High Circle Preview: Swordmaster

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Mataxes
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High Circle Preview: Swordmaster

Post by Mataxes » Fri Jan 13, 2017 2:16 pm

Somebody asked, so that's what we've got this week. Perhaps not as much cool new stuff as we've seen in the past, but they have a couple of things I think are cool.

http://fasagames.com/2017/01/13/high-ci ... ordmaster/

We're getting to the point where there's not quite as much "cool, new, shiny" with these previews, since some things are shared across multiple Disciplines, or have similar approaches with slightly different focus.

At any rate.. enjoy!
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Dougansf
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Re: High Circle Preview: Swordmaster

Post by Dougansf » Fri Jan 13, 2017 2:59 pm

Fluid Movement (Circle 12) increases the adept’s Movement rate, and allows them to use the Splitting Movement option without penalty to attack up to their rank in the talent per round. In other words, they can dash about the battlefield, striking multiple opponents.
Does this talent provide extra attacks, or simply allow you to split your attacks (from other sources) among multiple targets between moves?

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Mataxes
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Re: High Circle Preview: Swordmaster

Post by Mataxes » Fri Jan 13, 2017 3:07 pm

Dougansf wrote:
Fluid Movement (Circle 12) increases the adept’s Movement rate, and allows them to use the Splitting Movement option without penalty to attack up to their rank in the talent per round. In other words, they can dash about the battlefield, striking multiple opponents.
Does this talent provide extra attacks, or simply allow you to split your attacks (from other sources) among multiple targets between moves?
The latter. It doesn't provide any extra attacks of its own.
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Kosmit
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Re: High Circle Preview: Swordmaster

Post by Kosmit » Fri Jan 13, 2017 8:58 pm

Cutting Words as Discipline Talent is a bit disappointing. Most Swordmasters will have maxed combos to fight in melee (Second Weapon, Momentum Attack etc.) and then they can use their charisma. It is great talent for Troubadours but for SM it could be optional.

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Re: High Circle Preview: Swordmaster

Post by Lys » Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:28 pm

Oh you do love me, how wonderful!

It seems you basically replaced Weapon Bond with Keen Blade, and put a limit of two weapons on it (Keen Blade has no limit). Weapon Bond wasn't a very good ability, because seriously being able to only bond one weapon when you're a two weapon wielder was stupid. However I miss the increased difficulty to Disarm it gave you, it was very thematic. Would really be nice if Blood Bound Blade gave you +3 to damage and +3 to difficulty to be disarmed, to show that the weapon is, well, bound to the Swordmaster. Calling forth the weapon at a distance always seemed more like a Talent Knack for either Melee Weapons or Weaponweaving, so removing that is fine. Also Audacious Bravado is neat but seems just a tad underwhelming, i think it needs a little bit more... something, and it would be perfect.

The Talent selection is pretty good, it keeps with the mix of social and combat that makes the Swordmaster such a popular and iconic Discipline. Really nice that Ethereal Weapon is now a Warden Option, it was super weird as the capstone Talent, Multi-Strike fits much better there. Though why not just merge Ethereal Weapon and Spirit Strike together? The two seem to be doing the same thing, only one affects physical targets and the other astral targets, why not just have it be one Talent that affects both? Chilling Strike sounds absolutely brutal in combination with Cobra Strike. It's also fills a design niche that i've long felt needed to be filled with a Talent Knack or something, so i suppose it's own Talent works too. Missile Twister is one i'm going to miss, it was very narrow in application, but oh so fun to be able to just shrug off an entire archery regiment. Champion Talent is one of those Talents that is really cool, but so narrow in application it's not really worth taking, would be neat if it was expanded into a generalized "challenge someone to a duel" talent. Finally, the old Rushing Attack was one of my favourite High Circle Talents, could you tell me more about how Fluid Movement differs from it?

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The Undying
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Re: High Circle Preview: Swordmaster

Post by The Undying » Sat Jan 14, 2017 12:18 am

I really like the flavor of Audacious Bravado. If any of the Discipline abilities so far call for a half-page explanation or optional rule block, this is it. The description is pretty straightforward to me, but I could also see how there could be some friction between the Swordmaster player and the GM as they wrestle back and forth on what is sufficiently "ill-advised." A nice block either providing some very brief examples, or maybe a paragraph describing where they feel this does and does not come into play, might help. As an optional rule, to help give the GM more power and leeway, it might be nice to say that the GM can give a bonus anywhere from 1 to 3, depending on how reckless they feel the group truly is in this instance.

Example: The players are trying to decide how to get into a guarded room in order to retrieve a Thread Item for a jealous merchant whose support they need elsewhere. They have been advised that there may be anywhere from 1 to 4 guards, but if they are careful, they can probably walk by and get a clear view of the number before acting. There's also a sewer that runs below the room which might provide access, but there are rumors of weirdly aggressive creatures in the tunnels.

Swordmaster: "Let's run the tunnels! GO GO GO!" (not taking the time to scout the tunnels to determine if there are an enemies, +1)

Swordmaster: "I've got a great idea. See this building over here? We kick the door open, scream 'YOUR @$^ES ARE OURS!!!!,' and charge! Imagine the look on their faces!!" (+3)

PiXeL01
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Re: High Circle Preview: Swordmaster

Post by PiXeL01 » Sat Jan 14, 2017 12:49 am

So the next two will be Elementalist and then thief? Or Thief first?^^

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Re: High Circle Preview: Swordmaster

Post by Lys » Sat Jan 14, 2017 1:12 am

The Undying wrote:I really like the flavor of Audacious Bravado. If any of the Discipline abilities so far call for a half-page explanation or optional rule block, this is it. The description is pretty straightforward to me, but I could also see how there could be some friction between the Swordmaster player and the GM as they wrestle back and forth on what is sufficiently "ill-advised." A nice block either providing some very brief examples, or maybe a paragraph describing where they feel this does and does not come into play, might help. As an optional rule, to help give the GM more power and leeway, it might be nice to say that the GM can give a bonus anywhere from 1 to 3, depending on how reckless they feel the group truly is in this instance.
Audatious Bravado could probably do with a bit of clarification in a sidebar. As it is you can read it being invokable nearly every time you're in combat provided you enter it with an attitude of audaciousness and daring do, because combat is dangerous and ill advised pretty much by definition. Which would be fine if that's the intent, but it's unclear if it is. On the other extreme you could read it as it only being invokable in situations when entering combat is very likely to result in defeat, in which case the ability is nearly useless because GMs try to keep encounters balanced, and most players will be very unwilling to charge forth into heavily disadvantaged situations even with the bonus. So further clarification would be helpful. That said, the idea of scaling the bonus really rubs me the wrong way. I feel like if what you're doing is audacious enough to get a bonus, it's audacious enough to get the whole bonus.

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Re: High Circle Preview: Swordmaster

Post by Tattered Rags » Sat Jan 14, 2017 2:58 am

PiXeL01 wrote:So the next two will be Elementalist and then thief? Or Thief first?^^
I would prefer Elementalist.
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The Undying
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Re: High Circle Preview: Swordmaster

Post by The Undying » Sat Jan 14, 2017 3:19 am

Same. I imagine a magician is next, though, just a matter of Elementalist or Illusionist.

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