No magic Scholar?

[Vortigern]

Step 4: wake up from a week-long drunken haze, poor, naked, with a few women that you don't even know their names and a half-empty keg of cheap wine.

Step 5: go back adventuring.

Step 4 in this scenario assumes a great deal about the character that... shouldn't be.

 

[Lord High Munchkin]

Arrgh, how did you know about my Step 4!?!

Were you there?

p.s. it was gin.

 

[valentinoharrison]

Hi all. In my humble opion. The scholar class can be played quite effectively within the confines of unmodified 2E rules. The exact wording in the core rule book states that instead of taking an advanced spell the scholar can take two "skill points". I interpreted that to mean a misc mod that can be aplied to any skill whenever the player's elligble.

A player of mine, who's scholar is now at fifth level, took this path to great affect. (much to my chagrin sometimes). By 5th level he'd accumilated 8 of these arbitrary +2s wich he liberally applied to Spot and Alchemy. In addition its almost imposible for NPCs to lie to him, bluff him, feint in combat or get away with anything requring a will save on his part.

His cahracter (a Plsehtim Shemite named Abbadon) in effect knows something about everything and is quite capable of keeping himself extremely well armed with various Alchemical and sometimes herbal weapons. THe system for creating these is such that unless you have a total modifier of 15 or so its not even worth trying to manufacture poison or alchemical items. Keep in mind that since he's never taken a sorcery style or spell his bonus to create Kothic Demon fire, flame powder etc is something like 20. Theres no save against flame powder since it doesnt need to be aimed and can only be used in adjacent squares, and it has a decent chance of setting an opponent ablaze. Additionally since alchemy is basically science, the ingredients are readily available so he can can make flame powder at a rate of something like 9 a week just by "taking 10" (DC 15 x result of 30 = 450sp). A few doses of Tomb dust and 1 or two Kothic or Archeronian Demon fires round out his arsenal. Hes not above using herbal concotions whenever he can get his hands on the ingredients and has time to make them. Since he can manufacture relatively pricey items he usually supplies the bulk of the groups money.

The only thing I wound up doing outside the rules is I requiring that he spend a feat on something I made up that allows him to half the cost of alchemical and herbal concotions only as it applies to manufacturing, which greatly cuts down on his creation time. I did it not becuase he needed the help (he needs not a finger of help when it comes to getting into and out of what I thought were seemingly impossible situations) but to save myself the headache of having to come up with something on the fly since the rest of his group tended to wander off durring the weeks he's in the lab.

Additionally he can move stealthily, hide , climb, lie, cheat and steal etc with the best of them. He's like a sword and sorcery version of Batman or something. I've never been so frustrated or had so much fun GMing a charachter.

This is my first post. Sorry if I'm resurecting a dead thread.

 

[Azgulor]

You can certainly rule it however you wish, however, I believe that if the text says "+2 skill points" it's referring to actual skill points, i.e. ranks in skills of the players choice. If it read "+2 bonus to any skill" it would be a generic bonus.

I don't have my books handy at the moment to check the text but that's how I'd rule it. Otherwise, you're leveling a potentially ever-increasing bonus to any skill. You've suggested it's been somewhat problematic and I can see why.

Although in the end, it's your game so if it's working for you and your group have fun!

 

[Jeffreywns]

Welcome to the forums valentinoharrison! That's a great take on the scholar. I too have brought in an "alchemist/charlatan" who acted as a "wizard". Sounds like you have a fun group and enjoy the refreshing change of a scholar class alternative.
Hope you and your friends get as many years of pleasure from the Conan RPG and its possibilities as I and my friends have.
Looking forward to seeing more of your groups exploits and ideas.

 

[Krushnak]

the extra 2 skill points are the same as those gained from a level in a class. so when choosing this option he would have 10 + int skill points instead of the usual 8 + int.

 

[valentinoharrison]

Thanks everyone. Well Azgulor, I could definitely understand that, however the text is pretty good about saying ranks when it means ranks and "bonus" or "circumstance" which is probably the source of my confusion. (what are these mysterious "points".....hmmm). I actually think Krushnak is completely right on this one. As much as I hate to bend rules I guess I'm glad I did becuase truth be told that definitely takes quite a bit away from the scholar class. I mean its not like theres a skill that directly affects damage output or makes money out of thin air.

I'm sure you'd agree that a scholar who's made a demonic pact is way more "problematic". The basic defensive blast (master aid me) is capapble of clearing up more or less any trouble the PCs could find themselves in and dont even get me started on gelid bones with ritual sacrifice and hexer (Crom save us if he has Raise Corpse). I've seen a scholar nearly become unstopable since he was generating way more power points then he was spending and quickly had more than enough fuel for his higer cost spells. Also through the nature school a sorccerer could keep themselves in black lotus more or less indefinitely and have up to two animals fighting for them. The worst thing Abbadon is capable of doing is finding moderately dificult tasks and taking 10 on them.

I guess I'd like to see something along the lines of an expanded list of feats that are optional to Advanced Spells. Maybe it could just be as simple as alowing the feat "Skill Focus" to stack or even having a feat called "Greater Skill Focus" that would use "Skill Focus" and the Characters class and level as prerequisites.

 

[groshnik]

Non-Magic Scholars are weak in comparison.

Thus Sorcery becomes all the more tempting....perfect fit into Howard's world of corruption


I play a Khitai Scholar, no magic. Some unarmed fighting, Herbalism and social skills. Plus he stays drunk most of the time (Drunken master style). Can't wait for 5th and Carouser!

Will he pick up Sorcery? Depends on the roleplaying. I'm not out to be balanced with the Soldiers or Nobles. I just want to have fun playing the game.

Should there be more given for passed-over spells? Probably. But if I balance myself with a Sorcerer, then take a style later, am I more powerful now?

Great topic for discussion!

 

[PrinceYyrkoon]

A scholar without sorcery styles is a bit vanilla, yup, but whats the problem there? You want to dissuade PCs from learning ancient secrets without being corrupted by it, surely?

A good option which someone else mentioned is a scholar (no sorcery), multiclassed with Temptress/Tempter, avoiding a particular slant.

Anyway, I would assume that research inevitably leads to the dark arts int the Hyborian Age. Knowledge is power, after all. A PC could be reluctant to use his power, leads to some good roleplaying opportunities.

 

[rabindranath72]

I quite like the idea of a non-spellcasting Scholar. For my class-less d20 Conan variant a scholar is simply a character who devotes most of his skills and feats to knowledge. Every character can learn spells without any feats, as long as he is able to study from tomes, but at the cost of Corruption and insanity. Dedicated sorcerers are those characters who acquire the Sorcerer feat (which gives improved Magic Attack Roll and bonus Power Points). In this way, all character types are basically "balanced"; what the player chooses to do makes the difference.