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Character Advancement Questions

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2017 10:04 pm
by KevinB
In another thread, it was posted that:
Andrew1879 wrote:
Thu Aug 10, 2017 3:17 pm
Professional Abilities are not gained until Journeyman Tier for any Profession. Sorry, we'll make that more clear in a future edition, and add it to the Errata.
On that topic, it's unclear as to exactly how the Professional Abilities are gained.

Do you get all of the listed abilities immediately upon entering a new tier?

Do you only get one per Professional Level (this is my assumption, considering there are 4 per tier for the lower tiers, but only 3 at Master tier)? If so, do you choose which one to gain, or are they gained in order?

Also, another thing that needs to be cleared up...

Are Free Skill slots gained at every level or only when advancing tiers? Page 269 of the Players Guide mentions that "Advancing in tier is the only way that Characters gain slots for Free Skills", but the table on page 266 shows Free Slots being gained at every Professional Level.

Help please!

Re: Character Advancement Questions

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 12:35 am
by Slimcreeper
The table on p269 is a subset of the table on p266, showing the Skill slots gained at Tier advancement. The chart on p266 is the primary source, the chart on p269 an extract. Yes, you get slots for Core/Optional and Free Skills at all Professional Ranks. The sentence on p269 that says you only get Free slots when you advance in Tier is another relic of earlier mechanics that got missed in the cleanup.
per Andrew.

As far as the Professional Abilities, my understanding is that you don't get any until you click that Journeyman Tier. And then you get them all - which a pretty dramatic power jump. I guess you get Durability at Novice, which makes for a pretty dramatic bump. Maybe when you hit Warden and Master there will be some other abilities you gain. I honestly haven't read anything about that and don't know, but it seems like a reasonable guess.

Re: Character Advancement Questions

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 12:38 am
by Slimcreeper
Oh! and welcome to the forums, Kevin!

Re: Character Advancement Questions

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 1:01 am
by KevinB
Slimcreeper wrote:
Sun Dec 31, 2017 12:38 am
Oh! and welcome to the forums, Kevin!
Thanks!

I've been playing Earthdawn since its inception (actually, we played the 3-pamplet intro to the game before its release and were immediately hooked), so I was really excited to see a new steampunk-style game with similar mechanics. We haven't taken it for a spin yet, but I love the fluff and am really intrigued by the professions and stuff so far.

Re: Character Advancement Questions

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 5:03 am
by Slimcreeper
It's pretty cool. It's still a little rough around the edges, being all 1st edition, but the world these guys are building is absolutely fascinating with the possibility of such unique gameplay. And you know the core of the mechanics is super-solid.

I'm writing some stuff for the upcoming companion, so I have some insight into what is being planned next. There's some stuff I haven't read (like the upper level Professions), but what they are working on is really going to complete the game. And of course my chapter is super tight. Or will be once they edit it all to heck.

Re: Character Advancement Questions

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 2:06 pm
by Andrew1879
Professional Abilities are gained all at once when you reach Journeyman Ter. Yes, there are Tier abilities at Warden and Master, and they're in scale with the Tiers. If you read the blog (latest post is at http://fasagames.com/2017/12/31/1879-ev ... -is-a-job/) I went through all the Professions except Medium and laid out the Warden and Master Tier progressions. (Medium is still waiting on us to finish the Warden/Master spell lists.) As a house rule, you could gain one ability per Professional Rank, if your GM and group want a more even power progression.

P269 is wrong. You gain Free Skill slots at each advance in Professional Rank. This is in the errata. Sorry about that, it got past us.

Re: Character Advancement Questions

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2017 5:38 pm
by KevinB
Thanks Andrew!

Re: Character Advancement Questions

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 12:24 am
by Slimcreeper
ARISE, DEAD THREAD!

One of my players has posed a question that I can't answer. On the chart on 266, it seems to say that you have to have 4 Core skills to advance to PR 2. What if you start with only 3 Core Skills and fill the rest up with Optional Skills? Since you don't get new Skills until PR 2, does that mean you are trapped at PR 1 until you die, or does that simply mean that you have to pick up at least 1 Core Skill when you rank up?

Re: Character Advancement Questions

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 4:04 am
by ChrisDDickey
I would think it means that you don't want to pick 3 optional skills at Initiate. Leave an available slot to pick up your 4th core, then pick up the third initiate optional after hitting PR 2.

Re: Character Advancement Questions

Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2019 1:32 pm
by Andrew1879
You do in fact need four Core Skills, at a minimum Rank of 2, to advance to PR2. So yes, you need to take four Core Skills at character build. I would suggest going on and filling your 6 PR1 C/O slots at character build with 4 Core and 2 Optional, and not leaving any empty slots, as you'll be losing character effectiveness if you leave empty slots. You can then add an Optional at PR2, but remember that you will need to add another Core Skill at every PR in order to keep advancing.