Combat for Crafters/Gatherers

[Cota Orben]

Hey guys, 

 

So... after doing a lot of deep reflective contemplation, meditating on the meaning of existence and so forth, I've come to a conclusion. I -really- like certain "Artifact" crafting sets. Namely, Leatherworker for my current Miqo'te character. I love the way the set looks, as well as the weapons that are available. So that's going to be my primary RP set.

 

But then I thought... "Wait - Crafters have no Flare, no Holy, no way to really fight outside of swinging their weapons around pell-mell (No matter how much those weapons look like they could be used by Disciples of War - Look at the Carpentry axe from the level 50 quest, for crying out loud. That thing's almost the size of a broadsword). 

 

Granted, that's assuming we go by the crafting as it's shown, not taking into account any chemicals or anything of the sort (chloroform for a Goldsmith, for instance). 

 

But then I got to thinking about scenarios that might arise when slinging big spells might not be prudent. What if someone got the drop on someone else in the middle of a city-state, or a building, or in any other situation where magic would cause more harm than good. In that situation, would it be appropriate to play a character who'd trained with the tools of their trade to the point where they could use them as effective weapons?

 

This is completely leaving aside the crafting skills - because we're obviously not going to encounter people who roleplay as trees or bits of animal skin.

[John Spiegel]

Regardless of your level, a frying pan to the face hurts like hell.

[S'maia Rahz]

Anything can be a dangerous weapon in the hands of someone who knows how to use it as such.

 

And, as John Spiegel said, a frying pan to the face hurts like hell.

 

I'd imagine the same could be said of a botanist's axe, or a smithing hammer (just ask Perrin Aybara, of Wheel of Time fame, how well that can work out ), and so on. Hell, arcanists use a book to fight, and I'd imagine more than a few of us have, in fact, bludgeoned something or someone with it.

[Cota Orben]

Anything can be a dangerous weapon in the hands of someone who knows how to use it as such.

 

And, as John Spiegel said, a frying pan to the face hurts like hell.

 

I'd imagine the same could be said of a botanist's axe, or a smithing hammer (just ask Perrin Aybara, of Wheel of Time fame, how well that can work out ), and so on. Hell, arcanists use a book to fight, and I'd imagine more than a few of us have, in fact, bludgeoned something or someone with it.

 

I love how the two of you summed this up. Now I have this mental image of a Culinarian smashing two brawling magic users, in full Vanya gear no less, over the head with a frying pan and telling them to "Get the f*** out of my tavern!" 

 

Especially since said pan is still probably pretty toasty. Yeowch. 

 

And of course Leatherworkers have awls. So it's like... "I'm going to stab you in the neck with this giant spike. Or make with the flaying. 

 

It's kind of a shame you can't have both your primary and secondary tools on display (Or at least you can't for Goldsmith, not sure about the others)

[Kheni'to]

I'm rather new to everything right now, so I may be missing something. But just because you are a Leatherworker doesn't mean you can't know something like martial arts. My character is all magic, and I will RP him as such, but I also take into account his upbringing in a Miqo'te tribe where learning how to use a bow and basically defend yourself from hostile people or animals was essential.

 

While I am in the process of making my character's wiki, I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't godmoding, so I stated that he knows some BASIC archery and VERY BASIC martial arts, but is not a Pugilist, monk or martial arts master, and is not that good at archery even by non-Miqo'te standards. So no, I wont be turning him suddenly into Legolas during battle, and no I wont have him go all Jet Li in a bar fight, but I wanted to make it clear that if some drunk thug tried to attack him he wouldn't just roll over and die just because the thug gets too close to him. 

 

Sorry if I brought too much of my character into this, I just wanted to use him as an example.

 

Why can't a character be a Leatherworker and know some martial arts or have a steady means of self defense? If you want to know if that is realistic, then look around you in the non-virtual world.

[S'maia Rahz]

I'm rather new to everything right now, so I may be missing something. But just because you are a Leatherworker doesn't mean you can't know something like martial arts. My character is all magic, and I will RP him as such, but I also take into account his upbringing in a Miqo'te tribe where learning how to use a bow and basically defend yourself from hostile people or animals was essential.

 

While I am in the process of making my character's wiki, I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't godmoding, so I stated that he knows some BASIC archery and VERY BASIC martial arts, but is not a Pugilist, monk or martial arts master, and is not that good at archery even by non-Miqo'te standards. So no, I wont be turning him suddenly into Legolas during battle, and no I wont have him go all Jet Li in a bar fight, but I wanted to make it clear that if some drunk thug tried to attack him he wouldn't just roll over and die just because the thug gets too close to him. 

 

Sorry if I brought too much of my character into this, I just wanted to use him as an example.

 

Why can't a character be a Leatherworker and know some martial arts or have a steady means of self defense? If you want to know if that is realistic, then look around you in the non-virtual world.

I followed a very similar premise with S'janna, actually. I figure that, in a small Seeker tribe, each member is expected to have at least a measure of competency in several different skills, such as cooking, hunting (archery!), leatherworking (which I would imagine at the very least includes skinning/tanning hides), and so on. Obviously different characters have different levels of skill- S'janna is only a proficient archer at best- she knows how to put an arrow in a large beast, but would struggle to put one in a human-sized target, for instance. But I definitely do not feel as though characters should feel constrained in their RP by their current (or even non-current) classes.