Project Delicate Rebalancement: Tales of the Wild Coast

I'm with Spike on this one, I just don't see the Badgers turning traitor. Yes, they're reformed bandits, but speak with any of them and they talk about how proud they are to serve Burne. I have a feeling any of them who weren't gung ho about the whole being a Badger thing would have left to go do something else.

AFAICR, there aren't any non-Badger guards in Homlett, beyond the two guards in the jeweler's shop, who are in the direct employ of Nira.

 

There's a militia, probably consisting of the able bodied men of Hommlet and probably either overlapping with the Badgers or allied to them.

Mercenaries might work well enough; caravans apparently use Hommlet as a way point, and the ambush at the Moathouse suggests that there's at least one Mercenary company around. A couple of hired toughs from the labor camp might work better, as we already know the traders had at least one in their pay.

 

Right. The Badgers handle the day-to-day peacekeeping in the town, and are ready to defend the town if need be. The militia only assembles when the town as a whole is threatened. (And really, once someone gets the "Butcher of Homlett" reputation, they should encounter an armed and ready militia, backed up by the Badgers, Burne, Rufus and possibly Calmert, Terjon and/or Jaroo) not just random townspeople attacking them on sight. Though this has been discussed before.)

Not a coder, so my support doesn't account for much in this instance, but this makes perfect sense to me. As it stands, one can systematically murder the temple priests by agreeing to work for them and then setting up your party in prime position and attacking them. I can understand the priests wanting to try to get the PCs help, but once it's obvious they can and will kill other high priests, they're better off attacking first and asking questions later.

I am up for giving them a boost in levels or whatever, if needed, though.

 

The various Temple priests would regard the party offing another of the temples as a boon, not a threat. They would also be want to make any party that took out an opposing temple part of their own. The Greater Temple and Zuggy have always played the lesser temples off against each other. Thus the lesser temples would not be unduly concerned if one of them was wiped out. That is why it is set up so that only members of the Greater Temple can set the Temple Alert flag.

 

Dyvers is a free city, much like Verbobonc, but located further east along the Velverdyva river at the Nry Dyv (the lake of unknown depths). It has the reputation of being much less restrictive in nature than the Viceroyalty of Ferrond, (now known as Furyondy) from which it claimed independence some time ago. The occasional traveller from the land of Iuz can be found there from time to time...

 

Maybe. I understand the lesser temples are in competition and the various head priests are trying to wipe each other out, but you've got a group of adventurers who cleared the moathouse, killed Lareth, are freeing prisoners and slaughtering everything that stands in their way. I doubt the high priests are going to take the time to chat when the adventurers show up at their door after all that.

 

Unless the party's actions have effect that particular sub-temple for the worse, I don't see why they wouldn't chat. They would want to make the party allies if that is possible. They may be more cautious, and have reinforcements at hand, but they should not go hostile on sight.

 

I think an evil scenario with a Lloth faction ,led by Lareth , competing with the Zugg/Iuz faction for control of the Temple might be interesting. Probably hard to script, but well within game storyline.

 

However we toughen up the temple, from a story point of view the temples are in bloodthirsty competition one with another, to the point that the Air Temple has been all but wiped out. The High Priests would be cautious in dealing with powerful invaders, and improving their tactics can only be a good thing, but a party that slaughtered members of an opposing faction would not automatically be seen as enemies. That doesn't mean that the priests shouldn't take precautions; However, they're not going to pass up the opportunity to grab more power at the expense of the other temples, and recruiting mercenaries (the Adventurers) tough enough to wipe out the opposition has a great potential pay off.

 

Well, if the party is LG/has a paladin on board, I think they should go KOS. Otherwise, they should just bolster their defenses, and when you get close to them it would trigger a warning that you're either with them or against them (Remember Fallout? Join! Die! Join! Die!).

 

I'd include LN and NG in that as well, the temple is mostly CE, LE can get away with the evil and CG can get away with the chaos. From a RP perspective those 3 alignments (LN, LG , NG) should never join any temple faction, LE, TN and CG would be possibles.

 

The evil empires,especially ChaoticEvil, are vicious, cutthroat, and highly competetive. Only the strong survive. That's the way they do business, from Iuz, Lloth, etc, on down. Check out the Iuz the Evil module and see how CE clerics/priest operate. CE very seldom negoiate unless it's in their best intrest and there is something to gain by it. Just look at Lareth, the backstabbing, arrogant jerk, Sneaky, coniving, selfish butthole. That's CE. And that's what the Temple is, CE, and all the nastiness that goes with it.

 

Okay, Gaear's scenario makes a lot of sense to me. I was suggesting the KOS more to prevent parties from simply taking prime combat positions before opening the fight with a sneak attack or massive damage spell. But I like the idea of priests reacting to the death of another priest by assuming a defensive position and treating any new arrivals with suspicion, but still willing to talk to them. I just didn't like it plays out currently, where the priests simply sit idily in their offices while the party slaughters them one by one.