Heroic Companion Draft Discussion

Development and Playtest ACKS Heroic Fantasy Handbook Playtest
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[quote="Alex"]

1) The revised beast friendship proficiency describes how the identify plants and fauna throw interacts with the friends of birds and beasts class power, but how does it interact with the naturalism proficiency?

APM: Rules-as-written, it doesn't. Do we think it ought?

[/quote]

Naturalism (G): The character is knowledgeable of common plant and animal life forms in terrain typical to his background. The character is familiar with edible and poison foods, healing herbs, and signs of unnatural danger (such as unusual quiet, atypical animal behavior, etc.) in his known terrain with a proficiency throw of 11+. This proficiency can be selected multiple times.

Looks like I was reading Naturalism wrong. I thought it let you ID plants and animals in your native terrain on an throw of 11+. It looks like it doesn't actually provide that benefit. Is that correct?

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Should Naturalism be adjusted to add an ability to harvest (generic) alchemical/magical special components?

23

[quote="James C. Bennett"]

 

1) The revised beast friendship proficiency describes how the identify plants and fauna throw interacts with the friends of birds and beasts class power, but how does it interact with the naturalism proficiency?

APM: Rules-as-written, it doesn't. Do we think it ought?

Naturalism (G): The character is knowledgeable of common plant and animal life forms in terrain typical to his background. The character is familiar with edible and poison foods, healing herbs, and signs of unnatural danger (such as unusual quiet, atypical animal behavior, etc.) in his known terrain with a proficiency throw of 11+. This proficiency can be selected multiple times.

Looks like I was reading Naturalism wrong. I thought it let you ID plants and animals in your native terrain on an throw of 11+. It looks like it doesn't actually provide that benefit. Is that correct?

[/quote]

Naturalism, I believe, is a the gateway to some of the monster harvesting, at least the identification of the parts required or venoms available, starting in Lairs & Encounters pg 135 or so. 

[quote=L&E pg 135]

Characters with Naturalism proficiency can identify venomous monsters and distinguish their different poisons with a successful proficiency throw of 11+....Adventurers with Alchemy, Collegiate Wizardry, Magical Engineering, or Naturalism proficiency can identify which part(s) of a monster are typically special components. A proficiency throw of 14+ is required; the target value is reduced by 4 for each additional proficiency rank the character possesses in any of the appropriate proficiencies, to a minimum of 2+.

[/quote]

ACKS page 250 also indicates a Naturalism Throw score for finding various plant toxins (rules on pg 249 for how to adjucate the throw) I'm not honestly sure I'd ever enforce the "typical to his background" in that sort of situation.

If you take the bold part (unusual quiet, atypical animal behavior) and compare it to Beast Friendship saying:

...he can identify plants and fauna with a proficiency throw of 11+...and understands the subtle body language and moods of birds and beasts...

as compared to Naturalism above, it feels like much the same concept, to me at least.

TLDR; Naturalism seems like a better proficiency as a analogue to Alchemy, in utilizing natural resources from plants or creatures for some benefit; with the knowledge bits as a secondary addon.

 

 

 

 

 

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  • Page 41

“A masterwork ship or structure costing 4 times normal gains both +1 to AC and +10% to structural hit points.”

Should be
“A masterwork  structure costing 4 times normal gains both +1 to AC and +10% to structural hit points.” (ships are already described lower)

  • Page 71

“Likewise, it takes a spellcaster one week of study to translate a ceremony into the equivalent spell, and then a second week of study to add the ceremony to the character’s codex.”

Should be:

“Likewise, it takes a spellcaster one week of study to translate a ceremony into the equivalent spell, and then a second week of study to add the spell to the character’s  spellbook.

  • Also, do helmets weight 1stone for light and 2 stones for heavy, in case I use the 'clang of helmets memorial rule'  and according to general armor weight rules? What if I don't? How much does heavy helmet weight?
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RULES UPDATES - will appear in the next playtest draft.

Mortal Wounds Section

Heroic Survival: In heroic fantasy campaigns, heroes are considerably more likely to survive mortal wounds than ordinary men. Adventurers with d6 HD add +2 to their 1d20 roll on the Mortal Wounds table. Adventurers with d8 HD add +4, adventurers with d10 HD add +6, and adventurers with d12 HD add +8.

Equipment Section

Special Components, Miscellaneous:   When living thing dies, a residue of its soul will linger in some its component parts, such as organs and cellular fluids. These parts are known as special components and can be tapped by ceremonialists to power their ceremonies. While the best results are gained from rare components that are unique to each ceremony, an equal value of miscellaneous special components such as spider webs, plant roots, crushed bones, and so on can be used instead if desired. The ceremonialist suffers a -1 penalty per level of the ceremony on his Ceremony Throw when using miscellaneous special components. See Chapter 5, Costs of Ceremonies, on p. XX for more details.

Spending Fate Points section:

  • A character may spend a Fate Point to temporarily gain one rank in any proficiency available to his class or to temporarily gain a thief ability (excluding backstab) at one-half his class level. The effect lasts 1 turn (10 minutes). 

Special Components section

Substitute Special Components: Finding the right special components for a ceremony can be a challenging and time-consuming endeavor. Eldritch power is, however, fungible on a metaphysical level. This fungibility allows a ceremonialist to substitute alternative special components of the same total gp value for the unique special components required for any given ceremony. Since it is more challenging to tap the energies for the ceremony in this case, the ceremonialist suffers a -1 penalty per level of the ceremony on his Ceremony Throw when using substitute special components. Merchants such as curios dealers, herbalists, and antiquarians will sell nonspecific special components (such as spider webs, plant roots, crushed ivory, and so on) for 1gp each, in various markets, subject to the usual limits of equipment availability and commission.

Congregants section

In order to tap divine power during a ceremony, a ceremonialist must perform the ceremony in a temple or other place of worship. In lieu of a temple, a pinnacle of good can be substituted for white magic, a sinkhole of evil for black magic, and an elemental area for elemental magic of its type. If a temple is not available, the ceremonialist can create a temporary one by having his congregants participate in the performance of the ceremony. Congregants count as participants if they are within 30’ of the ceremonialist and take no other action throughout the ceremony. The number of congregants required is equal to (ceremony level -1)2. If at any point the ceremonialist is driven out of the temple, or if the required number of congregants are lost, then the ceremony cost cannot be paid by divine power from the congregants. Otherwise, the divine power is consumed when the ceremony cost is paid.