The Sage’s Answers, Part 4
The Sage’s Answers finishes the week strong! Just to remind everyone, here we’ll be answering questions players and GMs have asked about The Witcher TRPG with the goal of turning them into an errata and updating the book down the line. Today we’re answering ten questions!
Cody Pondsmith, our line developer, will be answering five to ten questions each time we post. We’re going to shoot for either every day or every other day, schedules allowing, and when there’s going to be longer breaks (such as this weekend) we’ll try our best to let you know in advance. We’ll be posting each The Sage’s Answers on our blog, our Facebook, and on the r/WitcherTRPG subreddit. On our blog, I’ll be tagging each entry with “sagesanswers” to make them easy to find.
We will be taking a break for the weekend to regroup and recharge. Look for the next The Sage’s Answers on Monday.
And on we go!
Soliel01001 asks…
If you make a melee attack, your roll must be higher than the enemy’s defensive roll, right? Then why ranged attacks don’t follow the same rule, needing to be equal or higher than the enemy’s roll?
Note: A similar question was asked about skill rolls. Do skill rolls have to greater than the difficulty/opposing roll or do they succeed if they are equal to the difficulty/opposing roll.
Cody answers…
Hey, Soleil01001! That is a mistake. When making a ranged attack you still have to roll greater than the defense of your target. Ties go to the defender. The same is true of skill rolls. Melee attacks, ranged attacks, and skill rolls all have to beat (be higher than) the difficulty number/opposing roll. If they are equal to the difficulty number/opposing roll the attack or skill use attempt has failed.
Alex Chazot asks…
Out of curiosity, why isn’t Toussaint included in the section on The Empire of Nilfgaard?
Cody answers…
Hey, Alex! Toussaint is a very small region of Nilfgaard so in a sky view look at the empire it wouldn’t warrant it’s own section. We are looking at expanding on Toussaint in a further supplement.
Doc1215 asks…
Should a viper school Witcher be given something besides the starting silver and steel swords? Should the replacements be two daggers per sword? Would that mean each dagger would have the 3d6 silver effect? Or should the replacements be arming swords or the like with Witcher techniques in production? If nothing is meant to be given as a replacement the life path option strikes me as a bit inane.
Cody answers…
Hey, Doc1215! We didn’t have a lot of room to put in variant starting gear for different Witcher schools in the core book. I plan on expanding that further in later books but we see in the Viper School Gear quest in Witcher 3 that Vipers still use the two-handed swords of their brothers. The dual wielding of smaller, poisoned blades is used when assassinating humans/Non-humans.
Xil_5 asks…
What are maximum and minimum statistics levels during creating a character? A table suggests that it is 1-13, but random method of determining statistics suggests it is 3-10. What is official version?
Cody answers…
Hey, Xill_5! The Minimum-maximum rolled stat for Non-witchers is 3-10. The Minimum-maximum for Witcher can be 1-12. If you are buying statistics your minimum is 1 and your maximum is 10. You can raise these above 10 with Witcher perks and Lifepath options though.
Xil_5 asks…
Can you have Luck statistic at 0?
Cody answers…
No, you cannot have a permanent Luck Statistic of 0. You generate Luck like all your other stats so it will be somewhere between 1 and 10. That being said, if you use all of your Luck you would temporarily have a Luck of 0.
Xil_5 asks…
Are any maximum statistics and skills values during leveling up your characters?
Cody answers…
You can’t raise a stat value above 10 without mutation or Witcher bonuses. You also cannot raise a Skill value above 10 without racial bonuses.
Xil_5 asks…
Score 7 at Fortune table gives you a tamed animal during game? If so, what statistics should we use for them? For wild dog – dog, and for wolf – warg?
Cody answers…
When you tame a wild dog or a wolf you can use the stats for a Dog on page 310 for Wild Dog and for a Wolf on page 286 for a Wolf.
Xil_5 asks…
For how many people you can find food using DCs of foraging presented in the table?
Cody answers…
Foraging is assumed to be finding enough food for your party. If you have a large party (7 or more players and NPCs) the GM can raise the DC as they feel appropriate.
Hocus Ayala asks…
Being Taught p. 59. Does being taught not require I.P.? *”Your GM decides the length of time; usually lessons give 1-5 I.P. each.”* Each day? Hour? Session?
Cody answers…
Hey, Hocus Ayala! Being taught generates IP for a certain skill. You get 1-5 IP per day, which must be spent on that skill and that skill alone, and you must have a mentor who is ranked better at the skill than you as a teacher.
Philip Burge asks…
I‘ve just been going through the Magic chapter and lots of spells refer to a “magical shield” as a defence. I can‘t find that mentioned anywhere else however. Is thus something missing?
Cody answers…
Hey, Philip! Magical shield is meant to refer to the Dispel Spell, the Heliotrope sign and any other ability that is stated as blocking magic. We’ll be rewriting this part to make just what is meant clear.
And that’s all for today! Remember, no answers on Saturday or Sunday but we will return on Monday.
Keep your blades sharp!
Categories
Hello,
We played our first session yesterday and had a blast with the game. So far no one has died except couple of bandits but who cares about them anyways? 🙂 After the first fight that lasted 6 seconds no one else had even managed to take a turn when our Witcher had already killed all three bandits that he managed to surprise. As an old Cyberpunk player I do appreciate how well the rules have been managed to convert into sword and sorcery format.
We tried to gather points that came up during our game regarding the rules. We also tried to search if these questions had already been answered. So here are some more questions we came across that we could not find answers to:
Is the penalty you get cumulative when making extra attacks? IE. The first extra attack is 3 stamina and a -3 to hit. If I make another is that again 3 stamina and -3 to hit or 3 stamina and -6 to hit or 6 stamina and -6 to hit?
Does monsters damage resistance work against magic?
Do attacks made with magic, ranged weapons or thrown weapons get bonus damage from somewhere like melee gets damage bonus from your body stat?
Can magical attacks crit and can they cause a critical wound?
I think the attack modifier called “Target dodging” should be renamed to Target actively dodging or something similar. We ran into this when opponent was using dodge skill to avoid an attack but the description for this in the combat section does not include the -2 that the attack modifier table has. After a bit of rereading the rules we figured out that this -2 comes from the actively dodging action. To avoid this confusion I think it should be renamed in the modifier table.
Is there a modifier when using ranged attacks or spells and you attack someone who is in melee combat?
Is the SP for tent correct on the cover SP table? It gives as much SP as an wooden wall. I find this a bit silly.
Do you use the size modifier table with anything else but vehicle / mount ramming? And if you do use it then how? For example a small creature gets +2.
So I assume this +2 is for the person who tries to ram them. But if I use this bonus for other things like getting a bonus or a penalty for trying to hit a smaller or bigger target with a regular melee attack then this number makes no sense as it would mean that hitting a smaller target is easier.
What is the correct order when counting damage? First you roll damage and add possible bonus damage. Then you multiply by 2 if it is a strong attack. Then you reduce armor? And then halve the damage with armors damage resistance or by monster resistance if the target has any? And then you use the hit location modifier? And last you add unmodified bonus damage from critical if you managed to score one?
As an example with an arming sword: A roll of 8 + 4 from arming swords base and + 2 from body. Total damage of 14.
Against a human who is hit in the arm and has armor of 5. (14 – 5) / 2 = 4 if we round it down.
And then we add unmodified critical damage if one was scored?
And if we used strong attack it would be (14 x 2 – 5) / 2 = 11 rounded down?
And against a non-human who has no armor: 14 / 2 = 7 from the monster resistance and then additional /2 for hitting the arm down to 3 rounded down?
If the non-human is hit in the head would it be: 14 / 2 = 7 from the resistance and then *3 for hitting the end with and end result of 21?
We’re already planning when to have the second session so we get to continue our adventures.
Thanks again for taking the time reading my comments.
Great questions. I’m going to add some of these to our list for The Sage’s Answers. Others have already been asked and are currently on the list in queue for getting answered. We’re glad your group had fun! Please keep playing!
Hi Talsorian Games,
congrats to “The Witcher RPG”. I´m truly happy, beeing able to dive with my friends into the world of the witcher.
In my opinion the skills physique and endurance have a to little impact. Because when i have a Body 10 value without skillpoints in physique i have the raw strength of the strongest men on this planet like Eddie Hall, Hafthor Bjornson or Brian Shaw and all without a hard training.
With a 10 Body you can probably carry a fair burden. On the other hand, you have a good chance of failing an attempt to kick open a stout door and will likely fail if you try to break out of a pair of manacles with brute strength. Keep in mind, while someone like Letho of Gulet has a Body of 12, his Base when performing any feat of strength is Body (12) + Physique (10) or 22. Put him up against your character with a Base of 10 (Body 10 + Physique 0) and he’ll beat you at the caber toss every single time. As another example, look at the Princess Bride. There’s a point where Fezzik grabs a portcullis and shoves it upwards so it can’t close. That would be a DC 30 Body + Physique check in this game. With a Body 10, you’d have no chance of succeeding at such a feat. With a Body (10) + Physique (10) you at least have a 1 in 10 shot at it if you roll a 10.
And thank you on the congratulations! We’re happy you and your friends are playing. Please continue to do so!
That might be with Letho, but what i see is the raw strength that you can carry 100 kg without becoming encumbered or dead lift 500 kg with a bodyvalue of 10 without any training in physique. Thats the point where i think that physique is a little bit underrepresentet. With a Body of 10 you wouldn´t have to test for a 500 kg deadlift because you can pull it off easy. ^^
It’s up to the GM, of course, but I’d still require a check for any feat of strength beyond simple lifting. Breaking. Smashing. Arm wrestling. Holding down an angry horse. Knocking over a tree to bridge a river. Intimidating someone with a bone crushing handshake. That sort of thing.
Hey R. Tal, been flipping through the book, noticed a couple of things to ask.
First the banal one, page 294, is the pic of the Endrega suppose to be that pixelated?
The other is for Damage Resistance, page 78 states its reduced by half after SP has been applied, but on page 154 it states to reduce by half before armor. Which is the correct ruling?
Oh one more, just to make sure i understand. Page 160 for taking Deadly Critical Damage for 9-10 the Treated section lists taking +2 damage from bleeding permantely. Since your treated i think thats not going to be a issue. Does in fact refer to any Critical damage where bleeding is listed an extra +2 damage is done from there on?
Thank you for your time
Cruel Angel’s Thesis
Hello! Thanks for the questions. The first two we already have on our list. The third is new and I’m adding it. It’ll be answered in our The Sage’s Answer column.
Are there plans to make all of these answers available in one place e.g. a FAQ PDF?
Absolutely. It’ll be eventually compiled into a FAQ/Errata PDF which will be posted in our download section.
Hi guys. I loved the book. It is amazing how easy it is to run a witcher game (im a Pathfinder and RuneQuest GM). I cant find how to valie Bounty score in the monser section.
Is that explanation missing?
If so, is Bounty the amoint of Crowns you will earn once you deliver the heads of the creatures?
This IS on our list of questions to answer. We’ll have an exact answer in our The Sage’s Answers column, but for now, assuming this is the average value you can earn for killing a monster (remembering, witcher’s are monster hunters for hire) is spot on.
So, I don’t know if it’s been discussed already, but I’m assuming there’s an error on the Monster Location table (pg 152), since hitting the right limb (5-7) is easier than hitting the left one (8-9). It’s actually the same chance for the torso (2-4).
I’m using 2-5 for the torso on my game.
I’ll make a note of this. Thanks for pointing it out.
Hey, I have been wondering about this for a while, and one of my players is playing a heavily bow based man at arms,
It says in the combat section that you cannot use fast attacks with a bow to make 2 attacks with no penalty, but the elf race “can draw and string a bow without taking an action”. Does that mean an elf can make fast attacks with a bow?
I looked online and only found someone on reddit saying that an elf can have their bow un-strung, and can string it to use in combat without using an action. Is this true?
An elf can, essentially, draw their weapon without an Action, yes. They can’t make a second attack check per turn that way, though.
Ive been wondering, why is there nothing in the book that makes you roll Monster Lore? In the bestiary section, all the monsters require an Education roll to know trivia about them, which I understand for the bandits, mages, and Scoia’tael archers, but it makes sense to me that you would roll Monster Lore for things like drowners and werewolves and other such monsters. Is this just a copy-paste error or some other thing you guys missed, or is it supposed to be this way?
You would roll Monster Lore for the same information Witchers receive via Witcher training.