[Earthdawn] Earthdawn nub advice
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- Knight-Baron
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[Earthdawn] Earthdawn nub advice
I've always wanted to play Earthdawn, but never got the chance to until recently. I'm curious as to what are the high-powered options. Assuming I want to be good in combat, which are the smart routes to pursue? Or does Magic > all like in Shadowrun?
I've also heard that human Versatility is terribly broken...
I've also heard that human Versatility is terribly broken...
If your religion is worth killing for, please start with yourself.
- Ancient History
- Serious Badass
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Human Versatility can be very broken, because you can learn talents from other classes, and the more classes you know about the easier it is to nab a high-circle talent at a low-circle rank from an obscure class; Journeyman is this squared. Magic is powerful, though there are a lot of moving parts to it and getting it to be broken in the right way generally involves short-circuiting those (blood matrices, grimoire casting, etc.)
It's been a while since I've done any ED hacking however; I vaguely recall Swordmasters had some ricockulous talents, and if you get some of the supplements there were rules for buying high-circle talents at lower-circle which made it easy to win fights. (General rule: low-circle is cheap and effective, high-circle is expensive and never-playtested.) Blood charms (especially living crystal armor) were generally an easy power-up if you had the Durability talent.
Man, we need to do an ED OSSR.
It's been a while since I've done any ED hacking however; I vaguely recall Swordmasters had some ricockulous talents, and if you get some of the supplements there were rules for buying high-circle talents at lower-circle which made it easy to win fights. (General rule: low-circle is cheap and effective, high-circle is expensive and never-playtested.) Blood charms (especially living crystal armor) were generally an easy power-up if you had the Durability talent.
Man, we need to do an ED OSSR.
It also of course matters which edition of Earthdawn you're playing, because they're all really similar except for a ton of small changes here and there. (Like early drafts of Pathfinder compared to 3.5, or 3.5 compared to 3.0.)
Like AH said, early on grabbing the right Skills and Talents together can turn you into a melee monster, later on spells start to get a lot better. Of particular note is that some of the "powerful high-circle Talents" can just be purchased as Skills right from the start, which is where some of the hijinks come from. Casters are good enough early on that you don't totally suck or anything if you start as one. Human Casters can go totally nuts with spell selection. Though there's fluff reasons why mages "probably won't" teach you other kinds of threadweaving via versatility, so that's even more dependent on GM oversight than normal. As with most 90s PRGs, your main options are start and small grow big, or start medium and then don't go too much farther.
Like AH said, early on grabbing the right Skills and Talents together can turn you into a melee monster, later on spells start to get a lot better. Of particular note is that some of the "powerful high-circle Talents" can just be purchased as Skills right from the start, which is where some of the hijinks come from. Casters are good enough early on that you don't totally suck or anything if you start as one. Human Casters can go totally nuts with spell selection. Though there's fluff reasons why mages "probably won't" teach you other kinds of threadweaving via versatility, so that's even more dependent on GM oversight than normal. As with most 90s PRGs, your main options are start and small grow big, or start medium and then don't go too much farther.
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- Knight-Baron
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I believe we're using Earthdawn 3e, but the GM doesn't want a lot of humans running around.
Last edited by Silent Wayfarer on Tue Jun 03, 2014 6:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
If your religion is worth killing for, please start with yourself.
Human Versatility can be useful when playing a martial-type, but it shines most at letting you play a couple of magical classes at once. The spell lists tend to have holes in them so a nethermancer gets a lot out of wizard spells or vice versa.
A windling warrior can get a couple of actions a round more often than not IIRC with Wind Dance.
A windling warrior can get a couple of actions a round more often than not IIRC with Wind Dance.
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- Knight-Baron
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I think there's some archer abilities which use karma, which would be good given a windling's d10 karma die. The problem is that using them a lot will slow down your advancement - you might be trading excellence now for excellence later depending on just how many legend points you get and on how much combat there is in your game.
There's probably reasons the archer who made it into the legends (aka who was played by a designer) is a troll.
There's probably reasons the archer who made it into the legends (aka who was played by a designer) is a troll.
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- Knight-Baron
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All right, so a few build ideas.
Elven Archer
Elven Warrior
Obsidiman Warrior
Troll Warrior
Elven Archer
DEX 19/8 (12 AP)
STR 13/6 (3 AP)
TOU 12/5 (5 AP)
PER 14/6 (3 AP)
WIL 14/6 (3 AP)
CHA 10/5 (+1 AP)
Physical Armor: 0
Mystic Armor: 2
Physical Defense: 10
Spell Defense: 8
Social Defense: 6
Death Rating: 34
Unconsciousness Rating: 26
Wound Threshold: 9
Recovery Tests: 2/ Step 5
Initiative: Step 8
Movement: 7
Karma: 4
Carrying Capacity: 110
Racial Abilities: Low-Light Vision
Talents:
Missile Weapons 3
True Shot 3
Karma Ritual 2
Skills:
Artisan (Carving) 1
Craft Weapon 2
Climbing 1
Hunting 1
Knowledge (Creature Lore) 2
Lock Picking 1
Silent Walk 3
Speak Language (Common, Sperethiel) 2
Read/Write Language (Common, Sperethiel) 1
STR 13/6 (3 AP)
TOU 12/5 (5 AP)
PER 14/6 (3 AP)
WIL 14/6 (3 AP)
CHA 10/5 (+1 AP)
Physical Armor: 0
Mystic Armor: 2
Physical Defense: 10
Spell Defense: 8
Social Defense: 6
Death Rating: 34
Unconsciousness Rating: 26
Wound Threshold: 9
Recovery Tests: 2/ Step 5
Initiative: Step 8
Movement: 7
Karma: 4
Carrying Capacity: 110
Racial Abilities: Low-Light Vision
Talents:
Missile Weapons 3
True Shot 3
Karma Ritual 2
Skills:
Artisan (Carving) 1
Craft Weapon 2
Climbing 1
Hunting 1
Knowledge (Creature Lore) 2
Lock Picking 1
Silent Walk 3
Speak Language (Common, Sperethiel) 2
Read/Write Language (Common, Sperethiel) 1
DEX 19/8 (12 AP)
STR 13/6 (3 AP)
TOU 14/6 (9 AP)
PER 11/5
WIL 14/6 (3 AP)
CHA 09/4 (+2 AP)
Physical Armor:
Mystic Armor: 2
Physical Defense: 10
Spell Defense: 7
Social Defense: 6
Death Rating: 36
Unconsciousness Rating: 28
Wound Threshold: 10
Recovery Tests: 3/D12
Initiative: 8
Movement: 7
Karma: 4
Carrying Capacity: 110
Racial Abilities: Low-Light Vision
Talents:
Avoid Blow 3
Melee Weapons 3
Wood Skin 2
Skills:
Artisan (Rune Carving) 3
Great Leap 2
Knowledge (Military Organizations) 2
Maneuver 2
Missile Weapons 2
Speak Language (Common, Sperethiel) 2
Read/Write Language (Common, Sperethiel) 1
STR 13/6 (3 AP)
TOU 14/6 (9 AP)
PER 11/5
WIL 14/6 (3 AP)
CHA 09/4 (+2 AP)
Physical Armor:
Mystic Armor: 2
Physical Defense: 10
Spell Defense: 7
Social Defense: 6
Death Rating: 36
Unconsciousness Rating: 28
Wound Threshold: 10
Recovery Tests: 3/D12
Initiative: 8
Movement: 7
Karma: 4
Carrying Capacity: 110
Racial Abilities: Low-Light Vision
Talents:
Avoid Blow 3
Melee Weapons 3
Wood Skin 2
Skills:
Artisan (Rune Carving) 3
Great Leap 2
Knowledge (Military Organizations) 2
Maneuver 2
Missile Weapons 2
Speak Language (Common, Sperethiel) 2
Read/Write Language (Common, Sperethiel) 1
DEX 16/7 (15 AP)
STR 19/8 (1 AP)
TOU 16/7 (3 AP)
PER 13/6 (5 AP)
WIL 14/6 (3 AP)
CHA 07/4 (+2 AP)
Physical Armor: 3
Mystic Armor: 2
Physical Defense: 9
Spell Defense: 7
Social Defense: 5
Death Rating: 39
Unconsciousness Rating: 31
Wound Threshold: 11
Recovery Tests: 3/D8+D6
Initiative: 7
Movement: 5
Karma: 3
Carrying Capacity: 230
Racial Abilities: Increased Wound Threshold, Natural Armor
Talents:
Avoid Blow 3
Melee Weapons 3
Wood Skin 2
Skills:
Artisan (Rune Carving) 2
Wound Balance 3
Knowledge (Military Organizations) 2
Missile Weapons 2
Read/Write Language (Common, Obsidiman) 1
Speak Language (Common, Obsidiman) 2
Unarmed Combat 2
STR 19/8 (1 AP)
TOU 16/7 (3 AP)
PER 13/6 (5 AP)
WIL 14/6 (3 AP)
CHA 07/4 (+2 AP)
Physical Armor: 3
Mystic Armor: 2
Physical Defense: 9
Spell Defense: 7
Social Defense: 5
Death Rating: 39
Unconsciousness Rating: 31
Wound Threshold: 11
Recovery Tests: 3/D8+D6
Initiative: 7
Movement: 5
Karma: 3
Carrying Capacity: 230
Racial Abilities: Increased Wound Threshold, Natural Armor
Talents:
Avoid Blow 3
Melee Weapons 3
Wood Skin 2
Skills:
Artisan (Rune Carving) 2
Wound Balance 3
Knowledge (Military Organizations) 2
Missile Weapons 2
Read/Write Language (Common, Obsidiman) 1
Speak Language (Common, Obsidiman) 2
Unarmed Combat 2
DEX 16 (9 AP)
STR 16 (2 AP)
TOU 16 (5 AP)
PER 14 (7 AP)
WIL 14 (3 AP)
CHA 09 (+1 AP)
Physical Armor: 0
Mystic Armor: 2
Death Rating: 39
Unconsciousness Rating: 31
Wound Threshold: 11
Recovery Tests: 3/D8+D6
Initiative: 7
Movement: 7
Karma: 3
Carrying Capacity: 160
Racial Abilities: Heat Vision
Talents:
Avoid Blow 3
Melee Weapons 3
Wood Skin 2
Skills:
Artisan (Rune Carving) 2
Wound Balance 3
Knowledge (Military Organizations) 2
Missile Weapons 2
Read/Write Language (Common, Troll) 1
Speak Language (Common, Troll) 2
Unarmed Combat 2
STR 16 (2 AP)
TOU 16 (5 AP)
PER 14 (7 AP)
WIL 14 (3 AP)
CHA 09 (+1 AP)
Physical Armor: 0
Mystic Armor: 2
Death Rating: 39
Unconsciousness Rating: 31
Wound Threshold: 11
Recovery Tests: 3/D8+D6
Initiative: 7
Movement: 7
Karma: 3
Carrying Capacity: 160
Racial Abilities: Heat Vision
Talents:
Avoid Blow 3
Melee Weapons 3
Wood Skin 2
Skills:
Artisan (Rune Carving) 2
Wound Balance 3
Knowledge (Military Organizations) 2
Missile Weapons 2
Read/Write Language (Common, Troll) 1
Speak Language (Common, Troll) 2
Unarmed Combat 2
If your religion is worth killing for, please start with yourself.
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- 1st Level
- Posts: 37
- Joined: Tue Nov 11, 2014 9:44 pm
FYI....
Apparently the kickstarter for Earthdawn 4th edition has finally released a pre-release pdf of the player book. I'm not a backer, so I don't have access to it.
Their August 2014 release date went wooshing by with no word on their KS until October that the layout and text was finalized and only waiting on some remaining pieces of art. (Which is pretty much the same thing they said around August prior to GenCon). Same reason for the delay was given again in December, along with some personal issues that contributed, I guess. But apparently with the new year, someone got shamed enough into giving the backers something significant, so it's out there now.
Despite very low expectations, I'm looking forward to this anyway, and am curious about what other Den members think.
Apparently the kickstarter for Earthdawn 4th edition has finally released a pre-release pdf of the player book. I'm not a backer, so I don't have access to it.
Their August 2014 release date went wooshing by with no word on their KS until October that the layout and text was finalized and only waiting on some remaining pieces of art. (Which is pretty much the same thing they said around August prior to GenCon). Same reason for the delay was given again in December, along with some personal issues that contributed, I guess. But apparently with the new year, someone got shamed enough into giving the backers something significant, so it's out there now.
Despite very low expectations, I'm looking forward to this anyway, and am curious about what other Den members think.
The "biggest" changes i saw in the 4e preview material on the blog is that they dropped the success level chart, and you just get +1 success level for each 5 points you beat the DC by.
also, you don't pay for Karma Ritual and Durability any more, they're just automatic with your circle (which also is a much stronger incentive to up your circle, because in 1e/2e/3e there's only minimal reasons to bother once you get to 2nd circle, as compared to how much people want to level up in dnd).
also, you don't pay for Karma Ritual and Durability any more, they're just automatic with your circle (which also is a much stronger incentive to up your circle, because in 1e/2e/3e there's only minimal reasons to bother once you get to 2nd circle, as compared to how much people want to level up in dnd).