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 Post subject: Please Help Getting Me Started
PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 10:47 pm 

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2016 10:41 pm
Posts: 3
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. 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!

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!


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 Post subject: Re: Please Help Getting Me Started
PostPosted: Tue Feb 09, 2016 11:08 pm 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 10:47 am
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Location: Central Alberta
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!

Quote:
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.

Quote:
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.

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Cody Bergman
Legends of Arcanis Campaign Staff
Initial Author Contact/Adventure Vetting

Haakon Marcus val'Virdan, Divine Holy Judge of Nier
Ruma val'Vasik, Martial Crusader and Master of the Spear
Jorma Osterman, Arcane Coryani Battlemage


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 Post subject: Re: Please Help Getting Me Started
PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2016 1:02 am 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 3:59 am
Posts: 813
Location: Ontario, Canada
Peristalith wrote:
So, I am totally new to Arcanis.

Welcome! As Cody said, don't be afraid to ask any questions here. The community is very friendly, no one will react negatively to questions. There are also threads on lots of different topics here, so you may be able to find answers using the Search function.

As previously mentioned, character creation can seem complicated in this system. The benefit to this is that the rules allow for the creation of very unique characters. It is very rare to see two characters who are built the same, which can not be said for other rules systems I've played in the past.

Give it time, as you get more experience you'll become more and more familiar with the rules. Keep the questions coming!

_________________
Akira Currier
aka Raseri 'Crash' val'Emman - Master of the Incandescent Flame (Martial 3.7)
aka Leif - Skohir Warped One (Martial 2.6)
aka Rurik - Nol Dappan War Priest (Divine 2.3)
aka Karthik - Tultipetan Stonemason (Expert 1.4)


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 Post subject: Re: Please Help Getting Me Started
PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2016 1:05 am 

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2016 10:41 pm
Posts: 3
Thanks so much for replying and replying so quickly. This helps a lot. I am so glad to know I'm not crazy for being unable to read those weapon modifiers! It was driving me nuts!

I'm still a little confused, however. Especially this:

Nierite wrote:
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.


First of all (to be clear) "(ta)" means Talent, correct? If so, it took me way longer than it should have to realize this. Secondly, does this mean that the character I created gains every single Water Elemental Base Spell just for being created? Or all Elder base spells? I also don't understand "she gains all NON base spells as they are granted automatically if you gain prestidigitation and arcane spell casting at the same time". What specifically is she gaining here?

Thank you SO MUCH for showing me where (on page 185-186) she was able to pick all of those spells. I didn't read far enough on the page to get the Tier benefits, I only read the specialized requirements/tradition benefits.

Thanks again so much for your help. I'm once again starting to believe I can make this happen (until the next hiccup anyway) :lol:


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 Post subject: Re: Please Help Getting Me Started
PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2016 2:41 am 
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Posts: 2109
Location: Portland OR
Welcome!

Yes (ta) is talent. I didn't catch all the acronyms at first either. (ba) Is background, (a) is archetype...in general, don't panic. It took me 3 builds to really "nail it" ... Broadly speaking, most of us have gone through a learning curve too.

Your spell questions:

Spells come in four "favors." "Basic" is standard issue and the default state. But if you can maintain an effect every X ticks, then it's a "sustained" spell. An "advanced" spell is either something especially complicated or a combination of two basic spells (see rules eventually). Finally a "Binding" spell summons creatures to fight for you or is quasi-permanent.

Unless you take Prestidigitation with Arcane spell casting in the same step (1 or 9) then you only get the base spells of the universal tradition.

In the Universal tradition Manipulate Object is a sustained spell and Unravel the Thread is an Advanced spell. If you don't take Presti and ASC1 at the same time you only get the basic spells and don't get MO & UtT. (though you could go back with the Talent "Learn Spell"). You probably really want UtT. If you are an arcane archetype this isn't an issue. Most spell casting Experts go to modest trouble to delay taking Presti till Step 9 w/ ASC1.

ASC gives you 3 spells in one of your (four different) traditions and 1 spell from two different secondary traditions for a total of 5 spells. No...you don't get all water based/elemental spells. But you do get Contingent Spell because the Elder style of magic gives it to all practitioners through ASC1.

An important Note:
If you look in the Players Common section you will see Harliquinn has a sticky thread where he has helpfully gathered community generated resources. I bet a lot of those are useful to you. One of them is something I wrote called Meditations on Character Building. It might help you in your early builds.

Good luck and welcome aboard!

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Eric Gorman

AKA Ambassador Tukufu, man of letters, tomb raider and Master Sword Sage
. . . and Sir Szymon val'Holryn, Order of the Phoenix
Formerly Sir Jaeger val'Holryn. Weilder of the Holy Avenger: Thonanos. Gave his soul to help free King Noen


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 Post subject: Re: Please Help Getting Me Started
PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2016 11:15 am 

Joined: Sun Sep 29, 2013 4:12 pm
Posts: 1037
I haven't read val'Holryn's meditations (though I just bookmarked them) so this may be covered there...

A lot of times, I will look through the Paths and Fighting Styles (or sometimes both) and see if anything jumps out at me. If so, then some of the mechanical choices are already made - what are the prereqs to take the Path or Fighting Style as soon as possible (or close to it or at least during the first tier it is possible)?

An example:
  • Adherent of the Claw requires Ss'ressen (race), Diehard (ta), Dragon Hide (ta), Fighting Style (Tooth & Claw) (ta), Tail Swipe (ta), and Melee (Unarmed) 6+ ranks.
    • Dragon Hide requires Vigor 7+.
    • Fighting Style (Tooth & Claw) requires Natural Claws (ta) (or a spell that allows you to have natural claws), Two-Weapon Fighting (ta), and Weapon Mastery (Unarmed) (ta).
      • Two-Weapon Fighting requires Prowess or Quickness 7+.

Which tells you that sometime in Tier 1, you need:
  • stats: Vigor 7 and either Prowess 7 or Quickness 7
  • skills: Melee (Unarmed) 6
  • talents: Diehard, Dragon Hide, Fighting Style (Tooth & Claw), Natural Claws, Tail Swipe, Two-Weapon Fighting, and Weapon Mastery (Unarmed)

That will eat up most of your talents at creation and during tier 1 as well as tell you some of the attributes and skill you need.

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Ss'kethis - Expert Holy Champion of the Fire Dragon 3.1
G'hyu'thyh Sungha - Martial Templar of Illiir 1.7
Eryk Bauer - Martial Awakened 1.2


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 Post subject: Re: Please Help Getting Me Started
PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2016 10:05 pm 

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2016 10:41 pm
Posts: 3
Thanks again for the helpful pointers. I will fix up this character I made and make another to see if it goes any smoother. I'll post if I get stumped again. At least this time I won't get as frustrated because I know you all have my back. 8-)


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 Post subject: Re: Please Help Getting Me Started
PostPosted: Wed Feb 10, 2016 10:23 pm 
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Posts: 991
It is also helpful to use one of the creation templates available:
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=347

I can't add mine directly (work firewall) but using the Hero Worksheet is a big help.

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 Post subject: Re: Please Help Getting Me Started
PostPosted: Thu Feb 11, 2016 12:13 am 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 10:47 am
Posts: 2493
Location: Central Alberta
Glad to be of any help!

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Legends of Arcanis Campaign Staff
Initial Author Contact/Adventure Vetting

Haakon Marcus val'Virdan, Divine Holy Judge of Nier
Ruma val'Vasik, Martial Crusader and Master of the Spear
Jorma Osterman, Arcane Coryani Battlemage


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