I would like a few suggestions to make the Snowpine lodge a little more attractive. I understand that it's a minor guild and not meant to have too many abilities, but I feel that it lacks flavor as it is now. So I thought I'd suggest a few abilities.
Hunter's Knack
Living a life where you hunt everyday for you food and clothing has taught you a little something about using ranged weapons.
10% (or 5%) passive bonus to accuracy with ranged weapons and hurling.
Prerequisite Skills
Marksmanship (100)
This is basically a watered down windreading/mecenary specialization to represent the fact that Lodge members basically live and die by their hunting. It might make sense to limit it to archery, or archery and hurling.
Another idea I had was to add a new way to make/use herbs. Lodge members could mix together herbs to create and chew them to gain minor effects such as boost energy regain at the cost of hunger, or a slight boost to dodging/accuracy with increased energy usage (stimulant), or nearly stop hunger but also stopping energy regain. I feel that this would add some character and tactical choices to the Lodge.
Some suggestions for the Lodge
Re: Some suggestions for the Lodge
I'd like Snowpine Lodge to see more abilities in the way of utility. I strongly dislike abilities that are simply +x to skill or +x to roll, beyond the initial basic training ability that some guilds have.
I've got some new abilities in mind already, such as alternative means of starting fires using hand drills, bow drills, and so forth - that way you can make your own firestarters out in the wilds, rather than having to rely on purchasing firestones from a shop somewhere.
I've got some new abilities in mind already, such as alternative means of starting fires using hand drills, bow drills, and so forth - that way you can make your own firestarters out in the wilds, rather than having to rely on purchasing firestones from a shop somewhere.
The lore compels me!
Re: Some suggestions for the Lodge
Okay, round two of Matilda's questionable brainstorming for abilities! So I took what you said about not wanting abilities that are +x to whatever and started to try and think about some utility skills. I used as a basis for brainstorming the idea that a proper lodge-member, if dropped naked in the wild, should be able to eventually gather and make everything to have rudimentary clothes, weapons, and armor and to feed themselves while doing it. Currently, you can gather and make weapons, both ranged (Flatbow & Arrows) and Melee (Knapped stone tools) and with the new fire-starting abilities you mentioned would be able to cook where ever you want (currently you can go to one of the permanent campfire scattered over the wilds. However, this leaves the issues of clothes, and also possible bandages.
My first idea is to add a new type of leather, perhaps available only to lodge-members. You can make clothes out of rawhide, that is, skins that have had all the hair and whatnot removed(often with a lye solution, which you could gain by mixing water with ashes from a fire) stretched out and left to dry but has not been treated with Tannin (the little brown bottles). This way they could at least cloth themselves. If you wanted to also add making emergency armor, you could make rawhide an inferior leather armor, perhaps even maxing out at average (so average rawhide is weaker than average leather, and offers no benefits having the same stealth penalty, channeling penalty, etc. The only advantage is that you can make it in a situation where you are far from town and the proper tools). You could even make wearing rawhide things make the person permanently smelly. It probably would be unable to make some things that leather working can make (like a water tight drinkholder would be impossible due to the properties of rawhide).
My second idea would be to add a way for people to make makeshift bandages. Perhaps cutting a cleaned skin (or rawhide if you like idea), into strips for bandages, and then cutting those strips into squares to make poultices? It could be based on the skinning skill (since you're dealing with untreated animal pelts) and have a chance of failure, making it more convenient for most people to just buy the very cheap (3 riln total) bandage and cloth, so it wouldn't be abused.
My first idea is to add a new type of leather, perhaps available only to lodge-members. You can make clothes out of rawhide, that is, skins that have had all the hair and whatnot removed(often with a lye solution, which you could gain by mixing water with ashes from a fire) stretched out and left to dry but has not been treated with Tannin (the little brown bottles). This way they could at least cloth themselves. If you wanted to also add making emergency armor, you could make rawhide an inferior leather armor, perhaps even maxing out at average (so average rawhide is weaker than average leather, and offers no benefits having the same stealth penalty, channeling penalty, etc. The only advantage is that you can make it in a situation where you are far from town and the proper tools). You could even make wearing rawhide things make the person permanently smelly. It probably would be unable to make some things that leather working can make (like a water tight drinkholder would be impossible due to the properties of rawhide).
My second idea would be to add a way for people to make makeshift bandages. Perhaps cutting a cleaned skin (or rawhide if you like idea), into strips for bandages, and then cutting those strips into squares to make poultices? It could be based on the skinning skill (since you're dealing with untreated animal pelts) and have a chance of failure, making it more convenient for most people to just buy the very cheap (3 riln total) bandage and cloth, so it wouldn't be abused.