Author Topic: Nation Building & Management (plus slightly altered NPC classes)  (Read 1360 times)

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X-Codes

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Nation-Building & Management in D&D (plus revised NPC classes)

I saw the not-often-mentioned DMG Web Enhancement, and it actually got me thinking about how players themselves would build up a city and run a nation, and how there's not really too many guidelines to doing that (running a castle? sure.  Waging a war?  Absolutely!  Building an entire nation from scratch?  Not even.)  So, I decided to put this together.  These rules are absolutely NOT appropriate for characters with less than a few thousand subjects in their nation.  If a given character has more than 0 and less than 1000 followers, then simple application of the rules governing Leadership is more appropriate.

I did my best to make the rules both simple and unobtrusive.  Unless there's a serious military campaign going on, these rules won't even come into play more than but once every in-game week.

---{ I }---

Population Basics

In D&D nation management, the number from which all others are derived is the population, although individuals are really too small to speak of.  As such, the base unit of population is 10 people.

If you have leftover population, the remainder is made up entirely of commoners.  As for the rest of the population, for every 10 people, there are usually 9 commoners that you really don't have any say over, and probably wouldn't want to, anyway.  That said, they do play an extremely valuable role; they plow fields, gather herbs, mine iron, and weave baskets such that the last guy can do something you care about.

Commoners have no combat statistics.  In fact, they're going to do everything they can to avoid combat.  If you try to order them into combat, they'll either run immediately, or run when facing the enemy on the battlefield.  They're farmers, and they're reasonably good at it.  No reason to take that away from them.  Any commoner hit by an attack dies.

The other people are call specialists, and what kind of specialists you get is determined more-or-less randomly.  When you get a new specialist, roll on the table below to see what kind of specialist you get.

d6   Specialist
1   Warrior
2   Warrior
3   Warrior
4   Expert
5   Magewright
6   Adept

If you need to generate a large number of specialists at once (such as when starting up a new city of 1000 people), simply break it down such that half are Warriors and the other half are evenly distributed among Experts, Magewrights, and Adepts.  NPC classes do not gain feats or skill points as PC classes and even monsters.  Instead, these are worked into their base statistics.  Further, NPC classes do not advance beyond level 5, and they generally do not advance in terms of experience.  Instead, an NPC-classed character gains a level when they survive a number of combat encounters equal to twice their current level +2.  Other methods of advancement are possible, but are left to DM fiat.  Finally, NPC classed characters gain maximum hit points for their first hit die when organized into groups, although they do not gain such a benefit individually (see War).

Warriors are soldiers, obviously.

[spoiler]Hit Die: d8
Good Save: Fort
Level   BAB   Benefit
1   +1   Proficiencies, Feat
2   +2
3   +3   Feat
4   +4
5   +5

Ability Scores: Str 13, Dex 11, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 9, Cha 8

Proficiencies: Warriors are proficient with all simple and martial weapons, with all standard armor, with all standard shields, and with one exotic shield.  Further, they are treated as if they had ranks in Spot, Listen, and Ride equal to their level + 3 for all purposes.

Feat: Like characters, Warriors get feats at levels 1 and 3.  These can even be [Combat] feats if the warrior is trained to use it.[/spoiler]

----------

Experts are craftsmen.  They can also be used on the battlefield as siege engineers.

[spoiler]Hit Die: d6
Good Save: Will
Level   BAB   Benefit
1   +0   Proficiencies, +1 Production
2   +1
3   +2   +1 Production
4   +3
5   +3   +1 Production

Ability Scores: Str 10, Dex 9, Con 12, Int 13, Wis 11, Cha 8

Proficiencies: Experts are proficient with simple weapons and light armor.  Further, they are treated as if they had ranks in any one Profession skill equal to their level + 3 for all purposes.

Production: Experts provide production to the nation in which they reside.  The production provided for by Experts can be used to create mundane equipment or goods, to rear war animals, to build specific structures or fortifications, or to produce trade goods, generating 10 gp a week in taxable revenues for the nation per week per point of production bonus.[/spoiler]

----------

Magewrights can be craftsmen as the Experts are, but are more likely to be used to create magic items or on the battlefield as arcane support.

[spoiler]Hit Die: d4
Good Save: Will
Level   BAB   Benefit
1   +0   Proficiencies, +1 Enhancement
2   +1
3   +1   +1 Enhancement
4   +2
5   +2   +1 Enhancement

Ability Scores: Str 8, Dex 9, Con 12, Int 11, Wis 10, Cha 13

Proficiencies: Magewrights are proficient with the dagger, club, staff, sling, and light crossbow.

Enhancement: A magewright's primary function is to craft magical items, although sometimes they also enhance structures with magical traps.  Enhancement can also be used to craft mundane equipment or to build structures, but Magewrights cannot train animals and cannot produce trade goods.

Spells: Magewrights can cast arcane spells.  Their primary casting ability is Charisma.  They cast spells spontaneously each day according to the table below.  They know a number of spells equal to their level plus their Charisma modifier.  These spells known usually come from the Sor/Wiz spell list, although specific exceptions might occur in non-human societies.

   Spell Levels
Level   0   1   2
1   1   -   -
2   1   1   -
3   2   1   -
4   3   2   -
5   3   2   1[/spoiler]

----------

Adepts are the clergy that tend to sick and injured folk in the cities.  They most commonly deal with plagues and disease, but can also be used as battlefield triage.  On rare occasions you might use them in the actual battle, but it's likely not their strong suit.

[spoiler]Hit Die: d4
Good Save: Will
Level   BAB   Benefit
1   +0   Proficiencies
2   +1
3   +1   
4   +2
5   +2

Ability Scores: Str 8, Dex 9, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 11

Proficiencies: Adepts are proficient with simple weapons and light armor.  They are also treated as having a number of ranks in the Heal skill equal to their level + 3.

Spells: Adepts can cast divine spells.  Their primary casting ability is Wisdom.  They cast spells spontaneously each day according to the table below.  They know a number of spells equal to their level plus their Wisdom modifier.  These spells known usually come from the Cleric spell list, although specific exceptions might occur in non-human societies.

   Spell Levels
Level   0   1   2
1   1   -   -
2   1   1   -
3   2   1   -
4   3   2   -
5   3   2   1[/spoiler]

---{ II }---

Gaining from a Nation.

The most direct way to benefit from running a nation is taxes.  While can theoretically tax the population however much you want, taxes in excess of 1 gold per person per month will cause widespread rioting and revolt, and even if you reduce taxes the populace will have a general mistrust of you and many may leave your territory.  The most you can tax without causing grumbling is generally more on the order of 1 silver piece per person per month, or 1 gold per 10 people.

That said, you generally can't use that money according to your own whimsy, either.  If you just hoard tax money and use it for personal gain, you could still alienate the people and cause them to leave your nation.  There are, however, a few accepted uses of it:

1) Procuring goods and services for your military (spent on items as per normal rules).
2) Building defensive structures, even it serves dual-purpose as a personal estate.
3) Paying off evil entities to leave you alone!

The other way to benefit is through the use of the Production and Enhancement abilities of the Expert and Magewright specialists.  These abilities work exactly the same way, but work towards different ends.

Production of items is tracked weekly, and the base production unit is the "Hammer."  You gain hammers through the Production and Enhancement abilities at a 1 to 1 ratio.  So, if you have 10 level 1 Experts, you have 10 hammers of production available each week.  If you added a level 5 expert to the mix, you'd have 13 hammers of production available instead.  Remember, however, that Experts and Magewrights apply the hammers gained from their ability in different ways, so they should be tracked separately.

Now, in order to find out how much a "hammer" does, simply take any item or combination of items and divide it's gold piece value by 25.  That's how many hammers it takes to complete.  For example, if you wanted to outfit your unit of 10 soldiers with Scale Armor (500 gp), Tower Shields (300 gp), Longspears (50 gp), Shortswords (100 gp), and 5 javelins each (50 gp), it would take 40 hammers to complete the work.

---{ III }---

Advanced Population Mechanics

We all know that eventually, after sticking 10 nameless people in close proximity to one another, you're eventually going to wind up with 11 nameless people.  Population growth is checked month-to-month (or every 4 weeks), and while exact growth rates vary according to the dominant race in a given nation, a good baseline is that each month the population increases by 1 for every 500 people in the current population, rounded down, with a minimum of 1 population growth every month.

That said, once the base rate is determined for a given race, that is only the base rate.  In conditions where the basic necessities are life are in short supply, the rate can be reduced, and in nations where revelry is encouraged, the rate can be increased.

First, the shortfall.  While the typical combination of 9 commoners and 1 specialist for every 10 people is the natural norm, as the nation's ruler you can push this to as high as 7 commoners to 3 specialists.  That said, doing so puts significant strain on supplies of food, textiles, and housing.  This culminates in a penalty to the monthly growth rate.  Also note that you can't demote specialists back into commoners, so increasing this ratio can create long-term penalties to the growth of your nation.  To figure your final growth rate, take the ratio of specialists to commoners in your nation and round it down to one of the figures on the table below:

Ratio      Growth Rate
9:1      100%
8.5:1.5   80%
8:2      60%
7.5:2.5   40%
7:3      20%

As an example, if your nation is populated with 873 commoners and 127 specialists, it grows at 80% of it's normal rate.  It, therefore, grows at a rate of 1 person every month instead of 2.  What's more, until the ratio returns to the natural rate of 9:1, all of the people born will be commoners (although you can simply recruit them as specialists again if so desired).

On the other hand, for each bonus to population growth, the growth rate goes up by 20%.  Note that this bonus is not added to the penalty, but rather the penalty is applied first and then the bonuses are applied to the result (which is then rounded down to the nearest whole person).  So, for a population of 4000 commoners and 1000 specialists with two bonuses to population growth, first take the total population and divide by 500.  The result (10) is the modified by the growth rate on the above table.  That result of 6 is then increased by 40% to account for the bonuses, resulting in a final growth rate of 8 people for the month, all of whom are naturally commoners.

As for how to obtain bonuses, I'd rather avoid explicitly listing them off.  The most innocuous would be if your nation is dedicated to the god(dess) of love, then you could very well gain a bonus for that.  There are a number of other things that may be more appropriately discussed in the "mature gaming" section of the website.  Needless to say, the standard should be somewhat high as it would have to be something that could affect an entire city.

---{ IV }---

War

For tactical encounters involving yourself and another nation, a hex grid with each hex representing a 20' space is ideal for those seeking a high degree of organization and structure.  Otherwise, a map without any gridlines at all also serves just fine, with each inch on the map again acting as 20' of distance.

In battle, your soldiers on the field are broken down into groups of no more than 10 medium or small creatures + 1 possible leader, although in most cases the leader doesn't do anything unless they have some manner of commander aura or possibly spellcasting capabilities.  These groups of units must have identical stat blocks, save for the leader who may apply a benefit to the entire group.  For creatures larger than medium, treat each creature as an equivalent to 2 members of the next smaller size, so 1 gargantuan creature is 2 huge creatures is 4 large creatures is 8 medium creatures.  Mounted units can also be fielded, in which case you use the size of the mount to determine the upper limit of how many creatures there can be in the group, and each mount can possess one rider that does not count towards the total.  Creatures smaller than small do not participate in tactical combat unless they are swarms, in which case treat the swarm as a single, large creature.

The statistics of the unit as a whole are identical to those of the individuals that make up the unit.  The difference now is that the group interacts with other groups of units on a tactical scale as opposed to a personal scale.  So long as a unit has over 50% as many members as another unit, it affects the other unit on an equal footing.  As such, when a unit of 6 Adepts moves in to heal a unit of 10 Warriors, the Adepts expend one healing spell and the full unit of Warriors is healed, while a unit of 5 Adepts couldn't heal them at all.  Further, size plays into this as well, so two elephant riders (Huge mounts) can charge 5 Horeback Cavalry (Large mounts) and deal damage as if it was one elephant attacking one horseback cavalry, because the elephant riders count as 8 creatures while the cavalry count as 10.

Initiative is handled similarly to how it is for personal combat, except only the commanders on each side of the field are the only ones to make initiative checks.  The two then decide on a number of turns to take for each combat round, and move their units according to two restrictions: 1) they can't move any unit more than once in a round and 2) they must move their units evenly across all turns for a given round.  For example, Commander A fields 9 units and Commander B fields 7, and they decide to take 4 turns on each combat round.  On one of Commander A's turns, he will move 3 units.  On one of Commander B's turns, he will move 1 unit.  On every other turn by both commanders, they will move 2 units, and will not move any unit more than once until each has taken their 4 turns in the round and the new combat round starts.

The only serious change in the statistics is in terms of hit points below zero.  Any unit can act normally with as few as 0 hit points.  At each point below zero, however, one member of the unit becomes wounded, cannot continue to act, and doesn't count against the size of the unit for further attacks (even though it does for any aid given to the unit).  So a small gang of 4 Archers attacking a group of 10 Warriors that are currently at -3 hit points (3 members wounded) deals damage normally, while the group of 4 Adepts sent in to heal said Warriors cannot handle the situation effectively.  If any member of a group is wounded, then the entire group becomes staggered as the group is forced to carry their wounded comrade to safety.

When the unit is completely incapacitated, it then reaches the dying status, and loses 1 hit point per round.  For each point of damage beyond that needed to incapacitate the full group, one member of the unit dies.  At this point, that member of the unit is not counted for the purposes of beneficial effects or harmful effects, so a group of 4 Adepts can heal a group of 10 Warriors once the latter group is at -13 hit points, although this is hardly an ideal situation.

Like in everything else, size plays a role in negative hit points as well.  In a unit made up of creatures larger than medium size, a colossal creature is incapacitated at -8 hp, a huge creature at -4 hp, and a large creature at -2 hp.  For mounted units, the mount and rider are both incapacitated at the same rate the mount is incapacitated.  When healing is administered to any group below 0 hp, the hit points of the group is set to 0 hp before the healing is calculated.  So, if a group of Adepts casts a 5-hit-point healing spell on a group of Warriors that are at -6 hp, the Warriors return to 5 hit points, although any fatalities suffered before the healing is administered is not reversed unless the spell used explicitly says so.  Finally, for creatures that are normally destroyed at 0 HP (such as constructs and undead), calculate how many members of the group are incapacitated when they take damage.  Each incapacitated member of the group is instead destroyed immediately, and then the total hit points of the group is returned to 0 hp afterwards.

Lastly, melee is now handled only slightly differently.  Attacks of opportunity and melee reach generally aren't considered on the tactical map, in order to attack a unit you must enter it's space.  Melee reach comes into play in terms of attacks and counterattacks.  If a defender has reach equal to the reach of their attacker, the attacker provokes a counterattack after their attack is resolved.  If the defender's reach is greater, then the counterattack actually pre-empts the initiating attack.  Finally, if the attacker's reach is greater, no counterattack at all is made.  A unit can make a number of counter attacks in a round equal to the number of attacks of opportunity they would normally make, and conditions that prevent a unit from making attacks of opportunity likewise prevents them from making counterattacks.