James Maliszewski
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Thoughts on the Scion
🕑 Added 2021-11-08 01:35:46 +0000 UTCApologies once again for the comparatively long silence. I continue to be distracted by some real life matters that have prevented my being as productive as I would like. While I wish I could say that they're wholly out of the picture and there are clear skies ahead, I cannot.
Nevertheless, I have not been idle and work continues behind the scenes on sha-Arthan and related projects. In the course of limited playtesting, I've come to the conclusion that the scion is not quite the class I'd hoped it to be. My original intention was that it be an aristocratic wandering jack-of-all-trades but I have come to think that perhaps the class is too narrow in its focus, or at least not as broadly useful as I'd intended.
One possible fix would be to create a slate of skills from which the player can choose. In this way, each scion might be a little different than every other one. If the slate is broad enough in scope, this could create a very flexible class that fills a variety of roles. On the other hand, I worry whether that might make the class more mechanically complex than I prefer and dilute its core concept.
What are you thoughts on the matter?
Comments
Stephen Vossler
I am not fully aware of the limitations you refer to. Could you give us your reasoning? One though that crossed my mind was not to limit the Scion to aristocracy, but open it up to a wider variety of high class dilettantes and the various skills that go with them. Keep titled nobles, and their retinue, but add merchant princes, temple patrons, scholarly expedition leaders, collectors & connoisseurs, roving gamblers, errant champions, rich pilgrims, and etcetera. A true dilettante might have skills from many of the examples listed. In many games I have GMed or played in, a Scion type character has been useful within the party, but in most cases, their "societal class powers" are in addition to their class (fighter, MU, cleric, etc.) which makes them a bit over powered. I like the idea of Scion as a class and am certain a broad set of appropriate skills can be found to make them work in the game.
James Maliszewski
I was actually thinking along these lines.
