Paradigm Concepts

[Harliquinn]

I'm just doing an informal poll/questioning to see which skills the players and community feel should be kept Max'ed out in each tier.

By Max'ed I mean using at least 2 (if not 3) of your +1 to Skills Advancements each Tier.

Obviously, this will vary by role, so feel free to qualify your answers with that.

I'm asking this partially as a thought exercise and perhaps it can be used to help newer players to the system (basically all of us at one point or another) understand where they want to concentrate in upper tiers, based upon increasing TN's, increasing threats, new uses for skills, and of course personal choices/preferences.

To start...


1 Combat Skill: I feel it's important for all roles to keep at least 1 combat skill Max'ed as much as possible. Even casters are going to have a point where more Strain will hurt too much and may need to bring out a weapon. In fact, if a caster is just 'delaying' when they aren't casting, many feel they are not contributing the full amount they could.

1 Social Skill: With some variations for preference/choice, I feel that each character can and should choose some type of social skill. Roleplaying can accomplish a lot but given the great opportunities in Arcanis for more than just combat, it's important that characters can contribute in the many social encounters that occur.

1 Lore Skill: I feel each character should be good at knowing *something* about the world, and be a specialist at it. Obviously, each type of lore skill contributes in a different way and there are a variety to pick from. It also helps create a nice well rounded character.

1 Arcanum Skill: Obviously, only for casters, but if you do cast, it's going to be important to keep this Max'ed in order to meet passive TN's and cast your adaptations.

Curious if anyone else has ideas on specific skills or skill types that they feel characters should concentrate some of their resources on.

If you have nothing constructive to add to the thread, please refrain from posting Thanks!

John
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- Harliquinn, John Bellando
Ohio Harvester

Kelb'Bakari, Dark-kin Altherian Corsair, Gentleman Archaeologist
-"Judge a wine by its label and you will miss out on the best vintages."

[Archangel]

I'll preface this by saying it depends on your role in the party. Second I'll add it depends on your concept.

In a general sense I think having at least one skill for in combat purposes and at least one skill for out of combat purposes would be best.

I don't think anyone can get away from having to swing/shoot at some point so those are good choices. I'd also like to add perception as one to consider keeping high if not maxed in a general case, if you aren't aware of a potential threat you can't use any other skills against it.
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Brian Trahan

[hustonj]

Character concept, not externally defined role, needs to be the driver, here.

Sure, primary mechanical skill used to resolve problems is on the list, whether it is Melee (Unbalanced), Persuasion or Arcanum (Thaumaturgy). As a result, I choose to ignore those for the rest of the discussion, because stating them is stating the obvious.

Someone who is without fear, or has an amazing capacity to continue beyond all normal limits should keep Mettle maxed out.

The guy who always knows the right way to respond in a situation should keep Etiquette maxed out.

A Dwarf that is really trying to do her part towards getting the curse lifted should keep the appropriate Artisan maxed out. Many dwarf Heroes won't bother . . ..

The answer to this question is character concept specific. Not every character is going to WANT to keep a skill maxed. MOST should. What that skill is going to be, though, is about what is important to the character and to how the character chooses to interact with the world.

My Savonnan, Larissan Duellist plans to keep Acrobatics, Larceny, Melee (Balanced) and Arcanum (Cants) (as a partial list) all maxed as much as possible. Because these skills are directly tied into how he believes he's supposed to interact with the world around him. Currently, I don't PLAN on him taking any opposition targeting spells, either.
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Valeriano Innocenzo Camillo de Larissa la Galletti
San Antonio, Tx-based Harvester
Jeff Huston
huston.harvester@cox.net

[Archangel]

I think Jeff nailed it down pretty well, but I'd like to add a caveat to his statements. It also depends on how the game is run. If it is just a series of combats then social skills are (nearly) useless, and the opposite is true if it is a court intrigue type of game where you never lay a hand on your enemies. Those are extreme cases but valid to the point that the characters aren't in a vacuum and the action around them also dictates what skills are going to be used.
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Brian Trahan

[EricGorman]

Again I pretty much agree with Jeff.

Obviously combat is a big part of virtually all modules. However you dispatch enemies, thst skill should be kept high. I would certainly recomend having a social skill in general (and either bluff or persuasion in particular) ... but some abrasive characters can also be fun to run. No one has mentioned athletics yet which is a good thing to have a lot of ranks in for all the climbing or jumping your PC is certain to do. Perception is useful ... but Battle can also be used to detect ambushes and so is not nearly as much of an auto-pick as (you know) in that other system. Streetwise IMO is the most useful information gathering skill for catching a clue in a mod. If you want to be stealthy then you need to max that skill out ... I do not believe any character can cover anywhere near all the bases. Pick a couple of things to be good at and a couple of things to fill in on if no one else can do it.

A related queston might be what skills does a party need to have maxed out? There you have the traditional rolls...errr roles.

(A) IMO in most Arcanis mods someone needs to be the face. Persuasion and Bluff are the key skills. Empathy and Ettiqute help too. This is the most important skill monkey to have along and I would feel worried if I was in a part where no one had training in these skills.
(B) The Scout. Battle/Perception, (maybe) Stealth and Wilderness Lore are the key skill. Athletics and Tracking can also be important.
(C) The investigator. Might replace the scout. Perception and Streetwise might be the key skills. Empathy also helps.
(D) You might want a trap monkey of some kind. You don't always need one ... but when you do you really want one. Perception and Knowledge: Engineering seem to be the key skills in Arcanis. Larceny might not hurt either. Haven't seen a mod that demands these skills yet ... but I'm sure we'll see one eventually.

In my experience I tend to devalue most knowledge skills. Having 100 rans in ancient history doesn't give you and extra in gme knowledge of ancient secrets and very few mods have "easter eggs" for the knowledge monkeys (and IME many GMs give out those bits of knowledge even if player can't make the rolls). But thats just me. All my divine characters have knowledge religion maxed out (or close to) because they would.
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