Training?

[F.H. Zebedee]

I saw a topic about training adventurers, and realized that I'd be needing something similar for a campaign that I'm running.

The basic premise is that the party was taken under the wing of a man who's seeking to topple a corrupt regime. The man has a handful of underlings/comrades around his level in various fields, as well as extensive libraries and a good ammount of knowledge on his own.

The way things should go is that this man would give them missions to handle and such, and between missions, the party would be able to train at the base with him and his staff. This would continue until around tenth level, wherein they'd receive an opportunity to either side with the regime against their former boss or make one last run at the leader of the regime and complete their goal.

Now, for the most part, I know that I want training just to provide experience and give a good deal of roleplaying opportunities to pad out the fact there's only so many missions that they can do. I've got several players, and from what I hear, the classes should break down into characters that are:
-Full BAB, minor casting. (Ranger/Paladin?)
-Minor Casting, decent combat ability (Bard?)
-Blaster Caster with a bit more sturdiness than the usual (Warmage/Sorc)

(Note: These are not directly the classes, just the ones that they've said they're interested in playing.)

So, what kind of training should they get? And what sort of CR would training even have? I've already got it planned that every couple levels the party will have a tournament and beat the crud out of eachother, and whomever wins that gets the most EXP and a good magic item.

Any other suggestions for training characters? Puzzle rooms, scenarios, excericises, etc.?

[Tormsskull]

So, what kind of training should they get? And what sort of CR would training even have?


As far as roleplaying goes, Full-BAB types can receive combat training in the form of sparring with a trainer or one another. They could sit with a weaponsmith/armorsmith who explains the pros and cons of different weapons, and armed with that knowledge a trainer could demonstrate good strategies/techniques for fighting differently-equipped opponents.

Minor casting, decent combat could sit with a Wizard or Sorceror who gives them advice on how they could use their spells, or suggests possible spell combinations that work well with one another. They could also sit in on a session or two with the Full-BAB types.

Blaster Casters could walk around with an Elementalist (Wizard or whatever, caster that specializes in elemental blasts of energy) who gives them suggestions on how to recognize when an enemy has resistances to certain types of energy. Could also give them lessons on the best ways to pick the point of origin for area of effect spells so as to affect the most enemies while minimizing friendlies under affect.

As far as CR, how much experience would they get, etc, these are all very subjective. If you want the training to complement the experience that they are going to earn out in the field, then I'd suggest handing out training experience in the range of 10-20% of the experience they earn out in the field.

If you want training to play a bigger role then just a complement, you could reward something like 30-50% of the experience they earn in the field. But I would be hesitant to take this approach as it would most likely result in the characters wondering why they risk their lives in the field. If you do decide to go this way I would set specific limits to the amount of exp that can be earned through training.



I've already got it planned that every couple levels the party will have a tournament and beat the crud out of eachother, and whomever wins that gets the most EXP and a good magic item.


I've seen DMs try to utilize something like this in the past, but it always turned out bad. First, you are rewarding characters for powergaming, specifically against each other, which immediately sets the game to a different tone than the usual party-faces-opponents tone.

Second, characters who aren't built strictly for combat (good example is the bard) suffer just from having chosen their particular class, which further reinforces powergaming.

Third, why does the person who wins in combat get more exp than the losers? And if the magic item is coming from the trainers, why is their focus specifically on a trainee's ability to win in combat? I would drop this part all together if I were you.

Good luck.

[F.H. Zebedee]

Well, actually, the tourneys wouldn't all be combat. For example, the first one will be an obstacle course with all sorts of stuff on it. Later on, I think I'll have one be a semi-archery contest (blow the crap out of stuff at a distance) that the mage(s) could do some damage in. (So, how do you prove that fireball that blew up the entire target didn't hit the bullseye? ;))

But yeah, I suppose that total non-combatants (Healers, Diplomats) could have some issues. Maybe I'll have a tournament somewhere in there where you earn points be convincing the judges to reward you points. (OOH! Other idea! The magic items earned will almost always be party focused moreso than self-focused, like maybe a 1/day item of Mass Cat's Grace or something like that. That'll keep the winner playing nice.)

Essentially, the training will help me teach the party, who are mostly either D20 newbs, or people that haven't played since 2nd/3.0 ed, the basics of how things go and the rules, while the missions provide plot and drama.

Thanks for that tip on the training. I'll take a look at my figures and see how everything goes there. Hopefully, it's already balanced moreso towards the battles, not the training, but I'll double check.

Thanks for all your help!