Hi! I’m hoping to attend Empire for the first time next year and I’m in the process of putting together my character. I had a couple of questions around offensive/combat skills and when they would be appropriate.
Looking into spells I can see the division between regular and offensive spells, and this all makes sense. I’m planning to play a non-combat character - would it be appropriate to have some offensive spells or are these strictly for the battlefield? The combat skills seem more objectively battle-related, but i suppose the question applies there too!
On a more practical note - and I’m sure this is probably in the wiki but I’m still digging through! - do the same construction/safety rules apply to weapons not intended for use on the battlefield as combat weapons, or do they have different guidelines? I’m strongly considering blood magic and therefore having some kind of dagger/knife to hand, so I just want to make sure I’m going about it properly!
There is nothing stopping you from taking offensive spells or skills despite being non-combat, however you may find that you don’t end up using them. Anvil for the most part is pretty safe, and there are always people around who have combat skills should someone throw down. I can understand taking something just in case though - I’ve considered the same, but never really found the actual need to.
However I will also say new players are allowed to respec completely after their first event, so you can always take something and change it out later. After that, you’ll have the opportunity to respec a single skill after each event, so you can always trade things out if they’re just not working for you!
With regards to weapons, if you intend to use anything in melee then it needs to follow the safety rules - for example, you could have a wooden staff, BUT if you decided to take offensive spells, that staff would have to be larp safe as you hit the other person to cast.
Camping knives are allowed, but you can’t take them on quests/skirmishes/etc., so if you intend to use blood magic outside Anvil (not all encounters are combat-based after all!), you might be better off with a larp safe one. Hope this all helps!
Additionally to Triska’s good answers, a note on spells.
Starting spells are Bond, Open Portal, and Detect Magic. So I suspect you’ll be picking a few more, and Extra Mana, with your character points.
Even the non-offensive spells see a lot of use on the battlefield: Mend, Restore Limb and Heal are particularly popular. Having maybe 1 offensive spell is handy, but is a temptation to lean in and use it (Repel is a classic here).
You can certainly take the field of battle with no combat skills (beyond the basic 2 hit points and single-handed weapon use). You can wander around Anvil with no skills at all, if desired.
If you have some sort of character concept we may be able to make some more precise suggestions.
Re weaponry, a nasty looking little LARP-safe dagger and a vial or two of fake blood (and a few rolls of bandages) are likely safer than carrying around a steel knife, even if only as a prop.
I play a battlemage/healer myself, happy to answer questions on this
Thank you both so much for the advice, it’s all really helpful! My concept is for a Brand who mostly serves by acting as a courier (which will gove me a good excuse to push past the nerves of speaking to people!), but with some primarily healing skills for safety on the journey and to help those in need along the way. I was considering adding in something like Entangle for avoiding pursuit, which feels in character but sounds like it wouldn’t be all that useful at events so the points might be better spent elsewhere.
I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but in the future I think I might want to take the character towards more actively working against the vallorn (potentially becoming a Vate) so I’m trying to make sure I keep that door open with a generally magical focus even if I’m not using the skills often yet.
That’s really useful information about weapons. I was contemplating trying to rig up a bleeding blade out of cardboard/plasticard/polystyrene, but my experience is mostly in bodged-together theatre props so I have limited knowledge on LRP-safe materials! It wouldn’t be intended for combat though, and certainly not the battlefield.
Well, there’s plenty of game going on re the Vallorn these days. It’s definately an area the Navarri would happily have more hands working on
Remember you don’t need to spend all your character points at the start, and get a couple a year. So keeping it simple at first is easily done.
Courier is a role that will likely be appreciated, there’s a LOT of legwork for those with titles and responsibilities on the field. “Take this to X” could keep you very busy…
If you want to take to the battlefield, and have the stamina for it, a reputation as a courier could become a role as a runner: a messenger between the Field Marshal, Generals, Warband leaders…
I would advise against trying to build a weapon with a blood reservoir. It could be done, especially for a non-combat prop, but you might want to have a look at the blades on sale and general styles first. Daggers etc run from £30 to £50 or so, but you may well be able to get one second-hand or even donated by new friends.
Gonna say, don’t write off entangle as “sounds like it’s not useful in field”
The number of times folks have done IC runners in field and you’ve got people yelling to "stop that (insert description here)” and the person running bumbles into implement range is quite high
(However, I play a character who spends a lot of time floating between the Anvil Hospital/Gate area and skirmishes, so take with grain of salt)
This is all such great advice, thank you! I’ll probably steer clear of the reservoir dagger for now in that case and just pick up one that will definitely be safe - I might have to give it a go at some point though, now the build is in my head!
I always forget that I dont have to spend all my points, so I might just hold a few back to fix up on the day. I was considering adding chirugeon in there, but now I’m wondering whether it might make more sense to stack those points into healing magic instead and keep it a bit more focused. Decisions, decisions…
chirugeon is perhaps the single best 1 point spend in the entire game.
The big advantage of it is that as soon as you ‘lay hands’ (actual touch not required) on a patient their bleed time stops, so even if they’re down to only a second or two on that bleed time you can save them.
It also can be used infinitely and without expending resources, and potentially opens you towards later advancing towards picking up Physick and treating traumatic wounds and such if you decide you want to go more into healing. or alternatively/additionally you could go into making potions, including Blade Venoms which are invaluable against the Vallorn that often need to be poisoned before they stay dead…
