High-Circle Preview: Archer

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Mataxes
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Re: High-Circle Preview: Archer

Post by Mataxes » Wed Nov 30, 2016 4:39 pm

Tanthalas wrote:I do have one question that neither you nor Panda touched upon. Why did you decide to increase the Karma Step at 13th Circle? Increasing the Karma Step is a cool idea, and I'm glad to see it in there somewhere, but unlocking it at the Master tier seems like a really late time to introduce the mechanical change. I would have expected to see that change at 9th circle with perhaps a further step increase when entering into the Master Circles. I'm just wondering what the thought is on that, what the intended impact is, and why it is locked to something that is incredibly late game. Will this be something that all Disciplines get and if so will they get it at the same time? How will it stack with other introduced tricks to up your karma die type?
Yes, all Disciplines get this ability at the same Circle. This ability is unchanged from ED3 -- all Disciplines got a Karma Step increase at C13 there as well. So... not much thinking on it, other than it didn't seem to cause any problems that needed fixing.

As far as stacking, I'm not aware of any abilities offhand that boost Karma step (in ED4), but I would presume any that exist would modify the 'base' Step, and the ability increases that.
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Re: High-Circle Preview: Archer

Post by Tanthalas » Wed Nov 30, 2016 5:00 pm

Mataxes wrote: Yes, all Disciplines get this ability at the same Circle. This ability is unchanged from ED3 -- all Disciplines got a Karma Step increase at C13 there as well. So... not much thinking on it, other than it didn't seem to cause any problems that needed fixing.

As far as stacking, I'm not aware of any abilities offhand that boost Karma step (in ED4), but I would presume any that exist would modify the 'base' Step, and the ability increases that.
Ah, I guess I must have forgotten it was there since my parties never made it up that high, seems like a weird time to do it. But yeah, it definitely doesn't break anything.

I know it would be absolutely crazy for a character to multi-Discipline and wind up at C13 in TWO disciplines, but I assume doing so would keep their Karma step at just a d8, correct? The wording 'increases their Karma Step die to D8' seems to indicate that you cannot get it any higher.

I thought there was a spell at higher circles in the previous edition that could increase your Karma Die type, but I'm AFB right now. Just something bouncing around in my head at this point. Thanks for the response!
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Re: High-Circle Preview: Archer

Post by Tattered Rags » Wed Nov 30, 2016 5:02 pm

Tanthalas wrote: I guess what I'm trying to say is that I always try to assume that characters in Earthdawn intrinsically understand the mechanics behind their world and the names for these mechanics, but I don't really do that in any other system.
I think this is a direct result of the importance of Names (capital "N") to the metaphysics of Earthdawn.

Names are very important to the game, and appropriate Names for everything needs to be found.

Which brings us back to:
""Names are hard." -Morgan Weeks" -Josh Harrison
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Re: High-Circle Preview: Archer

Post by Mataxes » Wed Nov 30, 2016 7:03 pm

Tanthalas wrote: I thought there was a spell at higher circles in the previous edition that could increase your Karma Die type, but I'm AFB right now. Just something bouncing around in my head at this point. Thanks for the response!
There was, in fact. Improve Karma was the spell in question. And it wasn't even that high Circle (C5 or C6, IIRC -- not near my books to check). Kind of broken, to be honest -- largely because of interactions with permanent/Named spells.
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Re: High-Circle Preview: Archer

Post by Kosmit » Wed Nov 30, 2016 11:22 pm

Tanthalas wrote: I do have one question that neither you nor Panda touched upon. Why did you decide to increase the Karma Step at 13th Circle? Increasing the Karma Step is a cool idea, and I'm glad to see it in there somewhere, but unlocking it at the Master tier seems like a really late time to introduce the mechanical change. I would have expected to see that change at 9th circle with perhaps a further step increase when entering into the Master Circles. I'm just wondering what the thought is on that, what the intended impact is, and why it is locked to something that is incredibly late game. Will this be something that all Disciplines get and if so will they get it at the same time? How will it stack with other introduced tricks to up your karma die type?
I think the Step Increase is so late in game because in this edition there are so many sources you can add Karma from that increasing it earlier would add +6d6 to tests on which adept can spend Karma. For me it's definately Master's feat.

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Re: High-Circle Preview: Archer

Post by Black Eagle » Thu Dec 01, 2016 12:03 am

Very well done on revising and improving the Archer discipine higher circles.

If you are counting votes, I'd like to see previews for the Warrior, Weaponsmith, and Elementalist.

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Re: High-Circle Preview: Archer

Post by Dougansf » Thu Dec 01, 2016 12:05 am

My PC's would like me to cast votes for: Beastmaster, Thief, Warrior, and Wizard.

I'm always fond of Elementalist.

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Re: High-Circle Preview: Archer

Post by Mataxes » Thu Dec 01, 2016 1:54 am

Wizard will be shown. They have some new talents that really play up their mastery of magic concept. Warrior gets a couple of new talents. The Weaponsmith continues to shine as a "support" Discipline (I really like their C9 Discipline power).

Really, all of them are pretty cool.
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Re: High-Circle Preview: Archer

Post by The Undying » Thu Dec 01, 2016 6:20 am

From a preview perspective, I'd rather see ANY of the other three magician Disciplines before Wizard. Wizard isn't really representative of what is COMMONLY available to casters. You look at their higher circles from ED3, and they have all sorts of incredible things they can do with magic, at varying parts of the casting process, that the others just never get access to. Honestly, it's always kind of felt like "if you really want to be good with magic in the late circles, go Wizard or go home." The other casters would give us at least an idea of what we can reasonable expect from most magician Disciplibes in the late game from a MAGIC Talent aspect. Wizard is just an "oh, that's awesome, to bad only they probably have it."

Maybe it's changed in Ead4. That'd be great.

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Re: High-Circle Preview: Archer

Post by Kosmit » Thu Dec 01, 2016 10:18 am

*cough* Nethermancer *cough*

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