Working with the Arcane Duelist?
So, I just had an Arcane Duelist join my party and I was a bit surprised by the combat power level. In particular, it appeared that a single + INT roll allowed her to deal massive damage to four separate enemies using the Mirage technique. It was a pretty cool sequence, but it felt a little overpowering.
Reading the playbook again, I’m wondering if I applied it correctly. Here is the Arcane Bladework move:
When you attempt to incorporate magic into a melee attack, roll +int.
✴ On a 10+, deal your damage and apply 1 technique.
✴ On a 7-9, deal your damage and apply 1 technique, and your opponent attacks you.
Does this imply that the Duelist can simply roll INT in place of a normal H&S (as we played it in the last session) or does it mean that the Duelist has to roll H&S first, followed by this move to empower it? The latter feels a little bit more balanced to me (and implies that not every attack will have magical empowerment), but it’s unclear to me whether that’s the intention of the playbook as written. I do get that it’s very combat-centric (with a minimum of utility outside combat), but I want to get a sense for how it’s supposed to work before I just start throwing more dangerous battles at them to compensate.
Looks like the roll + INT for Arcane Bladework does not require a H&S roll, as both the 10+ and 7-9 results say “deal your damage”. If the move triggered another move, the results would probably be worded like: “On a 10+, apply 1 technique to your next attack” or something similar.
I am unfamiliar with the Arcane Duelist playbook, other than knowing it’s a third party creation. While there is no balance in Dungeon World, which is fine, I feel that some third party playbooks can be very overpowered or really overshadow other playbooks. If you feel the Arcane Duelist is pulling too much spotlight from the other characters, talk to the player about it.
Hmmm. I sort of want to throw down on this idea as someone trying to turn DW back into D&D, but I’m going to be nice and try to comment on it at face value.
I think I’m wrestling with this phrase “When you attempt to incorporate magic into a melee attack.” To me, that could mean one of two things. a) It could mean layering a spell move on top of a h&s move. In which case I would make the player make all the rolls. Roll to get the spell off, and then say that the spell’s effect doesn’t take place unless there’s a successful attack. More rolls, but you get to do two things at once. (Also, twice the chance for bad shit to happen.) b) It could mean simply narrating some kind of magical effect along with the attack, in which case I would treat it like adding a temporary tag to the weapon – flaming, electrical, etc. And then on a good hit I would narrate how that effect changes the fictional situation – set’s the enemy’s clothes on fire or shocks them so that they lose motor control momentarily and drop shit.
That’s my 2 cents.
Caveat – I haven’t looked at the playbook. The word “technique” sounds loaded to me, like it might appear in the playbook elsewhere and mean something specific. So my advice is in ignorance of what that word specifically means.
Ray Otus The class actually has a list of Techniques that are sorta like Spells, with directly worded mechanical/fictional effects. Some of them are quite powerful, like the Mirage I describe above that says “You create illusions of yourself that strike additional enemies near your target. Illusions deal your damage but do not apply any techniques.”
One reason I’m thinking it might be intended to be used in conjunction with H&S is that the class also has a choice between a bastard sword (with +1 damage) and a rapier (with precise tag.) That choice only seems meaningful if the precise tag comes into play, but if you only ever roll INT, it doesn’t matter what you do with STR/DEX except for Defy Danger rolls. The techniques have no explicit mechanical downsides, so it’s only fictional effects that would ever encourage you to roll something other than Arcane Bladework.
Rolling for H$S and then rolling for this move seems a bit D&D-sque, but, on the other hand, just rolling +INT seems a bit OP.
I guess it depends on damage dice and the techniques available.
Chris Stone-Bush Well, the interesting thing about the Arcane Duelist is that it shows up on the Dungeon World SRD site, which made me think it’s somehow more ‘official’ than some of the other third-party playbooks. The SRD is what I directed my players to for those who don’t own the book.
Here’s a question: If you put this next to a fighter, would the fighter be outclassed?
If so, there’s an issue.
That sounds like another reason to dislike the green-text SRD, on top of the layout and ads. Usually I point people at http://book.dwgazetteer.com/ if they want more than the play kit at the official site.
book.dwgazetteer.com – Dungeon World
Dan Bryant there is no single “SRD site”. The text is freely available and anyone can publish it. The site you’re thinking of tries to sell their own playbooks as part of it.
Interesting. As the precise tag let’s a player roll+DEX for Hack & Slash, but it looks like that Arcane Bladework is roll+INT, the rapier option seems like a waste.
The AD was discussed multiple times and is badly designed.
Check here for example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonWorld/comments/4m843f/arcane_duelist_question/
Andrew Bailey Thanks, I wasn’t aware of that resource. Also, wasn’t aware the ‘SRD’ wasn’t official in some way. I did think it was odd that it had ads, but I just assumed that was to help keep the site available. I think I’ll use the gazetteer link in the future.
I would eliminate the “your opponent attacks you” limitation on the 7-9 of the Mirage move. Open it up to make a regular move. Have those Mirages attack the AD instead. Or others in the party. The larger the effect the larger the fallout should ensue.