Sub-Faction and Species Support

[gwek]

RESERVED FOR STATUS UPDATES

[gwek]

Since R&R is desinged to help Pilots somewhat, and people have asked for this more than once, I thought it might be nice to have some "sub-faction" and species support.

I'll post stats at some point, but I thinking:

* An Ewok commander
* A Wookiee commander
* A Trandoshan commander
* A Mercenary commander

What else am I missing?

[Jm419]

Well, are we talking about inter-faction commanders? IE, Fringe? Or just single faction members?

[gwek]

Whatever works for the individual character/sub-faction. I suspect in most cases, it will be Fringe, but if there were a reason to move to a specific faction, go for it.

At this point, the one that I'd see as an exception to the Fringe "rule" would be a Wookiee Chieftain--although there are Fringe Wooks, there faction-specific Wookiees in 3 of the 4 light side factions and zero of the dark side factions, so I see them as a "light side" species and am thinking of the Wookiee character being Rebel with Old Rep affinity (if you REALLY want him in the Rep or New Rep, there are ways to do it).

By the way, here's one of the character ideas I've been working on:

Bothan Spymaster
Cost: 22
Faction: Fringe
Hit Points: 30
Defense: 15
Attack: 5
Damage: 10

Special Abilities
Bothan Spynet (Bothan allies gain Recon)
Karmic Luck (If your initiative check is an odd number, +4 to all this character's rolls for the round; if it is an even number, -4 to all his rolls instead)

Commander Effect
Your squad may include non-Unique Bothan characters of any faction. Bothan allies gain Accurate Shot. Bothan allies with Grenades 10 gain Satchel Charge.

Design Notes: Arguably, this guy should not be Fringe, but rather "light side" (like I said with the Wookiees), since Bothans are generally part of the establishment. On the other hand, I just read KNIGHT ERRANT, which has a Bothan working for the Sith, and is it really a big leap to think some of these weasels would sell themselves out to the other side?

As a Fringe piece, this guy allows Bothans to become sort of a Swiss Army knife equalizer, giving any faction some decent tricks--although it comes at a cost. Need door control? Suddenly the lame Bothan Spy from Rebel Storm is a nice, cheap option. Need a good support shooter? You could do a lot worse than the Bothan Commando. And while he's not as good as some of the faction-specific options, the Bothan Noble lets any faction run a "cannon" squad. Finally, use any of these guys, and Bothan Spynet lets you have Recon, which is never a bad thing.

[surfrider56]

I created a Bothan Spynet Agent (Cost 25) that had almost similar stats but I gave him slightly different SA

Cloaked
Grenades 20
Opportunist
Tactical Recon (same as Recon but with an auto win of Initiative the rolled round + the next round with a Roll of 20.

I like the idea of Non-Bothans of any Faction (the Bothan Lawyer from a few years ago did that) & +Satchel, but not together. I think if it's together, it needs to be a Unique.

I suggest Utric Sandov, since Borsk is a "Bigger" character. On the otherhand, I understand the need for a "Fringe Bothan Spynet." Wook said Utric "worked" for the Rebels; its semantics, but could that be construed that he was "hired" as opposed to part of the Alliance?

[gwek]

Before we start discussing a unique that no one's every heard of, let's talk about why you have an objection to "Fringe" Bothans and + Satchel Charge on a non-Unique character. For the record, the idea was, in part, inspired by YOUR comments!

If I'm reading your comment correctly, you wouldn't have an objection to "Fringe" Bothans on a non-Unique OR Satchel Charge as a commander effect... just both.

You (and/or BH) commented in a few of the faction threads about tech support, so this was an effort of sorts to address that. Keep in mind that this is not this is not exactly the best way to get Satchel Charge. The Ugnaught Demolitionist costs considerably less. Sure, this combo has certain advantages (eg, the Bothan Spy is a shooter), but it costs, at minimum, almost 10 times as much as the Uggie.

The other option (besides a Bothan Spy) is to use a Rodian Trader for Munitions Supplies, but now you're looking at 32 points before you even have the piece to put the Grenades on.

Since it's actually a fairly sub-optimal build, I don't see anything particularly abusive about it on a non-Unique character, and from a "story" point of view, since the members are the Bothan Spynet are generally pretty anonymous, I don't think it'd be a problem for this character to be similarly "vague" (ie, non-Unique).

Another point to consider is that making the Spymaster Unique would almost certainly reduce his price. I wanted him to be 20+ so he couldn't be used with Reserves/Reiniforcements 20 (If you guys disagree with that, the easiest solution is to just remove Karmic Luck).

[surfrider56]

Need time to digest the thoughts ... but Utric is a Bothan from the Empire At War computer game ... not quite in the realm of "no one's every heard of ..." unless you never played that one ....

I've got a few ideas I'd like to throw out ... got some Honey-Do to take care of today .....

[gwek]

He's a bit player in a 10-year-old video game. Not where I want to spend my time.

[bountyhunter9]

Jul 20, 2011 22:54:30 GMT -5 gwek said:

Bothan Spymaster
Cost: 22
Faction: Fringe
Hit Points: 30
Defense: 15
Attack: 5
Damage: 10

Special Abilities
Bothan Spynet (Bothan allies gain Recon)
Karmic Luck (If your initiative check is an odd number, +4 to all this character's rolls for the round; if it is an even number, -4 to all his rolls instead)

Commander Effect
Your squad may include non-Unique Bothan characters of any faction. Bothan allies gain Accurate Shot. Bothan allies with Grenades 10 gain Satchel Charge.

Design Notes: Arguably, this guy should not be Fringe, but rather "light side" (like I said with the Wookiees), since Bothans are generally part of the establishment. On the other hand, I just read KNIGHT ERRANT, which has a Bothan working for the Sith, and is it really a big leap to think some of these weasels would sell themselves out to the other side?

As a Fringe piece, this guy allows Bothans to become sort of a Swiss Army knife equalizer, giving any faction some decent tricks--although it comes at a cost. Need door control? Suddenly the lame Bothan Spy from Rebel Storm is a nice, cheap option. Need a good support shooter? You could do a lot worse than the Bothan Commando. And while he's not as good as some of the faction-specific options, the Bothan Noble lets any faction run a "cannon" squad. Finally, use any of these guys, and Bothan Spynet lets you have Recon, which is never a bad thing.

Looks okay, he seems to be lacking something that makes him REALLY worth using though. The buffs to Bothans are good, but why Karmic Luck? I assume it's supposed to represent the quality of his 'spying', but how many rolls would this guy actually make? Maybe give Karmic Luck to allied Bothans or something? Idk.

As for a Wookiee Chieftain of some sort, what would he do?

[gwek]

The Karmic Luck was supposed to represent his intel (which might be mixed) and also to keep his cost down... although I suspect you may think he's overpriced (which could be quite true!).

Karmic Luck could easily come off. You're right, though, that this guys main value isn't in himself, but in the option to add other Bothans (who are buffed by him). Any suggestions? I like him as a starting point, but am happy to fiddle with him to make him cooler.

*****

For the Wookiee Chieftain, I was thinking of something along these lines:

* Rebel piece with Old Republic Affinity (could also possibly have New Rep Affinity, but I think the Republic itself has enough Wookiee love!)

* Probably Melee Attack, and one or two other special abilities for him (Momentum, Cleave... I don't know. Haven't worked it out yet).

* Wookiee Reserves 20 so you can add 20 points's worth of Wookiees from any faction (otherwise, you're relying on your own faction's Wookiees, and thos from the Fringe, which means he's going to play pretty differently in a Rebel squad vs an Old Rep squad).

* Maybe also Wookiee Reinforcements. Maybe not.

* I thought about something like Rout, but limited just to Wookiees. Might be too much. I don't know, I liked the idea of something that makes Wookiees SCARY, especially if they're working in a large group. I wouldn't want to have to face them!

* Commander effect would presumably be Wookiee only. Maybe grants something like Gregarious, or extra damage (or Attack) vs an enemy that was hit by a Wookiee. Or maybe just a bunch of abilities like Merumeru grants.