Brawn is now Brutality

Were we also going to roll out Combat prowess intead of weapon specilization?

Nah, Weapon Specialization pretty much says what it is, although I've still been thinking about other conditional damage-increasing skills.  I remember you had once mentioned Backstab as a cheap way of increasing all damage called from behind a target, for instance.

That would place the rogues back in the spotlight. And it's done in other games.

I'm game. The only question is, do we stop there? It occurs to me that we could extend the idea by creating a variety of skills that grant damage bonuses under different conditions. Consider the following:

• Brutality - The big daddy of damage skills. Grants a global damage bonus, but is also the most expensive.
• Weapon Specialization - Grants a damage bonus to all attacks with a particular type of weapon.
• Foe Specialization - Grants a damage bonus to all attacks against a particular kind of opponent. We still need to do some work here to iron out how a player identifies whether or not the bonus applies. On the bright side, once we figure that out, Bane weapon enchantments should be a cinch.
• Backstab - New skill. Grants a bonus to all attacks delivered from behind the target. Simple enough.
• Homeland Defense - BJ suggested this one early last season. Grants a bonus to all attacks while the character is in a particular location, equivalent in size to a unit at the park. This one may be viable now that we have the site, although the different parts of Jastrey will need names to make it work.

There's a lot of potential here, I think. Can you think of any other conditions under which a character might learn to fight with greater prowess?

What about a specific type of terrain.
 
ie a pit fighter is good a close quarters combat, another for woods another for swamp to take advantage of a foe that is less familiar with the particular type of terrain.

Maybe with backstab you could elaborate further. Maybe call it Directional Attack and the character chooses the direction he or she may specialize in, meaning attack style. Like backstab, flank, and frontal assault.
 
Just thinking out loud but maybe if worked out in team attacks where flankers if attacking simoltaneously there bonus doubles if they both have the skill. Maybe too hard to know unless the attackers plan the attack with each other ahead of time. I don't know.

I very much like the thought of team attacks. much like how we play now there would have to be alot of honor in our honor system. but to have two or three people working in tandem { much like the gladiators did in real life}. It would open all sorts of character concepts. this might just be a rouge and ranger system of fighting. The fact that you would have to be moving so much / trying to get the team in the right spots/ that it could be a cheap way to set up your rouge/ ranger to do great damage.

 
Alright, I've made some headway on this.  I've added a restricted skill called Initiative to the line-up.  For each rank in Initiative, your character inflicts one more point of damage with each attack.  However, the bonus goes away as soon as you're attacked, so it only lasts as long as you can attack without retaliation.  This will likely be approved for general use after I've talked it over with Nick and hashed out the classes and races that will have an affinity for it.
 
It's a bit different from Backstab, but I think it promotes the "roguish" fighting style even better.  Characters specced for Initiative will try to avoid being on the front lines at the onset of encounters, will try to launch all manner of surprise attacks, will use their buddies as distractions, and will cut and run as soon as they're the focus of the enemy's attention.
 
I'm still down with the idea of a Camaraderie skill that increases your damage while you're in the presence of allies, but I'm still not sure about the mechanic.  Is it dependent on being within arm's reach of an ally?  Is there one variation for each PC, and you get the bonus when you're within the viscinity of the person with whom you have Camaraderie?  Does it only apply when you're attacking the same opponent that an ally is attacking?  None of these quite fit for me.
 
On a related note, I've discussed it with Nick and Jennifer and we've decided that the best way to discretely and efficiently communicate monster types (for characters with Foe Specialization, for druid Compel effects, and for the new line of Bane weapon enchantments I'll be giving to paladins) is by tabard color.  For example, beasts will be brown, fiends will be red, plants will be green, undead will be white, etc.  Patches were also suggested, but we ultimately felt that a full tabard would be a clearer signal than a patch that might be difficult to see.  Exactly what all of the colors will be is still being worked out, and the mechanic itself may have to wait until we have tabards in a variety of colors.  BJ, Jennifer mentioned wanting to talk to you about using a surger to get the job done quickly.
 

On Camaraderie I would say the comrades would have to be attacking the same creature from different sides. You may could make it a series of bonuses "Ally" would be line of site and more expensive. "Surround" would be cheaper but conditional on surrounding the same enemy. "Rally Cry" be a verbal within earshot of characters with the rally cry skill. Knolls would love that one. Maybe more possibilities.

Okay, the Initiative skill has been approved for general use.  I've given a moderate affinity to rangers and rogues, and a weak affinity to bards, monks, and warriors.  As far as races go, elves, humans, and urdek also have an affinity.  I'll need to do some rebalancing later to account for the new affinities, but for now, I look forward to seeing how it works out in play.  Considering its simplicity, Nick and I both think it will add a colorful new dynamic to combat.
 
As far as Camaraderie, I'm leaning towards a similar mechanic.  Maybe its a bonus you get only until one of your allies is dropped, or that you get as soon as they're dropped (although that could have some nasty implications).  I'll have to mull it over for awhile.

I'll talk to beths mom  on the marrow.

she can make alot of white talberts and we would have to dye them. they no longer have colors.