Age Of Dragons: Lifepath, Arete and Edges

Age Of Dragons: Main Page -> Age Of Dragons: Hatchery Overview -> Age Of Dragons: Lifepath, Arete and Edges

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Overview of Lifepath, Arete and Edges

• Lifepaths: Select your Lifepath or Lifepaths.
• Determine Arete: Determine your Arete in each Lifepath you have.
• Determine Edges: Select and record the Edges that your Lifepath has given you.

Selecting a Primary Lifepath

Refer to the section "Lifepaths" for a full list of Lifepaths available and to the section "The Twelve Breeds" for guidance on which Lifepaths your breed is well suited to.

Select one Lifepath as your Primary Lifepath. This Lifepath starts with an Arete score of 1, representing your life experience to this point.

Arete translates roughly as "excellence" - it represents the pursuit of mastery and perfection in a Lifepath, as well as understanding and competence in that field of expertise.

Apply Experience and Determine Arete

By default, the game assumes that new Dragons player characters are between 100 and 199 years old. This age can be determined randomly (99 + D100) or just chosen by the player.

Sometimes though, it is necessary to make an older and more experienced Dragon character.

For each full 100 years of a Dragon's life, that Dragon can either gain a new Lifepath with Arete 1, or add +1 to the Arete of an existing Lifepath.

For example, a 600 year old Dragon could have the following:

• Ambassador-Courtier, Arete 3.
• Scholar-Sage, Arete 1.
• Warmaster, Arete 2.

Note that no Lifepath can ever have an Arete score higher than 10, and to achieve even that a Dragon will have to dedicate the whole millennium of his lifespan to relentlessly pursuing a single Lifepath.

Determine Edges

Lifepaths give certain benefits, called Edges. The "Lifepaths" section details these in full, but broadly Edges can be divided into different types:

• Skills

These Edges enhance your ability to perform certain tasks, usually adding your Arete to the appropriate Aspect rating.

• Powers

These Edges allow you to employ a new inherent ability of some sort, which you would not otherwise have access to.

• Suspires

These Edges allow you to cast magic through the arcane power of your Dragonsbreath. By default you don't know any Suspires, and you have to pursue lifepaths to learn them.

• Techniques

These Edges allow you to access specialised techniques, which you wouldn't be able to use otherwise. They might enhance your fighting ability, or give you an advantage in other arenas.

Some Edges occur on more than one Lifepath. Regardless, Edges are never cumulative, and a Dragon can only gain a given Edge once. The implications of this are as follows:

• If you have several Skills that could apply to a task, you only apply one of them (normally the one associated with the largest bonus).
• If more than one Edge enhances an Aspect on any task, you can only benefit from the best of those enhancements.
• If more than one Edge weakens an Aspect on any task (for example with suspires that debuff an enemy), you only suffer from the worst of those weaknesses.

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