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That way they can potentially spend a lot of Hope in the service of protecting all of their various Foci*, and if they keep them ALL safe they'll get one point of Hope back, but if any of them get hurt they get a Shadow point. And otherwise you leave the RAW intact: they cannot draw from Pool.

Thoughts?

*At one point we had a discussion about what "directly protect or favour" your FF means. I'd like to revisit that. E.g., does attacking a foe engaged with your FF count? I would think so. How about turning a failed Fatigue check into a Great Success, so that you can use the Tengwar to let your FF succeed? Again, I'd say yes.

I agree Glorelendil... this would be the way to do it. It would allow Rangers to spend more Hope, but it would have to be in service of protecting others. It's very elegant, doesn't change the rules significantly, and adds a bit of risk for the Ranger to gain more Shadow or not regain a point of Hope at the end of the Adventure.

With regards to "directly protect or favour" I've ALWAYS been confused by the fact that if you spend a point of hope to "Defend Companion" on your FF, you don't technically get it back if you read the RAW like a lawyer.

If I ran a game I would certainly allow this. It would let you "spam" Defend Companion, but the Enemy has plenty of ways (esp. with powerful foes) of overcoming high Parry, so that the Defender would eventually be unable to keep defending.

Agreed; I wouldn't have a balance issue with refunding Hope when using Defend Companion on the Fellowship Focus. Sure, it allows some optimized synergies. Whatever. The LM can just add some Adversaries.

Blubbo Baggins wrote:With regards to "directly protect or favour" I've ALWAYS been confused by the fact that if you spend a point of hope to "Defend Companion" on your FF, you don't technically get it back if you read the RAW like a lawyer.

I don't think you're "read[ing] the RAW like a lawyer" as only getting Hope back when spending it on an attribute bonus to protect your focus is the actual intent of the rules. That's how they are meant to work. I don't think allowing it for Protect Companion is game-breaking though.

Rich H wrote: I don't think you're "read[ing] the RAW like a lawyer" as only getting Hope back when spending it on an attribute bonus to protect your focus is the actual intent of the rules. That's how they are meant to work. I don't think allowing it for Protect Companion is game-breaking though.

Agreed, but what do you think of my latest idea?

Glorelendil wrote:Agreed, but what do you think of my latest idea?

Sorry, still getting over the shock of the D&D AiME pre-order so struggling to form coherent thoughts in my head.

I already have a Virtue that lets characters select another Fellowship Focus so it's something I've added to my game through my numerous house rules. I therefore probably wouldn't use your suggestion for that reason.

I'm wondering if it works as I understand it though... A ranger can have numerous characters as their FF and also access to the FP or not?

Rich H wrote:

Glorelendil wrote:Agreed, but what do you think of my latest idea?

Sorry, still getting over the shock of the D&D AiME pre-order so struggling to form coherent thoughts in my head.

I already have a Virtue that lets characters select another Fellowship Focus so it's something I've added to my game through my numerous house rules. I therefore probably wouldn't use your suggestion for that reason.

I'm wondering if it works as I understand it though... A ranger can have numerous characters as their FF and also access to the FP or not?

My idea would be that he still doesn't get to access FP, at any price. But if he takes the whole bleedin' lot of the little rotters as Foci he can merrily spend Hope "directly" helping them. However, it will be very hard to keep them *all* safe, so he's probably going to get a Shadow point instead of a Hope point at the end.

IMO that's the closest to the model of the selfless, dedicated protector.

Glorelendil wrote:My idea would be that he still doesn't get to access FP, at any price. But if he takes the whole bleedin' lot of the little rotters as Foci he can merrily spend Hope "directly" helping them. However, it will be very hard to keep them *all* safe, so he's probably going to get a Shadow point instead of a Hope point at the end.

IMO that's the closest to the model of the selfless, dedicated protector.

That seems like a cool idea, yes.

"You want me to do what?"

"Guard a place called the Shire, west of here, from servants of the Enemy."

"Who lives there?"

"Thousands of clueless Hobbits."

"Can I make the whole lot of them my Fellowship Focus?"

"Sure, why not."

"Deal."

LOL! I have an image on one single Ranger holding off Sharkey minions thanks to a Fellowship pool with a few thousand points of Hope

Although I'd suspect the the Ranger would be pretty much be out of luck for Hope recovery since with so many foci he is almost guaranteed to fail to protect at least one of them. One fat hobbit has a coronary and there goes the hope recovery.

I think that letting the Ranger have multiple Fellowship Focuses is dangerous for the Hope/Shadow economy.

In a Fellowship of 5, after every session there are 10 hope points to divide among the group (5 from fellowship pool, 5 from "my mate is safe").
I'm speaking of an optimal situation, of course, but IME these are not rare.

If one of the companions is a Ranger, and he takes all 4 friends as foci, at the end of the aforementioned optimal session there are 13 Hope points to divide among the group (4 for the Ranger , 9 for the other 4 Heroes).

"The more, the merrier"? I'm not sure that is the intent...

Edit: scooped