Party Concepts: Traveling Show
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Listening to Fear the Boot recently got me thinking about an interesting adventuring party concept: the travelling show. Everyone’s gotta remember the part of Dragons of Spring Dawning in which Raistlin puts on a magic show. It was one of my favorite parts of that book. Jim Darkmagic is also known to occasionally put on entertaining magic shows as well.
This concept works really well, because it keeps the party constantly on the move, from town to town, finding new adventures. It’d be like a fantasy version of Josie and the Pussycats!
But how would this look in a 4e game? Here’s how I see the classes:
Wizard: The magician. He could use Prestidigitation and Mage Hand, as well as some impressive Dailies to wow the audience.
Bard: The musician. Playing different songs, performing a few Bardic Rituals, and generally dazzling the audience.
Star-Pact Warlock: Reading people’s futures, warning them of their impending doom.
Rogue: Knife-thrower and acrobatic extraordinaire. When he wasn’t performing, he could be running a cup-and-ball game, or picking patron’s pockets.
Ranger: Animal tamer. He could have a pet tiger animal companion, having it leap through flaming hoops conjured up by the wizard.
Fighter: The Strong Man, lifting heavy things and showing off his swordsman’s skills.
Warlord: The manager, making sure everyone is doing well and performing at their peak.
Cleric: There to give blessings to people… For only a gold piece each!
Druid: Shape changing into different animals is always an entertainment for people who don’t see it every day. Perhaps he could perform with the
Ranger.
Chaos Sorcerer: Another type of magic show, but in this case, you never know what you’re going to get!
And let’s not forget the races!
Dragonborn: With a few bottles of Dragon’s Breath Potion, he could show off fire-breathing all day!
Gnomes: Going invisible could be an impressive trick!
Eladrin: Teleportation? Yes please!
Any exotic race: Simply having them around can draw a crowd.
What other classes can you think of that would round out a travelling show?
This would offer you a chance to really hound on the players to keep their gold and food situation manageable. Not enough food and hunger effects the performance. Especially if they have a schedule to keep up. Count me in for the Flute and Lute player Mushroom hunter!
Sounds like a great idea to me. I have always wanted to do something similar.
Sean Holland´s last [type] ..Organization – Eosiante Directorate of Magic
I love unified party concepts. One of the best D&D games I ever played in was called The Gnome Brigade. The primary conceit was that all of the characters were gnomes and party of gnomish army special forces group. We had a ton of fun playing up the interactions of our party members and creating shared histories. Of course, we’d all read Dragonlance so we all loved having silly, hyperactive characters that take themselves entirely too seriously.
Another brigade game in 4E would be awesome. Warforged would be perfect for it.
PK Sullivan´s last [type] ..My Favorite Skill