Leveling Up - March 2017

[Legendary Sidekick]

Spoiler: first version

You start the game with 6 dice* and a base health of 3 hearts (or 1 if you're tiny, or 5 if you have a strength bonus).

*Huntress: 2 fight / 3 shoot / 1 magic

As you level, here's what you get:



LEVELS 2-4

Choose one:

+1 die**
+1 heart
Lv.1 attack (meaning you can use Lv.1 spells and weapons that add +1 to your roll)

**This lets you improve your fight, shoot or magic roll. You can repurpose this die between chapters.


LEVELS 5-12

Each level, you can increase your dice, hearts or attack by 1.
The maximum allowed until you enter your teens is:

+3 dice / you can stack 2 dice***
+3 hearts
Lv.5 attack

***So with three dice, the Huntress (base: 2F/3S/1M) can have, for example...
...3F/4S/2M, adding one die to each type of roll
...3F/5S/1M, stacking two dice to improve her shooting

LEVELS 13-20

Continue to increase dice, hearts and attack one level at a time.
The endgame maximum is:

+5 dice / you can stack 3
+5 hearts
Lv.9 attack


* * *


Since you've had 4hp and had 7 or 8 dice AND used magic, the best way to handle this change is to consider you both Lv.5. And that's where you should be anyway since we're in Ch.6.

That would allow you to have:
+1 dice
+1 heart (4 total)
Lv.1 attack

And you can bring any of those numbers up to 2. (+2 dice if you want your die rolls to stay basically the same)


The way to not lose anything is this:

Sig:
2f/3s/1m >> 3F/3S/2M (extra dice in fight and magic, but you can move them)
4hp
Atk Lv.1

Kell:
1f/2s/3m >> 2F/2S/4M (extra dice in fight and magic, but you can move them)
4hp
Atk Lv.1


That said, if you'd rather do level five differently and give up an extra die for 5hp or Lv.2 attacks (spells and weapons), that's fine. I'm still messing with the attack cards now though, so you might be better off with the extra die, which allows you to roll 5 dice with your best kind of roll if you want to.

Updated: click HERE for current version!

 

[Ireth]

The way to not lose anything is this:

Sig:
2f/3s/1m >> 3F/3S/2M (extra dice in fight and magic, but you can move them)
4hp
Atk Lv.1

Hmmm... I'm torn between that arrangement and 2F/4S/2M... might have to roll a d2 to decide!

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

You don't have to commit permanently. You could have extra fight dice now, and once you have your bow, have 4 or 5 shoot dice.

By the way, you're a genius! I totally forgot you didn't go to the underworld as a walking arsenal. This is will make the next encounter interesting.

 

[Ireth]

Point taken. I'll go with 3F/3S/2M then.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

I think having spells tied to weapons is the best way to make magic weapons work.

Maybe just to make an apparent difference, elemental magic should work like this:
- spell-strike - cast once on a sword or whatever; the spell lasts for the duration of the battle.
- projectile - cast on an arrow or bullet; the spell lasts for the duration of a round.
- AoE - cast on an area; the spell effects the environment.

 

[Ireth]

I think having spells tied to weapons is the best way to make magic weapons work.

Maybe just to make an apparent difference, elemental magic should work like this:
- spell-strike - cast once on a sword or whatever; the spell lasts for the duration of the battle.
- projectile - cast on an arrow or bullet; the spell lasts for the duration of a round.
- AoE - cast on an area; the spell effects the environment.

That makes sense. So Entangle would be AoE, Blades of Ice is spell-strike, and Heaven's Arrow is projectile. Got it. ^^

 

[tbgg]

The change in terminology is a little confusing. I get that power maps to fight, and grace maps to magic, but talent/instinct mapping to shoot isn't really clicking for me. I don't mean this next question the snarky way it will probably sound, but are you planning on changing the names of everything after this? My memory already isn't the best, and these relatively constant name changes just make it harder for me to keep track of what's what. I know that once you have your final product, new folks won't have to deal with all of that, I just might go a bit batty getting there, LOL!

Has the concept of what 'shoot' applies to changed at all? For instance, I seem to recall stealth previously fell under Instinct. Yet with the term 'shoot' it doesn't seem like stealth would fit at all, nor would it fit under Fight or Magic. Or is this one of those things you're getting rid of?


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[Legendary Sidekick]

Now that you've brought it up, I'm honestly wondering if there's even a need to roll for stealth. I thought about giving the Huntress a stealth bonus, then I thought… why? If the rest of the party sucks at stealth, what's the point? Same with charisma. How often does a CHA check even matter? We just did an entire chapter all role-play, which I thought went quite well without die-rolling. If you had to roll to get Hades on your side or Apollo not to be a jerk, then Kell would have had to politely ask Sigrlinn not to speak because only characters with yellow dice should do the talking.

In Steerpike's game, I really liked that hostage negotiation. Again, it worked without die rolls really mattering (aside from intimidate and poison resists by the enemy). I also had Baldhart successfully sneak around a town once in Dragon's Egg, which could not have worked out if I had to do a DEX check.

So maybe just call the dice fight/shoot/magic and roll only for combat. Other stuff can work as all RP, and I think I'll ditch the initiative roll too. If a monster ambushes you, you roll defense. If you sneak up on a monster and attack, you roll attack. Quick-draw characters always get to attack before rolling normally.

Your characters have mass stuns (Huntress traps; Nymph beauty), which will be more effective than a quick-draw, but will not always work. For example, if Sigrlinn sets tiger traps and harpies attack, they'll fly over the trap, and Kell won't be able to tempt a flock of temptresses.

There are also differences between these abilities which should probably be a combination of good RP and GM calls. If Kell wants to use her beauty to calm the men you now hear, it will likely work. If Sigrlinn creates a trap using sharp sticks and whatever else is believably useful in a swampy area full of dead trees, her trap might work… but it will also provoke a fight.



So, in case that^ got tl;dr'd…

Fight / Shoot / Magic — Let's try rolling combat-only for now. If that works, let's never go back.

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Also, it's not snarky at all. I was snarkier with myself because my thought on terminology was that I was basically doing this:

Pink dice = STR
Yellow dice = CHA
Green dice = Huntiness

 

[Legendary Sidekick]

Here's a slight tweak with some reasoning behind it...

(It doesn't have any effect on how you already leveled up.)


Lv.2-19: every time you level-up, choose one:
+1 extra die
+1 heart
+1 to attack

Max @ Lv.2-6
+2 extra dice (you can't stack them)
+2 hearts
+2 to attack

Max @ Lv.7-12
+4 extra dice (you can stack 2)
+4 hearts
+4 to attack

Max @ Lv.13-19
+6 extra dice (you can stack 3)
+6 hearts
+6 to attack

@ Lv.20, you have:
+7 extra dice (you can stack 4)
+7 hearts
+7 to attack


Why the change:

When tbgg asked me if Lv.1-9 attacks are like Lv.1-9 spells, that was actually my intent. The problem is that I have 3 classes of magic. If only one goes to Lv.9, it makes that class the best one.

So now the progression is...

Type 1: Attack Lv.1, 5, 7 (you get class-based magic early in-game, but need to be in your teens to progress)
Type 2: Attack Lv.2, 4, 7 (you get elemental magic early in game, and can learn higher-level magic quickly)
Type 3: Attack Lv.3, 6, 7 (you get this third type of magic no sooner than level 7, and need to be at least level 14 to progress.)

At level 20, you get the best version of any spell.

 

[tbgg]

I think it would be helpful if you described the magic types just a bit. Class-based magic and Elemental magic works, but this other sort of magic needs a descriptor. Where does healing fall under this new scheme? It it associated with items or with magic?


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[Legendary Sidekick]

You'll find out what it is. I had two ideas: divine and something different. The latter has a name, and is the more interesting option.

 

[tbgg]

Could divine be the lvl 20 version? Or the could unnamed cool one?

Also, I want to point out that magic doesn't have to be the same across classes if the other classes get something else equivalently 'cool' as they level. I don't think it makes sense, for instance, for a barbarian to cast as cool a magic as a nymph can. The barb can have magic, but let their magic be geared toward helping them in battle, since battle IS their particular specialty. Their magic should be secondary to their fighting.


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[Legendary Sidekick]

The NPCs will likely go other ways (expect Daphne, who will join you). I don't expect both players to split up.