Post by Allvaldr in New Advanced or Secret Styles (and post your own!)

Viewing post in New Advanced or Secret Styles (and post your own!)

I'm not sure if I'm entirely happy yet with the power balance of this style, but I really wanted this flavour in the game since I've always been disappointed in B/X Staff as a weapon. So here goes:

Staff Master
Type: Advanced
+2 HP, +1 Attack Bonus

Big Stick Energy: This person has mastered the use of the staff. They ignore the Slow quality when wielding a staff. They can use the staff as a Versatile weapon, either as a double weapon (D6/D6 damage); or as a reach weapon (10ft reach, D8 damage).

Suggested learning: A local mercenary called Shad is loudly extolling the virtues of the stick. Alternatively, get their ass kicked by an old man with a stick (he will use subdual damage as he's no killer).

Heavy Pepper Games2 years ago(+1)

Oh this is a good idea! The central idea is something that is probably worth doing with a bunch of the BX weapons-- take an underused weapon and give it something unique in addition to some small stat bonuses.

I like to give the weapon-focused stuff a flavorful kind of "ribbon" too -- like something that is only situationally useful but really sells the style as a unique thing people really want to learn. What if, for example, you could forego attacking to spin the staff and block projectiles, or maybe use it to pole vault? Like if you saw someone using this style and couldn't see what dice they rolled, how much damage they did, etc. what would visually tip you off that they're a staff master?

Thanks for posting that, it's definitely giving me something to chew on!

Allvaldr2 years ago(+1)

Using it for pole vaulting was one of the ideas I also thought about, but the reason I didn't add it is because I didn't want it to interfere too much with the acrobatics style already written. I'm doubting now whether or not that was a good reason though, so perhaps I'll actually add it back in.

I also love the idea of a staff spin to block projectiles though. Right off the bat I can think of 2 ways to implement it. I'm not sure what fits the idea of OSE Stylish better. Would you suggest an action with a x-in-6 chance to successfully block projectiles, or an automatically successful block projectiles that costs 1 MP to use?

Heavy Pepper Games2 years ago (2 edits)

One thing I would implore of people creating their own styles is not to worry about doing something another style already does. You don't know if you'll even use the other one in your campaign after all! That and I think it makes sense for styles to occasionally share features, as different martial traditions will inevitably borrow from each other.

For your other question -- I kinda like both, especially because for a home game you wouldn't be limited by space and so the mechanics don't need to be written "elegantly." Instead of the x-in-6 chance though, I think what I would do is have the player roll an attack and compare their result to the roll of the arrow that was fired. It's not at all simpler or "better" than x-in-6 of course; I just like the flavor of it.

Allvaldr2 years ago

That's some great advise, thanks. Gives me a lot to think about for other styles :)

itch.io

Viewing post in New Advanced or Secret Styles (and post your own!)