[5e] [Big 16] Medieval warfare themed adventure

[dangelo]

Thanks for your interest everyone. Here's a proper Big 16:

Spoiler: B16

Show

System: 5e
Player Count: 4
Style of Play: Player-driven, open-ended with a clear objective
Allowed Content:

* Anything officially published.
* No UA or Homebrew
* If we get more applicants than spots, I'll prioritize PHB content a as personal preference

Character Creation:

* Everyone gets the Skill Expert feat for free
* At least one Ranger is necessary for the game to work
* A Fighter (Cavalier) is desired, though not mandatory
* Only one spellcaster allowed, maybe two (Paladin and Ranger don't count for this purpose)

Backstory: Just make sure you have solid Personality Traits, Flaws, Ideals and Bonds written on your sheet. That's all I need to motivate your characters and play around with their quirks.
Experience: 5th Level
Wealth: 2 Uncommon Magic Items and whatever mundane items you may want and can carry on you. King Harald provided for you.
Ability Scores: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 (+1 from Skill Expert, +ASI)
Hitpoints/Health: Roll, take Average if it rolls below Average. First one is maxed
Alignment: Any
Other Notes: Your character must remain loyal to King Harald all throughout the story, whether you're a lawful good paladin fighting for honor or a chaotic evil rogue serving the king for coin. One of your characters will be the official commander of these knights (normally a highborn cavalier, but not necessarily), though that's just a formality. In practice, the four of you hold council and debate the best course of action together.

The map is 40 hex wide and each hex represents 6 miles, which means your army can move a total of 4 hexes every day (unless you push into a Forced March). Rivers can be forded, but their hex counts as difficult terrain. Mountain hexes are blocked (There are spots where you can cross, but you gotta scout ahead and find them before you take the army). Forests are difficult terrain, but offer guaranteed concealment against enemy units.

Objetive: You must lead your unit of 300 mounted knights accross the map from West to East. You'll begin at the westernmost point of the map - Going back by ship (the way you came) can be especially dangerous, but quick. Marching north around the mountains would be fast enough, but the area around the King's Road is patrolled by enemy cavalry. Going through mountains and woods would be stealthy and safe, but slow, so it will consume your resources. If you run out of food for the troops, you'll have to raid villages for plunder, which is not dangerous but costs time and announces your position.

Scounting: Whether to find a way through the mountains or just look for enemy scouts, you'll often wanna detatch from the troops and travel as a lighter, stealthier unit. Instead of Random Encounters in a dungeon, there will be issues that must be solved so your army can travel safely: get rid of the minotaur guarding the gate, sabotage enemy troops, convince the druids of those woods to let you pass, etc. Skill checks, roleplay and sometimes battles will determine how fast and how well you solve these issues. Keep in mind you must reach King Harald as fast as possible.

Battles: If you're spotted and intercepted by enemy cavalry, the PCs will face proper enemy champions while the soldiers fight in the background. I'm toying with the idea of giving each player each a few knights to control in certain battles, or to allow you to do special attacks once per encounter, like ordering archers to shoot a volley at a 10-foot radius area and things like that. I'm still on the fence about all this, but I'll make sure not to go overboard with it. Not really trying to turn D&D into a different game.

-----

I'd like to play as a Sorcerer, perhaps using a 3rd party Blue Mage (from final fantasy) bloodline, or maybe pyromancer if that is disallowed.

Sorry, I have trouble designing encounters and challenges when there's Homebrew involved. Nothing against the creativity in itself.

Also curious about the mechanical recruitment details.
Might play a Druid, not sure.

Druids are encouraged.

I'd be very interested, potntially as either a ranger (especially if Revised Ranger was permitted) or perhaps a paladin.

Revised Ranger is allowed, yes. Paladin is also encouraged.