Weakest Link Profession?

[Sir Brad]

So in your opinion from experience from actual play what is the profession is the weakest link in Party games?

I've found it's the Mystic, but only because I've had minimal contact with the Elementilist Profession. Why is this? their first rank spells offer nothing to team play (but do prevent them from dragging the group down) and provide little opportunity to cease XP (like Dragon Breath always good for a cut of Big Mob XP), they have no advanced combat abilities to help out in the Biffo and donning Heavy or Magical Armour is counter productive. At 2nd Rank Might and Dazzle help out a bit, but by the time they get to 2nd Rank the other party members have bean and gone on to higher ranks, they just cant keep up when it comes to acquiring XP unless they are Physically Exceptional in a group of mediocre to just above average Warriors.

Case in point I'm running a campaign with five PC's at the moment, so far I've run five adventures and most of the PC's are close to Rank Five where the Mystic is about a third of his way through Rank Two. now the Character makes himself a most useful mammal outside of combat where he can, but just can't score hits on Big Mobs (the Sorceress at least has Dragon Breath and of late Inflict Wound, Tangleroots ect. to contribute to bring down Big Mobs) and when it comes to Sword Fodder he racks up a modest Kill Count but the Warriors (Knight Assassin & Warlock) end up cutting in to his shear of the small mobs once their done with their own. all this as I've said has seen the Mystic fall way behind the other party members having about half the XP the rest have. I'll tell you now the Mystic is not shy when it comes to Combat, He just doesn't have the Skills to take on much more than Sword Fodder and doesn't have the Spells to "Bring the Noise" when facing Big Mobs so he misses out on most of the Combat XP.

To counter this the Mystic is one of the Best Solo Characters.

 

[Jiminy]

That sounds strange - surely a Mystic shouldn't be lagging behind that badly? Do you award XP equally to all combat participants or only for the final lethal blow?

 

[Sir Brad]

to every one in on the Kill, you have to score a hit or contribute in some other meaningful manner to the Kill, the Mystic just can't.

and I botched the level count a bit the rest of the party is only about half way to fifth, not almost there, but the XP gap is still big.

I'm going to re-cut EC for my next campaign arc, that should get most of the party to fifth then it's on to original adventures leading up to the Abalon Civil War.

 

[bulya]

to every one in on the Kill, you have to score a hit or contribute in some other meaningful manner to the Kill, the Mystic just can't.

and I botched the level count a bit the rest of the party is only about half way to fifth, not almost there, but the XP gap is still big.

I'm going to re-cut EC for my next campaign arc, that should get most of the party to fifth then it's on to original adventures leading up to the Abalon Civil War.

Hmmm, doesn't tally with my experience but your PCs do sound like their hitting a lot of infantry-type 'battle scenes' where as most of my PCs have been more into looting and shooting guerilla warfare.

Mystics are SAS they can move silently, track uneeringly, shoot you between the eyes in pitch darkness and don't stop to eat, shit or sleep.

Mystics with bows become death at later levels.

 

[Sir Brad]

My problem is getting him there, so far we've done "King under the Forest" "Shadow on the Mist" "Hunter's Moon" and a couple of Home Brews, If it's Third Rank or above and not Un-dead he can't hit it, hence him missing out on a cut of the Big Mob XP. at least he has Invigorate so he's not sucking up MP from the Sorceress when he gets stomped by the Big Mobs.

 

[bulya]

My problem is getting him there, so far we've done "King under the Forest" "Shadow on the Mist" "Hunter's Moon" and a couple of Home Brews, If it's Third Rank or above and not Un-dead he can't hit it, hence him missing out on a cut of the Big Mob XP. at least he has Invigorate so he's not sucking up MP from the Sorceress when he gets stomped by the Big Mobs.

Awarding XP for non combat activities?

Mystics are excellent at detecting/avoiding/knowing type actions.

What spells does he have at the moment? My books are in a box which is not handy at the mo.

 

[Sir Brad]

Since He's only Rank 2 and I'm working from Classic ATM Invigorate, Mirage, See Enchantment, Suspended Animation from Rank 1, Dark Sight, Dazzle, Might and Pursuit from Rank 2.

The Assassin pulls Point so 6th & 7th Scene go to waste most of the time.

even with Bonus XP of one or two per adventure is still laging, it's not that the Character isn't useful, it's just he can't score XP at the same rate as the other PC's. Every game he is the worst or 2nd worst XP scorer and when he under proforms it's by a wide margin, his best total is 14 that he got in "King under the Forest", sure most of the other players have scored 10 or 11 XP in a game but every other game they have got at least 15 (except in Hunters Moon where everyone scored low). The Mystic will be no end of useful in "One Eyed God" If he can brake 3rd when I do a Mod of "The Elven Crystals".


But what profession do other folks find has problems pulling it's own weight or gaining XP in their Group games.

 

[bulya]

Since He's only Rank 2 and I'm working from Classic ATM Invigorate, Mirage, See Enchantment, Suspended Animation from Rank 1, Dark Sight, Dazzle, Might and Pursuit from Rank 2.

The Assassin pulls Point so 6th & 7th Scene go to waste most of the time.

even with Bonus XP of one or two per adventure is still laging, it's not that the Character isn't useful, it's just he can't score XP at the same rate as the other PC's. Every game he is the worst or 2nd worst XP scorer and when he under proforms it's by a wide margin, his best total is 14 that he got in "King under the Forest", sure most of the other players have scored 10 or 11 XP in a game but every other game they have got at least 15 (except in Hunters Moon where everyone scored low). The Mystic will be no end of useful in "One Eyed God" If he can brake 3rd when I do a Mod of "The Elven Crystals".


But what profession do other folks find has problems pulling it's own weight or gaining XP in their Group games.

Ah, you have an Assasin......kinda takes the wind out of Darksight, Dazzle, Suspended Animation and Pursuit( Though fun, Sir Gawain, Bjorn and Fawad shook their heads sadly, ' The rain has washed away the tracks. We've lost them.....'. Beltram yawned and pointed lazily off to the east. 'They went that way.')

See enchantment is very useful for powering up quicker than others........he 'just happens' to always find the magical items.

Don't underestimate Mirages use in combat set ups or to distract enemies.

Might boosts his ATT to decent levels.

Mystics are just a lot more useful in detection, stealth and survival than they are in combat generally.


I haven't really run into any myself, Elementalists used to have that problem at lower levels but are now big guns with Raw Power and at high level they have always been very nasty.

 

[Jiminy]

Aha - it's a classic case of the infamous 'Assassin Problem'!

BTW: in case anybody doesn't know, Wayne Imlach has created some nifty replacement rules for Elementalist Raw Power that tones it down & brings it into line with other professions. If you're not on the Wiki, then you can see the rules - with an amusing example of why it needs toning down - on the DragWars Group (see link below).

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/dragwars/message/5215