Author Topic: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving  (Read 56616 times)

Offline Rekmond

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #240 on: July 08, 2017, 02:12:56 AM »
Also, speaking of NPC WBL, each of my 1500+ soldiers is contributing 100gp to the diamond fund, in exchange for a chance at getting resurrected out of it if they die in battle. (since my 9th level healers knows raise dead, this gives us a good fund to keep the main party members, and the better followers going even in hard times). And its good for morale, if the prize for "Most Glorious death that left a reasonably intact body" is being brought back to life.

And suddenly I'm wondering if I can use a catapult launch as a springboard for me to get to the battlefield faster. I do have flight, but well...a little assistance never hurt.

Hey wait, how are you using Bards for followers, they're tier 3.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2017, 02:17:48 AM by Rekmond »
I want to be born. To live. That is all I want. -Aura

Offline Archon

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #241 on: July 08, 2017, 02:18:16 AM »
Also, speaking of NPC WBL, each of my 1500+ soldiers is contributing 100gp to the diamond fund, in exchange for a chance at getting resurrected out of it if they die in battle. (since my 9th level healers knows raise dead, this gives us a good fund to keep the main party members, and the better followers going even in hard times). And its good for morale, if the prize for "Most Glorious death that left a reasonably intact body" is being brought back to life.

And suddenly I'm wondering if I can use a catapult launch as a springboard for me to get to the battlefield faster. I do have flight, but well...a little assistance never hurt.


Hmm... Raptoran warmage 5. Or warblade 5. That would make for a good tie-break with the rapid deployment.

Assuming that they don't die painfully. That might happen too.

Offline Archon

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #242 on: July 08, 2017, 02:19:37 AM »
My bloodline gives me:

Quote
Trained Followers: There's nothing worse than incompetents. They're useless and hardly worth the effort of subjecting them to the aura of command which the Noble-Blood emits. They're weak-willed enough to follow on their own, anyways. The Noble-Blood seeks more skilled followers. The followers attracted by the Leadership feat all have PC class levels instead of NPC class levels, at no level penalty. Followers with levels in prestige classes are treated as three levels higher than they actually are for terms of Leadership instead of five levels. Cohorts may freely have prestige classes.

Edit: Its this one:http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?204158-3-5e-Bloodline-Noble-Blood-(PEACH)&p=11258328#post11258328

Offline Rekmond

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #243 on: July 08, 2017, 02:27:18 AM »
Huh, so Drammor is letting that override his limitations. Useful.

I'll give you my notes on siege crew. I can say that Orcs are your best choice for ammo loaders, being the only LA 0 race with a +4 Str. Comes in handy for that DC 10 Str check.

Unless you want to splurge to get the +2 Autoloading enchant, which would require you to have a +1 as well. More than a bit pricey.

And Skill Focus Profession (Siege Engineer) is your friend.
I want to be born. To live. That is all I want. -Aura

Offline Archon

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #244 on: July 08, 2017, 02:29:52 AM »
And then half-orcs to lead? that avoids the hit to wisdom, if firing is a profession check, and the fluff works better that way that suddenly switching to anthropomorphic toads or something.

Offline Rekmond

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #245 on: July 08, 2017, 02:33:23 AM »
And then half-orcs to lead? that avoids the hit to wisdom, if firing is a profession check, and the fluff works better that way that suddenly switching to anthropomorphic toads or something.

Firing is actually 1d20 + BAB + Int mod with other modifiers as normal. Against the AC 15 square you are aiming for. (-6 if it is say, over a wall) You still need Siege Engineer with the crew chief for the loading and aiming though.
I want to be born. To live. That is all I want. -Aura

Offline Archon

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #246 on: July 08, 2017, 02:36:22 AM »
And then half-orcs to lead? that avoids the hit to wisdom, if firing is a profession check, and the fluff works better that way that suddenly switching to anthropomorphic toads or something.

Firing is actually 1d20 + BAB + Int mod with other modifiers as normal. Against the AC 15 square you are aiming for. (-6 if it is say, over a wall) You still need Siege Engineer with the crew chief for the loading and aiming though.

Sure, Sure. Maybe tieflings then. I dunno. I'll think about it more, once I've read the rules myself. But 90 level ones, and 30 level twos have been set aside for this purpose, now.

Offline Drammor

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #247 on: July 08, 2017, 03:11:05 AM »
Otherwise, it will be rouges and factotums, set up for infiltration.

Oh good. I was starting to worry no player would bring this up.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2017, 03:21:51 AM by Drammor »
[20:32] <DonQuixote> A POX UPON YOU ALL!
[20:32] <DonQuixote> YOU, J, FOR STEALING THE PURITY OF NORNS.
[20:32] <DonQuixote> YOU, DRAMMOR, FOR ENSNARING ME IN THIS FIENDISH PRISON.

Offline Archon

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #248 on: July 08, 2017, 03:13:29 AM »
Otherwise, it will be rouges and factotums, set up for infiltration.

Oh good. I was starting to worry no player would bring this up.

Oh, you think we need infiltrators? I can reassign one of the Shock Troop companies, I don't need 180 orc barbarians.

(also, I am going to have so many low-level NPC's to build. I will have to do pretty rough sketches. Do we get to pick feats and flaws for the followers?

Offline Rekmond

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #249 on: July 08, 2017, 03:22:21 AM »
I feel a grin stretching across my face. Hey Drammor, what is your opinion on Exotic Pets?

I think my cohort can quite effectively keep a few animals trained, so what kind of options might I have?
I want to be born. To live. That is all I want. -Aura

Offline Archon

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #250 on: July 08, 2017, 03:25:29 AM »
Pets sound good, but I will leave that to you. I will have lots of nice slow heavy.


Also, I want to say a bit about how I am making my army.

I am deriving inspiration from the praesi in a practical guide to evil - my forces are heavy infantry and mages mostly, focusing on power and versatility over speed or numbers (though there are lots of them). Tactics often involve using infantry (currently mostly consisting of lesser grey dwarf warblades) to screen large numbers of war-mages and warlocks, whose magic is the main element in defeating the enemy.

Forces are stiffened with heroes, marshals, bards, and levelled casters (mostly war-mages), when possible.

Any comments? what forces are other players fielding?

Offline Rekmond

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #251 on: July 08, 2017, 03:29:44 AM »
I have less than 30 archers. And myselves.
I want to be born. To live. That is all I want. -Aura

Offline Drammor

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #252 on: July 08, 2017, 03:30:24 AM »
And suddenly I'm wondering if I can use a catapult launch as a springboard for me to get to the battlefield faster. I do have flight, but well...a little assistance never hurt.

You'd never survive the attempt. The Tumble check for such a thing is just too harsh. You are, of course, welcome to try.

Oh, you think we need infiltrators? I can reassign one of the Shock Troop companies, I don't need 180 orc barbarians.

(also, I am going to have so many low-level NPC's to build. I will have to do pretty rough sketches. Do we get to pick feats and flaws for the followers?

It's an army. Infiltration and sabotage are completely valid tactics.

(You may if you like.)

I feel a grin stretching across my face. Hey Drammor, what is your opinion on Exotic Pets?

I think my cohort can quite effectively keep a few animals trained, so what kind of options might I have?

Oh goodie! I finally get to use the rules for exotic pets! This came up in a different campaign once, so let me grab the files I need from the other computer. As it turns out, the game does have rules for them, you just have to know where to look. :D

Edit: It turns out this computer cannot read pdfs. I'm fixing that now.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2017, 03:38:29 AM by Drammor »
[20:32] <DonQuixote> A POX UPON YOU ALL!
[20:32] <DonQuixote> YOU, J, FOR STEALING THE PURITY OF NORNS.
[20:32] <DonQuixote> YOU, DRAMMOR, FOR ENSNARING ME IN THIS FIENDISH PRISON.

Offline Archon

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #253 on: July 08, 2017, 03:40:16 AM »
Yay for the feats.

(Is having all of my heavy infantry take Bind vestige, improved bind vestige and practised binder, with two flaws, fluffed as dwarvern ancestral armour, which is effectively +1 full plate and DR2/piercing for every one of my tanks, too much cheese?)

warrior of the phalanx and Shaky seem like appropriate Flaws.

Offline Drammor

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #254 on: July 08, 2017, 03:51:14 AM »
It would be hard to fluff it that way, since it wouldn't be lootable gear. I'm afraid if that's what you want to do, you'll have to go about it head on.
[20:32] <DonQuixote> A POX UPON YOU ALL!
[20:32] <DonQuixote> YOU, J, FOR STEALING THE PURITY OF NORNS.
[20:32] <DonQuixote> YOU, DRAMMOR, FOR ENSNARING ME IN THIS FIENDISH PRISON.

Offline Archon

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #255 on: July 08, 2017, 03:54:45 AM »
It would be hard to fluff it that way, since it wouldn't be lootable gear. I'm afraid if that's what you want to do, you'll have to go about it head on.

I'm happy to have the binders in the army - but by ancestral armour, I mean, they were summoning the power of their ancestors in the form of armour. (as opposed to summoning the power of a vestige in the form of armour)

Either way is fine with me.

Offline Drammor

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #256 on: July 08, 2017, 03:59:15 AM »
Oh yeah, that's fine then.

Edit: Okay, to get this, I had to combine rules from the PHB, MM2 and A&EG.

If you want pets/exotic pets/et cetera, you'll need someone who can train them. This means either maintaining a hireling, or build followers for the purpose of training your pets. I think it's probably fair to say that a follower can train as many HD of pets as they have HD, themselves (so particularly HD-heavy pets would require multiple trainers all on their own).

If you want an exotic pet, you must pay the cost of training and rearing it. If you want it to be battle-capable, then it needs to be a warbeast (otherwise it will flee unless it makes a DC 15 Will save every time it feels threatened).

The market price of a warbeast is a function of its Hit Dice: 50 gp/HD for a warbeast of 3 HD or less, or 100 gp + 75 gp/HD for one of 4 HD or more.

There are no rules listed for what to do if you don't want a warbeast, other than to look at the various creatures that have specific costs listed, so I'd just say halve the cost/HD for a non-warbeast.

You also need to take these surcharges into account:

Handle Animal DC: 15–19 125 gp
Handle Animal DC: 20–24 250 gp
Handle Animal DC: 25–29 500 gp
Handle Animal DC: 30–35 1,000 gp
Unusual movement: 500 gp
(fly, swim, burrow)
Difficult special ability: 500 gp
(per special ability)
Vicious creature: 1,000 gp
Assistant required: 100 gp
(per assistant)
Charm monster scroll: 700 gp

And you should take this into account: Creatures with alien mindsets or ecologies (such as those from other planes) or those requiring unique equipment, can drive the price up even farther.
« Last Edit: July 08, 2017, 04:25:16 AM by Drammor »
[20:32] <DonQuixote> A POX UPON YOU ALL!
[20:32] <DonQuixote> YOU, J, FOR STEALING THE PURITY OF NORNS.
[20:32] <DonQuixote> YOU, DRAMMOR, FOR ENSNARING ME IN THIS FIENDISH PRISON.

Offline Archon

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #257 on: July 08, 2017, 04:46:54 AM »
Quick poll: Do I use spellscales or lesser assimar as the race for the Cha-needed followers. Currently my marshals and bards are spellscales, and my healers are lesser aasimar. (the only two +2 cha, LA 0 races I can find. )

But fluff-wise, spellscales are kinda chaotic, and aasimar are kinda good. What to do, with regard to having officers in the army of darkness which we seem to be forming here?

Offline Drammor

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #258 on: July 08, 2017, 04:55:35 AM »
Well, we aren't meant to be burdened by alignment, since personality is so much more complicated than that. So personally I'd say it's really up to you.
[20:32] <DonQuixote> A POX UPON YOU ALL!
[20:32] <DonQuixote> YOU, J, FOR STEALING THE PURITY OF NORNS.
[20:32] <DonQuixote> YOU, DRAMMOR, FOR ENSNARING ME IN THIS FIENDISH PRISON.

Offline Archon

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Re: [Interest Check] 3.5. Warfare, leadership and world-saving
« Reply #259 on: July 08, 2017, 04:58:45 AM »
Yeah, but the feel of a race still matters. But that, said, I like lesser aasimar, so if they will be loyal to me over their ancestors, I will go with that.