Just received my Hero's Call and I noticed that the Arch Lector's traits are listed as Advanced, Heroic, Priest, Religion. I am assuming that the Advanced is a typo and should read Academic, does that sound right? Also with all the new Elite careers, all of which have 4 Tactic Slots, atleast 6 Career Skills and atleast 11 Advances (most have 12, one has 13) Whereas the only Elite Career that has been previously released was the Prophet of Doom, who has 3 Tactic Slots, 5 Career Skills and 10 Advances. Does this mean the Prophet of Doom should be Advanced and not Elite, or is he missing a boost to his Career Card? Sorry if these are obvious answers, or if they have been asked and answered before. But it is just confusing me a little.

Gazery

Academic sounds more believable, yes.

I think the Prohpet of Doom is an advanced career yes, IIRC you only need to complete the Zealot career to take it which makes it available at Rank 2, making it technically an intermidate career, but I guess madness has its perks...sorry, did I say madness? I clearly meant religious devotion.

nifoc said:

The Prophet of Doom is actually a 3 rank career. First you need to complete the Zelot career and then the Flagelant career, then you can move into Prophet of Doom. As Prophet of Doom was released (long) before the Hero's Call I believe they just thought added the Elite trait to the career without considering the trait confusion it would create now, just swap the trait for Advanced and you'll be good. It would be wierd not to be able to take Zelot -> Flagelant -> Prophet of Doom path, as that is one of the most obvious career paths in the game.

On a side note, I find it strange that they didn't add the Elite thing above the traits on the career sheet, why not put "Elite career: Human" etc. on top, instead of calling all Elite careers Advanced careers up there and adding Elite to the traits below. It's wierd. Clarification: Why doesn't the Master Wizard sheet say Elite Career: Human instead (see image below)? It would be so much easier to spot the elite/heroic careers if they did.

The traits on the career is probably the thing FFG managed to get most confusing in this game.

If Elite is just a trait, it will only influence the game if there are other effects that target that specific trait. Are there any rules on Hero's Call that specify the Elite Trait?

Elite, being a trait, does not necessarily means that the career it is in is a 3 or 5 rank career. The differences of quantity of Talent Slots, advancements and such must be from the intended rank of the career, not from the trait, which is there just to mark some speciality.

That being said, I do think Elite could be, or also be, an actual type of career, as the Advanced Career is. It would be possible for it to have rules on it's own, such as the Advanced: you are not allowed to start with and Advanced Career (or you could only take it on achieving rank 2? I don't recall). Elite Careers could be careers that you can only take after achieving rank 3, or maybe from an Advanced Career.

That would prevent those Special Rules they are adding to each career, "you can only take this one if you have jumped through the fire of an Orc encampent thrice". Alright, I find it neat to have some specialty, it adds flavour, but sometimes I find those strick paths as being more reductive than adding to gameplay. I'm still not through the idea that the only (suggested) way you can get to Witch Hunter is by having an insanity. In my mind, most WH are insane, but I would like to portrait one or two as completely sureminded fellows without having to think about a mechanical way to do it.

Pedro Lunaris said:

Yes, I'm quite certain that in Hero's Call they specify that to go into an Elite career you have to be at least rank 4. To move into a career with the Heroic trait you must be at least rank 5. To be absolutely sure though I'll have to check the book when I get home.

They go into two different limitations, where one just limits any talent or action with the "epic" trait to lvl 4+ and puts some limitations on the higher ranked career being limited to certain ranks. The more strict one demands that you achieve rank 2 for intermediate careers, rank 3 for advanced, rank 4 for elite and rank 5 for heroic. This is of course in addition to the "must complete...." that already exist.

Groups are free to choose whatever works for them.

Well the, from reading what you guys are saying, I do think they mess things a little too much between career cathegories (Basic or Advanced) and career traits. Traits are a trademark from FFG, almost all games I played from them have it. And I do think they work nicely when their disclaimer is taken completely seriously, that is, they are something other effects target, not effects themselves. Then you start getting rules that go a little too far on that and kinda make traits as rules themselves, Epic being a limitation for... Heroic for... I don't know.

I dig the "whatever you like" thing, it gives the sense that you can make what you will the system as a in-built trait (because people do whatever they will anyway). But I need good system building for me to appreciate this optionism.