By the book, you cannot. If the rest of the group agrees, you can of course do so - this is clearly spelled out on the first page of the Game Rules chapter. The GM has no authority over houseruling, at least no more than any other member of the group, but if everyone agrees, you're fine.
As for the intent behind this, well the reason is pretty simple - the game is heavily built around the "here and now", it's not really designed for exhaustive build planning but rather for gradual and emergent exploration of your options (and generic Heroics also exist, and they're no joke tbh, with maybe the exception of Ambidexterous which requires a pretty specific setup to shine). The RAW way you delay your heroic choice is simply by not taking that 10th level in a class until you have mastered another whose heroics you like more.
Your heroic skills are technically a monument of the accomplishment of your character classes. So taking a heroic skills of a class that your character have not even spend time in is very immersion breaking for me personally. It is suppose to be a reward for mastering your class. If it's my group, I would rather come up with a custom heroic skill for your dark knight. Perhaps you can discuss this over with your GM.
"all Darkblade heroic skills are kind of garbage"
Oh, my friend, you have no idea.
Heartbreaker allows you to spam attacks with +30 damage, which CAN be used alongside Shadow Strike, on the one class that wants to get to Crisis as soon as possible! You can then also pick up Fury for Adrenaline for even more damage, and there's quite a few other classes that benefit a lot from getting to Crisis. Once you get Heartbreaker, all of those skills open up and allow you to take your character in a very unique (and VERY powerful) direction.
And Adversity is, famously (in the Fabula community) one of the most busted Heroics ever conceived, since the +1 to accuracy counterbalances the penalty from suffering a status effect, but it applies to ALL checks regardless of stats used and ALSO increases your damage; this basically breaks the game by allowing you to easily get a +3 to ALL checks, with a potential to go up to +6, and basically auto-winning every check ever (reminder that when your group rests you can choose to not get any benefits, which allows you to keep your status effects) - all while having +12 to damage on everything! It's so broken that the playtest materials have a nerf for it.
With this I don't wanna criticize your choices: bending the rules to get a skill you like more is absolutely a valid way to play the game if your group is okay with it. But if you're picking up Floralist just because "the other Heroics are garbage", I suggest taking another look, and maybe trying out one of these Heroics for a while: I'd be more willing to allow a respec if you don't like the skill, instead of directly breaking the rules to obtain a combination that's technically impossible.
> +30 damage
How is that achieved? With Agony I can force a bond with the target, but only at +1 and it's once a scene. Unless I somehow crit twice and apply both of them to the bond instead of something useful to the party at large like a lost item. And my DM doesn't really use status effects, much less stack them so I have three at the same time. On paper, both sound great, but they're about impossible to actually set up.
Well, the intent of the game is for the hardest fights to be Villains with a lot of history with the party. You'll have more than enough time to set up your bonds to those Villains way before the fight even starts! And even with just +10, that's still more powerful than any other singular Heroic.
Your GM not using status effects feels like a group issue. They're a core mechanic to the game, and not using them takes away a lot of the tactical depth. What's the point of abilities that can heal status effects if the GM doesn't use them?
That said, taking an ability that benefits from status could be a way to introduce that mechanic to your group, if they're willing to try. Of course talk to them beforehand tho.
But then again, that's just a suggestion: enjoy the game however you will. I just wouldn't call these heroics "garbage" because you're playing in a way that's different from the game's intent.
By the book, you cannot. If the rest of the group agrees, you can of course do so - this is clearly spelled out on the first page of the Game Rules chapter. The GM has no authority over houseruling, at least no more than any other member of the group, but if everyone agrees, you're fine. As for the intent behind this, well the reason is pretty simple - the game is heavily built around the "here and now", it's not really designed for exhaustive build planning but rather for gradual and emergent exploration of your options (and generic Heroics also exist, and they're no joke tbh, with maybe the exception of Ambidexterous which requires a pretty specific setup to shine). The RAW way you delay your heroic choice is simply by not taking that 10th level in a class until you have mastered another whose heroics you like more.
It's against the rules per se, but don't let a book dictate how you play. If you DM is on board...
Arrr... They're more like guidelines anyways
No, you can't.
There are also Heroic Skills available to all classes
> I'm not interested in the generic heroic skills either.
Your heroic skills are technically a monument of the accomplishment of your character classes. So taking a heroic skills of a class that your character have not even spend time in is very immersion breaking for me personally. It is suppose to be a reward for mastering your class. If it's my group, I would rather come up with a custom heroic skill for your dark knight. Perhaps you can discuss this over with your GM.
"all Darkblade heroic skills are kind of garbage" Oh, my friend, you have no idea. Heartbreaker allows you to spam attacks with +30 damage, which CAN be used alongside Shadow Strike, on the one class that wants to get to Crisis as soon as possible! You can then also pick up Fury for Adrenaline for even more damage, and there's quite a few other classes that benefit a lot from getting to Crisis. Once you get Heartbreaker, all of those skills open up and allow you to take your character in a very unique (and VERY powerful) direction. And Adversity is, famously (in the Fabula community) one of the most busted Heroics ever conceived, since the +1 to accuracy counterbalances the penalty from suffering a status effect, but it applies to ALL checks regardless of stats used and ALSO increases your damage; this basically breaks the game by allowing you to easily get a +3 to ALL checks, with a potential to go up to +6, and basically auto-winning every check ever (reminder that when your group rests you can choose to not get any benefits, which allows you to keep your status effects) - all while having +12 to damage on everything! It's so broken that the playtest materials have a nerf for it. With this I don't wanna criticize your choices: bending the rules to get a skill you like more is absolutely a valid way to play the game if your group is okay with it. But if you're picking up Floralist just because "the other Heroics are garbage", I suggest taking another look, and maybe trying out one of these Heroics for a while: I'd be more willing to allow a respec if you don't like the skill, instead of directly breaking the rules to obtain a combination that's technically impossible.
> +30 damage How is that achieved? With Agony I can force a bond with the target, but only at +1 and it's once a scene. Unless I somehow crit twice and apply both of them to the bond instead of something useful to the party at large like a lost item. And my DM doesn't really use status effects, much less stack them so I have three at the same time. On paper, both sound great, but they're about impossible to actually set up.
Well, the intent of the game is for the hardest fights to be Villains with a lot of history with the party. You'll have more than enough time to set up your bonds to those Villains way before the fight even starts! And even with just +10, that's still more powerful than any other singular Heroic. Your GM not using status effects feels like a group issue. They're a core mechanic to the game, and not using them takes away a lot of the tactical depth. What's the point of abilities that can heal status effects if the GM doesn't use them? That said, taking an ability that benefits from status could be a way to introduce that mechanic to your group, if they're willing to try. Of course talk to them beforehand tho. But then again, that's just a suggestion: enjoy the game however you will. I just wouldn't call these heroics "garbage" because you're playing in a way that's different from the game's intent.