Hail to all roleplayers and forum members!

In advance: I'm sorry if my English sometimes will be bad or not understandable, I'm trying my best!

I and my friends riecently got the Core set of WFRP 3rd Edition and with very high enthusiasm we're going to play it soon. And before we start(i think it will be in a 2-3 weeks), i want to ask more compitent people for some help/advices/suggestions with my starting character.

I realy like dwarfs and warriors(yea, its sooo common...but i still find it interesting) and i've picked a Soldier career, because in Core set isn't any other dwarf militia related ones. I've wrote down my character's short story, where he was in tunnel forces of Karak Azgaraz with his brother. My character after some years got an unit under his command, so he has some commanding skills.

Some time later i want to advance to the Ironbraker.

Finaly i've came up with this:

• St 4
• To 5
• Ag 3
• In 2
• Wp 4
• Fe 2

Talents: 1 talent, but i don't know what better suits to character...

Actions: don't know too, but mind about advanced block or Bash

Skills: Leadership, Ballistic skill, Weapon skill, Discipline and Resilence as a dwarf's race bonus

Specializations: mind to take Hand Weapon for Weapon Skill and one for either Resilence or Discipline

After some forum surfing I think about to make To 4 and Fe 3, so it is better suits my character, adds more talents/action cards and makes him more than just absorbtion machine(but To 5 would very good at combat i think=( ).

What do you guys think about this? What is better to take at the begining: stats, talents or action cards?

With all respect,

Hjarti Ultrimsson

From a min/max perspective and thinking of the long run, I would say to concentrate on stats. The generally most survivable characters in WFRP are the ones with only average and above-average stats. However, it is generally more interesting to RP a character with some faults. So I like the Int2 or Fe2.

What is worth remembering is that it's a giant PITA to increase your stats after character creation while skills, talents and actions will just keep coming in as you gain exp until you start being unsure what to put the points into.

Yeah I'd echo that. Stats seem to cost a lot at creation but that is magnified considerably further down the line when increasing one characteristic by a single point eats up all your advance slots leaving you little room for other advances. By comparision all the other skills, actions etc usually just cost a single point of XP so adding them later (even if you start with relatively few) is easy enough done down the line. But I agree that ignoring the min max advantages it's often fun to roleplay a flawed crotchety character with 2 Fell or a dullard with 2 INT.

I would echo a lot of what has already been said here, the only thing I would be a little cautious about is dump stats. One dump stat is generally fine, but two can get a little old for roleplaying purposes. Admittedly you are going to be very annoying to kill, but I'm not sure how much fun it's going to be the playing a mouthbreathing gombeen for long.

Fe2 or Int2 is still "ok" though. I've found that with how skewed the dice system is towards successes that having 2 in a stat is far from a "guaranteed fail". People tend to not even attampt anything fancy with their dump stats so the few times they do roll it's usually an easy roll. So judging by the type of checks they still manage pass I would say Int2 is "not the brightest bulb" not "mentally retarded".

Oh! Thank you all for help and advices!

And I agree with that 2 stat is not so bad in this system, even corebook as I remember says that 2 is average for men.

So i dont need a bunch of advanced action cards at the begining of the game? And if look further what is better to pick for warrior?

And i didn't actually get the thing about characteristics advancements. " when increasing one characteristic by a single point eats up all your advance slots leaving you little room for other advances"- d oes this still counts as completed career or not?

You need good actions? Take one, and only one, melee action, then maybe since your going iron breaker route consider improved block and improved guarded position. Nothing says "screw you bad guys" like three challenge to hit PLUS a pile of misfortune.

You need good actions? Take one, and only one, melee action, then maybe since your going iron breaker route consider improved block and improved guarded position. Nothing says "screw you bad guys" like three challenge to hit PLUS a pile of misfortune.

Thank you very much, I will keep an eye on them. Haven't seen this cards yet though...

Hi,

And welcome to WFRP.

For Characteristics I allways put a lot of my creation points into them. In general I try to make all of them 3 or higher (if I don't play a character that is especially flawed in one area)

Actually, 2 according to the rulebook is considered poor, average is 3.

Here's a chart on characteristics:

1: Deficent

2: Poor

3: Average

4: Good

5: Excellent

6: Superb

7+: Superhuman

The characteristics "eat up advancements" when you improve them by taking up all your open career slots. For example if you want to increase willpower to 5 as a soldier it will take up 5 of your open career advances. It counts towards career completion but it does mean you cannot use those advancement slots for skills, actions, talents, fortune, wounds etc. Which can be an expensive tradeoff. Plus if you get 1XP per gaming session it will take 5 sessions to get the increase, where you cannot get any other good stuff.

Also note that while in the Soldier career Toughness and Willpower are your Primary Characteristics, meaning that if you want to improve for example fellowship while in the soldier career you have to do it as an out of career advance, and does not count towards career completion.

Action cards depend a lot on your character, Reckless cleave is great for damage, but sacrifices defence in the process. Improved Parry/Block/Dodge/Guarded Position is great for defence.

As you have both Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill I'd recommend you to get one melee attack, one ranged attack and one support or defence card as your first three actions. If you want specific suggestions for cards you could get:

Reckless Cleave for Melee damage

Accurate Shot for Ranged

Improved Block for Defence

I can also recommend that your group get the Adventurer's Toolkit, it contains a lot more actions to choose from.

Some Talents you can consider:
Reputation: Strong Willed or Fearless are good ones that may fit a dwarven fighter.

Tactic: Flanking Manouvre, Timely Surge or Exeptional Training.

Lastly, remember starting wealth when you create your character. In your initial post I count that the total creation point cost is:

• 16 points in Characteristics: (4 points for strength, 5 points for toughness, 3 for agility and 4 for willpower)
• 3 points in Skills.
• Plus you're talking about getting talents/actions as well.

Note that Dwarves have only 20 creation points, so you'd have nothing for wealth. If you start out Broke you would have a dagger or quarterstaff for a weapon, and no money at all for armour or shields. A Poor character would also have troubble getting all items you'd probably want. And a dwarvens soldier with his own unit to command would probably not be broke/poor.

A common mistake is to think that the Typical Trappings listed on the career sheet are free, but it isn't. It's only suggestions as to what you could buy for your starting money.

To k7e9,

Thank you very much for this detailed explanation!

So I will think about my character weaknesess, to decide what will be a 2 stat.

And about wealth: our GM decides to give us all trappings that listed in our careers by his demand so we can focus on our skills and stats. He's planning tough roleplay and dangerous battles. =)

Well if the GM decided to give you all the trappings, then you can obviously disregard the wealth.

Sounds like you're in for some fun gaming sessions in the Warhammer world.

Note that skills can only be trained once per rank, so even if you start with weapon skill trained you cannot train it again during your soldier career. So if you are thinking about increasing one of your characteristics it might be a good idea to consider taking less skills and more characteristics. That way you can train the skills during your career instead.

Note that skills can only be trained once per rank, so even if you start with weapon skill trained you cannot train it again during your soldier career. So if you are thinking about increasing one of your characteristics it might be a good idea to consider taking less skills and more characteristics. That way you can train the skills during your career instead.

I was under the impression that once per rank means once every 10 XP, meaning that once you've gone to rank 2 after gaining 10xp or more you can retrain a skill to level 2 that you started off with trained. So the restriction is once per rank not once per career. I could very well be wrong though. Wouldn't be the first time

No, you are correct, it is once per Rank and so you can train again a skill taken at character creation (or trained during the first 9 XP) once you hit 10 XP.

Note that skills can only be trained once per rank, so even if you start with weapon skill trained you cannot train it again during your soldier career. So if you are thinking about increasing one of your characteristics it might be a good idea to consider taking less skills and more characteristics. That way you can train the skills during your career instead.

I was under the impression that once per rank means once every 10 XP, meaning that once you've gone to rank 2 after gaining 10xp or more you can retrain a skill to level 2 that you started off with trained. So the restriction is once per rank not once per career. I could very well be wrong though. Wouldn't be the first time

True, you are correct, I had completely forgotten that rule. Early on, when we started playing WFRP3ed, we houseruled that character Rank is equal to the number of careers as we found that to be much easier to handle. So when you're in your 1st career you're rank 2, when in your 2nd you're rank 2 and so on.

Note that skills can only be trained once per rank, so even if you start with weapon skill trained you cannot train it again during your soldier career. So if you are thinking about increasing one of your characteristics it might be a good idea to consider taking less skills and more characteristics. That way you can train the skills during your career instead.

I was under the impression that once per rank means once every 10 XP, meaning that once you've gone to rank 2 after gaining 10xp or more you can retrain a skill to level 2 that you started off with trained. So the restriction is once per rank not once per career. I could very well be wrong though. Wouldn't be the first time

True, you are correct, I had completely forgotten that rule. Early on, when we started playing WFRP3ed, we houseruled that character Rank is equal to the number of careers as we found that to be much easier to handle. So when you're in your 1st career you're rank 2, when in your 2nd you're rank 2 and so on.

I'd say that house rule suits almost every game as well, but you will eventually have that one guy who decides to switch to another career half way through, and then you have to go and start counting xp...

Note that skills can only be trained once per rank, so even if you start with weapon skill trained you cannot train it again during your soldier career. So if you are thinking about increasing one of your characteristics it might be a good idea to consider taking less skills and more characteristics. That way you can train the skills during your career instead.

I was under the impression that once per rank means once every 10 XP, meaning that once you've gone to rank 2 after gaining 10xp or more you can retrain a skill to level 2 that you started off with trained. So the restriction is once per rank not once per career. I could very well be wrong though. Wouldn't be the first time

True, you are correct, I had completely forgotten that rule. Early on, when we started playing WFRP3ed, we houseruled that character Rank is equal to the number of careers as we found that to be much easier to handle. So when you're in your 1st career you're rank 2, when in your 2nd you're rank 2 and so on.

I'd say that house rule suits almost every game as well, but you will eventually have that one guy who decides to switch to another career half way through, and then you have to go and start counting xp...

One player changed careers a lot (Reiklanders, tss) We solved this by not letting him get his rank improved untill the careers were completed. It did not affect the game much as the player used different careers to get a diverse skill set and improve characteristics. Basically, he was rank 2 for a long time, then completed two careers in three sessions and jumped up to rank 4.

That would drive me up the wall. I would make him keep a tab on his advances and...

You know what, your way worked too. I would just get annoyed with someone constantly chopping and changing between careers. I'd be inclined to make them suffer pay the appropriate experience for all those changes.

Yeah, it's a problem with the career rules I posted about back when the game launched. A Reiklander can bascially multi-class by skipping for 0 cost between careers. He can even skip several careers at once, winding up in a career that should have cost several exp.

Of course, this can all be stopped by the GM simply saying "no".

That would drive me up the wall. I would make him keep a tab on his advances and...

You know what, your way worked too. I would just get annoyed with someone constantly chopping and changing between careers. I'd be inclined to make them suffer pay the appropriate experience for all those changes.

Actually that character was the least powerful in the group (both in combat and otherwise). Partially due to switching careers quite a lot, rather than completing them in a linear way. So I saw no reason to penalize the player further by forcing him to spend XP or say no. I guess some players might try to abuse it, but in my group the the career changes felt natural to the character rather than an attempt at min-maxing. So I guess it depends a lot on the player.

Actually that character was the least powerful in the group (both in combat and otherwise). Partially due to switching careers quite a lot, rather than completing them in a linear way. So I saw no reason to penalize the player further by forcing him to spend XP or say no. I guess some players might try to abuse it, but in my group the the career changes felt natural to the character rather than an attempt at min-maxing. So I guess it depends a lot on the player.

Well if it doesn't seem like a min-maxing trick I suppose I would be ok with it. (Look at me talking like this, I haven't run a game in ******* years.) Plus I suppose there is the bonus that he won't get any of those (occasionally very) nice career abilities until he eats all his vegetables and finishes his career.