Cool. I may try that. Chipping away at the action economy does the same thing (since if you’ve already used your minor you need to spend Momentum) but in a less elegant way.
Do you ask for this momentum to be spend in adition of the minor action ?
No. The additional Momentum spend does not take any action, it is part of the total Momentum spend for the Disarm.
I’m reluctant to require additional Actions, unless it is a Complication (single Complication = Minor Action, double Complication = Standard Action, triple or more Complications = major effort to get out of that).
2 new ones:
—The Bossonian archer talent sound very fancy.
But what’s the point of striking fear into people you’re trying to kill ?
Is it really useful ? If so, in what kind of situation ?
— Is it possible to use the Conforting lies talent to totally heal a NPC if you’re willing to pay the cost ( 3 pts of Doom) ?
That could be asked for any weapon with the Fearsome X quality. Those weapon are used to actually hurt or even kill the opponent, so why causing them some Resolve damage in addition, as they probably will not give up due to some few points of Resolve lost.
Only if there is a significant Fearsome quality, like Fearsome 3 or so, you might whittle away faster their Resolve, causing them Trauma, taking out a Minion maybe slightly faster than by reducing their Vigor.
But as the Bossonian Longbow is already a MONSTER regarding the damage, it is THE “no-brainer” choice for any archer due to the damage. Add to that a decent damage Bonus of +3CD for high Awareness, and the archer does 8 CD damage per hit - not even adding spent Reloads on it (with the right Talent you could actually spend 2 Reloads, for 10 CD damage at 4d20 for the Skill test - very impressive).
This will take care of most opponents even with high Vigor, causing them some Wounds, so the Fearsome quality does not matter at all.
I cannot recommend “wasting” XP on this Talent. You could choose better ones for the same amount of XP.
Edit: The Bossonian Longbow already has Piercing 1, so each Effect will ignore 1 point of Armor Soak. It has Range Medium, so with the “Shoot for the Horizon” Talent, you can ignore shooting at Close or Long range Difficulty increases, which makes it THE BEST ranged weapon you can get.
For 400 XP, take the Quiverful Talent (just the next one in the Scout book) to recover 2 Reloads after shooting, this will help you never to run out of Reloads - and at Rank 2 you recover the 2 Reloads spent using the Talent that allows you to use 2 instead of 1 (the name eludes me at the moment).
Bossonian Longbow is the best choice for any Archer.
Worse for this Talent: it actualls HINDERS your Archer, by making him increase the Difficulty for firing any other type of bow. And that for the next to useless Fearsome quality and for 400 XP ill spent.
You might only heal Trauma (mental damage) not Wounds using this Talent.
As the description talks about characters - PCs and NPCs would fit - you can heal the Trauma of an NPC using this Talent just fine. Pay/generate the Doom and it will work.
out of curiosity, would you allow an Asshuri to start with a bossonian longbow ?
Depends on the game or campaign I run. - They could always have killed a Bossonian who crossed their paths, first for their boots, second for their other loot, and then - oh, look! - that is a nice bow!
2 new ones very unrelated
—The Homeland talent ‘‘Of Saddle and Bow’’ : Hyrkanian riders are renowned for their facility while on horseback, with stories of these horse archers reaching far and wide. As one of these riders, you count as having the Hunter talent so long as you have a horse and bow ready for use. You can also reduce the Difficulty of any Animal Handling test by 1, even if this reduces the Difficulty of the test to Simple (D0).
Does the bonus to the animal handling test apply at all time or is it only so long as you have a horse and bow ready for use
— How much would it cost to make a full plate too big for a character specilally crafter for him ? Of course, let’s assume that he brought it to a good crafter who owns all the tools to operate.
Thanks.
One advantage of this Talent.
The other advantage of this Talent.
As the second advantage does not explicitly states the “horse and bow ready” condition, so in my view it would apply all the time.
But I can see the description could easily be interpreted either way, so only allowing the reduction of Difficulty while you are on horseback and have a bow in your hand - which might lead to awkwardly comical situations where the rider will always have a bow in the hand, in any and all horse riding actions. I don’t want such involuntarily comical actions in my Conan games, so I stick to my first interpretation - Hunter: requires being on horseback and having a bow ready; Difficulty reduction applies all the time (while on horseback - see the catch of that below).
I only allow this while the character is on horseback and only for actual horses as the animal in question for Animal Handling tests.
Although this is not clearly stated in the Talent’s description; you might come to understand it applies to ALL Animal Handling tests, “reduce the Difficulty of ANY Animal Handling test by 1”. So even for directing your faithful dog, your hunting falcon, your war elephant or your three chipmunk friends it would apply, if you take it “rules as written”.
That is not defined in the rules, as far as I know. So ask your GM. - It is probably less than the cost of a new suit of armor.
I would allow this to be part of the next Downtime Upkeep payment, though. That means, no extra costs, as - I hope - acquiring the suite of full plate by peeling it off it’s very competent, super dangerous former owner, killed in a fair battle by your character, was “investment” enough.
If we don’t apply any kind of limitation to this, i find it waaaay too powerful. I mean, why would there be a homeland talent more powerful than any other ? So far from all i have read, all the talents that reduce the difficulty of a test to a simple D0 all have heavy limitations. The equivalence for Of Saddle and Bow in a regular tree talent would cost at least 600xp. So, since we’re not afraid of those comical situations with a bow in hand (heck, some of our players can routinely spend a fortune point just to create a comical effect by introducing an element to the story), i guess we’ll apply strictly the rule that the character must have a horse (not mandatory to be on it as per the wording of the rule) and have a bow in hand.
Don’t worry, my character has’t found a cheap way to get a full plate after only 2 sessions of play !
At this point of her career, she has never seen such a marvel, she’s only heard of it !
It’s just the kind of stuff i want to know before i finally cross the way of such a lucky owner.
That is, how I see it, too. A homeland talent should be useful under rather well-defined circumstances OR have a test at a rather high Difficulty involved (some more universally applicable ones have D2 or D3 tests involved).
Upon character creation, do you allow your players to choose whatever homeland, caste and archetype they want ?
I mean, some castes are in total opposition with the archetype and also not well suited for the homeland. Does it matter as long as the player can come up with a decent story to explain it ?
Just how good a story could be to explain the background of a zamboulian sailor with caste barbaric ?
Yes. As long as there is some justification by any (short!) backstory, this is fine.
The sequence is: 1. Homeland, 2. Caste, 3. Archetype.
So you come from Zamboula.
As Barbaric states:
You hail from the uncivilized lands of the North, whether Cimmeria, Nordheim, or parts of Hyperborea. Your ways are strange and primitive to the folks of the Hyborian kingdoms and beyond, and you find their own practices and customs to be equally baffling. This is not to be confused with the Barbarian archetype, and barbaric characters may often have the caste as well as the archetype.
This is rather regionally limited - but not actually a hindrance.
You have a barbaric upbringing, belonging to a Barbaric Caste.
Especially, if you take this Story (actually the step directly after Caste):
Too Small A Home
Inspired by the tales told by the bards and those few wanderers who came through your village, you eventually realized that your home was too quiet, too humdrum, too small to contain your appetite for adventure. You gathered your things and set forth with few farewells. Perhaps you’ll return, some day, but not soon.
And then take the Mariner Archetype (there is no Sailor Archetype, Pirate would be an alternative):
You went to sea at a young age, either born on a coast and following a family tradition or through your own volition. Once on the decks, surrounded by a fraternity of sea-goers, you realized you were home, and thus you have stayed. Whether you sailed on fishing boats, merchant vessels, or warships, you know the ropes, and cannot imagine life on land. You thrive under the routine of shipboard duties and chores, and have thrilled when cutlasses came out and the waters ran red beneath the hull of your ship and those it fought. You know how to sail along the coasts, and you know your way around the docks in the ports that you’ve visited, far better than you know the streets of the cities beyond. The countryside itself is a strange vista, whereas you find yourself quite at home riding upon the dark waters of the Western Ocean or the Vilayet Sea.
Putting it together:
Young Abdul, one of the countless street urchins in the rich oasis city of Zamboula, was trying to steal food from the wrong people. They had been slavers who, after a long trek through the desert, had some “losses” to make up for their buyers in the north, in proper Turan.
They put him in a caged wagon and after a long voyage he was about to be sold at a Turanian trading post. He wouldn’t have it and tried to fight his way out of slavers and customers alike - running straight into the beer belly of a massive pale man with red hair and a fiery red beard. That one started laughing and told the crowd, this little rascal is too rabid to be sold, he’ll keep him and dispose of him for good as a “community service”. No one wanted to stand up against this “offer” and so Abdul was grabbed by this man and dragged off.
Off to an even longer voyage where he had to take care of the huge man’s equipment, animals and prepare food and see that there is always enough beer available.
On this trek towards the exotic and mysterious - and cold - west, Abdul saw many wonders of strange nature, weird customs, unreasonable behaviour of weird people.
But that passed, too. And it was now getting really cold, because the destination was in the north-west of the continent, Vanaheim.
There the now better fed and actually somewhat trained Abdul became part of the barbaric household his saviour became to lead, after he strangled his elder brother, the current Jarl, and took over control.
Abdul, still with the instincts of a gutter rat of Zamboula, managed to learn the ways of the barbaric folks and use them to his advantage. But the long travels had inspired in him a wanderlust, he could not suppress for long.
The very first chance he saw to sneak on a Vanir dragonship, out to raid the western coast, he took.
And no one on the ship was angry at him stowing away, mainly because he had to work like any other man on board.
His first raiding voyage was successful and many more followed. The western sea was as dangerous and life extinguishing as the easter desert, but he became the master of both.
…
To be continued after finishing the other steps of the character creation.
See, it is not so hard to justify “weird” choices in character creation.
Travel shapes the young they say…Poor Abdul has been shaped a lot lately…
I liked it a lot ! Okay, pretty anything goes then as long as you put a little effort with your imagination.
Thanks
Still into homelands.
Farsun caught my eyes because of its unique associated talent : resplendent
Looking on my player’s handbook map : No Farsun
So, after a little diggin’ i find out that it comes from an era prior to current one.
Still, the online character generator allows it. Is it possible to play a character from Farsun in the current hyperborean world ?
Farsun was a land that existed not in Conan’s Hyborian Age world, but in the Thurian Age world of Kull of Atlantis, thousands of years in the past from Conan’s day. Thus, it no longer exists in the Hyborian Age, having disappeared during an earlier cataclysm that reshaped the face of the world.
That is why you should choose which source books you allow in your campaign (or the online generator). Usually, for a Conan campaign, do not use the Kull (or the Exiles!) book at all.
UNARMED this word can be find in the description of a few talents.
Are you considered unarmed if you hold a bow in a melee situation ?
Are you considered unarmed if you hold a shield in a melee situation ?
Is a shield considered as a weapon ? when you create your character, you usually get to choose a weapon : can you take a shield instead ?
Thanks.