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View Full Version : The Ties That Bind (Affiliations in 3.5)



Bibliomancer
2010-07-06, 04:59 PM
Affiliations are detailed in Chapter 7 of the Player's Handbook II.

Affiliations only come up rarely in the forums (the main reference I've seen is to an affiliation that grants skill check boosts, making it useful for Truenamers (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=114269)). However, the mechanics for them are interesting, since they grant players the ability to take part in large events in the campaign world with predefined mechanics attached. They become especially interesting if a player has reached the highest level of the affiliation, because they can then change the politics and environment of their home region without having to kill every single opponent in person.

An interesting idea for a campaign (which I look forward to trying the next time I'm a PC) would be, starting at level 6* to create a level 1 affiliation in your home region. Optimally, each player (or a few of them) would create allied affiliations focusing on each player's specialty (the wizard might create a college, the rogue a thieves' guild, the druid a druid circle, etc.). This group could increase in magnitude over time, perhaps eventually forming the nucleus of a new nation.

*The leadership feat is required to found an affiliation. This presents, then, the first balanced in game use of this feat, assuming one's cohort and followers are busy keeping the affiliation running.

My question, then, to the forum is this: has anyone played in a game where affiliations took a major role in shaping events? Has anyone ever founded their own affiliation? If so, what was the highest magnitude/level that it attained?

Marriclay
2010-07-06, 05:17 PM
I once started a mercenary group who followed my Half-Ogre Warblade, Tarrick Eldaer. They were based on The Band of The Red Hand in The Wheel of Time Novels, and it was so much fun, because each and every one of them was chummy and generally fun loving. they also shared a dislike of spellcasters and authority figures that they don't approve of. It started out small - my cohort and followers thanks to leadership, alongside their families (don't worry, the wives and children never fought). by the end of the campaign, I had an international organization with over 9,000 members that had ended wars on its own. Because of the balanced way I was playing my leadership feat, my DM allowed me to have my cohort take it too, along with some of those nifty leadership feats in heroes of battle, to get a truly impressive follower count. Most fun I've ever had playing DnD.

hamishspence
2010-07-06, 05:19 PM
Power of Faerun had some rules for the leadership feat as combined with various organizations (religious, merchant, military, etc)

Might work well with affiliations.

Bibliomancer
2010-07-06, 05:28 PM
I once started a mercenary group who followed my Half-Ogre Warblade, Tarrick Eldaer. They were based on The Band of The Red Hand in The Wheel of Time Novels, and it was so much fun, because each and every one of them was chummy and generally fun loving. they also shared a dislike of spellcasters and authority figures that they don't approve of. It started out small - my cohort and followers thanks to leadership, alongside their families (don't worry, the wives and children never fought). by the end of the campaign, I had an international organization with over 9,000 members that had ended wars on its own. Because of the balanced way I was playing my leadership feat, my DM allowed me to have my cohort take it too, along with some of those nifty leadership feats in heroes of battle, to get a truly impressive follower count. Most fun I've ever had playing DnD.

Interesting.

What level did your campaign end at? Did you use the affiliation rules, or more informal ones?

Marriclay
2010-07-06, 05:34 PM
They were the affiliation rules, definitely. the campaign ended at level 27, when we defeated a godlike abomination that threatened to swallow the world. Each of the different Player Characters went off on their own in some way after that to found a pretty big organization or similar thing. As I recall, Tarrick Went on to found a Lawful Good country that would be the singular most powerful military nation in the world for centuries to come, the Dread Necromancer founded a school studying negative energy and the like, which also raised the presence of good necromancers in the world significantly. The Cleric became the King-Priest of Kord, eventually becoming a divine entity in his own right, and the Rogue became my Character's spymaster in the country he founded

EDIT: wait a second. we defeated a total of three world eating abominations over the course of the campaign, ended a few world destroying wars, and finally a plot that would have brought all the Ley Lines of the world to a single point, causing such a massive destructive force that it would destroy the continents and everything on them.

Bibliomancer
2010-07-06, 05:52 PM
Interesting.

So, your affiliation was around level 15 by the end of the campaign?

Marriclay
2010-07-06, 05:58 PM
Yup. You prove to people you can get things done and they will simply flock to you. And this was a war torn continent - everybody who joined me wanted the war to end, and they all saw four people single handedly stop a war that would have plunged most of the world into chaos and expose the demonic dragon who was behind it all. There was also several timeskips, allowing each of us to gather resources, build up our organizations and the like. at the start of the game, Tarrick was 20 years old. At the end, he was 45 and starting to complain about his back.

Optimystik
2010-07-06, 06:18 PM
Aren't there affiliations in Complete Champion too? Like the Paragnostic Assembly, the aforementioned Truenaming booster.

Marriclay
2010-07-06, 06:21 PM
Aren't there affiliations in Complete Champion too? Like the Paragnostic Assembly, the aforementioned Truenaming booster.

There's affiliations everywhere. They even have on in Drow of the Underdark. The PHB 2 is just where they were originally posted and have the most complete rules

Bibliomancer
2010-07-06, 06:30 PM
There's affiliations everywhere. They even have on in Drow of the Underdark. The PHB 2 is just where they were originally posted and have the most complete rules

Which affiliations are in Drow of the Underdark?

Marriclay
2010-07-06, 06:31 PM
Just an explanation on ranks within a drow noble house