New to Fantasy Hero

[Supreme]

...but have been playing Champions for 20 years. I know the system backwards and forwards. However, I've never played in a fantasy campaign before. Any suggestions? Wait, before you answer that let me tell you what I did for my character...

 

My strategy was to think of him as an RQ character. That is to say, few skills to start, but loads of potential. I got him high stats (20 STR, 18 Dex, CON, PRE, and INT) as well as Linguist and Scholar. The idea is that he is a diamond in the rough. He's not highly educated, but he has enormous physical and mental talents. I didn't purchase any wealth or resistant defenses (i.e., Combat Luck) as I figured I'd pick up all the armor and what-not during the game.

[Old Man]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

Many GMs would be surprised at your huge stats but hey, points is points. You should NOT neglect your skills too much.

[Supreme]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

Many GMs would be surprised at your huge stats but hey' date=' points is points. You should NOT neglect your skills too much.[/quote']

Well, I just got the necessary riding and weapon familiarities and the other essentials like Stealth. My thinking is that I would add them in with EXP.

[MordeanGrey]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

In my opinion ( for what it's worth ) your starting stats are WAY high. After playing Champions for a long time, you're probably wondering how a basic FH character can survive with their pitiful stats. If you look at the breakdown of the bell curve used to model stats, a 20 in anything is statistically very rare. Multiple 18s are equally unusual. I usually encourage players to make characters with around a 50/50 split between stats and skills. For 100 point characters I encourage them not to go over 60/40 or 70/30 in extreme cases.

 

In my games, I encourage players to make themselves better by increasing their skills instead of their stats. (You don't have to be incredibly strong to be a sword master who can dish out a lot of damage. Just buy the appropriate skill.) In fact, I rarely allow players to change their character's stats unless it is justified by something in the game. i.e.--the character starts as a young boy and grows up over time, or the character spends a month working in a slave mine when captured. Both of these examples would justify increasing strength and/or con, etc.

 

Stats rarely change in my games, and if they do, they usually get worse from optional injury rules, sickness, etc.

 

Another way to put your stats in perspective is to compare various entries in the Bestiary, etc. You get a good idea of what an average dex or speed value will be for most creatures.

 

If you haven't guessed, I prefer fantasy games with a more realistic or gritty feel to them.

 

Welcome to the fantasy side of the hobby.

[Supreme]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

In my opinion ( for what it's worth ) your starting stats are WAY high. After playing Champions for a long time, you're probably wondering how a basic FH character can survive with their pitiful stats. If you look at the breakdown of the bell curve used to model stats, a 20 in anything is statistically very rare. Multiple 18s are equally unusual. I usually encourage players to make characters with around a 50/50 split between stats and skills. For 100 point characters I encourage them not to go over 60/40 or 70/30 in extreme cases.

 

In my games, I encourage players to make themselves better by increasing their skills instead of their stats. (You don't have to be incredibly strong to be a sword master who can dish out a lot of damage. Just buy the appropriate skill.) In fact, I rarely allow players to change their character's stats unless it is justified by something in the game. i.e.--the character starts as a young boy and grows up over time, or the character spends a month working in a slave mine when captured. Both of these examples would justify increasing strength and/or con, etc.

 

Stats rarely change in my games, and if they do, they usually get worse from optional injury rules, sickness, etc.

 

Another way to put your stats in perspective is to compare various entries in the Bestiary, etc. You get a good idea of what an average dex or speed value will be for most creatures.

 

If you haven't guessed, I prefer fantasy games with a more realistic or gritty feel to them.

 

Welcome to the fantasy side of the hobby.

Thanks. I wasn't worried about surviving with such low stats. I've played the occassional Danger International game before, so I know how to ecke out a living with single digit defenses and stats below 20 or even 18. I was just thinking that it was much more cost effective to have my stats high now with few skills, so that I don't have to spend lots of points later to get the rolls up. Basically, now if I want to add a Dex-based skill, I only need three points to get it at a 13 or less. Adding a knowledge skill will only take 2 points for the same because of my high INT.

 

And having multiple 18s is not necessarily unrealistic. There are multi-talented people in this world. If our characters are supposed to be earth-shaking adventurers, then we would be amongst such people right? We're supposed to be the Aragorns, Gimlis, and Legolas', not (necessarily) the Frodos and Pippins. It really depends on what kind of fantasy game you're supposed to play. If the game is about humble little characters who fight a few monsters and accumulate some gold and magic items, then really high stats would be inappropriate. On the other hand, if you want to play more of an LOTR game where the PCs are legends in the making, people who will later be sung about by bards, then high stats are quite appropriate.

[Old Man]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

I agree and part of that would be regulated by how many points the GM gives you to spend. In a 75+75 game, high stats are expected.

[MordeanGrey]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

Exactly! Hero scales nicely to whatever power level you prefer.

 

It all comes down to what type of game you like to play. If high-fantasy is your thing, go for it.

 

I ran a wide open fantasy hero game for a couple of years set in the D&D Planescape universe (i.e.--Sigil). There were basically no racial limitations, and magic was rampant. It was a blast, and my players loved that game.

 

I didn't mean to sound too critical of your character idea. I've just changed my outlook in the past few years and now prefer highly skilled/story-based characters instead of playing the math game to see how many points I can save by raising one stat or the other.

 

Pick your poison and enjoy it either way!

[Rapier]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

...but have been playing Champions for 20 years. I know the system backwards and forwards. However, I've never played in a fantasy campaign before. Any suggestions? Wait, before you answer that let me tell you what I did for my character...

 

My strategy was to think of him as an RQ character. That is to say, few skills to start, but loads of potential. I got him high stats (20 STR, 18 Dex, CON, PRE, and INT) as well as Linguist and Scholar. The idea is that he is a diamond in the rough. He's not highly educated, but he has enormous physical and mental talents. I didn't purchase any wealth or resistant defenses (i.e., Combat Luck) as I figured I'd pick up all the armor and what-not during the game.

Cool. Very interesting. I see this character as being the second (or even third) son of a wealthy household (merchants or nobles, perhaps). The eldest son is going to inherit, the second eldest is the eldest's right-hand man. The youngest son is the mama's boy. Significantly younger than the other two, not likely to inherit much of anything and fairly at loose ends with his time (dad spends all his time teaching the business to the elder sons). So he reads a lot, practices his swordplay etc but has never really gotten out on his own. He always begs his brothers to take him with, but he's always "too small" or "would just get in the way."

 

Give him a good smattering of skills but odd ones (Herblore, History of the Seven Kingdoms, Andalusian Poets, etc).

 

This is a fairly solid concept and should be GREAT fun to play. "I never imagined sleeping on the ground would be so uncomfortable." At every opportunity you should be unprepared (not your fault, how were you to know that there wouldn't be an inn along every few miles like in the stories).

 

Be prepared to be made sport of. The rest of the party is going to have a rioutous time at your expense. But don't listen to them, this character sounds like a real winner!!

[Captain Obvious]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

I was about to agree with Mordean Gray about splitting stats and skills evenly (give or take), but it looks like you have your own take on things. As long as you're going the "rapid development" route, you might as well toss a few more points on INT, and really justify how fast you pick up on things....

[Supreme]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

Cool. Very interesting. I see this character as being the second (or even third) son of a wealthy household (merchants or nobles, perhaps). The eldest son is going to inherit, the second eldest is the eldest's right-hand man. The youngest son is the mama's boy. Significantly younger than the other two, not likely to inherit much of anything and fairly at loose ends with his time (dad spends all his time teaching the business to the elder sons). So he reads a lot, practices his swordplay etc but has never really gotten out on his own. He always begs his brothers to take him with, but he's always "too small" or "would just get in the way."

 

Give him a good smattering of skills but odd ones (Herblore, History of the Seven Kingdoms, Andalusian Poets, etc).

 

This is a fairly solid concept and should be GREAT fun to play. "I never imagined sleeping on the ground would be so uncomfortable." At every opportunity you should be unprepared (not your fault, how were you to know that there wouldn't be an inn along every few miles like in the stories).

 

Be prepared to be made sport of. The rest of the party is going to have a rioutous time at your expense. But don't listen to them, this character sounds like a real winner!!

My character is actually an ex-slave determined to free the world. He's quite used to sleeping on the ground.

[Rapier]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

My character is actually an ex-slave determined to free the world. He's quite used to sleeping on the ground.

To each his own.

[Supreme]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

To each his own.

Es verdad. I wanted to have the character start at the bottom and work his way up to emperor.

[Rapier]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

Es verdad. I wanted to have the character start at the bottom and work his way up to emperor.

Heh. Everyone needs a goal.

[CourtFool]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

I was just thinking that it was much more cost effective to have my stats high now with few skills' date=' so that I don't have to spend lots of points later to get the rolls up.[/quote']

[AL PACINO] Let me introduce joo too my little friend. [\AL PACINO]

Skill Levels - 8 points +1 with all non-combat Skills

 

At least that is how I would define potential without pumping stats.

[Eosin]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

He would work great in my 75 + 75 game - I like that type of concept as long as it is not taken too far (125 points in stats + 10 points in combat skills + 10 points in combat talents and of course 5 points in languages to round out the fella)

[Markdoc]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

Looks fine to me. I'm a long, long time GM and although as GM i prefer skill monsters to Stat monsters, the game can easily accomodate both.

 

And it must be admitted, I tend to play Stat monsters.....

 

cheers, Mark

[Rapier]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

And it must be admitted' date=' I tend to play Stat monsters..... [/quote']

Me too, I think it's Champions carryover. I have to chant "Average Joe" when working on Stats otherwise I max them all out (and spend twice as many points as I intend).

[Supreme]

Re: New to Fantasy Hero

 

[AL PACINO] Let me introduce joo too my little friend. [\AL PACINO]

Skill Levels - 8 points +1 with all non-combat Skills

 

At least that is how I would define potential without pumping stats.

Interesting... That would cost a LOT less than the prerequisite 5 points in DEX, PRE, and INT... Nah, the other players are already teasing me about exploiting the system. "He's not a rules rapist. He a rules sexual harrasser."