How to solve a problem like Smithy.

[greg_r]

Had an amazing weekend, now looking at his stats and trying to decide what to do next. Advice is encouraged and I won't think it's telling me how to play him. I'm looking for ideas atm.

So I worked it out before going in the 24hr. Smithy was a rank 49.8 character with the useful stats of a rank 22.6 (arguable rank 19.1 if you remove the dubiously useful order castings) Guard who follows the moral obligations of the Paladins.

If he was a dodgey git using the fact that his guild has few moral obligations then that would be a reasonable trade as the defenders have some pretty strict moral obligations. Instead I have him allied with the Paladins and he ends up following an even more rigid code. I'm starting to get the feeling that it's irresponsible to play him as the stats are just so bad for a rank 50 character. So what are his stats? He's in 16 armour, has an easily broken shield and strikes for 10s. He also doesn't have enough toughness or willpower to resist any rank appropriate effects (2 and 1 respectively). If it wasn't for the fact that I enjoy RPing him so much I'd consider retiring him to be a system NPC, Marcus practically offered that on the creation of the Artisans guild, which would be a fitting retirement for the character I suppose.

This leads me to my questions as opposed to simply "wah-wah": What do people buy at high ranks? It seems like everything I could buy is silly expensive, insignificant or both. My original concept of class-changing to Priest at around this point isn't possible and I completely agree that it shouldn't be. If I was a legitimate rank 20-ish guard who swapped to pure priest at this point and possible eyed up the Wardens then it would be horrific. However, that leaves Smithy up the creek as to get even the strength chain and enough standing to use it on my stuff is going to costs over 20 ranks ( Strengthen 2,3 and 4 are 18, 24 and 30 points, 70 standing is 140 points, prayer is 12) which seems silly expensive for what it is. Getting his damage up to a point where he can affect things otherwise is going to involve triple strength at 80 points plus most likely a favoured superior weapon, which isn't outside the realms of possibility I suppose, but seems like a pretty major investment to add 4 damage while relegating everything else he can do to dodge and/or bounce to most things at that point.

I could buy up more toughness and willpower at human warrior cost, but I'm never going to reach "I'm immune to effects" levels as a dedicated caster is always going to be able to beat that curve. Maybe I just need to accept that it's not as bad as it seems, invest a bit more in shield and none armour defences and accept that 2h weapons are always going to wreck people, that's their job afterall.

Comments

[greg-r.livejournal.com]

huh, I thought I'd spoken about this before, looks like I do this after weekending as him. Sorry for the spam folks.

[lilacivy.livejournal.com]

Spending 80 points on triple strength as Katrin has been one of the best spends ever! Expensive but I thoroughly recommend it :)

Also, it's true your base toughness and willpower will never be above the curve, but a higher number to start with makes it easier for mages to buff you above the curve.

[greg-r.livejournal.com]

How much use do you reckon you get out of it? I mostly want it to resist repel effects, but is the damage boost worth it too?

[xanthipe]

Worth it for both the resistance and the damage boosts, and don't forget that as you have access to Strengthen and better weapons you can really use it to stack up.

(Also Mistral feels Smithy's pain!)

[greg-r.livejournal.com]

*nods* the calculations in the main assume that I get a superior weapon and favoured so that I can make full use of it. Strengthen is mostly a "don't destroy this" for me atm as it's going to be so expensive to make it a valuable self-buff.

[lilacivy.livejournal.com]

The damage boost is good, I feel quite happy with my current one handed 14s, it means you can resist either repel or repulse life (I can never remember which) which is /great/ for making you look all heroic and shit, since I've had it I've not encountered a grip I couldn't get myself out of (that is so not a player request btw any gm who might be reading) and it has the roleplay funsies of being able to crush most npc's hands in a hearty hand shake.

Oh and of course it's good for ic picking people up and running away with them...

[greg-r.livejournal.com]

*nods* yeah I see that 14 is a good one handed call. I think that'll be my next sensible points spend priority.

I feel like quad would be best for being the heroic shiney (for exceptional strengthing your way out of situations :P) which is then a bit of a spend too far as I can't really make much use of it.

[xanthipe]

On the RP vs stats side, don't forget that as Smithy is someone genuinely likeable to most people he's effectively a buff-magnet; just because he personally can't kick out much doesn't mean that other people can't make him that way.

[greg-r.livejournal.com]

Very true, though that opens up the worm-can of would their power be better spent on more tooled up characters?

[xanthipe]

Not really, it's usually better to tool up the people who will use it best due to having common sense :)

(Kavara made me write that.)

On a tactics note, it's also better to have a larger number of good fighters than a small number of exceptional fighters, so it's generally better to spread the buffs out. The sole exception is when you need a point-man and that varies on the fight.

[greg-r.livejournal.com]

Fair point :) And yeah, it does make sense to make everyone able to hurt the thing where possible, so I can see the logic of that.

[weightofeons.livejournal.com]

First, you join the vote to get rid of the No Class Change rules change. Then you carry on having the character your roleplay has brought you to.

[greg-r.livejournal.com]

:) I like that answer. I'm kind of on the fence about class changes. I think that they should be allowed, but we need to find a better way to balance them otherwise there's nothing stopping a mid-high rank warrior from swapping out and picking up cheap castings which just invalidates casters who don't have the extra life, armour, etc. to compete in that arms race.