Faction Mentors

rczarnec · Feb 28, 2017

I am curious about how many players are using the faction guide mentor benefits. Have you had a PC become a mentor? If so, have you used any of the abilities and benefits such as Faction Philanthropist?

Currently I have several PCs that have reached Rank 4, but have yet to have any of them become a Mentor. I guess that I am curious how well this idea is working and how many people are taking advantage of it.

Warmaster Horus · Feb 28, 2017

I just got a PC to Faction Mentor level. However that character is the only OotG member in my regular AL gaming group...

rczarnec · Mar 2, 2017

Based on the lack of comments and the poll results which show that the people who actually have Rank 4 PCs haven't made them Mentors, it looks like this option has been met with a resounding Meh.

Are there any ideas about what might make this a more attractive option?

Will Doyle · Mar 3, 2017

rczarnec said:
Are there any ideas about what might make this a more attractive option?

Make it easier to mentor. Rank 4 feels way too high to me (11th+ level, 25+ renown, 3+ secret missions). You're most likely to want to apprentice someone at your same table, but it seems unlikely that anybody at tier 3 is going to want to become an apprentice to another character in their own group, just because by that point they're a hero in their own right (probably with loads of renown).

Whereas I've seen plenty of opportunities for 1st level characters to apprentice to 4th level characters in the same group, or a 5th level characters apprentice to 10th level characters, but the rules don't allow it.

I think it would be better if the requirements were simply that the mentor has to be a higher rank in the same faction as the apprentice. The benefits aren't exactly stellar anyhow.

MiraMels · Mar 6, 2017

High level characters who made heavy use of DM reward XP would still be relatively low ranked members of their factions. I could see a same-tier mentor-apprentice relationships arising if a DM used her banked rewards to create and play the apprentice of one of her players' Rank 4 characters. That'd be hella cute, actually.

Eltab · Mar 12, 2017

I'd like to become a Mentor within my faction. I'd like to do so before I am 'too important' to get interested in anything less than World-Saving Missions (thinking: Tiamat).

I think an Epic-style adventure where you have a high-level PC (the Mentor) guiding a bunch of low-level PCs (his Apprentices), and the Mentors strategizing between rounds, would be a cool experience.
(Yes the amount of before-game preparation would be mind-staggering.)

I've already functioned as sort of a 'Mentor' at L4 to a table of L1-L2 players (players as well as characters new to the game), so the concept could be applied even at low levels.

Eltab · Mar 12, 2017

rczarnec said:
Are there any ideas about what might make this a more attractive option?

Access to Minions (NPC faction members), who can help you in your quest.
If they can't fight (or not effectively), then they could be messengers, keep covert watch on BBEG's favorite 'watering hole', and generally let you have 'eyes and ears' in several places at once.

Mentor-level adventures should be written so that some of your goals (the minor ones) can be met by dispatching a few minions to deal with it.