Help with a new Leadership role

[Chris lopez]

I have a large group and most of the roles are filled and I have one player who isn't happy with his role (it's one I created for him since he showed interest in engineering I created a royal engineer role). He is playing a Soul knife and I think he wants a more combat orientated role than building the kingdoms infrastructure. Has anyone created a role for a psionic martial class or have any idea about creating one

Thanks in advance for the help

[redcelt32]

Well unfortunately, all you have told us is a role he doesn't like. Ask him which roles appeal most to him, then split one or make one an offshoot of it. Alternatively, let us know what sort of role he is after, and maybe we can suggest ideas.

Not sure if it helps or not, but I created two new roles in our kingdom for PCs that ended up "stuck" with roles that they did not like.

I have a gnome Green Faith druid that I made Lord of Resources and made him in charge of all natural resources and preservation, including relations with indigenous residents like Fey, etc. His kingdom bonus was that any farm BP left over after paying consumption goes directly into the kingdom pool.

We already had a rogue shadowdancer combo as the spymaster when we added a new player who was a rakshasa blooded sorcerer focused on enchantment and disguise. So I split the duties between the two and made one in charge of kingdom security and counter-spying, and one in charge of external spying and information gathering. Sort of Homeland Security and the CIA if you will. As long as either one is filled, the kingdom gets credit for having a spymaster. The added benefits come from info and advantages the PCs gain in game through RP and placement of spy minions.

Just as a side note, I assign minions to each of the council positions, filling half of them with NPCs I think they will enjoy and the other half I let them choose between candidates. So far everyone loves having minions to designate tasks to while adventuring. And yes, some of the candidates they have to choose between are ringers, secret agents, evil, shapshifters, or mischevious fey. But only a few...

[Chris lopez]

I think your homeland security idea might do the trick. He found a book on the creation of clockwork spiders and has been obsessed with creating something out of the wire webbing in the book. He plans to add a copper version of the webbing to the exterior walls to electrify them in case of attack. He wants to also add them into the walls to resist possible collapse from trebuchet attacks and such. So I think modifying the engineer role to security engineer type role will do the trick

Thanks again

[redcelt32]

You can always do something like let him pick one settlement for every 5 levels and add to the defensive value during mass combat. That plus let him affect the random kingdom events. For instance, if you roll a saboteur, play out the encounter, and have it be them vs him. If you roll an assassination attempt, same thing.

For something simpler or more high level on the kingdom level, build some event cards, like flood, assassination, etc, and give him one every 2-3 months. Have them say things like flood, catch spy, saboteur, fire, vermin infestation, etc. If the event comes up and he has a counter card, the kingdom celebrates (+2 BP and +2 loyalty) and nothing happens.

[TheDailyLunatic]

Ehh... I applaud the GM generosity but I probably wouldn't go as far as making a new full role for a PC.

If I did, I'd model it after the Consort or Heir or Viceroy: basically, you get half the bonus of the main role to one kingdom stat using one attribute bonus (in their case: Ruler) and you can fill the role in their absence (with a Loyalty check vs +1 Unrest).

It sounds like your guy would be most interested in a role like Spymaster or Royal Enforcer. Let's go with a subordinate of the former: The Royal Commando, whose job it is to visit swift and silent death to external threats to the realm. Grants half DEX bonus to Stability with a +1 bonus per five ranks of Stealth and may act as the Spymaster in their absence (with a Loyalty check vs +1 Unrest).

One thing I'd easily be comfortable with, though, is giving the guy a medium army (in reserve status in a barracks) of soulknives that he leads. Perhaps an elite commando squad of psychic killers that answer to him? Would that do it for him? Maybe both these things?

I guess part of my queasiness about this whole idea is that Kingdom roles should be limited. How can your guy not have a single role out of 11 majors that he's not suited for? I don't see how, with all of those options, the only option is to open up another one rather than fix what you already have.

Here's a thought, if you have Akiros Ismort as your Warden, how about you houserule that your soulknife can, because of his badassery, use DEX rather than STR or CON to modify a Warden bonus? That way he can replace Akrios and can still add his ranks of Kno(Engineering) to his bonus because of the UC rules.