Staff of the Eldar

Adventure in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Learn more at our website: http://www.cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/the-one-ring/
zedturtle
Posts: 3289
Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:03 am

Staff of the Eldar

Post by zedturtle » Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:49 pm

My wants-to-be-a-Wizard asked for something special and Rocmistro suggested turning a Hound of Mirkwood into a stick. Here are the results:

Staff of the Eldar

...leaning on a thick rough-cut staff as he trudged along...


The First-Born put their love of learning and their love of the world into everything they wrought. While this staff first appears to be nothing more than a common and unrefined piece of wood, a dedicated user will learn that it is capable of many things.
Firstly, it functions as a capable, if not deadly, weapon. When this Reward is taken, you may convert any one Weapon Skill into the Quarterstaff skill. The weapon uses the following values:
Quartertstaff
Damage 4
Edge G
Injury 14
Enc. 1
Notes Two-handed. A piercing blow with this weapon produces a knock-back effect instead. Additionally, it has two other special benefits: Whenever their wielder is fighting in a close-combat stance in an open area (i.e. not indoors or underground), he may raise his Parry score by 1. Also, the Called Shot effect for this weapon is to Disarm a foe.
Support The wisdom of the First Born is entwined within this staff. When you first receive it, you may automatically gain a bonus (roll two Feat Dice and take the best) to Awe, Awareness, Explore or Lore. Spending one Experience Point and an Undertaking allows you to add another.
Harass Enemy For the cost of one Experience Point and an Undertaking, you learn how to use your staff with lightning quickness. Each round, you may designate one adversary you are engaged with... this adversary counts as Weary without further action on your part.
Protect Companions For the cost of one Experience Point and an Undertaking, you can become a master of using the length of your weapon to clear a wide area. If you have this ability, you always count as two people engaged in Close Combat for determining the number of heroes that may elect a Rearward Stance.

- - -

Obviously inspired by our recent discussion on staffs...
Jacob Rodgers, occasional nitwit.

This space intentionally blank.

Falenthal
Posts: 2273
Joined: Sun Feb 02, 2014 8:46 am
Location: Girona (Spain)
Contact:

Re: Staff of the Eldar

Post by Falenthal » Tue Dec 30, 2014 2:01 pm

It seems very nice, to me.
I can't help but see the movie's Gandalf fighting with his staff and Glamdring, two-weapon handed style.

Image

Rocmistro
Posts: 778
Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 12:24 am
Location: Albany, NY

Re: Staff of the Eldar

Post by Rocmistro » Tue Dec 30, 2014 2:18 pm

Hey Zed, cool that you brought this up over here. Damian jumped on the opportunity, and I think that's all that really matters! It's funny because I don't think he was gunning at all for a Hound of Mirkwood before we suggested this.

In general, it's kind of cool what you can imagine when you re-train the mind to "re-skin" things to achieve the desired aesthetic affect that you want. Imagination in an RPG....Go figure!

For example, my Barding Swordmaster; I want his "power" to be more about his sword, in some respects than him. So, when he achieves the required Wisdom levels to take "fell handed", I'm thinking about having that narratively portrayed as his Dwarf buddy inscribing Dwarven Runes of power into the blade for him (the same Dwarf made the weapon for him).
Rignuth: Barding Wordweaver Wanderer in Southron Loremaster's game.
Amroth Ol'Hir: High Elf Vengeful Kin Slayer in Zedturtle's game.
Jakk O'Malli: Dwarven Orator Treasure-Hunter in Hermes Serpent's game.

Majestic
Posts: 1806
Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2014 5:47 pm
Location: Seattle, Washington

Re: Staff of the Eldar

Post by Majestic » Tue Dec 30, 2014 4:35 pm

Awesome item, zed. I especially like how you did the 'Protect Companions' feature! 8-)
Tale of Years for a second, lower-level group (in the same campaign).

Yepesnopes
Posts: 271
Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 4:55 pm

Re: Staff of the Eldar

Post by Yepesnopes » Tue Dec 30, 2014 5:13 pm

There are two differences with the hound of mirkwood.

-The hound gives you +2 hope, the staff no. In that sense the hound is better.
-The hound can be kicked out of the game if the enemy rolls an eye of Sauron, while the staff is always in use. In that sense the staff is better.

I am not sure if these two features balance each other.

Is this reward for a woodman?

zedturtle
Posts: 3289
Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:03 am

Re: Staff of the Eldar

Post by zedturtle » Tue Dec 30, 2014 6:04 pm

It is for a woodman, coincidently enough. I think the relatively weak weapon and Parry bonus makes up for the lack of a Hope.

If you could let me know which way you think it's unbalanced, that'd be very helpful.
Jacob Rodgers, occasional nitwit.

This space intentionally blank.

Yepesnopes
Posts: 271
Joined: Wed May 08, 2013 4:55 pm

Re: Staff of the Eldar

Post by Yepesnopes » Tue Dec 30, 2014 6:30 pm

zedturtle wrote:It is for a woodman, coincidently enough. I think the relatively weak weapon and Parry bonus makes up for the lack of a Hope.
If you could let me know which way you think it's unbalanced, that'd be very helpful.
I don't know if it is unbalanced without knowing the whole character concept.

The fact that the hound of Mirkwood gives you +2 hope while the staff does not, plus the fact that it does not occupy a weapon slot, are a pluses towards the hound.

On the other hand, the hound has the following, which the staff has not:

"When you are engaged in battle, if an attack aimed at you produces an Eye result, the blow hits and automatically Wounds the Hound instead (in place of the effects of a normal hit). You may prevent this by taking the automatic Wound yourself (you cannot roll for Protection). A Wounded Hound is put out of combat for the remainder of the scene, and will return at your side at the start of the next session only if you succeed in a Healing roll with a TN of 16. If you fail, the Hound will not recover until the next Fellowship phase."

Which is a big set back for the hound. I play with the Bride in our TOR sessions and I have suffered it myself a couple of times. First time I ended wounded, the second time it happened I had to spend a point of hope to succeed on the healing test, it was that or losing the hound until the next Fellowship phase :(

I cannot easily evaluate if the whole package, staff plus character is balanced or not.

May be you could have gone for something like coping exactly the same virtue. Then, the stats of the weapon of choice of the woodman i.e. a long-hafted axe, become the stats of the Staff. During a combat, if an enemy produces an Eye and the character does not take the wound, it means the staff is damaged and must be repaired with a Craft test (This is again unbalanced since Woodmen start with high healing and low craft)...

Regarding this:

"Protect Companions For the cost of one Experience Point and an Undertaking, you can become a master of using the length of your weapon to clear a wide area. If you have this ability, you always count as two people engaged in Close Combat for determining the number of heroes that may elect a Rearward Stance."

I think this last part is not a big problem to change from the original virtue and is very thematic.

I don't know. I guess as long there is no other woodman in the group is not a big deal.

zedturtle
Posts: 3289
Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:03 am

Re: Staff of the Eldar

Post by zedturtle » Wed Dec 31, 2014 1:58 am

Woo-hoo! Real keyboard!
Yepesnopes wrote:I don't know if it is unbalanced without knowing the whole character concept.
A Woodman desperately wanting to be a Wizard. Here is his character sheet.
The fact that the hound of Mirkwood gives you +2 hope while the staff does not, plus the fact that it does not occupy a weapon slot, are a pluses towards the hound.
Agreed.
"When you are engaged in battle, if an attack aimed at you produces an Eye result, the blow hits and automatically Wounds the Hound instead (in place of the effects of a normal hit). You may prevent this by taking the automatic Wound yourself (you cannot roll for Protection). A Wounded Hound is put out of combat for the remainder of the scene, and will return at your side at the start of the next session only if you succeed in a Healing roll with a TN of 16. If you fail, the Hound will not recover until the next Fellowship phase."
See, I took this to be almost a good thing. An Eye result means you're going to making a Protection test anyways, so the auto-wound is step up on "bad stuff" scale, but not too far. Healing a Wound rather than having to Treat it and then recover also seemed like a pretty good deal.
May be you could have gone for something like coping exactly the same virtue. Then, the stats of the weapon of choice of the woodman i.e. a long-hafted axe, become the stats of the Staff. During a combat, if an enemy produces an Eye and the character does not take the wound, it means the staff is damaged and must be repaired with a Craft test (This is again unbalanced since Woodmen start with high healing and low craft)...
Yeah, this idea was proposed, but it felt quite awkward. So I decided to go for my relatively wimpy version of the quarterstaff and just not have the "take the Wound" for you ability at all.
"Protect Companions For the cost of one Experience Point and an Undertaking, you can become a master of using the length of your weapon to clear a wide area. If you have this ability, you always count as two people engaged in Close Combat for determining the number of heroes that may elect a Rearward Stance."

I think this last part is not a big problem to change from the original virtue and is very thematic.
Cool. Thanks!
I don't know. I guess as long there is no other woodman in the group it is not a big deal.
Not anymore, unfortunately.
Jacob Rodgers, occasional nitwit.

This space intentionally blank.

CorTOR
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Dec 28, 2014 8:41 pm

Re: Staff of the Eldar

Post by CorTOR » Wed Dec 31, 2014 3:09 am

zedturtle wrote: Support The wisdom of the First Born is entwined within this staff. When you first receive it, you may automatically gain a bonus (roll two Feat Dice and take the best) to Awe, Awareness, Explore or Lore. Spending one Experience Point and an Undertaking allows you to add another.
Do you mean the support is for one of the skills quoted at no cost and then with experience can be expanded to another one of them (like I understand it for the Hound) or, like your sentences seem to imply, that you get the bonus for any of the quoted skills and can add another to the list with experience spent ?

zedturtle
Posts: 3289
Joined: Sat Mar 22, 2014 12:03 am

Re: Staff of the Eldar

Post by zedturtle » Wed Dec 31, 2014 3:30 am

CorTOR wrote:
zedturtle wrote: Support The wisdom of the First Born is entwined within this staff. When you first receive it, you may automatically gain a bonus (roll two Feat Dice and take the best) to Awe, Awareness, Explore or Lore. Spending one Experience Point and an Undertaking allows you to add another.
Do you mean the support is for one of the skills quoted at no cost and then with experience can be expanded to another one of them (like I understand it for the Hound) or, like your sentences seem to imply, that you get the bonus for any of the quoted skills and can add another to the list with experience spent ?
It's supposed to work just like Hound... I need to reword that, I can see the confusion now.

Let's try this:

The wisdom of the First Born is entwined within this staff. When you first receive it, you may automatically gain a bonus (roll two Feat Dice and take the best) to all rolls for one of the following skills: Awe, Awareness, Explore or Lore. Spending one Experience Point and an Undertaking allows you to add the same bonus to another skill.

Better?
Jacob Rodgers, occasional nitwit.

This space intentionally blank.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests