It would appear that fighting Styles are hugely expensive to learn. Is it true you need to take the Basic, Greater, and Heroic Fighting Tradition Talents (which provide no actual benefit) before you can take a Basic, Greater, or Heroic Fighting in that Tradition? Generally the Greater and Heroic Traditon Talent also require 2 styles of the level below.

Is it really supposed to be that costly to advance a fighting tradition? It seems taking the Tradition should open it up through Heroic. I understand the 2 Basics before learning a Greater, but the talent tax of the other Talents seems very high.

The total cost to get a single Heroic Fighting Style for a tradition 575 Survival Points. I thought I read somewhere that 600 SP is the campaign maximum, so spending your SP on nothing for fighting styles is the only way to advance to Heroic?

Just thought that seems odd if the game is supposed to be able doing cool things with your fighting style.

John

Many players aren't going to buy the entirety of the Fighting Style. I know I never did in 1st ed.

You pretty much have to. To take the Greater Fighting Tradition, you need to know 2 Basic Fighting Styles. To take the Heroic Fighting Tradition, you need to know 2 Greater Fighting Styles.

Or do you mean that most aren't going to go above the Basic Fighting Styles?

John

Hrm, I see now, and that's just to get the minimum required to get 1 Heroic Fighting School Talent.

At one time we had discussed increasing the Ranks a player could get to to 5*, meaning 900 SP. I don't know if that is still intended or not, but it would certainly make maxing a Fighting Tradition more viable.

Also keep in mind that there were even more Fighting Tradition Talents for the current traditions in the 1st ed Blessed and the Damned (As well as new Traditions).**

*This was just a discussion and I give no promises

** I have heard a request for an Unarmed Tradition recently

Thanks for weighing in Clint. I was just concerned that folks were talking about the coolness of Fighting Traditions, but with such a huge investment (almost to the exclusion of everything else you actually want to be Great or Heroic at it), it might not see a lot of play in game.

I assume the rules as they appear are what PCI had intended: 3 Talents that basically only 'give you access to take more talents' and require 2 of the prior rank's styles.

John

7th Sea had a bad problem with trained swordsman being weaker than raw powered fighters. The easy fix there was to give swordsman an extra kept die against an opponent who was not trained in a swordsman school. That would be a likewise easy house rule to implement here. You have a Fighting Tradition and are fighting someone without them? +1d for basic, +2d greater, +3d for heroic. Tone it down as you wish. Also, you could give away the first fighting style of each rank for free.

I don't really have a problem with the cost, though, except that it is cheaper to be a good sorcerer than a swordsman. But that's a conflict that exists in my head, not in the rules. From a rules sense, it makes sense that more versitile fighting traditions cost more SP than rites with more limited combat application.

That opinion may change after R&R rolls out though.

Tom

It may be cheaper in experience to be a good caster, but they will have to pay a lot more in RP. Most casters acting publicly would be seen as Witches of some sort by the general populace.