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Siegemonkeys
2018-05-19, 02:42 AM
So, one of my groups is geari g up to play L5R, 3e especially. I personally prefer 4e, but 3e is what they prefer and I don't mind. I don't have a whole bunch of experience with 3e though, so I thought maybe I'd pop in here and ask for some suggestions.

The character I'm working on is a Toku bushi, I kinda wanna go for some Sun Wukong vibes with him. Is there anything I should be looking at for fighting with Staves, aside from rushing Rank 5 in the skill cause Staves apparently are awful if the enemy's wearing armor? Also, the game is likely to play kinda fast and loose with lore, and will likely end up more high-powered than most games cause that's the sort of game the GM enjoys running (as an example, our Scorpion courtier rolled on the heritage table a couple times, one result said her family secretly got it's wealth from an ancestor that used maho, and the other gave her a nemuranai she's supposed to watch over. The GM mentioned possibly making that nemuranai Ambition). Because of this, it's not so unlikely we could hit Rank 5 and expand to advanced schools. Minor clans, as far as I can find though, dom't have a lot of options for advanced paths. What should I do if we get to that point and I need to pick an advanced school? If it helps any, the character's mother was an Akodo, I could maybe pull some strings there to get into a Lion advanced school if minor clans really don't have anything.

And lastly...How badly do you suppose Gullible is gonna screw me over? Cause I took Gullible, Idealistic, and Can't Lie as disadvantages, with Irreproachable (2 ranks of it for 4 XP) and Luck (2 ranks of it for 6 XP) as advantages. Should I consider dropping Gullible for something else? Is a second rank in Luck worth it, or should I drop it to one rank?

BWR
2018-05-19, 10:37 AM
The character I'm working on is a Toku bushi, I kinda wanna go for some Sun Wukong vibes with him. Is there anything I should be looking at for fighting with Staves, aside from rushing Rank 5

Earth 3 ASAP. No matter what, your first increase should be to get Earth 3. A 50% increase in survivability over E2 is too useful to ignore. After that, possibly Void, Reflexes or Agility 3.
Remember that using staves will mark you as a peasant (since you obviously aren't a monk). You aren't Mantis and Toku's origin aside, the Monkey are samurai and use swords. Be prepared for a lot of social stigma.


. Minor clans, as far as I can find though, dom't have a lot of options for advanced paths. What should I do if we get to that point and I need to pick an advanced school? If it helps any, the character's mother was an Akodo, I could maybe pull some strings there to get into a Lion advanced school if minor clans really don't have anything.


Minor Clan Defender from "The Four Winds. From Gold to Lotus" is right up your alley. Not the best AS but solid enough, and will work well with your concept. Other than that, Multiple Schools is your friend. We like to play with an Obligation coming along with that unless you've earned the right through play. Other MC Schools might be worth looking at. Usagi bushi with its focus on athletics and speed might do well. Lacking that, how is your GM on homebrew? You could possibly make your own Path or even School, and I'm pretty sure I have bunch of stuff lying about if you're interested.



And lastly...How badly do you suppose Gullible is gonna screw me over? Cause I took Gullible, Idealistic, and Can't Lie as disadvantages, with Irreproachable (2 ranks of it for 4 XP) and Luck (2 ranks of it for 6 XP) as advantages. Should I consider dropping Gullible for something else? Is a second rank in Luck worth it, or should I drop it to one rank?

Hope you don't get into social situations with Scorpion or Mantis. Don't play a magistrate type unless you have someone with you to temper your gullible nature. If this is mostly a combat focused game, it shouldn't be too bad. More Luck...depends on how many bad rolls you have. I know one player who should get points for free because of him naturally having Unlucky. I know a couple who should get points docked for naturally being Lucky with their rolls.
Tangentially, I once played a character with max Lucky and max Unlucky, with the understanding that I couldn't use Lucky to reroll an Unlucky roll, and the GM couldn't do the opposite. It was quite fun to see how she messed up and occasionally won the scene with her odd rolls..

Siegemonkeys
2018-05-19, 05:40 PM
Earth 3 ASAP. No matter what, your first increase should be to get Earth 3. A 50% increase in survivability over E2 is too useful to ignore. After that, possibly Void, Reflexes or Agility 3.
Remember that using staves will mark you as a peasant (since you obviously aren't a monk). You aren't Mantis and Toku's origin aside, the Monkey are samurai and use swords. Be prepared for a lot of social stigma.

I was actually thinking of getting Reflexes 3 first, since it'll help me with duels and not getting hit (I have Iaiutsu 3, Agility 3, and Void 3 for reference). After that I was gonna get Staves up to 5 so I don't double an enemy's TN bonus from armor anymore, and after that I was gonna get Stamina 3 (giving me Earth 3 since I have Willpower 4 from my family and school). I'm not terribly worried about social stigma, cause I think the GM's more lenient regarding what gets people to look down on you in Rokugan, and also cause if they insult me where I can hear them I'm capable of calling them on it unless they're higher status than me. I think most people will show me some respect though, because we're starting in the Topaz Championship, so I doubt anyone aside from maybe other contestants would mock someone actually capable of getting an invite.


Minor Clan Defender from "The Four Winds. From Gold to Lotus" is right up your alley. Not the best AS but solid enough, and will work well with your concept. Other than that, Multiple Schools is your friend. We like to play with an Obligation coming along with that unless you've earned the right through play. Other MC Schools might be worth looking at. Usagi bushi with its focus on athletics and speed might do well. Lacking that, how is your GM on homebrew? You could possibly make your own Path or even School, and I'm pretty sure I have bunch of stuff lying about if you're interested.

Took a look at Minor Clan Defender, seems okay. I like the extra dice to a school skill from Glory and the extra attack is nice, but the third technique adding temporary Status seems strange, I'm not sure if it'd be very useful. I haven't looked at the Usagi bushi school yet, maybe I should since I plan on having good Athletics anyways.


Hope you don't get into social situations with Scorpion or Mantis. Don't play a magistrate type unless you have someone with you to temper your gullible nature. If this is mostly a combat focused game, it shouldn't be too bad. More Luck...depends on how many bad rolls you have. I know one player who should get points for free because of him naturally having Unlucky. I know a couple who should get points docked for naturally being Lucky with their rolls.
Tangentially, I once played a character with max Lucky and max Unlucky, with the understanding that I couldn't use Lucky to reroll an Unlucky roll, and the GM couldn't do the opposite. It was quite fun to see how she messed up and occasionally won the scene with her odd rolls..

Funny enough, one of our party members is a Bayushi courtier. Thankfully, the Monkey and Scorpion actually have really good relations, so I might not have to worry about them so much as the Mantis like you said. The magistrate thing is...a bit of a problem though, cause I believe the plan is for use to become Emerald Magistrates after the Topaz Championship. Also, magistrates is the more common role for Monkey clan samurai, to the point where they start with an Imperial Seal, so yeah. I was kinda running it on the idea that he's just kinda young and naive, maybe I'll have a chance to buy off Gullible later if I need to. Then again, I have high Willpower anyways, so maybe it won't be so bad?

Also, as a side note, I'm thinking about taking Animal Handling as a skill, because I'm going to have a pet monkey and training him to do helpful stuff in combat might be nice. Would that be worth it?

BWR
2018-05-19, 10:33 PM
and also cause if they insult me where I can hear them I'm capable of calling them on it unless they're higher status than me.


Which is most of the people who would be insulting you.


I think most people will show me some respect though, because we're starting in the Topaz Championship, so I doubt anyone aside from maybe other contestants would mock someone actually capable of getting an invite.


Then your games are different than mine. Sure, most people won't straight out call you a peasant, but any courtier worth his salt will be able to throw out tiny barbs that nettle you but make you look foolish if you get upset and challenge them. And most people will talk about you behind your back, anyway. At least, that's how the games I've seen work.



but the third technique adding temporary Status seems strange, I'm not sure if it'd be very useful.
Again, maybe your GM handles things differently but Minor Clans continually struggle with being taken seriously. The Monkey tend to get around that because the ****ers are super special awesome golden snowflakes that everyone loves (my own prejudices showing a bit here), but the rest are almost always being sidelined or ignored. A two point bump in Status is a great way to make GC and Imperials notice you and. And think of all the useful things you can do by temporarily out-Statusing certain obstacles. I'd be very careful of overusing it - don't try to out-rank a family daimyo or Clan Champion even if the rules say you could - but it will help immensely in getting through bureaucracy and obstinate officials.



Also, as a side note, I'm thinking about taking Animal Handling as a skill, because I'm going to have a pet monkey and training him to do helpful stuff in combat might be nice. Would that be worth it?

By RAW, Rai and setting, highly unlikely. It is most likely to be of negligible importance or get killed almost instantly. However, ask your GM if there is a way to pull it off.

Faily
2018-05-21, 12:09 PM
I was actually thinking of getting Reflexes 3 first, since it'll help me with duels and not getting hit (I have Iaiutsu 3, Agility 3, and Void 3 for reference). After that I was gonna get Staves up to 5 so I don't double an enemy's TN bonus from armor anymore, and after that I was gonna get Stamina 3 (giving me Earth 3 since I have Willpower 4 from my family and school).

Earth 3 over Reflexes 3.

The increase by 5 by upping your Reflexes from 2 to 3 is minor compared to how easy it is to increase bonus to attack rolls. YOU WILL BE HIT (unless you're a school like Hiruma Bushi that's super-focused on increasing TN to be Hit).