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Old 11-21-2011, 06:39 PM   #1
GnomesofZurich
 
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Default [DF] Primer's for Scholars - What skills would you pick?

I'm making a few pre-gen characters for a new player to select from to join my recently started Dungeon Fantasy game.

One of the choices I'm planning on making is the Curator Scholar (DF4) with appropriate Load-Outs from DF13. What skills would you select for the three primers? Keep in mind that these primers are at the base price, which restricts them to common knowledge, in this case a typical mundane skill that defaults to IQ, Will or Per. Any thoughts?
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Old 11-21-2011, 08:07 PM   #2
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Default Re: [DF] Primer's for Scholars - What skills would you pick?

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Originally Posted by GnomesofZurich View Post
One of the choices I'm planning on making is the Curator Scholar (DF4) with appropriate Load-Outs from DF13. What skills would you select for the three primers? Keep in mind that these primers are at the base price, which restricts them to common knowledge, in this case a typical mundane skill that defaults to IQ, Will or Per. Any thoughts?
Probably the best mundane books for a beginning game would be about local/common/well-known monsters (to help in killing them or for knowing what bits of theirs are good for selling or magical use) and local knowledge (to help with rolls for Survival, Naturalist, and Area Knowledge, and maybe also for Heraldry, History, and the like). Depending on your world (and how familiar the PCs are with it), a book on the local religions might be useful as well.
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Old 11-22-2011, 06:30 AM   #3
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Default Re: [DF] Primer's for Scholars - What skills would you pick?

Depends heavily on what the party will be doing and what skill sets they would otherwise lack.
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Old 11-22-2011, 06:58 AM   #4
Peter Knutsen
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Default Re: [DF] Primer's for Scholars - What skills would you pick?

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Originally Posted by Faolyn View Post
Probably the best mundane books for a beginning game would be about local/common/well-known monsters (to help in killing them or for knowing what bits of theirs are good for selling or magical use) and local knowledge (to help with rolls for Survival, Naturalist, and Area Knowledge, and maybe also for Heraldry, History, and the like). Depending on your world (and how familiar the PCs are with it), a book on the local religions might be useful as well.
The way RAW GURPS handles the History skill is not player-friendly. Does DF do it differently? If not, then I'd advise strongly against the Scholar taking a Primer on History, unless the Scholar's player has been clearly advised by the GM to do just that.
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Old 11-22-2011, 08:52 AM   #5
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Default Re: [DF] Primer's for Scholars - What skills would you pick?

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Depends heavily on what the party will be doing and what skill sets they would otherwise lack.
That's the real strength of the Scholar - being able to do this at the last minute, and even mid-adventure if needed. "Oops the thief is out with a broken leg, let's leave him in town to recover while I pick up a nice manual on how to disassemble traps and locks. And borrow his tools. The price of that manual is coming out of your cut, Mr. 'It's totally not a pit trap'..."

In general, the Scholar has the wizards gigantic throbbing intellect - so one route is to "snipe" knowledge skills from other, lower-IQ templates. This can be especially profitable if you keep a set of books in town for item identification and appraisal - Connoisseur specialties, Jeweler, Merchant, etc.

Monster identification skills are definitely useful. Naturalist will be a special help, as the templates that get it are usually high PER not high IQ.
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Old 11-22-2011, 11:54 AM   #6
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Default Re: [DF] Primer's for Scholars - What skills would you pick?

To bad it is mundane, or you could have Hidden Lore.
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Old 11-22-2011, 01:04 PM   #7
Peter Knutsen
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Default Re: [DF] Primer's for Scholars - What skills would you pick?

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To bad it is mundane, or you could have Hidden Lore.
Wouldn't the Scholar want to have most, eventually all, Hidden Lores as regular skills he's free to use as often as he wants to?
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Old 11-22-2011, 07:34 PM   #8
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Default Re: [DF] Primer's for Scholars - What skills would you pick?

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The way RAW GURPS handles the History skill is not player-friendly. Does DF do it differently? If not, then I'd advise strongly against the Scholar taking a Primer on History, unless the Scholar's player has been clearly advised by the GM to do just that.
To me, DF is cinematic enough that it shouldn't matter too much. Instead of just allowing the PCs to draw parallels, which is what the books say, give a bit more useful info, and remember that in a typical fantasy world, the info provided will be more legend and lore (and opinion) than fact, which you can use to help sow plot hooks.
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