Harliquinn wrote:
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I'm curious, in your opinion, other than Skills, what ways can Martials "shine in combat" over other Archetypes?
In terms of shining there are 3 key areas in my mind - Frequency of hitting, durrability and combat impact.
Hitting frequently - basically skill ranks. All Archetypes have/can have max ranks in their chosen method for contributing in combat (physical or spell). That's a wash.
Durrability - still standing at the end or harder to drop. This is a combination of defenses, armor and stamina. Specific defenses vary depending on the character build, but in general it tends to balance out across the archetypes per tier. Might builds have a slight edge on Fortitude, but even for Martials there are quite a few Quickness based builds instead as it's also movement. Quickness doesn't factor into a Defense, so it's a tradeoff there. The +2 Defenses / Tier is an obvious choice for every archetype. A +1 to a defense for an advancement isn't necessarily a great choice, given the alternatives. Martials can add shields, but do so at the cost of damage (no 2 handed weapons, limited two weapon fighting options, no bows, crossbows, etc.) Spells such as Inertial Shield provide the same or better shield bonuses, keep a hand free and impose no penalty.
Stamina at its base is the sum of defenses, so unless there's more distinction between defenses, at it's base they're the same. The other ways to increase stamina are the +4 Stamina for a Martial advancement, the Toughness Talent (+6) and the Exceptional Armor Perseverance rune. A Martial's 10 advancements for a Tier are likely to be:
1. Path
2. +2 to Defenses
3. +1 to all skills
4. +1 to 3+Passive Logic skills (Any)
5. +1 to 3+Passive Logic skills (Combat and Physical)
6. 2 Any Talents
7. 2 Combat Talents
8. 2 Martial Techniques
9. +1 to 2 Stats
10. +1 to 2 Stats
So to add a +1 to a single defense or +4 Stamina, one of the above options needs to be given up. Stats work towards higher Fate as well as better defenses/stamina. So other than maybe Toughness, what does the Martial give up to start making a dent in distinguishing on Defenses / Stamina?
The third way for durability is Armor. Light goes up to AR 2, Bulk 1. Typical heavy is AR 4, Bulk 2. AR 5, Bulk 3 is possible, but the tradeoffs are significant as are the expenses. Not all Martials wear heavy, but if they do, they effectively take 2 points less damage than Experts or Arcane by default. Spells can add armor such as Benediction of the Gods and Body of the Warrior. Between spells like those and ones like Inertial Shield the armor and avoidance advantages for martials are minimized. Inertial Shield can easily hit +3 as an autocast by Tier 2, functions as a Tower Shield, doesn't take a hand, doesn't cause a -1 penalty to hit and if desired could be made into a binding spell. Advanced armor training helps, it's net +1 to Avoidance, +5 Pace in all but the heaviest of armors.
Combat Impact is the ability to deal with the threats. This can be raw damage in Stamina and Wounds, it could be ways of incapacitating or rendering ineffective the opposition or changing the landscape of the battle. This would most often be seen in Tricks/Techniques/Combat Talents. With the right weapons / techniques things like disarm, grapple and trip are available, but they can be a bit tricky to set up or riskier to try. Raw damage is pretty straightfoward as is being able to attack multiple targets with a single attack. Striking multiple targets favors casters for a few reasons.
1. Two target sweeping strike may be available early, but ranged AoE and larger number of target attacks favor the casters by early to mid Tier 2 at the latest.
2. Damage bumps to spell based AoEs affect all targets. If you add a d6 of additional elemental damage, every target takes it. Forward stance and Wolf Pack Tactics apply to all attacks, but do a Mighty Swing + Sweeping Strike and only the first target takes the extra +5 damage.
3. Ranged AoE is easy for casters starting at least at tier 2 if not before and areas 10' in diameter are common.
Perhaps I've been looking at spells too much recently, but spells like Enveloping Ward and Solidify Water come to mind and they completely shut a target down with a successful attack roll.
There may be other areas than the 3 I'm thinking of, but that's my current take on it.
With a sweep of his hat,
Paul