Reduced basic speed?
 

Why do so many templates have reduced basic speed down to 6? And why isn't it allowed to swap reduced basic speed out for different disadvantages?


Seems you should be able to swap reduced basic speed for other forms of craziness

Re: Reduced basic speed?
 

I'm not a big fan of reduced characteristics as disadvantages in general. They seem a very poor return compared to proper disads, especially if it's something, like speed/move, that you may very well want to increase later. Then you're at a lower 'total' number of points on top of starting out with less interesting disads. In my games, I would definitely let pc's swap out any reduced stats for other disads.

Re: Reduced basic speed?
 

It's to keep things simple. Fractional Basic Speed isn't worthless, but it's subtle and confusing for people who've never played the game. So the stock templates all have round values, which sometimes means selling off a little (barbarian, druid, holy warrior, knight, thief), sometimes means leaving it alone (cleric, martial artist, swashbuckler), and sometimes means buying it up (bard, scout, wizard). The general rule for which way the cat would jump was "6.00 unless the profession's shtick is being super-fast in a fight (martial artist, scout, swashbuckler), in which case 7.00." Since anyone can raise secondary characteristics with points (Exploits, p. 93), this isn't much of a restriction . . .

Yes, this does reduce the number of points in other disadvantages a character will end up with, but there's still plenty of room to use low-value problems or quirks to refine character personality. I consider that a fair trade for not having "wasted" points in the form of a trailing 0.25, 0.50, or 075, and for not always blowing points to give everybody Basic Speed 7.00 (which is probably a lot more restrictive in its effect on character flexibility).

Re: Reduced basic speed?
 

Also, while a strict reading of the rules doesn't permit swapping out reduced secondary characteristics (because they're not chosen from "a table"), I'd be surprised if any GM complained if a player wanted to do so. There is a subtle difference between "mandatory because it's in the stat block" and "mandatory because the character archetype depends on it"; it's the latter that must remain inviolate.

Re: Reduced basic speed?
 

Incidentally, a number of templates offer increased basic speed +1 or +2, but depending on what else you took, you might really want a fractional bonus, and it's unclear whether you can do that (while remaining within the template; you can obviously do it outside of the template).

Re: Reduced basic speed?
 

Sadly, poor Kalzazz is in my ultra-raw blog game. If this were a game with plot and story and all those good things, I'd be cool with all kinds of things. Since we are running something a bit more... mechanical, I'm going with strict template adherence.

Re: Reduced basic speed?
 

Even in an ultra-strict game, I'd allow adjustment in either direction to reach round Basic Speed values. Most players prefer 6.00, 7.00, 8.00, etc. to, say, 6.75 or 7.25, and I'm okay with fiddling to get there.

(But if you take 6.25 down to 6.00 and your cleric and the zombie horde both have DX 12 and Basic Speed 6.00, you don't get to complain when Team Z rolls higher on the tiebreaker die! I've had players spend 5 points to raise 6.00 to 6.25 just to get the jump on the relatively huge number of monsters at 6.00.)