Multi-Discipline Adepts

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Fusilliban
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Multi-Discipline Adepts

Postby Fusilliban » Tue Jun 21, 2016 12:28 am

Does Earthdawn have, historically, ideas on how common it is for characters to have multiple Disciplines? I feel like the Fibonacci cost of things makes it so that all high-Circle characters want to pick up 3-4 Disciplines because hey, they're relatively cheap. But relatively little of the setting material I've read talks about Grunk the Troubadour/Illusionist, they just talk about Grunk the Troubadour. So it seems like it's rare in the universe even if the game mechanics are pretty friendly to it.

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Re: Multi-Discipline Adepts

Postby Mataxes » Tue Jun 21, 2016 9:58 am

I don't have time to address in depth right now (off to the day job very shortly), but generally speaking multi-Discipline adepts in the setting are rare. This is less a function of the "mechanical" difficulties (represented by the costs to purchase/advance) and more a role-playing/ philosophical problem. It can be hard enough to pursue a single Discipline. Adding a second just compounds those difficulties.
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Fusilliban
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Re: Multi-Discipline Adepts

Postby Fusilliban » Tue Jun 21, 2016 10:39 am

This is what I thought. One of the few places where ED mechanics and flavor line up poorly, then.

Also makes me want to bring back Talent crisis. Hm.

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Re: Multi-Discipline Adepts

Postby kosmit » Fri Jun 24, 2016 3:37 pm

I would say Multi-Discipline adepts are common among elves :)
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Re: Multi-Discipline Adepts

Postby Slimcreeper » Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:19 pm

They are common in the blood elves book. It's always been a problem to me too. I've never known what to do about it, though. Maybe only durability from one discipline counts?

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Re: Multi-Discipline Adepts

Postby Mataxes » Fri Jun 24, 2016 7:58 pm

Durability for multi-Discipline adepts has been a largely settled issue for some time, whether that was "you only benefit from the Durability of your first Discipline" to slightly more complex setups where you can shift from one to the other -- but they don't stack.
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Re: Multi-Discipline Adepts

Postby EDChronicler » Sun Jun 26, 2016 11:58 am

Most of my characters have all been single discipline, I've only had 1 be a multi-disciplined character that I've played, and another was multi-disciplined for story purposes i.e. an NPC.

Don't get me started on the elves and their paths. I've rarely seen anyone doing the paths actually try to roleplay them.

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Re: Multi-Discipline Adepts

Postby kosmit » Sun Jun 26, 2016 12:41 pm

You should see my Dealga, elven Nethermancer-Staffmaster :D
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Re: Multi-Discipline Adepts

Postby Utsukushi » Wed Jul 20, 2016 1:47 pm

All my games are Play-by-Post, which moves very slowly and I have yet to have this become a question, but I've always assumed my characters would pick up a new Discipline if they got to high enough Circles. But in the setting, Adepts are described as being pretty rare to start with -- certainly much less common than the average PC's family, where we tend to fall into the habit of describing every family member by their Discipline. (*sigh* I have to admit, this has grown to be a pet peeve for me.) So high-Circle Adepts are presumably even more rare, and it's really only as you're getting up past 8th Circle that picking up a second Discipline really becomes negligibly cheap. (It's totally doable starting around 5th, but it's still a definite trade-off between that or advancing then.) And even there - because, again, of that Fibonacci thing - it's only the lower levels of it that stay super cheap, so if that's your goal... well, you might technically be an 11th Circle Swordmaster / 2nd Circle Warrior / 3rd Circle Illusionist, but I think you'd probably quite reasonably just be described as a Swordmaster by all your friends.

Plus, as Fusiliban touched on with the mention of Talent Crises, secondary Disciplines will tend necessarily be subordinate to your first one anyway: You have to mesh the worldviews, and presumably, your first Discipline is where your heart already lies, so that's going to shape anything you learn after that. A Swordmaster who picks up on the Warrior's path - say, perhaps by way of the Warrior's desire to defend their friends and those weaker than themselves - is going to be significantly different than the Warrior who begins to follow Swordmastery, perhaps as she's come to view herself as a true Champion of the People. So again, even if they each bring the Disciplines up to even Circles, it may well be still fair to describe them, mainly, by their first.

So many of those `single Discipline' NPCs mentioned in the books, if they are high Circle in that Discipline, may well have another... it's just not as relevant to who they are.


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