Topic: Mentalist as a fighter?

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

Wow that is one strict interpretation of the rules. But you're right, its RAW.

It's never strict, nor an interpretation: it's how the skill works.

They might have included it because they have a system of similar skills, where you can get some ranks in skills in the same category.

Or mayhap since they removed the "special skills" category in RoCo II, they had to fit "adrenal defense" somewhere. It's similar to other former special skills, such as ambush (now in deadly) or language (now in linguistics), for which level bonus don't apply either (well, there's an option to still make it relevant, but even then, it's not being applied the same way it for all other skills, so the point stands).

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

I definitely think weapons are the way to go rather than Martial Arts for offense. The fact that martial arts have 4 ranks means that martial arts will almost always be much more expensive (if you buy all four ranks) or less damaging (if you only buy 1 or 2 ranks) than a weapon. For 6 development points, you can buy a melee weapon, or 2 ranks in martial arts; the melee weapon will be much more damaging in general.

I think it depends more on whether the OP goes for short or long term. At short term, melee weapon is probably better. At long term, however, martial arts give two martial weapons, in addition to the dagger and the staff, that inflicts as much damage as the weapon used in melee, with an additional martial art critical, bonus in initiative and ability to strike several times in a round, possibly more than one opponent. Since buying all four martial art ranks has an equal cost to buying two weapons (not to mention both weapons have to be of the same type, whereas the two martial weapons do NOT have to), investing in the martial arts is way better.
Combined with adrenal strength, whose cost is pretty low for a Mentalist and that doesn't need to be bought too much (since a roll over 100 is enough, with the +3 per level bonus, at level 10, a Mentalist can have +80 +stat, which should suffice), and leather armor, such a Mentalist may be quite an asset in melee. Of course, not to teh level of a pure fighter, but then, it is their job!

[Duette-1]

Re front line fighters

I don't really see a mentalist as a front line fighter either tbh peter. More as a troller/fighter.
Re MA/weapons. I'm tempted to follow your reasoning Olf. My thoughts were to build up to rank3 up to lvl 10 to save DP then focus on lvl 4 once the declining returns for other skills and redundancy of armour kicks in. Very much depends on GMs view on kata of course.
An alternative might be to mix up with weapon and low level sweeps.

[Spectre771]

With regards to MA ranks, the cost can be very restrictive, but developing up to Rank 2 produces nice results with decent crits.  We're not looking at high damage level at Rank 2, but the crits are nice and I've found the MA attack tables are far better than the Brawling, Armoured Fist tables.

There are also Wrestling and Tackling as skills, but those also have Ranks 1-4 to develop.  The trade off is HP vs. Crits when looking across the armour ranges.

Weapon kata, if the GM allows, gives nice attack rounds.

I also agree with O.L.F., short term the weapon is probably better because 1 or 2 ranks in Rank 1 MA isn't going to produce much vs. maybe open ending with a dagger or mace.  Open end on a MA Rank 1 MA attack and you do pathetic damage.

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

I'm tempted to follow your reasoning Olf. My thoughts were to build up to rank3 up to lvl 10 to save DP then focus on lvl 4 once the declining returns for other skills and redundancy of armour kicks in.

Nah, develop level 4 MA from the start since you can only buy one rank per level. Also, go for sweep&throws IMO, as it's very effective against heavy armours. Leave combat vs. light armoured foes to your fighters.
Depending on whether your GM uses or not BGOs, you may have access to your four weapons as early as level 10, or level 20.

[Ecthelion]

I'm afraid the link came up bad for me Ecthelion. Sounds like a good build though. A couple of people have suggested shield to me but i always thought that it was prohibited due to needing one hand free. I like to be able to cast in combat (preferably with a bit of adrenal speed so i can avoid getting stabbed in the head!). Hence the spear with its 1h 2h option. Ive always had issue with the noble warrior for the same reason.

Don't know how we handled the one-hand-free requirement during that time when I played RM2. Perhaps the character used to cast spells only outside of combat. Another option would of course be using a Shield spell together with a one-handed weapon.

[OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol]

I handle it through the ESF rule, no free hand being a "mere" 10 ESF for Mentalism users, combined with Spell mastery to lower the ESF score.

[Nightblade42]

I handle it through the ESF rule, no free hand being a "mere" 10 ESF for Mentalism users, combined with Spell mastery to lower the ESF score.

I think that's fair & an easy way to handle it.

Nightblade ->--

[brole]

Hi. I haven't tried a mentalist as a fighter. Although I did create a healer as a fighter.
"All Healer Base lists ... are subconscious, and the Healer’s body will automatically expend points to heal their wounds as long as they are still alive."

So the idea is - as the character takes damage, his power points are used to recover from damage. Using Blood Ways and Surface Ways the character can negate bleeds, concussion hits and stuns.

This could be an intesting path along the lines of a pure spell user with a fighter focus.

[Duette-1]

Hey Brole. Your right i hadnt realised that the healer lists were all subconcious. That could be fun. Unfortunately counterbalanced by the shocking weapon costs though!

[Duette-1]

Of course another option is the druid with his big stick! Never played one of these either though.

[Nightblade42]

I agree Duette.  Some say Druidstaff was an overpowered list.  But I always liked it.

Nightblade ->--

[tbigness]

Actually in RMSS the Healer spells may be conscious or subconscious depending on the player. If they go unconscious then the healing starts with the highest spell needed for the repairs. This ensured that a Healer was not going to go unconscious due to the spell being cast alone and allowed the control by the character.

[brole]

Hey Brole. Your right i hadnt realised that the healer lists were all subconcious. That could be fun. Unfortunately counterbalanced by the shocking weapon costs though!

Yes. That is a drawback. Although consider Healer body development cost is the same as a Fighter, so you could at least have an effective meat shield.

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[Hurin]

I agree Duette.  Some say Druidstaff was an overpowered list.  But I always liked it.

Nightblade ->--

It was one of my favorite lists too; it was very unique and flavorful.