Weapon 4

[Angelalex242]

High Elves are the only culture that can start with Weapon 4. Is it worth their while to do this? Personally I'm usually more worried about accumulating AP then an extra die of success in combat, but I've heard other arguments.

[Glorelendil]

High Elves are the only culture that can start with Weapon 4. Is it worth their while to do this? Personally I'm usually more worried about accumulating AP then an extra die of success in combat, but I've heard other arguments.

Do you mean via Shadow Bane?

[Angelalex242]

That's Mirkwood elves.

I'm talking about Rivendell Elves using their 16 XP to boost a weapon skill to 4 outright.

[Glorelendil]

That's Mirkwood elves.

I'm talking about Rivendell Elves using their 16 XP to boost a weapon skill to 4 outright.

Oh, duh. Wasn't reading obviously. Sorry.

[Corvo]

Probably it's more worth if you get an hefty heroic heritage bonus, so that you got great weapon skill AND general skills.

[Morgoth]

Well, we always play that you can spend your initial points to increase wisdom and valour. If that's the case, I would up Wisdom as much as I could (to keep from getting SP).

But if you don't play with those house-rules, I would say weapon 4 is a great deal. It's expensive for High Elves to increase weapons later on, but it's the same price at the start.

[Rocmistro]

Alex:

It really all depends and you have to have a long-term plan when you play High Elves or Dunedain. If you plan on spending a lot of time in Forward/Open stance, you can probably stick with weapon skill (and, because of the XP issues previously noted, I would definitely recommend at least going to weapon skill 3.)

If your build relies on leveraging tengwars for awesome damage output (High Body score of 7 or 8) then yes, i can see it being useful for pushing everything into weapon skill 4 right at the go.

[Angelalex242]

But then there's balance of power between AP opportunity cost vs. XP opportunity cost. I've found in my games XP is easier to come by then AP. Even with the higher cost of High Elves and Dunedain, common skills seem to be harder to raise.

Is this just a function of my GM, or is this common?

[Glorelendil]

You could have Fell Great Bow: 4 as a starting character. Make Called Shots every round.

[Rocmistro]

But then there's balance of power between AP opportunity cost vs. XP opportunity cost. I've found in my games XP is easier to come by then AP. Even with the higher cost of High Elves and Dunedain, common skills seem to be harder to raise.

Is this just a function of my GM, or is this common?

I'm also finding it's very common. It's happened across most of the games I've played in.

From a sheer efficiency standpoint, though, man it is really hard to give up buying those weapon skills at the low-low prices you can pay at character creation, knowing you are going to get mauled later on. That's why I'm saying...it really depends on your build and you need to have a plan going into it.

Are you looking at a specific character concept?