D&D 5E Thinking of throwing a girl at one of my players

[Tony Vargas]

Not worried about it being politically incorrect for a couple of reasons. First, the Player is a female,and is in full support of this. Second, the PC Knight is question is a Lady Orc Knight, so I am not exactly sending the message that women are weak.

Even Gabriel (on Xena*) got to be a little bit of a badass eventually.

Another question, how long do you all think it would take to train a commoner to a point where they can be called proficient with a weapon? I imagine it would be at least 6-9 months, if not longer?

OK, I'm admitting to having seen Conan the Destroyer*, and actually remembering some of it, which is embarrassing, but remember that scene where Conan drunkenly instructs the princess on how to hold a sword and says 'now you're ready for anybody.' About like that, one 'scene.' OK, maybe a training-the-villagers montage.

Seriously though, if it's a tag-along NPC, maybe the next time the PC she's tagging along with levels, she can become 1st level in something?











(* Believe it or not, I have watched sci-fi/fantasy TV & Movies from this millennium - I guess it just doesn't stick with me like the crap I saw when I was younger.)

 

[Lanliss]

Even Gabriel (on Xena) got to be a little bit of a badass eventually.

OK, I'm admitting to having seen Conan the Destroyer, and actually remembering some of it, which is embarrassing, but remember that scene where Conan drunkenly instructs the princess on how to hold a sword and says 'now you're ready for anybody.' About like that, one 'scene.' OK, maybe a training-the-villagers montage.

Seriously though, if it's a tag-along NPC, maybe the next time the PC she's tagging along with levels, she can become 1st level in something?

Possibly, but I am not yet sure on the power level of my world. It is pretty scattered at this point. I am also hoping this campaign will go for a while, so taking a while, in-game, to train her would not be a problem.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Possibly, but I am not yet sure on the power level of my world. It is pretty scattered at this point. I am also hoping this campaign will go for a while, so taking a while, in-game, to train her would not be a problem.

Nod. That's why drag-along leveling makes sense, they stay 'behind' the PCs, so sidekick-like, but relevantish. In my last campaign, I had a number of NPCs like that who were simply Minions (re-usable minions that dropped rather than died when hit) who 'advanced' with the party staying about the PCs level. But, y'know, minions, so relevant, but not a big factor, and clearly even more secondary characters than 'Companion Character' style NPCs.

OTOH, 5e gives you this nice downtime-day mechanic, and you could quite easily use that...

 

[Arial Black]

Re: Thinking of throwing a girl at one of my players:-

I haven't read the thread but I think she would count as an improvised, thrown melee weapon, requires two hands (and a run-up), and do 1d4+Str mod to both the target and the girl thrown.

Oh, wait! I thought you meant you wanted to throw a girl at a player-character! You want to throw a girl at an actual player!

I'm afraid that would count as assault; avoid such behaviour at all costs.

 

[Shadowdweller00]

Re: Thinking of throwing a girl at one of my players:-

I haven't read the thread but I think she would count as an improvised, thrown melee weapon, requires two hands (and a run-up), and do 1d4+Str mod to both the target and the girl thrown.

Oh, wait! I thought you meant you wanted to throw a girl at a player-character! You want to throw a girl at an actual player!

I'm afraid that would count as assault; avoid such behaviour at all costs.

Yeah, and even with proper body mechanics you're looking at a pretty significant risk of personal injury.

 

[Lanliss]

Re: Thinking of throwing a girl at one of my players:-

I haven't read the thread but I think she would count as an improvised, thrown melee weapon, requires two hands (and a run-up), and do 1d4+Str mod to both the target and the girl thrown.

Oh, wait! I thought you meant you wanted to throw a girl at a player-character! You want to throw a girl at an actual player!

I'm afraid that would count as assault; avoid such behaviour at all costs.

Out of curiosity, is there an actual term for bludgeoning someone with someone else? Besides "awesome" I mean.

 

[Arial Black]

Out of curiosity, is there an actual term for bludgeoning someone with someone else? Besides "awesome" I mean.

Unnecessary roughness?

Fastball special?

My very first 5E game was AL HotDQ with a table full of strangers. One guy had a paladin, fully-armoured, couple of javelins, longsword, as tooled-up as you could hope for as a freshly-made PC.

So whenever it came to his turn, he would invariably ask the DM if he could do 'X', where (in my opinion) 'X' = 'stupid'.

For example, he asks the DM if he can pick up a rock and throw it at the enemy. DM explains about 'improvised weapons' and 'non-proficient' and so on, and I'm thinking, "You've got javelins! Just throw your goddamn javelins! How hard can it be?"

After we beat up some kobolds, he seriously (seriously mind you!) entered into a time-consuming in-game discussion with the DM about what he would have to do to tie two dead kobolds together by their ankles, and what would the weapon stats be if he used them as nunchuks.

"You've got a ing sword! Use your sword! How hard can it be?"

That PC didn't make it to level 2. He, amazingly, rolled a nat 20 to persuade the dragon that we were allies, and the dragon rolled a nat 1 when trying to ascertain if the paladin was full of .

The DM, in the light of this totally unexpected 1-in-400 chance of idiocy actually working, ruled that the dragon would do nothing for a couple of rounds while trying to get its head around the absurdity.

Victory! He had finally do something right!

I said, "Brilliant! All we need to do is march our soldiers down the hatch, and by the time the dragon figures it out then we'd be safe inside the castle. We win!"

All we have to do is not do anything stupid, like, I don't know, attack the dragon or something equally suicidal.

DM says its my turn. Am I attacking the dragon? No! I calmly march my soldiers toward the hatch.

Next guy; are you attacking the dragon? No! He calmly marches his soldiers down the hatch.

And so on, until....

DM: Your turn. Are you attacking the dragon?
Paladin: ...errrm....
Me: Oh, God!
Paladin: ...errrm....I tell the dragon that it's now my bitch and has to do what I say!
Rest of us: .......
DM: Roll a Persuasion check.
Paladin: *doesn't get nat 20*
DM: *rolls Insight for dragon, doesn't get nat 1*
Dragon: What?!? You insects try to fool me!

We watched, as if in a daze, the DM pick up and roll 4d6, pick them up and roll them again, pick them up and roll them again...

Me: What are you doing?
DM: 20d6.
Me: What?
DM: The dragon's breath weapon does 20d6.
Me: But we only have 10 hit points each?
DM: Yeah, you're not really meant to actually fight the dragon.

Fortunately it was a line attack, and the only casualties were the paladin and the soldiers he was responsible for protecting.

Clearest case of suicide I ever saw.

 

[Herobizkit]

The real questions:

• Why stop at one admirer? How might the NPC react to the affections of others upon 'her' Knight?
• What will the Knight's family/peers/patron think about him cavorting with lesser folk (peasants)?
• If she's not meant to be a 'liability', she'll have to be able to defend herself somehow... how?
• Are you aiming for 'more than friends' with this NPC? Is that something your player would be OK with?
• Don't forget that the NPC had her own life outside the PC's circle. Besides her parents, what/who else could she be leaving behind?

 

[Lanliss]

The real questions:

• Why stop at one admirer? How might the NPC react to the affections of others upon 'her' Knight?
• What will the Knight's family/peers/patron think about him cavorting with lesser folk (peasants)?
• If she's not meant to be a 'liability', she'll have to be able to defend herself somehow... how?
• Are you aiming for 'more than friends' with this NPC? Is that something your player would be OK with?
• Don't forget that the NPC had her own life outside the PC's circle. Besides her parents, what/who else could she be leaving behind?

1) I might not stop at one, but if the chance for another comes up I think I will have the first try an intimidation or persuasion against the New one.

2) She comes from a tribe of orcs, who are paid to defend some local nobles. She became friends with the nobles, and became infatuated with the stories of Knights. Being such good friends with the noble family, they allowed her to use their name to try and become a Knight. Long story short, she is pretty much the highest behaving of her real family, so they won't care much that she is with some common folk. Although, it might not be a commoner, she might catch the eye of a Jasmine type princess.

3) She will be a liability at first, and possibly forever depending on how rigorously the PC trains her. As I mentioned before, she will still be able to swing a sword, or hold a shield, she just won't be proficient. PC might even go to the trouble of paying for the girl to go to a mage college, if I decide that is a real thing in my world.

4) The player described her PC as "The gayest ever"* so yes, more than friends is possible. If it goes that far though, it will be a fade-to-black, if we even mention it beyond "you wake up in the same bedroll"

5) I have been thinking of that. If the PC ever goes back to the area the girl came from, she might face some criminal charges of kidnapping, if she doesn't clear things up. Might also have the NPC get homesick at some point, and see what happens with that.

*Not in a derogatory manner, just saying that she is a girl, and really loves girls. Imagine the classic bard, leaving behind a string of broken hearts on his travels across the world, but replace him with a Lady Knight.

 

[Sunseeker]

1) I might not stop at one, but if the chance for another comes up I think I will have the first try an intimidation or persuasion against the New one.

2) She comes from a tribe of orcs, who are paid to defend some local nobles. She became friends with the nobles, and became infatuated with the stories of Knights. Being such good friends with the noble family, they allowed her to use their name to try and become a Knight. Long story short, she is pretty much the highest behaving of her real family, so they won't care much that she is with some common folk. Although, it might not be a commoner, she might catch the eye of a Jasmine type princess.

3) She will be a liability at first, and possibly forever depending on how rigorously the PC trains her. As I mentioned before, she will still be able to swing a sword, or hold a shield, she just won't be proficient. PC might even go to the trouble of paying for the girl to go to a mage college, if I decide that is a real thing in my world.

4) The player described her PC as "The gayest ever"* so yes, more than friends is possible. If it goes that far though, it will be a fade-to-black, if we even mention it beyond "you wake up in the same bedroll"

5) I have been thinking of that. If the PC ever goes back to the area the girl came from, she might face some criminal charges of kidnapping, if she doesn't clear things up. Might also have the NPC get homesick at some point, and see what happens with that.

*Not in a derogatory manner, just saying that she is a girl, and really loves girls. Imagine the classic bard, leaving behind a string of broken hearts on his travels across the world, but replace him with a Lady Knight.

You've basically described the Xena/Gabrielle relationship with lady-love as a real possibility. I mean some of your points here are literal episodes from Xena. #1 comes up a little later and basically leads to Gabrielle being jealous at first, then passive-aggressive, then finally getting along with the "new fan" but explaining to them that this is serious business and the "new fan" typically walks off thinking they're gonna get some training and come back and show off how awesome they've become. #3 is pretty much the first season with Gabrielle. Training her in some basic warrior ways. Gabrielle comes out much more the dex-fighter than Xena's more brutishness. #5 when Gabrielle returns home only to be treated like the girl her hometown remembers but she's changed a lot since then and has to prove to everyone that she's got skills and when Xena(the PC) shows up Gabrielle has things largely in hand and Xena even lets her take charge in parts of the fight because it's Gabrielle's people.

Anyway, if you're not familiar with the Xena/Gabrielle Batman/Robin dynamic duo I'd check up on that some.

I've seen "trainees" go both ways in different campaigns, even with initial player buy-in. I've done it myself. It can be fun and rewarding but I think requires a lot more role-play than roll-play. Trainees die really really reallyeasily.