Peristalith wrote:
Hello all,
So, I am totally new to Arcanis. I have never played the setting (as I missed the 3.0/3.5 era of D&D because of... life). I have recently rediscovered my love of RPGs and have been running a few “rules light” games over the course of the last year and a half. I very much want to run Arcanis, however I am discovering I might not be smart enough to do it.
Hello and welcome to Arcanis! Glad to see that you are interested in the game, and I'm excited to meet you and see how corrupt your mind is compared to the rest of us!
As to 'not being smart enough', I can wholeheartedly assure that this is not the case. The most complicated part of Arcanis is, unfortunately, character creation. As much as I like this system, it is not particularly intuitive. In making the system as broad and as customization as possible, the number of options that you need to take into account at the start is rather staggering. The best you can do would be post your questions here as you have. There are plenty of us here who are more than happy enough to help you out!
On the bright side, while character creation is pretty rough, advancing after Tier 1.1 is the easiest I have ever experienced in any system. Unlike in D&D 3.x where it could take hours to advance a character by a single level, it usually takes no more than 5 minutes to advance an Arcanis character at each successive rank.
All I can say is, hang in there, man!
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I have been trying to create some characters (so that I might be able to teach others to create theirs) and I can’t figure out how. I followed the rules in the rulebook, but I don’t understand how the example character Karrin made was able to learn so many spells. I made one that mirrored hers (but chose the water elemental instead of fire) and I have basically “Contingent Spell, Elemental Bolt and Mind Lock” and she somehow has “All Universal Spells, Elemental Bolt, Heat Wave, Elemental Circle, Slip Sideways and Ebon Blade”. I just can’t seem to find anything in character creation that would allow me to have so many spells!
She gains all Universal Spells as per the Prestidigitation talent (pg 203). This talent grants all base spells of that tradition. She gains all NON base spells as they are granted automatically if you gain Prestidigitation AND Arcane Spell Casting (ta) at the same time, as is the case with Karrin gaining it via her Arcane Archetype.
Following that, the Elorii has Arcane Spell Casting, which grants numerous bonuses as found on page 185. As Karrin is an Elder Caster, she automatically gains the Unique Spell "Contingent Spell". She additionally gains 5 spells: 3 from a Primary Tradition, and 1 each from two secondary traditions. As per your list, she has Elemental as her Primary Tradition (Elemental Bolt, Elemental Circle, and Heat Wave), with Creation (Ebon Blade), and Transmutation (Slip Sideways) as her two secondary traditions.
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Also, why do both characters in the examples have bonuses in their weapon columns. I.E. Karrin has a +1 to use her short sword attack. Where does this come from? Harry has a +5 with his Gladius but only a +3 with his dagger. Why? Where do these numbers come from? All of these questions make me feel like I'm doing the entire character creation wrong.
I would appreciate any help or nudges in the right direction. Thanks!
It appears that the Chart is in error for Harry. Harry is listed as having 4 ranks in Melee (Balanced) which is used for both daggers and gladii. He gains an additional +1 from the Tier 1 version of Weapon Mastery he has with both weapons, meaning both weapons should have a +5 bonus.
Karrin has 2 listed Ranks in Melee (Balanced), and should have a +2 to all weapon attacks with her Short Sword, implying that the chart once again is in error. She does not appear to have Weapon Mastery like Harry does, so he does not gain that additional +1 talent bonus to the attacks.