Experience Points

[Nils_Lindeberg]

Originally Posted by David Bofinger

Two things bother me about Nils' idea:

1. I don't like ruling out unarmoured insane barbarian characters (i.e. making them simply inferior to armoured ones) because unarmoured insane barbarians are fun. But: if you are going to have a system like this:
2. From ST 8 to ST 13/16 or so, increasing ST causes an increase in damage. From ST 16 to ST 25 or so, increasing ST causes an improvement in defence. That feels gamey to me: why would it switch from one to the other? As an alternative, interleave the offensive and defensive benefits. Even if that means some weapons are available at higher ST than they are in canon TFT.

Ok new suggestion:
For Exceptional ST, that is ST above 13. You can chose one of these advantages per extra ST. That way each GM and player can chose their own version of what Great ST should be.

(These are only useful for 1-h fighters):
Shield Wielding*: 1 less shield penalty.
Sword and Board*: Mighty Blow but only with 1-h weapons.
Monkey Grip: Lower ST, 2-handed weapon, can be used in one hand. -1DX for being unwieldy.

At ST above 16 you can chose from this table as well.

(These are useful for all):
Toughness*: +1/2 Armor. Round down.
Ignore Armor*: 1 less armor penalty.
Mighty Blow*: 1 more damage if the weapon is made for it. Otherwise +1/2. Round down.
Great Constitution*: +2 vs. Disease, poison and biology attacks.
Hardy*: +2 vs. Exhaustion and endurance tests.
Broad Shoulders*: 2 Less MA penalty from armor.
Roll with it: 12 damage before knockdown. 8 damage before -2DX.
Long Stride: +2 MA.
Power Jump: Can jump over a 1-hex enemy if they charged him.
Strong Man: Throw big objects, break objects with you hand, etc. -1 die versus such tests. +2 damage with such attacks.
Whirlwind attack: Sweeping Blow in side hexes.
etc.
(* can be chosen multiple times.)

This way both 1-h fighters and 2-handed fighters can benefit from higher ST than 13 and 16 in a way that fits their style.

I could see a similar table for exceptional IQ above 16. With "great feats of IQ" Like Photographic Memory, Exceptional Beauty, Common Sense (GM helps you to play a genius by giving warnings), Back Up Plan (Retcon certain minor things or add things to a story with a flash back), Fast Learner (learn new talents in less time, but same XP requirement) and other similar neutral advantages that doesn't really need to be learned as a talent but shows off exceptional abilities. But the best would be to increase the talents all the way up to 20, just like wizard spells.


Another solution would be to give Great IQ characters some talent points as a bonus. So if you invest in IQ above 14, you get better at some old talents when your IQ increases, and you learn some new talents as well, say 2 bonus talent points per IQ above 14, but you don't get access to any new talents. The balance of this would be that you sacrifice some of your few precious attribute increases instead of just spending XP to get talents. Now you get a compensation for that. Otherwise we will never see a Hero with higher IQ than 14, ever.

Feats of Great DX is not as important since there already are a lot of ways to trade DX around for other advantages. I would like to see a few more though, like better rules for Aimed attacks and maybe some sort of bypassing armor or expertiseless poor man's Shrewd attacks. Otherwise armor stacking might be a problem.