In a different thread a guy was talking about a Samurai he had made and I suggested a Ronin. I wanted to get other players thoughts on the build before I try him in a game.
Ronin
Skills:
Str: D6 o+1 o+2
Dex: D10 (Melee +3)(Acrobatics +1) o+1 o+2 o+3 o+4
Con: D4 o+1
Int: D6 o+1 o+2 o+3
Wis: D10 (Perception +2) (Survival +1) o+1 o+2 o+3
Char: D6 o+1 o+2
Hand Size: 4 o5 o6
Proficient with: Light armor, Weapons, o Heavy Armor
Powers:
Reveal two weapons with the "Sword" trait to add a D6 (o +1)(o +2) to a Charisma Check.
If you would discard a blessing to explore a location, instead recharge that blessing.
Card List: Favored Card : Weapon
Weapon: 5 o6 o7 o8
Spell: 0
Armor: 3 o4 o5
Item: 3 o4 o5
Ally: 0 o1
Blessing: 4 o5 o6
I noticed a couple of things you did that need fixin. Nothing major, but still.
You should only have 5 skills, and you currently have 7; likewise, you should only have 4 power checkboxes, and you have 5. other than that, I like your idea. your powers are different, but in a good way.
Why do you say 5 skills? Seelah has 4. Kyra has 7. Harsk has 9.
As for 4 powers, it does look like everyone only has 4 boxes. I would drop the 2nd +2 on the Charisma power.
RUles: Making Your Own Cards
You can make your own story cards—simply follow the format
of the ones in the box, choosing villains and henchmen that are
appropriate for the power level of your characters. Be careful when
setting rewards; you don’t want to give out too much for success.
You can also make your own character and role cards. To balance
them with the ones in the box, each character should start with 15
cards on her Card List, no more than 1 d4 and 1 d12 in her skills,
and no more than 5 skill bonuses. She should have 15 skill feat
checkboxes, 10 card feat checkboxes, 4 power feat checkboxes on
her character card, and 12 power feat checkboxes on her role card.
That's what I'm talking about (also emphasis mine)
That's what I'm talking about (also emphasis mine)
Rules: Making Your Own Cards
You can make your own story cards—simply follow the format of the ones in the box, choosing villains and henchmen that are appropriate for the power level of your characters. Be careful when setting rewards; you don’t want to give out too much for success. You can also make your own character and role cards. To balance them with the ones in the box, each character should start with 15 cards on her Card List, no more than 1 d4 and 1 d12 in her skills, and no more than 5 skill bonuses. She should have 15 skill feat checkboxes, 10 card feat checkboxes, 4 power feat checkboxes on her character card, and 12 power feat checkboxes on her role card.
I think that refers to the number of different skill bonuses you can have, not so much the value that those skill bonuses can add up to. For instance, Merisiel has 4 skill bonuses: Acrobatics, Disable, Stealth, and Perception. They total 8.
But I can't be 100% sure on that.
yes, but those aren't bonuses, those are skills. I image that if they had wanted to say skills, they would have said that specifically.
yes, but those aren't bonuses, those are skills. I image that if they had wanted to say skills, they would have said that specifically.
Skills, in the ACG, refer to Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha.
Actually, they are all skills. Strenght is a skill, Melee is a skill. Vrog is right about that. There isn't a different term to refer to Ranged or Dexterity. They are both skills. Which furthers the fact that "skill bonuses" doesn't refer to things like Melee, Acrobatics, etc. Because if it did, then that would be the very kind of thing that would make Melee and Strength different categories. But they aren't. They are both just skills.
What they want is for you to have all 6 "innate skills" (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha) and no more than 5 "trained skills" (Melee, Ranged, Disable, Acrobatics, Stealth, Fortitude, Knowledge, Arcane, Craft, Survival, Perception, Divine, Diplomacy, etc.) But actually, there is no reason you couldn't take "Dexterity: d10 +2" as a skill. I don't see that breaking the rules, but it sure does break the "norm".
The problem is that "skill bonuses" isn't really defined. But it is actually mentioned one other place: Add only what you are told to add.
Add Only What You Are Told to Add. If a card adds another die, that’s all it gives you: a die. It doesn’t give you your bonuses again.
That hints at the fact that the bonus is any +X on the card.
I simply think it is the number of times you can have a skill that says +X. It doesn't refer to how much all those Xs add up to. That is because if you look at the 11 iconics in RotR, none of them have more than 5 different skills that say +X (actually none have more than 4), but Harsk, Krya, Lem, Lini, Merisiel all have +X skills that total more than 5 (Harsk's total 9). And I don't think they'd prevent you from doing something on your character that they can do on theirs.
I dunno though. taking a look at each of the existing characters, the breakdown looks like this:
Amiri Melee +2, survival +3
Ezren Arcane +2, Knowledge +2
Harsk ranged +3, fortitude +2, perception +2, Survival +2
Kyra melee +2, Fortitude +3, divine +2
Lem knowledge +3, Diplomacy +3, arcane +1, divine +1
Lini knowledge +3, Divine +1, Survival +2
Meresiel acrobatics +2, disable +2, stealth +2, perception +2
Sajan Acrobatics +2, Fortitude +2
Seelah melee +2, divine +2
Seoni diplomacy +2, arcane +2
Valeros melee +3, diplomacy +2
breaking that down, we get:
amiri, ezren, sajan, seelah, seoni, and valeros all support my line of thought;
harsk, Kyra, lem, lini (who could almost fall into "my" camp), and meresiel all support the "5 skills not +5" school of thought.
As a final point, I think it's useful to point out that should your interpretation be correct, there's little to nothing to do about a character who takes 5 different skills at +3.
I dunno though. taking a look at each of the existing characters, the breakdown looks like this:
Amiri Melee +2, survival +3
Ezren Arcane +2, Knowledge +2
Harsk ranged +3, fortitude +2, perception +2, Survival +2
Kyra melee +2, Fortitude +3, divine +2
Lem knowledge +3, Diplomacy +3, arcane +1, divine +1
Lini knowledge +3, Divine +1, Survival +2
Meresiel acrobatics +2, disable +2, stealth +2, perception +2
Sajan Acrobatics +2, Fortitude +2
Seelah melee +2, divine +2
Seoni diplomacy +2, arcane +2
Valeros melee +3, diplomacy +2
breaking that down, we get:
amiri, ezren, sajan, seelah, seoni, and valeros all support my line of thought;harsk, Kyra, lem, lini (who could almost fall into "my" camp), and meresiel all support the "5 skills not +5" school of thought.
As a final point, I think it's useful to point out that should your interpretation be correct, there's little to nothing to do about a character who takes 5 different skills at +3.
All that proves is that there isn't a set rule. My character has a number of skill bonuses that falls in the normal range (2-4) and has a number of total skill bonus points that fall between the range of the normal characters (4-9).
Also, I think if a character is designed correctly, it wouldn't be broken to have 5 skills at +3. You could have a character that has lower base stats but specializes at particular things.
Yeah. I think it is no more than a quantity of 5 skill bonuses and left up to you to fairly balance the magnitude of each bonus.
A large bonus (+3 or more for example) in a skill that isn't "guaranteed" to be needed each scenario (i.e. Acrobatics) probably isn't going to be a problem.
And a huge bonus for a skill where the referenced skill is a small(er) die isn't going to be a huge problem either. (Harsk's ranged bonus for example.)
But a huge bonus with a large die might be too much (i.e. Melee: Strength +5 where Strength was a d12 or d10 might be a bit much.) But even then I say "might". The only way to know is to test it. If that was your only skill, or if you took slightly lower dice elsewhere (Lem and Kyra only add up to 40 instead of 42 for example) would maybe be a way to balance things out.
I think Lem has a "smaller" set of dice maybe at least partially due to have both Arcane and Divine. Kyra, maybe partially due to Melee and Divine. But that is all just speculation on my part.
I think I'm gonna post a thread in the rules discussion forum and see if I can get an official answer.