Three-fold purpose for this thread:
1) Houserules. Personally I'm not much of a houseruler, but some of you are.
2) 2nd Edition TOR. Some day there will be a 2nd edition. I want these ideas to have time to percolate/gestate/ferment.
3) I just really have fun thinking about this sort of thing, even if it's pointless.
In working on my character creation guide I kept having ideas for how to "fix" virtues and rewards that I don't personally like. Some general principles I'm aiming for are:
- If a Virtue or Reward requires Hope to use, it should also have some kind of passive, mechanical benefit. Or at last be significantly more powerful than a regular attribute invocation.
- Upgradeable Virtues (spending XP to add benefits) are fun and flavorful.
- Virtues and Rewards should not scale inversely to Weapon/Wisdom/Valour increases (I feel less strongly about common skills). Or the decay should be minimized, at least.
I really like how "Small Folk" grants you the Small trait (even if that particular virtue needs no help). It's a simple, elegant way to make some of the virtues slightly better, so I'm copying that model in some of these. And with that....
Bardings
King’s Men: Maybe add the Steadfast trait.
Swordmaster: Add Great Sword to the game. Damage: 8, Edge: 10, Injury: 18, Encumbrance: 4
Woeful Foresight: Both Gandalf and Eye of Sauron are autosuccess on all preliminary rolls.
Spear of King Bladorthin: I’ve defended this item in the past, but let’s face it: nobody takes it. Replace with: Sword of King Bladorthin (long sword): When you are Weary, attacks with this sword only ignore the 1's and 2's on the Success dice; the 3's are still counted.
Beornings
Brother of Bears: Add a trait. Not sure which one.
Night-goer: If you restrict your travel to as many hours as your Wisdom you don't need to spend the Hope. Also, when using Awe on beasts (e.g. wargs) you get free Attribute bonus.
Skin-coat: Sucks to spend a bunch of Endurance and still fail the roll, or realize you would have made the roll anyway. Change to: "When invoking an attribute bonus on a Protection test, you may pay the cost in Endurance (in points equal to your Body rating) instead of Hope."
Dwarves of Erebor
Durin’s Way: add Tunneling trait.
Dwarf-wrought Hauberk: If you’re starting with 3 dice it’s rare that you’re going to miss a protection roll by more than your Body. This might be the ideal place for damage reduction: "When wearing this armor, reduce all damage loss by 1 Endurance."
Elves of Mirkwood
Deadly Archery: My nominee for “worst virtue in the game”. Not only bad math to start with, but scales inversely with skill. New version:
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When outdoors, your bow attacks suffer no penalties from poor light or tree cover. Also, choose either Keen-eyed or Patient as a bonus trait.
During subsequent Fellowship Phases you may, as an undertaking, learn one new skill:
Stinging Arrow (1 XP)
You may spend a point of Hope to double the range of a shot, or to turn a hit into a Pierce.
Patient Hunter (2 XP)
When you make a Prepared Shot, your Injury rating increases by 2. (Rationale: as your bow skill gets higher Prepared Shot becomes less desirable than Called Shot. This gives Prepared Shot a new niche, and helps compensate for the low Injury of Bows.)
Defender of the Wood (1 XP)
During an opening volley, against a surprised adversary add your Heart score to your attack roll.Wood-elf Magic:
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New trait: Fair Folk. The spirit of the Eldar burns brightly in you, even as it fades from the world. You are sensitive to the lingering presence of Elven “magic” (as mortals would call it), and others sense it in you...if you choose to reveal it.
For 1 XP: Elf-lights
(As per description in rules, without Hope cost.) Each Adventure Phase you may use this ability as many times as your Wisdom score.
For 2 XP: Enchanted Slumber
(As per description in rules, and costs 1 point of Hope.)Art of Disappearing: needs a passive benefit, like Elusive trait. And/or maybe “When using Stealth, after rolling a great or extraordinary success you may attempt something otherwise impossible, like picking a troll’s pocket, at a normal TN.”
Brave at a Pinch: I’d add one “free” use: “When you become Weary, you may invoke an Attribute on one action without spending Hope. Resets when you are no longer Weary.”
King’s Blade: Meh. I’m not sure I’d ever spend Hope to get a Pierce with an Injury 14 weapon. Ok, maybe if the rest of my fellowship is unconscious and there’s a single attribute-level 2 goblin left. Add, “The Protection of your target is reduced by 1 die against this attack only.”
Men of the Lake
Bowman of the Guild: weak math, but it’s hard to think of new mechanics that aren’t already used elsewhere. How about something where you spend the point of Hope and it provides a benefit for the duration of the battle?
Water Legs: compared to other feats designed to increase Parry for low-Wits cultures (Swordmaster, Great Strength) this one is weak. You’re spending a virtue to to very occasionally do something that may have no effect. With an opportunity cost. You should be able to invoke this after your opponent’s attack roll. I could even see it increasing preliminary Battle rolls by one success (normal -> great, great -> extraordinary). But I would also want to restrict it to your own bonus dice; no borrowing for this use.
Brazen Armor: it's bad (see post below). Needs a different benefit.
Woodmen
A Hunter’s Resolve: Needs a non-Hope passive, like doubling the benefit you get from somebody else’s Rally Comrades.
Herbal Remedies: needs one more upgrade that doesn't cost Hope.
Bearded Axe: ehhhhh. I’d change it to “...you can trade one of your extra successes to disarm or smash shield.” So that on an Extraordinary Success you at least still get one bonus die. Then again, Woodmen have low body so bonus damage isn’t anything to get excited about.
