Category: The Dungeon World Tavern: Base Classes

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.