Major Updates to the Honor Class Mechanic
In an effort to streamline some of the core class mechanics we’re introducing some changes to Honor. We also hope that these updates make Honor classes a little more versatile and enjoyable to play by removing the penalty of a wasted instant when failing to stack a code (which often discouraged mixed Honor classes from using codes at all). As of this post, these updates have been fully incorporated throughout the website, however there is a great deal of interdependency of systems in Realm of Strife so if these changes disrupt or invalidate a skill or other associated rule that we missed, please let us know. We’re aware that not all of the Honor class demo characters have been updated and are working to fix that, thanks for your patience.
Without further pre-amble, here is a summary of the changes to the Honor mechanic:
- Honor is now track on a 20 point scale (ranging from 0-20) and can be treated as a character stat where applicable
- At character creation, the standard starting value for Honor is 5
- Dishonors now kick in when Honor is less than 5 (the previous 10 Dishonors have been condensed down into only 5)
- Oaths and Virtues can only be used when Honor is 5 or greater and have had their minimum Honor requirements adjusted accordingly
- Oaths have had their range adjusted to 0.5 tabletop inches per current Honor (i.e. at 8 honor Oaths radius is 4″)
- Codes can always be used provided Honor is greater than zero
- Stacking a Code is no longer considered an instant (see Code Stacks for more details)
- At the start of each turn, an Honor class may choose to attempt to stack a code of their choice. This requires they take an Honor test, rolling against their current Honor much like they would for a Stat Test. This does not require an instant or action. Success gains 1 Code Stack of their choice, while failure has no penalty. The character must be conscious and in control of their mental faculties in order to stack a code.
- “Virtue of Honor” was almost a non-negotiable choice when honor was low, which really Pidgeon holed Honor classes. The Changes to Stacking a Code have fixed this, but also left “Virtue of Honor” feeling now almost irrelevant. As such it has been reworked for use as backstop against a poor streak of luck when rolling to Stack a Code
- +1 to hit per level for all types of damage and +5 Advantage on Honor tests when rolling to stack a Code; may also use an Instant to auto-stack a Code
- “My Word is my Oath” (Knight Class Passive) has been reworked to provide additional options for instant skills (especially now that most Knights don’t need to spend instants to stack codes)
- Begin each battle with a number of codes pre-stacked equal to current honor divided by 5 (rounded up); Also begin each battle with an additional Oath activated above and beyond your selected Oath or Virtue, as follows: Level 1-5 = 1 extra, Level 6-10 = 2 extra, Level 11-20 = 3 extra; may use an instant to swap out a single Oath or Virtue during battle
- “Tacticians Code” has been removed from the game as it felt out of place as a code (don’t worry though many of its associated skills will likely appear in a future update that will see Disciplines added to the Vigor and Fury class mechanics… tease… tease…)
- “Sacred Quest” has been added as a new code for Knights and Samurai
- Several other Codes have be shuffled around to ensure that each class has three Codes available to it
- Places holders for an additional 2 codes per class have been added, aimed at providing alternative polarity choices (order, balance, chaos) beyond what is typical and will be flushed out in a future update (see the “in development” Codes for more info)
Please note that ongoing balancing of Code Skills will be taking place. Typically, Code Skills were designed to be quite powerful, because they were deemed to have a high degree of investment to activate. Many of the changes made were to reduce this degree of investment which may result in some Code Skills now being drastically overpowered. We are monitoring them and will nerf or buff Code Skills as deemed appropriate. Be sure to check back often as Code Skills may be updated without warning.
We’ve already received a lot of positive feedback on these changes from our play testers and members of the Realm of Strife Patrons Guild, but we’d love to hear your thoughts too!