Iron Kingdoms

[Aegis013]

Hello, I'm going to be in an upcoming Iron Kingdoms game soon. It's a system I've never played before and only recently been able to look through the core rules.

If anybody who knows about the system could give me any advice in regards to building a character, or general hints, tips and tricks regarding the system. I'd be much obliged.

I'm thinking I'd like to make something like a melee gish. I'd like to be a melee powerhouse who, if possible, also has useful mechanics outside of combat.

I know we already have a player who is looking to be party support, but I do not know what he'll be doing with it.

I'm not sure which races or careers would suit my purposes best. Any advice would be awesome.

[Airk]

The game is pretty combat focused; Make sure you pick something that sounds like fun in a fight, because you're goign to be doing it a lot. Second, make sure you pick at least one career that actually has some decent skill choices, because "General Skills" are ASS in Iron Kingdoms, and if you want to be able to actually have skill in stuff, it needs to be listed in your career skill list.

Also, if you are looking to magic to make your character useful outside of combat, forget it right now - Iron Kingdoms magic is basically ONLY for fighting. If you want to be useful outside of combat, it has to be from skills, not magic.

Otherwise? It doesn't really matter that much what your race is. Differences in stat caps and the like aren't going to make a serious difference.

[Aegis013]

That's good to know. Any particularly fun combinations you've played or seen in the past?

[Raimun]

You know, I've been thinking about making a melee gish for quite some time by now. It's not the easiest build.

Thing is, if you want to do damage with any kind of attack, as a rule of thumb, you need to be able to get Boosted dice for both attack and damage. That means you should be rolling at least 3 dice for both.

You also need 14 or more ARM.

War Caster/[Melee Class] would be able to function once you have Warcaster Armor and Bonded Weapon.

Of course, you could be a Man-at-arms/Stone Sorcerer Trollkin w/Fullplate and shield and call it day but I've never found that character combo interesting fluffwise.

[Nostri]

In the game a was running previously (it has since collapsed due to OoG interpersonal issues) one of the more interesting characters was a Air Sorcerer/Aristocrat. Didn't meet Raimun's requirements to be an effective melee character obviously but he was still one of the most dangerous characters with a sword in the group. Honestly if you want to be good at social interaction just make sure you have access to one or more of the social skills and you'll be all set.

[Raimun]

Oh, and melee gish with good noncombat options complicated things further.

There are basically two types of character careers in IK: combat and noncombat. From what I've gathered, it's implied that you're supposed pick one of each. I can say from personal experience and observation that picking two combat careers or two noncombat careers makes things difficult outside of battle or in battle, respectively. Basically, combat careers get special abilities that carry them through combat and noncombat careers get all of the non-General Skills.

The way I see it, melee gish needs two combat careers: One "fighter" career for weapon skills and special abilities and one Gifted career for magic. Neither has a good amount on non-General Skills, so the only option seems to be to pick a noncombat career as the third career.

And yes, you really need non-General Skills for out of combat utility. General skills are more limited and magic rarely cuts it.

[shadow_archmagi]

My Iron Fang/Warcaster was all set to be a lot of fun, although the GM cancelled the campaign before it could start. A Bonded Blasting Pike would've been a silly, silly weapon.