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Post by captainjapan on Jan 25, 2020 16:56:09 GMT -6
The bandit entry prescribes the type and frequency of their leaders, such that clerics will only be encountered serving the largest gangs, one for every 300 men (and there's only a 50% chance of that). I get it. Bandits aren't the church-goin type. This one-in-300 cleric, though, is he a leader? Or is he just a chaplain? And, what is the frequency of clerics leading/ serving an army of non-bandit (lawful) men? Which class would make for a rarer encounter, the magic-user, or the cleric?
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Post by doublejig2 on Jan 25, 2020 17:22:21 GMT -6
Whatever else the cleric is, if he's serving a gang, he's also serving his religion. This has milieu implications. And, these can be leveraged by the DM as desired.
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Post by Morandir on Jan 25, 2020 17:43:37 GMT -6
I always think of Friar Tuck when I see that.
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Post by waysoftheearth on Jan 25, 2020 23:58:50 GMT -6
The first line says: "Although bandits are normal men, they will have leaders who are super-normal fighters, magical types, or clerical types."
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Post by captainjapan on Jan 26, 2020 0:30:58 GMT -6
The first line says: "Although bandits are normal men, they will have leaders who are super-normal fighters, magical types, or clerical types." That's literally what it says, but bandits conforming to the monster description would have the cleric (at the helm?), served by a wizard (10th-11th lvl.), leading 3 super-heroes, in turn leading 100 men each. That's one weird gang of robbers, if you ask me.
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Post by waysoftheearth on Jan 26, 2020 1:40:30 GMT -6
Presumably a clerical-type leading chaotic/neutral bandits would be an anti-cleric. Otherwise... I agree; it could be a bit awkward to explain why a lawful cleric would be leading a bunch of bad guys
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Post by Punkrabbitt on Jan 26, 2020 9:50:16 GMT -6
IRL, we have a smooth connection between the Church (lawful) and the Mafia (chaotic.)
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Post by captainjapan on Jan 26, 2020 11:35:04 GMT -6
IRL, we have a smooth connection between the Church (lawful) and the Mafia (chaotic.) Totally, but the parish priest wasn't sending hitmen out on jobs. Although, I'm sure the mafia directed a portion of their ill-begotten gains into the collection plate. Fyi, Friar Tuck had an infamous historical counterpart in the 12th century french mercenary, Eustace the Monk. He was NOBODY's sidekick.
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Post by derv on Jan 26, 2020 13:25:59 GMT -6
There's plenty of conspiracy and real history to read about with the Knights Templar warrior monks that easily feeds the concept.
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Post by hamurai on Jan 26, 2020 23:24:41 GMT -6
The bandits might be in truth be rebels, cast out for worshiping the wrong a deity. Now they're led by a faithful servant of that deity, hoping they can one day reclaim the local temple and restore religion.
We should sometimes ask why are there bandits - what happened to them to become bandits, especially if it's a large group.
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