We provide Leverage: Party Construction for lvl 10 Heist

[Wasp]

Hello everyone

Just as a thought experiment: You are playing a one shot adventure that is essentially a renaissance heist into a magical environment a la Locke Lamora or Ocean's Eleven / Leverage in a fantasy setting.

What group would you create for such an occasion (5 players, lvl 10)?

In general the following roles should be fulfilled - Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief & Mastermind (whatever hacker is in a fantasy setting ;-) ).

Also: every character should be from a different race (variant human is not allowed) and class combinations should be unique as well.

Thoughts?

[Aaron Underhand]

At 10th level there are some key things I would want for a heist

Various Divinations
Non-detection, Nystral's Magic Aura (to permanently hide what you've lifted)
Freedom of movement/Pass without trace/Invisibility - get in and out unnoticed
Fly/Dimension Door/Gaseous Form - to get through obstacles
Tiny Hut - to hide out in a non-scryable environment
Disguise self/Alter self - even if seen don't get identified
Modify Memory - for any witnesses/sources and also so you don't remember it was you that carried it out

Lots of other really useful spells I'd want along - e.g. Locate Object, Find Traps, Alarm and Magic mouth, or Counterspell/Displell Magic or Lesser/Greater Restoration and revivify.

That implies for me a Caster heavy party, so something like this (PHB Only)

Forest Gnome - Divination Wizard - Hacker/Mastermind
Wood Elf - Trickery Cleric
Teifling - Warlock Pact of the Chain - Grifter
Lightfoot Halfling - Grassland Druid - Thief
Dragonborn - Valour Bard - With GWM - Hitter

[quark12000]

Damn, I miss that show.

[Unoriginal]

Depends of what heist we're talking about.

Stealing money from a casino is different from stealing a jewel from a Drow house.

[Edgerunner]

Skill checks are going to be more important than Attacks so you load up on them.

Lore Bard
Divination Wiz
Knowledge Cleric
at least two Rogues
a Halfling and at least 1 character with Lucky
maybe a Monk for movement bonuses

Double up on all the Skills you can.
Get at least 1 Expertise in all the major Skills.

With Guidance and Bardic Inspiration..... All things are Possible.

[Nidgit]

Can't believe no one has included a Sorcerer yet. Metemagic is insanely useful for a heist.

Hacker: Divination Wizard Forest Gnome
Grifter: Wild Magic Sorceror Half-Elf (Divine Soul if you're a coward)
Thief: Dreams Druid Lightfoot Halfling
Mastermind: Inquisitive Rogue High Elf
Hitter: Whispers Bard Fallen Aasimar

Also useful: Arcane Trickster, Hexblade, and Knowledge Cleric

[Wasp]

Oh, those are fun! Never would have thought of a lightfoot halfling druid :smallbiggrin:


Damn, I miss that show.

Me too :smallwink:

[ImproperJustice]

Just dropping in to agree with others that I miss the show.

This may be pure rumor, but I remember hearing that the show’s creator was heavy into role playing and had his hand in designing aome major role playing system. Although I can’t remember for sure which one it is.

[Vogie]

I was planning on something similar, and one way I was planning on doing it is by giving each player 3 levels of rogue, allowing each to choose a roguish archetype, but not actually allowed to choose rogue as a class.

If you want to make sure they still get other stuff, you can have them automatically gain later rogue features on the levels where they gain an ASI.

[iTreeby]

I think this kind of setting as a weakness of dungeons and dragons(at least for oceans eleven). The cool part of the shows is watching them execute an elaborate plan but in most cases creating an elaborate plan isn't actually fun for everyone. I played a system that this did work for called blades in the dark. Blades had a Flashback mechanic where basically if you were on a bank heist and you get to a locked door you could do a Flashback to earlier to show how you got the key to that door, it's really useful to avoid getting bogged down in the planning phase, I'd highly recommend giving players like 3-5 flashback points or so. Just my two coppers.

[Wasp]

Just dropping in to agree with others that I miss the show.

This may be pure rumor, but I remember hearing that the show’s creator was heavy into role playing and had his hand in designing aome major role playing system. Although I can’t remember for sure which one it is.
John Rogers has at least written for Fiasco and FATE Core (CrimeWorld).

Regarding Planning: The Leverage RPG does also include a similar flashback mechanic as discussed here. I do think it's quite an elegant solution to the problem. But it's of course very specific for the heist genre...