The Legion of Greiz

Author

He wants YOU! Greiz personally recruited you on your last trip to Lut Gholein. You felt so honored when he gave you the speech that you'll never forget...

"Bet you wonder how this town keeps safe at night? Well, I'll tell you, it has nothing to do with the town guards. It doesn't even have anything to do with me, but I pretend that it does. I kidnap people from the local hospice and force them to serve my as mercenaries. I then hire them out to any sap who's stupid enough to buy one, and then they die or something; I dunno. All I know is that this is a way to make a LOT of money. You see all those zeroes?" Greiz points to your medical bill. "Well, I can make that much money if five MINUTES! So, you with me?"

You nod excitedly and don't even scream as Greiz binds, gags, and drags you by your hair out of the hospice window.

Legionnaires may not put more than 1 point into Energy per level up.

The Legion is meant to be playable as a stand alone variant, but it also makes an excellent Team Variant.

Weapons
Spear Class only. Javelin Class does not count as Spear Class.

Enchantments
Greiz's men, if nothing else, are almost immune to poison attacks. Their resistance to toxins was developed through many rigorous deaths (most of which were caused by poisoning). Being resurrected put them into a state of undeadness, and being thus they gained a high resistance to toxic substances.

Rare non-weapon items (Helms, Armor, Jewelry, Boots, Gloves, Jewels) must have some sort of Poison Resistance or Poison Length Reduced in order to be used. On magical items, such enchantments are only preferred.

Note above that a Rare Jewel is disallowed if it lacks Poison Length Reduction or Poison Resistance. This applies even if you want to insert it in your weapon or an item that currently has Poison Resistance/Poison Length Reduction.

Legionnaires will never, ever use an item that has an effect causing monsters to drop less gold (such as Nadir's -33%).

Sets & Uniques
Weapons must be of allowed base type (Spear Class). Items with Poison Resistance/Duration Reduction are well-loved, though not required to be used. Some legendary anti-poison items... (Note: Stats may be outdated.)

• Iratha's Collar: 30% PR & 75% PLR
• Death's Hand: 50% PR & 75% PLR
• Iratha's Finery: Total of 50% PR, 75% PLR, & 10% to Maximum PR
• Venom Ward: 15% PR & 15% to Max PR
• Goldskin: 30% PR (30% res all)
• Snakecord: 25% PR
• Undead Crown: 50% PR
• Wormskull: 25% PR

And there are surely many, many more!

Only fellow Legionnaires are allowed. They are bound by the same item rules that you are.

Mercenaries with "Thorns" aura may not be hired. Greiz wants you to do the work - not rely on monsters to kill themselves. "Thorns" mercenaries are Greiz's specially trained "sponges" who exist to make life easier for some of his less brave customers.

The listed skills are allowed. Unlisted skills may not be used.

Amazon
Jab, Impale, Fend, Power Strike
Critical Strike, Penetrate, Inner Sight, Slow Missile, Decoy, Dodge, Avoid, Evade, Valkyrie

Valkyrie's displayed hit points may not exceed your own. She's your trainee, and you're training her to be just like you so it wouldn't make sense for her to be better than you.

Avoid and Evade should be kept at base 1.

Assassin
Blade Sentinel, Blade Fury, Wake of Inferno (Fire Tower), Lightning Sentry (Spire)
Dragon Talon, Tiger Strike, Cobra Strike
Burst of Speed, Fade, Venom, Cloak of Shadows

Traps are not spells. Traps are traps. Can a trap work if you just throw it at something? No, that's called a "grenade" and those aren't invented yet. Traps require special usage. To use traps, you must set them when no enemies are around - If they see you the traps are less effective, and they'll taunt you by calling you a wussy little mage girl (and they'll be right). Set the traps when no enemy's watching, find baddies, and lead baddies to the traps. That's the method, don't stray from it.

Barbarian
Bash, Stun, Concentrate, Berserk
Spear Mastery, Increased Speed, Increased Stamina, Iron Skin, Natural Resistance
Find Potion, Find Item, Shout, Taunt, Battle Cry

Druid
Spirit Wolf/Dire Wolf (Coyote), Raven (Vulture), Oak Sage, Heart of Wolverine, Carrion Vine, Solar Creeper, Poison Creeper, Dire Wolf, Grizzly (Passive only)
Molten Boulder (Catapult Ammo), Cyclone Armor, Twister/Tornado (Sandstorm)
Werewolf (Werecoyote) & Rabies (Note: These two are heavily restricted. See below.)

The Legion is not the AKC, and a Druid can only summon one Coyote (Spirit or Dire Wolf) at a time in Normal Difficulty. In Nightmare, his coyote finds a mate and he can summon a second. In Hell, the coyotes have a pup, allowing a third to be summoned. At this point the Druid spays and neuters his pets.

Grizzly is marked a "Passive only." Meaning, he is also allowed to pump Grizzly for purposes of enhancing his Coyotes, but he cannot summon Grizzly.

In every outing of the Legion Druids are made to bring the catapult in case it is needed for a siege. It seems that every time without fail, whenever the Legion is ready to mount a siege the catapult is called upon and it isn't there. Heck, sometimes not even the Druid is there! But when he is, the rest of the Legion punishes him for his forgetfulness and makes him use the Catapult Ammo - which a less forgetful Legionnaire remembered to bring - by bowling it at the enemy. (One Druidic Legionnaire attempted to hurl the ammo but it was far too heavy and he was squished on the spot.)

Catapults aren't useful in all situations. Therefore, Catapult Ammo may only be rolled during sieges. Siege areas are...
Act 1: the Graveyard, Tristram, Tamoe Highlands, Inner Cloister
Act 2: Lost City, Valley of the Snakes, Canyon of the Magi
Act 3: the Flayer Jungle, Kurast City (Lower/Bazaar/Upper/Causeway/Travincal)
Act 4: City of the Damned, Chaos Sanctuary (includes area from RoF WP to the CS entrance)
Act 5: Bloody Foothills, Frigid Highlands, Arreat Plateau, Frozen Tundra, Nihlathak's Temple.

Special: Werecoyote form & Rabies

Some Druids have a strange, uncontrollable form of Lycanthropy. When he becomes sufficiently angered, he loses control and transforms into a fierce Werecoyote, rabidly biting an enemy and then proceeding to tear them to bits. What this means in game terms is if any of the following conditions occur...

Condition 1: Your Legionnaire Mercenary (Act 2 Merc) dies
Condition 2: A fellow Legionnaire (Player of LoG Variant) dies and you can easily get to their death site

Then...

• If Druid has Werecoyote skill, morph into Werecoyote.
• If Druid is clvl 18, use the Rabies skill and bite the monster that killed your fellow Legionnaire.
• Make the most of your transformation because you'll be back to normal again once it ends.

Druid does not save up transformations. Meaning, it happens immediately. If one or more of the transformation conditions occurs while he's transformed, he executes only the second action of the transformation (uses Rabies to bite the murderer) rather than transforming again after he morphs back.

This ability is INVOLUNTARY. If the Druid is capable of the transformation, he MUST do so. He may NOT choose to cop out.

It is interesting to note that for some reason, while in Werecoyote form the Druid seems to have a completely unnatural hate of Roadrunners (Vulture demons). While this instinctive hatred is yet to be explained, it has been known to cause Legionnaires to remain transformed for the entire duration of an area infested with Roadrunners. (Optional: If vultures infest an area, Druid may willfully transform as much as he likes while in the area.)

Necromancer
Amplify Damage, Life Tap, Decrepify, Lower Resist
Bone Armor, Bone Wall, Bone Prison, Bone Spear
Skeleton Mastery, Raise Skeleton, Revive, Clay/Blood/Iron/Fire Golem, Golem Mastery, Summon Resistance

Bone Wall and Prison are excellent for creating fortifications during battle!

You may have only one Skeleton, Revive, and Golem active at a time.

Multiple points may not be invested in Raise Skeleton, Revive, or Iron Golem; it's not necessary since you'll only have one of each present at a time, and IG's thorns is not Greiz-like. Clay/Blood/Fire Golem and the Masteries can be pumped as much as desired.

You may not Revive ranged attackers.

Paladin
Sacrifice, Zeal, Charge, Vengeance
Might, Blessed Aim, Fanaticism, Holy Freeze, Sanctuary, Conviction
Prayer, Resist Fire/Lit/Cold, Cleansing, Defiance, Vigor, Salvation

Sorceress
Frozen Armor, Shiver Armor, Chilling Armor, Glacial's Pike (Glacial Spike), Frost Nova, Cold Mastery
Warmth, Enchant, Fire Mastery.

And now Lemming and Occhi present, with input from Dr. Douglass, and with the Almighty Greiz's approval...