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* Kittenmancer's Smaranda Zografu - Brawler (Steel-breaker)

I have acquired the book and I am slowly reading through it. Getting very excited about this game, especially the flexible and collaborative aspects.

Oh, definitely House Bastien, with Lovell as a second option.

Before I post my concept sketch, how are you with mature themes @WW? Nothing over the top, but the PC I have in mind is someone who uses their body and their sexuality to advance their goals - and they see no shame in that.

Oh my gosh, yes! I was just thinking how much I'd like to be in War for the Crown as a player (I run a game of it on the boards), so this is definitely up my alley.

I have played Blades in the Dark and beta-tested Girl by Moonlight (another Forged in the Dark system), so I am pretty familiar with the mechanics. I don't have the book for CoB yet (similar issue as Sir Longears)

In terms of character concept, probably going for a Key. I have the bones of the character ready, just need to slot in the setting-appropriate details.

What a fantastic group, congrats to those selected! I'm sure you'll have a great game. :)

While we're waiting, I noticed that Lithuanian was mapped to Varisian - I've found a number of Lithuanian folk songs, in case anyone's interested.

This is amazing, thank you! What's the instrument in the oat beer song called?

Pray that my job search goes poorly, then I will have time to run an additional table from this recruitment. :D

I think it depends on the themes of the campaign. As I'm a game developer, the idea of a scion of Ptah being a game designer is appealing, but I also like the gender ambiguity of Loki and their anti-authoritarian vibes. And I love playing support characters, which the other two would embody.

That's a great question, and for me it loosely ties into a Discord discussion about some people's inability (and mine) to play evil PCs. I'm fine with realism as long as our characters have some agency to stop those doing the crimes and save the mortals. I'm not saying we need to be shining-knight heroes, rather leave room for shades of grey and morally ambiguous choices.

For example, Loki could be undergoing a rebranding campaign (hence all the Marvel movies and series that paint them in a more sympathetic light), so there's still mischievousness and trickstery but overall they aim to be seen as one of the 'good guys'.

Of course, using real world news can be tricky as we as players probably have strong opinions about one topic or another (I know I do!), so let's lay out our lines and veils beforehand.

Still interested!

I have the 2E PDFs and would be interested in playing! I played in an Aesir game before and it was a lot of fun.

Scions I'd like to play: Loki, Cheeby-aub-oozoo, Apsu, Ptah, Òsanyìn, Guanyin.

Thank you everyone for the responses so far! I haven't managed to do much reading during my trip, but I'm back now, and tomorrow I'll ump directly to where the previous GM left off to try and get an idea of what needs to happen to push the main narrative forward.

Will make a GM alias at that time as well. Thank you for your trust, I will try my best to do justice to all your awesome characters and NPCs.

@Abella: likewise! I've been greatly enjoying what I've been reading of your character so far (and it made me want to pick up The Locked Tomb series again).

@Cinnabar: thank you for that, I really loved your inclusion of obscure slang in the RP, but even more your appended translations. :D

I believe that we have 4 affirmative votes out of 5? I would like to have a consensus before moving forward.

I'm going on a short trip this week and I plan to continue reading through the Gameplay and Discussion threads. I will also be available to answer any further questions. If we do end up playing together, I will have some questions for you as well - you can have a think on them.

- How familiar are each of you with the general story of the AP? If you have played through (parts of) it before, or know the story, would you like me to try to make it fresh by adding some tweaks and twists? Nothing dramatic, as I doubt that I can improve on the original. :)
- Many of you have NPCs tied to your background - do you prefer being their voice yourself, would you like the GM to embody them, or a mix of both?
- What are your lines and veils? Lines being topics that should never come up, and veils being topics that can come up, but we gloss over them ('fade to black'). These can absolutely change during play as things come up, so never hesitate to bring up something that makes you uncomfortable. This AP touches on a few things that draw parallels to real life that some can find too close for comfort.
- Are there any storylines or elements tied to your characters that were discussed in private with previous GMs and you would like to keep or continue?
- Do you have any plans for your characters' future growth, mechanically and otherwise?

Thank you for the feedback, Cinnabar et all, here's what I am thinking of to address your points.

I haven't read the full gameplay thread yet, I'm on page 6 now and planning to finish reading by the end of this week.

Plot moving too slowly
- For now: move straight into the main plot again and try to aim the party in the same direction with some clear goals.
- For the future: trim fluff as needed and try to keep momentum. An example would be cutting combat encounters that are there just for the XP budget (not an issue if we do milestone leveling as I believe you have been doing). RP that involves only 1 or 2 PCs can be kept in spoilers alongside the main action track. Present optional content and flavour encounters, but don't push it if people don't want to engage with it.

Rules!
I don't have really have house rules, beyond "I don't like to kill PCs", and I am willing to bend that if it makes for cool RP/character arcs. I just wanted folks to know that I will do my utmost to keep their characters alive, unless otherwise instructed.

Understood on the retcon part, or changing rules on the fly. I don't change the rules beyond making a call on "should this be possible, the rules are fuzzy" situations. I will also try not to retcon and just roll with non-critical mistakes when they happen.

When it comes to mechanically complex characters, I view it as the player's responsibility to know their character's mechanics and how they might interact with other rules, so if you tell me this is how your character works and this is what they do, I will trust you. I might occasionally ask for a double-check on something if it's not clear to me, and for the rest let people play their PCs how they like, provided that their fun is not interfering with anyone else's fun.

While waiting to hear from the other players, I'd like to share a bit about myself. I was born and raised in Eastern Europe, so English is not my native language and I also lack familiarity with a lot of North-American culture and media (that Calvinball reference went right over my head until I googled it :D). I was an avid reader since I was 5 years old, and once I got through the school-mandated reading lists I dived into sci-fi (and later, fantasy) with great enthusiasm. (Also, I finally figured out the Abella-Cainabeth reference!) I got into TTRPGs through friends, back when THAC0 was still a thing, and played on and off ever since. As a fun fact, I used to work for the company that merged with White Wolf in 2006, so I got introduced to Exalted and Vampire the Masquerade pretty much by the people who wrote those.

I currently live in Portugal (GMT+1) with my partner and two cats. We both work in video game development and are huge nerds. Right now we're on a quest to eat food from as many different cuisines as we can, and explore this exciting country.

Hello everyone.

I saw this thread last night before going to bed, and immediately got excited after skimming through the character profiles. Curse of the Crimson Throne is one of my favourite APs and it looks like you all put in a lot of effort to tie your characters to the AP's setting. Haven't read the gameplay thread yet, but I did read through the last few pages of the Discussion thread, so I wanted to do a quick fit check with you all before anything else.

I am not the most experienced of GMs. I ran the first book of CotCT for an in-person group, converted to D&D 5E rules because that's what they were most familiar with. I currently run two other APs on here, War for the Crown, approaching the end of the second book, and Kingmaker 2E. I started an Age of Ashes game a while back, but I had to bow out as a GM - partly for RL reasons and partly because I had lost my enjoyment and motivation in continuing.

So, here are a few things about my style of GM'ing, as well as a couple of things I'm not so good at.

- I approach TTRPGs as collaborative storytelling. I get excited about RP, character arcs, NPCs, inhabiting an interesting setting and weaving individual strands into the main story.
- Combat-lite. As a player, I tend to create more support-oriented characters. As a GM, there will almost always be non-violent solutions to encounters, if players want to pursue those. Some combat will be unavoidable, but even then the opponents might surrender, or try to flee. I struggle with incorporating PCs built around combat.
- PCs Are Precious And I'm A Softie. I avoid killing PCs in my games. As a player, I find it extremely demotivating when my character dies, and I don't have the heart to inflict that on others. Unless, of course, that is what the player wants.
- Not a rules lawyer. I admit that my grasp of the technicalities and minutiae of both 1E and 2E rules is not amazing, so I'm always happy for more knowledgeable people to step in and correct me, or to make suggestions. I prefer RaI (rule as intended) over RaW, and I'm quite liberal with granting permission for exceptions and tweaks in character builds as long as we discuss it in advance.
- I usually tinker with the AP as written and steal add bits from elsewhere. I make Miro boards and spreadsheets to keep track of my ideas. For my IRL CotCT game I made a bi-weekly newspaper, the Korvosan Times.

Where I draw the line:
- Inter-player conflict. I've been a manager for 12 years in my line of work, and mediating conflicts before team members has been invariably an awful experience for me. I am not looking to do that in my hobby as well. If two players are in conflict OOC that is for them to sort out (or not).
- Graphic depictions of torture and SA. If we end up playing together I will ask everyone what their lines and veils are, but these are my hard lines. I am also uncomfortable with character backgrounds or RP that leans heavily on in-world racism and other forms of discrimination, especially when parallels are drawn with real-world populations by either the Paizo writers or the players. I think this last part is important to mention, since Varisia is a little fraught in that regard.
- Related to the above - OOC discrimination of any kind, either aimed at myself, at another player, or in general.

Feel free to look at my profile and my other games, I'll be happy to answer any questions you have.

No updates on the Pump House Propaganda, one of the PCs was eaten by a fish so most scheming was put on hold for a couple sessions. However, I definitely wanted to let everyone know how the party delt with the Telus situation.

After learning that Mosle had stayed with his friend and keeping him alive all these years the party concluded that Mosle was Telus' true love. So they created a scheme to draw the Baron out so Mosle could plant a kiss on him. The hunter used his Boots of Spider Climbing to rush to the Baron's location, grapple him, and drop him to the floor, all so that Mosle could barge in and plant the kiss. It was a tough fight, and the hunter nearly died, but eventually they succeeded. The power of gay love won out!

I thought this was a fun solution, anyone else's players have a creative solution for Telus?

I head-cannoned Araig Telus, Frater Mosle and Caphrinius Vort in a gay triad. When the baron's curse became obvious, Mosle and Vort discussed it and decided that one of them will stay with the baron, and the other will take the remaining villagers and resettle there somewhere else. Right now the PCs are pursuing the "sisterly kiss of true love" avenue, but we'll se if they stumble upon a different solution.

Oh, and Vort is making eyes at the one male PC while one of the female PCs is making eyes at Vort, so there is now a very complicated love quadrangle happening in the party. :D

Congratulations to those selected and enjoy the game!

I am having an absolute blast with this AP as a GM, I'm sure you all will as well. :)

Dotting for very high interest!

This is one of my favourite APs, but as a player I never got past the very beginning before the games fizzled. Full disclosure that I'm running this as a GM at the moment (we're well into Book 2), but I can absolutely keep player and character knowledge separate. I am highly committed to this AP as both a player and a GM.

I had a bard built for this, background and all, but I would like to try something a little different and aim for a Lion Blade PrC (yes, another one). The Deadly Courtesan rogue archetype was very interesting to me, but it is only available to vishanyas, and while I could go for a pass-for-human vishkanya, a plain human would fit her background better.

@DM Fang Dragon - would you allow the Deadly Courtesan archetype for a human?

"Perhaps you might name yourself after something you like to see, or taste. I often find a walk about helps me think--maybe you should try it?" Marius suggests.

Still mumbling to itself, the otyugh slinks back into the murky waters of the canal.

Out of initiative for now.

Really appreciate a second table, good luck with the ruminating!

Qibbi pats Kib on a mitten-clad "hand".

- You're very pretty. No one here is as pretty as you.

@Mia: Qiddi would probably know Mia (and possibly Jenny as well), as they're working for a competitor of Madame Mezziana. They actually learned Abyssal from a tiefling friend, precisely because of the tendency for tieflings working (voluntarily or not) in the sex trade. One of the few people in Diamnond Lake who appreciates and befriends tieflings.

This is probably my most difficult character to bring to life. I've been struggling with the build since Saturday, and gave up twice, but finally settled on something that mechanically fits my vision of them.

@GM, would you allow a non-Vishkanya Deadly Courtesan (Rogue archetype)? I have an idea for a character who runs one of the brothels in town.

Full disclosure: I will be running this AP, so I am familiar with the story but I have no issue keeping my PC and player knowledge separate.

I read a bit of the gameplay thread and I'm really enjoying your writing style and the rest of the group. I've been wanting to play this AP for a long time, and I can match the posting rate requirements.

In terms of a character, I whipped up a goblin oracle of life with the Haunting Visions background.

Des is a member of the Bumblebrashers, converted to Desna's faith by Warbal. They act as the tribe's healer, and for the past couple of weeks they've been having terrible dreams and visions, which has made them increasingly restless and anxious. Now that the heroes from Breachill are here to help, Des sees an opportunity to do something, so in consultation with Helba they have offered to join them.

Vesi, if you want to be held in reserve you can make a character. You never know how many players dot and don't make a character!

Yes, please! I'll roll some stats here and finalize the character today.

Yikes.

Recruitment thread is up!

I have already tallied all the submissions in this thread, so if you want to transfer yours to the new recruitment without changes, simply say so in that thread.

If you would like to tweak your submission, or submit something else entirely, you're welcome to.

Hey all, I will be putting up a new recruitment thread on Monday, I am currently in the woods for a little holiday.

If player/character knowledge is a concern, I can assure you that I can keep the two separated. I have GM'd Curse of the Crimson Throne while also being a player in that AP.

Currently I am going through some prequel materials and will be starting on the AP itself in a bit. I expect it will take me about a week to read all the story bits, which should give people enough time to submit their characters before I make my final decision.

I am going to regretfully withdraw from this. While the world is very exciting and I would have welcomed getting more experience with Starfinder, putting this character together feels like a slog and more work than I have the energy for at the moment.

Best of luck to you all, and good to see you back Leinathan!

I'll work on the build and the extended background next week.

Thanks for the questions and the answers, now I have a clearer picture of my character concept. Bullet points because it's late and brain is tired.

- is studying the Babel virus and is a proponent of its controlled spreading
- I really like the idea of the witchwarper, but an empath mystic with some oracular psychic powers mixed in also appeals to me
- ideals/goals same as mentioned before

Esmeralda Gonzalez was my first pick for an ally - is there a version of the tarot in this universe?

Here's my character concept: Lashunta-modded human who wants to help build a society where all sentient lifeforms can at the very least coexist peacefully, ideally integrate with each other and cooperate. They study everything to do with the physiology, psychology, culture and society of non-human species. A smaller field of study would be the Babel virus itself.

For class, I'd like either a witchwarper or an empath connection mystic, with a dip in envoy. Not sure how the Babel virus would work for a character that is very much focused on diplomacy and communication though.

Thanks for doing this! I want to GM a campaign as well and was thinking of taking a similar approach of polling the community.

The ones I'd like to play though...

1. Age of Ashes
2. War for the Crown
3. Ironfang invasion

I am very intrigued by all this. I don't have a character concept yet, but I'll get to reading the materials over the next few days and put something together.

I only read that it was a "fast-paced game" in the recruitment, and seeing multiple posts per day per player in the gameplay thread. I can post at least once a day in the weekdays, perhaps a little less often in the weekends. If I hit a very busy few days I'll let people know in advance. As a note, my timezone is GMT+2, so I may be out of sync with (most) other players when a flurry of posting happens during (my) night time.

As serendipity would have it, I just came across this today. The kind of cakes that Manush would make.

Thank you, Lilli, for all your input! Good luck, everyone, there are some fantastic submissions here.

I can potentially save you a bit of cash here. The generic 'workstation' room is intended for crafts or skills that don't already have a specific room targeted at their skill (printer, scriptorium, forge, clockwork shop, etc). There really is no Workstation(alchemy) since if you want a room for that skill you build the Alchemy Lab.

Good point! I kept the worsktation and changed its purpose - it is making non-alchemical items like soap, and packaging products from the garden - tisanes, seasonings and herbs, simple herbal remedies etc. I thought that only supplying alchemical items was a bit limiting for a successful business, so they would need to provide everyday items to other businesses and to individuals - like a modern-day supplier for hotel chains, restaurants and hospitals.

Please indicate your starting attribute levels; doing so makes it much easier for me when putting a character into Hero Lab. (If you have Hero Lab, feel free to provide me with your character file.)

Here is my HeroLab file.

Starting attribute levels: Str 8, Dex 12, Con 10, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 12.

Building stuff.

Updated the building page with manager type (accountant), and the type of workshop (alchemy). I also have a spreadsheet.

From the look of it, and going by the information found in the Baker's Guild entry, it reads like Manush saw the writing on the wall before the Revolutionary Council and retired from baking before the Guild was turned into the 'state-run sweatshop' it now is. Does that mesh with what's in your head as to what she's been doing and why she (and her family) are not basically locked into the Guild's state bakery?

What I had in mind was Manush working part-time at the Baker's Guild, but what you suggest is much better, and would also explain why she is so focused on disguises - she fears that she will be recognized and corralled into working for the Guild.

Build stuff.

I dropped the investigator level and will go with just Witch for my second class. It fits better with the background and the feel of the character in any way.

Disclosure: I have GMed the first 3 books of this campaign in a RL game, and I am familiar with its entire content. I can, however, keep player and character knowledge separately - doing so at the moment in a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign.

I am very enthusiastic about collaborative party and character creation, not just mechanically but also in terms of backgrounds, connections, relationships.

Added more detail to Manush's background - key NPCs and her familiar.

I think I need to double-check her crunch once I get back home (very late tonight) and have access to HeroLab again.

LINK TO PROFILE

The drawback is Oppressive Expectations - her family is milking her resourcefulness and good business sense by pushing her to take in various relatives as employees, regardless of their actual level of competence.

If you're looking for help or feedback there's less than 48 hours left before GM TWO ceases commenting and just looks at completed submissions.

Until GM TWO gets around to giving feedback on my submission, I would appreciate your thoughts on it as well (or anyone else's). I am currently on a business trip until Saturday, so my window to make changes is pretty tight.

I made an alias for Manush.

The build is not complete yet, still need to get equipment but I wanted to see how much gold I have left over after building my business.

@GM TWO, if you could cast an eye and let me know if there's anything that requires changing, or if you're missing anything, before I dive into creating the business and the dozen or so NPCs that are Manush's most relevant family members (she has a large family). I was also wondering if her current supply/procurement business is not too small for the purposes of an Influential Merchant. I can easily fluff it up if so.

As a note, I'm decent at building people characters, not so good at building mechanically optimal ones, so if anyone spots improvements I could be making to the build, please let me know! I tried to have the mechanics fit the background and personality as much as possible.

I presume that she's (forcibly) part of the Baker's Guild ... ?

Indeed. Initially I wanted Manoush to have her own bakery, but that is a) impossible in the circumstances, and b) would have been a liability (nice place you've got here, shame if anything happened to it).

I will flesh out the background and work on the crunch today.

I hope I'm not too late to express my great interest in applying for this game. When the recruitment thread first went up, it tickled my sensibilities, but I didn't have bandwidth at the time for such a detailed and involved game - that has changed now.

I did a fair bit of reading of this thread, the game info thread and various links, and would like to start with a concept sketch, and flesh that out after GM feedback.

Basics:

Manush Zartar Karapetyan: middle-aged gnome woman, Alchemist (Mindchemist)/Witch (Alley Witch or Vellemancer). Historian of the Red Revolution campaign trait. Religion: Shelyn (but not practicing).

Background:

Profession: baker or chef. Manush's dream has always been to have her own bakery/patisserie/restaurant where she could practice her artistry. She lives and breathes anything to do with food, from the knowledge and skill of selecting the right ingredients, to combining them in unexpected and flavorful ways, to researching long-lost or exotic recipe, to putting a new twist on a classic dish. She has now been relegated to baking plain bread with poor quality flour, with no innovation, creativity or challenge.

What I would like, if there is room for it in the world, is for Manoush to have owned and managed a bakery that served all manners of breakfast and lunch food, called either "Le Pain Quotidien" (actual chain of bakery-restaurants founded in Belgium), or "La Briochérie". One of her goals is to resurrect that, and expand it into a more far-reaching business - multiple locations, catering, cooking and baking courses etc.

Connections: Manoush comes from a large family, although she is somewhat estranged from her flamboyant, artsy, eccentric gnome parents and multitude of siblings. She disagrees with many of their views and life choices, but still cares for them and lives in constant fear that one or more of them will run afoul of the Final Blades. Aside from her family, she has a discreet casual affair with a halfling man, but nothing deeper than that; she is the kind of person that pours much of herself into her work, and thus has little to spare for enduring personal connections. Her husband died during the Rane Council, and they never had children.

In the professional realm, she has a supplier business (mostly using her alchemy skills). She procures or creates materials and concoctions that other businesses use, especially theaters, playhouses, tea houses and other entertainment or hospitality venues.

Relationship to the Red Revolution: Manoush was still young when the revolution started, and she cheered it on with all her heart. As time passed, however, her initial enthusiastic support wavered, then wilted entirely as her beloved city became a drab shadow of its former self.

Personality and motivation: Manoush has become a sour woman. In her youth she was very different from the rest of her family - where they were lively, quirky and loved a good laugh, she was intense, focused, serious. She wanted to settle down and be respectable, develop her craft and be an upstanding member of society. She wanted to belong. These days, her focus and seriousness are still there, but her intensity has faded, her fire reduced to embers. She hates that, and remembers how it felt when she used to love her work, when she woke up every day with a head full of fresh ideas and inspiration. She wants that feeling back, and she wants her city back, as it was before the Chelish came.

She is a fussy, crotchety person who has very specific ideas about how things should be done, at least as far as her work is concerned. She has a talent of going straight to the crux of the matter in any discussion, and knowing what to say to get what she wants. While she affects a stern exterior, she does have several soft spots - for people who are genuinely passionate about something, for people who can truly and enthusiastically appreciate good food, and for animals and small children. The very last part may be stemming from an unfulfilled wish, but she would never admit that.

Dotting for great interest. I don't know how I haven't spotted this thread so far, must be GM ShadowLord's brilliance that blinded me.

Have been chewing on the character concept all day and will do the crunch when I get home.

Until then, some "about me" bits:

- Have been playing TTRPGs for close to 20 years. I much prefer collaborative storytelling, character development and roleplaying to crunching optimal builds and learning all the minutiae of rules by heart.
- Been playing Pathfinder since 2011, both here and on RPGCrossing. GMed a couple of in-person games (a Pathfinder RotRL game, and a Curse of the Crimson Throne game converted to D&D 5E).
- I like creating and playing flawed or restricted characters, as well as roleplaying drawbacks and below average ability scores.
- I love creating connections between player characters, and/or between my character and NPCs.
- I relate to all of the things under "Player expectations", and they are qualities I look for in my own players as a GM.
- I am on a Western Europe timezone and English is not my first language, so if my posting times seem a bit weird and my grasp of idioms is not perfect, this is why.

Sample posts:
- Introducing one of my favourite characters to play, an ADHD ratfolk alchemist who is overly fond of baked goods. Mostly played this character in a homebrew Discord campaign, so I don't have a lot of linkable posting records for it.
- Some posts from my half-orc witch. From a mash-up of Kingmaker and Ruins of Azlant game.
- Basically anything in this game (I'm Yaziyah Tanja, Shoanti shaman). What I consider my "best" character so far (it helps to have a fantastic GM and cast of fellow players!).

Ok, I think I have something:

Quresha Shifa

Female Human

Rank: Novice (0 advancements)
Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d4, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8
Pace: 6, Parry: 7, Toughness: 9(3)
Skills: Athletics: d6, Common Knowledge: d4, Faith: d8, Fighting: d6, Healing: d6+2, Notice: d4, Persuasion: d6, Stealth: d4

Hindrances: Big Mouth, Curious, Vow (minor, Search for the Cup and Talisman of Al'Akbar)

Edges: Arcane Background, Healer

Armor: Bronze Arm Guards (vambraces) (Armor 3), Bronze Corselet (Armor 3), Bronze Helmet (head) (Armor 3), Bronze Leg Guards (greaves) (Armor 3), Medium Shield (Armor 2;Cover vs Ranged -2)
Gear: Backpack, Bedroll (sleeping bag; winterized), Canteen (waterskin), First Aid Kit (basic supplies), Shovel, Trail Rations
Weapons: Spear/Javelin (Str+d6, 3/6/12), Unarmed (Natural Attack, Str)
Wealth: $0

Language: Native Language (Native)

Arcane Background: Miracles (SWADE p148)
Total Powers: 3
Power Points: 10 / 10
Powers: Smite (SWADE p168), Healing (SWADE p162), Protection (SWADE p165-166)
Abilities

• Adaptable: Humans begin play with any Novice Edge of their choosing. They must meet its Requirements as usual.
  

*waves at BrOp*

Alright, so I never played Savage Worlds, but I am mightily interested in this. I've been fighting with character creation all day, so I'll ask for a bit of help.

The concept I have in mind is a Baklunish paladin of Al-Akbar (a tie-in with Father Silver would be perfect) who is quite spirited and good with fighty things, but has terrible ADD and people judgement.

Could I make Fighting a Strength-based skill, instead of Agility?