Immortals Handbook Epic Bestiary (now available)

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate!

Does older mean more followers/subcohorts?

Divine Age was the second modifier I spoke of.

# of Layers x (Square Root) of Divine Age (Table 2-5) multiply the base number of followers.

It only affects the base followers, not Cohorts or Sub-Cohorts.

Regardless of what "power level" of retinue you have for a particular deity, the rules for determining their levels still needs to be determined.

The Leadership rules sort this out handily.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Divine Age was the second modifier I spoke of.

# of Layers x (Square Root) of Divine Age (Table 2-5) multiply the base number of followers.

It only affects the base followers, not Cohorts or Sub-Cohorts.

Ah, I see what you're getting at now. You thought there weren't enough followers with the Leadership rules, so you multiply appropriately.

It's interesting that this will probably cause a dearth of middle-level people in the retinue: there will be many low-level followers, tapering off around perhaps 15 to 20, then nothing until sub-cohorts, which are numerous, then nothing again until the cohort. I suppose it's not that bad; it's probably better than the core rules as-is.

What unit are you using for Divine Age? Seconds, years, milennia, what? It rather matters here.

What happens when a deity already has Leadership? Do the followers stack or overlap? What about Legendary Commander?

 

[CRGreathouse]

Dos anyone here want to nominate Eternity Publishing on the 2006 ENnie Awards Fans' Choice Nominations Thread?

1. Two 'votes' are needed to be on the ballot, a nomination and second.
2. Eternity Publishing won't win, but it would be fun to see it on the list.

This is, of course, seperate from the Epic Bestiary's success -- this is for a fan's choice Best Publisher.

 

[historian]

Thanks CRG, I've nominated Eternity.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Ah, I see what you're getting at now. You thought there weren't enough followers with the Leadership rules, so you multiply appropriately.

It's interesting that this will probably cause a dearth of middle-level people in the retinue: there will be many low-level followers, tapering off around perhaps 15 to 20, then nothing until sub-cohorts, which are numerous, then nothing again until the cohort. I suppose it's not that bad; it's probably better than the core rules as-is.

As I see it the Sub-Cohorts are special troops. The kind you would use in a Strike Team. So there would be a slight gap between the upper echelons of the regular troops and the special troops.

The Cohort is the proverbial 'Right-Hand', and in many ways acts like a surrogate Avatar.

I should also point out that I have a method in place so that you can remove minions of a given ECL and add to another ECL.

eg. Baphomet may not have any ECL 4 demons, instead he could have twice as many ECL 5 etc.

What unit are you using for Divine Age? Seconds, years, milennia, what? It rather matters here.

Years.

What happens when a deity already has Leadership? Do the followers stack or overlap? What about Legendary Commander?

Leadership overlaps.

Legendary Commander is interesting, it seems innocuous enough but I think it could be a tad over powered for a feat. In the meantime though I would just let it add to the Retinue Multiplier, rather than multiply it again.

 

[Fieari]

I should also point out that I have a method in place so that you can remove minions of a given ECL and add to another ECL.

eg. Baphomet may not have any ECL 4 demons, instead he could have twice as many ECL 5 etc.

Eep! I forsee danger here!

A while back, I tried running a D&D wargame, with points to buy creatures for your army, with it costing more for higher HD, and a requirement for "support troops" for higher HD, in order to ensure that there were actual -armies-. And yet, the victor STILL went to whoever could field the largest critter, and the lower level guys practically didn't factor in at all. I mean, when your higher HD guys can slaughter lower level guys at will without any real fear... heck, UK, your own EL system (ver 5) backs this up!

Being able to not have lower minions in order to have higher minions simply sounds like a win-win deal to me with absolutely no downside at all. How could this possibly be balanced?

 

[CRGreathouse]

Leadership overlaps.

Legendary Commander is interesting, it seems innocuous enough but I think it could be a tad over powered for a feat. In the meantime though I would just let it add to the Retinue Multiplier, rather than multiply it again.

Using the standard D&D multiplication, it should add a factor of 9. If a god had Leadership (1), has ruled 1 layer for 40,000 years, and has Legendary Commander (x10), it would have a a total Leadership multiplier of 40,010. It's pretty weak if you're using the Divine Age multiplier.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate!

Eep! I forsee danger here!

A while back, I tried running a D&D wargame, with points to buy creatures for your army, with it costing more for higher HD, and a requirement for "support troops" for higher HD, in order to ensure that there were actual -armies-. And yet, the victor STILL went to whoever could field the largest critter, and the lower level guys practically didn't factor in at all. I mean, when your higher HD guys can slaughter lower level guys at will without any real fear... heck, UK, your own EL system (ver 5) backs this up!

Being able to not have lower minions in order to have higher minions simply sounds like a win-win deal to me with absolutely no downside at all. How could this possibly be balanced?

Well remember that CR* x2 = EL +4.

*or by extension ECL.

Whereas in Leadership, you halve the number of followers for every +1 ECL.

Is one ECL 18 character equal to 512 ECL 9?

If anything the difference is skewed in favour of weaker creatures. Although we all know that after a certain point they become irrelevant against foes of a certain power.

So I think it tapers things pretty well.

eg. Instead of 48,360 ECL 2 beings (and half that number per ECL up to a single ECL 18 being), Baphomet could have x17 ECL 18 followers.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hiya mate!

Using the standard D&D multiplication, it should add a factor of 9. If a god had Leadership (1), has ruled 1 layer for 40,000 years, and has Legendary Commander (x10), it would have a a total Leadership multiplier of 40,010. It's pretty weak if you're using the Divine Age multiplier.

If a deity rules 1 layer and has a divine age of 40,000 years, AND has the Legendary Commander feat then it has a Retinue Multiplier of 210.

Layer = x1
Divine Age: 40,000 = Square Root x200
Legendary Commander = +10

Total 1 x 200, +10 = 210

 

[CRGreathouse]

If a deity rules 1 layer and has a divine age of 40,000 years, AND has the Legendary Commander feat then it has a Retinue Multiplier of 210.

Layer = x1
Divine Age: 40,000 = Square Root x200
Legendary Commander = +10

Total 1 x 200, +10 = 210

Sorry, I read from the wrong line. That's what I meant.