoil the whole idea. Mages would still be more fun (have more options) than Warriors. But how do you prevent them, if fighters earn their Fun Combat Powers by reaching high levels of weapon skill (and what else could the criteria be?) which the wizard-types could also do fairly easily if they chose? How, How...?

Martial Arts.

I actually read the BRP rules for it today. Not being interested in all that inscrutable leaping-about, I hadn't bothered before. (I'm more a Knights-and-Dragons man - well, it is St.George's Day, Huzzah!). But once again the new BRP has given us gold!

Renamed as something innocuous like "Weapon Specialism (weapon type)" or some such, to avoid the oriental overtones that don't suit every campaign, they are a thing Warriors can have, but sorcerors/priests don't. So special abilities tied to them, at 50%, 100%, or whatever, can give the fun back to the fighters - and just the fighters. Yes!