Life after Slackers

[Occhidiangela]

A case could be made that an A1-A2 merc hired in hell immediately upstages the players as far as auras go, so this could be an issue even with mortal mercs. Even in normal, if everyone hires a mortal prayer merc in A2 once we get there... well with 7 prayer auras going off, they aren't all that mortal, are they? I'm beginning to think no merc, or a barb merc with only normal-grade gear, might be the best way to go. Maybe even barbs with no weapons at all? That might be a bit much, not sure.

Your initial offer of cheap weapons for mercs sticks to the movie theme. The Act II aura queers the deal with the Act II Mercs, the world's finest pitchfork fighters. If one could mitigate Aura Cheese . . .

1. For Act II Mercs, equip them only with tridents or scythes. Or, Javelins. What aura is the most innocuous?

Choices: Thorns, Might, HF, BA, Defiance, Prayer.

Prayer stacked is a deal breaker. Thorns, with all of us in cheap armor, likewise. Might . . . not necessary, and an overpowerer. HF? Possibly, though it's slowing down the bad guys while the Seven have Fanaticism on, strikes me as rather unfair . . . like a Bruce Lee battle in Enter the Dragon. He gets sped up, the rest slow down artificially.

BA? If they are all BA, that raises the to hit considerably. The argument for overpowered could be made if Fanat is laid on top of that.

Defiance with cloth as base armor strikes me as least impact, since the low AC base and the 4X AR moster to hit already overtake that anyway, and the "gap" and clvl mlvl curve starts to help Monster to hit in mid to late Hell.

If anything all Defiance, but your gut instinct for no Act II mercs strikes me as correct. Too much cheese, too much power.

Act V: Two handed swords only, no elite, no exceptional. You could also consider limiting armor types to the same as for Players. Mercs will die, but their Stun and Bash will occasionally help out.

I like Celtic Hounds D & D resurrection Death Penalty.

Shisak's pair theme, expanded into Odd Couple neurosis:

1

1) Sorc ranger paired with Melee barb
Or, Sorce Melee paired with a Barb spell caster.

2) Trapassin paired with Paladin
Trapassin paired with a Necro. Or, a dagger only Assassin.

The problem with Trapassin's is that even naked, they can work the game solo without all that much trouble.

3) Curse necro paired with werewolfe
Curse necro paired with a warcry barb.

4) Passive Zon paired with Spearazon
Passive zon paired with Healer Paladin or an Elemental Druid.

And they all have to be naked, or otherwise themed with odd little quirks.

Occhi

[Zed-F]

We could consider the barbs as trainee samurai, and give them the same equipment restrictions as the players, sure. With the no exceptional/elite caveat, of course -- can't give a student better equipment than the master! Besides, he might hurt himself with a sword that was too sharp. A bash is a no-range charge or a shieldless smite. A stun is a bit more difficult to explain, but I'm willing to live with less than a perfect analogy.

Optionally we could have a dojo session once an act or so where we hostile one another and let the mercs go at it. Of course we'd have to turn off our auras to be fair...

[Occhidiangela]

We could consider the barbs as trainee samurai, and give them the same equipment restrictions as the players, sure. With the no exceptional/elite caveat, of course -- can't give a student better equipment than the master! Besides, he might hurt himself with a sword that was too sharp. A bash is a no-range charge or a shieldless smite. A stun is a bit more difficult to explain, but I'm willing to live with less than a perfect analogy.

Optionally we could have a dojo session once an act or so where we hostile one another and let the mercs go at it. Of course we'd have to turn off our auras to be fair...

Merc duels be fun.

Occhi

[Zed-F]

Contenders:
- 7SS: 7 Samurai Simplified
- OC: Odd Couples (mercless paired characters)
- NE: Naked Escorts (naked chars supporting killer mercs)

Participants/votes in no particular order (let me know if you want in/out!)

- Zed: (1) 7SS, (2) OC
- ShadowHM: No preference?
- CelticHound: (1) 7SS
- Hawkmoon: (1) 7SS, (2) NE -- maybe OC based on mercless comment?
- Shishak: (1) No preference?
- Occhi: (1) OC, (2) 7SS - based on your 'biased' vote?
- BamBam: (1) 7SS

Most people seem to be voting for 7SS. Next questions are what we want to do with mercs, and how we want to sort the team in terms of what skills/auras people plan to take.

Firstly, for mercs, I'll propose that we go mercless until we can get to A5 and our reputation grows to the point where we acquire some followers to train, that our followers follow the same equipment rules we do, and that they can't have exceptional or elite gear. Here are some options:

1. Barbs can be raised at will. I'm ok if we want this, as they do little damage.
2. Barbs can be raised once per session.
3. Barbs can be raised only between sessions.
4. Go back to the original mortal mercs suggestion. Res barbs only to recover their gear, then replace them with a new hire. Or just hire a new barb with no gear recovery.
5. Do something else. (If so, what?)

I'll post another signup thread so people can stake a claim to what characters they will play. I would like to reserve this thread for rules discussions and the signup thread for play details. Please only post to the signup thread if you actually plan to play. We will probably be aiming for Sat nights at 8:30 EST.

[Occhidiangela]

Comment on Barbs.

Toshiro Mifune's character is referred to "a barbarian" early in the film. This lends to there being an alternate Paladin choice for Toshiro being a Barbarian, rather than a Paladin.

Sword Mastery, yes.
Passives. Any at 1.
Warcries. Aura Warcries are BO, BC, and Shout. He is not a leader, so Battle Command strikes me as inappropriate. BO or Shout become issues to resolve among the team. Shout for sure, he is a mouthy guy in the film, BO . . . not so sure. Might make things too easy with the extra HP. Taunt . . . a consideration because, again, he is rather glib in the film. Find Item as well, as he was one of those guys who rolls samurai for their armor.

Since he is a Barb, he might be required to use Bash and Stun, like those other peasant barbs.

Comments welcome. This fits the role issue, and the link between him and the farmers being barbarians as lesser lugs.

FWIW

Occhi

[Zed-F]

Possibly, though we'll have to see if anyone reaaally wants to play a barb first. I'd rather see a full complement of pallys, though I know we're going to have at least one 'zon.