An Elementalist Cavalryman

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Gressiar
Posts:7
Joined:Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:57 pm
An Elementalist Cavalryman

Post by Gressiar » Tue Aug 15, 2017 2:04 am

So I have an interesting idea for a character and I want some opinions and critiques, but I think this character would be fun to play. My first real Earthdawn adventure I played a Troll Cavalryman, and I loved it. Although it had it's limitations. When I was looking at potential mounts in the GMG I was looking into the Elemental spirits and came across Ethrys (an earth elemental spirit that takes the form of the wolf). After learning about Ethrys's personality I thought how awesome would it be to have it as a mount. After some research I figured I would have to be at least a circle 5 Elementalist (the circle in Cavalryman shouldn't matter) to summon elemental spirits, and have my Summoning Talent to rank 8 to have a chance to control the spirit.

In our current Earthdawn campaign I am playing an Human Elementalist and thinking about bring this idea back to life. So now I ask what do people think? Do you have any suggestions to help me create this character? Any and all criticism is welcome.

Graymayne
Posts:14
Joined:Fri Feb 10, 2017 11:12 pm

Re: An Elementalist Cavalryman

Post by Graymayne » Tue Aug 15, 2017 7:57 pm

My first thought was the importance of a Naming Ritual.

Now for the thoughts that came after.


As a GM, I wouldn't just allow a "Spirit Mount" imitation here. Another item that would concern me as a GM, is how does your Personal Vision as an Elementalist mesh with the Personal Vision as a Calvaryman.

Part of my issue would be having the calvaryman form of, I have Excalibur, now I am King. Having the item just for the "cool", when the story is more about, Who Arthur's father and mother were, his "coming of age" and getting the sword at the same time, as well as his Band of Brothers after he wins the kingdom. You could even bring up the three queens all named Guinevere depending on the source and version of the story you use as your foundation.

Now back to Earthdawn: My point is, why would he as a Calvaryman, wait or go through temporary mount after temporary mount after temporary mount, ad infinitum (?) until he got to the point of finally getting the Ethrys. One of the core parts of a Calvaryman is his relationship with his mount or mounts ( as I would accept training mounts (for learning the discipline), the death of a mount, using a different mount as part of the requirement to win over the adept you want to get training from and he wants to see your ability, not your mount's training) depending on how you and your GM interpret the Discipline in your Barsaive.

Okay, breathe, sorry, trying not to get on a soapbox.

So, my recommendation is: Before you go for the idea as a whole, you first need to figure out why the Calvaryman Discipline (from your character's life perspective) and not just the Animal Handling skill or making a thread item that would summon said mount and perhaps even impart a "talent" or two ability. Now this is not to discourage you, but to encourage you to progress from the beginning, perhaps he heard the song, "Johann's Fiery Ride" about a horse that ran on flames across the sky (Krull Reference) or perhaps he was saved when some "Censored" Beast tried to stampede through the party and the Calvaryman saved him leading him to want to be more self-reliant. (Wait, that Personal Vision might be counter to the need to rely on your mount, hmm, perhaps the whole process leads him to realize the error in his view and the he needs to learn to be more reliant on his mount and his friends.)

Your story hook should be more 'in-line' with your character and your groups Barsaive and adventures. But don't just grab that first cliche' idea from the shelf, be patient on the path and you'll probably find a better choice in your second or third shelf options. But don't get discouraged, in my case it usually takes the tenth idea I pull from the shelf.

- Graymayne

utsukushi
Posts:39
Joined:Sat Feb 11, 2017 7:08 pm

Re: An Elementalist Cavalryman

Post by utsukushi » Wed Aug 16, 2017 4:58 pm

MY first thought was,
Gressiar wrote:but I think this character would be fun to play.
...And you're done.

That's a pretty solid reason to play a character.

But, OK, some further thoughts. First, I agree with Graymayne's basic point that, always in Multi-Disciplining, you have to think about how the two Disciplines work together - not just mechanically, but psychologically. But while I actually have a hard time seeing a Cavalryman that would also make a good Elementalist... an Elementalist who would also be a good Cavalryman (which seems to be the way you're going anyway) I can totally picture. (And I'm sure the other way can work, too, I'm just having a harder time with it.) Especially since your plan doesn't put your character in the position of having to choose between their love of their mount and their love of.. the world, since you're really attaching a Cavalryman's devotion to an elemental spirit, and that's kind of genius.

Since you're already an Elementalist, and I gather are planning to be able to summon your Ethrys from the get go, that kind of takes care of the, "Why would he ever have any other mounts?" question, too. (Although I have a totally different set of thoughts about that, especially the way 4th Edition built Cavalrymen... but that's a totally different topic so I won't get into it.)

The one thing that you might consider, though, is that a whole lot of key Cavalryman Talents actually won't apply to a spirit like that. Animal Training and Enhance Animal Companion leap to mind as things I can't imagine a GM letting you apply there. IF your group is using the, "Using All Talents To Advance" Optional Rule, you can just ignore most of those and focus on the Optional pick for each Circle -- you'll still have one or two irrelevant Talents to carry from First Circle, but there are enough good Options to be worth having...but there are good reasons why the Discipline Talents are the Discipline Talents. Those are some of the best things about being a Cavalryman. But as an Elementalist who only rides a Spirit, almost none of them up til 5th Circle are going to do you any good at all.

...Being that you are a Human Elementalist, have you considered picking up a couple of Cavalryman Talents with Versatility, and just doing it that way? Charge and Trick Riding... depending on what you want out of the Cavalryman side, I'm not sure what else you'd need. They probably do have the down side of needing to be upgraded more than you usually want for Versatility Talents, but it's still a lot cheaper than doing it through Skills, and certainly cheaper than carrying all the Cavalryman Talents you'll never use.

But you don't get the improved Durability that way, of course, and it might mess with the image in your head that makes it `fun to play'.

Telarus
Posts:267
Joined:Mon Nov 28, 2016 1:16 am

Re: An Elementalist Cavalryman

Post by Telarus » Wed Aug 16, 2017 8:02 pm

I can see such a character rearing wolf/dire wolf cubs as animal companions, and once they are Loyal infusing them with bound spirits (children of Ethrys, or somethings) as a way to approach bargaining with the Named spirit for services, pledging loyalty, etc. You wouldn't have to ride the spirits-wolves, as part of the cavalryman shtick is "master of the hunt, horseman with pack of animals".

Gressiar
Posts:7
Joined:Sun Jul 16, 2017 3:57 pm

Re: An Elementalist Cavalryman

Post by Gressiar » Mon Aug 21, 2017 3:31 am

I whole-heartedly agree that the personal visions for the disciplines should work together. In that first campaign I work with my GM to cultivate a personal vision of how the Cavalryman would work with the Elementalist. As a side note I came into Earthdawn with the release of the 4th edition. As such I didn't have the deep understanding of the disciplines personal visions. So I did some research into the previous editions and found that it was something that I really liked and incorporated it into my characters' personalities. That previous character has been retired (Cavalryman) for now as I don't see us playing that campaign in the near future.

Graymayne, I agree with your ideas about how important it is to make the journey just as important as the end. Thus, working with the GM to help form the story of this character journey to a budding Cavalryman to a elemental spirit Cavalryman was part of the fun for me. One part of the Cavalryman I really liked was their dedication to one mount and the bond that forms, and I wouldn't want to go from mount to mount. I envisioned this taking place after I had to retire my mount or if my mount died in some heroic moment (I would have perferred the former if it ever came to it).

Utsukushi, you make some very good points about the versatility talent and to be honest I never even thought about it. I was primarily using versatility to pick up some extra spell matrices. You are absolutely right that the Cavalryman's talents to enhance their mounts would be useless on a spirit. As such i was also looking to the Spirit Rider discipline (on of the variant disciplines on Panda's blog), because the Spirit Rider would be more in touch with the more mystic mounts and an elemental mount wouldn't be too crazy with this discipline. But I see my Elementalist make peaceful contact with Ethrys to request aid, and after many summoning a stronger bond forms (such that between a Cavalryman and his mount).

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