(3.5) The war for the Holy Grial or you got your Fate/saty night into my D&D

[Dusk Eclipse]

Can it be done?

I was just talking with a friend about anime and the topic eventually reached Fate/stay night and then I thought.. "Wouldn't it be cool to play in a campagn based on the War of the Holy Grial?"... so I am here

I have brainstormed some points and I want to hear your opinions on them

Each player will have to characters, one will be the master and the other the servant.

Each player will play his own master character and the servant for another player.

To represent the high power of the servants I was considering to build them as gestalt characters (only the servants would be gestalt, everybody else would be normal).

I am not really sure how to implement the command spells; but since the master won't be controlling their servants directly I think that implementing a rule that the player playing the master character can take control of the servant for one turn three times would work.

The plot would be roughly the same.. with maybe other objectives than defeating the other masters.

So ideas, comments, anything?

[erikun]

Please note that I have only read part of the manga (drop for being too roundabout) and have not seen the anime/visual novel, so I hope you will excuse me if I say something obviously wrong about the setting.

There doesn't seem to be any problem with a D&D Holy Grail setting. A D&D wizard could summon a servant and fulfill a contract as well as anyone else. It would have to be in medieval times, but beyond that I forsee no major problems. Perhaps the biggest issue would be that characters would possibly become stronger than their servants, as opposed to the standard masters being weak common people next to legendary servants.

If you want to implement this, I wouldn't recommend gestault. Rather, give the servant bonuses based on the character's level (something like the animal companion or familiar abilities) and make the servants something non-human, perhaps outsiders. You don't need to make them a specific creature, but a human Crusader that has the Paladin Mount's special abilities, along with Outsider traits would be a lot more impressive than a standard character of the same level.

[EDIT] Now that I think about it a bit, perhaps a class//Outsider "gestault" would be best. That is, use the better value between the servant's class or Outsider trait for each level.


If you want to simulate Fate/Stay Night better in the d20 system, than have the players use d20 Modern characters and D&D 3.5e servants. This would make the weak master-strong servant distinction far more clear, and would be a better fit in a modern setting.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Well I figured out that if the master gained a level the servant would also gain a level, and maybe restricting the master to lower tiers might also help.

But I am not sure

[nedz]

I considered runing an Aristocrat game. I mention this because there are similarities. One character would be the Aristocrat who would start with Aristocrat 1, and could take any non-trade classes. The other would be the retainer, who could be anything. Either character could be the main character, the other would only get half XP.

Just some ideas.

[erikun]

Well I figured out that if the master gained a level the servant would also gain a level, and maybe restricting the master to lower tiers might also help.

But I am not sure

Oh, most definitely. The servants shouldn't be gathering XP and should have levels based off their masters. Otherwise, you'd be handing out half XP the entire campaign.

Unless the available classes don't fit the character well, I don't see much point in going gestault. What is Caster going to be, a Wizard//Factorium? A Wizard//Archivist? How is this any more fitting than a simple Wizard, or (as I recommended) a Wizard with Outsider HD?

[SITB]

Can it be done?

I was just talking with a friend about anime and the topic eventually reached Fate/stay night and then I thought.. "Wouldn't it be cool to play in a campagn based on the War of the Holy Grial?"... so I am here

I have brainstormed some points and I want to hear your opinions on them

Each player will have to characters, one will be the master and the other the servant.

Each player will play his own master character and the servant for another player.

To represent the high power of the servants I was considering to build them as gestalt characters (only the servants would be gestalt, everybody else would be normal).

I am not really sure how to implement the command spells; but since the master won't be controlling their servants directly I think that implementing a rule that the player playing the master character can take control of the servant for one turn three times would work.

The plot would be roughly the same.. with maybe other objectives than defeating the other masters.

So ideas, comments, anything?

A full LP of the VN can be found here.

That being said, I think a D&D game based around the Holy Grail War is a terrible idea. The masters levels would have to range from 1 to (hard capped) 5 while the servants levels would range from 15 to 20 and beyond (No epic spelcasting though). Such a large disparity between the PCs playing the masters and the PCs playing the Servants doesn't seem to be very fun in the normaly combatitive D&D game.

[erikun]

I was actually thinking 3rd-5th level d20 Modern characters with 8th-10th level D&D servants. I really don't see anything that would indicate 20th level spellcasting being tossed around.

[Saph]

The Pathfinder Summoner class and its Eidolon actually makes for a pretty good match to the Fate/stay night Master and Servant. I used a bunch of Fate/stay night pictures when building the handbook. :)

[Dusk Eclipse]

Thanks for the link of the LP... I have been looking for one for some time

And apparently I did not make myself clear, every human player will have to characters one master and one servant, but they won't be playing their own servant, another human player would play the servant for a given master.

is it clearer now?

[erikun]

So, as in, I might play Saber's master, but I would also be playing a different servant (such as Archer)?

Or were you planning on having... let's see... 12-14 players to play all the different characters?

[Dusk Eclipse]

So, as in, I might play Saber's master, but I would also be playing a different servant (such as Archer)?

Or were you planning on having... let's see... 12-14 players to play all the different characters?

The first one

[Dusk Eclipse]

So, as in, I might play Saber's master, but I would also be playing a different servant (such as Archer)?

Or were you planning on having... let's see... 12-14 players to play all the different characters?

The first one

[Cieyrin]

From reading Saph's Summoner Guide, I think Summoners would fit well within the context of Master and Servant, with the Eidilon being the Servant that can be customized to your specification.

Caster would obviously be the exception that doesn't quite fit here but I assume you just want to model your game off of Fate/Stay Night, not exactly emulate it, so it would work wonderfully, I think.

EDIT: gah, ninja'd by Saph with their own guide. @_@

Also, Dusk, you got a double post there.

[SITB]

I was actually thinking 3rd-5th level d20 Modern characters with 8th-10th level D&D servants. I really don't see anything that would indicate 20th level spellcasting being tossed around.

Saber runs up the outside of a skyscraper while at the same time fighting Rider, while Rider herself moved up down and sideways with no problem. When Saber used her weapon

Spoiler

Show

Those pics say it all:



Just instant anhilation for those caught in the wide range blast.

When Rider activated her blood fortress any human started to melt by being drained of their life-force.

In the prequel Fate/Zero the Caster had a book that could summon an unlimited horde of proto shoggoths and when the book was destroyed and his master was killed fused them all to create Godzilla shoggoth which Saber promptly destroyed by using her sword. Fate/Zero Assassin could split herself into many (At least 80) independent beings. And let’s not even talk about Fate/Zero Archer.

Pity, the site which held some of the physical calculations of the servants abilites went down.

EDIT: Wait found it. Tons of spoilers obviously.

True, it doesn’t have anything approaching D&D epic spellcasting (Which I noted in the post) but all the martial Servants are at the very least equivalent to high level martial D&D characters. Think low toned Exalted (Which Fate/Zero Archer is particularly a good example).

[Mando Knight]

You could also make both characters a single Champion, maybe.