Wherein your humble scribe, upon returning to topics that actually interest him, presents four characters for Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2 – one for each of the available magic systems in the game. These folks were all rolled up randomly (per the optional rules in Chapter 11), and have a bare minimum of equipment.
Tharin Ringmaker / Human / A Craftsman With A Certain Knack
Skill 8 Stamina 9 Luck 11 Magic 4
Talent: Familiar (Udo the Grey Parrot)
Special Skills: Magic – Minor 2, Crafting – Metalwork 2, Swords 1, Strength 1, Law 1, Evaluate 1, World Lore 1, City Lore 1, Religion Lore 1, Dodge 1, Common Speech 4
Magic Points: 8
Cantrips: Burn, Extinguish, Glimmer, Hear, Mend, Noise
4 gp
Short Sword (1/2/2/3/3/3/4), Leather Hauberk (0/1/1/1/1/1/2)
Kentrick / Human / A Wizard From The Sticks
Skill 7 Stamina 6 Luck 8 Magic 5
Talent: Focus (Oaken Staff)
Special Skills: Magic – Minor 2, Magic – Wizardry 2, Magic Lore 2, Staves 1, Thrown 1, Animal Lore 1, Healing 1, Fishing 1, Hunting 1, Awareness 1, Trap Knowledge 1, Bargain 1, World Lore 1, Forest Lore 2, Religion Lore 1, Common Speech 4
Magic Points: 14
Cantrips: Enhance, Entertain, Mend, Mistake, Noise, Push
Spells: Wall, Counterspell, Force Bolt, Sleep, Ward, Open, Light, Illusion
8 gp
Staff (1/2/3/3/3/3/4)
Cylise Witchborn / Human / A Peasant Sorcerer
Skill 8 Stamina 13 Luck 5 Magic 6
Talent: Natural Mage
Special Skills: Magic – Sorcery 2, Polearms 2, Bows 1, Animal Lore 1, Dodge 2, Healing 1, Sneaking 1, Con 1, World Lore 1, City Lore 1, Religion Lore 1, Common Speech 4
3 gp
Spear (2/2/3/3/3/4/5), Leather Hauberk (0/1/1/1/1/1/2), Small Shield (0/0/0/0/+1/+1+2)
Kaenin Farool / Human / A Senior Priest of Telak
Skill 9 Stamina 8 Luck 5 Magic 6
Talent: Holy
Special Skills: Magic – Priestly 2, Clubs 2, Law 1, Leadership 1, Etiquette 1, Religion Lore 2, City Lore 2, Awareness 2, World Lore 1, Common Speech 4
Priestly Abilities: Bravery, Smite vs. Evil Humanoids, Heal, “For The Glory Of Telak!”
11 gp
Mace (2/3/3/3/3/3/4), Breastplate (0/0/0/1/2/3/4)
This group doesn’t really make much of an adventuring party, I’m afraid. But any one of them would be a useful addition to a party that contained some non-magical folks, I believe.
In other news, my copy of Out Of The Pit arrived in the mail today. So with the AFF “monster manual” on hand I’m that much closer to feeling like I might be ready to give the game a run. Still no definitive thoughts on whether or not I’m prepared to brave the wilds of online play. I’ll keep you all posted on that as things continue to develop.
I really like how you differentiate these guys–not just with spell selection, but backgrounds, weapons, etc. 4 M-U’s rolled up from a-certain-other-system would not necessarily be as diverse.
Thanks, G-Man. Still, all “that other system” ever really needed to let some diversity into its M-Us was to back off the harsh restrictions on what weapons they could use.
That is, I’d like to think I did pretty well differentiating some beginning M-Us in the LL Rogues Gallery post from way back when 🙂
Yup. And the headgear helped, too!
And that’s why I’m destined to win an Oscar for costume design someday…
Not really. I’m nowhere near that fabulous 🙂
In a (sort-of) related question, how does AFF handle rogues? Do they tend to have a really high Luck? A bunch of related skills or specialties?
Mostly it’s a special skills thing. There’s a small suite of “Stealth” special skills (including Sleight of Hand, Sneaking, Traps, Locks, and so on) that are pretty much the standard thief skills. Add to those a couple of the “Knowledge” special skills (Con, Secret Signs, and maybe City Lore) and you’ve pretty much got what you need to make a good rogue.
Like all character types, a high Skill and a high Luck are both going to be desirable. Since Skill is used for just about every check, having it high is going to lead to a more consistently successful thief. As written, Luck doesn’t really do all that much for completing tasks, so though you definitely want it to be high, it’s not going to be what makes you a good rogue.
There are also some talents (Silver Tongued, Trap Master) that would come into play when customizing a rogue character a bit as well. These kinds of talents are good for bonuses to the appropriate rolls.
I’m already pondering a way of letting players burn Luck like BoL’s Hero Points, though, which would make a high luck value somewhat more useful than the ablative saving throw that is more-or-less is by default.
In the regular F&F, using luck in combat is something of a risk, given that if you blow the roll you either end up taking more damage or inflicting less damage (depending on how you wanted to use it). In the books I just used luck to try and avoid the occasional trap .
The Luck-related combat rules (all I’ve read so far, anyway) essentially allow you to make a roll if you’ve lost the round to force your opponent to deliver the least damage possible (no additional penalty if you fail) or, if you’ve won, deliver the most damage possible (again, no penalty other than the ablated Luck, if you fail). Out of combat the basic idea seems to be that Luck is used like a saving throw (e.g., to avoid a trap). You can opt to use a Luck test in place of any Skill test, but your special skills don’t add to your chance. It’s pretty much a “Hail Mary” maneuver.