The cries of Kashya, Greiz and Asheara are finally answered!!
"Meat-shield" "Cannon fodder" "There are none left to hire, they're all dead!" These are words heard FAR too often. Finally, a group has stepped forward to stop the maddness. That mandate falls upon...

The Pacifists In Party Expedition Society (PIPES)
[See end of rules for comments on how to get this going...]

These brave adventurers are not doormats, nor do they fear battle. Yet they strive not to draw blood by their own hands, to let foes reap what they sow, and to transport and protect noble mercenaries.

Mercenary deaths and team deaths are strongly to be avoided

There are several flavors of pacifists, and a PIPES team should include a variety of the following characters...

Thorns/Conversion Paladin -
GFPipe Using a low dmg sceptre only, this PIPE is the most vocal and tries to win by conversion. Yet for those who come against him will reap punishment tenfold what they dishout. His stat focus is a near total preoccupation with vitality and life.

Shout/Iron Skin Bar - IronPipe
Whereas the GFPipe begs to be struck, the IronPipe shines by providing distraction and tank services to the party, and a ferocious shout aura that protects his mercenairies. Howl and Taunt are also staple skills.

Defiance/Smite Paladin - LeadPipe
Always ready to lay down a non-lethal smack to show a foe the error of his ways, this Paladin also focuses on defence on helping the party. (Salvation and Resist auras are allowed)

Manipuative Necromancer - ShrinkPipe
A keen intellect knows how to make his foes bend to his will, or die by defying it! He is master of the Iron Maiden, a strong proponent of confuse and attract, as well as defensive skills such as Dim Vision, Terror. Decrepify is also sometime used. The ShrinkPipe also knows how to use bone walls and prisons to protect his mercs.

Deceptive Mistress - AmazonPipe
This gal has more wiggle than a drunken centipede. She is fanatical about her ability to protect, to leap into dangerous situations and escape unscathed. Fellow amazons scoff at her exclusive use of Dodge, Avoid, Evade and Decoy, but she is an embassador on a mission. She believes crushing blow to be a passive artform where only foes with evil and malice in their heart can be damaged. For gear she seeks to be scantily clad, maximum blocking, a hefty amount of hit points, fast shoes, and cracked or normal javelin class weapons. Str is minimal, to reduce "incidental" damage. Fend is allowed, to passively fend off numerous attackers. Iceblink and Rattlecage would be about the only armors heavier than studded leather that she would consider wearing. Unlike other Amazons which use Valkyries to tank and provide cover for them, she *IS* the tank and is fanatic about sticking by the side of fragile mercenaries and protecting them. Frequent decoys are cast. (It is rumored that a FrostMaiden Mistress exists, using exceedingly low damage bows and cold attacks with maximum possible cold duration)

Fire Sorceress - PipeBomb
The pipebomb deals no direct damage to monsters - rather she lays down "opportunities" for overaggressive foes to hurt themselves on! Blaze, Firewall, Meteor, Hydra, Blizzard, Thunderstorm, cold armors, teleport/kinesis. There is one *KEY* restriction - such skills must NEVER be cast directly on the foe. A meteor may be cast on a blank spot where no splash would hurt anyone, then the caster or other friend move to that spot. Similarly a firewall or megablizzard may be laid down, and if monsters are dumb enough to walk into them... their fate is well deserved.

Assasin - Traps maniac.
Druid - vine expert.

Modes of Operation-
Mirror damage - most of the damage is coming from the foes themselves, with Thorns, *low* AC no shield (or very low block) GFPipe and others with good hp draw the blows on purpose, and/or turn others to the cause by conversion/confusion/attract.

Avoid damage - in situations where the mercs are best served by protection, the team will rapidly mobilize a strong defence, based on Shout, Defiance, tanking bar and ama, and Dim Vision or Weaken. In this case it's likely the Mercs can do a lot of the needed dmg.

Trap damage - a lure, bait and trap scenario where heavy elements are set up in one zone, then through luring and/or decoys a mob is brought back to 'negotiate'. Be careful here, the mercs like to see (and other players don't like zero fps)

Circle the Wagons - for truly dangerous opponents, get the mercs and others behind bone fortresses, and use skills like Iron Maiden and Attract.

Laying down the smack - each character in their own way tries to convince their foes that these aggressions against mercs must cease. The smiter and tankazon like this approach, and the others use less common skills like War Cry, Blaze, Sanctuary, and FOH.

Gear? The Bar and Defiance paladin aspire to a very high DR setup, while the GFPipe strives to keep DR and blocking as low as possible.

Clear? Skip? The party may either choose to avoid as many opponents as they possibly can, with heavy use of terror and howl, and finishing at rather low clvls, or they can take a more casual pace and lvl-up normally, hoping to be less underpowered in hell.

The overall goal is to negotiate with or defeat Diablo on Hell difficulty, with the least possible deaths to mercenaries and players. Note! In Acts 1, 2, and 3, Mercenaries MUST BE ESCORTED by all players, as soon as they are allowed to do so by quest. (Act 1- after Raven, Act 2- After Radament, once you go outside city, and Act 3- after Gidbinn, optional before. Must complete Gidbinn before going on to Kurast city)