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View Full Version : Evil Black Ops teamwork bonuses...Any ideas?



Aotrs Commander
2010-11-08, 11:31 AM
So, I've got a party of evil characters. They'll be working for the empire of the Big Bad as it were, and they're going to be doing so undercover in the good-guy nations as a sort of special ultra-secret black-ops/assassination/what-have-you squad. Basically, they'll be doing whatever need to be done, while not getting caught by the good guys (which is the most important part of their job. The good guys should not ever even know their organsiation exists!)

I'll keep the specifics fairly general, since they're on my heavily homebrew-mechaniced world! The group is a fairly diverse set of characters, of 4th level. Basically, they've got a Rogue, a Cleric/Rogue, a Warblade, a Wizard, a Ranger, a Fighter, a Small (homebrew shapeshifting) dragon and possibly a druid. I'm using basically what amounts to functionally the Pathfinder-based skill system (though not PF's exact skills). So, they do have a reasonable breath of various skills, and were generated with the knowledge that they would be doing this sort of operation.

I want to give them some sort of benefits for being trained as a squad as part of this black-ops group. As part their basic training, I'm giving already them the ability to make one of a short list of skills a class skill (meaning a +3 trained bonus), which will also help a lot.

What I'm looking at is also giving them something a bit like the Teamwork Benefits from various 3.5 sources (or NWN2 Shadows of Zehir). Trouble is... most of those are kinda...pants. Or require someone to take feat tax, on top of the skill requriements. Also, the existant ones don't fit very well with the sort of black-ops/subterfuge campaign I'm running.

I'm thinking of something around the power of maybe a "group" skill trick, maybe a weaker feat or something a bit like the aforementioned teamwork benefits; with ideally a choice of options so they can pick what they want. Ideally, it wants to be out-of-combat stuff, relating to their inflitration and subterfuge (i.e. stealth/social) skills.

I've not really done this sort of campaign before, so I'm not fully cognisant of the sort of things that might be useful to them. So, does anyone have any ideas as to what I could give them?

dsmiles
2010-11-08, 12:55 PM
Maybe some sort of 'team tactics' combat bonus (if there's going to be a lot of combat) where they can activate it once per round, but can't use the same bonus twice in a row?

Example:
Round 1: +x bonus to AC while adjacent to a team member
Round 2: Move 10' as a swift action, as long as you either start or end adjacent to a team member.
Round 3: +x bonus to attack while adjacent to a team member (but could use the round 1 bonus again, if so desired).
Etc.

BRC
2010-11-08, 01:00 PM
Simple stuff would be a Code Language they can use to communicate without letting the PC's learn what's going on. Maybe they get +1 to damage when flanking with each other, avoid firing-into-meele penalties,

SurlySeraph
2010-11-08, 01:17 PM
You could take hints from classes that give teamwork bonuses, like the Dread Commando (+class level to initiative for all teammates), or Nightsong Enforcer and Infiltrator (bonuses to certain skills when allies are close by, bonuses to see allies, when flanking both the character and has ally get an extra +1d6 Sneak Attack even if the ally lacks sneak attack). You'd presumably want something a bit weaker than that, but something like making Aid Another bonuses +4 instead of +2 or giving a +1 bonus to various rogue-ish skills when there's a teammate within 30 feet would work.

Sir Swindle89
2010-11-08, 01:26 PM
Give them somthing like the Dvati racial abilities. so the get bonuses from flanking, aid another, and assisting skill checks. basically stuff they do as a team.

Aotrs Commander
2010-11-10, 07:54 AM
Thanks for the suggestions so far, but I'm really looking for mostly non-combat related stuff. (The players really, really do NOT need any extra help in that regard! Especially with potentially eight of them!)


You'd presumably want something a bit weaker than that, but something like making Aid Another bonuses +4 instead of +2 or giving a +1 bonus to various rogue-ish skills when there's a teammate within 30 feet would work.

We're using the expert help from Rules Compendium anyway (i.e if you have 5 ranks in something (or in this case two and trained) your Aid Another is (1+result/10). With merely six PCs that can get out of hand...(One party we have had everyone had at least five ranks of survival and included a barbarian, a part-druid and two part-rangers. We broke 50 on occasion...) I'm thus loathe to increase that any further, lest it get a bit silly. (The PHBII skill-related teamwork thing is a vagelu similar, but less useful, allowing the Aid Another DC to drop to 5 instead of 10.)

I'm sort of looking at more socially related stuff, some thing like a team feat, as it were, that allows them to do something (as opposed to just get slightly better numbers; i.e. more Power Attack or Up the Walls than Alertness). Trouble is, I haven't ever run a game like this before and never really played one. (A couple of brief forays into Shadowrun which I struggled with are the closest I've ever done.) So I'm not sure what sort of things would be good.

I'm struggling to think even of an example, I dunno, something like subtly communication or something to help when you are bluffing or something. Things of that ilk.

So, let me try a slightly different approach. What would you, as a group of PCs like to have as a collective, non-combat- social or -subterfuge-related ability?

SamsDisciple
2010-11-10, 06:57 PM
I looked into similar things and realized that the best bonuses and strategies need to be situational and rely on the creativity of the players. Just with the mindset of being a team will open up a large variety of new encounters and abilities. One example of what my group did was the wizard cast evards black tentacles and the mindbender bluffed the ogres to run away because the tentacles were a demon being summoned. Get creative in the role playing and as a dm give situational bonuses according to pc plans. For stealth, preparing routes/hiding spots, for bluff, situational actions by other pc's to make it more believable