Playing a strategist character

[RyanW]

How would you run a character intended to be the one that makes everybody else more effective in combat? What character options, optional rules, and house rules would make the most of such a character concept, in terms of both effectiveness and player satisfaction?

I can see a potential difficulty in balancing between giving the strategist real impact and versus turning the other PCs into one player's chess pawns.

[jason taylor]

Most of tactics is increasing the mathematical odds of given fights. Suppose you have a character who can arbitrarily force several NPCs to wait for one bout while the players concentrate on others.

[Flowergarden]

You can find a post named "Skill of the week: Strategy and Tactics" it's kinda that. There was guidance skill in pyramid 3-65, but it's more like suggest/sway emotions but for encouraging leader

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by RyanW

How would you run a character intended to be the one that makes everybody else more effective in combat? What character options, optional rules, and house rules would make the most of such a character concept, in terms of both effectiveness and player satisfaction?

I don't understand quite what you are asking. The title says strategist, but your text sounds more like a buffer. Can you elaborate on your meaning?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Flowergarden

You can find a post named "Skill of the week: Strategy and Tactics" it's kinda that. There was guidance skill in pyramid 3-65, but it's more like suggest/sway emotions but for encouraging leader

The Guidance skills are an option, but they're things that are applied before a fight, not during one (the quickest one to use, Instigation, has a "casting" time of 1 minute; the most useful one in combat is probably Motivation, and that has a "casting" time of 10 minutes).

But Natural Leader (from the same article, and serving as a Prerequisite for the Guidance skills) is useful on its own, particularly with appropriate Enhancements. At its base, it lets you help snap your allies out of Mental Stun effects (success means they get a Will roll to break free) once per round as a free action. The Inspiring Enhancement gives allies a bonus to Fright Checks and similar. Tactical Influence (which is rather pricey, admittedly) lets you take a Concentrate Maneuver and direct all your allies for the turn, giving them a potentially-sizable bonus. It has the problem that it basically forces the other players to do exactly what you said (which pretty much just means any time you use it, you take over their characters) to get the bonus, but I'd disregard that - just assume whatever actions the other characters take is what their leader suggested. You can boost the cost of the Enhancement if this bothers you.

[mlangsdorf]

I'd use a variant of Auras of Power (PU: Enhancements pp 4-5) to be able to enhance my allies that could hear my orders and would choose to follow them. Granting all your allies in 2-4 a bonus to Striking ST, DX, or Enhanced Defenses is pretty potent.

I'd add Rallying Cry (DFRPG Adventurers p 28) to keep my allies from being mentally stunned, and possibly a reskinned version of Rapier Wit based on Tactics to allow me to "call out weak points"and let my allies get hits in against stunned foes. If possible, adding Kiai would allow for war cries that stun opponents, along with some Heroic Reserve (extra FP) to do more Kiais.

There's also providing tactical advice (DFRPG Exploits p 57) - as a Do Nothing maneuver, roll versus Tactics to give one ally who can hear you and follows your suggestions a +1 to attack and defense rolls until your next turn. It doesn't let you do other things at the same time, unlike Rapier Wit or Rallying Cry, but it's not bad.

Actually, with Rallying Cry, Rapier Wit, Kiai, and providing tactical advice, that's already a pretty good tactical leadership package. You can unstun your allies and stun their opponents while giving them a +1 on attack and defense rolls each turn, or hit people with Kiais as needed. Auras of Power would help but aren't necessary.

[pawsplay]

I've always questioned "person in a five person group who mainly gives suggestions" as a viable archetype. Like, shouldn't they fight in some fashion? Similarly the "theme music guy" version of a bard, who stands around strumming a lute during a pitched battle like some kind of fool.

[ravenfish]

Martial Arts (p.60) provides an optional rule where the side that wins a contest of Tactics skill before a battle can either gain a number of rerolls or reposition a number of fighters on the map after everyone has set up, based on margin of victory. Dungeon Fantasy Denizens:Thieves (p.10) has similar but distinct rules, which offer more options for the winner but which require a leader to have all of Leadership, Intelligence Analysis, and Strategy or Tactics at level 14 or more before they can be used at all.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by pawsplay

I've always questioned "person in a five person group who mainly gives suggestions" as a viable archetype. Like, shouldn't they fight in some fashion? Similarly the "theme music guy" version of a bard, who stands around strumming a lute during a pitched battle like some kind of fool.

With a small group, the character should probably be acting while giving orders/suggestions. To do so, a possible option is to adapt the rules for Rapid Strike and Quick Shooting Bows - take a -6 to each action (and require a skill roll even for actions that normally are done without such, such as Readies) to do two at once (or split it further, at -12 each for 3 actions, -16 for 4, etc) so long as the GM agrees being able to do both at once makes sense (no, you can't use this to Move 4 times in a row). Some traits might reduce this - Trained by a Master or Weapon Master would halve it when making an attack (although this might work out to "roll against Leadership -6 and Broadsword -3" - that is, those traits only enhance the attack; Natural Leader might be appropriate to halve the penalty for the Leadership, however). Another option is Compartmentalized Mind (likely with No Mental Separation -20%; I think there are also options in either Supers or Psionic Powers to limit it to only a single ability, if your character can only use it to command allies), which will let you issue commands with a Concentrate and still use your normal maneuver for something else. For those who aren't able to pull off any of the above, they'll probably need to alternate giving orders and acting independently.

[Donny Brook]

Trying to think about an 'active strategist' whose mental capabilities improve chances for success, a direction might be like this:

Advantages (not including all the possible exotic ones that might be useful):
360 Vision, various enhanced senses, Compartmentalized Mind, Common Sense, Danger Sense, Detect, Empathy, Enhanced Time Sense, Intuition, Illuminated, Oracle, Photographic Memory, some means of secret communication with party members.


Primary Skills:
Strategy, Tactics, Intel Analysis, Body Language, Detect Lies, Lip Reading, Naturalist, Psychology, Architecture,, Observation, Mathematics (Probability), Gesture.

Secondary or Campaign-specific Skills:
Expert Skill, Criminology, Forensics, Geography (both), Teaching, Occultism, Fast-Talk, Heraldry, Merchant (and/or other business skills), Interrogation, Leadership, Propaganda, Weather Sense, Fortune Telling