Capped by Ability

Since David had asked about Ability Caps I will go through a short clarification

There are only 2 Ability Cap built into the game system.  That is Ride capping combat abilities when riding and War capping combat abilities in mass combat.

Through House Rules I have added Sailing Capping combat abilities when in naval combat, but a GM can also put cap on anything he sees fit.

He can, for example, use Lore as a Cap for someone’s linguistic roll if they want to write a beautifully written history.

Ability caps are each separate since they have direct applications that usually does not limit each other.

For Example

Raneth of Diamond Hearth is the best non-god Calvary general in the game currently. 

• He has War at 4 and has +3 Specialty “Calvary.”  With him as the commander anyone under his command will have their ability that is capped at 7 – whether they can reach the cap is another issue entirely.
• He also have Ride at 4 and +3 Specialty in “Mounted Combat” means on horse his own combat abilities are capped at 7.
• He also have 3 in Melee with +3 Specialty in Polearms.  So he does not even use up his own cap on horseback and/or in Mass Combat.
• He has no Sail, so when on Water, he caps everyone under his command at 4 (War of 4) but he himself performs combat actions at 0 (Sail of 0).

This means when he is leading Calvary he caps everyone’s combat ability at 7 dice, and he himself performs at 6 dice with the Third-Arm Glaive. 

Let me introduce Rhianna of Marukan Alliance, the best non-god spear-women in the world. 

• She has Melee at 4, +3 Spear Specialty, with Prodigy: Spear (I limited to only spear, thus giving her 2 bonus dice, instead of 1).  This means with a Spear her dice pool is 4+5 = 9.
• Her Ride is 5 and +3 Specialty for Horse.  Her steed “Balsa” is a True Marukan Steed, and has been passed down her family for 6 generations.  Being a True Marukan Steed Balsa raise the rider’s riding ability by 2 natural dot.  This makes Rhianna’s combat cap 10 when on Balsa.
• She is not a general however, with War of 1 and +2 Specialty in “Raids”.  This means her combat skill is capped at 3 when leading a raid herself.  That cap is further lowered to 1 when she is forced into a direct confrontation on the battlefield.

Unfortunately Rhianna is so good with the spear that there currently no non-god general that can take full advantage of her combat skills.  Even under Raneth she is capped at 7.

Hope this clears up the question David have.

 

To address his question directly.

Let say Tyr has Martial Arts at 3, and +2 in Unarmed.  That makes his dice pool at 5. 

He is then capped at his applicable War dice pool in mass combat.  Be it War 3 +2 “vs. Space Marines” or War 5, or War 2 +3 “Against Larger Armies”, etc.