I downloaded that excel spreadsheet that someone very generously posted (thank you) and checked out what I would need for my next circle and practically fell off my chair. So I have to ask, is this for real? And are they final?

Sorry to be late to the party - I admit that I have not been paying as close attention as I should - but it did freak me out a little bit to find out that I'm basically throwing away close to 2000 instrument ranks only to find out I need 60 ranks of appraisal for my next advancement. The 40+ ranks of primary weapon and 50+ ranks of secondary weapon seem out of line but tolerable, I guess. But to have worked for 15 years on all those lore ranks only to have them count for nothing seems a little unreasonable. Can we opt to convert some of them to the new requirements to make the conversion slightly less onerous?

Just wondering.

- Useff

p.s. - I don't hate the new magic system for bards - it's pretty rockin'. But I do feel mildly melancholy about the seemingly complete lack of any kind of "musical" feel to the process. But I trust that will improve over time.

<Everyone's getting grandfathered up to their current circle, so it sounds like you're going to be given a fistful of appraisal and weapon ranks. After that, you shouldn't need more than 5 ranks in any of those (unless you're 150+, in which case you'll need 13).>

Oh happy day. Thanks for that awesome news that I probably should have already read somewhere.

- Useff

>>So the system should generate the new skills first, and then look at grandfathering, right?

That's my understanding of it, yes.

>>And then what happens with Mech Lore? I haven't found a good post explaining this yet.

You can CONVERT ranks into the available craft skills, wait for the new ones to come out, dump it all into your bonus pool, or a mix of all three.

If your mech is an Nth lore skill, it would be wise to remember that because if you split it up into two (or more) crafts, you'll have a lot of catching up to do.

---

The teeth lands a solid (5/23) hit that pokes the teeth into Turul's rear end (more embarrassing than painful!).

>>if I keep my mech ranks, and learn - say alchemy now at the sub 100 learning rate bonus, will I be able to convert my mech into alchemy later to add to these ranks?

Alchemy isn't out as a skill yet, but if it was you'd be able to do this.

Keep in mind that doing so wouldn't really give you that much of an advantage, though. The exp you earn that give you those first 100 ranks don't add up to that much when tacked onto the bits exp you earn to get, say, 200 ranks.

---

The teeth lands a solid (5/23) hit that pokes the teeth into Turul's rear end (more embarrassing than painful!).

> Keep in mind that doing so wouldn't really give you that much of an advantage, though. The exp you earn that give you those first 100 ranks don't add up to that much when tacked onto the bits exp you earn to get, say, 200 ranks.

Actually, the Mech split isn't based on bits. It's closer to a conversion based on time spent, which makes this a better idea.

>>Just to confirm, yes. First new skills like Tactics are calculated; second old skills are combined; third grandfathering occurs; fourth you eventually convert your Mech. Note that you might be using Mech to circle, and if you then split it between two or more skills, you might not meet the circle reqs anymore. You won't be grandfathered again if you do this, so split at your own risk.

Gotcha. And for new skills, nothing is taken from the bonus pool at creation, only grandfathering? So for Bards, our Lore Bonus Pool will have all the extra performing skills, the lower of Scholarship or Teaching, and Animal Lore (RIP dear friend). When anything is grandfathered, it takes from the bonus pool.

I need to pick up a hobby or something. Tactics is no problem, but keeping up Scholarship and Appraisal, or a crafting, will be something new. But I guess I have all that free time that I used to spend playing instruments ...

~~
Lupdels