Make up of Elven Border Patrol

[RUMBLETiGER]

Stronghold Builders Guide.

p. 84- Tree of Jaunting. Permanent Tree Stride effect on that specific tree.
Caster level 9, prereqs: Craft Wondrous Item, Tree Stride spell, 22,500gp.

p. 85- Tree of Jaunting, Greater. Like Transport Via Plants, meaning no distance limitations. Simply indicate distance and location you want to go, and you arrive at the nearest tree of the same species.
Caster level 11, Prereqs; Craft Wondrous Item, Transport Via Plants spell, 33,000gp.

Now anyone can teleport like a Druid, without having to be a Druid, or preparing the spell.

1. Plant a Greater Tree of Jaunting at home base.
2. Plant ordinary trees of the same species near each outpost.
3. Plant Trees of Jaunting near each outpost.
4. See that no one can teleport directly into the home base by placing no trees of the same species within the home base and keep the Trees of Jaunting outside the max range of home base. Simply teleport near the outer perimeter, whatever that may be, so that people still need to be allowed in normally.

Distance is now not an issue. A small patrol crew could go literally anywhere, instantly.

Do whatever else you want.

 

[Gray Lensman]

[MENTION=29252]Jack Simth[/MENTION]: Why do you keep asking about the "person". Even if it was a "Kingdom" the Border Patrol (or whatever it ends up being called) wouldn't be setup by a "person" it at least would be a product of what the "King" and his "Advisors" decided upon.

[MENTION=4937]Celebrim[/MENTION]: I do like your idea about the "Wards".

[MENTION=6674868]RUMBLETiGER[/MENTION]: Thanks, man (I think, darn, another book I really need) That really helps solve Transportation and Communications too.

[MENTION=98256]kitcik[/MENTION]: I wasn't planning on outposts all around the border, just main entrances to the realm and perhaps some important spots within the realm, and with RUMBLETigers help, the number of outposts may get smaller. I still believe some will be required. If nothing else, just as temporary bases for the rotating patrol units.

Thanks Guys.

 

[Ranger19k]

and two teams of 3rd level Swifthhunter and 2nd level Swifthunter. Yes, I am kinda stuck on the Ranger/Scout Swifthunter mix. I just think it fits pretty well.

Completely agree: swift hunters are a thematically and functionally cool combination. Check your math however, since I'm pretty sure that you need to be a minimum Level 5 Character before you can qualify for the feat that makes the combination work (Scout4/Rng1 with Swift Hunter selected as the bonus lvl 4 feat). But its been a while, so I could be wrong.

If so, maybe just your patrol leader is a swift hunter, while the others fill the generic scout roles?

 

[Jack Simth]

[MENTION=29252]Jack Simth[/MENTION]: Why do you keep asking about the "person". Even if it was a "Kingdom" the Border Patrol (or whatever it ends up being called) wouldn't be setup by a "person" it at least would be a product of what the "King" and his "Advisors" decided upon.

The distinction doesn't matter. Whether it's one person or a group of individuals, the same questions will apply. A group of individuals will have a goal (or set of goals) in mind for applying their resources. A group of individuals will have a limit to the resources available to expend towards that goal (or set of goals). The "personality" of a group of individuals will be a bit different from that of a single individual (slightly less subject to whimsy, generally), but it's still definable (as much as a personality can be defined, anyway).

Regardless, though, the resources for the border patrol are coming from somewhere - and those resources are under the control of someone (possibly a group of individuals), that (one way or another) ends up with a very strong say in the matter. If this group of individuals was not thrown together specifically for this, then they'll have a history of doing other stuff. What's the "other stuff" they've done? What have they done successfully, and how did they do it? What have they failed to do successfully, and what did they blame their failure on (true or not)?

What set of circumstances produced this border? What set of circumstances created the border patrol? Was it a random number of elves who thought "Hey! This border needs patrolling! I'm going to go do that myself!" and eventually ended up working together (or independently) on that? Was it a random number of elves who thought "Hey! This border needs patrolling! I'm going to hire someone to do that!" and eventually ended up working together (or independently) on that? Was it some segment of the 'ruling elite' (however called, and however defined) who thought "Hey! This border needs patrolling! I'm going to have someone do that!" and then followed through?

Sure, I'm making some assumptions in doing this - but that's a consequence of the way you asked the question. You're asking about outposts, patrols, and what the organization should look like - which implies an organization that's setting things up, and in turn, some relatively small group that's ultimately making those decisions.

Taking for a short example US government - someone writes up a bill, and proposes it be put into law. Other people will propose amendments (pieces to add), and they'll be accepted or rejected. Eventually, the entire thing is put to a vote (a couple, but that's irrelevant to what we're discussing), and the thing passes, or not (note: I'm skipping a lot of steps). But the general character of the thing comes from the person who wrote it. In a lot of cases, it'll have some set of provisions for selecting a few individuals to be responsible for actually doing the work, and gives them an amount of leeway in how they go about it. But ultimately, the major character of the result is decided by either the person who writes the bill up in the first place, or the person in charge of enforcement.

 

[maybecca]

Distance is now not an issue. A small patrol crew could go literally anywhere, instantly.

So patrols are literally "whichever couple of elves happen to be in the area", and the area can be anywhere in the forest, because they have an impressive transport network. If they spot something that shouldn't be there then every elf in the forest who doesn't have anything better to do descends on the invaders en masse as soon as the word gets out, and I'd imagine elves are pretty good at getting the word out. Some magical equivalent of /i/ perhaps, specifying which node in the network to meet up at before the raid.

A bit like a flash mob, in the original Niven sense of half the world teleporting to wherever something interesting's happening.

From Wikipedia's summary:

"Flash Crowd" is a 1973 English language novella by science fiction author Larry Niven, one of a series about the social consequence of inventing an instantaneous, practically free transfer booth that could take one anywhere on Earth in milliseconds.

One consequence not foreseen by the builders of the system was that with the almost instantaneous reporting of newsworthy events, tens of thousands of people worldwide — along with criminals — would flock to the scene of anything interesting, hoping to experience or exploit the instant, thus disorder and confusion be created.

In various other books, for example Ringworld, Niven suggests that easy transportation might be disruptive to traditional behavior and open the way for new forms of parties, spontaneous congregations, or shopping trips around the world. The central character in Ringworld, celebrating his birthday, teleports across time-zones to "lengthen" his birthday multiple times (particularly notable since the first edition had the error of the character heading the wrong direction, increasing that edition's value).

That sounds like it'd fit with a chaotic society, whilst making them appear organised to outsiders.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Stronghold Builders Guide, a few more useful options:

p.86- Wondrous Whisperer. Permanent Whispering Wind spell. A concave cone carved in the exterior of a wall, reading to a small hole in the interior. 25 words spoken into the hole get carried up to any known location up to three miles away, traveling 10 minutes per mile.
Caster level 3, Craft Wondrous Item, 3000gp.

Great for outposts to communicate with other nearby outposts.

p.83- Stable of Understanding. Permanent Speak With Animals spell.
Caster level 3, Craft Wondrous Item, 3000gp.

Great for chatting with the woodland creatures. Birds, squirrels, rabbits, wild dogs trained with the Handle Animal skill could report back to outposts where they are regularly fed and fill the Elves in at the Outposts.

p.85- Veil of Obscurity. Disguise up to 20 stronghold spaces (20 rooms, 20'x20', 10' high) with a Mirage Arcana spell. Change audible, visual, tactile, olfactory perception to make it appear other than it is.
Caster level 10, Craft Wondrous Item, 25,000gp.

"Outpost? What outpost? Those are just a cluster of trees, like everywhere else!"

p.86- Wondrous Absence. Conceals all magical auras within a stronghold space (20'x20'x10') as permanent Nystul's Undetectable Aura.
Caster level 3, Craft Wondrous Item, 3000gp.

Hide all your magical trees, magically hidden outposts, etc, from Detect Magic spells.


The book has many more useful suggestions, I'm hand picking those that sound like they fit the flavor of what you're trying to do.

 

[kitcik]

[MENTION=6674868]RUMBLETiGER[/MENTION] I can't XP you but that is the type of stuff i envision.

 

[Gray Lensman]

@RUMBLETiGER : I can't either, makes a darned good recommendation for me to grab the Stronghold Builder's Guide doesn't it.

I went and drug all my old 2e FR stuff out of the attic and spent last night going thru everything I could find on the elven realms. No real population numbers but I did find a defensive breakdown for Evermeet Isle that included A wing of Dragonriders, some hippogrif and pegasus riders as well as regular cavalry and infantry/archers. Again, No real numbers (but I was just skimming).

I am supposed to get the final map in a couple of more days and then I get to populate it. I will probably use the elven district numbers from the DMGWEB to get my numbers for commoners, soldiers and whatnot.

 

[kitcik]

I really liike this miniature:

 

[Thanael]

I went and drug all my old 2e FR stuff out of the attic and spent last night going thru everything I could find on the elven realms. No real population numbers but I did find a defensive breakdown for Evermeet Isle that included A wing of Dragonriders, some hippogrif and pegasus riders as well as regular cavalry and infantry/archers. Again, No real numbers (but I was just skimming).

As you are referencing 2E FR sources, i want to mention that there are several FR novels in which the elven realms are shown in great detail and also at war.

Evermeet: Island of Elves
Realms of the Elves

The Last Mythal Trilogy:
Forsaken House
Farthest Reach
Final Gate

See the Candlekeep Novels page for details on each.

Also check out the excellent extensive Realms NPC conversion thread(s) on WotC in which tons of 2E Realms NPCs go converted to 3E (mostly by Green_Giant):
WoTC forums: Realms NPC Characters
Also archived here:
NPCs of the Realms


Also the Candlekeep Compendium netbooks have a series of articles detailing mercenary companies. Maybe you can find some inspiration there...