[3.5] Mook Equipment

[Drakevarg]

Yo. In my work on homebrewing Arcane Rifts (see Cost of Magic in my sig), I've developed a need to roll a whole bunch o' mook character sheets. At this exact moment, I'm working on the Azer, whom in my realm are essentially Spartan Legionnaire Mercenaries on Fire.

So, I've been developing various positions in this army, the essential difference being "what feats and equipment they'll have." Only thing is that since I only have a handful of low-level campaigns under my belt as a DM (and one unfortunate incident with a LotR campaign where I gave them Fire of Orthanc, but I've grown since then), I'm not entirely sure at what levels giving a character X item is appropriate. I'd rather avoid unnessicary TPKs when using this experimental houserule. Nessicary TPKs as a direct result of my players being incompetant are okay, though.

So, my question for the playground is, what equipment should each of these positions have? Note that since these mooks are part of an organized army and are spontaneously dropped into combat via Rift, they're unlikely to have survival gear or potions and other such things. They'll be listed with thier level and combat equipment, which only includes type and not enchantments. All positions are Fighters.

-Footsoldier (Level 1, Shortspear, Breastplate, Heavy Steel Shield)
-Elite Footsoldier (Level 3, Trident, Breastplate, Heavy Steel Shield)
-Pikeman (Level 3, Longspear, Breastplate)
-Elite Pikeman (Level 5, Ranseur, Breastplate)
-Heavy Trooper (Level 5, Heavy Mace, Fullplate, Tower Shield)
-Elite Heavy Trooper (Level 7, Warhammer, Fullplate, Tower Shield)
-Warlord (Level 7, Heavy Mace x2, Fullplate)
-Elite Warlord (Level 9, Warhammer x2, Fullplate)

...unfortunately after this point, I can't really think of any positions that seem practical to have that level of power, or any equipment to give them other than the same thing but with steadily improving enhancements. Which sucks, because I actually need to come up with sheets for levels 1-15. I'll get back to you on that one.

[The Cat Goddess]

The DMG has tables of sample single-class characters of levels 1-20. They have base gear for their level (not the greatest gear selections, but decent) and spare cash left over for DM choices.

You might reduce the spare cash, or even give them equipment for a level or two below, to indicate that they're soldiers rather than adventurers.

Or you might increase their equipment for specialized elite forces, who would naturally have better gear.

[Jair Barik]

Perhaps giving the higher level positions some sort of magical communication means? Realisticly though you don't want them loaded up with magic items if you intend the PC's to fight them. If every level 5 mook had say a ring of prtection+1 then the party could seriously start racking up a fair bit of wealth by slaughtering their way through them. I guess I'm saying you should give them things that are practical for the army but that a PC wouldn't touch with a rat on a stick.

[balistafreak]

I'm pretty sure you can give magic items prerequisites to reduce their cost, or something like that. Do that with extremely exacting prerequisites for the soldiers.

Not only does it make it less ridiculous from a metagame perspective, it means that PCs can't make a killing off of the loot, because they're not going to be able to use it nor sell it.

Unless my memory is faulty and you can't do that. But that's a given with any post AFB.

[Drakevarg]

Well, I need to find the balance between "nothing that the party would want, and therefore unlikely to challenge them" and "something that would challange them, and therefore they would loot and become even stronger." And I don't exactly have experience on my side.

Also, when giving futher advise keep in mind that I'm a killer DM, and I don't consider myself to be doing my job right if there isn't a good chance that at least one PC could die in any given encounter.

Ninja'd: I'm not sure in what legitimate ways I could ensure that the PCs couldn't use this equipment without it coming off as DM Fiat. When it comes to the city guard or the local paladin order it's easy; all their equipment has markings and an overall design that very clearly makes it their property. A PC using that equipment could expect to be arrested in pretty short order. But these Azer are extraplanar beings - no one gives a **** if you loot their corpses.

[Jair Barik]

Hmmmm how about specially coded wands? Limited number of charges so that even if the players can work them then they wont get much use out of them. Things like 5 charge Wand of Finger of Death that requires simultaneous vocal command, button pushing and thought command to activate. Pushing any of the wrong buttons or the correct button with the wrong commands activates the wand targetting the user.

[Drakevarg]

Sounds delightfully cruel, but I don't think it even needs to get that far; considering the setting, I don't think any mortal in their right mind would touch a wand. (The Arcane Rifts that summon these Azer - amongst other, much worse things - are triggered when mortals, infernals, or celestials use arcane magic. Anyone but an elemental or an aberration has a good chance of being eaten by Cthulhu as a direct result.) And since most of these guys are rank-and-file soldiers (admittedly ones with a racial ECL of 6), I doubt they'd have casual access to wands either.

[Jair Barik]

Hmmmm perhaps if you made it so that death caused the soldiers bodies to snap back into their native plane? If they do incapacitated (as opposed to killing) one of them and try to nick some of its better stuff you could have all sorts of interesting things happen, players getting temporarily sucked into the far planes (temporary wisdom damage due to mild insanity anyone?) or cause nasties to be summoned.

[Drakevarg]

For the wands, I suppose that makes sense. After all, while wands made by mortal wizards have crazy stuffed into them (since magic causes the crazy monsters from mindrape land to show up), the wands made by Riftspawn (as I shall call them from now on) are literally MADE of crazy. So perhaps any wand made by Riftspawn have a 100% chance of opening a Rift when used by a mortal. (On the other hand, something like a +1 Breastplate wouldn't really make sense to trigger it, since the magic's already active. Maybe just a one-time trigger when a mortal touches it, but that could make it so unarmed strikes and grapple checks could summon Riftspawn.)

[nedz]

Table 4-23 DMG p127 gives a list of NPC gear value.
This follows the lists by class and should be the totals to which they sum.

OK, assuming that you use this, the PCs are going to end up with lots of multiple of the same kit. Given the laws of economics these should sell for reducing values as the quantities of similiar items mount up and the markets become saturated.

I also notice that you have no ranged troops, or that your equipment lists contain no ranged weapons. This is unusual in armies.

Perhaps you could add casters of some kind (maybe just healers) ? This is possibly a better option than lots of wands.

[Drakevarg]

OK, assuming that you use this, the PCs are going to end up with lots of multiple of the same kit. Given the laws of economics these should sell for reducing values as the quantities of similiar items mount up and the markets become saturated.

The laws of economics work in macro-scale, though. The PCs won't be fighting Azer every day, and when they do it's unlikely to be more than a handful at a time at the most. And on top of that, any Azer they kill instead of merely incapacitating will return to the Plane of Fire, making them unlootable. When you add all that up, they won't exactly be getting large ammounts of equipment. And even if they did, PCs tend to move around alot, and a market that primarily travels by wago isn't going to be saturated by a handful of swords and armor sold in entirely different cities.

I also notice that you have no ranged troops, or that your equipment lists contain no ranged weapons. This is unusual in armies.

I'll probably have to add in archers and the like, yes.

Perhaps you could add casters of some kind (maybe just healers) ? This is possibly a better option than lots of wands.

In this campaign setting it's impossible for Riftspawn to make use of divine magic, so healers are out of the question. As for mages, most Azer legions are under a long term contract with the Efreeti, which are mostly gish. That's where they'd probably get most of their magic gear.

And keep in mind I'm not intending for them to fight an actual army, just individual soldiers coughed up by Rifts. The army bit is mostly an explaination for why they have the gear they do/to keep them from being a Diabolus Ex Vacuus. The actual army probably has a few casters, but taken on a case by case basis the chances of a Rift actually summoning an Azer mage is incredibly small (read: not gonna happen unless I specifically want it to.)

[Runestar]

If not for their cumbersome sr, you could probably justify an azer wizard accompanying each squad and responsible for buffing them via spells, wands and scrolls.

[Drakevarg]

Ye got edit-ninja'd thar. These guys won't be popping up in squads.