Grand Masters adventuring with others

[FallingPhoenix]

I hope I didn't miss this question already being asked in the forum...
(You can skip my intro by going straight to the question in italics).
So, I'm running a game with two friends and decided to use the Lone Wolf books as my campaign. So we've got one person playing Lone Wolf and another who's running around with her (actually, they're both ladies in this adaptation ) playing a Knight of Sommerlund.

It's not going too badly so far, with a little adaptation (although I admit that the whodunnit mystery of Lone Wolf's assassin in Book 2 was a little less challenging with a Knight who can always tell if people are lying...). The challenge I'm seeing approaching is when we finish The Masters of Darkness and decide to continue on through the Grand Master books.

How might you advance a Knight of Sommerlund to keep adventuring with a Kai Grand Master?

The only thoughts I've had so far would be to try and come up with more advanced versions of the Knight's "Magnakai" disciplines or perhaps give him a squad of troops to come along that gets larger as they go? I'm not really sure how best to confront this at this point.

I'm kind of leaning to something closer to the second idea there since the Kai Supreme Master seems to canonically be more amazing than anyone's ever been before and having a Knight keep up with that might be weird, but maybe not.

Anyway, thanks for ideas,

Dan

 

[beowuuf]

Funny you should mention this...

I had an advanced Epic Knight class for the old system for the Knight of the Realm, focusing on the Knight looking to complete quests at key points for three 'trials' to become an ultimate paragon.

It might be an interesting shift if the knight character is the one to uncover the new troubles in the GM series, and Lone Wolf becomes a mentor/teacher of sorts who aids.

Anyway, here's the document, if you want to look at the three trials section for an idea.

http://www.dmjump.net/eskotr.doc

 

[Thoth]

If you are going to run the complete LW series, you will need a few things to allow the Knight to keep up with the Kai Lord.

Stealth: There are several sections in the LW series that depend on the ability to slip past guards, infiltrate undetected or otherwise avoid direct confrontation. A Knight in full plate armor is essentially a dark ages battle tank, it doesn't do stealth. A magical cloak, upgraded armor materials or perhaps a supply of armor oil that temporarily cancels the noise of the armor will be essential. Also something as expensive as full plate armor is usually a very elaborate affair with crests, makers marks and other iconography. Considering that such armor is tailor made for each user, it is unlikely that you could pass off the armor as being a war trophy or something while traveling through nations that are hostile to Sommerlund.

Armor Weight: Once again the fully plate armor is a problem with keeping up with a Kai Lord. The ability to swim in full plate will be an issue. So some form of floatation device will be required, either for the knight in armor or the chest/bag that the armor is kept in. Also any section that deals with careful balance will be an issue. So magical armor materials that are super light will be useful.

The Mount Several parts of the Lone Wolf storyline require you to abandon your mount and proceed on foot. Some areas the horse would be pointless (castle death) or in others it would be unlikely for the mount to survive (Prisoners of Time, Masters of Darkness, Plague Lords of Ruel, etc). So perhaps some thought about either replacing the horse with a suitably mythical magical mount that can survive such places or perhaps special equipment that protects the animal. Also if the mount is out of the picture for so much of the adventures, consider giving some Grand Master level ability that makes up for the mount specific bonuses the player is never getting to have.

Knight Weapons: Gaining access to magical weapons seems like a good place to help out the knight. They can be generic weapons, weapons with specialties or they can be knights of the realm only use weapons, like the sun sword for Kai Lords.

Ranks and Titles: Finally you can round out the Grand Master level abilities by giving the Knight of the Realm some title or rank benefits, like those enjoyed by the Knights of the White Mountain. Lands and a Castle with an income, perhaps a command position in the somlending army, etc.

I hope that is helpful.

 

[FallingPhoenix]

Thanks! I've got some excellent ideas to start from now!