Not sure if there have been any discussions on this topic but I wanted to toss the idea out there to see what people thought or have seen developed. As we all know each character has a level and certain abilities, skills, feats, powers, spells, etc. As the character goes up in level they improve and gain new options. Now I have seen things before like tactical feats where if character X has it and character Y also has it then they can combine to do certain things.
That says has anyone ever developed a concept of the party as a character? So the group as a whole starts as a level 1 party. As the group gains experience the party gains levels as a group too. Parties have abilities, feats, etc. in addition to notoriety and fame. So the group might gain certain benefits or take certain penalties.
I can see the group character being used in things like political negotiations, mass combat, commerce/trade and so on.
I'm not proposing this in place of the individual characters. I'm looking at this as a system that complements the characters. Each PC can influence certain actions the group takes and there can be new individual feats/talents that aid group skill checks.
The party can be seen as having different roles too. To forgive a little 4E nomenclature, you could have a party that's a leader, a controller, a defender and so on. The group can start as being of type X just like a character is class Y and then gain new types, or even prestige types that have certain entry requirements.
From a player perspective, the group as a whole decides what new options to take for their group character when they go up in level.
What do you think?
How would you implement it?
How would you handle things like character level discrepancies, changes in the group composition due to new PCs, dead PCs, etc.?
L
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You may want to look at WotC's DMG II.
In it they had a concept called Teamwork Benefits. The team leader would have X feat and Y skills, everyone else on the team had Y and Z skills, trained together for a week, and they can do some awesome things, like the entire team gaining (IIRC) Improved Evasion from the party blaster's spells (enabling him to Fireball the mooks while teammates are in range).
Some of them are incredibly situational, but it might be a good framework to base your idea on.
You may want to look at WotC's DMG II.
In it they had a concept called Teamwork Benefits. The team leader would have X feat and Y skills, everyone else on the team had Y and Z skills, trained together for a week, and they can do some awesome things, like the entire team gaining (IIRC) Improved Evasion from the party blaster's spells (enabling him to Fireball the mooks while teammates are in range).Some of them are incredibly situational, but it might be a good framework to base your idea on.
This was going to be my suggestion as well. It's a great way to let the party pull off some truly neat things.
Indirect Fire comes to mind...again the party trains as a group (each teamwork feat explains the individual prerequisites) and once trained a party forward observer can call out directions for the party mage, allowing direction or placement of spells where the mage otherwise wouldn't be able to see (or cast).
Like SirGeshko said, it may not be exactly what you're looking for, but would probably be a good foundation to build from.
I'll need to crack open my copy of DMG2. I forgot about the teamwork content. Thanks.
Anyone use those rules in a game, or have additional suggestions?
L