D&D 5E Assassins, Spies, and Support Personel

[doctorbadwolf]

If you post a topic asking "do you think this is necessary"

This thread doesn’t ask that question.

 

[Oofta]

This thread doesn’t ask that question.

"You're wacky, Doc, go to bed" is close enough.

If you don't want honest replies that happen to disagree with you and the reasoning behind the reply, don't ask the question. You certainly don't need my approval on how to run your campaign.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

"You're wacky, Doc, go to bed" is close enough.

If you don't want honest replies that happen to disagree with you and the reasoning behind the reply, don't ask the question. You certainly don't need my approval on how to run your campaign.

2 things

First, if you can’t be rebuffed without getting rude about it, don’t interact with me.

Second, the thread does not ask whether this is necessary. You response is off topic. Please stop crapping my thread.

 

[cbwjm]

This sounds like a general RP type situation for any class. I'm not 100% sure what the patron rules are like but maybe that's the sort of place where this sort of thing should lie.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

This sounds like a general RP type situation for any class. I'm not 100% sure what the patron rules are like but maybe that's the sort of place where this sort of thing should lie.

An addition to the Patron rules, or a less silly expansion of the AqInc “franchise” rules, would be a good way to approach this as a universal system, sure.

But for a class or replacement subclass, it’s also a perfectly valid potential ribbon feature IMO for an assassin to have support personnel. Perhaps as one option of a couple options, perhaps as one potential way to flavor stuff like an assassin having specialized gear, etc.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

A sidekick is a combat ready ally comperable to a PC in power level. That is a whole order of magnitude more than anything relevant to the topic of this thread.

The job title thing also isn't really relevant to the thread topic, tbh.

I like that. I'll keep that in mind if I put together a supplement for retainers specific to each class. Something 1-3 pages, ideally, maybe twice that if I include home base rules. Something much simpler than Colville's book.

If your retainer isn't combat ready, what are they for?

In the game world fiction, classes do not exist. Assassin is a job title. Operative is a job title.

NPC associates of the party come with the plot. For example, in my current campaign, the players have acquired a ship. There are a couple of NPC crew members. But if the party are sneaking through the land of Mardar to throw the One McGuffin into the Crock of Gloom, Brave Sir Robin is never going to acquire a bunch of NPC hangers-on, no matter what their class and level.

 

[Oofta]

2 things

First, if you can’t be rebuffed without getting rude about it, don’t interact with me.

Second, the thread does not ask whether this is necessary. You response is off topic. Please stop crapping my thread.

Dude, take a chill pill. How is it rude to quote what you yourself put as one of the survey questions?

I don't see why this is specific to one class. I don't know how you would give similar bonuses to other PCs. I've been in games were one person had special sidekicks that no one else could get and it caused issues. I thought explaining possible pitfalls might be helpful, possibly have a discussion about alternatives.

But I should probably know better. You aren't exactly the first person to post what they think is a great idea only to get less than universal acclaim. As I said before, and repeatedly, if you want to try it out I think you should. Just be wary of pitfalls and make sure you talk openly to other members of the group (I'd recommend offline) about their thoughts. Having a patron and support is an interesting idea, I'm just not sure I'd limit it to one PC or how you would balance out such a thing with any level's granted class feature. Most class features are really important (the extra attack for some classes at 5th) or of negligible value.

 

[MarkB]

This concept sounds like something to be incorporated into a group patron more than anything else. It's support being provided by a backer, and not only doesn't sound like something to be linked to a specific class, it also doesn't seem like something which only one member of a group would generally have access to.

 

[Umbran]

But what do you think? Should the Assassin (and perhaps the name could be Operative instead?) have a "retainer" ribbon feature?

No. Not because it isn't appropriate for the genre, but because reliable support structure is pretty powerful stuff to give one class, but not another.

I wouldn't mind seeing an entire "Character Contacts" subsystem that anyone could use in their character builds - for 5e, I think it might best be an extension of Backgrounds. Let the rogues and assassins have Fixers, and the wizards have Sages, and so on.

 

[Umbran]

Hardly.

but thanks for engaging with the thread topic. /sarcasm

Dude. Not cool. Don't be a jerk to people just because they didn't give the kind of answer you wanted.