3.5 campaign - Suggestions for Affiliation bonus(es) for a player

[lynxd80]

So, I have a player in a DnD 3.5 campaign whom is a Lvl2 Fighter, Lvl2 Urban ranger, Lvl3 Barbarian; wanting to put a little more oomph into his PC. In game, he is the Liuetenant in a rebel army and I thought it would be cool to give him an afiliation to grant him some bonuses. Tailoring this to his class selections, I could use some suggestions for bonuses as I have already built the remainder of the affiliation's prerequisites, point scores, ect. I will add he is a believer in two weapon fighting and enjoys jumping into the midst of enemies, on enemies, through them, ect...

~Lynx D.

[lynxd80]

Still waiting for suggestions. Just to clarify, the benefits I am thinking of come in the form of feats, abilities, items, ect... I know I had a member of the group already recommend Pounce as a possible benifet to be earned due to his combat ready nature. Any other ideas out there?

~Lynx D.

[zyggythorn]

before you just hand out build appropriate feats willy-nilly, you may wish to look at the other players in the group, and come up with a little bonus for them as well.

Free gish levels are always a dangerous, but extremely fun option- something like 1 free level per 3-4 HD.

As far as feats, well can you give any other info on the build?

[lynxd80]

I'm not too concerned about the other players at the moment. i've already fashioned items, affiliations, and even allowed one to Chimer-ize his PC as a part of his backstory. Regardless, though, I will keep that thought in mind as we continue onwards into the campaign. At the moment, though, I need to get this gentleman caught up with the crowd. As such, I don't have his Character in fron of me, but I can tell you he is largely into 2-weapon fighting AND is currently wielding twin Star-metal Scimitars. He gets the most game milage out of his Urban Ranger levels, but has ben flexing the barbarian muscle for it's rage benifits in battle. Levels of fighter in for the extra feats. I believe he already has Improved two-weapon fighting... I wonder if I shouldn't check to see if he has Weapon Focus or speciialization and offer that along with Improved Critical and Pounce...

Lynx D.

[shaikujin]

I've tried to do some custom affiliations before.

Iirc feats granted by the affiliations need not meet pre-requsites. You can have it provide feat chains that he won't normally get. Such as improved trip, 2 weapon fighting, mighty cleave etc. Small boosts that aren't too powerful.

Or, if you if have a high powered campaign, even some of the less powerful epic feats like perfect 2 weapon fighting, infinite deflect arrows etc at the high affiliation scores.

Bonus to attack to 1 type of monster is quite nice as well.

Then there are the more generic benefits like discounts when purchasing gear.

For more, there are the leadership feats or dragon cohorts.

These are all based using the sample affliations in DMG II and CC.

If he gets enough affiliation score to become the leader, set up some executive powers like Trade, Craft or Plunder. Have the characters plunder each other's affiliations. (Only 1 sixth chance of losing 1 capital, if it goes down just use trade next month to regain). Fluff wise, I like mining companies that mines shapesand, or salvage/junkyards of used/broken magic items.

Note: TO abuse - If the players can found their own affiliations, they can set up rules that can make them gain affilication scores like mad. Setup a few hundred (no cost or time to setup). Designate 1 as the "victim". Shadow War the victim with 20 or so other affiliations so that the victim gets a -40 score to its Violence roll. Then plunder it with the other hundred with guaranteed success. Have some trade with the victim if it loses capital. I ran a simulation and the players can each earn 75 million gp every month. Another way to break WBL. But it's no fun. Just a TO exercise.


Oh, btw, affiliations of the government type can set up laws. Things like "follow x religion" which can give citizens (not just members) "at least 1" rank in a skill (say knowledge religion). This can potentially allow skill caps to be broken too, or grant early access to PRCs that have skill prereqs.

Hope that helps.

[Oryan77]

Granting feats and class abilities is kind of a much bigger reward than what affiliations normally would grant. Compare that to all of the examples you'll see in the PHB2 and none of them give much more than things like +1 attacks or a few bonus skill points. Not that you can't hand out such great rewards, I'm just pointing it out since affiliations are meant to promote more roleplaying and not so much to be used to optimize builds. There are more appropriate ways to grant extra feats if you want to make sure you aren't screwing up your ECLs. Of course, none of that matters if you are not concerned by it. Just thought I'd mention it.

Since you seem to be looking for more powerful rewards, this probably won't help you much. But in any case, here are the affiliations I created for my 3.5 Planescape factions. Maybe you can find something worth using:

http://www.rpglocker.com/DnD/D&D_3e_factions.pdf

[lynxd80]

I appreciate the suggestions! Thank you all, so very much! I'm going to review the link and see what I can get accomplished.

~Lynx D.