Woodmen of Wilderland: additional Cultural Blessings!

[Michebugio]

Since Heart of the Wild introduced the Woodmen of Mountain Hall as a sub-culture of the Woodmen, I was thinking that things could be made even more interesting if each of the four Great Houses of the Woodmen (Rosghobel, Mountain Hall, Woodland Hall and Woodmen Town) had their own, unique, Cultural Blessing.

The Woodmen occupy a vast territory and the Great Houses are sometimes quite far from each other, so it is reasonable to expect slightly different ethnic groups, represented by different Cultural Blessings. Plus, players love to have more choices, and making things more interesting for Woodmen is good, since they are largely left out from Tolkien’s writings and somehow offer less appeal to players than the other, more renown races.

So here’s my additional player options. Feedback and suggestions are much appreciated, as always

Woodmen of Rosghobel
Cultural Blessing: Woodcrafty

Standard Woodmen’s Cultural Blessing, from the Adventurer’s Book.

Woodmen of Mountain Hall
Cultural Blessing: Mountain Fighters

Alternate Woodmen’s Cultural Blessing, from Heart of the Wild supplement.

Woodmen of Woodland Hall
Cultural Blessing: Woodcutter

It took generations of axe-wielding Woodmen to cut the large clearing where Woodland Hall now stands, and even more to build and carve its Great Hall. The sturdy trees of Mirkwood are not easily cut, and the Woodmen of Woodland Hall learn from an early age that powerful and precise swings are needed to chop the wood that is their very source of shelter and sustenance.

- When a Woodman of Woodland Hall wields a Long-hafted axe two-handed, he uses his Favoured Body score as his basic melee Damage rating.

Woodmen of Woodmen Town
Cultural Blessing: Balthi’s Boon

Woodmen Town is well known for its greatest treasure, the Light of Balthi. This ancient artifact is believed to have great healing powers, and the Woodmen who have lived for generations near its eternal, bluish light seem to show a lingering effect of these miraculous properties.

-If he is not Wounded, a Woodman of Woodmen Town uses his Favoured Heart score to determine how many Endurance points he recovers after a battle or when he takes a prolonged rest.

Hope you'll enjoy these.

To all of those that are making a compilation of contributions (the ones I know so far are Rich H and Robin Smallburrow), feel free to add them to your own resources

EDIT: topic's title changed.

[Woodclaw]

I like this concept, but I have to say that the Balthiu's Boon looks extremely powerful, especially when compared with Woodcutter which is extremely situational.

[Hermes Serpent]

Woodmen have Body of 2, 3 or 4 and Heart of 4, 5 or 6 so the benefit of the Woodland Hall Woodcutter option is a maximum of +7 (4+3 Favoured Attribute Bonus) to damage vs. a minimum of 3 (2+1) for the basic Damage Rating. The Woodman Town Balthi's Boon option is a maximum of 9 points of Endurance recovery vs. a minimum of 5 points so a maximum benefit of +4 damage per hit vs. 4 Endurance recovery per prolonged rest (overnight).

The Woodcutter option looks more powerful than the Balthi's Boon option even if the axe has to be used two-handed.

[Michebugio]

Woodmen have Body of 2, 3 or 4 and Heart of 4, 5 or 6 so the benefit of the Woodland Hall Woodcutter option is a maximum of +7 (4+3 Favoured Attribute Bonus) to damage vs. a minimum of 3 (2+1) for the basic Damage Rating. The Woodman Town Balthi's Boon option is a maximum of 9 points of Endurance recovery vs. a minimum of 5 points so a maximum benefit of +4 damage per hit vs. 4 Endurance recovery per prolonged rest (overnight).

I'm a bit lost on your maths, HS.
The net advantage of Woodcutter over a "standard Woodman" is using Favoured Body instead of Base Body for Damage rating, which is actually dealt only on a great or extraordinary success. So it's not +4 damage per hit: it's +1 to +3 damage per great success, or +2 to +6 damage per extraordinary success.

Balthi's Boon is similar. Instead of regaining 2+Heart score Endurance points after a prolonged rest, he regains 2+Favored Heart score, so from a minimum of +1 to a maximum of +3 extra Endurance points per day; and also in the Recovery after each battle (normal: regains Heart score Endurance points; Balthi's Boon: regains Favored Heart score Endurance points). Woodclaw, it may seem much but remember that the conditions are met only when the character is not Wounded. But this may need playtesting.

[Michebugio]

A side note on the developement: I liked the idea that the additional Cultural Blessings should each give a situational bonus based on the Favored Attribute score, similarly to how Woodcrafty and Mountain Fighters work.

To differentiate them, however, I based the two additional Blessings not on Wits, but on the other two Attributes (Body for Woodcutters, and Heart for Balthi's Boon), so now we can have Woodmen with different Favored scores (usually, Woodmen players tend to put all their points into Favored Wits - and we're not talking about min-maxers, it's pretty much what every average Woodman player would do).

Woodland Hall Woodmen will thus gravitate more towards Favored Body (also, compensating their low base Body scores, making happier those who think that Woodmen deserved higher Body scores), and Woodman's Town Woodmen will do the same with Heart.

[Hermes Serpent]

Woodmen have Body of 2, 3 or 4 and Heart of 4, 5 or 6 so the benefit of the Woodland Hall Woodcutter option is a maximum of +7 (4+3 Favoured Attribute Bonus) to damage vs. a minimum of 3 (2+1) for the basic Damage Rating. The Woodman Town Balthi's Boon option is a maximum of 9 points of Endurance recovery vs. a minimum of 5 points so a maximum benefit of +4 damage per hit vs. 4 Endurance recovery per prolonged rest (overnight).

I'm a bit lost on your maths, HS.
The net advantage of Woodcutter over a "standard Woodman" is using Favoured Body instead of Base Body for Damage rating, which is actually dealt only on a great or extraordinary success. So it's not +4 damage per hit: it's +1 to +3 damage per great success, or +2 to +6 damage per extraordinary success.

Balthi's Boon is similar. Instead of regaining 2+Heart score Endurance points after a prolonged rest, he regains 2+Favored Heart score, so from a minimum of +1 to a maximum of +3 extra Endurance points per day; and also in the Recovery after each battle (normal: regains Heart score Endurance points; Balthi's Boon: regains Favored Heart score Endurance points). Woodclaw, it may seem much but remember that the conditions are met only when the character is not Wounded. But this may need playtesting.

You are forgetting the various Attribute spreads according to Background.

[aramis]

Maximum attribute is 7.
Maximum favored attribute is 10 for starting characters, 15 for Valor 6 characters.
Maximum difference is 3 for starting characters; 8 for Valor 6 characters.

An extra 3 points of damage per t-rune adds up real fast. Taking gifted repeatedly, it can be an extra 8 points per hit.

[Michebugio]

You are forgetting the various Attribute spreads according to Background.

Ok, but that doesn't actually matter. We're simply comparing the difference between Favored and normal Attribute, whichever the spread may be according to Background. And the difference is always 1 to 3 (or more at higher values of Wisdom).

An extra 3 points of damage per t-rune adds up real fast. Taking gifted repeatedly, it can be an extra 8 points per hit.

Yep, and similarly Woodmen with Woodcrafty can get an extra 8 points to Parry in a forest (so at least 50% of the times in an average campaign). Or Bardings with Fierce Shot can get those extra 8 points with a Great bow. Both of these examples are from the RAW and by the way, we're talking about a player taking Gifted 5 times, which honestly is a VERY rare instance.
I still don't see why Woodcutter should seem "overpowered".