The Sage’s Answers, Part 8
While the Norse may have believed Thursday to be a day of thunder, today’s The Sage’s Answers provided us with clear enough skies to answer ten questions.
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.
Cody Pondsmith, our line developer, will be answering five to ten questions each time we post. We’re going to shoot for either every weekday or every other weekday, schedules allowing, and when there’s going to be longer breaks, 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.
And on we go!
Douglas Engles asks…
P39: The craftsman’s gear selection mentions Forging tools, but only Crafting tools exist.
Cody answers…
Hey, Douglas! The name of Forging Tools was changed to Crafting Tools late in the process and that reference didn’t get changed. Thanks for catching that!
Douglas Engles asks…
P43: Any 5 combat skills: I haven’t found any definite list of combat skills. Does tactics count? Monster Lore?
Cody answers…
This question refers to the first entry under the Man at Arms Skills list.
There really isn’t a defined list of combat skills. It’s meant to allow you to tailor how your Man At Arms fights. It’s up to the GM’s discretion but I treat combat skills as: Any weapon skill, Dodge/Escape, or Athletics. If your GM allows you, you could make a case for other skills such as Tactics (knowledge of battle), Riding (especially anyone trained as a mounted warrior), or Awareness (battlefield perception, of course) to count as a Combat skill for this purpose. Personally I wouldn’t really consider Monster Lore a combat skill because it doesn’t focus solely on combat and it would be somewhat strange for a soldier to know.
Douglas Engles asks…
P123: To learn a spell you need to make a number of learning rolls against a specified DC. What is a learning roll?
Cody answers…
A Learning roll is a roll using the appropriate magic using skill (Spellcasting, Ritual Crafting, or Hex Weaving). We’ll make a note of that.
Douglas Engles asks…
P151 Box Actions: Cast Magic mentions casting time, this is never mentioned again. Do all non-ritual spells take one action? Is it possible to cast a spell slowly to avoid going over your vigor?
Cody answers…
All non-ritual magic is cast in one action. At the moment, you cannot cast a spell slowly to avoid going over your vigor threshold but something like that may appear in later supplements. For the sake of ease we simplified quite a bit of how magic works for the core book.
Mikel Matthews Jr asks…
I’m curious with how many formula/recipes you start your Witchers off with. It seems like there should be some but making it so they only have a few doesn’t really jive with the training they received, at least from coming from the RPG.
Cody answers…
Hey, Mikel! Witchers start with 5 formulae (2 Potions, 2 oils, and 1 decoction). It is possible for you to start with more if you roll the “Witcher’s Secrets” benefit or “Stolen Knowledge” in Witcher Lifepath. While Geralt collects a lot of formulae in the Video Games they appear to be rarer among other witchers.
Zacaria Chouiter asks…
Can a player use the 1 stamina point for extra attack to instead reload a crossbow?
Cody answers…
Hey, Zacaria! As noted in an earlier answer, we will probably wind up changing the 1 Stamina extra attack to function more as an extra action (casting a spell, reloading a crossbow, or making an attack) with a higher Stamina cost to reflect this. I would say that at a -3 STA you can reload your crossbow, or perform an attack (either physical or spell) at a -3.
Zacaria Chouiter asks…
Do craftmens start with some recipes?
Cody answers…
Craftsmen do not initially start with diagrams/formulae unless they received them from their Lifepath (via the Artisan Family status most likely). They start out with a good amount of money to buy starting recipes, allowing them to customize their focus on diagram/formulae types and the amount they know. A Craftsman, for example, could be be a bowyer focused entirely on making one or two types of bows, or they might be an alchemist with an understanding of multiple potions.
Craftsman also get their preferred choice of crafting tools and 50 crowns of components as part of their stating gear, which allows them to spend more on customizing their formulae loadout.
Warren Davidson asks…
Hi, I can’t find any reference to arm armour, would it be the same as the legs?
Cody answers…
Hey, Warren! Under “Stopping Power (SP)” on Page 78 we mention that Torso Armor covers the arms as well as the torso.
TheDrnjevich asks…
I am having trouble finding a useful way to integrate the tactics skill into gameplay. Did they waste the points?
Cody answers…
Hey, TheDrnjevich! Tactics can actually be a tremendously powerful skill in the right type of campaign. What Tactics allows your players to do is extrapolate the best tactic for going about a combat or guess the tactic an enemy will take. If they roll well they can effectively ask you, “How will the enemy attack us?” or “what would be the best way to siege this castle” or “What units will the enemy bring to the battle.” Effectively, the skill is used to gather information about the enemy in (or more importantly, before) a combat.
Ghoullove asks…
During your character creation, you may gather several bonuses to skills before allocating your skill points (p. 49). While the maximum skill level at creation is 6, the Bonus Skills-Sidebar on p. 23 states that the perks that you gain from your race can raise your skill value above these ceilings. Does this also apply to bonuses gained through Lifepath, or are those just added to your starting value without increasing the maximum at creation?
Cody answers…
Hey, Ghoullove! Bonuses gained in Lifepath do not allow you to go above the 6 point skill cap. Racial bonuses allow you to go above the skill cap of 6 because they signify your race being particularly good at something. Eventually those bonuses allow you to break through the 10 point skill cap because your race is naturally better at that thing. Bonuses in Lifepath instead free up points you might have spent on the Skill in question so you can purchase other Skills (or just a higher rank in the Skill in question) instead.
With those ten questions answered, it is time to rest for the night.
Keep your swords sharp!
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Cody, first of all, i would like to congratulate you guys for this incredible work . Witcher RPG is amazing. Second, i’d like to know if you are going to release a monster sourcebook, since there are a lot missing monsters from the games and novels. Thanks.
I’ll pass your congratulations onto Cody. Thank you! The answer is, yes, there’s plans for a bestiary. We’ll announce more specifics when we have them to announce. We agree, more monsters would be good!