help?

hello my name is phil and i am VERY interested in joining "knight realms" i saw the both at VGXPO and it really caught my eye.

i love role playing, having played DnD for a while but wanting more. I will soon be leaving for military service and will only return home for short times so this un-frequent play is what i need.

i really like the monk i think it represents me and the character i want to be. however i am confused on the Build points system.

1.Do you have to spend build points on your race?
it says something like # build points at the top of most race articles. do i pay that

2.How many points do i start with?
in some areas of the website it seems clear but other areas conflict with the starting number

any generial starting tips would be nice

Hi Phil!

It's great to hear you were interested in our booth at VGxpo.  We actually have a few people who go to KR who are in the millitary and only come when they can. 

To answer your questions:

1. You don't need to spend points on a race to BE a race.  How it works is each race gets "Racials" which are their racial benefits/detriments.  You have the starting racials (which are free) and then you can BUY additional racials for build.  There's a list of what racials you can purchase underneath each race list.

2. You start the game with 10 build.  You purchase up to 10 build worth of skills for your first character.  Generally people purchase basic weapon skills (for a monk, "Staff" or "Martial Arts") as their starting out.

Hope this helps, any more questions feel free to ask!

-Wally

i am confusing body points with build points, can someone explain

also ho does Penalized Professions work?

"Penalized Professions
Each character race has a list of professions that can only be acquired by paying an extra build cost. A penalized profession costs fifteen build rather than the usual ten. This additional cost represents that the profession requires mental or physical attributes that are unusual to the race, and therefore learning the profession as that race is a greater challenge than it is for other races.

does this mean i can not start off as a penalized profession?

(i am confusing body points with build points, can someone explain?)

You can only actually start as a profession that is under the "Starting Profession" list for a race.  You can buy into those "Penalized Professions" as a dual class as your character progresses at a rate of 15 build instead of the normal 10.

Body points are how we measure how much damage a character can take before they "Die".  IE: if you have 10 body and get hit for 2 damage 5 times, you are in the starting stage of your death count (You can read more about that in the rule book)

Build points are the points you use to advance your character (Buy body, Buy more skills, Buy more Magic Points etc. etc.).  So when you see a number in parenthisis next to a skill name (IE Critical Attack (2) ) that means it costs 2 build points to learn Critical Attack.  Build is earned by attending events, and also by doing service to the game.

Hope that helps!  Any more questions, feel free to ask!

i am confusing body points with build points, can someone explain

A bit more on Body points and Races: The amount of Body Points (here after: BP) a character starts with is dependant on which race the character is. All High elves for example will start off with the same amount of BP as eachother. All Barbarian characters will start off with the same amount of BP as eachother. But Barbarians and High Elves have diffrent starting values of BP. To increase the amount of BP a character has, the player can spend Build points to up the number of body points. The amount that BP increase is based off of the Character's Profession, so for example a Warrior gets more BP per build spent than a Mage does.

Looks like other people took care of your inquiry faster than I could type!

if i NPC and get up to 15 build points may i start as a penalized profession?


by the way: thanx for all the help, im sure some of theis questions seem stupid

No, you couldn't have it be your only profession if that is what you mean. You must take one of the Starting Professions as the first profession of your character. You can multi class as soon as you like however.

may i start as a commoner until i build up 15 points?

While it is possible to start as a commoner, you would still be bound by taking one of the Starting Professions as your first Profession list. The list restrictions are intended to help support both the state of the In Game world as well as to balance the advantages and disadvantages that are afforded by playing a given race compared to others.

If you don't mind me asking what was the particular combination you were looking at that that the list is Penalized for the Race?

i really want to play a barbarian monk.

what is the best way to do this?

A Warrior Monk, or a plain Monk?  Because a Warrior Monk for Barbarian's is a Penalized Profession (incurring the 15 build instead of the 10) but a normal Monk for Barbarian's is neither a Penalized nor Prohibited Profession so you could dual class into it for the normal 10 build cost.  Unfortunately, Monk isn't a starting profession for Barbarian either. 

As for how to become a Barbarian Monk, maybe start as a Barbarian Druid and dual class into Barbarian Monk?  That might be something to do.

can you tell me more on multi classing?

Before you get too confused, Phil, I should point out that there used to be a Monk profession, but it was removed from the game some time ago since it was too similar to the Scholar profession to be worthwhile.

So, Warrior Monk is what you want, which is I'm sure what you were referring to. Unfortunately, you simply can't start the game as a barbarian warrior monk. The reason is that the warrior monk profession is very particularly a product of Khitanese culture, and barbarians are too far removed geographically and too xenophobic for them to become warrior monks right away. They can eventually learn those ways, but it takes some adaptation for them, and that's what the "penalized" attribute represents.

im really stoked to play!

thanks for all your help


if i have any more questions ill post them

A Warrior Monk, or a plain Monk?  Because a Warrior Monk for Barbarian's is a Penalized Profession (incurring the 15 build instead of the 10) but a normal Monk for Barbarian's is neither a Penalized nor Prohibited Profession so you could dual class into it for the normal 10 build cost.  Unfortunately, Monk isn't a starting profession for Barbarian either. 

As for how to become a Barbarian Monk, maybe start as a Barbarian Druid and dual class into Barbarian Monk?  That might be something to do.

Wasn't the 'Monk' class removed?

Tom,
Read Matt's post.

Yea, I sometimes forget things.  Monks were removed some time ago, I just forgot.

I'd just like to take a time out and remember the good things about Monks.  Like how they could...and they got...and...

Getting rid of them was probably for the best in all reality.

Yea, I sometimes forget things.

I blame the beer.

Yea, I sometimes forget things.

Speaking of which, I have something of yours.  Shall I bring it to December event or mail it out to you?

1. what level do people usually multi-class at?

2. what are some good representations of "fist" to use?

Hey Phil,

What levely ou multiclass is really an oog decision.  Some people multiclass as oon as they have the build and do so right away.  Some people like to wait until they have learned everything they want off their starting list and then multiclass.  some people wait for a good ig reason to multiclass and even let the events of the game give them an idea to multiclass.

As for fists, usually people make boffer "claws/fists".  Not sure of the best way to describe them, someone here might have an image of one though.

Just kidding.  There used to be a rule about using similar kind of large gloves (like martial arts/boxing gloves), but it's been done away with, I believe.  One of the approved marshals can direct you or tell you what is allowed for phys-reps when it comes to Brawling/Martial Arts.

Gloves were indeed done away with.

1. what level do people usually multi-class at?

That totally depends on you! For instance, before I multi-classed I wanted to get certain things out of my starting profession (which happened to be priest), such as skills and prayers (priest spells). Then, I saved up 10 build, and opened up another list. I think I was around level 12? I can't remember. Regardless, It all depends on exactly how you want your character to progress. You could very well save up and immediately open up another profession, but it would leave you with very little build to get skills from either, at least for a while. However, if you have a neat character concept and want to save up your build and open up another profession immediately, go for it!

I hope that helps you out  :)

When to multi-class should totally be an IG decision of your character, honestly  - it should follow the RP of how your character is, who they interact with, and what makes sense for who that character is becoming.  While OOG factors are certainly taken into account, the major impetus - be it getting a skill, learning a list, or even who you associate yourself with while you are in character - should all be InGame, Roleplaying decisions that are appropriate for the character you created.

That being said, there are certainly OOG benefits of waiting to Dual-class until after 10th level- you can look that up in the Rulebook - but its up to you to decide how important that is.  I've seen people that have come into game with one list and in less than 3 events they have picked up another (one person came into game and learned a second list his first event as that character for RP reasons).  Heck, one of my characters had 3 lists before she hit like 13th level, while another character of mine only picked up her second list something like 2 or 3 years after I started playing her (i have no idea what level I was at the time at this point, had to have been at least in her teens).

In the end, its all personal preference. 

In regards to boffer fists, they are basically very simple boffer weapons made to be dagger size, only completely covered in white duct tape rather than any other color, and no hilts or anything like that.  Seeing as how the last real boffer I made was like 6 years ago, thats all the advice I can give, heh.

1. what level do people usually multi-class at?

  I agree the reason to multi-class should be an IG decision... however, from a fun to play attitude and coming from someone who triple-classed as soon as possible, I'm going to give you a heads up.  Early on you get build pretty fast, this lets you make your character into what you want.  It will allow you to get fairly well into one class allowing you to participate more usefully in the combat/magic area of the game.  (All characters are useful, if built well, but there is no doubt you get better with time spent honing your skills)  If you multi-class early, you are taking 10 build (which is like 3 events worth of build) to open up a wider skill base.  This will set your character back about 3 events in seasoning for your main class, and you will be spliting your build (as you see fit) between chasing down two professions.  The major disadvantage is you feel like your character is developing slower than other characters of your season.  All of the priests who have been around as long as I have (Kate's ,Charlie's, Emily's) who had more prayers to learn, finished out their profession a while ago, while I'm still missing a few prayers and skills.  My Alchemy skills are sad when you look at other alchemists who started before me.  And even as I progress in my scholar path with determination, I find Charlie's character and Paul's character at least pacing me, if not outpacing me.  This can be frustrating, but on the other hand, Osred wouldn't be Osred if he wasn't spread so thin... (not that you know Osred, that's my character's name).  While I OOGly sometimes regret my decision to take on Alchemy then, it opened me up to some nice Role-playing, and every once in a while when I have time, I can make some money from it (and it even saved my life more than once), and it's likely I will progress further in Alchemy when I finish up some scholar and priest paths I want to take.

So to some it all up, if you don't mind waiting two years to finally start getting to the top of a profession, then multi-classing with an even spread is fine.  If you are multi-classing because your character has suddenly had an epifany and decides to follow another vocation, leaving his old one behind (for the most part), you will do fine.  If you are someone who gets impatient to be 'that guy' able to do incredible things, then don't multi-class.  However, as Kristen said, your IG will never lead you wrong, follow what your character would do, and that's what classes you should have.  (I nearly took on Warrior Monk, due to some IG issues of a need to protect myself, but IG when faced with the dedication that the order would require of me, my character couldn't promise to live up to it, so I passed on that profession.)  But no matter what you play, it will be fun.

Mike and I took different paths to try to reach the same place.  While he branched into Alchemy for reasons only known to Chronicler :), I did not open a second Profession until I had completed the Priest Profession.  I stuck to my second class (mimicking Mike I took Scholar, as I thought it was a logical step for the rather pedantic priest I play) and am still filling in a few odds and ends, but they are peripheral things.

One thing left unsaid is the desirability of obtaining a trade.  There are so many good reasons, such as one gets to interact with PCs one normally would not, as well as perhaps getting to use a "real life skill" IG.  However from a gaming standpoint, after your first year, the maximum expected build per Event is 3.  Gaining an additional one through the Lifestyle system is both a good opportunity for RP and it increases your base build by 1/3.

I also avoid mentioning the trade system to new players unless they ask about it - its such a system within the greater rules system that I've found it far too often causes brain overload, hehe.