D&D 4E Strongholds and Henchmen for 4e

[john112364]

This is a link to a blog "Grewulf's Lair". I think this is a great idea for anyone who fondly (or not so fondly) remember the stronghold rules from 1e. This may not work for everyone's campaign, but it's worth a look.

Greywulf's Lair - Strongholds and Henchmen for 4e

In a nutshell, it gives rules for gaining stongholds, henchmen and followers for 4e. It seems very doable to me. It doesn't seem like a gamebreaker and could be chock full of plot hooks.

Check it out.

 

[mattcolville]

I just introduced my own Stronghold house rule in my game.

My goal was to encourage players to want a Stronghold. In other words, read the Stronghold rules, and think "that's awesome, I want one of those."

Now, my players could always just spend some money and build a tower and just...have a tower, but in the absence of any tangible benefit, they don't do this. Certainly other players in other games might, in which case my house rules would be superfluous.

But being a Lord and dealing with local problems beyond "there are goblins in a dungeon" is a style of play I like to encourage. So I like to reward my players for engaging in that kind of play.

I started with the premise that gaining a Stronghold granted some kind of mechanical benefit and whatever it was, it needed to be substantive enough for players to be attracted by it. In other words, it had to be juicy.

I considered granting Lords (A PC with a Stronghold) some benefit to their Action Points. But the more I thought about this, the more I wanted to stay away from it. Paragon Paths affect how your Action Points work and I didn't want to overlord Action Points with even more design. Furthermore, Action Points are rare. I wanted something closer to a Feat. Something that granted a permanent benefit.

But I had something else in mind for Feats. So I decided that Strongholds would enhance your Role. In other words, having a Stronghold would make you a better Controller, Defender, Striker, or Leader.

That was a little tricky since not all Controllers, for instance, control the same way, but I decided that was ok. If a Wizard's Tower granted a certain bonus to certain kinds of powers and not others, that's ok. Few players take all one kind of power anyway.

So I went with the following rules, which we're testing right now.

Strongholds enhance your Attack Powers. Specifically your Encounter and Daily attack powers.

At each of 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th levels, the player gets a new Power Enhancement and may apply it to a new power. In other words, at 7th level, your Stronghold allows you to enhance one Encounter Attack Power or Daily Attack power. At 9th level, you can pick another power.

And at each of these levels, your Enhancements improve.

For controllers, at 7th level any affected by your Enhanced power is knocked prone, in addition to the normal power effects.

At 9th level, they're Dazed instead. Eventually at 19th level, they're Stunned.

Defender Strongholds apply penalties to enemies Marked.

Strikers gain extra damage and enhanced critical range.

Leaders can grant Temporary HP, restore used Encounter powers, grant extra action points, etc....

The main problem with these rules as I see them is that the Character Builder doesn't support them and so the players, who (like me) have become super reliant on the builder, will tend not to use them, because it means more bookkeeping. We'll see.

I also want money to be more important to the game and so Strongholds become one of those things that cost money to keep up, but that's not critical to these rules.

 

[Cwheeler]

That sounds like an interesting approach there, Matt.

Any chance of getting a writeup on the specifics? (including any notes you have on how you're planning on doing costs)

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Hmmmm, what's the need (and rationale) for a stronghold to enhance the character's combat capability?

I think it could be AN option. Attach some kind of non-item boon to the character owning a stronghold. The other way to do it is to just make it cost nothing to have one. As a "freebie" item then its purely something the PC can develop or not as part of their PC for RP purposes.

 

[Roger]

Hurray, you get a stronghold just in time for you to leave the plane.


Cheers,
Roger

 

[Cwheeler]

Hmmmm, what's the need (and rationale) for a stronghold to enhance the character's combat capability?

I think it's more about having a reward/incentive for putting in all that work. It would, of course, be entirely optional depending on your play style.

Hurray, you get a stronghold just in time for you to leave the plane.

Who said that paragon adventures have to get extraplanar?

 

[mattcolville]

Hmmmm, what's the need (and rationale) for a stronghold to enhance the character's combat capability?

I think I covered that.

My goal was to encourage players to want a Stronghold. In other words, read the Stronghold rules, and think "that's awesome, I want one of those."

...

I started with the premise that gaining a Stronghold granted some kind of mechanical benefit and whatever it was, it needed to be substantive enough for players to be attracted by it. In other words, it had to be juicy.

I think it could be AN option. Attach some kind of non-item boon to the character owning a stronghold. The other way to do it is to just make it cost nothing to have one. As a "freebie" item then its purely something the PC can develop or not as part of their PC for RP purposes.

Well, again, as I said, there's never been anything stopping anyone from just spending their money and buying a tower. I covered that. But my players tend not to do it, and I want to encourage them to, because it is a style of play I like.

 

[mattcolville]

That sounds like an interesting approach there, Matt.

Any chance of getting a writeup on the specifics? (including any notes you have on how you're planning on doing costs)

Here's what I got so far. One of the players is about to complete his Stronghold, another one is just starting his.

Strongholds & Roles

Strongholds enhance your Role, making you a more effective Leader, Striker, Controller, or Defender

A Character cannot gain a stronghold before 7th level. A stronghold can either be granted to a character as a reward for some extraordinary service on behalf of a local Noble, he can build a new stronghold from scratch, or he can repair an existing ruin. Once his Stronghold is complete, he becomes a Lord, gains powers based on his level, and attracts followers. Followers will be covered later.

Strongholds grant power enhancements. One power enhancement at 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th level. Power enhancements can only be applied to Encounter Attack Powers or Daily Attack powers. The player picks a new power to enhance every time he gets a power enhancement.

The character gains one power enhancement upon recieving or completing his Stronghold. If the character is higher than 7th level upon gaining a Stronghold, there may be additional power enhancements available, but he cannot access them until he gains another level.

For instance; Cho-Tuk builds a keep in a swamp. He is 11th level and when the keep is complete, he immediately gains the 7th level power enhancement. When he reaches 12th level, he gains the 10th level power enhancement. He will not receive another enhancement until he reaches 13th level.

The 7th level Enhancement affects one power, an attack power, either a daily or an encounter power. The player cannot change which power has the enhancement until he gains a new enhancement. Some enhancements are cumulative, some replace older enhancements. In the case of enhancements that replace older enhancements, the player can choose to stick with the older enhancement on a power-by-power basis, but this decision must be made when the character gains a new enhancement and cannot be changed until he gains another one.

Every time his character gains another enhancement, an additional power can be enhanced.

Controllers

Controller Strongholds, such as a Wizard's Tower, enhance attack powers by inflicting additional conditions on any enemies hit by them. The conditions last until the end of the Controller's next turn.

Level 7: Prone
Level 10: Dazed
Level 13: Weakened
Level 16: Immobilized
Level 19: Stunned.

In other words, if Velorin gains a stronghold, at 7th level he may chose one Attack power, either an Encounter or a Daily, and anyone affected by that power is also knocked prone. At 10th level he may now have two enhanced two powers, and anyone affected by them is Dazed. He my choose, upon gaining 10th level, to have one or both powers knock his targets prone instead, but he must make this decision when he gains 10th level, and cannot change it until he gains 13th level.

Defenders

Defender Strongholds, such as a Fighter's Keep, enhance attack powers by inflicting enemies Marked by the character. The conditions last until the Mark goes away.

Level 7: Slowed
Level 10: -2 to all attacks
Level 13: Weakened
Level 16: Immobilized
Level 19: Blinded

Strikers

Striker Strongholds enhance attack powers by increasing the damage done to enemies hit by the power. They are cumulative.

Level 7: +1 to critical range.
Level 10: +5 ongoing damage (save ends)
Level 13: +1W
Level 16: +5 ongoing (total of +10 from Stronghold Enhancements, save ends)
Level 19: +1 to critical range (total of +2 from Stronghold Enhancements)

Leaders

Leader Strongholds enhance attack powers by aiding the Leader's allies, even if they were not affected by the power normally. The Leader may choose any ally he can see to gain the benefit of the enhancement. The ally he chooses gains...

Level 7: Temporary HP equal to twice his level.
Level 10: Regain the use of one Encounter power.
Level 13: Remove one ongoing effect.
Level 16: Gain an action point (this does not allow the ally to use two Action Points in one Encounter)
Level 19: Bonus to his next attack equal to one half the Leader's level.

These effects are cumulative. But the Leader may only apply one per use of the power. For instance, Ottavio the 10th level Warlord may choose, upon using his enhanced Daily power, whether to grant 20 temporary HP, or allow his ally to regain the use of one Encounter power.

 

[Alex319]

IIRC, I saw somewhere (might have been the DMG2, or a Dragon article) an idea for bases to have "facilities" that are costed using the same structure as magical items, and give you benefits or powers that you can use while you are at the base - kind of like how legendary boons/divine boons/grandmaster trainings work. For example, one of the facilities as I recall was a "martial training facility" that gives you a free retrain of a martial power per level.

 

[Alex319]

Controllers

Controller Strongholds, such as a Wizard's Tower, enhance attack powers by inflicting additional conditions on any enemies hit by them. The conditions last until the end of the Controller's next turn.

Level 7: Prone
Level 10: Dazed
Level 13: Weakened
Level 16: Immobilized
Level 19: Stunned.

In other words, if Velorin gains a stronghold, at 7th level he may chose one Attack power, either an Encounter or a Daily, and anyone affected by that power is also knocked prone. At 10th level he may now have two enhanced two powers, and anyone affected by them is Dazed. He my choose, upon gaining 10th level, to have one or both powers knock his targets prone instead, but he must make this decision when he gains 10th level, and cannot change it until he gains 13th level.

You mean that at 19th level, the Controller can make each of his 4 encounter powers (plus one of his dailies) stun in addition to its normal effects every hit!? With a few good area effect encounter powers he'll be able to lock down a whole encounter on his own.