So I’m setting up a Dawnish character, male early 40’s armoured knight type.
I don’t want to get into lineage.
What are the best skills etc an particularly the best resource to take?
I’m joining a group who want half my resource to start with… is this usual?
Thanks
So. On group resource stuff: there’s no 100% standard thing; a lot of groups centralise stuff. If your group hand you potions and stuff you may well end up getting about as much back as you gave them. Not everyone does it that way, though. (And I tend to assume good faith on stuff so if everyone else is all “that’s really weird” maybe trust them. 
)
Resource choice: the classic Dawnish warrior pick is a military unit - very thematically appropriate, and if you don’t have a strong idea of what else you want, I think it beats all the other choices on those grounds.
Skills: think about what weapons you want to fight with. Shields are great, polearms are great, two-handers can do SHATTER which is great. Fighting with a weapon in each hand is… difficult, but if you can do it it can work.
This comes down to what kit you have available, really. You can just go with a one-handed weapon and buckler, but as a frontliner you might want one of the other things.
If you can get hold of a shield or polearm, that’s your first two points spent to be able to use it.
(Important note: whether something is a “polearm” or “two-handed weapon” is all about length - 42-60" for two-handers, 60-84" for polearms - rather than shape. A 72" sword is a polearm as far as the rules care.)
Other skills: Heroic skills are a classic in Dawn, and one of the main ways to up your combat potential. You can get 2 hero points for 1xp, and then add a third for another 2xp (and a fourth for 3xp). All these hero skills cost a point to use; you get your points back overnight, and there are potions to recharge them.
Weapon calls are pretty handy, especially SHATTER if you’re using a weapon between 42" and 60" (and therefore the right size to use the Shattering Blow skill).
Hero skills also allow self-healing. Second Wind gives 3 hits back as long as you still have at least 1 left, so it’s good for staying in and winning fights. Unstoppable gives 1 hit back when you’re on 0, so it’s really good for staying alive if you get dropped and left behind. I thought that meant Second Wind would be more fun for me until I started getting annoyed by my unusually high rate of character death, but that’s a bit beside the point - you can decide for yourself if you’re more interested in winning fights or surviving them.
You can also pick up a bit more of a support role - Get It Together gives an ally 3 hits back, Stay With Me gives an ally on 0 hits one back. I think Stay With Me is a lot better for the simple reason that you know when you need to use it, because your mate is lying on the floor dying. It’s a very good skill for daring rescues, which are exactly the sort of thing the Dawnish like to make their name with!
Onto stuff that isn’t fuelled by hero points!
Endurance is handy for that bit of extra fighting power; it starts looking better than the self-healing if you’re getting healed a lot. Might be worth asking your group - if they have a Physick or some healing magicians it’s really handy, especially if you can get a few more ranks from magical items.
Fortitude helps you not die - a decent way to spend a spare point.
Another way to spend a spare point, but one that requires a bit more confidence with some roleplay and is a bit less fighty: Chirurgeon. This lets you take a character from 0 hits to 1 hit with 30 seconds of Doing Medicine. It’s only 1xp and great for keeping your mates alive (more of those Daring Rescues), but it takes you out of the thick of the fighting for a chunk of time, which may not be what you’re after.
Off the top of my head, a build:
2: Shield Use or Weapon Master
1: Hero Points
2: Another Hero Point
2: Second Wind or Unstoppable
1: Fortitude or Chirurgeon
That’s just one example - another would be Weapon Master (2), 3 hero points (1+2 as above), Shatter and Endurance, making you a touch tougher and able to break an enemy’s defence quite easily.
I can help more specifically if you have any specific thoughts on what you want, especially if you know what weapons you might be using.
Thiiiiiiiis got long. I tend to get quite into it when explaining stuff - not sure if I need to apologise or not.
Shields are also another excuse to have your colours blazoned on them and look super cool:
They’re also a pretty strong combo on the field.
As for groups wanting half your resource, it’s not uncommon. Dawn have a thing where the nobles aren’t supposed to concern themselves with trade so it’ll give you Yeoman decent bank so you can make outrageous demands of them 
.
Shields have another advantage in Dawn, though Mark’s is a very good point .Given the National emphasis on tackling the biggest/most legendary/unpleasant/rarest creatures out there for the Glory and renown a shield can allow you to handle the usually unpleasant calls they throw out much more capably than with a great weapon. Magical shields also tend to have enchantments that improve the staying power for front line combatants, adding either endurance or endurance and fortitude. Some of those are incredibly cheap and or free.
As suggested above Hero skills are hugely useful as well as being Thematic. Second wind wind & unstoppable can also be further reinforced by Golden fire Fire Scale , which allows you to fully heal each time you use second wind or Gryphon Soul Aegis which fully heals you every time you use Unstoppable. Even just buying Hero points allows you to utilize a very broad range of equipment as there are quite a few items that grant skills.
Regarding resources, my group tends to throw pretty much everything in as a default and then request the Seneschals arrange whatever the noble requests in turn. This is not always possible but so far the gilded Peacock feathers are becoming old hat and Gryphon wing feathers might become the new fashion.
As an aside, this is not correct. Gryphonsoul Aegis will fully heal you once per day when you use Unstoppable.
Thanks for all the input - appreciate it!
I’ve got armour and a surcoat on order, planning to embroider or applique Heraldr on that.
I’ve an old round lrp shield, it’s a bit Celtic looking so thinking a cover with device is the way to go.
Im tempted by fleet as a resource, more backstory potential maybe!
Going with shield, endurance and hero stuff
Cheers!
For resources, do check what your group reckons - they might have a particular need for herbs, mana, or something else, which they can then turn into useful things for you.
Nautical Dawnish are the best thing since sliced Grendel. It’s official.
[quote=“MickoftheLakes”]
Im tempted by fleet as a resource, more backstory potential maybe![/quote]
When I asked this question of a few people recently I was told “fleet” was usually the most lucrative/flexible. While such things are of no concern to the nobility, it’s still pretty handy. So it turns out my character won a ship from a League merchant in a wager…
Bear in mind if you are staring as a noble and intending on trading that is rather frowned upon. Obviously pirating is totally okay if you can find somewhere that they civil service still allows you to raid that is
That being said I have seen Dawnish nobles, talk about the trade option for fleets as going on adventures across the sea the ritual Lure of Distant shores being cast definitely helps this interpretation. Presumably a fleet can carry at least one yeoman who can handle the boring trade which actually comes up.
… and there’s nothing to say that the “trade” option in downtime requires the character to be actively engaged in trading anything, any more than the “farm” option implies they’re plowing fields or spending all night lambing…
You can absolutely describe the fleet as actually just being run by your house’s yeomen, with you occasionally saying ‘make it so’ and/or gallivanting around leading a life of high adventure / fighting off sea monsters and pirates.
Yes, that’s patently obvious However the reason I mentioned it is that most people tend to roleplay some form of oversight.
The other aspect of fleets is they tend to give you stuff which without a seneschal it is harder to offload.
There would be significant in game and thematic benefits to you picking MaA right now.
You may not know but it is not difficult to change your resources should you decide to go in a different direction.
Yup if you’re a new character and you realise your initial resource pick was wrong you can just get it changed by talking to GOD or emailing PD. Existing characters can also change basic resources for 2 Crowns. (Changing Resources on the Wiki).
And yeah Military Units also give you a random resource or a share of money from the Imperial Guerdon, a fund split between all military units helping imperial forces set by the Senate. So there’s politics and a way to get involved in the military council side of things there as well.
That’s kind of the idea I had, using it as a sort of royal yacht - making unreasonable demands at no notice to be taken places, or indulge in a bit of freebooting!
[quote=“Jason”]There would be significant in game and thematic benefits to you picking MaA right now.
You may not know but it is not difficult to change your resources should you decide to go in a different direction.[/quote]
Sorry, what’s MaA?
Men at Arms (what many people might call their military unit resource).
As Jason says, now is a great time to be Dawnish with a military unit for plot reasons, but to be honest any resource is pretty cool. You’ll generally find that you’ll have enough stuff to play with that you can afford the occasional shiny potion or equipment as well as some petty cash for spending on drinks/sweets/toasties/bribing children to carry messages for you.
With the statting question, my main advice would be to pick a speciality and stick with it. Opinions will differ of course, but my own is that Empire rewards characters who have a bit of focus in their statting. For example, if you decide to be an utter tank who is just really hard to put down, I would take Grayson’s advice: something like Shield (2), 3 Hero Points (3) and Second Wind is a great build. You have one point spare, so after the first event you could buy a level of Endurance (or have one less Hero Point and take Endurance to start). In Dawn is is quite easy to get hold of Goldenfire Scale (restore all hits when using second Wind). If you want to go offensive, you can do well with Shatter, Weapon Master and a bunch of hero Points. Either build makes you a bit of a monster who can choose a key moment to burn those hero points and save the day, which is surely what it is all about.
Cheers Tim.
Would you say second wind was a better bet than unstoppable?
Having never played this system before I’m trying to find the best design for survival for the first couple of events.
I’m bringing my children along and could well do without trying to explain a dead IC dad!
And please don’t say stay off the battlefields… I know I’m taking a risk, I’d just like it to be a calculated one!