Guild of San Marcos Forum

Journeyman Donovan says that, if you parry your opponent's attack, you deal Xk1 damage to that opponent, where X=1+(1 per every increment of 5 that your parry roll beats your opponent's attack roll). It sounds like a Riposte that automatically hits and deals less damage than the knack of the same name, and yet, Donovan students get Riposte as a school knack. So my question: how does the Journeyman ability for Donovan interact with the Riposte knack?

Alejandro wrote:Journeyman Donovan says that, if you parry your opponent's attack, you deal Xk1 damage to that opponent, where X=1+(1 per every increment of 5 that your parry roll beats your opponent's attack roll). It sounds like a Riposte that automatically hits and deals less damage than the knack of the same name, and yet, Donovan students get Riposte as a school knack. So my question: how does the Journeyman ability for Donovan interact with the Riposte knack?

Simple answer is, it doesn't.
Donovan's Twist works only when you use Parry (Fencing) as your active defense. Riposte uses half your Parry (rounded down).

So you really have a choice, use Parry (automatic damage) or Riposte (more ability to fine-tune vs different opponents)

For Example:
Assume (for the sake of argument) 4 in all Traits, 4 in all skills
Parry (Fencing) - 8k4 to parry, automatic 1k1 (+1k0 for each 5 above the attack roll) damage
Riposte - 6k4 to parry, 6k4 to hit (with 4 dice to split between the two however you want) damage by weapon type plus Brawn...

Thanks. I didn't think they really went together, and it bothered me.

Overall it's not one of the best schools. The Master ability is rarely if ever used (most just assume everyone can do it anyway). I have never, in all the time I've played/GM'ed 7th Sea, seen anyone who liked Donovan over Andrews or Robertson.

Yeah Andrews and Robertson are both pretty interesting. I was actually struggling to decide between them for a while.

The nice part is that since you see the attack result first, you know roughly what your chances are. An attack that barely hit you is probably better responded to using the "twist" as you have a greater chance of adding dice. An attack that went well over your defense may be better riposted by pouring all your dice into the parry and possibly getting lucky on the follow up attack.

Black Jack Rackham wrote:Overall it's not one of the best schools. The Master ability is rarely if ever used (most just assume everyone can do it anyway). I have never, in all the time I've played/GM'ed 7th Sea, seen anyone who liked Donovan over Andrews or Robertson.

On the other hand, it's in the core book while the others are not. I haven't known any GM's who would enforce having the book as a requirement, but it could happen.