Abilities Priority

[Sir Mathodius Black]

Simple question:

Does anyone ever put Abilities at anything less than Priority B?  B is the lowest ive ever put it, considering any lower and you would have an average stat of under 4.  Are the options for putting Abilities at priority C,D,E, and F there for actual use, or just to make the table in the book look complete...?

SMB

[Jake Norwood]

I've used them, at least down to D. In fact, give it a shot. Put Skills in A and Gifts/flaws in B, and you'll find that you have a very, very well prepared non-combat non-sorcery character.

Jake

[Sir Mathodius Black]

I suppose it could work...although you would have to be very dedicated in order to make the character survive.  I suspect, however, it would get kind of annoying having all the other players, not to mention most average people, being stronger, smarter and more charismatic than you...

[Dain]

Hey Jake,
*grin* What did you name that character?
Target "I'm awesome so long as I never leave the safety of my walled fortress" McStubbedAToeAndDiedFromIt?

[toli]

I pretty much always put abilities in A and then work everything else around that.  I guess I like the idea of a physically and mentally 'fit' character who might be a bit 'young' (lower skills etc.).  Just my preference.  

It would really depend on the campaign and what I knew ahead of time to be the general plot.  As a defeault, I like a character who has spent some time as a soldier or warrior but also has a profession like smithing or masonry or huntsman.  I like the idea of him being dragged out of his quite life and off to war or something like that...One of may favorite characters was an academic/soldier from Xanaria....NT

[Lxndr]

Simple question:

Does anyone ever put Abilities at anything less than Priority B?  B is the lowest ive ever put it, considering any lower and you would have an average stat of under 4.  Are the options for putting Abilities at priority C,D,E, and F there for actual use, or just to make the table in the book look complete...?

SMB

I did "F" on my last character.  Priorities A, Magic B, Social Class C, Skills D, Gifts E, Abilities F.  

I like the guy.  :)

[Sir Mathodius Black]

Ive found that putting abilities in B can work fine, you just have to pick and play your strengths.  Unlike putting them in A, you cant do everything well.  But having 14 (or often times 15 because of your country) is actually really really good ive found, especially for solo campaigns.  with sword and shield at 8 and a bow at 7, that makes for a beast of a warrior.

[Jake Norwood]

SMB-

Some of the most dangerous people in the world are the ones with skills and special talents, not the biggest, fastest, strongest, or most martially prepared. This has always been true.

After all, it's easy to build an ability score of 2 up to a 4 in no time flat, and a "low" priority character becomes "average" very quickly, but will have an array of low skills and high-power gifts that other "average" folks don't have.

Jake

[Sir Mathodius Black]

Thats very true.  One thing i often miss is the fact that characters can advance and build up low scores into decent ones in a very short time, as you said.

[Ashren Va'Hale]

I built a skill based non combat character the first time I played TROS and he kicked butt by not ever using his own boots. By being a sneaky bastard and a persuasive speaker he got people to do the dirty work for him and he rackd up a really nasty body count this way without ever rolling a single die in combat.

So you can have a totally low attributes and low prof's and still have a dangerous character.

If you read song of ice and fire think little finger and how dangerous he was, same with tyrion lannister. Both of them were physically unimposing if not laughable and had no real combat ability but are perhaps the most dangerous characters in the book.

[Sir Mathodius Black]

This is slighty unrelated, but I'm now building a character with low abilities and high skills, and the rulebook was not clear on whether you can spend only one MA point for each skill or more than one.  For example, if I have the Craft Skill at SR 6, can I lower it to only SR 5, or spend more MA points and lower it to 3?

[Jake Norwood]

I seem to remember the rulebook capping it at 2 MA points per skill max, but I don't have it on me...


Jake

[bottleneck]

Some of the most dangerous people in the world are the ones with skills and special talents, not the biggest, fastest, strongest, or most martially prepared. This has always been true.

But it still bugs me when my horsethief (ride skill 5) cannot outride the combat monster in the party (skill 8) because he gets to roll 7 dice vs my 4...

Also, as the same combat monster found out; If you're fighting an opponent of superior skill, remember that buying initiative depends mostly on stats.

Basically, when I want to play a non-combat character, I still put A or B in stats, but favor MA, Social and stats relevant for my skills... (and then suck at proficiencies instead).

[Jake Norwood]

But it still bugs me when my horsethief (ride skill 5) cannot outride the combat monster in the party (skill 8) because he gets to roll 7 dice vs my 4...

Possible. But as I look at the math (I am *not* a statistics guy) I see you having an equal chance most of the time, with 2 successes being average for each of you. A lower TN is better than more dice almost all of the time.

Jake

[Ben Lehman]

Possible. But as I look at the math (I am *not* a statistics guy) I see you having an equal chance most of the time, with 2 successes being average for each of you. A lower TN is better than more dice almost all of the time.

BL> At DC 10 or lower:  One point off the target number = (1 dice) / number of dice rolled

Or, for the mathematically disinclined, at 10 dice, adding a dice and subtracting the target number are the same things in terms of producing successes.  A larger dicepool makes TN more valuable, a smaller dicepool makes adding dice more valuable.

yrs--
--Ben