Idea for a new racial rule

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Tal_1173
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Idea for a new racial rule

Post by Tal_1173 »

I would love to know what y'all think of these ideas. This is a set of rules that I want to use as a house rule with a group that I play with because of the fluff from the Malus Darkblade books, but I do want to shoot myself in the foot or give myself huge advantage. Help me make the rules functional. Edited as per responses...

Purity of form: Druchii society does not allow for any deformities to exist in its people. The deformities that are culled are either genetic or gained through battle. Any Druchii hero that is maimed in a way that either deforms the body or makes them unable to fight reliably, the warband must kill that hero. If a witch elf is a member of the warband, she can sacrifice the hero according to the rules below.

Survival of the fittest (I would use the original wording here this is just for the sake of discussion): Knowing that a witch elf's dagger is waiting for any who fail to protect themselves by killing their opponent first, Druchii warriors have learned to do everything possible to succeed in battle. Any serious injury result that would maim or kill a hero can be rerolled once.

Sacrifice: Any time a warband has the option to take prisoners, slaves, or is required to sacrifice a hero, a witch elf may sacrifice these poor souls in worship to Khaine. The result of the sacrifice is determined by the roll below:
1: Khaine's anger: Every member of the warband suffers from stupidity, and receives a -1 on the to hit and wound rolls during the first melee combat in which they are a part.
2-5: Khaine's furvor: Every member of the warband succumbs to a furvor of worship causing them to be frenzied during the first melee combat in which they are a part.
6: Khaine's favor: Every member of the warband is frenzied and has hatred for all other races during the first melee combat in which they are a part.
Last edited by Tal_1173 on Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:55 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Character: Nathavin Hlat’tar
Eq: Long Sword, Shield, and Light Armour
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Loflar
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Post by Loflar »

Sorry, but this is a way to cripple your warband. Limited numbers of Druchii (12 members) mean, that the warband is often outnumbered, which makes it hard to protect heroes. As a result, they go out of action quite often. Implementing your rule would mean that probability of death of a hero OOA would rise from 5/36 to 16/36, i.e. more than 1/3 applicable to henchmen. Add to it that heroes are expensive and having few of them limits your ability to earn money.
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Drainial
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Post by Drainial »

Doesn't really fit background wize to a race with a maimed king either.
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Tal_1173
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Post by Tal_1173 »

Malekith lives by double standards. In the published books about dark elves, if you are maimed you are killed. This is where I got the idea.

What if the rule is balanced by survival of the fittest allowing for a reroll for any serious injury result creating a need to sacrifice the hero?

Fluffwise, I really like the combination of both rules, but I cannot do the math to see if things balance out.
__________________________________
Character: Nathavin Hlat’tar
Eq: Long Sword, Shield, and Light Armour
Ws4/S4/T3/D4/I3
Inv: --
Skill: --
Gender: Male
Age: 148
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Loflar
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Post by Loflar »

Survival of the fittest rule was created to provide a sort of insurance against hero losses, which, considering high price of both models and their equipment, were quite serious drawback even with standard rules.

Again, reroll of serious injury resulting in healthy or dead model changes probability of death from 5/36 = 0,139 to
(16/36)^2 = 0,198. This is better then 1/3 of henchmen, but still worse then standard rules, which means, that hero with such skill would be worse then hero without it.

I understand your fluff position, but for an enjoyable game, fluff must be balanced against game mechanisms. Take into account that price of naked hero is comparable to warband income for one game (typically 60 gp), so it takes two games to replace dead hero (assuming there are no other deaths).

Try to read some of my campaign reports in this forum, and count my dead heroes.

(And while published books about dark elves are of course source of the fluff, I would not take them too seriously. Druchii society, at least as described in army books, would IMHO simply not work. And I am not even mentioning the economy or ecology.)
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