| Michael Grate |
Defender/Escort mode:
Prerequisites-Must be at least character level 4
Backstory-Your group decides to take a break but still need some in flow of money, your group decides to revisit an old dungeon you’ve previously completed for fun/nostalgia, or you simply go into a dungeon that happens to be of a lower difficulty than your group is used to. When in the dungeon you find another group stuck and unable to advance so you join with them to get them through the dungeon, possibly for a reward.
Setup-First choose how many people will be in the lower level group. To determine how many members are in the other party, a 1:1 system would work the best so each individual has someone to protect If Exp. and other rewards are doled out together to keep everyone at the same level then one should roll a dice based on the amount of party members in the party:
Members in Party Dice
1-4 d-4
4-7 d-6
8-11 d-8
12-16 d-12
Anything above-Roll a d-12 plus a d-4 for every new grouping of up to 4 (for example if the party has 23 member, roll two d-4’s plus the d-12 (initial d-12, 1 d-4 for the 4 over 16 and one d-4 for the 3 over that))
Note-These are just a general suggestion and the GM may opt to add or remove members at their discretion.
The dungeon being entered should be no more than 3 levels lower in difficulty than what your characters can handle and no less than 2 levels higher in difficulty than what the other characters can handle. Though typically done in a lower level dungeon, one on par with your level or higher may be used. (Note-the level of a dungeon can either be gotten from various random dungeon generators or if homebrewed should be determined by the GM)
Making the characters-One could effectively make the characters they wish to use. Fully pre-generated characters will be the quickest but rolling for attributes or even building them from scratch will work as well.
Where they are found-The group should already be in the dungeon when you arrive. Where in the dungeon is up to the GM but should be relatively close to the entrance. Most of the time they would be unable to get passed a relatively (compared to them) tough fight or trap and may already have battle damage. To make things more realistic the GM could keep a mental note of approximately how long the player’s group takes to reach the other group and may opt to kill off one or more of the members of the lower level team and drop the exp. gain as a result. Otherwise the GM can have the other team in a waiting in a safe place or have things begin when the player group gets close enough to save the lower level group.
Who to protect-In a group protection all members of the lower group are protected by the player group collectively.
In a single protection style of play, typically the lower levels would decide who they would be most comfortable with based on the following in this order:
1. If two species have a hatred toward each other (for example Elves and Gnomes, see Commanding for further information) then they should not work together at all.
2. Alignment (the closer in alignment the more comfortable they should be together)
3. Things both have in common such as god/s worshiped (or lack thereof), species, class and major defining features (such as two people with an animal companion or two people with wings.) This category is mainly up to GM discretion and importance should be determined by them.
Protection-You must make your best effort to get the person/people whom you are to protect out to safety.
Commanding-In general the lower level members will act autonomously but if necessary, members of the player party can command the lower level party based on the following.
The closer together the party member/s is/are with the lower level/s they have to protect the easier they are to get along and the more likely they are to listen to commands. To command a lower level character, one needs to perform a diplomacy check unless of the same alignment in which case the lower level character will, in most cases, follow your orders. If not, the DC for making the diplomacy check is 5 times the number of alignment steps away from your characters alignment.
The DC for the command is reduced by 2 for each thing in common your character has with the lower level character.
If a command is given that you or one of your party members will also be performing with them or are already performing (such as assisting in an attack) then the DC is reduced by 1 per your party member. If multiple lower level members will be performing the task then the DC is reduced by 2 for each.
In the case of defining hatred (such as Elves vs Gnomes) the lower level character may still act in accordance with a command if their life is in danger. If their life would not be in danger for ignoring the command then they may listen but the command is rolled at a +20. In this case, things in common and how many player members do the command do not make a difference and the lower level party members doing the same action only reduces the DC by 1.
The character commanding must speak the same language as the one being commanded. Though almost all species learn common, if one cannot learn common and doesn’t know another language the commander does then they must be commanded by non-language based means (DC +15) unless someone else who can translate is available.
If for any reason the commander cannot speak, they may still get their message across. If one tries to issue a non-verbal command, the DC-increases by 10 and those with hatred for one another cannot be commanded and would only follow what the rest of their party does.
If successfully commanded, the lower level character will listen to most things they are told to do as long as they don’t perceive a danger in doing so (EI. the command would lead them into a trap they can see). They also have more loyalty to their own party than your character. As such, they will also not listen to a command that will endanger their own party members. They will not listen to a command that they are incapable of completing.
Finishing-Gaining exp. is dependent on whether or not the one whom you were charged with protecting survives or how many members of the group survive.
If said character/s survive the dungeon then you would gain the normal amount of exp. for the dungeon times the amount of levels the dungeon is higher than those you were in charge of protecting (for example, if the dungeon was 3 levels higher than the lower level characters then you would multiple the amount of exp. gained by 3) You may use a resurrection type of spell if able and still have the other character count as alive if done before exiting the dungeon. This will work for any method that brings a character back as they were before death.
If protecting as a group, dole the exp. to each player normally. If a lower level player dies then reduce the portion of exp. you would have gained from that character being alive from the total before doling out the exp.
If protecting solo and the character you were protecting (if only 1) died and was not revived, your character gains no exp..
If protecting solo and one of the characters you were protecting (if more than 1) died and was not revived, then find the total amount of exp. you would have normally gained, divide the amount by how many characters you protected and subtract from your total gain by the amount from those who died.
In the case of someone with an animal companion the exp. ratio should be treated as the main character is worth ¾ and the animal companion is worth ¼ if the character has a legitimate connection to the creature (for example, an Anti-paladin Seal Breaker Corps Rider would have no connection to their mount as it is an Undead Quadruped able to be summoned as needed so in this case only the rider would count for exp.). If the animal companion is still alive but the character is dead then ¼ the exp. will be awarded. If only the main character can make it out then ¾ the exp. will be awarded.
The GM may choose to award half experience in any case where the body of the dead character or creature can be brought out of the dungeon to possibly be revived later.
Splitting the wealth-This is entirely up to the GM if the lower level characters will share their wealth/items from the dungeon or through payment for the rescue.
If you have any questions or I may have made a mistake, ask/let me know and I'll answer your question or fix the issue.