Fantasy Craft Q&A Thread!

[pawsplay]

I was re-reading the FC book last night and happened across something I didn't totally understand: the language for the Enlightened Skill ability.
Using the dwarf entry as a catchall for the various uses of the trait on page 12...

Enlightened Skill: Choose one skill. Your maximum rank in that skill increases to Career Level + 5. Only the highest bonus from any single enlightened ability may apply to each skill.

Emphasis mine.

The bolded text is what has me confused. I imagine this is preventative language to stop any potential abuses, but I honestly don't know what that abuse would be. Could someone elaborate, please?

It's just to keep people from doing the FC equivalent of trying to add Wis to AC twice or fast movement twice, I think. Obviously, it wouldn't "stack" since it doesn't add anything, but there seems to always be someone who will say, "Well, logically..." followed by something illogical.

[Morgenstern]

There are three sources of skill rank cap increases ("enlightened skills"). ALL of them have text preventing combining them.

The most common is in Origins, specifically Species/Talent (the do not occur on the Specialty side of the menu). Because you only get one Species/Talent there is no chance of overlap, so viewed independantly I'm sure the text looks redundant.

The most powerful rank cap boosts are class abilites. The Keeper for one, but several classes increse rank caps (often in the 2/11/19 slot). The Legendary Dwarf class has what I believe to be the single most powerful version of this, and it specifically overwrites the rank cap boost received from the Species.

The third source is feats - Prodigal Skill in Fantasy Craft though others are possible in the future.

The text occurs because rank cap boosts have to be written to incorporate the base of 'Career Level + 3' that ALL characters have. We've found saying "You gain a +2 Insight bonus to your maximum ranks in [Skill X]" to be confusing for many folks. If that phrasing had been reliable, all of these sources would have been presented as named bonuses of the same sort (likely insight) and thus not stacked. Because they are presented as a finished equation (you may gain up to Career Level + N Ranks) rather than as bonuses, there is extra text to explain their (non-)interaction with each other. We could not rely on the general rule of "like-named bonuses do not stack".

In Spycraft first edition, there was a stackable feat that upped the rank cap by +3 per aplication and this proved to be the single most disasterously broken option in an generally very high powered game. As a result 2nd edition and its inheritor Mastercraft are both very cautious when offering this particular benefit. It is one of the few places you can truely 'screw up' and waste a character option by applying 2 or more character options for enlightened skills to the same skill, losing all but the best of them.

[mach1.9pants]

Hi all. My latest bit of confusion is Disposition, my understanding is this. Disposition is applied to several checks (e.g. Haggle) and applies as a modifier to the affected (i.e. who the Disposition is about) characters rolls.
So in the case of Haggle an (ridiculous) example: Char a is selling and loves CharB so Disp = +25; CharB is buying and loathes CharA so Disp = -25.
The -25 is applied to CharA's Haggle check and the +25 to CharB's. All things being equal this would result in the item going for a very low price; which makes sense as the loving/selling character would give loads of leeway and the hating/buying would not pay full price to someone he hates!
Is this correct?

Second how does it work with PCs? Do they just say what their Disposition is? Or is it always 0 and everything revolves around that? Because if the PCs can just say what their Disp is towards other characters there is no mechanical positives for liking someone. I can see my PCs all having a rather large dislike of merchants LOL

[Doublebond]

I would think that deposition would only apply to one side of a check. You can't really "assign" PCs a deposition and thus PC's won't ever have a deposition modifier to apply to checks.  So, for consistencies keeping deposition modifiers to one side of a check seems right to me.

I suppose it would depend on who initiating the action; if Char a is trying to get Char b to buy something ("Here! Take this!")  then Char b's modifier would apply, while if Char b were trying to get Char a to sell something ("Gimme that!") Char a's modifier would apply. If they're both trying to do the action ("Take thi—" "Gimme that!") I don't see why there would be need for a check in the first place, as, as I understand it, checks only need to be called for if there's a reasonable chance of failure.

I mean really, when you have two people making a commercial transaction and both sides want it to be made for as cheaply as possible, why aren't they just giving the thing away?

[mach1.9pants]

Well thanks for your reply but that doesn't seem to tie in with the examples of Lord Bloodpyre... an official clarification would be great.

The example was just that, a mechanical example. Not something I would expect to see in play. Change the Disps to +/- 7 to make it more realistic if you want. The questions still stand.

[royalfa]

I read all about the Mage/Rune Knight and spellcasting and didnt find about "lerning spells beyound first level (or firsts ranks in Spellcasting skill)

Im thinking in allowing the follow to my players:

1 Random spell (rolled in the 3.2 Spells table) every time Int/Wis raises 1 point.

1 Choosen spell every 1 rank in Spellcasting.

Even in this way is a narrow number of spells they have.

Is any other way to learn/know new spells Im missing??

I read about scroll and there is no way to learn the inscribed spell.

Thanks

[Antilles]

Nope, the developers have stated that they've left the specifics of learning spells vague, so you can use whatever system fits your campaign. What seems to have become the 'standard' method of learning new spells is indeed 1 new spell per Wisdom and Spellcasting increase, so what you're proposing should be quite workable.

There's no way to learn spells from scrolls permanently, but that doesn't mean you can't implement it. Would probably charge Reputation for it, though. And it'd have to be learnt during downtime, of a certain length, and in place of the normal downtime check. Just a suggestion, though, to get the ball rolling.

[Crafty_Pat]

In the vast majority of cases, Disposition should probably apply only to one side (commonly the "defensive" side - i.e. the one responding to the active character). In your Haggle example, this would be the prospective buyer because, really, the seller's attitude is irrelevant and doesn't really impact what's important - whether the buyer agrees to take the item off the seller's hands.

Yes, as you might interpret from my open-ended statement, there are some cases where Disposition can apply to both sides of an opposed roll, but they're very rare, and should really only come up conditionally as the GM feels they're relevant (and don't over-complicate the check).

PCs do indeed have Dispositions and they can be targeted with Disposition-affecting abilities. We imagine most folks will naturally set PC Dispositions to 0 across the board going in (if only to keep things simple), though again, GMs should feel free to set a PC's Disposition(s) to fit his actions in play. For example, I would apply, at best, a Hostile Disposition to any PC who'd attacked another character in anger.

By extension, I also never let a player set his character's Disposition to anything other than 0 without a compelling argument backed up by in-game actions. If a player at my table wants a Supportive Disposition toward an NPC, then he better start helping that NPC out, preferably in selfless ways.

[mach1.9pants]

Exactly the reply I needed Pat, thanks. It now make perfect sense and is a weight off my mind (I was down the beach for 4 days with no net access and was going mad trying to square this in my head LOL)

[Sletchman]

Is there rules in the book for liquidating Reputation for cash?  I know its in Spycraft, and I was sure I saw it in the FC book somewhere, but can't seem to find it.

[Crafty_Pat]

Is there rules in the book for liquidating Reputation for cash?  I know its in Spycraft, and I was sure I saw it in the FC book somewhere, but can't seem to find it.

Nope. There's no parallel between Reputation and coin.

[Sletchman]

Is there rules in the book for liquidating Reputation for cash?  I know its in Spycraft, and I was sure I saw it in the FC book somewhere, but can't seem to find it.

Nope. There's no parallel between Reputation and coin.

Fair enough, guess I was dreaming.  Any suggestions on an appropiate value?  50s per 1 rep maybe?  Some heroes just wanna sell out [obviously campaign dependant].

[Psion]

Fair enough, guess I was dreaming.  Any suggestions on an appropiate value?  50s per 1 rep maybe?  Some heroes just wanna sell out [obviously campaign dependant].

You can look at the table for downtime earnings of silver/rep at the beginning of the skill section.

[samsimilian]

The dwarf species origin ability thick hide reads:

Thick Hide 3:  You're considered to be wearing partial armor that provides Damage Reduction 3.  This DR does not stack with other armor (only the best protection applies).  [deleted text on stacking thick hide]

My question is, how does this interact with the basic combat tree armor basics/mastery/supremacy?  Armor basics would do nothing, apparently, but does a dwarf with armor mastery have DR 4 and immunity to the Coup de Grace action?  Does a dwarf with all three have a permanent DR5 and immunity to Coup de Grace actions and sneak attack damage?  

EDIT: Whoops, I misread. Thick hide being armor, the feats can be applied to it, granting the benefits you describe.

How about NPCs (dwarves or other mobs) with DR that take these feats as an NPC quality?

Depends on where the NPCs gain the DR from. If it's gained from arnor, then thick hide doesn't stack with it.

Does this mean a Dwarf/Tribesman with Thick Hide 4 can improve his DR by getting a magical item that grants DR which than counts and stacks like Thick Hide ?
(If you gain thick hide from multiple sources, your hide offers the
highest single DR value + 1 per additional hide benefit )

[Crafty_Alex]

DR that is NOT from armor stacks as normal. Thick Hide has a special condition allowing it to improve through multiple iterations.

So a character with Thick Hide could increase his overall DR using class abilities like Fortunes of War, magic items, feats, and so on using the listed DR value. Look at Thick Hide's rule as the special condition, not the base rule.