Paradigm Concepts :: View topic - Background: Veteran: Former Legionnaire

First of all, love the story idea of a former legionnaire who is a battle-field medic who wants to keep people alive. Great idea!

To which legion is best, while Hat has a good analysis, there is one thing you need to consider: the only real purpose of a legion is to kill people. While you may be a legion sponsored by the Temple of Beltine, your purpose is still to kill people so the whole healing aspect would be secondary. As such, while you could be a member of a former Beltinian legion, the legion wouldn't be known for being humanitarian, as they are first and foremost a military formation. These aren't the Beltinian Hospitalers, after all.

Now, there are a few ways narratively you could frame your desire to heal. On one hand, you could be a worshiper of a God who values healing, like Beltine or Anshar. This could be the draw into a legion sponsored by those Temples, such as the Beltinian Legion of Unrepentant Heart (IIRC).Also recall: you don't NEED to worship the God of the legion to be in that legion (though, the religion would be dominant and you may face some stigma being a Nierite in a Beltinian legion), or at least an exclusive worshiper of that God. This is not a zero-sum game, though mechanically priests are priests of one God specifically.

Another angle you can take is the "I've seen so much killing I don't want my friends hurt" angle, which actually might push you into one of the legions with a more brutal reputation, such as the Inquisitional legion, Nierite Legions, etc. You saw horrors, and wish to avoid that. This could be a retrospective view, depending how you want to build your character. Legions don't really have official 'battlefield medics' as you are in the shield wall with your fellow legionaries, but having someone trained in healing is useful for a legionnaire. If memory serves, a lot of the specialists like healers, priests, and whatnot would be considered auxilia rather than legionnaires specifically

Author:	Gwalkmaur [ Mon Aug 24, 2020 6:57 am ]
Post subject:	Background: Veteran: Former Legionnaire
Are there any details on the different listed legions (other than Lex Talionis)?

Author:	Southernskies [ Mon Aug 24, 2020 9:17 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Background: Veteran: Former Legionnaire
viewtopic.php?f=68&t=2610&hilit=Legions There isn't a lot of detail on most of the legions outside adventures.

Author:	Hat [ Sun Aug 30, 2020 9:57 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Background: Veteran: Former Legionnaire
Hi Gwalkmaur, To Southernskies point, a lot of details are in mods often in the background sections if not in the details exposed to the players. I know there are more details available about the Legion of the Watchful Hunter both in mods and talking to some of us here. There are some details about Legio Anguis Reptatus in the 3.5 Psionics Unbound book in the Occisor class. On the forums here with a bit of searching you can find out more about a number of the legions, at least patron family/church (god). Is there anything you're looking for that would help us figure out what we could direct you towards? With a sweep of his hat, Paul

Author:	Gwalkmaur [ Thu Sep 03, 2020 7:24 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Background: Veteran: Former Legionnaire
I was working toward a character concept of a "super-healer", someone who's sole job was in the maintaining of health and life of the party. An additional character to bring to a table that may not have a dedicated healer. Originally I was going to choose the background of Initiate of the Gods, but I started thinking it would be better to have him be essentially "ex-military", someone who has seen abhorrent violence and knows what good (and bad) people are capable of. Therefor, Former Legionnaire. Something like a former field medic.

Author:	Southernskies [ Thu Sep 03, 2020 10:31 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Background: Veteran: Former Legionnaire
As you're playing the 5E ruleset, the mechanical difference is minimal. Go for the story choice. If it was an ARG character, there would be a big mechanical difference in the choice.

Paradigm Concepts http://forums.paradigmconcepts.com/

Background: Veteran: Former Legionnaire http://forums.paradigmconcepts.com/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=3186	Page 1 of 1

Author:	Hat [ Thu Sep 03, 2020 3:16 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Background: Veteran: Former Legionnaire
Gwalkmaur wrote: I was working toward a character concept of a "super-healer", someone who's sole job was in the maintaining of health and life of the party. An additional character to bring to a table that may not have a dedicated healer. Originally I was going to choose the background of Initiate of the Gods, but I started thinking it would be better to have him be essentially "ex-military", someone who has seen abhorrent violence and knows what good (and bad) people are capable of. Therefor, Former Legionnaire. Something like a former field medic. Nice concept. Looking over the ARG rules, there are a number of Talents and Spells that apply to what you've described and have likely already identified: Talents: Healing Hands (T1, T2), Lay on Hands (T3 - Beltinian, Illirite), Mercy for All (Beltinian Hospitaler only), Spell Affinity (Pick any healing spell) Potential Talents: Herbalist, Apothecary (Note: Requires Healing Hands) - these are about creating medicines, so may be less useful in a Living Campaign, Skilled Surgeon (requires Healing Hands) val'Ishi Bloodline: The Loving Caress of Our Goddess [T2], The Mortal Coil is Not Easily Abandoned [T5] Spells: Channeling (CoH) (Deity, T1), Most Corpus spells, Healing Embrace (Wards, T2) Diety - Illirite: Perfect Human Form (T3, all Attribute dice become D12 for the Scene) It's possible I missed something, but I believe that's most of them. The vast majority don't require any particular god, so you could pick any Legion. If you want to go with the the traditional healers, you could select a Beltinian Legion and work towards Beltinian Hospitaler. The Beltinian Hospitaler Path fits the bill thematically, but would require you to take one of a few paths to get there: 1. Devout Initiate (CoH) --> Anointed Priest --> Beltinian Hospitaler 2. Itinerant Initiate --> Anointed Priest --> Beltinian Hospitaler 3. Templar Itinerant --> Holy Champion --> Beltinian Hospitaler If you're looking at being a Beltinian, there are a few legions of possible interest: Legion of the Blessed Spirit Legion of the Pure Spirit Legion of the Sacred Trust If Healing Hands is important to the concept and you're looking for an alternative to the Beltinians you could be an Illirite. That opens a few different legions: Legio Lex Talionis Legion of Crusading Light Legion of Searing Light If you're looking to be a Beltinian or Illirite and not from a legion dedicated to one of those gods there are a couple legions not known (so far at least) to be affiliated with a family or church Legio Anguis Reptatus Legion of the Unrepentant Heart Beyond that you could pick any legion and any appropriate race/god combo and still nicely match your concept. In large part it depends on what you want the rest of your identity to be. With a sweep of his hat, Paul

Author:	Nierite [ Fri Sep 04, 2020 1:45 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Background: Veteran: Former Legionnaire
First of all, love the story idea of a former legionnaire who is a battle-field medic who wants to keep people alive. Great idea! To which legion is best, while Hat has a good analysis, there is one thing you need to consider: the only real purpose of a legion is to kill people. While you may be a legion sponsored by the Temple of Beltine, your purpose is still to kill people so the whole healing aspect would be secondary. As such, while you could be a member of a former Beltinian legion, the legion wouldn't be known for being humanitarian, as they are first and foremost a military formation. These aren't the Beltinian Hospitalers, after all. Now, there are a few ways narratively you could frame your desire to heal. On one hand, you could be a worshiper of a God who values healing, like Beltine or Anshar. This could be the draw into a legion sponsored by those Temples, such as the Beltinian Legion of Unrepentant Heart (IIRC).Also recall: you don't NEED to worship the God of the legion to be in that legion (though, the religion would be dominant and you may face some stigma being a Nierite in a Beltinian legion), or at least an exclusive worshiper of that God. This is not a zero-sum game, though mechanically priests are priests of one God specifically. Another angle you can take is the "I've seen so much killing I don't want my friends hurt" angle, which actually might push you into one of the legions with a more brutal reputation, such as the Inquisitional legion, Nierite Legions, etc. You saw horrors, and wish to avoid that. This could be a retrospective view, depending how you want to build your character. Legions don't really have official 'battlefield medics' as you are in the shield wall with your fellow legionaries, but having someone trained in healing is useful for a legionnaire. If memory serves, a lot of the specialists like healers, priests, and whatnot would be considered auxilia rather than legionnaires specifically

Author:	Hat [ Fri Sep 04, 2020 3:57 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Background: Veteran: Former Legionnaire
Nierite wrote: First of all, love the story idea of a former legionnaire who is a battle-field medic who wants to keep people alive. Great idea! To which legion is best, while Hat has a good analysis, there is one thing you need to consider: the only real purpose of a legion is to kill people. While you may be a legion sponsored by the Temple of Beltine, your purpose is still to kill people so the whole healing aspect would be secondary. As such, while you could be a member of a former Beltinian legion, the legion wouldn't be known for being humanitarian, as they are first and foremost a military formation. These aren't the Beltinian Hospitalers, after all. Now, there are a few ways narratively you could frame your desire to heal. On one hand, you could be a worshiper of a God who values healing, like Beltine or Anshar. This could be the draw into a legion sponsored by those Temples, such as the Beltinian Legion of Unrepentant Heart (IIRC).Also recall: you don't NEED to worship the God of the legion to be in that legion (though, the religion would be dominant and you may face some stigma being a Nierite in a Beltinian legion), or at least an exclusive worshiper of that God. This is not a zero-sum game, though mechanically priests are priests of one God specifically. Another angle you can take is the "I've seen so much killing I don't want my friends hurt" angle, which actually might push you into one of the legions with a more brutal reputation, such as the Inquisitional legion, Nierite Legions, etc. You saw horrors, and wish to avoid that. This could be a retrospective view, depending how you want to build your character. Legions don't really have official 'battlefield medics' as you are in the shield wall with your fellow legionaries, but having someone trained in healing is useful for a legionnaire. If memory serves, a lot of the specialists like healers, priests, and whatnot would be considered auxilia rather than legionnaires specifically Cody brings up a lot of good points. For the Legion of the Unrepentant Heart, I've never seen a church designation assigned to it. It was listed in the order of battle for the Battle of Enpebyn, though no god was listed for it. Obviously that was more than a decade ago and things could easily have been clarified since then. In terms of specialists and auxilia, I certainly think that units of specialists would be considered auxilia. I.e. if there's a legion hospital set up with a bunch of healers, they're auxilia attached to the hospital which in turn is attached to the Legion. Havingone or more individuals as the designated "medic" within a century would make sense. All martial archetypes are trained in Heal, so most soldiers would have a rudimentary training. If you noticed a few guys were more skilled than others, you'd look to them. If we eventually see the military orders of Arcanis supplement Henry has mentioned from time to time, perhaps we'll get down to that level of detail. Honestly if it's not standard across all legions, it's probably not worth mentioning. No reason to artificially constrain players character ideas within reason. Any legion could qualify for the horrors of war, just depending on your flavor of choice - flaming blood and gore (nierite), assassinations, poisoning, and similar tactics (cadicans), raising your opponents dead against them (nerothian), etc. If you go with the turned from the horrors of war, you could either go with a warlike god, or have not been a divine caster until after your enlightenment and go from say a non-Divine casting follower of Nier to a Divine casting follower of Beltine (or Hurian). Henry's made it clear that it's not possible to switch gods and maintain the ability to cast, given the level of faith required. Just some additional thoughts to consider. With a sweep of his hat, Paul

Author:	val Holryn [ Fri Sep 04, 2020 4:14 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Background: Veteran: Former Legionnaire
In a throw away line somewhere Henry mentioned (maybe about battlemages) that the Medicus of the Legion were not mixed in with the men as battlemages are, but instead pulled apart into a separate unit. In theory so they can remain professionally detached from the suffering of the legionaries under them rather than also have to cope with the emotional burden that their close comrades and friends are bleeding out... Not sure if that would make them auxiliary or not. On paper at least I would tend to think not since the medici are always going to go with the legion and never get swapped around or left behind. Another 2 cents ...

Page 1 of 1	All times are UTC - 5 hours
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group http://www.phpbb.com/