NPC Companions House Rule (Rough)

[SpydersWebbing]

A little while ago one of my characters picked up a lover in-game. He asked me if I could bring her into combat, and I said no, I wasn't in the mood to add yet ANOTHER person I'd have to keep track of in-game. But, after a little bit of thinking, I came up with this house rule. It's based on the Beaster Mastery class feature.

You can get a companion. They share your HP, because if either one of you drops the other flees battle to take care of their companion. The companion shares your actions. If you take a move action you may both move. Even though you technically have more encounter powers you can only use the same number of encounter powers as a single person would.


Tis based a bit on the new Prince of Persia game. Any thoughts?

 

[CapnZapp]

Any thoughts?

Just one - what stats would that companion have?

 

[SpydersWebbing]

Not quite sure yet. I'll take a look at the Martial Power Sourcebook or the DM's guide for generating NPC's and use those. Numbers will come out soon.

 

[SpydersWebbing]

Just use the standard array in the Player's Handbook.

 

[jasin]

I think the general idea of companions worked out along the lines of the ranger's beast has merit, but I'd lean towards making it a particular class's shtick. (Maybe that's one way to do a martial controller, a lead-from-the-rear type with minion(s) to tie up multiple opponents?)

In the case of a PC who just wants to bring an NPC along on adventures, it seems simpler to treat the NPC as an additional PC: instead of 5 monsters for 5 PC, use 6 monsters for 5 PCs + 1 NPC. That's how the DMG suggests mounts should be treated too.

Of course, this does leave the question of who controls the NPC.

 

[ghearus]

My take on the topic...

Here is my take on the topic. It borrows heavily from Rangers, but opens the door for any class to gain a companion. The feat cannot be used to gain a second companion. The companion you gain is definitely skewed towards being Martial (see below), and the Paragon Path also benefits characters that partake in melee more than any other. Please provide feedback



Note; I create images of stat-blocks and such to preserve formatting without futzing around with HTML. If you want to be able to copy and paste the content of the powers, you can grab a PDF version at Honored Companions and the Fatebound


Feat


Honored Companion

Requirement: Level 2
Benefit: By forgoing training in your class, you gain an honored companion.
Restriction: You may not take this feat if you have a Class Feature that grants you a companion.

You sacrifice a class feature of your choice when you take this feat. You gain an Honored Companion.

Complete the statistics block below by following these rules:

• Select the race of your Honored Companion
• Grant attributes with the standard array (16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10), and adding racial modifiers.
• Your Honored Companion is treated as being the same level as you.
• Your companion has hit points equal to 12, plus 6 times your level.
• All defenses are calculated according by applying the base 10, plus equipment modifiers and racial modifiers.
• Your companion gains training in one skill
• Choose a Companion role from Defender, Striker, or Leader
• Defenders gain the benefit of the Student of the Sword feat, and +2 to Fortitude
• Strikers gain the benefit from either Sneak of Shadows, or Warrior of the Wild, and +2 to Reflex
• Leaders gain the benefit of Student of Battle, and +2 to Will.
• All companions have simple melee, simple ranged, and light armor proficiencies.
• Your companion gains the same attribute increases at each level you do.
• Your companion has no action points, and healing surges equal to 1 + constitution modifier.
• Your Honored Companion starts with one non-magical melee weapon, non-magical armor, and an adventurer’s kit.

Your Honored Companion is subject to the same restrictions as detailed under “Commanding a Beast Companion” and “Beast Companions and Healing” in the Martial Power source book, with the exception that your Honored Companion can only be raised using the Raise Dead ritual, and you do not gain any rituals from this feat.

You may not retrain Honored Companion while your companion is not present and alive. You may not re-acquire this feat once you have retrained it. You may not acquire a new Honored Companion.

Paragon Path

Fatebound

“Our lives are bound together, I live as you live, I fall as you fall.”
[FONT=&quot]Prerequisites: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Honored Companion feat[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
You have found your soul mate, and you have chosen to do battle against the darkness together. Walking and fighting as one, your shield complements the blade of your companion.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
Fatebound Path Features[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Fateshield (11th level):[/FONT][FONT=&quot]While you are within 5 squares of your companion, the companion gains +2 to all defenses.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Act as One(11th level):[/FONT][FONT=&quot]When you spend an action point to take an extra action, your companion may take a move action.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]One Soul, Two Forms(16th level): [/FONT][FONT=&quot]When [/FONT][FONT=&quot]you take a second wind, you can choose to spend a second healing surge and grant your companion additional hit points equal to your surge value.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Fatebound Exploits

[/FONT]

 

[SpydersWebbing]

I like it alot! What's the problem with using a class that's not martial? Wizard and warlock both have at will powers that are basic ranged attacks.

You could add that if you want a power for the companion that isn't a basic attack you have to give up a power yourself in order to give that to them. Hhhhmm... make it a multiclassing feat? Here's my take on the same feat:

Honored Companion [Multiclass]

Requirement: Level 2
Benefit: By forgoing training in your class, you gain an honored companion.
Restriction: You may not take this feat if you have a Class Feature that grants you a companion.

You sacrifice a class feature of your choice when you take this feat. You gain an Honored Companion.

Complete the statistics block below by following these rules:
Select the race of your Honored Companion
Grant attributes with the standard array (16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10), and adding racial modifiers.
Your Honored Companion is treated as being the same level as you.
Your companion has hit points equal to 12, plus 6 times your level.
All defenses are calculated according by applying the base 10, plus equipment modifiers and racial modifiers.
Your companion gains training in one skill
Choose a Companion role from Defender, Striker, or Leader
Defenders gain the benefit of the Student of the Sword, Soldier of the Faith, or Blade Initiate feats, and +2 to their Fortitude Defense
Strikers gain the benefit from either Sneak of Shadows, Pact Initiate or Warrior of the Wild, and +2 to Reflex
Leaders gain the benefit of Student of Battle, or Initiate of the Faith and +2 to Will.
All companions have simple melee, simple ranged, and light armor proficiencies.
Your companion gains the same attribute increases at each level you do.
Your companion has no action points, and healing surges equal to 1 + constitution modifier.
Your Honored Companion starts with one non-magical melee weapon, non-magical armor, and an adventurer’s kit.
Your Honored Companion is subject to the same restrictions as detailed under “Commanding a Beast Companion” and “Beast Companions and Healing” in the Martial Power source book, with the exception that your Honored Companion can only be raised using the Raise Dead ritual, and you do not gain any rituals from this feat.

If your companion chooses any powers that don't count as basic melee or ranged attacks you must give up a power of equivalent level so they may have it.


Does that look good? I hope you don't mind my "borrowing" of your feat, but it made a really good template.

You may not retrain Honored Companion while your companion is not present and alive. You may not re-acquire this feat once you have retrained it. You may not acquire a new Honored Companion.

 

[ghearus]

I will start off by saying that I wrote those rules half-cut, near 2:00 a.m., so I can't attest to the balance

That said, the ability to give your companion additional powers could be very unbalancing. When I designed the feat, honored companion, and the paragon path, I held in my head the principle that they would provide some basic attack options, and nothing else.

If anything, I would add one (1) additional feat that would grant an at-will attack power from their class. This means that a Striker Companion would be able to take a Rogue attack power that they qualify for (bearing in mind that the only class feature they have from Rogues are Sneak Attack).

Experienced Companion
Prerequisite: Honored Companion feat
Your honored companion gains one Level 1 at-will attack power from the class granted by its companion role. You may not take this feat more than once.

 

[SpydersWebbing]

That makes sense, but I'd still like a little more bang for my buck when I start burning feats that like that. How about a paragon level feat that lets you and your honored companion both attack with a basic melee/ranged attack using a standard action.

Or At-Will? Hhhhhmm..

 

[ghearus]

Back from the holidays

The concern that I have is that it would seem to break balance by granting extra actions. An important concept to 4e balance is the "economy of actinos"; in other words, you should have to spend some sort of resource to get more than a minor, move, and standard action per round. If you wanted to create more feats you should look to the Beastmaster Ranger feats in Martial Power to see how to reasonably preserve balance while adding companions.