A Song of Ice and Fire RPG - Sellsword

[JadePhoenix]

Hey, guys.
I've been invited to a Game of Thrones campaign. Looks like it's going to be a house in the Reach and I intend to be a sellsword, maybe someone from Essos or a bastard from the Iron Islands or Dorne (mosttly because you don't get many female warriors other tha Brienne and the Mormonts).
I just can't seem to get it to work within the system. I want her to be smart (as in, hard to be tricked), agile and good in a fight. Which benefits should I take? Is Fighting 4 enough, or wil I need to get a 5 to be an actually good warrior? I'd like some help, please!

[Dienekes]

Alright well one of the benefits of the system is that you can grow to accomplish your goals over time if you don't want to start out ancient. But it's hard to be young and good at a lot of stuff.

For the record, there is the ASOIAF Campaign Guide gives a bunch of stats for famous characters which gives a nice benchmark of where abilities should be (though personally I disagree with a lot of them, but whatever).

5 in Fighting seems to be the benchmark of the best of the best, which characters like Jaime and the Hound have. So 4 is a fine start that you can grow from.

Now if you want to be a good fighter you'll need to have:
Agility, Athletics, Awareness, Endurance, Fighting

To not be easily tricked you'll want:
Awareness, Cunning, Status, Will.

Notice Awareness is in both groups, I'd suggest you put at least a 4 in that. Status also mostly predetermined by your character idea. As a sellsword the most you can get with that is a 3.

So the most important question is, how old is your character concept? Once I know that, I can help you plan out your character to best design yourself.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Run some math. Ignoring Specialties, a 4 in fighting gives you an average roll of 14, a 5 gives you an average of 17.5. Let's set this against a Combat Defense of 10 (3 Agility, 3 Athletics, 4 Awareness). Let's give out Mail Armor and a Shield, so they're at Combat Defense 9, Armor Rating 5.

If you have a "longsword" (ugh, that term...) and 4 Athletics, you deal 5 damage per degree. Fighting 4 would give you 2 degrees (14 - 9 = 5), dealing 5 damage after armor. Fighting 5 would give you, well, the same (17.5 - 9 = 6.5), but it'll more reliably hit that threshold.

Just for fun, let's send you against someone in fullplate. Combat Defense 6, Armor Rating 10. The Fighting 4's average roll gives you 2 degrees of success (14 minus 6 = 8) that's absorbed by the fullplate; you're a couple points shy of hitting 3 degrees of success. Fighting 5 gives you those 3 degrees (17.5 - 6 = 11.5), which hits for 5 damage after armor.

So, the 5 Fighting will shine in borderline situations, and in a fight against somebody who's armored to the teeth. You shouldn't be in those situations. :smallwink: Make sure you aren't.

I'll also point out, now that the math is over: you will not be able to optimize combat and social skills. So settle for one, and maybe grow the other. (And rely on other party members...as much as you safely can...to avoid being tricked.)