Character Questions And Answers
Q) I'm confused on the Proficiency of 'Spell Resistance'. It lists differing types of casting as individual Proficiencies, but Spell Resistance is one, despite the text saying one must take it separately as well to resist different spell types. Please clarify.
A) This is embarrassing, but we ran out of room on the Page to individually list all the different types of Spell Resistance. It will be clarified in future print runs of the book. But for now, know that the rule is as thus: One must indeed take Spell Resistance individually for different classes of magic (Red Wizardry, Candlemagyk, etc.).
Q) In Fantasia it appears that 10th level is the end. At each Experience Level there is a chance to receive additional Skill Points to spend. Is there any other way to get more Skill Points? The Experience system would never produce enough new Points to buy anything. What am I missing? How do you get more Skill Points except by rolling on Table 65? Even if you happened to roll +1 Skill Point every time on that Table you couldn't accumulate enough to buy higher Level Skills.
A) You can save Skill Points between Levels, so those Skills which cost higher amounts one has to plan long-term for and save-up. In terms of role-playing, the higher Skills are ones which simply require a greater devotion of time and wisdom (hence the Experience Levels). Once someone has achieved 10th Level, it is a culmination of their story, the peak of their life so-to-speak. Someone can continue on, but the arc of age will begin to drop, and they will simply not be able to attain greater power. Ideally, this makes for better Character stories. Still, in addition to what one can gain from Levels, there is also your initial Skill Points, plus benefits during Adventures, such as gaining power from magical fountains, passing sacred archways, etc. Fantasia is big on magic that helps develop a Character, both in published Adventures as well as encouraging GMs to write such things into their home-brewed scenarios. But even without Adventure supplement, a Character will average 20-25 Skill Points if they reach 10th Level, which is just about right for acquiring enough Skills to be powerful but not so powerful as to be god-like and make things too easy. It's a game designed for Characters to be more back-to-earth, down in the mud so-to-speak, more like a true medieval world rather than a glamorous one, so the party must work as a team, including which Skills they select, relying on each other for different Skills.
Q) Why doesn't someone get Experience Points for lockpicking?
A) There is no risk involved. Though they are called 'experience' points, that is a bit of a misnomer, as it can imply simply 'having an experience', when what is intended is a 'learning experience' or a 'successful experience'. Of the simplest intentions, indeed those of keeping a game fair and balanced, as there is no risk there can be no reward. A GM may, at his option, perhaps award 50 Experience Points for a successful Lockpicking Check if it is done under circumstances where time is of the essence, such as the party needing to get through a door while a group of Orcs are storming up the passage behind them, or they need to escape a crumbling castle.
Q) Isn't it an XP-loophole with Herbalism Skill to just search for endless days and then with the bonus gain an ungodly amount of Experience Points for the roll?
A) That is indeed a loophole, one that will be removed in future print-runs of the core rules, but for those who have an original copy of the rules, the official solution is that the bonus itself does not affect the Experience Points for the roll.
Q) When rolling Ability Scores, what sided dice do we use? I look at Table 51 and it just makes no sense to me. What does 'roll' mean? If you roll that number? So, do I need like a 100-sided dice or what? Also, I'm not sure how to roll Health Points. What dice do we use for that?
A) For rolling Ability Scores, use 10-sided dice to achieve a range of 1-100 (the first dice rolled is the 10s column, the second dice rolled the 1s column, with double-zeroes equaling '100'), then apply the result to Table 51. For example, a roll of '7' and then '2' would be a '72', and thus an Ability Score of 13. 10-sided dice have changed over the years, and most dice sets now come with two of them, one of which has double-digits to represent a 10s column, so there is less confusion. For Health, roll the dice indicated on Table 52 and then add the number indicated thereon. For example, with humans, roll 1-12, and then add 10 to the result, thus giving one a range of 11-22 Health.
Q) In the Advanced Rulebook, what about living conditions between adventures for exotic households, such as Elves and Dwarves?
A) Referring to table 114, only human or 'Mortal' living conditions are given as a rule, as all others are too variable and stylized to be condensed into a small chart. In the case of Elves, Dwarves and other exotic households, one does not live there except by invitation, and there is little or no commerce as such peoples support themselves, and so it would neither cost nor profit any gold for one to stay there. As for Experience Points or other benefits, these too should not occur, as such realms are 'timeless' in a sense, with healing occurring there and little else. Indeed, Player Characters can live through the Seasons between adventures in exotic households if they are invited, and the time will pass without a care, and when they begin their next adventure they will be fully healed of wounds, plus having regained 1 permanently lost Health or Ability Point for each Season.
Q) Why does one not receive Experience Points for deciphering runes on a Handout? It's certainly time consuming and should merit some sort of reward.
A) Handouts are meant to enhance the role-playing atmosphere, and are not at all necessary for the game to function, so their reward is in their fun, a bonus for the Player but not the Character at all. They have the added benefit of saving the Players time in copying down what the GM says opr reads or what he might have to show them printed on his book's page (while covering up the vital notes as he does so). The deciphering of runes is meant to appeal to the puzzle-solver, the intellectual, but in the end it is just fun and games. Such writing always has only one solution, and thus, while decoding it may take time, there is no chance of failure, and thus there should be no XP award. Perhaps if the GM imposed a time-limit for deciphering some runes then an XP award would be appropriate. Ultimately, Players should be thankful that they have a chance to decipher things at all, for they only have to if their Character doesn't know the language to begin with, and if the Characters can't read something, they shouldn't mysteriously understand it for some other reason anyway.
Q) When a Character ages into a new age bracket, does he simply add the new Ability Score modifiers or does he discard the old ones?
A) Both, actually. When one moves into a new Age Category, the modifiers for the previous one are reversed, and then the modifiers for the new ones are applied. Aging is tough on us all.
Q) Can fighters train, indeed pool Skill Points, when they are first created?
A) They can indeed! This is actually one of the best ways to make this option work, and it lends a lot to the storyline, telling how and who a Character trained under. However, anyone he is sharing Skill Points with must also be created at that time, and they must somehow know each other, thus placing a requirement on the Character's background, for otherwise they have not yet met or been introduced, and thus could not have trained together.
Q) How come Elves and Halfmen have such low Health?
A) This is something that was long debated when designing the game. The main reason that demi-humans have such seemingly low Health Scores is because Mortal Men must be physically tougher by comparison. However, raising human Health would only follow the lamentable path that many another game did, with Characters becoming too powerful, able to withstand ridiculous amounts of hits. On that note, Elves and Halfmen especially may, with their low Health, seem like 'one hit wonders', slain by any weapon with a single blow, however it is not that their Health is low at all, but that medieval-style weapons are designed to kill with one blow! If Characters had higher Health Scores, then the weapons would simply need to do more damage, as warlords and weaponsmiths are not going to settle for 'daggers of sponginess', but the 'problem' would remain. Just take comfort that Men and Dwarves have any chance at all to take an extra blow or two, and also keep in mind that one is always getting scathed and scraped in battle with the abstract rolls, but actual Health loss is from being directly hit. In Fantasia, one must think like a real adventurer, fearing to be hit killed and basing his strategy on avoiding blows rather than making calculated sacrifices of arbitrary 'hit points'. And also remember, Health is proportional to one's physical strength, and so Elves and Halfmen have low Scores because they are not 'made for fighting'. Dramatically, Dwarves are tough, Halfmen die when cut down, and Elves just vanish.
