Which one do you or your group tend to focus on?


HN

Wisdom, because Corruption tests are more common than Fear tests.

My group has six players - 2 are Valor and 4 are Wisdom; so apparently they favor Wisdom.

But I can honestly say that none of the players understood the rules well enough to know which (fear or Corruption) were more prevalent or even if they knew they existed at all.....

Their reasons were varied - some liked the rewards, and others saw their characters more as road scholars/philosophers that tended to lean more towards a more sophisticated thought-process.


I would be a bit bent if my players preferred one over the other just because Corruption tests are more prevalent; but everyone has different gamestyles.

It's actually not quite as simple as "Corruption Tests are more common" because while Fear tests don't come up as often, their consequences carry greater immediate risk. Not only can failing to connect with an attack result in another round of attacks that the heroes normally wouldn't need to suffer, but having the option to spend Hope on a protection roll can be absolutely crucial! Many heroes carry lighter armor knowing that they have the option of bolstering their roll with Hope if need be to avoid the wound, and being prevented from doing that can make combat more deadly than expected!

That said, I agree that if Corruption vs Fear tests were the only factor that Wisdom would be slightly more important. However, IMO the rewards (at least the general rewards) seem to have a greater impact and are typically less situational than the virtues. Of course this depends on culture; the Beornings, Hobbits, and Woodmen have particularly nice virtues.

In my group of 3 players, the Beorning and Dwarf both favor Valour, while the Barding favors Wisdom. Furthermore, I nudged the Barding in that direction a bit during character creation, mostly because a group with nobody that favoured Wisdom would be at a disadvantage in Encounters with those who value it. I think he's happy with this choice though, since he fails Corruption tests less frequently than the others but still does decently on Fear tests thanks to his cultural virtue.

If I ever get to play my top 2 character concepts (currently duking it out for dominance in my brain-space) would both favor Wisdom, but that's purely because it fits those characters better (one's a Hobbit, the other a Woodman).

At character generation, all four chose Wisdom 2 as they liked the Virtues.

Now they have some experience to spend, I'm hoping at least one will choose Valour, as some encounters do favour that over Wisdom. Words for the Wise has one!

No fear checks made yet, so no opinion on that aspect.

I think it depends upon the character concept.

For instance, when we started our campaign, I had two character concepts. One was a Dalish innkeeper's daughter, who would overhear the rest of the party talking about their planned adventure, grab her father's sword, which he used at the Battle of the Five Armies, and follow the characters, like Chico in The Magnificent Seven. Basically, she would be a working class Eowyn. For such a character, Valour would make more sense.

The other character, with whom I did go, is a foundling whose heritage is unclear. She was brought to a Woodman family by no less than Radagast, and as she grew many began to suspect that she was not entirely human. She has preternatural senses and beauty. This is all inspired by the Fairy Heritage background. Talking with the LM, it was decided that, unknown to her, she's the daughter of a river-maiden, which we assume are of the same race as Goldberry. For such a character, Wisdom makes a great deal of sense, and the Natural Watchfulness Virtue, to represent the fact that her mother is apparently some sort of nature spirit.

It might be worth mentioning, although it's not strictly related to the topic subject, that I am a big fan of bending the character creation rules if it will help the stats better represent the character. This should never give any character an unfair advantage, but in the particular case of my foundling character, the LM allowed me to take Swimming as a Specialty, even though that is not ordinarily a Woodman specialty. It fit, though, that Dagmar the Foundling would have a special affinity for the water.

Brooke: I have long had as a motto "Never let the rules get in the way of a fun game!"

I will frequently bend the RAW if doing so allows a player to have a more satisfying character or me to tell a better story.

I hope not to encounter a player group who make the Valor or Wisdom choice based solely on game mechanical advantage.