FASA Games, Inc.

Looking at the Beastmaster.

http://www.fasagames.com/blog/?post_id= ... on-preview

I like Enhance Animal Companion, but I have two questions.

1) Is the maximum bonus the Talent Rank, is or the maximum number of +1s the Talent Rank. IE, if I have Rank 3, can I raise Physical Defense by 3 and Spell Defense by 3, or does it have to be 0/3 or 1/2, etc.?

2) Will one of these abilities allow the Beastmaster to raise her animal companion's attack step? I am not sure what is being referred to by "with extra attack".

I really like what I read. Beastmasters needed these changes.

But I'm still not convinced by the previous Preview. Especially with the effect of getting rid of Armor-Defeating Hits in battles where monsters/horrors/dragons have 25+ Armor. How is the new option with +2 Damage per success going to cope with that? Are you going to redesign armors? Because having a +2/+4/+6/+8 to Damage instead of ignoring the armor (Armor-Defeating Hit) is a huge difference when it comes to 25+ armors.

I always liked how armor negated damage (absorbed it) and then if you got a good enough hit that you basically found the flaw, the crease, or the bit where the armor wasn't that let you get that extreme damage. The bonus damage will, I assume, is just added to the normal damage beyond what the armor absorbs, up to its armor rating, yes?

Right now the intention is for it to just do extra damage -- helping overcome armor in the case of armored opponents, or doing nastier damage to unarmored targets. This makes better attack rolls useful in all circumstances, and also helping mitigate the "great attack, crummy damage" scenario.

Or the "fantastic, armor defeating hit against the target without any armor" scenario.

The animal training skills thing sounds like a house rule I have in place.

When i first heared that fasa going to release new edition of Earthdawn i was not convinced that this is good idea. But when I saw changes in beastmaster discipline it was a pleasant surprise. Beastmaster needs those changes and they are great. On the other hand i'm steel afraid of the rest of the game and rest of the changes. I realy dont know what to think about bonuses to damage rolls that depends on success levels and undefeateble armor. That are big change that influences all combat oriented disciplines. All warriors, swordmasters, sky riders, must be redesigned from the core