The SeaKings Redesign #12 - Naval Barbarian

[DreamWeaver]

I have been thinking about the Barbarians a lot, and I understand that the Naval side of the code has not yet been worked but that does mean we can't talk about them.

As stated above the skills were :

SeaKing Skills:

NST - Naval Strategy
NAV - Navagation
SEA - Seamenship
NTA - Naval Tactics

I would also add the following skills

CMD - Command
SHW - Shipwright
SMH - Smithy (Blacksmith/Ironwork ability)

By giving them these skills it would historically make them more true to nature.  Their skill start up might look like this:

LDR: CMD-1, NST-1, NAV-1, SEA-1, SHW-1 , SMH-1
  F1: NTA-1
  F2: NTA-1
  F3: NTA-1
Note: It would leave them with +1 Skill/Level to assign as well too. Now something that has not been talked about yet under skills is if you had a level 2 in a skill like CMD-2, then that character could teach another character in their clan a Level on in that skill so CMD-1 could be taught by the Leader to all three of his followers. If that is still th same as if has been in the past three versions of the game then I would assign the 10th skill point to CMD-2 skill:

LDR: CMD-2, NST-1, NAV-1, SEA-1, SHW-1 , SMH-1
  F1: NTA-1
  F2: NTA-1
  F3: NTA-1
Then I would spend the next 6 turns having the LDR teach F1,F2,F3 in CMD-1 skill.  If you have a character with CMD skill they can be assigned as a Unit Leader and that you then gains the bonuses that the character has so after 6 months of training the clan followers would be NTA-1, CMD-1 which is +5% or each skill towards a bonus of that unit's success.

Next the factional bonuses:

1)  The Barbarians are able to make their vessels from scratch themselves as needed, this is where the SHW - Shipwright skill comes into play
2)  The Barbarians are able to make their own weapons and thus self arm themselves from scratch, this is where the SMH - Smithy skill comes into play
3)  The Barbarians are able to self arm and double arm units as follows: LI/LM, LI/MM, MI/LM, this would give them a Combat bonus that makes them extremely formidable in combat and cause fear in those that they attack, plus it would make them that much more deadly when attacking.

Now historically the Barbarians didn't just fight on naval battles, they would land and march inland and attack locations. So realistically their Leader will eventually pick up other skills like STR - Strategy, SGE - Siege Warfare, an the Followers will also get such skills as TAC - Tactics, SGE - Siege Warfare, SGW - Siege Weapons. Once that happens then a Barbarian clan will be extremely deadly and very hard to deal with.

I believe these adds to the Barbarians will be great to make them a extremely fun and effective  faction to play within. Now they are very loose in their factional organization, but they can be extremely effective. Also note they do not ever use regiments, but do hand out larger Awards for different things and goals. It would be fun to play one of them again. We might consider changing the name of the faction from Barbarians (SeaKings) to something else but that is up to the GM to decide if that stays or not.