So, regarding the uses of Fellows, I've been reading the first official SW 2.5 replay, as well as the scenarios that came with the Adventurer Guild Box Set. And in both, Fellows are used for a purpose we haven't discussed yet: NPCs who enter combat. In both the replay and the scenarios, the parties come across particular NPCs who are then with the parties when monsters attack. Now normally, in D&D this would be handled with either an NPC generated like a PC, or a generic PC statblock for a particular type, or a monster stat block of similar type. I believe SW 2.0's method was this last one. And typically, such an NPC would be controlled by the DM, of course, which could be a pain, or make things awkward. Does the DM target the NPC? Doing so gives the PCs the advantage of not taking those attacks. Does the DM only target the PCs? In that case, the PCs get what are essentially free attacks every round from the NPC. But Fellows slot into this role quite nicely, neither putting extra strain on the DM or players, nor do they provide a disproportionate advantage to the PCs, despite their essential invincibility.
How do they do it? Here's a sample Fellow stat block:
Name: Wolf
Race: Human Gender: Male Age: 16
Skill Package Level: 2 MP: 10
Skill Packages: Fighter 2/Scout 1
Languages: Common Trade Tongue (Spoken/Written), Burlight Dialect (Spoken/Written)
Self-Introduction: I'm a hot-blooded SOB who loves adventures. Nice to meet you!
XP: Not desired Rewards: Desired |
Fellow Action Table
1d | Assumed die result | Action | Speech | Attained result | Effect |
1-2 | 7 | Sword attack (Melee) | "Eat some sword!" | 12 | Power: 25/C(10)+4 |
3-4 | 8 | Scout Perception Check | "What's this?!" | 11 | |
5 | 9 | Full Power Attack (Melee) | "Now for the coup de grace!" | 14 | Power: 25/C(10)+8
Skip next turn |
6 | 10 | Scout Athletics Check | "Leave it to me!" | 13 | |
The upper block contains basic information about the character. The self-introduction should indicate what they bring to the table. Here the creator also indicates if they want XP or rewards for the character.
Then comes the Fellow Action Table. Essentially, Fellows can only do the actions on the table. They should be not be expected to do any more than help the PCs by providing (a chance of) the actions therein. And the opportunity to use those actions depend on the PCs. The opportunity to roll for an attack only occurs if the PCs are in combat. The opportunity to roll for an action check only occurs if a PC is also rolling for a check.
When the opportunity for a Fellow Action occurs, you roll 1d6 and consult the first column. If the result matches the situation, the action occurs, and resolved based on the "Attained result" column. If the result does not match the situation (e.g., a Scout Perception Check is required, but the result is an attack), then it is as if the Fellow did not attempt the action, or attempted the action and failed.
In combat, then, it is not guaranteed that a Fellow will contribute on any given round. To make up for this unreliability, targets for the Fellow's attacks are determined
after the result is seen. For example, there are two enemies, a strong boss monster, and a minion monster on its last legs. If the roll on the Fellow Action Table indicates a basic sword attack, the party can direct it to the low-HP monster, while if the result the Full Power Attack, they may decide to direct that at the boss monster, since it would be overkill on the minion.
The PC group can cancel Fellow Actions at any time. If they roll hoping for a Perception Check to see if an NPC is lying, and a Full Power Attack comes up, naturally that doesn't mean the Fellow mindlessly attacks the NPC. Or, if you have a Fellow with both healing and attack magic, and you need them to use the last of their MP to heal, the PCs can cancel an attack magic result, even though it may fit the situation.
Fellows use MP just like PCs, so it must be tracked, and if they don't have enough MP to cast any particular magic result that comes up, that action is automatically canceled.
When making a Fellow Action Table, the first two columns are already set as above. The Assumed die result is what the Fellow can be assumed to have rolled on 2d6 for that action. This is combined with their bonuses to create the Attained result. The Wolf PC has a +5 to-hit bonus, so for the basic attack, 7 + 5 = 12. For the Full Power Attack, it's 9 + 5 = 14. Likewise, the Wolf PC has +3 bonus for these Scout action checks, so the Attained result of the Perception Check is 8 + 3 = 11, and for the Athletics Check, 10 + 3 = 13.
The same action can only be listed twice on the Action Table, and if one is in the 1-2 or 3-4 slot, then the other has to be in the 5 or 6 slot. Other than that, there's lots of leeway for making Fellows. As a GM, you might create a Fellow with an all-combat Action Table, to give the party a temporary boost for, or in preparation for, a big boss fight (this is what the GM does in the first official replay). Or if they're in a part of adventure where succeeding in action checks is important, you can make all-action check Fellow. The standard method is as above, with two combat slots and two action check slots, but you might weight particular aspects in the 1-2 and 3-4 slots to increase their chances of occurring. Fellows are both pretty quick and easy to make, and yet also highly flexible in design.
The rest of the rules is filled with some Fellow creation minutiae that we need not go into here, so that brings us to a wrap on Fellows. I was so intrigued by these rules, that when my sister told me she couldn't make it to our next 5e game, I statted up a Fellow version of her Paladin, had her come up with the Speech lines for each action, and used it in the next session.
And that ends the Rules section of the book! Next up is the
Data section. This is filled with
Magic,
Special Combat Abilities, and
Items, so we'll next look at Magic -- that is, spells in Sword World 2.5.