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Stycotl
2008-04-23, 06:03 PM
Infantry Teamwork Benefits

I based these teamwork benefits off of marine corps tactics, which are different than standard melee campaign tactics, but I attempted to make them useful either way. They were made to resemble as closely as I could manage, my interpretation of actual combat tactics, while still working along some line of balance and workable game mechanic.

These were made before phb II came out, and so some of these benefits might be redundant, though they do have different uses. I have modified some of them to better fit the phb II variants, so as to not be completely incompatible.

Some of them might be a little loaded; I hate the ones that cease to be useful after third level or so. I have given a few more prerequisites in the case of the ones that are more powerful than normal. It is a similar concept to the improved teamwork benefits in the book, only without other teamwork benefits as prerequisitess—which I always thought was a bad idea, especially when you can only have so many as is.

Patrol
Your team is adept at moving through potentially hostile territory without dropping their guard.
Training: Your team must spend two weeks practicing immediate action drills, patrol formations, and recon operations.
Task Leader Prerequisite: Improved Initiative, Listen or Spot 6 ranks, Hide or Move Silent 6 ranks, base attack bonus +3
Team Member Prerequisite: Listen or Spot 2 ranks, Hide or Move Silent 2 ranks, base attack bonus +1
Benefit: Each team member that is within 60 feet of another team member gains a +2 bonus to initiative rolls, and Listen and Spot checks, as long as the team is moving at or below the base land speed of the slowest member. For every two members of the patrol team, the bonus increases by +1. The team can stop for indefinite periods of time, and still retain the benefits of Patrol, so long as one team member remains 100% alert. The other members can rest, read, search for traps, pick locks, and do other quiet activities.
Tips: It is beneficial when maintaining a patrol mindset to utilize proper dispersion on the move, and when stationary. In open, well-lit areas, a dispersion of approximately 15 meters is normal for medium creatures, while in closed, obscured areas, dispersion should be between 2-5 meters, dependent upon the situation. This allows for a broader area that the team can monitor, and reduces casualties from area effect attacks. Further, when stopped, it is beneficial to maintain as many team members on watch as reasonable, if in a hostile environment, in order to maximize the number of actively alert individuals.

Fireteam Rush
With coordinated fire and move, your team has gained the ability to penetrate enemy defenses with astounding efficiency.
Training: Through exhausting rushes up and down hills, through fields of rocks and briars, with simulated enemy fire and maneuvering, you learn to coordinate movement and attack to the point that you do not even need to communicate out loud in order to know where to go and what to do.
Task Leader Prerequisite: Balance 5 ranks, base attack bonus +5, base Reflex save +4
Team Member Prerequisite: base attack bonus +1
Benefit: If one team member offers suppressive cover, another team member can rush, gaining one extra move act per round. In order to provide cover, a team member needs to take a full-round action to attack at least one enemy with a ranged weapon, ranged spell, or other ranged offensive effect. If taking a full attack with a ranged weapon, it is carried out normally. If casting, using a magic item or a breath weapon, or anything else, it now requires a full-round action to function. Effects that take longer than a full-round action to operate cannot be used to cover for a rushing team member. If there are no foes present that threaten the rushing team member, the covering team member must ready an action to utilize his covering action in order for the rusher to gain his benefit.
Tips: This is a priceless tactic for a team that is attempting to reach a well-defended position, whether it be crossing a bridge in the middle of an ambush, grabbing an important artifact from the chaos of battle, or chasing after a kidnapper while his allies attempt to stall the team.

Lethal Ambush
Your team has been trained by the most brilliant guerilla tacticians, and have learned how to completely annihilate unwary foes.
Training: The team must practice digging in, hiding in natural and unnatural terrain, remaining motionless for long periods of time, and coordinating a rapid series of surprise attacks.
Task Leader Prerequisite: Combat Reflexes, Hide 8 ranks, Craft (Trapmaking) 4 ranks, base attack bonus +5, base Reflex save +4
Team Member Prerequisite: Hide 2 ranks, base Reflex save +1
Benefit: The team must take 10 minutes to hide, choosing strategically advantageous positions that utilize the terrain and cover all entry and exit points. At that time, all combatants will choose their designated position. This does not have to be the square that they are hidden in (although there is nothing wrong with that), but must be adjacent to it (if Redgar plans to hide behind the statue, he can designate the front of the statue in the open hallway—one square away—as his designated position, or he could designate his hiding place behind the statue if he foresaw some strategic advantage to it).
Next, team members must choose to be designated as either ranged or melee combatants, and the ambush squares must be chosen. For melee combatants, the ambush squares are all adjacent squares to his designated square. Ranged combatants get to pick any 8 squares within 30 feet of their designated squares. From this point on, any foe within an ambush square of any team member is treated as flat-footed until it leaves the square. If it merely moves to another ambush square, it remains flat-footed. Once battle has opened, all ambush squares are treated as difficult terrain for foes (costing 2 squares of movement to cross, and denying run and charge actions). Further, during any round in which a foe takes damage in combat while in an ambush square, he or she takes a -4 penalty to attacks, initiative, saving throws, and skill checks. Creatures that are immune to stunning attacks are unaffected by this penalty. Creatures that are normally unaffected by difficult terrain are not penalized movement.
Tips: This tactic is devastating versus foes that have been slowed, or otherwise made immobile. In such a situation, enemies have been known to freeze in panic, not knowing where to turn to, or how to escape. Further, if team members utilize overlapping ambush squares, the effect becomes even more deadly.
For greater effect, plan carefully how to arrange the ranged ambush squares. Perhaps it would be best to not lump them all together, but to create a checkerboard pattern so as to elongate the affected area. Creative teams have been known to create ambushes in midair, underwater, on the vertical face of a cliff, and in other surprising places. It is not necessary to hide in order to create this effect, though the preparation time must still be met in order to ready defensive positions and coordinate a fireplan. An ambush that is not an ambush per se, is usually referred to as a perimeter or a defensive position.

so, questions, comments, flames, etc?

note: on the fireteam rush benefit, it relies on the fact that foes put their heads down, even if just for a second, in order to grant the rusher the opportunity, and courage, to get up and run through the middle of a firefight. mindless foes, and crazy ones that refuse to put their heads down kind of break the mold. but, as i was statting out repercussions for using this benefit against mindless foes, i realized just how confused/complex it was getting. so i just cut the whole thing out. however, i am now contemplating a fix. mindless/fearless creatures get an attack of opportunity versus a rushing character. whaddya think?

Stycotl
2008-04-24, 02:47 AM
come on, i know that one of you wants to ask me something about infantry tactics. or maybe how to utilize melee combatants in some teamwork benefits that apply mostly to ranged attackers (ambush in paricular). or to tell me that i screwed up some numbers, or a mechanic, or spelled my name wrong, or something.

aaron out.

Shinton
2008-04-25, 04:24 PM
Actually, I like this.

Now, while I may know (next to) nothing about balancing, I do know what I like...

Patrol: Good idea, +2 init could come in handy, as a well as spot and listen.

Fireteam Rush: What exactly is this doing? Can you not rush in combat? Do they (the rushing team) not get attacked?

Lethal Ambush: Why 10 mins... couldn't you make it a certain amount of rounds? I really like how effective this is.. Instant Flatfoot.... -4 to near everything... its great... Definitally gonna have to use this.

Stycotl
2008-04-25, 07:41 PM
Actually, I like this.

Now, while I may know (next to) nothing about balancing, I do know what I like...

Patrol: Good idea, +2 init could come in handy, as a well as spot and listen.

glad to know you like it.


Fireteam Rush: What exactly is this doing? Can you not rush in combat? Do they (the rushing team) not get attacked?

yes, you could rush normally, and yes, foes still get their hits if you rush past them. i thought of turning this basically into just a team-mobility effect, but that didn't really seem to be worth a teamwork benefit, of which you only get a few. so i decided to model it after the morale effect that it has on the troops themselves. knowing that your fireteam is laying down a hellfire barrage of rounds on enemy positions tends to give you a lot more courage than when you have to solo it across a field or something.

now, in real life, rushes are short, generally only about 10-15 feet (3-4 paces) before you hit the dirt and take cover again. you need to limit your time exposed. but what that does over the course of a minute or so is to allow your team to make incredible distance gains, while controlling the battlefield at the same time. so i kinda boosted the movement thing to the per-round effect, instead of a per-minute effect, which doesn't see much use in a 4-6-round encounter.


Lethal Ambush: Why 10 mins... couldn't you make it a certain amount of rounds? I really like how effective this is.. Instant Flatfoot.... -4 to near everything... its great... Definitally gonna have to use this.

10 minutes was to basically keep it in line with the rest of the game, where setting an ambush requires 10 minutes. i have been contemplating the marine corps 'hasty ambush' tactic. a normal ambush is methodical, planned, dug-in. a hasty is just that, you see an enemy column coming your way and signal everyone off to the side of the road and wait. if i can think of anything good, i'll incorporate it.

aaron out.