An Army of Fanatical Lunatics

[Blackhawk748]

So I'm planning a campaign set in Kingdoms of Kalamar and so I'm rereading the campaign guide to refamiliarize myself (plus I like reading it) and the Theocracy of Slen has always stood out to me as something interesting and I'd rather like to actually use them for something in here. Not sure for what yet, but I can figure that out later.

Now, the important things to know about them is that they follow a god of Pain, Torture and Cold (it has like 8 names based on culture but those are the important bits) and that their military structure, hell their whole government, is made up of ordained priests. Now, them having so many Clerics would have strange repercussions not to mention wouldn't fit the best with how KoK usually has a lower number of casters per capita than other settings. So, to this end I ask this question:

What does an army of Fanatical Lunatics look like?

Off hand I'm thinking an awful lot of Barbarians as they are in the less "civilized" portions of the world, which sort of rules out the ToB classes as they really represent more formalized battle education. I'm just not entirely sure what to buil the non Clerics as, so whatever neat things you guys come up with would be helpful.

Thanks in advance

[NotASpiderSwarm]

Definitely replace all of the battlefield commander Clerics with Bards who "Invoke the power of Slen!!!" to inspire his followers to greater heights. Words of Creation, Inspirational Boost, Badge of Valor, Masterwork Drum*, go to town. The flavor of the priest occasionally getting so into inspiring his followers that he falls over unconscious while they rampage around him like the Maenads is great, too.

*total of either +5 or +8 to IC with one level of Bard

[liquidformat]

I think barbarians reskinned as lawful fanatics makes good sense for the standard unit, if you want to go hard into this you could slightly alter their rage ability to automatically come online when they are dealt damage. Intimidation focused barbarian builds might also be an interesting choice to use as a template for fanatic barbarian troops. Paladin of tyranny or slaughter might be good to mix things up in there, maybe have them as elite units? At high levels I could see having frenzied berserkers being an interesting choice.

I would agree with using bards that should be a nice choice for a priest class. since the portfolio of the god is pain, torture, and cold using the fear focused alternate class features like inspire awe and inspire hatred or harbinger could work really well since fear is pretty well linked to both pain and torture.

[Maat Mons]

You could borrow my Warband of Sif idea:

Priestess

Rage Cleric (Dragon 333, p86): Why should the clergy be less prone to losing themselves in the ecstasy of battle than the lay folk?
Torque of Lucid Raging (Dungeon 126, p95): The priestess is closest to her goddess while raging, so it stands to reason she wouldn't lose access to her spells.
Militia (Player's Guide to Faerun, p41): Of course a member of Sif's clergy will be proficient with all martial weapons.

Warriors

Barbarian: I mean, they're vikings, after all.
Devil's Luck (Dragon 349, p92): Blur the line between Barbarian and Paladin by being pious and having amazing saves.
Unshakable (Dragon 349, p93): Vikings know no fear.

[Blackhawk748]

I think barbarians reskinned as lawful fanatics makes good sense for the standard unit, if you want to go hard into this you could slightly alter their rage ability to automatically come online when they are dealt damage. Intimidation focused barbarian builds might also be an interesting choice to use as a template for fanatic barbarian troops. Paladin of tyranny or slaughter might be good to mix things up in there, maybe have them as elite units? At high levels I could see having frenzied berserkers being an interesting choice.

I would agree with using bards that should be a nice choice for a priest class. since the portfolio of the god is pain, torture, and cold using the fear focused alternate class features like inspire awe and inspire hatred or harbinger could work really well since fear is pretty well linked to both pain and torture.

Intimidate Barbarians will be interesting for somewhat higher level troops. Maybe the Elites.


You could borrow my Warband of Sif idea:

Priestess

Rage Cleric (Dragon 333, p86): Why should the clergy be less prone to losing themselves in the ecstasy of battle than the lay folk?
Torque of Lucid Raging (Dungeon 126, p95): The priestess is closest to her goddess while raging, so it stands to reason she wouldn't lose access to her spells.
Militia (Player's Guide to Faerun, p41): Of course a member of Sif's clergy will be proficient with all martial weapons.

Warriors

Barbarian: I mean, they're vikings, after all.
Devil's Luck (Dragon 349, p92): Blur the line between Barbarian and Paladin by being pious and having amazing saves.
Unshakable (Dragon 349, p93): Vikings know no fear.


Well thats just delightful. I think I'll use this as the base. That and the Bards, because Bards are just too useful