The Black Company (aka Rawr, the Lady)

[ColonelHardisson]

DR is not a good mechanisim. Since it represents, effectively not being harmed by damage. The Taken and such are clearly harmed and slowed down by the damage.

I think they also need some mechanisim for progressive diminishment of effectiveness. The traditional D&D "Fight Perfectly Until You Hit -1 and Then Drop" mechanisim does not fit these people very well.

DR doesn't totally prevent damage. Look at how it works with the barbarian. If it's low enough, it simply makes each wound less costly in hit points. So the character is still taking damage with each blow that hits, just not as much.

The diminishment of effectiveness seems well-modelled by hit points to me. Think about it - as hit points get low, each hit becomes progressively greater. 10 points of damage to a fighter with 80 hit points is not as bad as 10 points inflicted on that fighter when he's down to 15 hit points. Making a character less able to inflict damage due to being wounded adds a complication that slows the game down with very little return - that is, it wouldn't necessarily add anything fun to the game, and makes the game get close to "whoever hits first wins."

 

[Bendris Noulg]

That actually brings up another point: That W&V would better suite this setting than HP. Why? Very little magical healing, and what there is isn't of a divine nature ("real" gods didn't seem to exist). And your chances of magical healing are nill unless you're "in" with the big wigs like Catcher and her ilk.

Also note the profession of our honored narrator: Physician.

He'd be next to useless in a world with magical healing.

Also, if spellcasters are thusly powerful, what's to keep everyone and their sister from playing one instead of the soldier-types that the stories were mostly about?

 

[Limper]

Limit it to one caster per party... have them draw straws for the honor. Only NPCs cold be spell casters. Don't allow a caster till higher level, at which point they start lower than the rest of the group... doing this would get the players into a character (that didn't cast) and thus they might not wish to shift.

Mostly you'd have to rely on the players want to play the sort of game required to be like the books.

 

[Khorod]

Maybe the Taken should have Fast Healing or Regeneration? They can be weakened or stopped for days or weeks, but everything seems to come back together eventually.

Also, combat should be fatigue linked. I found out last night that at least the PHB didn't do that, as far as I can tell. So at 0 hit points you should be passing out from fatigue, with all associated penalties, and at half hit points just in the early stages (which probably amount to -2's to things).

Avert Aging: That's too tedious. Cast it twice a day, with an XP cost that decreases as level grows?

Better yet, parts of that template should be prestige class related- so most senior spellcasters have a little of that longevity and toughness, and the really high level ones have the full suite. I think those abilities are a little prevalent for a template, almost being mid and high level abilities of the Wizard class.

Unceasing Mage
Hit Dice: d6

Reqs: Spellcasting: 4th level arcane
Feats: Iron Will, Toughness

Good Saves: Fortitude and Will
Attack Bonus: Wizard
Skills: Knowledge[any], Craft, Profession, Concentration, Spellcraft, Alchemy, Spot, Listen, Search, Scry.
Skill Points: 2+Int mod per level

Level Special
1 Remain Conscious, Slow Aging I
2 Evasion, Spellcasting +1
3 Ucanny Dodge[can't be flanked]
4 Regeneration 3, Spellcasting +1
5 Slow Aging II, Timeless Body
6 Improved Evasion, Spellcasting +1
7-9 etc
10 Slow Aging III, Spellcasting +1

Slow Aging I: Age 1 year in 2.
Slow Aging II: Age 1 year in 10
Slow Aging III: Age 1 year in 50.

One-Eye and Goblin both had at least Slow Aging I, though One-eye got there much earlier in life than Goblin.

Lady used some sort of permanent polymorph every now and again to remain like, 19-20.

Some sort of spell should exist to slow/stop aging. Maye, something like the Avert Aging spell, only with a longer duration (like several months to a year).

 

[Tarek]

Epic levels

The Lady clearly is an Epic-level wizard before her Naming, and even afterwards, when she tapped into Kina's power, she managed to build herself back up almost to those levels.

In The White Rose, Lady pretty much comes out and says that she cast one spell in the past which made her immune to the effects of age, disease, etc. You have to read a *little* between the lines but it's there.

Why does she age so rapidly after being taken out of the Ice Cave? I think it's because the stasis of the cave and the magic used to dispel it broke the lingering effects of the enchantment.

At other times in the series, Lady points out that the Taken would not have survived as long as they had without preparing for just about every contingency. Take the Limper; even decapitated, he was still able to function fairly effectively in The Silver Spike. Take Soulcatcher; ditto, only more so. The difference? Soulcatcher was almost at Lady's level in terms of sheer power, and Soulcatcher had prepared more effectively.

Ranking powers (in terms of demonstrated ability):
Deities (effectively)
The Tree
Kina

Demi-deities
Shivetya
The thing the Tree was guarding
The Dominator

High Epic-Level
Lady

Mid Epic-levels
Limper
Soulcatcher
Shapeshifter
the rest of the Ten who were Taken

Low Epic-levels
Whisper
Bomanz

High normal levels
Tobo (who has the potential to get much, much more powerful)
Booboo (ditto)
The Lady's Taken
Much of the rebel's Circle

and it just goes down from there until you hit Raven who has a minor talent that could have been trained into something up to Goblin or One-Eye's level, and Sahra who has a minor and totally untrained talent for prophecy.

The magic system works, it seems to me, as sort of a cross between D&D Sorcery and D&D Wizardry. It's clear that almost all spellcasters develop and learn spells like a wizard, with all of a wizard's versatility, but that the casting tends to be spontaneous, like a sorcerer's, and there is very little drawback to actually casting spells. However, there's also an innate limit to spellcasting ability; you can never become more powerful than that limit, whatever it may be. And at some undefined point, no matter how powerful you are, you become exhausted and incapable of casting more spells.

Each wizard develops his own little specialties, possibly as a result of maximising the use of the power available, which may also have an effect on the wizard's ability to extend his potential. Only a few are capable of the kind of general prowess Lady, Tobo, and the Dominator have.

Tarek

 

[ColonelHardisson]

I just wanted to say that I'm impressed so far with how much work has already gone into some of the stuff that's been posted.

 

[Limper]

Would I be to far off by thinking the Magic system would be a mixture of Sorcerer's... this covers the specialized tricks of the individual casters fairly well. And a NON- Epic version of casting via spell seeds... this would cover ALL the other magic used, as well as the incredible variety of covering every contingency.

The spell seeding system would have to be pretty close to making them on the fly (avoiding the long research and xp costs).

Just thinking again.

 

[hellbender]

I have to echo the Good Colonel's comments about everyone's efforts, agree with Limper about the sorcery/spell seed idea, and mention:

I asked a person on the Glen Cook fan mailinglist to ask Mr. Cook about future rpg possibilities (he will be appearing at WorldCon the weekend), and I will post any resulting replies.

And I propose; if the Taking process could be presented as both ritual or template (for the DM to decide), what about a 'standard fantasy' option as well as a humanocentric world, such as in the novels? By standard fantasy I mean a world with elves, dwarves, halflings, etc. I would imagine this option would be rather smallish in scope, and basically just giving hints and tips to DM's wishing to mix races with the Black Company universe.

hellbender

 

[Limper]

Any ideas on how to bring spell seeds into the non epic range?

 

[War Golem]

Any ideas on how to bring spell seeds into the non epic range?

Hi Limper,

That sounds to me like a topic best raised in the House Rules forum, as there is no need for that aspect of our discussion to be intimately related to the BC universe. Probably get more and better input on such a topic in the HR forum, rather than this thread focused on the BC.

Tarek - nice summary. I agree, to the extent that I can recall everyone in the books at this point. I didn't read them yesterday (or even this year), but I suppose I will pick them up again if we keep this thread going.

Cheers,

-War Golem