City Slickers

[MesiDoomstalker]

I had an idea for an interesting campaign. It would focus on a the PC’s who are all part of some underground organization (alignment depends if it will be an evil, good or neutral, the specifics don’t matter) in a major metropolis. Each player is a different Dex-based/skill monkey class going into PrC’s that focus on a specific aspect. Here is what I have so far for each player:

Urban Swift Hunter: Primary Ranged combatant and Tracking abilities to find marks in the city. Catfolk for Dex and extra movement and jump bonus. Also primary healer via Cure Light Wounds wand.

Factotum into Nightsong Infiltrator and/or Exemplar. Primary skill monkey in a group full of them. Won’t be much help in combat but if they work right, they won’t ever have to draw weapons. Ever.

Beguiler (with a rouge dip) into Unseen Seer and/or Arcane Trickster. Party face and primary arcane caster.

Swordsage/Warblade into Master of the Nine and/or Nightsong Enforcer. Primary melee frontliner, focusing on Shadow Hand, Tiger Claw, White Raven and Diamond Mind. This one I’m not as sure about but it will be primarily Swordsage.

Assume that everybody gets Weapon Finesse free and have good ranks in Climb, Jump, and Tumble for navigating the city. All will be at least decent at sneaking and have a smattering of social skills so they don’t fail collectively without the Beguiler. The rest (except the Factotum) will specialize in a different aspect of skill-monkiness. The Factotum will focus on being good or excellent in as many skills as possible. The point would be to work as a highly efficient strike team. Being able to navigate the city undetected, track down marks or those who owe debts, steal things, but still be able to hold their own in a fight, all while being a cooridinated team.

I know there are other Dex-based character types that could fit in this dynamic. So my question, what would be some general build advice for the samples I presented or other suggestions for a team like this? And would this kind of campaign work? Would it be fun?

[Curious]

Everyone (other than the swordblade) takes Martial Stance (some Shadow Hand stance) and Shadow Blade.

Factotum should wield a Gnomish Quickrazor (sheath weapon as a free action) and have Quick Draw (un-sheath weapon as a free action) and use Iaijutsu Focus (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Iajutsu_focus) for damage.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Everyone (other than the swordblade) takes Martial Stance (some Shadow Hand stance) and Shadow Blade.

Factotum should wield a Gnomish Quickrazor (sheath weapon as a free action) and have Quick Draw (un-sheath weapon as a free action) and use Iaijutsu Focus (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Iajutsu_focus) for damage.

Is Factotum's only offensive option Iajutsu Focus? Every Factotum build I've seen almost complelty revovle around it. Its....a little old.

[Curious]

Is Factotum's only offensive option Iajutsu Focus? Every Factotum build I've seen almost complelty revovle around it. Its....a little old.

Best way to get bonus damage. Most other builds focus on using a reach weapon and tripping.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Best way to get bonus damage. Most other builds focus on using a reach weapon and tripping.

Thats dissapointing. But as the primary skill monkey, few resources should be spent on combat.

[Curious]

Thats dissapointing. But as the primary skill monkey, few resources should be spent on combat.

Wuh? All he's losing is one skill point a level and a feat. Furthermore, what is he gonna spend that feat on otherwise? Skill Focus? Let him have some combat ability, it's no fun to just sit back and do nothing while everyone else is awesome.

[MesiDoomstalker]

Wuh? All he's losing is one skill point a level and a feat. Furthermore, what is he gonna spend that feat on otherwise? Skill Focus? Let him have some combat ability, it's no fun to just sit back and do nothing while everyone else is awesome.

In this set up, it is far more likley that combat will invovle defending the Factotum while he performs a skill check that takes a while, like open lock or disable device than straight up brawl.

[Kol Korran]

a few questions, then a few thoughts:
- why so specific builds? are you going to give the players such a pre set choice? if not, then it's up to them to see what they can spring up, which is the case with most teams. or is this a hypothetical idea?

- what sort of city? what sort of adventures? the minimal info you provided can fit many kind of scenerios. why specifically a strike team? are they supposed to be assassins? or the "deal with problems" team? many urban "gangsta" campaigns (as i assume you're refering to) has quite a few more motifs.

thoughts:
- for what you seem to be planning, a large set of skills does seem good. however, if you go so, i'd advise to comprise (or invent on the spot) skill challenges (from 4E) to determine success of interactions, inflitrations, whole missions and operations (much bigger challenges, with combats or other objective counting as "successes"), instead of letting a few skill checks do the job.

- grabing some inspiration from Shadowrun might be a good idea. especially extended tests, leg working, contacts and professionalism on a run.

-will it be fun? that depends on a few factors: first and foremost- do the players like this kind of game? secondly- how well can you run this? you need to prepare different turfs, factions, and mostly be able to run an interwoven web of plots. (you can focus on one plot at a time, but then you sort of miss the whole "live city, lots of people with their own interests" theme). also- how well do you improvise? for these kind of campaigns have MUCH more room for improvisation then regular "go to adventure site, do adventure, continue" kind of thing.

- non dex based character could work interestingly well- warlock, favored soul for example. their powers and spells might make them an interesting addition.

just some of my thoughts, that's all. the idea sound good, hopeit will work well! :smallsmile:

Kol.

[MesiDoomstalker]

a few questions, then a few thoughts:
- why so specific builds? are you going to give the players such a pre set choice? if not, then it's up to them to see what they can spring up, which is the case with most teams. or is this a hypothetical idea?


This is more hypothetical. Something someone could suggest to their group. "Mike, you could do Factotum/Exemplar. I know you like being the skill monkey. July, you could do Urban Swift Hunter, your characters never stay put anyways." It more of suggestions than "you must play x" but I was trying to cover the bases. If this turns into an actual campaign, I would expect my players (or fellow players if I don't DM) to make their own charcters but colletivly so they can work as a team.


- what sort of city? what sort of adventures? the minimal info you provided can fit many kind of scenerios. why specifically a strike team? are they supposed to be assassins? or the "deal with problems" team? many urban "gangsta" campaigns (as i assume you're refering to) has quite a few more motifs.

I kept it vague because the specifics don't matter. Just be able to function in a city without worring about going to far from the city. Of course, knowing more about the city in question would be more helpful to individual builds but the point is they can be transferred to any type of city fairly easily for anyone using this thread as a jumping board for their own campaign.



thoughts:
- for what you seem to be planning, a large set of skills does seem good. however, if you go so, i'd advise to comprise (or invent on the spot) skill challenges (from 4E) to determine success of interactions, inflitrations, whole missions and operations (much bigger challenges, with combats or other objective counting as "successes"), instead of letting a few skill checks do the job.

- grabing some inspiration from Shadowrun might be a good idea. especially extended tests, leg working, contacts and professionalism on a run.

Like I said before, this isn't for an upcoming game, just an idea I had and wanted other's opinion on. But these are duly noted.


-will it be fun? that depends on a few factors: first and foremost- do the players like this kind of game? secondly- how well can you run this? you need to prepare different turfs, factions, and mostly be able to run an interwoven web of plots. (you can focus on one plot at a time, but then you sort of miss the whole "live city, lots of people with their own interests" theme). also- how well do you improvise? for these kind of campaigns have MUCH more room for improvisation then regular "go to adventure site, do adventure, continue" kind of thing.

Assuming a good DM for this kind of campaign, and players who like this style, of course will have fun. So I guess thats a dumb question as its dependent on the people involved.


- non dex based character could work interestingly well- warlock, favored soul for example. their powers and spells might make them an interesting addition.

I didn't even think about those. I didn't go to far into divine (I know the least about non-cleric divine stuff) so I'll take your word for it.


just some of my thoughts, that's all. the idea sound good, hopeit will work well! :smallsmile:

Kol.

Thanks for the input! :smallsmile:

[Big Fau]

Thats dissapointing. But as the primary skill monkey, few resources should be spent on combat.

A Factotum isn't a primary Skill Monkey, he's a Jack of All Trades. One of those trades is combat, and Iaijutsu Focus happens to be one of the best options for him (the other primary one being Tripping, seeing as he's actually very good at it). Spellcasting can replace this if he abuses every known Polymorph spell in the game, but Iaijutsu Focus just costs skill points and two feats (EWP and Quick Draw, both of which can be replaced eventually by magic items).

It's also because Cunning Strike sucks, and adding just your Int to damage is expensive and inefficient.