Hey guys, after a friend mentioned having a great time, I'm finally planning on joining next season. I'm prepping and getting a handle on play and progression. I like diving in and having a firm grasp of what I'm doing, so I wanted to get some clarifications on mechanics, as well as some advice about prepping for my first event.
I've done a lot of tabletop, and got a decent explanation from skimming through the rulebook and important proficiencies, as well as some clarifications from my friend, but I still have some questions:
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I'm planning on being atleast half-into Warrior. I noticed that there are a ton of Shield Bash actions in the progression, and just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing any other way to progress into the later actions without devoting all your upgrades into Shield Bash to get it strong. It makes sense why it takes so much, as retort seems pretty strong. I think I'm planning on skipping this action entirely, but for my curiosity: Would it just be advantageous to grab Versatility to compensate for those extra actions you need to get, or is there some other method of skipping the filler-actions, such as respending the earlier ones, once you have the later strengths?
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Can you "cover" into a "retort", or do you have to be hit/block the attack? My intent is to eventually become a bodyguard for hire, so I'm looking to have an ironclad knowledge of this sort of thing.
- A more hardware related question: I've gone through the safe-weapon guidelines, but I was looking for more detailed guides and diagrams on unique weapons. Do you have any suggestions for someone looking to make a Medium Weapon-length spear, or investigating other unique weapons, like a halberd? Also: What do unarmed combat weapons look like? I saw that monks use them, instead of their actual fists, but didn't know how that works out, as far as weapon-design goes?
I think that's all my questions for now, but I'm bound to come up with more as I continue jotting down what I need to figure out and have prepped for April!
Edit: Additonal question:
Unarmed combat weapons are just simple boffer swords. You can design them with different colors or even curved but you have to call blunt damage so it can't really look like a sword i.e. tapered edge etc.
and multiclass thing is completely optional. You can multiclass at any point in time. So if you want to go mage for a real long time then add fighter later on when you get bord you can.
Oh? So you don't have to keep them even? I must have misread earlier. I'll try and pour through to see where that all went south in my head. Interesting.
As far as unarmed Combat goes: OK! So it's more like striking with a really small boffer, rather than elaborate boffer boxing gloves?
Hello Shane! Welcome to the game, I shall attempt to answer your question to the best of my ability!
- Shield Bash / Warrior:
Warrior is the fighter path that specializes in Shield use, but by no means to you have to take Shield Bash. While Retort damage can be useful, htere are plenty of other directions to take it.
- Cover:
From Cover: "The user may not avoid or block an attack transferred in this way, but may counter it if he or she is able." To my knowedge the only thing you can do after "covering" someone is either "counter" or call "immune" to the hit, you may not "dodge", "withstand", or avoid it in any other way. If I'm incorrect, hopefully someone will correct me.
- Weapon design/composition:
I suggest you come to a game and use some of the props from the den, and see what the other players are using to get a good idea. Danny or Liz produce a lot of weapons for LARP and are both good sources of information when you can catch them online.
- Crit Damage:
"Crit" camage may be blocked, "Pierce" damage cannot be blocked (except by "deflect").
- Multiclass:
You may multiclass freely between classes in Orn. There is no retriction on when you can multiclass, and you never have to multiclass. Most players will recommend you at least wait til level 6 before multiclassing.
That solves my questions on Crit Damage and Multiclassing, as well as gives me a lead on the Weapon Design thoughts. Thanks! I've goofed around with a dummy-progression in a text document, and I think I am going to skip the Shield Bash, electing for the other shield powers to allow myself more variety.
Final question of this current set reiterates on Cover and Retort again: So, the retort would be Retort Daze. Are we saying you can't piggyback a covered individual to retort on the original attacker? I agree that it wouldn't negate it, but I'm just wanting to ensure I have a handle on that mechanic, and make sure I know the limits of my options there.
Thanks for the assistance! Can't wait to join. I wish I could do so in October, but I'm a bit locked in until the New Year as far as time goes.
I'm actually about 90% sure that you can retort off an attack that you call cover on. Reasoning:
Cover - The action transfers the effect of an attack from the affected character onto the user. The action must be used immediately after the attack is delivered. The user may not avoid or block an attack transferred in this way, but may counter it if he or she is able. The attack is otherwise treated in all ways as if it had hit the user instead of the affected character.
Retort - The action affects a single character who hits the user with a melee attack. This attack may be blocked or countered normally, but does not trigger the retort if it is avoided. The target must be obvious or clearly identified by the user, and can only defend against the effect by countering. The user may decide whether or not to use the action when struck; he or she is not compelled to do so in any way. However, the user cannot retort if he or she is incapacitated by the attack that triggers the retort. The action's tagline must be prepended by the word "Retort" (e.g., "Retort Ruin").
So, if it was a melee attack that you covered for someone, that doesn't incapacitate you, I'd say yes, you can retort that. This is probably a question that will have to go up the chain for verification, though.
EDIT: Of course, if you are the one originally hit by the attack, and someone else covers it for you, you would lose your chance to retort.
Hi and welcome to Orn. I want to clarify something here to make sure you have a good understanding of shield actions. You mentioned deflecting damage. To use shield actions you also need to make sure that you have a shield phys. rep. This means that in order to deflect an attack you will need to actually have a shield (the only exception to this rule is that the dwarf race can deflect with a weapon as well). Also to use the deflect, you must actually block the attack with the shield. You cannot deflect an attack that you cover for this reason, as you are taking the damage as if it hit your body. As other people have said earlier, it will make more sense once you come to an event and learn the rules by playing. As for multi-classing, the reason why many people will tell you to wait until level six to multiclass is because at this point you will have access to the Maim action, which will allow you to maim (or more importantly for warriors; to use that action as a counter to any maims that hit you). By not multi-classing until after you get access to this action you are ensuring the fastest path to this powerful action. Also keep in mind that you may respend your character freely untill you have attended your fourth game. This allows you to try different play styles without committing to one until you have a good grasp on the game. I hope this helps a bit and if you have further questions don't hesitate to post here or to ask them in general chat, which will normally have people on who can answer your questions.
Additional Questions with Multiclassing:
Edit: Whoops. Just found out that you can edit. I know for the future. Sorry for that!