The Warlord - "You And What Army?" (WIP, PEACH)

[Quellian-dyrae]

Okay, Funds are up. Also:

Okay these are just some thoughts that I've been thinking about. Some might have been covered already in explanations possibly.

Wow lots of cool ideas here. Thanks!

Funds:

1. Improve Morale
2. Improve Units Equipment
3. Improve Saves vs Poison & Disease - Due to healthy food and healthcare.
4. Open Access to special materials for the units for building materials
5. Additional functions for the normal units - Another 3+level to another skill perhaps.

Check (well, can improve all Assets, Morale being one of them). Check. The improved saves is a bit too niche for what I'm going for (and I think the better care is well-covered by the soldiers getting max hp per HD anyway ). The special materials for building could be cool, might revisit that once I've got rules for fortifications and such. And while I don't have direct boosts to unit stats Funds can be used to boost units in several ways (hiring specialists, granting equipment, outright boosting the Units Asset, etc).

Logistics:(i assume)

1. Higher investment decreases the lenght of response time to the strategic time. - every investment lowers the strategic recovery might be worth investing .
2. Increases distance of influence you said. What if they have a natural reach based on their level but investing increases it further.

I was thinking 1 mile/lvl x (assets invested x 10). Seems small but perhaps it can be adjusted accordingly.

Spending Logistics is basically going to be what you do to move your guys. Like, if you have two Forces over in Shadowdale and you want them to move to Battledale, you'd spend Logistics for that. There might be more to it as well, for things like getting orders/messages sent back and forth and such (like, if you're adventuring in Cormyr and need to get new orders to your guys in Shadowdale).

Investing Logistics is probably going to be on a more descriptive scale. Like, at low investments your guys might only be able to cover a building. Higher can increase to a whole neighborhood, and then a town, and then a city, and then several cities, an entire kingdom, etc. High enough invested Logistics, you don't worry about your Forces being in Shadowdale, you have them covering the entire Dales, and past that maybe the entire Western Heartlands, etc.

Planning:

• Reinforcements - Tactical side you have double the men (exactly same group for simplicity) On the strategic scale. The ReEnforcements would help keep Morale up and keeping the ACR from dropping (according to the Mass Combat)

Planning is actually going to be...probably the single biggest thing for jumping from Tier 2 to Tier 1. It's what you'll use to change your stuff. Move your Resources around, uninvest or reinvest your Assets immediately, change your Forces' abilities, etc. You'll be able to invest it to slowly change other things, like feats, skills, etc. Maybe even for you allies? Although that might be too much.

I think Funds should have a personal benefit for your character directly. I was thinking of some form of daily gold. But maybe if we keep it arbitrary we can simply decrease 2% /lvl or 2%/asset off your purchases. So in a way you just use some of your extra funds when you purchase things.

Big time check. Well, sort of. The one very, very important thing Funds doesn't do is boost your WBL directly in any way. But you can get perishable items on a basically weekly basis, hire spellcasters, bring in hirelings to assist with certain challenges, get a floating pool of "oh look, I did just happen to pack another healing potion, look at that" daily wealth, etc.

I was thinking about the Spying vs a specialist unit. Either way I think spreading propaganda and converting people to your side could be some pretty interesting abilties. Or in the Funds ability you can gain favor with a # of guilds equal to assets invested or spent. Kind of like if you bribed them or you have them in your pocket.

Yeah I hadn't originally been thinking much of it but I definitely want to add some large-scale social influence capabilities for these guys. Funds has some now, Specialists will have some...Spying maybe.

Not all assets have both tactical and strategic capabilities. But I think it would be good if somehow the Warlord could have minor abilities from each asset on a personal level despite whether there are asset investments. I do like MAD character when they have lots of options, but I personally dont like such a versatile class to hold out on a class feature from the player.

This I actually don't agree with. It's not all that hard to get at least a couple points in all Assets, and due to the ability score base points, they come in a little front-loaded. If every Asset provided some immediate, in-adventure personal benefit, even a fairly minor one, they'd stack up, especially at the low levels where a few minor bonuses is what pretty much everyone has anyway. One of the costs of this class for being able to operate so effectively on the strategic scale is that it's going to come at the cost of things like MAD and tactical strength.

I bolded a few idea for some of the units. Passive it kind of hard.

Some cool thoughts to consider. The Arcanist ones are pretty close to what I was thinking. Active ones are going to be a lot more abstract though I think (most strategic actions are going to be resolved with just a couple rolls most likely, nowhere near a full combat - I want the strategic end to be something that a warlord can resolve fairly quickly between adventures and stuff...albeit, with the potential to be extended into a whole mini-game for a really war-focused campaign.

I was thinking of 2 more units that could be added.
Dragoon - I was thinking that there needs to be a unit that can compare against the Calvary. I remember a book that had three types of units being pit against each other because they had the advantage. Calvary > infantry > Dragoon >Calavary.
Demolistionist (this might be able to be the personal version for siege units, or perhaps make a make shift item.) If it becomes it's own unit

ACK I didn't do sappers! What was I thinking!?

Dragoons...I think actually might be represented as basically Forces who have both Cavalry and Infantry abilities. But might be worth considering as a distinct option.

Spying - (Flow of personal information is the feeling I get from this one)
Invest-

• Bonus to Gather Information checks
• Bonus to knowledge checks (nobility, religion & local)
• # of questions that can be asked about individuals in a day or week.
• Penalty to enemy spying (penalty to Gather Information checks to learn about you and your operations)

Numbers 3 and 4 are the big ones I'm considering. Check bonuses might be good too though. Hm...

Spend-

• Propaganda
• Civil Engineering
• Friends Everywhere (Nobility)
• Friends Everywhere (guild)
• Create cover identity for yourself.

Oooh these are kinda cool ideas. I'm not 100% sure if they'll be from Spying, might be more Funds or just general strategic actions, but definitely worth having.

Funds:
Spend

• Protection against 'the' Law - You use your wealth to get the best of lawyers to keep you out of jail
• Benefactor - You use your wealth to keep the commoners and experts happy. (multiple benefits, but could be split between other similar abilties.)
• Of the Court - Your wealth has given you noble status and are invited to any and all such events (might need to be part of invested unless fluff-wise you simply bought your way in)
• You are the law - You can adjust the corruption level of the city.

This bit was basically my inspiration for the Discretionary Spending and Hasten Work options .

I was wondering if it was possible to make a table for the CR for the units. I used a CR calculator to determine a level ix summons versus the 14 CR unit(s) you can call forth. Barbed devil doesn't stand a chance it is only CR11.

Yeah probably a good idea.

I'm not good with CR and have no experience with how strong monsters are. I like that it can compete with a summoned monster, and that is not even including equipment.

Yeah the...high-level summons don't really scale all that well for direct combat.

How do you plan to make the equipping of your units quick and easy? I figure you either give them the WBL depending on their CR or you create templates for each level of Funds that you have, or list certain items that they can use. Certain items would only be used by certain units, while other items would only be used for certain situations.

You'll only need to bother for those that do Tactical Contributions, and even then, each Force gets its gear, not each soldier, so larger Forces probably only have fairly basic gear anyway unless you invest a lot of Funds into it.