Since my questions are not all related to one particular topic, i couldn’t come up with a better title for this post. Sorry.
So, here we go:
Q1—Faithful companion talent What happen when it dies ? Do you get to find another one of the same type while carousing or it’s just too bad, it’s as dead as the experience points you spent to get it and if you want another faithful companion you have to ‘‘purchase’’ another rank ?
Q2—I see that a full plate specially crafted for the wearer provides reach2. Does this reach stack with a weapon’s reach ?
Q3— The Knight archetype comes with a full plate. Is this full plate considered as specially crafted for the wearer ?
Q4—The Motivate talent When do you use it ? What is it meant for ? I can of course read the player’s book definition, but i’m having a hard time figuring out if it’s worth the cost. Is it the kind of stuff you use in combat when one of your allies is close to 0 resolve to avoid him to suffer a trauma on the next mental damage he’ll get ?
Q5— Is there ANY way to totally heal a wound (not just treat it) outside of carousing phase ? I can see that traumas can be fully taken care of with the Comforting lies talent (at the great cost of 3 dooms), but is there anything like that for the wounds ? Onguents, potions, spells, anything ?
Q6— Is there ANY way to help someone recover from despair other than assisting on his daily discipline test ?
I let the animal be replaced, otherwise no one is likely to ever take the talent.
It doesn’t stack, but it does replace Reach 1.
I think that’s up to the GM.
Used in combat to restore Resolve with the Treatment action.
Nothing official. There is a super rare herbal concoction in the Book of Skelos and I’ve often used such macguffins for plot. The Chirugeon talent allows for the complete healing of wounds with downtime but there’s no guidelines as to what that entails.
Usually, I would allow for replacement of a lost Faithful Companion only during a Downtime phase. There might be some exceptions, when the actual adventures takes place over an extended time, that acquiring and familiarizing with a new Faithful Companion might be justified during the adventure phase.
I don’t think the intention of the rules developers is, that you “lose your XP” invested into this Talent if you lose the animal.
Nothing “stacks” regarding Reach. You usually have Reach 1 for unarmed purposes, but in this armor you have Reach 2, making it harder to attack you by Reach 1 weapons.
(In German armor and armor parts are considered “Schutzwaffen” = “protection weapons”, they are considered weapons, as an armored fighter is next to invulnerable by an unarmed fighter and can use the armor to cause damage, as you won’t feel shoulder strikes, elbow strikes, underarm strikes, and punches using gauntlets. Heavy, hard armor is a weapon in itself, not only protection.)
Considering the high status of a Knight in Conan the King and the costly equipment, I would consider this as falling under the “specially crafted for the wearer” clause. Actually, every suit of plate armor has to be fitted just right for the wearer, so if you try to wear a suit fitted for someone else, you might find yourself in quite some trouble. I would raise the Complication range for all physical activities quite a bit - depending on the physical attributes. Maybe by +1 per difference of Brawn Attribute, as this is relevant for the character’s physical build.
In the end, it is the GM’s call, though.
It is not directly used to let an ally avoid suffering Trauma, it is used with the Treat Action during an Action Scene to let an ally recover more Resolve than usual.
This is important if the group is fighting opponents with strong Threaten attacks or Fear abilities, to let your allies regain lost Resolve during a combat scene.
It is of limited use, though, as after each combat scene all Stress tracks, Vigor and Resolve, recover anyway fully.
And it is quite expensive: 400 XP (minus Focus discount) per Rank, for a single point of Bonus Momentum per rank? That is quite an investment. At Rank 3 you would have at least spend 1200 XP (minus 3 times your Focus x 25 XP discount for the three ranks) for a Talent that only gives you 3 Bonus Momentum which can only be spent on a single form of use.
Other Talents which give you Bonus Momentum let you spend this freely, for whatever use you want. And many of those Talents are cheaper, in the first Tier, so for 200 XP per Rank, not 400 XP per Rank.
I do not recommend this Talent, invest the XP into other abilities to get more effect out of your XP.
No. And this is intentional for the episodic structure the rules are intended for.
Other 2d20 games that are closely related to Conan, like Infinity, do have rules how to fully heal physical Harm in an ongoing game, as those games do not have the two phases - Adventure phase and Downtime phase.
This “Golden Wine of Xuthal” has all the problems the Book of Skelos carries with it. This is one of the few Conan source books I usually do not allow at all in my campaigns, due to the many errors and massively broken rules (Necromancy, Mesmerism, Herbal Remedies among them).
It might require D4 Lore and D4 Healing tests and lots of Momentum to prepare, but considering that players might spend Fortune on those, they can prepare immediate wound healing resources in their Downtime phase easily enough. That takes away much of the danger having wounds that might be treated for the moment (no adverse effects while on adventure), but still not fully healed.
Conan PCs are hard to kill, very competent and have different ways to avoid Wounds in the first place (sacrificing shields or armor, having Talents that allow reducing the number of suffered Wounds, etc.). Being able to fully heal a Wound while on an adventure makes the challenge next to naught. It is like D&D’s healing surges / hit dice, recovering your damage right away, removing any kind of risk and thrill, no challenge, just a “friendly sporting match” instead of visceral life-threatening combat.
So in my opinion, healing of wounds in Conan should be hard and should take time - Downtime.
(In Infinity or Mutant Chronicles as science-fiction settings with very advanced medical technology, fully healing even massive damage is still quite plausible - if it does not kill you outright, you will get some new body parts grown for you or in Infinity you will get a shiny new body altogether. - Not so in Conan.)
The Chirurgeon Talent simply allows you to save Gold during Downtime to fully heal your allies’ Wounds. It is useful, but this is only a side-feature of this Talent, the main use is to be able to efficiently treat diseases, which can be quite a problem for many PC groups in some adventures.
No, but this recovery is usually quite easily done.
after eight hours of rest you may attempt an Average (D1) Discipline test. Success will remove 1 level of Despair, plus 1 per Momentum spent (Repeatable).
Any characters with the Counsel or Persuade skills may assist you with this Discipline test.
So other characters can assist you in your D1 Discipline test, which is really not that hard to make.
Just remember: Willpower is no “dump stat” in Conan. And Discipline is really important if you don’t want to be bullied around by opponents using Threaten attacks.
Thank you for your very generous answers, as usual. They are very apreciated as i intend to play Conan with the proper use of the rules, and also in the spirit those rules were meant for.
So…i’ll dump motivate and i’ll get a nice war horse as a faithful companion ! It’s also a relief that nothing stacks regarding reach because the idea of a regular dude with a full plate, a simple blade and the adaptable combattant talent would have reach 5 is utterly disgusting, not even mentioning how ridiculous any description of a combat scene would be…
The talent Inspiring Leader seem pretty attractive to me. I mean giving all your allies some morale soak as long as they are in range looks good.
But what happen when 2 players in the same group have this talent ? Does the morale soak stack (i would guess not) or the effect of that 2nd inspiring leader is that the first one finally also get his morale soak bonus ?
This Morale Soak does not stack, if you have two characters with the same Talent in the group.
Actually, the group should decide who the actual leader might be. In some groups there are PCs who do not accept to be led by anyone, those lone-wolf types could “rules as written” still profit from another PC having this Inspiring Leader (Command) Talent, but it does feel weird, if the player usually insists on being a lonely loner, taking no orders by anyone else, etc., but then accepting such a benefit. - I usually talk to the players about that, as for me as a GM this feels weird, although it is perfectly fine according to the rules.
If you have a group with two characters having the Inspiring Leader Talent, which only gives this Morale Soak to OTHER characters, rules as written it is fine for them to give each other their morale support - it states “all of your allies and subordinates”, and other PCs can be considered as allies, though not necessarily as subordinates (see the “lone wolf” type above).
Though I feel this is weird, as the Talent implies one character being the leader. You cannot have two characters “leading each other”, so they might have to make their mind up about that. But this is my view on this and other Command Talents. If you are in command, you have to be in command.
As in many of my Conan games the groups split up to investigate different things at the same time, having two characters with this Talent is still fine, as you can create two sub-groups with one of those leader-type characters each in them.
Thanks for your insight. It’s all the more precious that i had not realised how this could affect the group.
I was thinking that ‘’ Inspiring leader’’ was more of an honorific title and that the ‘’ inspiring ‘’ side was actually what was providing the morale soak rather than actual leading through gameplay actions.
So, this Talent is not to be taken lightly and a chat with the group would be a good thing since it implies actual ‘‘real’’ leading. Though…i imagine that an inspiring leader could also be a quiet one, who doesn’t look to control and decide everything and just let the other guys do whatever they want, he would just step in when he senses danger or too much confusion in the group.
Rules as written there is no need to clarify the role of the character having this Talent as an actual leader. It is simply applicable for all “allies and subordinates”, so every PC in the group may profit from that.
It is only my view that a leader actually should show some leadership in action, and the group to accept this leadership, as this makes for me the whole rules and effect mechanics more plausible in the fiction.
I understand that we could skip that part, but i agree with you : it makes for much more interesting gameplaly. If we don’t play it like that, it could lead to situations where a character would at some point say something like ‘’ oh, i forgot that morale soak from our inspiring leader…‘’ I mean if you have an inspiring leader who actually really leads his group, you could never just forget about it.
All right, let’s go to the next one
I’m engaging in a duel and i’m starting to really regret it ! I mean, that swordsman got the initiative and just like that, right off the bat, he strikes me at my left leg (where i got no protection) despite my best display of parrying and on top of that, with one dexterous flick of the wrist, he makes me drop my broadsword - can you believe that ?? - Damn…this guy seem much more competent than i had anticipated and i got the sense that i may be way over my head here…Nevertheless, i won’t go down withou a fight ! So, first thing first, i got to pick up my broadsword .
The closest thing i could find in the ‘’ summary of actions ‘’ list from the player’s handbook is: MINOR ACTION draw a weapon/item
i can’t find anything about ‘’ picking-up your weapon on the ground following a disarm’’
I do it as a minor. If you do it as a Standard then it’s super punishing and if you do it for free then there’s no real cost to being disarmed. So Minor sounds right to me.
I would see it as a Minor Action, if you were free to act in the first place.
But in this situation you just described, you were still engaged in close combat with an aggressive opponent. In this case, you could draw a weapon READY on your body, like a dagger or so, as a Minor Action.
To bend down or kneel down to grab your sword from the ground, this would still be a Minor Action, but I might require a skill test for this - probably still a Melee test, as it is hard to be aware of someone trying to decapitate you, while you are looking for your sword.
And as this now requires a non-attack skill test, the opponent might choose to perform the Retaliate Reaction - as an NPC paying 1 Doom, of course. That will occur before you even get the chance to recover your sword.
In general, this is why one should always have at least one backup weapon at the ready, preferably a Dagger with the Parrying quality.
(And from actual martial-arts practice, if you are disarmed and you try to recover your weapon, you WILL be hit multiple times. This is one of the worst ideas to have in this situation. - Either quickly draw another weapon or enter grappling to neutralize the effectiveness of your opponent’s weapon.)
Aahhh now we’re talking !.. Since i had read the reply from Grendel i was wondering : when and why would i spend 2 momentum on a disarm if my opponent will just pick-up his weapon as a minor action without any special consequence…
I absolutely love the idea to roll a melee test which will give a retaliate action to the opponent.
Now, that’s a reason good enough to perform a disarm, even if in most of the case the disarmed opponent will just start swinging with his 2nd weapon.
You are so right there…I’m so used to games with basic combat rules that it didn’t even occur to me to think about the possible big drawback of trying to pick up an item on the ground in the face of an angry swordman.
Thanks for your answers. It’s being an education !
A quick one here : Can you perform a disarm action with a ranged attack ? I see nothing in the book that would say otherwise, but since disarming a foe with a ranged attack seem much more difficult than with a melee attack, i just want to be sure.
Yes, it is a Momentum Spend. That is one of the applications for the Trickshot (Ranged Combat) Talent, which gives Bonus Momentum for just such things.
When our group uses Disarm it’s usually a matter of Disarm, minor action to kick the weapon further away. That way the opponent needs to Withdraw to not get Retaliated against which limits their movement significantly since you can only do one Movement in a round.
I’ve also seen my group disarm someone with a cool weapon, the next PC to go picks it up and kills someone with it…
I love how the game and Momentum encourages more than just I hit the guy for 6 points of damage
I allow that for spending more Momentum. So Disarm for 2 Momentum, and if you want the weapon out of Reach but in the same zone, +1 Momentum, if you want the weapon flying into another zone, +2 Momentum.
