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Comments
^^^ He could do an arcane blacksmith like so:
A: Skills (Craftsman/Ritualist)
B: Race (Gifted Human)
C: Attributes
E: Gifts and Flaws
F: Proficiencies
So the blacksmith would be pretty horrible with weapons, but strong in both magic and craftwork, not to mention have pretty decent overall stats. Economically, he'd have enough cash to start with the stuff he needs to do his work -- the only downside outside of combat would be suffering from a couple of character flaws.
That's what I get for not having much interest in running a magical character, I suppose.
Altered:
A: Skills
B: Race
C: Attributes
E: Social Class
F: Gifts and Flaws (Aw man)
A, C and D are the most switchable, I think.
A Race
B Proficencies
C Skills
D Class
E Attributes
F Gifts/Flaws
Sound? Any of that need juggling for the sword part?
^ I'd rather not use any Fey just yet, 'cause they're very traditional Celtic nasty Fey a lot of the time. So I'd put it like this:
A: Proficiencies
B: Race
C: Attributes
E: Social Class
F: Gifts and Flaws
Attributes are reasonably important for any kind of magic or combat character. They contribute to proficiency and skill tests and create derived stats, so unless you're out of the action a lot of the time, you'll want Attributes around C or D at the lowest (although there are interesting ways to play with that, if you're very specialised).
Proficiencies in A is going to be very important if you want both effective magic and swordsmanship.
A Attributes
How nasty are fey? And how broken?
Oh, and if you're Fey, you hate anything with iron in it.
^^^ That'd work.
They've got quite a few quirky things in mythology if I recall (eg they steal the substance of something, leaving the object itself. This causes crops to wither and cows to die if their essence is stolen, for example)
Keep it fey, keep it fey, keep it fey!
Peasant and commoner schools for close combat existed, if unofficially. One of medieval Germany's greatest fighters was Otto the Jew, recognised as one of the Society of Liechtenauer. The SoL was Germany's best martial institute. But have you ever heard of Jewish nobility in Western Europe?
A combination of practical experience and training could inform even those on the lower end of the social ladder on how to fight. For instance, MI.33 Tower, the earliest known combat manual, refers to the teacher as "Priest", and the teacher also sports the associated look. We think this is because the author wrote this after entering the clergy from a warlike background. In the manual, there's no depiction of knights or the like being taught these techniques -- indeed, there's even a depiction of a woman undergoing martial training.
In short, life is life. You find what skills you can wherever you can. The nobility tended to be on the cutting edge, but that's it. Even then, how many nobles do you think knew anything about farming, smithing or any other kind of laborious task that wasn't fighting?
You can justify a lot of stuff just by keeping in mind that while there are guidelines, there are no particular "rules" as to who could and couldn't do whatever. If you want a peasant with high weapons proficiency, you can do that, and you don't need to go as far as the fallen noble background. He or she might've had access to a teacher, or militia training, or seen actual combat. Or any combination of those.
The other thing I want to know if what kind of games you guys like. What kind of obstacles do you have the most fun with, or find the most rewarding? And what about tone? I want to avoid complete grimdark or noblebright, but I'm happy to err the tone in whatever direction seems most pleasing.
And what about, say, NPCs? Do you want active NPCs that can influence the plot depending on your choices, or should they be essentially passive? Do you guys like road adventures, or would you like to have consistent geographic placement and a setting that changes over time?