Mission Title: Scourge of the Flame
Brief description of the Mission: A party of adventurers resides in Flamehorn, a small town in Thrane. The town is a site for pilgrims of the Silver Flame. Because of this, the town's only industry is tourism, controlled with an iron fist by House Ghallanda. This mission will be entirely political, giving the opportunity to test out a new mechanic: Social combat.
The reason for this mission is purely a test run of using the combat rules to simulate social interactions. For simplicity, the social combat rules will mimic the physical combat rules nearly exactly. Each character will possess "Social HP" representing the character's current effectiveness in winning an argument, either through negotiations, political maneuvering, etc. The idea is an abstraction, much like hp is meant to be an abstraction of health.
You may ask, "Why add a new mechanic?" The answer is simple. Roleplaying on the forums is extremely difficult for various reasons. The time between posts makes it difficult to recall conversation threads. The time between different players posting makes it difficult to have synchronous social interactions (someone might ask a question at the beginning of a conversation, but because they post a few days late, their question may be moot). There are many other issues with forum roleplaying. The social combat mechanic will allow me to determine how easily social interactions will be for the characters. Social death is not the same as regular death. A character cannot die when he reaches social death. He is just incapable of interacting with NPCs until he is "restored".
Rule System to be used: 3.5 rules with Eberron material. Pulling infinite use of 0th-level spells from Pathfinder. For all base races, ignore the standard ability score adjustments. Instead, all races may choose to add +2 to one stat. Additionally, they may choose another stat (must be different from the first) to receive an additional +2 at the expense of a -2 to a third stat. Feats are gained every level instead of every 3rd level.
Social combat: This mechanic is in progress. I am looking for suggestions. My current thoughts: Every combat feat can be taken either as a combat feat or a social combat feat. This means that all combat feats may be taken twice, once for physical combat, once for social combat.
Changes to base classes:
- Barbarian: Social HP Die: d4 Social Attack Bonus: Poor
- Bard: Social HP Die: d12 Social Attack Bonus: Good
- Cleric: Social HP Die: d8 Social Attack Bonus: Average
- Druid: Social HP Die: d8 Social Attack Bonus: Average
- Fighter: Social HP Die: d6 Social Attack Bonus: Poor
- Monk: Social HP Die: d8 Social Attack Bonus: Average
- Paladin: Social HP Die: d10 Social Attack Bonus: Good
- Ranger: Social HP Die: d6 Social Attack Bonus: Poor
- Rogue: Social HP Die: d10 Social Attack Bonus: Good
- Sorcerer: Social HP Die: d10 Social Attack Bonus: Good
- Wizard: Social HP Die: d8 Social Attack Bonus: Average
Social HP is Int-based (as this represents the beginning strength of the argument)
Social Attack Bonus is either Wisdom or Charisma based depending on the type of attack (like ranged and melee combat).
Validation Frequency: 1-2x/week
Minimum/Maximum Number of Players requested: Because it is a new mechanic, I'd like 4 players ideally
Source Books Allowed/Denied: I'm pretty open to source material. Outside of core, ask.
Classes and Races Allowed/Denied: I'm pretty open to races/classes. Just ask.
Starting Level for the Champions: 1st level (with rapid advancement)
How to Generate Attributes: Choice: 38 point buy, roll 3d6.open(6), or 5d6.takeHighest(3).minRoll(2)
Starting Equipment/Wealth: TBD
End Conditions: TBD
Notes about this Mission: This is a test mission that will be designed to test social combat. This means that rules may change mid-game. Please bear with me as I work out kinks in the system.