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Starting Skill Question

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Duke Rollo Duke Rollo's picture
Starting Skill Question
My apologies if this has been answered 80 times before. My search skills came up as a botch, I fear... I am making an Isolate. I get +20 to two skills of my choice. I'm also an Ultimate. I get +10 to a skill of my choice. I was raised to believe that unarmed hand to hand combat is a form of art. Making my character. Starting SOM is 15. Add 10 for the Fury morph. Now... based on these criteria, how high can I have a starting Unarmed Combat and what do I pay for it? Do I take a base of 15, add 10 for free from my morph and start buying up from 25? Another 35 CP takes me to 60. Then... what exactly? If I toss on the +20 from being an Isolate does that get me to 80 and I'm DONE/CANNOT spend more CP? Can I instead say, "Okay, I'm at 60. I'm going to spend another 38 CP to get my skill to 80 and THEN add +20 to it and have a starting skill of 99"? Are skill bonuses from background & allegiance ways of getting over 80 or are they just cheaper ways to get UP to 80? If 80 it the absolute highest I can get to no matter what... why do I fail at things I'm supposed to be really good at 20% of the time?
-Duke Rollo
CodeBreaker CodeBreaker's picture
OK, this is the order it goes
OK, this is the order it goes; You buy your starting aptitudes (Ego Aptitudes) You add your Background/Faction You buy your starting skills. These start at Ego Aptitude+Background+Faction. You add everything else, basically. So in your example; Starting SOM of 15. Add +20 from Isolate, +10 from Ultimate. Your Unarmed is now 45 You can now spend CP to raise it higher. You spend it from 45. So raising it to 80 would cost (45->60 = 15CP, 60->80 = 40CP) 55CP. You then apply the +10 bonus from your Fury raising your SOM. You now have an effective Unarmed skill of 90 as long as you are sleeved into your Fury morph. The skill limit of 80 is applied before any modifiers you receive for being sleeved into a particular morph. And success tests are supposed to be used in events for which the chance of failure will invoke repercussions. You don't only have an 80% chance of beating on punching bag for a few hours, that is handled by a simple success. But you do 'only' have an 80% chance of getting a solid enough hit to do damage when swinging at an opponent. Eclipse Phase uses an extremely narrative combat system, supported by a strong backbone of crunch. A single Unarmed combat roll represents a few seconds of fighting, during which multiple jabs/kicks/blocks may occur. So remember that when considering what an 80% chance of success might represent.
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