Healers & Gladiators - Sign & Portents #50

[Ichabod]

In all I think the classes in Conan work fine as they are. Choose the right multi-classing, skills and feats, and you can play what you want.

Not that I see much profit in offering it, nevertheless, a forum is theoretically meant to exist to have people throw out opinions that others will disagree with with no useful outcome in sight leading to nonconstructive discussion.

I only see there being three and a half PC classes in Conan as written and assuming some sort of multiactivity campaign. Barbarian, Scholar, and Thief are all quite worth playing. Borderer and Nomad are just junky barbarians. Soldier (still) can't do anything outside of physical combat. Noble has too little stuff and it gets abilities that I have trouble seeing why a PC would want them, e.g. Lead by Example. Temptress gets some rather narrow abilities. Pirate is the one I waffle over. It has internal synergy problems but does get a lot of worthwhile stuff (of course, the barbarian gets some of the same hotness). Probably better to just go with Barbarian/Thief. Certainly not a necessary class but not in the group of "why???".

As NPC classes, I can understand the rest since they can shine in narrow roles. What I'd really prefer to see with Noble is to make nobility a feat tree rather than a class.

Of course, none of this actually matters. RPGs can be tweaked to whatever degree the group has a will for, though it is easier when you don't have to make as many tweaks. I just don't quite get why people think most of the classes are worth playing.

 

[kintire]

Perhaps one might multiclass for a few levels for the healer's abilities and extra skill points?

Its more than a few levels. What I would do is take the healer abilities and add them to the list of things scholars can take instead of spells.

I just don't quite get why people think most of the classes are worth playing.

Because playing styles vary. Conan is not entirely about combat. While he was largely an instinct driven warrior in his early life, by his later career he had added cunning and intrigue to his arsenal. The Black Stranger's major conflict is the battle of wits between the pirates. Shadows in Zamboula has a similar line as a subplot. In fact most of the Conan tales have a strong element of intruige, whether it is matching wits with rivals or trying to control reluctant subordinates. The Temptress and the Noble both shine here, and their abilities are only "narrow" if your campaign doesn't include much intrigue. Soldier is another example. Yes, all they do is fight, but they do that actually rather well. If you are in a martial campaign, that's fine.

And, of course, Conan is quite open about the fact that you are expected to multiclass. Only sorcerers should really single class all the way through. Most other people will cover their class' deficiencies by other classes.

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

Styles do vary. That goes for players and GM's. I think the thing here is you have a set standard to go with. From that standard, as I said above, you have tweaks to make it better work for you.

I do not think anyone is totally happy with an RPG as it is written. We all have our modifications to make it work for us.

Is Conan Playable as it is, YES. Are the core classes playable as they are? YES. Did Mongoose and Vincent leave room for personal flavor? YES.

Non of my players play just one class, they always combine them with others, adding feats to tweak what they want. They are happy and I am happy.

Do I like all the classes, YES, but some fit less than others. But when taking all the options available to building a character, I think it is great.

Nomads and Borderers are variations of the Barbarian, but they are from different cultural aspects. If you just has the Barbarian, what use would he be in a Civilized country like Aquilonia, Stygia, or Khitai.. These classes are needed.

The SOldier is just that a soldier, and all countries boast armies, these are the classes that fight in the armies, more disciplined than bararians.

 

[sgstyrsky]

Its more than a few levels. What I would do is take the healer abilities and add them to the list of things scholars can take instead of spells.

This is a great idea. I wish I had thought of that.

Conan is not entirely about combat. While he was largely an instinct driven warrior in his early life, by his later career he had added cunning and intrigue to his arsenal. The Black Stranger's major conflict is the battle of wits between the pirates. Shadows in Zamboula has a similar line as a subplot. In fact most of the Conan tales have a strong element of intruige, whether it is matching wits with rivals or trying to control reluctant subordinates. The Temptress and the Noble both shine here, and their abilities are only "narrow" if your campaign doesn't include much intrigue. Soldier is another example. Yes, all they do is fight, but they do that actually rather well. If you are in a martial campaign, that's fine.

And, of course, Conan is quite open about the fact that you are expected to multiclass. Only sorcerers should really single class all the way through. Most other people will cover their class' deficiencies by other classes.

This was part of my thinking in developing the Healer class. The Noble and Temptress really aren't "combat" classes, more support and role-playing classes, although with the right feats they can be made into fighting classes. These classes are also probably more suited to an urban-intrigue campaign than a wilderness, plumbing-the-ruins campaign.

Depending on how you want to play the Healer, where the majority of his adventures takes place, etc. will influence the way the character develops and what feats he takes.

A healer-soldier multiclass -- AKA medic -- works.

 

[Clovenhoof]

I kinda missed out on this article in November, so sorry for the thread necromancy.

The general reservations about these two classes and how they are or are not Conan-specific are all fair and true. But I'd also like to look at it from a more generic point of view.

When I see a new class, or new additional rules in general, one of the first questions I ask myself is how they could be abused. Now after just glancing at these two classes for a few minutes, I'd say they are relatively balanced (as compared to the totally overboard Martial Disciple), but there's also room for trouble.

For example, the Gladiator may be balanced in itself, but it can be totally abused by multiclassing. It is a more-than-ideal secondary class for Nobles, Scholars and probably Temptresses -- a single little level in Gladiator allows anyone to attack and defend using their Charisma modifier. So any character whose Cha is higher than his Dex will benefit from this. And with this ability so readily available, those classes can safely just dump Dex, supercharge Cha, gain the resulting added social benefits and become more efficient in hand-to-hand combat.

So much for that. ^^