Roman Legionaries

[Guest]

Last I heard, in 1.10 beta MF and GF worked on chests and such. I'm assuming it still works in 1.10 final; whence my suggestion. Anyone know for sure?

[Little Faith]

Well, finally I am finished with all my exams (for this year) and now I have a good fat helping of uncontested free time on my hands, so...


I am now officially opening recruitment for the great Roman Legion multiplayer party of six.

I would like if anyone who were interested before or have become interested now give a shout.

We will be six characters and of course I want to be there too so I need five other people.

If the interest is immense forming multiple groups might be in question.

The roles available are:

Centurion (one needed)

Legionaires (four needed)

Standard Bearer (one needed)


Read the thread to learn exactly what these roles encompasses.

Finally we need someone to procure us four non-magical preferrably socketed tower shields.

[gimlisam]

I'd like to join, but I think that everyone would like to know when this is going to happen! Oh, I'll be a regular old foot soldier. No leadership for me!

[Ultimate_Power]

Well, there is another problem too, which realm will this be played on? And if the specified realm is not of the player, this may cause some distortion of playing time. Anyways, I would love to join this. I would willingly join the legion of Rome and fight for it.

[Little Faith]

Actually we have had some discussions about this.

I initially suggested Europe, but one of the most enthusiastic posters in this thread is american so I don't know.

If we play on realms someone would have to make a compromise anyway.

I also suggested playing passworded games on Bnet Open, but that rules out freaking out the pubbies (you DON'T play pubbies on Bnet Open).

[Bob]

I was under the impression that the Romans did have access to archers...

Anyway, I know that they had ballista and could pick up a fire rate not dissimilar to that of an archer. Although, compared to the amount of troops there wouldn't have been many. How about 1 archer per legion?

Class:
Amazon or Assasin

Amazon:

Bows only - No 'long' bows (or excep/elite version), no class-spec

Skills allowed:
Fire, exploding, Immolating arrows, and either strafe or multishot
The Romans had the technology of burning arrows - and strafe/multi allow you to run a form of 'rain of arrows' - possibly limited to only using the skills occasionally


Critical, Pierce, Penetrate
All just to make soldier better at their job - the barbarian can have masteries. NO dodging skills: archer were strong at dealing damage but got slaughtered if something got close - no negating that with passives


Assasin:

Likewise, only bows, with the same rules.

Skills allowed:
Dragon strike - Works with any weapon, and is just an increase on damage - You archer is pulling the string back further.
Venom - Pretend it's fire. Burst of speed may be used, but only at slvl 1, and only while waiting for venom - no fade.
Wake of Fire - To used fire arrows, an archer would have had a fire infront of them - if an enemy steped in said fire, it hurt. Can only be used directly infront of where an archer is firing.
Wake of inferno - as above
Blade shield - Some archers would carry a weapon for dealing with threats that got up close.


So, what about it? allow archers into the legion?

-Bob

[Caaroid]

Well, finally I am finished with all my exams (for this year)

Well, my exams are starting... so I'm out, I'm afraid to say. Have fun!

[Ultimate_Power]

yes, finals bugging me as well. Well, hopefully I will be done before this thing starts though.

[loked]

i will love to be a serve the roman empire, i will take (if i can ) the standar bearer, but you will have to explain me the way of playing it again because i got confuse :blink: , is the sumoning wolft only druid right?

[jahcs]

I play nearly every night and weekend on USWest and would be willing to play as any troop type.

(I should have saved that Gerke's Sanctuary Pavise we ran across last night.)

[Ahvae'el]

First off, I love your idea. I'd love to see 6 or so legionares charge in and slam into a wall of monsters.

A couple of suggestions:

Don't let people use any fancy skills that really, really couldn't happen in Rome, i.e. lightning or lightning fury or bone armor.

That just seems to ruin it. Enchant, poison jav, fire arrow... that's rather acceptable, as long as you think of the sorceress as some woman putting pitch on their swords, or the amazon as a foot soldier that had the apothecary put some ghastly poison on her javelins. The skill description in the book said something about the poison javs having "bladders" filled with poison, which seems pretty cool.

Second, pallies are eminently more fitting to this build. I mean, they have the olive complexion, the dark hair, the stance, all of the dead-on fitting skills, the aura ability for the commander. Plus, if they look more uniform, you can tell they are part of the same organization.

If you think about it, there will be far more awesome screenshots or displays with a crowned paladin (conviction/fanat?) and 4-6 legionares in the same outfit (tower, gladius, javs, skull caps, whatever) and a pally with a staff (who, being the standard bearer, should have the Defiane aura on IMO). The similar-looking fighters, the leader, the standard bearer- the scene would be even more perfect if the infantry were charging, ahhh.

Third, um, for the sake of not horrifying certain people, if you think about it, druids are part of folklore stemming from England and Ireland, which were subject to brutal conquest and battles under the Roman empire. The Druids and their people held VERY little love for the Romans. And by VERY little love, I mean they hated their guts, and their children's guts, and their dog's guts, and the guts of their shoes and clothes and houses (which they don't have, so go figure). I doubt a Druid (or any red-haired person at that time) would share the same square mile with a Roman, let alone fight with them.

All in all, good work, and I'd love to see your screenshots, journals, whatever. Five pages of curse-only necros and barb mages in tedious endurance battles with single bosses in hell kind of makes me nauseous after a while, though it's uh, still novel and very interesting.

[Little Faith]

Before we begin to do a discussion that have already been done I will do a short recap of the present variant rules:



Build rules:

All characters must seek to max block chance and will thus need to pump dexterity.

Centurion (paladin class): Basically an aura paladin. Must have multiple functional auras so he can switch "tactics" after what is needed in the moment. All grossly magical skills like Fist of the Heavens, Holy Bolt and Blessed Hammer are barred. Holy Fire/Frost/Shock are barred too. Holy Shield is forbidden due to it's blatant christian imagery.
The centurion will lead the march and would thus have to be built with toughness in mind.

Legionaire (barbarian class): Must seek to max Sword Mastery and Throwing Mastery. They are forbidden to use Leap, Leap attack and Whirlwind since these skills cause them to abandon formation. They are also forbidden the use of Double Swing, Double Throw and Frenzy since they always have to wear a shield.
Warcries should be kept at a minimum though they might put a few points here too.

Standard Bearer (druid class): The standard bearer must max at least one spirit. Besides this they are in charge of the artillery so they can use skills like Firestorm (greek fire), Molten Boulder, Fissure and Armageddon (catapults and Ballistae).

If mercenaries are to be used these must be act 1 mercenaries. The cannot use plate armor or helmets that cover the face.

Item rules:

All characters must use the standardised armament of the roman legion. They must have and use all of the following equipment. When I mention a normal item type I also mean it's exceptional and elite versions.

The equipment of a legionaire is:
Javelins (all types).
A gladius (short sword, falchion or war sword).
A tower shield.
A medium non-chain armor (studded leather/scale mail/splint mail)
A helmet.
Gloves, boots, belts and jewelery is up to the individual.

The equipment of a centurion is:
A gladius (short sword, falchion or war sword).
A ceremonial rod (gnarled staff).
A scutum (any shield that is round) or a tower shield.
A breast plate or splint mail.
A crested helmet (crown).
Gloves, boots, belts and jewelery is up to the individual.

The equipment of a standard bearer is:
The standard of the Roman Empire (a long staff, battle staff or war staff).
A gladius (shor sword, falchion or war sword).
A scutum (any shield that is round) or a tower shield.
A breast plate or splint mail.
A wolf pelt or spirit pelt (no bird helms or antlers).
Gloves, boots, belts and jewelery is up to the individual.



Gameplay rules:

The shield is your lifeline. Shields must be kept up and ready at all times. The standard bearer is obviously excepted from this rule.
Roman legionaires don't madly charge forward like any other barbarian horde. They must march forward in formation. Running is generally disallowed, especially in battle.

When in the field the legionaires must keep in formation. The centurion leads the march and decides the formation. Legionaires should ideally soften up an enemy unit with javelins while closing in.

The standard bearer must be protected at all times. All measures must be taken to prevent the roman standard to fall in the clutches of the enemy.



At the start of the campaign all characters may be twinked a set of standard roman armament, all of non-magical nature. Besides this all twinking is forbidden.

[whereagles]

lol

This has got to be the wierdest idea I've ever seen in D2. Good luck with it... and HAIL CEASAR!

[AtomicKitKat]

Morituri Te Salutum!

Very
Latin
Themed

[Ultimate_Power]

Also, can't forget this one:

Dulce Et Decorum Est Pro Patria Mori!

(It is sweet and becoming to die for one's country)

[gimlisam]

Wow, that post reminded me of the play "Horace" by Pierre Corneille! Ah, well, I'll still be a legionnaire for this, so long as I don't have to kill my sister after winning in the battle ;) .

[Zyr]

The equipment of a standard bearer is:
The standard of the Roman Empire (a long staff, battle staff or war staff).

At level 19 and above, this should be a Leaf, for the +3 Fire Skills.

Fascinating concept, and I look forward to battle reports and screen shots. :)

[loked]

i am dreasing up my character so i can take screanis and show them so you can see the 3 with the equipment ;)

[crumpuppet]

hoo boy, this legionnaire idea sounds sooo cool.

You guys have to post some screenshots somewhere for the bandwidth-impaired, b-net-less people (like me).

btw:
If i were in this party i would be the standard bearer necro, always on the backlines. setting up palisades and fortification, and a necro could also be a good centurion. just one point in amp damage gives just a 2yard radius spot on the ground, making a good visual cue for sudden formation changes. it can also be cast a lot (so cheap at lvl1).

this legion's survival would be heavily dependant on its legionnaires staying in a tight unit.

maybe even using other curses with different colors or radii for different formations?

just an idea.

[Raziel]

I'm busy for the forseeable future, and won't be able to participate most likely... so please don't stop any of this on my account, ok??

Legionaire (barbarian class): Must seek to max Sword Mastery and Throwing Mastery. They are forbidden to use Leap, Leap attack and Whirlwind since these skills cause them to abandon formation. They are also forbidden the use of Double Swing, Double Throw and Frenzy since they always have to wear a shield.

Warcries should be kept at a minimum though they might put a few points here too.

I wanted to talk about a potential Legionaire build.

We know they have to max Sword Mastery and Throwing Mastery. That's 20 points out of the picture right there.

My suggestion for the last 40 conveniently available points:

Max Bash
10pt Stun
10pt War Cry

When maxed, Stun will hit for with an AR of +60% and a duration of 3.0 seconds. slvl 10 Warcry will synergize the stun duration to 4.5 seconds, and maxed Bash will add a synergy of +160% damage.

Bash will deal +145%ed with a +115% AR. Stun wil add a further 50% ed to that lifting it to a total of +195% ed.

Maxed Sword Mastery will add +180%AR and +123%ed so hitting shouldn't be a problem.

I recommend that the Legionaires engage enemies and constantly stun them. It's only two mana. As per the Legionaires, War Cry is for synergies only and should never actually be used.

4 fanaticised stunning barbarian legionaires has some serious potential.

I would also strongly recommend that the javelins have "of the Bear" suffix, for knockback. I can't see the pilums doing a heck of a lot of damage, so you might as well soften enemies up in some other way.

Lastly, I wanted to point out that you've said the Centurion should have a staff. I can't understand why that would be..