Fourth Principles: Conviction - Romantic Savages (Patreon)

Time for the last part of this 'compare and contrast' series.

Milestone Event 

Master the Darkness adds 'Hands of Heat' to the following year, while Romantic adds 'Bone Witch'. In 1.31; this was hands down, no contest - the Bone Witch was absolutely awful in 1.31 and you had to jump through a lot of hoops to be able to play around it (go go all deaf hunt party).  However in 1.5; the Bone Witch event is more balanced, so it is closer. Hands of Heat can provide the Red Fist Secret Fighting Art, trigger the Bone Witch or result in you losing half of your resources in a dumb ritual. The Bone Witch can cause death of a returning survivor, -ACC +STR (for perfect hit builds!), Extra Sense or the (rubbish) Bone Whisperer SFA.

So overall this part tips slightly to Barbaric's Master the Darkness. Let's look at the tables next.

Both tables can result in the destruction of all resources. However the benefits vary if 10+ resources are destroyed; departing Barbarics gain +1 Speed + Honorable while Romantics gain +1 Permanent Luck and Prey. Paying 10+ resources for +1 Speed on each of your survivors is a kick in the teeth, but +1 Luck is not awful. I would pay 3 resources per survivor to give them +1 luck permanently.

Then there are the two abilities gained. One survivor in Barbaric gains +4 courage and Thundercaller; while romantic gains +4 Understanding and Legendcaller.  Thundercaller triggers the Cycloid Knight event; while Legendcaller brings the Mask Maker.  Honestly Understanding is better than Courage and Mask Maker is better than the Cycloid Knight.  The best you can get from the Cycloid is a Steel Sword and while that is an excellent weapon the Thundermaul is a double-edged sword (double-headed hammer) and the Steel Shield is difficult to use; These rewards are nothing compared to the Death Mask you get from Mr. Mask. 

Winner: Romantic

Passive Bonus 

Both convictions provide +1 survival limit.

Barbaric gives +1 Strength to everyone in the settlement and all the newborns (not survivors gained through other methods, just newborns); Romantic gives you more options whenever you would gain a random fighting art. While there is clearly an attempt in the game design space to combine Cannibalise + Barbaric + Survival of the Fittest to create a society and you can follow that route, which will make high speed, high strength builds a focus. There is no doubt in my mind that the extra flexibility that choosing 1 of 3 fighting arts gives is just more interesting, powerful and increases development space for your settlement.

Winner: Romantic

Secret Bonus Round: Vagabond Armor

Image here! 

I'm not counting this one in the comparison, because it's not really fair. But Vagabond Armor varies in power depending on the conviction you have chosen. If you are barbaric Vagabond Armor gives you +1 Insanity when encourages; if you are Romantic Vagabond Armor gives you +1 Survival when encouraged and access to the sword specialisation and mastery abilities. 

Yup. If you have Vagabond Armor there is literally no reason to ever go barbaric.  Vagabond gives you so much damn power and massive a safety net by giving you access to a weapon master even if your survivors keep dying over and over.

Winner: Romantic

Overall Winner: Romantic, and for me it's not even close. 

Summary: 

Well, anyone who has played with me will know that the decision between these two is not even close on my tables. Outside of testing I am 100% picking Romantic every time. Vagabond Armor is too much fun to use in the game and the idea of playing a campaign without it sounds awful. 

But even without considering Vagabond Armor, I find all the benefits of the Romantic pathway to be superior to the Barbaric one.

That just leaves one last pair to look at before we close out this series. Final Fighting Art vs Ultimate Weapon!