The Premise: The players are a group of adventurers selected by the king to settle a new frontier captured from goblins during a long hard-fought war. While some of the newly-minted nobles are getting titles and land to repay debts the king owes or recognize civic or military service (or just substantial contributions to the war effort) the players are selected because the king hopes having some competent people out there will help stabilize the border.
The purpose of the campaign traits: Each trait has three parts, they are intentionally very powerful and I'm considering giving the players a free campaign trait so they can follow an established build or build guide if they wish without my homebrew traits messing up their planning. The first part is a conventional bonus: a reputation bonus to reaction rolls, a minor combat bonus, a skill-related bonus or making a skill a class skill for the player, etc-- like a normal Pathfinder trait.
The second part is a way you can call for temporary one-session help to your fledgling city from allies, friends or contacts, usually in the form of a small group of troops or specialist labor. This part also includes how you have to pay back your contact for this service before you can re-use the ability.
The third part is a special combat bonus you can use only when you're fighting alongside your own peasants (not trained troops) like the ability to take attack penalties to improve their AC (like Expertise only they get the bonus AC) or the ability to give them a morale bonus to attack when you score a critical hit or kill.
Open questions: Should I allow people to forgo taking one of these if they wish, even though it means they'll be less useful in significant ways? If I don't should I give them a free campaign trait? Do I need to add more traits? Also, I don't know what bonus to give combat divine casters, please help with that! Ideas for more are also great!
The traits themseves: Balance and mechanic commentary and questions earnestly requested!
Description:
You might not have been the grand champion but you made a name for yourself on the sands of the arena. You may chose one of the following nicknames below (if more than one person in the party chooses the same nickname, you can choose your own within the theme)
Mechanics:
The Wall : They called you The Wall because no one ever got past you, you gain a +1 to AC when when in one-on-one combat with a humanoid
Dragonheart : Your reputation for fearlessness earned you the appellation “Dragonheart” you gain a +2 Will save bonus towards any kind of non-magical fear. This does apply towards intimidation skill checks, as well as supernatural abilities that are not spell-like abilities. This is constantly in effect.
Wildblade : Your aggressive attacks earned you the name “Wildblade”: you gain +2 to damage and +1 to hit when taking an All Out Attack during combat with a humanoid.
Sand-dancer : Your fleet-footed agility is the stuff of legends. You gain one use/day of the natural ability ‘stutter step’ as a swift action. At level 1 when you invoke your stutter step you can take an additional 5-foot step in a combat round, this may be before or after you act and does not provoke an attack of opportunity unless the movement would do so if taken as a normal 5-foot step. At level five when you invoke stutter step you gain you may take a move action worth of movement (I.e. you may move a distance up to or equal to your speed) instead of just one 5-foot step.
Aid ability:
By putting out the word that you are willing to provide training you can attract 1d6 arena hopefuls (Inexperienced warriors, barbarians, rogues or fighters, equal chance of each). Unless you provide training (a few hours a day for a few weeks) and some basic equipment (50gp per hopeful, equivalent in goods) you lose the ability to repeat this feat.
mass melee ability:
When fighting beside your peasants you can make a charisma check (DC equal to 20 - their existing morale level) when you make a killing blow or critical hit against an enemy, success allows you to perform a suitably demonstrative blow that inspires allies within 20 feet to gain a +1 morale bonus to attack rolls for 1d6 rounds
Description:
Your part in the war wasn't large but you came off looking exceptionally good. Maybe you were a sentry that spotted a goblin ambush on the eve of a key battle; perhaps as an archer your arrow, by perfect coincidence, was the one that felled an enemy about to strike down an important noble; maybe you got the drop on an enemy that turned out to be a powerful goblin shaman, perhaps you blocked a blow meant for a noteworthy general. The circumstances are unimportant (but you should decide on them, in any event).
Mechanics:
You gain +2 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy checks with people that know your reputation and are at least neutral towards you. Furthermore, you are mentioned by name in at least a few important battle accounts, which Bards commonly use as source material and inspiration (they have to find new people to sing about all the time, so their repertoire never gets stale). The net effect of this is that you can attract Bards and other entertainers more easily. When rolling for a random event the role is automatically modified by one point (up or down) if doing so would move the result from one that is unfavorable to a result that would result in the visit of a wandering minstrel or other entertainer.
Aid ability:
In a pinch you can lean on your reputation to have 1d6+2 soldiers loaned to your barony. These will be inexperienced footmen and their Corporal . They will not expect pay, but unless you pass a Diplomacy (15) check a bonus or favor of some kind is required to ensure this ability is not permanently expended.
mass melee ability:
When fighting with your peasants you gain +1 competency bonus to any speeches or actions you make before the battle to raise their morale or inspire them.
Description:
You served steadily and admirably in the war, but it was over before you could advance much up the ranks. You can pick what kind of soldier you were:
Mechanics:
Footman: you were a common foot soldier of the line. You must be proficient with at least medium armor, shields and martial weapons to have been a footman and have a non-negative strength and constitution modifier. You gain +1 to all rolls to confirm criticals with short swords, longswords, spears, and javelins. You can begin play with a masterwork set of medium or heavy armor, or one of the weapons you gain a critical confirmation bonus with.
Archer: You were a member of an archery or crossbow squad responsible for ranged attacks. You must have proficiency with some form of bow or crossbow, and a non-negative dexterity modifier. You gain a +1 to all rolls to confirm criticals with all crossbows except automatic, longbows and shortbows. You are also adept at military archery maneuvers such as loading with help of an assistant and volley fire and can instruct others in these arts. You may begin play with a quarrel of special military ammunition (up to 20 arrows, which may be of any types as long as the combined value is less than 50gp) or a masterwork bow or crossbow.
Cavalry: You were a non-noble member of a light cavalry division. You must have Ride as a class skill, and a non-negative strength bonus, as well as proficiency with lances and at least light maces. You gain a +2 to damage when charging on horseback against infantry (unmounted medium-or-small-sized humanoids), as well as a +1 to all ride checks to avoid being dismounted in combat when using a military saddle, and your chance of staying in the saddle if knocked unconscious is 100%. You begin play with a military saddle and if you buy a horse it is military-trained for free.
Arcane Footman: You were a junior member of the king’s elite magical assault forces, though not a full Spellblade yourself, you were a junior member of the regiment. You must be an arcane caster and you must have a non-negative bonus in your spellcasting statistic (I.e. intelligence for wizards, charisma for sorcerers). You gain proficiency with short swords. Because you can’t always rely on magic you receive a +1 to all rolls to confirm criticals with staves, swords and daggers. You can start the game with a masterwork weapon of any type you can use, or 40gp worth of scrolls and potions.
Clerical support: The fighting clerics of the more militant faiths are a literal godsend in combat, and serve in key roles in the army. You were attached to a regiment as their moral and magical support. You must be able to cast divine spells or have some magical healing ability (a paladin qualifies only if the game starts at 2nd level because they gain Lay On Hands at that level), and must be proficient with at least medium armor. <<I DON'T KNOW WHAT ABILITY TO GIVE BATTLE DIVINE CASTERS! HELP! -DM>>
Aid ability:
You can call out to old comrades-in-arms to raise 1d6 inexperienced footmen and their sergeant. They require food and board but no other maintenance to retain this ability, but can only be used for mass combat actions, patrols or other military activities. If you ask service of them outside of their role you can pay them D10*10 GP to forget about it, or provide some benefit of equal value. If they have gained a level then that suffices in any event.
mass melee ability:
When fighting beside your peasants you can take a penalty to your to-hit or defensive casting roll to grant an AC bonus to a peasant in an adjacent square, for melee attacks this works identically to the Expertise feat but the peasant gains the bonus AC not yourself.
Description:
You belong to one of the great professional guilds, often the Adventurer's guild, but potentially another. You were popular, skilled and talented and made a meteoric rise, and for political reasons your name was high up on the list. Maybe a senior guild officer wanted you out of the way before you took his job, maybe you really did deserve the chance, maybe they hope you can advance the guild’s interests in your new position, whatever the reason-- here you are.
Mechanics:
Adventurer’s guild: This is what the adventurer’s guild is all about! the wide open frontier, the challenge, the excitement! The Adventurer’s guild are some of the only people the King actively sought out for their skills alone, to make sure that this entire venture didn’t fail spectacularly, and the guild sent their best and brightest in return. Select a knowledge or craft skill that is a class skill for you, you gain +1 in this skill, a further +1 if you are taking 10 and a +2 (for a total of +3) if you take 20 on the check, representing the additional expertise you bring to the table. In addition when you make a survival check, you can take a -1 penalty to grant a group of up to a dozen people a +1 circumstance bonus to their own rolls, representing teaching as you go (this can add up, a group of up to 24 can be aided at a cost of -2 and so on, up to a group of 108, at a penalty of -9).
Assassin's guild: Your useful life to the guild is over. Maybe you were outed, maybe you botched a job, maybe you took on the wrong target and for political reasons the guild has to make you “disappear”. To get you out of the way they sent you to the frontier with minimal retraining and quick bit of magical reconstruction on your face. Select a profession or craft skill. This skill gains a +2 bonus and is always a class skill for you due to your hasty crash course in “not-an-assassin”ing. In addition you are able to learn through your guild contacts whenever someone in your area has been targeted by the guild, as a professional courtesy. In fact, you may make a diplomacy check (modified by the status of the contract-taker) to dissuade the guild from taking a job if it would prove an inconvenience to you.
Bardic College: On the frontier, bards are often the only entertainment that people have! Outside the big cities and their inns and taverns and music halls, outside the towns big enough to attract itinerant entertainers and wandering minstrels on a constant basis, a lone bard is the best entertainment there is . You gain access to several new Bardic Performances, which can be performed at will without expending a performance slot (essentially they are “level 0” performances). In addition, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to perform checks in any place you had a hand in building or designing, because of the superior acoustics and design, and a +1 around campfire or caravan encampment because of your comfort with performing in such a setting. Whenever any entertainer does come to town, you can make a gather information check to gain gossip from lands distant.
Mage’s guild: The mage’s guild often sends members out into the world to perform research, and the new lands opened up by the king have rarely been inhabited long enough by humans for their full potential in the field to be explored. The guild has sent you out with instructions to catalog the native plants, any unusual animals, and collect samples for analysis of their potential use as spell components and alchemical reagents. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to alchemy checks involving components only from your lands. In addition, the guild trained you for your ‘most probable opponent’, the goblin tribes. As a result you gain +2 to spellcraft checks made to identify spells cast by goblins, or counter them, and when casting against goblinoid spellcasters you gain +2 to the DC checks to resist all your spells.
Thieves’ guild: The frontier is a place of great opportunity, wealth, and a lot of people that give thieves a bad name! The respectable city guilds shudder at the brutish thuggery of highwaymen and raiders that would never dare come into the city for fear of retaliation. You’ve been, ahem, selected to bring these ruffians in line. You gain +1 to all attack and damage rolls when fighting other rogues, or monsters with levels in rogue. In addition when in a town you have extensive knowledge of you gain +1 circumstance bonus to all stealth rolls, representing your knowledge of every cracked pavingstone, loose roof tile and dark alleyway of your home terrain. This bonus extends to any area in which you have personally had a hand in constructing or designing or visited and wandered through daily for an hour or more (for an average-sized town) each day for a month. If you are away for more than a month enough has changed you must take a few days (1d6) to get re-aquainted with your turf.
Aid ability:
All guild members can call on their guild for aid: 1d4 standard guild members. These people will expect payment for their service or they will report back to the guild and this ability is gone. Payment can be in gold, in goods, or in services. Notably mage guild and adventuring guild allies are far more likely to accept training and knowledge as opposed to simple gold.
mass melee ability:
Guild members are used to working together for a common goal. When you are adjacent to a peasant that is a member of your class (or a class with which you share a class feature) they may use one of your shared class features as if they were one level higher than they are. This does not give them access to spells they would not normally be able to cast but can be used to raise the resist DC of spells.
Description:
Serving a religious order is not for everyone, but it suited you. And now for some reason your order has sent you out to the frontier. It may be that your superior has determined this is the next step of your spiritual growth, perhaps divination has even determined you will be of great service to your god, it’s even possible a powerful superior has decided they don’t want you to take their job and sent you to the hinterlands.
Mechanics:
Your skill at dealing with the order gives you +2 to all social checks with other members of your order, +1 to other members of your faith. In addition, you have been truly blessed by your god, and receive +1 saving throw against divine spells cast by adherents of an opposed faith (an alignment opposite yours, or all faiths with no neutral component on either axis if you serve a true neutral god).
Aid ability:
You may call upon your church to provide 1d4 adherents (inexperienced clerics or adepts). So long as the actions you request are in-line with your alignment t his ability has no cost. Donations of an appropriate amount will overlook unrelated or irrelevant tasks, but using them in purposes that are against their alignment will cost you this ability permanently, as will failing to secure their forgiveness through an appropriate donation, service or gift after using them for tasks not related to your shared alignment or faith.
mass melee ability:
In addition, the battle clerics of your order gave you some quick lessons in combat. When cast upon a peasant footman in combat, your healing spells may be used to grant temporary bonus HP that lasts for the duration of a combat.