Okay, made up a character. Found a excel sheet already done and tweaked it a bit to make characters for World of Alaegaesia. An Urgal Soldier / Dragon Rider Initiate. I'm updating the worksheet as well, made a few minor changes and clarifications to skills.

Grok Kurzhog was chosen from the Urgal's by Nar Kriggvoshk, the current leader of the Urgal Tribes, to be sent to test with the latest dragon eggs at the new Dragon Rider camp in the Unknown region East of Alagaesia. One of the largest eggs hatched for the Urgal, a male brown dragon hatchling. He was taught by one of the first of the new Dragon Riders, Cordellus. A stocky, red-bearded human from Fienster who was a blacksmith after the war was over. He learned the Ancient Language and how to use gramarye from him. His dragon also grew and he was able to confer with him to come up with the name of Undror, which was the name of a legendary winged beast of Urgal legend.

Take a look, and let me know what you think (attached as Excel spreadsheet)

Grok Kurzhog - Genesys WoA charsheet.xlsx

I am still a bit on the fence on how to do magic. I can either just have the Ancient Magic skill for all magic, and just have talents for the different types of spells. Like Scrying, Teleportation, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Elemental transformation (creating water from surrounding areas, heating up things, creating light), Physical transformation, Summoning Elements (fire, lightning, ice, air, etc.), Harnessing Nature (manipulating vines and trees, etc.) using different Tier levels and requiring certain ranks in Ancient Magic. They cast using the Ancient Magic skill, but gain access to spell groups with talents.

Or just let them take just the Ancient Magic and have access to everything, but make it more difficult for certain things, and acquire the ancient words somehow through mentor-ship or finding words in ancient texts, scrolls, etc.

I think the former will help balance the Dragon Riders with the rest of the classes for heroic characters, since they have a dragon that way more powerful than any of the other Heroic abilities. The latter is easier, but may be too powerful.

A third option that I can see is making about 8 different magic skills(as above) with Ancient Magic as the pre-req and perhaps make it a talent instead of a skill. is another possibility, but I believe that will cause people to specialize and not utilize all the different abilities when they have to put ranks in each which would make it feel very different from the books.

On 12/14/2018 at 3:00 PM, gm_ordon said:

I've added additional dragons, specifically for Dragon Rider to the Species and Creatures post. The Heroic Ability - Dragon Bonding will start with the Dragon Hatchling . Then you can use an ability point (1 ability point is award for each 50xp awarded) for the bonded dragon to grow in size and abilities. For Improved version, he will become a Young Dragon , and then for the next purchase the bonded dragon will be an Adult Dragon . There will be other Heroic abilities added to the dragon, and can be taken for any stage of the dragon..

Dragon Sight (where the Dragon Rider can see through the prism of his bonded dragon's sight). The mechanical benefit gained is still up for debate. Probably remove up to 1 setback for perception checks for environmental effects (darkness, light cover, smoke, etc.), and upgrade a perception check once when used (with the usually 2 story point spend) until the next round. That's my initial thought for that one.

Other upgrades will be likely to upgrade potency, range for fiery breath, increase damage for claw attacks, etc. each costing an ability point. Hmm, I guess I didn't add bite attacks and tail attack to the list.. I'll have to fix that as well. I'll make the claw, a claw and bite attack to make it easier, and the tail attack will be separate (probably tail (Brawl, Damage [various based on dragon stage 5-7], Critical 4, Range [Engaged], Disorient [2 to 3 based on stage], Knockdown at young adult and Adult dragon stage)

I like it! My only critiques would be make the Adult Dragon upgrade cost 2 ability points to balance the power of it's ability scores, and to leave story points out of Dragon Sight . I think treating it kind of like Darkvision (remove on perception checks) and granting a rank in Perception would be more appropriate. Any player can spend 1 story point at any time to upgrade their dice pool. Making them spend 2 story points to do the same thing effectively penalizes the player for spending the ability point.

Good point about the 2 story points, definitely too much for the benefits it gives. I will make it a talent with Bonded Dragon as a pre-req, and allow removing 1 setback. I don't really like to give a skill rank in a talent (or heroic ability) since they can purchase that any time, even if out of class skill. How about allowing one re-roll of a perception check in addition to removing 1 setback die due to environmental factors (darkness, smoke, fog, etc.).

I have been doing a little play testing using my Urgal Dragon Rider initiate, and his brown dragon hatchling, Undror. I faced them against 2 barghests (ferocious feline undead creatures that forces a fear check at the beginning of encounter) from RoT. The dragon hatching was fairly weak and Urgal was not enough either and they lost that battle (The hatching lost its fear check so had 1S each skill chec). It was somewhat close, but only due to several rounds of really bad rolls by the Barghests. Though I just used straight up combat toe to toe, without the use of magic or Story points.

I am using this for my playtest, if you don't know about it, it is pretty cool little web app.. https://genesys.skyjedi.com/

If you put in the channel name WoA and whatever user name you want, you can see my playtest scenarios.

I gave the hatchling a base of 6 damage instead of 4 for the claws, and 6 for the fiery breath (the barghest had a 5 soak, so one success hits did no damage). I did a scenario with them against just one Barghest, and they won that fairly easily, but suffered some damage.

Next, with the upgraded damage and using story points and magic against 2 barghests in a moderately foliated forest. Between that and having the hatchling use his fiery breath and swooped in and out to draw one of the barghests away, that worked well, and the two were able win. I also gave Grok a standard shield for some defense which makes sense with the spear. Though a crit disarmed him of his shield halfway through the battle, they won that one but Grok was at 15 of 15 wounds when Undror killed one Barghest and the two together made short work of that last one, but it was close, if Grok went down before the first Barghest, it could have been the other way around. It was a big advantage that the hatching could fly and stay out of reach, but I upgraded the difficulty and the barghest hopped up some trees to try and reach the dragon, so it managed to get a couple of gashes in. Dragons with the fiery breath can decimate enemies without any ranged attack abilities. Though, I guess that's about as it should be. The Barghest is not intelligent, just a wild undead.. if it were a smarter enemy it would have doubled up with both creatures attacking the ground target (Grok) and force the dragon to engage and make him easier to attack..

Also, magic is quite weak at low levels, spending strain to use something even just a gout of flame costs two strain and with an INT of 3 only does 3 damage, according to the GCRB. Most foes have enough soak that you would never do any damage to them and waste strain. Whereas the spear does 3 plus 3 BR for 6 base damage. So I felt magic was useless, unless you were at range and got an extremely good roll, you might get a hit. But why risk the strain? At that point a throwing axe would be better, for a few coins to buy 1 or 2 and no worries about strain (unless you have back spasms. )

These scenarios are definitely making me re-think my ideas for the magic system. Here is what I am thinking at the moment. The attack spell's damage would be at base INT + double the ranks in Knowledge: Ancient Language. So INT 3 wizard/dragon rider, etc. would have a base 5 damage at 1st level. (INT 3 + Knowledge: AL rank 1 X 2 = 5 damage). Moving the skill up to level 2 will give base of 7 damage ( Knowledge: AL 2 ranks x 2 = 4 + 3 INT = 7). 3 will give 9 base damage, 4 will give 11 base damage and finally max skill level 5 would give 13 base damage. That seems to me fairly decent level of progression for that, at level 5 of that skill they should be a really dangerous Wizard/Dragon Rider. Anyone can use any of the spells lists, except conjuration which goes toward Summoning spirits, so falls under Magic: Spirits skill, unless you use it for conjuring water which would actually fall under Elemental Control instead (working on something like that for magic as well to match the book series)

Also a big part of the Eragon series was that friends and foes alike had Wards placed on them before they went into battle. These were not one round kind of stuff like Barrier spells from the GCRB, but more like absorbing damage that would have landed. If you never got hit, your wards would stay intact. I have been trying to think of a good way, but the best I can come up with at the moment, is having temporary Wound Points granted for the Ward cast. Say you cast Ward. This spell grants you double your INT + 2 points per level of Knowledge: Ancient Language in wound points. The character makes an easy Ancient Magic skill check. I rolled 2 success, and 3 advantages for this example. Grok has a Ancient Magic skill of 1 and a Knowledge: Ancient Language of 1. So he now has -8 of 15 max Wound Points. Any damage he takes, before soak, but after any use of parry / reflect to reduce.. will go straight to these points first until 0.. then back to normal. Just my initial thought on that, and have wrote out and dismissed several other options.

The Wards can stack as well, so your Dragon Rider teacher can grant you more, but this should be limited..

In addition to the ideas mentioned, Wards are not just an action, it takes several minutes and lots of energy to complete one (which means alot of strain, I'm thinking about 2 strain per point of shielding).

The alternative to having negative wound points, would be to create a separate stat, for Shield Points (SP, Ward Points. WP is confusing with Wound Points). This isn't a lot but it will make a huge difference in fighting, plus Warding is so common, enemies will have this ability as well. Galbatorix's spellcasters had lots of warded people in many of the large battles that Eragon faced. During the last book of the 4 book series, at least. When they were going in the forgotten tunnel to Dras Leona trying to infiltrate it with just 4 people (Angela, Eragon, Wierden, and Arya). They ran into the cultists of Helgrind that worshipped the Rau'zac he thought to stop using energy to fight and just let the wards protect him, but he wasn't sure how long it would last before he started taking blows that could start doing damage.. They were fighting multiple opponents, so that was quite a lot of damage that was absorbed. So the wards weren't anything like a damage reduction or anything like that in D&D. It seems to be just straight damage absorption until the ward(s) were gone.

I like the flavor of Wards, but I'm always looking for ways to make the existing rules work for me instead of having to build new rules. What about a tiered talent (Ward) that lets a character add 1 Defense (Melee and Ranged) per rank? For example:

Ward

Tier:3

Activation: Active (Maneuver)

Ranked: Yes

Your character must have at least 1 rank in Magic to take this talent. Once per encounter, the character may suffer 2 strain as a maneuver to activate a Ward for a target within engaged range, gaining 1 rank of Defense for a number of rounds equal to their ranks in Knowledge (Ancient Language). They may add additional ranks of Defense by spending 1 strain up to their number of ranks in Ward. A character's total ranks in M/R Defense may not exceed 4 (GCRB, pg 104.)

Or, instead of a ranked talent, you could make Improved and Supreme versions. Either way, doing it this way makes sure there is a cost and a limit to how much it can be used, and you don't have to keep track of any additional numbers. The setback dice let you know whether the attack was powerful enough to get through the wards, and it can only last for as many rounds as their ranks in Knowledge, so a longer encounter will wear down that extra defense.

As for the magic system being too weak, I'd have to disagree. I'm playing through a Pathfinder Adventure Path that I'm converting to Genesys for me and a friend, and my GM PC has a pretty easy time succeeding on magic checks. His casting trait is a 4, and he has 1 rank. Most magic checks base cost is just one difficulty. With implements to allow adding certain spell modifiers at a reduced cost, he can be very effective. Damage from attack spells is equal to their ability score plus 1 damage per uncancelled success. Plus, any advantage a PC rolls on their next check can be used to recover strain from their previous turn, so it's not quite as limiting as you might think.

On 12/21/2018 at 11:12 AM, gm_ordon said:

I am using this for my playtest, if you don't know about it, it is pretty cool little web app.. https://genesys.skyjedi.com/

I have used this before. I like the physical dice better, but it is nice having a combat tracker. In case you don't know about it, @SkyJedi has also created a character and setting creator that is very robust. Currently no magical item/implement tools, but there's enough functionality to provide a decent workaround for almost anything. https://genesysemporium.com/

Here's my character's sheet:

Samor Helleslicht.pdf

Also, here's the forum thread about it:

Cool. Thanks! I didn't know about that, I've been looking it over and entering some of the custom stuff for World of Alagaesia, and made a couple sample characters. The heroic abilities aren't there and the ability to make skills pre-reqs for talents is not available. But just adding it to the notes should be fine. I see that Heroic abilities are on his list of todo's for the character generator. I'm attaching the export of the custom skills, talents, races, etc.

GenesysEmporiumExport_12_27_2018_10_43_44.json

On 12/23/2018 at 5:28 AM, lbwoodard said:

I like the flavor of Wards, but I'm always looking for ways to make the existing rules work for me instead of having to build new rules. What about a tiered talent (Ward) that lets a character add 1 Defense (Melee and Ranged) per rank? For example:

Ward

Tier:3

Activation: Active (Maneuver)

Ranked: Yes

Your character must have at least 1 rank in Magic to take this talent. Once per encounter, the character may suffer 2 strain as a maneuver to activate a Ward for a target within engaged range, gaining 1 rank of Defense for a number of rounds equal to their ranks in Knowledge (Ancient Language). They may add additional ranks of Defense by spending 1 strain up to their number of ranks in Ward. A character's total ranks in M/R Defense may not exceed 4 (GCRB, pg 104.)

Or, instead of a ranked talent, you could make Improved and Supreme versions. Either way, doing it this way makes sure there is a cost and a limit to how much it can be used, and you don't have to keep track of any additional numbers. The setback dice let you know whether the attack was powerful enough to get through the wards, and it can only last for as many rounds as their ranks in Knowledge, so a longer encounter will wear down that extra defense.

As for the magic system being too weak, I'd have to disagree. I'm playing through a Pathfinder Adventure Path that I'm converting to Genesys for me and a friend, and my GM PC has a pretty easy time succeeding on magic checks. His casting trait is a 4, and he has 1 rank. Most magic checks base cost is just one difficulty. With implements to allow adding certain spell modifiers at a reduced cost, he can be very effective. Damage from attack spells is equal to their ability score plus 1 damage per uncancelled success. Plus, any advantage a PC rolls on their next check can be used to recover strain from their previous turn, so it's not quite as limiting as you might think.

I would treat ward like the sense defense power from star wars. It basically would give the character recieving the ward adversary talent. Upgrading the difficulty of incoming attacks.

Happy New Year everyone! I like the Defense power route and upgrading attacks, but I would want to limit it and that one. The Star Wars version required dedicating Force points, which is a whole new mechanic that will be more complicated than its worth for this type setting. Wards in the Eragon books, could be against spells, or weapon attacks, etc. So you could use the Ward, but it only work against magic, or weapons. But physical blows could get through. My goal is to not make this an insta-shield/barrier type of thing. I've been toying with the idea of making it like a magic shield item as a Ward, something that has to be crafted, with magical energies, requiring lots of time, but so far haven't figured out a practical way yet, other than it can be damaged like a weapon, and then eventually will break with enough hits. That is the most similar to the actual story on how they worked.

But here is what I am thinking with everyone suggestions and my own spin. Enemy wizards will use this as well, so I think this will be fairly well balanced overall. Something that has to be setup before the actual battle. It could be done in battle, but it will severely reduce the magic capability if cast during battle.

Wards
Tier: 3
Activation: Active (Action)
Ranked: Yes

Suffer 3 strain per point of rank of Wards, to gain 1 upgrade per rank of Wards against a specific attack type * skill check targeting the Warded person/object. To activate it takes a full action and requires a successful Ancient (Magic) skill check with Hard Difficulty ( ♦️ ♦️ ♦️ ). Strain is lost, even in the event of failure to activate.

*The specific attack types are Magic, Weapons, or Physical (natural attacks, unarmed attacks, falling damage, etc). The Ward doesn't take effect until the first attack targeting the character. The effect will last until the end of the encounter, or removed by 4 advantages or a Triumph from the attacker. Different attack type Wards, can be stacked, but cannot stack more than 1 of each attack type.

I also did some play testing with my 4 test beginning XP characters, Grok the Urgal Rider initiate, Nalyior the female elf wizard, Skaumon the dwarf noble, and the werecat, Zamofre. They used Heroic abilities (though I never really felt the need to spend 2 story points to activate them). The elf, Nalyior, had Paragon with Ancient Magic skill, the dwarf had Hard to Kill , and the werecat, Foretelling. Of course, Grok had Dragon Bonding . The dragon hatchling was more limited since he couldn't risk shooting fiery breath because the Barghests kept engaging people on the ground.

I got cutoff with the Character Generator site at the end when it stopped working, but was able to finish the battle. I used 4 Barghests (since I am familiar now with them for expediency), and it was a tough battle, everyone but the dwarf failed fear checks and suffered 1 setback for all skill checks for the encounter, but the party prevailed. All were wounded around 3/4 of Max and all suffered crits. It lasted until the very end of Round 6, with one character, the werecat, went down in Round 4, trying to get away from one of the Barghests. I believe he was a little too weak, without the ability to have armor, his soak 2 and low Max wound threshold made him very vulnerable. Perhaps he is an auxiliary character that needs to keep out of battles.. or need to give him Toughened talent to raise Wound Threshold. Nalyior's crit affect INT and CUN checks so her Magic suffered, but she fared better using her bow, and she ended the last Barghest, firing into melee and striking it down (doing more damage than her spells were doing even before the crit).

I would like to do a higher level play test, but I would need others to help with that since it would take too much time to figure all that out by myself. I totally missed having Nalyior use Paragon heroic ability when she tried to revive Zamofre with magic. That would have helped. But running 4 people in an encounter was difficult, with limited time to remember everything.

I

One option you might consider is set the initial size for the Dragon as Sil 0. This might make it easier to include the dragon more in earlier games...

My thought on silhouette was going back to the books for reference. Within a few weeks Saphira was nearly as tall as a human, definitely as big as a dwarf, so that is still Silhouette 1. The Dragon Hatchling is still to small to ride, which allows characters to use them at beginning XP and they have to be careful to protect them and they won't overshadow the rest of the group with the two of them (Rider and Dragon). I think it worked well in the test battle, Skaumon the dwarf noble/leader had a far greater impact that any of the other characters, and he wasn't even a fighter or possessed any ability with magic. Good armor, shield and an axe was the most effective thing against the undead feline creatures I used (Barhests from Realms of Terrinoth). I suppose him being the only one that didn't fail the fear check helped with that. But he still did more damage that anyone else.

Here are quotes from the first novel, Eragon, I used as references: "When the month ended, Eragon's elbow was level with the dragon's shoulder. In that brief span, it had transformed from a small, weak animal into a powerful beast. Its hard scales were as tough as chain-mail armor, its teeth like daggers." Not sure if that was a month since hatching or month after it talked about the growth at a fortnight (two-weeks) so that would put it at being a hatchling by my game stats, at anywhere between 4-6 weeks. A few days later, Eragon went through names, found out the dragon was a 'she' and went through female dragon names Brom had mentioned. The last was Saphira, and the dragon accepted that name. Another week or so from the book, "During the weeks before Roran's departure, she went through another growth spurt. She gained twelve inches at the shoulder, which was now higher than Eragon's. He found that the small hollow where her neck joined her shoulders was a perfect place to sit. He often rested there in the evenings and scratched her neck while he explained the meanings of different words. Soon she understood everything he said and frequently commented on it."

How would you do riders swords? Im guessing a pretty good durable rating and peirce applied to a sword.

One thing I remember is that Wards are partially powered by the person with the ward on them. So maybe if the person with the ward wants they can spend some strain to upgrade the incoming attacks...

For Rider's weapons, I believe we can handle that like signature weapons in RoT. It doesn't have to be swords, according to the Inheritance wiki there were some riders of old that had different weapons, but usually it was a sword. You would buy it like you would a Heroic ability upgrade using Ability Points (each 50xp earned gives you 1 Ability Point). This works out well, because the Riders will most likely choose Bonded Dragon first, so that others can get this ability and be as effective as a Rider with a dragon hatchling and later a young dragon.

The Signature Weapon Heroic ability seems way more powerful than the others, that are restricted for 1 round use AND costing 2 story points. I'm not sure why anyone would not choose that, unless they were playing in campaigns where combat was a rarity.

1 hour ago, gm_ordon said:

For Rider's weapons, I believe we can handle that like signature weapons in RoT. It doesn't have to be swords, according to the Inheritance wiki there were some riders of old that had different weapons, but usually it was a sword. You would buy it like you would a Heroic ability upgrade using Ability Points (each 50xp earned gives you 1 Ability Point). This works out well, because the Riders will most likely choose Bonded Dragon first, so that others can get this ability and be as effective as a Rider with a dragon hatchling and later a young dragon.

The Signature Weapon Heroic ability seems way more powerful than the others, that are restricted for 1 round use AND costing 2 story points. I'm not sure why anyone would not choose that, unless they were playing in campaigns where combat was a rarity.

I think the game is setup for only 1 herouc ability per character and the dragon bond is one already...

Yeah, that was just a random musing. From first glance, that was my thought, but realistically you could get a decent weapon crafted eventually that would equal close to the benefits of a signature weapon anyway. I guess taking the signature weapon would allow a more powerful weapon sooner rather than later.

I would say the Rider's weapon can be made at any time, but at a high cost (due to rarity of the metal needed) and through talent blacksmiths. Also a Rider weapon would be made of material that is extremely rare. In the books, the elf who made pretty much all of the Riders' swords used 'brightsteel' which was from metal in a meteorite strike. Since it is so rare, it would be a gift of large proportions. You would have to earn by doing missions to use the existing limited stock or go on a mission to find a new cache of the metal. But you can use an adequate substitute early on that is Elven or Dwarven crafted with great quality. Again that would come at a cost and can be handled by GM awards to control that. I don't see a limiting factor needed other than monetary awards or gifts in lieu of monetary awards due to completing missions/quests or assignments for the Rider Order.

I updated the Settings page for WoA with starting money of 500 crowns (still the currency of the Empire, which the government probably with be renamed away from the Empire to something else entirely and less despotic, like United Kingdoms of Alagaesia or something to that effect). Though, I would hate to limit it and the political structure, which could be anything the GM's want to make it. I see the various Kingdoms squabbling after many years, especially without the Rider's direct influence. There might not be a unified currency, I see that as less likely outcome. Maybe there is a common trade currency, even if there isn't a unified Empire/Republic/etc. Using the base Genesys monetary structure would be sufficient enough for story purposes from what I can see, and it is generic and can accommodate different coinage.

Changing subjects, The werecat issue, when I was playing that character, was communication. I don't think they could speak a common language with the others. I think the best way to solve it is to give them a natural talent for telepathy. Otherwise I don't think they could physically speak enough common language to communicate with the rest of the group, unless they are in their human form. It might be an interesting dynamic and perhaps the character can kind of hang back like Solembum and help out only when needed and not have to say much. They are naturally reclusive anyways. Any thoughts?

Im relistening to Eragon and it seems pretty clear Solumbum talks via telepathy. They also seem to be prophetic

He also seems small. Like sil zero. He is described as a small boy.

What about statting the Razzak and Letharbockr

On 12/23/2018 at 5:28 AM, lbwoodard said:

I like the flavor of Wards, but I'm always looking for ways to make the existing rules work for me instead of having to build new rules. What about a tiered talent (Ward) that lets a character add 1 Defense (Melee and Ranged) per rank? For example:

Ward

Tier:3

Activation: Active (Maneuver)

Ranked: Yes

Your character must have at least 1 rank in Magic to take this talent. Once per encounter, the character may suffer 2 strain as a maneuver to activate a Ward for a target within engaged range, gaining 1 rank of Defense for a number of rounds equal to their ranks in Knowledge (Ancient Language). They may add additional ranks of Defense by spending 1 strain up to their number of ranks in Ward. A character's total ranks in M/R Defense may not exceed 4 (GCRB, pg 104.)

Or, instead of a ranked talent, you could make Improved and Supreme versions. Either way, doing it this way makes sure there is a cost and a limit to how much it can be used, and you don't have to keep track of any additional numbers. The setback dice let you know whether the attack was powerful enough to get through the wards, and it can only last for as many rounds as their ranks in Knowledge, so a longer encounter will wear down that extra defense.

As for the magic system being too weak, I'd have to disagree. I'm playing through a Pathfinder Adventure Path that I'm converting to Genesys for me and a friend, and my GM PC has a pretty easy time succeeding on magic checks. His casting trait is a 4, and he has 1 rank. Most magic checks base cost is just one difficulty. With implements to allow adding certain spell modifiers at a reduced cost, he can be very effective. Damage from attack spells is equal to their ability score plus 1 damage per uncancelled success. Plus, any advantage a PC rolls on their next check can be used to recover strain from their previous turn, so it's not quite as limiting as you might think.

I have been pondering this. After listening to Eldest I think a better way to replicate warding would be for a spellcaster to cast a spell. And based the way they are described I think using the Armor table From keeping the peace.
Perhaps triumphs can upgrade a number attacks. Advatages could be spent on soak or defense.

And because the way wards work they should cost the person with a ward on them strain when used.

17 hours ago, Daeglan said:

What about statting the Razzak and Letharbockr

I have been concentrating mainly on the setting after defeating Galbatorix, so the Ra'zac have been wiped out already. I supposed we can create them just so people can play in an era when the Dragon Riders were in power. I suppose, also they could have survived. According to the books, the Ra'zac left the continent outside of Alagaesia to escape another threat that was wiping them out. But the last two that were at Helgrind that Eragon killed said they were the last of their kind. But, there could have been some Ra'zac that escaped to another place, perhaps beyond the Beor Mountains, that they didn't know about. I have been thinking about a campaign to face the threat of whatever wiped out the Ra'zac. That would be an interesting idea for a long term campaign.

I suppose I can work on stats for them, I'll have to review what all their capabilities. I know for sure they had greater than human speed and strength, but couldn't use magic at all. They were very good trackers, so probably ranks in Perception. They favored poisons like Seithr Oil on their weapons. Using thrown daggers coated with it. But also had ancient, leaf-bladed swords. quoting Inheritance Wiki: Ra'zacs' breath have the power to paralyze humans in a dream-like state, however, it barely clouds the minds of dwarves and is ineffective against elves altogether. Also mentions: "They were especially effective against Dragon Riders because their minds were shielded from mental powers. "

I don't have "Keeping the Peace" which I assume is one of the supplements for FFG Star Wars, I believe I have heard of that one. What is the mechanic behind the armor?

23 minutes ago, gm_ordon said:

I have been concentrating mainly on the setting after defeating Galbatorix, so the Ra'zac have been wiped out already. I supposed we can create them just so people can play in an era when the Dragon Riders were in power. I suppose, also they could have survived. According to the books, the Ra'zac left the continent outside of Alagaesia to escape another threat that was wiping them out. But the last two that were at Helgrind that Eragon killed said they were the last of their kind. But, there could have been some Ra'zac that escaped to another place, perhaps beyond the Beor Mountains, that they didn't know about. I have been thinking about a campaign to face the threat of whatever wiped out the Ra'zac. That would be an interesting idea for a long term campaign.

I suppose I can work on stats for them, I'll have to review what all their capabilities. I know for sure they had greater than human speed and strength, but couldn't use magic at all. They were very good trackers, so probably ranks in Perception. They favored poisons like Seithr Oil on their weapons. Using thrown daggers coated with it. But also had ancient, leaf-bladed swords. quoting Inheritance Wiki: Ra'zacs' breath have the power to paralyze humans in a dream-like state, however, it barely clouds the minds of dwarves and is ineffective against elves altogether. Also mentions: "They were especially effective against Dragon Riders because their minds were shielded from mental powers. "

Well except it is hinted that Galbatorix hid their eggs. As a method to control them so they likely still exist.

36 minutes ago, gm_ordon said:

I don't have "Keeping the Peace" which I assume is one of the supplements for FFG Star Wars, I believe I have heard of that one. What is the mechanic behind the armor?

You make a mechanics check. You can spend advantage on various attributes for armor with succeeding at a base difficulty for base stats

Get oggdudes character generator in the another chatacter generator thread in the edge of the empire forum and you can play with them to see how they work

On 1/4/2019 at 3:36 PM, gm_ordon said:

I would say the Rider's weapon can be made at any time, but at a high cost (due to rarity of the metal needed) and through talent blacksmiths. Also a Rider weapon would be made of material that is extremely rare. In the books, the elf who made pretty much all of the Riders' swords used 'brightsteel' which was from metal in a meteorite strike. Since it is so rare, it would be a gift of large proportions. You would have to earn by doing missions to use the existing limited stock or go on a mission to find a new cache of the metal. But you can use an adequate substitute early on that is Elven or Dwarven crafted with great quality. Again that would come at a cost and can be handled by GM awards to control that. I don't see a limiting factor needed other than monetary awards or gifts in lieu of monetary awards due to completing missions/quests or assignments for the Rider Order.

This sounds more like lightsaber crafting in SW, I think. The weapon is crazy good no matter who holds it. Their skill with it is going to be the determining factor for the effectiveness of the weapon.

On 1/8/2019 at 5:37 PM, Daeglan said:

I have been pondering this. After listening to Eldest I think a better way to replicate warding would be for a spellcaster to cast a spell. And based the way they are described I think using the Armor table From keeping the peace. 

I don't have Keeping the Peace either, but the GCRB already has a spell with mechanics for additional effects: Barrier. If you want to rename it Ward, that's basically it. You may want to add an effect for permanence so the caster doesn't have to keep concentrating, or just increase the base difficulty by one or two depending on what you feel is appropriate.