Iron Lore: Malhavoc's Surprise?

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I have to say that I rarely interpret intelligence so broadly. I mostly consider it a memory thing.

So my stupid but charismatic types are intelligent, there's just big wholes in their intelligence. Brilliant at cleaning up well, fantastic at responding to people, perfectly expressive, and with a fine force of will they nonetheless constantly forget names, have a tragically short attention span, and remain, for lack of a better word, dense despite their charm.

Given the high stats in IH I'm thinking I may, at least in my own head, come up with a hard attribute and a soft attribute for each ability score and then let each character I play have one determined by the score and the other determined by some set of inferior stats or just my idea of the character.

Though I wouldn't deny that there's a strong challenge to playing a superior being like Conan as well.

 

[A'koss]

Latest Iron Heroes updates...

Art Preview: http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?mpress_IL_art

Skill Groups: http://www.montecook.com/cgi-bin/page.cgi?mpress_IL_excerpt6


The art is okay, essentially what we've come to expect from a Malhavoc book. Curiously, they seemed to have used just one artist for the whole book. And as far as the skill groups go, it's interesting to see that the Man-at-Arms actually gets to choose any 3 skill groups to have access in. It might be that the MaA is a more flexible class than we had first thought. The Thief gets access to a whole pile of SGs but strangely not the Perception group. Hmmm...

Cheers!

A'koss.

 

[Andor]

I find the Arcanists skill groups very interesting. He should be a very valuable party member even without spells.

 

[A'koss]

I find the Arcanists skill groups very interesting. He should be a very valuable party member even without spells.

We've heard a few tidbits already suggesting that the arcanist will have use outside of spellcasting...

"Even without his spells, his keen mind and extensive lore allow him to outthink his foes."

"That’s not to say that arcanists are useless characters. They draw on other talents to even the gap with other classes. They master a variety of useful lore and knowledge, and having a reputation for consulting with spirits or unleashing the fires of hell can prove useful in social situations. Much of the time, an arcanist can use the threat of a spell more effectively than an actual incantation."

Cheers!

 

[Kage Tenjin]

Anyone else thinking that the first time we see the Arcanist is going to be on the inside of the book? It seems like that's the one class we really know the least about. The rest of the class we have had some clues or inferences, but we really don't know what the Arcanist is going to be like.

Can't wait to have this book in my hands.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

I'm wondering if the lack of a perception group might indicate that search is less necessary as a predicate to trap disarming, but it's hard to say as it was certainly mentioned in conjunction with disarm in the last skill preview. I'd expect that my houserule would simply be that the Robbery group includes search.

Or it may just be that a thief just has to accept that he's got some limitations on skills.

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I have to say that I rarely interpret intelligence so broadly. I mostly consider it a memory thing.

Even so, that accounts for most of rational thought. A classically intelligent person has high wisdom for perception and intuition (which is sometimes a proxy for association), and high intelligence (which is needed to bring to bear all the variables to associate).

D&D's separation makes more sense than some divisions I've seen, but it's still artificial.

 

[TwinBahamut]

I'm wondering if the lack of a perception group might indicate that search is less necessary as a predicate to trap disarming, but it's hard to say as it was certainly mentioned in conjunction with disarm in the last skill preview. I'd expect that my houserule would simply be that the Robbery group includes search.

Or it may just be that a thief just has to accept that he's got some limitations on skills.

Remember, thieves and everyone else for that matter can buy search ranks just as easily as a rogue can in D&D. What is more, Mr. Mearls has already stated that anyone, not just thieves can find and disarm traps, because he wanted to avoid the D&D condition of "requiring" specific classes.

So I wouldn't describe this as a "limitation" on skills exactly...

Overall, I think I am pretty pleased with this system.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Even so, that accounts for most of rational thought. A classically intelligent person has high wisdom for perception and intuition (which is sometimes a proxy for association), and high intelligence (which is needed to bring to bear all the variables to associate).

D&D's separation makes more sense than some divisions I've seen, but it's still artificial.

Well, but by that same token why assume that someone with a low 'intelligence' and high charisma has no ability make witty conversation?

I agree that the classical idea of intelligence isn't represented by the actual rating in DnD intelligence so much as by the sum of all three ratings, but I might disagree with you that the actual high intelligence score represents the variable that brings them all together, I'd argue it's simply one variable among three.

 

[Talath]

I haven't posted in a while (here or anywhere else on these boards), but after seeing the rules for Skill Groups, I had to say something.

Genius. Freaking genius.

I wish this could be the way they did it in 3rd Edition. Diverse, yet rewarding for specializing in your area of expertise. I love it, and will be implementing it in all of my future games. Mike Mearls, you are a freaking genius.

After seeing everything so far, I'm just going to pre-order this book asap, and I never pre-order books (the last time I did was when the 3rd edition core books came out in 2000).