Blood and Guts: Soldiers

Some comments...

1. Page 5, column 3, "Qualified Expert"...looks like the word "redundant" was accidentally left in.

2. This settles it...we need Craft [food].

3. I guess I'd rather just call the Airman advanced class the "Pilot." "Airman" has a specific meaning in a military context --- an enlisted member of the Air Force --- and since this class is for officers rather than Airmen...

4. I'd also have a rank requirement for the Airman/Pilot class --- Warrant Officer for helicopter pilots, 2nd Lt. for airplane pilots.

5. I wonder if the Specialist advanced class needs to be rethought a little so it better represents mastery of a MOS and its associated skills. I'd treat it like the Martial Arts Master in that it would effectively be multiple different classes --- the Adminstration Specialist, the Intelligence Specialist, the Aivation Specialist, etc.

This character will be extremely good at a narrow group of skills --- you might take a few levels of Combat Engineering Specialist on your way to becoming a Special Forces Engineering Sergeant, for example, while an NBC Specialist would be the man you want on your team when your up against bioterrorism.

Requirements: Personal Firearms Proficiency, any MOS, 6 ranks in any two class skills granted by your MOS, Active or Reserve Duty

[This gets it away from the "desk jockey" idea...for some MOS's, requiring Computer Use and Knowledge and Desk Jockey doesn't make sense.]

And maybe the MOS Mastery feat could be a class ability instead of a feat...perhaps in lieu of Smart Resiliance, which seems to make this too much of an Intelligence-based class [since they already gain Smart Defense, and have plenty of skill points to throw around]...

1st MOS Mastery
2nd Bonus Feat
3rd Speed of the Essence
4th Bonus Feat
5th MOS Mastery
6th Bonus Feat
7th Smart Defense
8th Bonus Feat
9th Qualified Expert
10th Bonus Feat

6. It seems like Grunt is redundant when the Soldier advanced class is available. I like having a seperate class for Marines, though --- no Marine would ever call himself a Soldier, after all, and there's some good flavor in the Leatherneck class.

7. I wonder if there's any need for a Sailor or Airman [basic Air Force guy, not the pilot] advanced class? The Specialist covers that ground pretty thoroughly, but it just seems more fair, if the Army and the Marines each get a class. Maybe the Sailor could get increased resistance to STDs and a parrot familiar...

Some replies!

1. Doh! Not to mention the fact that although it is redundant it's military speak and thus highly appropriate.

2. I couldn't agree more.

3. I thought about that. I ultimately just decided airman sounded cooler.

4. Adding a third feat to the requirements makes this a pretty hard advanced class to get into. Maybe it could be a first level benefit. Hmmm.

5. I considered that. My players wanted something a little *more* flexible, not less.

6. I disagree, he has a very strong niche just as the leatherneck does. Check out his Defense bonus, then factor in his improved ability to fight from cover (and remember the tools the Craft structural skill gives you to dig in in BNG) and you have a guy who can hold ground like no one's business.

7. I thought about it... I ultimately decided Airman and Specialist between them covered most Air Force and Navy personnel.

Thanks for the comments

Chuck

Another comment about the specialist (specifically Smart Resilience)- it does make this class very Intelligence friendly. However, for player characters staying with this class for the skill points, survivability started to become a big problem, so I gave them Smart Defense and Smart Resilience to allow them to better survive adventuring.

Your suggested version of the class was almost identical to its playtest version. I ultimately went for this because the other class wasn't very survivable. Even though the point was a non-combat class I wanted him to be able to stand a decent chance of survival.

Chuck

Comments on your comments on my comments...

"4. Adding a third feat to the requirements makes this a pretty hard advanced class to get into. Maybe it could be a first level benefit. Hmmm."

Or make vehicle weapon proficiency a bonus feat at first level. But since this class is for fighter pilots, I think it's quite reasonable to impose some relatively steep requirements.

"6. I disagree, he has a very strong niche just as the leatherneck does. Check out his Defense bonus, then factor in his improved ability to fight from cover (and remember the tools the Craft structural skill gives you to dig in in BNG) and you have a guy who can hold ground like no one's business."

Hmm. I'll take another look at that.

Now the specialist...your explanations make sense, and Smart Resilience certainly isn't unbalancing. My major concern is the prereqs. Does a cook really need the Educated feat and six ranks of Computer Use? Shouldn't everyone know how to fire a rifle?

Well as a specialist you would either have to have the Military starting occupation or the basic training feat, which would mean you would get personal firearms as a bonus feat (or have to take it for basic training).

As for the specialist representing cooks... I wouldn't say most cooks belonged to any advanced class. This class would represent the guy making the supply orders for a whole company, which would require computer knowledge.

However mostly its there to represent the techincal experts. Maybe I should have left cook out of the description for clarity's sake.

Chuck

Vigilance said:

Well as a specialist you would either have to have the Military starting occupation or the basic training feat, which would mean you would get personal firearms as a bonus feat (or have to take it for basic training).

Click to expand...

Good point. Forgot about that.

Vigilance said:

As for the specialist representing cooks... I wouldn't say cooks belonged to any advanced class, just one of the basic classes. The specialist is there to represent the technical experts.

Click to expand...

I grant that there's not a pressing need for an advanced class for cooks [unless you're doing an Iron Chef campaign, as Ken Hite discussed in a Suppressed Transmissions column recently]...

[Edit: Yeah, most cooks wouldn't belong to an advanced class...but neither do most doctors, bomb experts, or police detectives, since most folks are Ordinaries rather than Heroes.]

I guess I've just latched onto the idea of having an advanced class that revolves around developing one's MOS skills...a class that can accomodate any MOS. Those focused mainly on actual combat probably won't benefit as much, although under some circumstances it could be a good choice.

Hmm. I think just this once I'm gonna house rule something you wrote, Chuck. Please don't be offended.