New Archtype:

Longbow Leader

Description: A mastermind like Archtype

Primary Powers: Summon

Secondary Powers: Support

Powers:

Longbow Summon: (below)

Shoot: Attacks with SMG, or Pistol.

Guardians: Summons a Longbow Guardian, while not upgraded they are equipped with their usual pistol. but once upgraded with the level 6 Equip Longbow, they are equipped with two pistols. If upgraded with the last upgrade power, Upgrade Longbow, they are equipped with a SMG,

Slug (Smg)/Aimed Shot (Pistol): Shoots an accurate, powerful, but slow shot. With a pistol it is a Aimed Shot. With a SMG it is a Slug Shot.

Hand Grenade: Throws a Hand Grenade at target. It is also an area effect weapon.

Equip Longbow: Throws a clip of ammo at one of your Longbow Men, and upgrading them up a notch.

Seargents: Summons a Longbow Seargent. When they are not upgraded they have their usual Assault Rifle, when upgraded with Equip Longbow, they can shoot Full Auto. If upgraded with Upgrade Longbow, they can use Hand Grenades.

Full Auto(SMG) / Empty Clip(Pistol): Fires an entire clip of ammo at the target.

Warden: Summons a Longbow Warden to your aid. While not upgraded they have their usual Energy Blast. When upgraded with Equip Longbow they can use Force Bolt to send enemies flying. When you use Upgrade Longbow, they can now attack with a powerful blast which is area effective.

Upgrade Longbow: This is the final and the last "Equip" Ability.

Excellent idea!

I've actually had this discussion with a few of my friends on CoH

You couldn't really have a mastermind type hero; it really goes against everything a hero is

Heroes selflessly run into the fray to stop evil, there isn't a hero who would send in others to fight for him, even anti-heroes do not have others fight their battles for them, they are more like the dark loner or whatever, and just because they don't necessarily care if someone gets hurt as they're dishing out justice, the still aren’t going to hide behind someone else.

The ability to throw troops into battle ahead of you is inherently evil, self preservation is something a villain is concerned about, heroes don't care what happens to them if they think they can make a difference, villains don't care about what happens to others as long as they come out on top or unscathed

I can understand the want to compare this to the military, well all of the most heroic generals or leaders in history are usually the ones who ran into combat with their men as well as would put themselves in danger first to save their company, there are those who make up plans way far away from the battles but they can't tell what’s going to happen to the men in the field, plans might not work how you think they will and its up to the people who are actually in the fight to pull things through. If you want to look at longbow as it is now, when you play a villain and you encounter a group of longbow with a Warden in it, the Warden will usually fly in front of the rest of the unit and try to kill you themselves, because Wardens are pretty much super heroes, and their lives don't mean as much to them as the lives of their company

Originally posted by BionCoon

 

I've actually had this discussion with a few of my friends on CoH

 

You couldn't really have a mastermind type hero; it really goes against everything a hero is

Heroes selflessly run into the fray to stop evil, there isn't a hero who would send in others to fight for him, even anti-heroes do not have others fight their battles for them, they are more like the dark loner or whatever, and just because they don't necessarily care if someone gets hurt as they're dishing out justice, the still aren’t going to hide behind someone else.

 

The ability to throw troops into battle ahead of you is inherently evil, self preservation is something a villain is concerned about, heroes don't care what happens to them if they think they can make a difference, villains don't care about what happens to others as long as they come out on top or unscathed

 

I can understand the want to compare this to the military, well all of the most heroic generals or leaders in history are usually the ones who ran into combat with their men as well as would put themselves in danger first to save their company, there are those who make up plans way far away from the battles but they can't tell what’s going to happen to the men in the field, plans might not work how you think they will and its up to the people who are actually in the fight to pull things through. If you want to look at longbow as it is now, when you play a villain and you encounter a group of longbow with a Warden in it, the Warden will usually fly in front of the rest of the unit and try to kill you themselves, because Wardens are pretty much super heroes, and their lives don't mean as much to them as the lives of their company

I don't mean like a evil type like class....

Originally posted by reloaded58

Originally posted by BionCoon

I've actually had this discussion with a few of my friends on CoH

 You couldn't really have a mastermind type hero; it really goes against everything a hero is

Heroes selflessly run into the fray to stop evil, there isn't a hero who would send in others to fight for him, even anti-heroes do not have others fight their battles for them, they are more like the dark loner or whatever, and just because they don't necessarily care if someone gets hurt as they're dishing out justice, the still aren’t going to hide behind someone else.

 The ability to throw troops into battle ahead of you is inherently evil, self preservation is something a villain is concerned about, heroes don't care what happens to them if they think they can make a difference, villains don't care about what happens to others as long as they come out on top or unscathed

 I can understand the want to compare this to the military, well all of the most heroic generals or leaders in history are usually the ones who ran into combat with their men as well as would put themselves in danger first to save their company, there are those who make up plans way far away from the battles but they can't tell what’s going to happen to the men in the field, plans might not work how you think they will and its up to the people who are actually in the fight to pull things through. If you want to look at longbow as it is now, when you play a villain and you encounter a group of longbow with a Warden in it, the Warden will usually fly in front of the rest of the unit and try to kill you themselves, because Wardens are pretty much super heroes, and their lives don't mean as much to them as the lives of their company

I don't mean like a evil type like class....

Okay, I really thought I replied to this before, but looks like it didn't post. Well, other than my original thumbs-up.

What if we create a Ranged Warden (RW) and a Melee Warden (MW)?

Let's say the Warden has some of the Leadership Pool powers in his Primary set. To be effective, he would have to be in the midst of his troops. So if he's a Melee Warden, he'd summon melee troops and would have to be in the melee himself. Kinda like a tanker surrounded by a bunch of scrappers. Likewise, if he's a Ranged Warden, he'd summon ranged troops. Something along the lines of a controller/defender surrounded by blasters. Either way, he'd be surrounded by his troops and sharing their danger. And the primary powers could be used on teammates just as is the case with MMs.

• Summon #1 would be infantry, ranged or melee based on the Warden's specialty.
• Summon #2 would be field medic, with a couple additional powers also based on the Warden's specialty.
• Summon #3 would be special forces opposite to the Warden. For the MW, it would be an artillery specialist providing ranged support (gotta love the no-friendly-fire!). The RW would get their own little remote-control tanker to help herd and absorb some damage. Since these tankers would likely not be immediately near the Warden, they'd have normal tanker defense, maybe a little weaker.

Let's also create an inherent power I'll call Devotion. Devotion is a blend of Fury and Defiance. As the Warden and his troops fight, their devotion goes up and they get sturdier. As the Warden's HP goes down, the troops start to do more damage per hit. If one of the summoned troops dies (not counting being dismissed), the devotion of the rest takes a hit and has to be built up again. And just standing around would cause the troops devotion to drop.

How does all that sound?

I know what you meant Re, I realize you were talking about a hero not a villain I still think for moral and/or the stereotypical hero psyche would keep them from being a "mastermind"

Milton touches on what I feel like would need to happen. If they were to release a hero mastermind-esk class the hero would still have to be the primary target and the "pets" being there for support, as the actual hero does the majority of the work, unlike masterminds who hide behind their pets.

Oh, one other thing Milton, I like your ides for the MM-Hero's special ability, but it might be a tad to powerful as you have it described now, I feel it'd need a little tweaking to be fair, but its a great concept.

Originally posted by BionCoon

Oh, one other thing Milton, I like your ides for the MM-Hero's special ability, but it might be a tad to powerful as you have it described now, I feel it'd need a little tweaking to be fair, but its a great concept.

Option 1:

What if we made it a power that had to be activated, kind of an anti-Dominance? You fight and fill your "devo-meter," and eventually you can activate it. Once the devotion is used up, you have to build it all back up again.

Option 2:

Leave it an auto-power, but differentiate it for the two Warden classes--similar to the power-balancing inherent powers of the Kheldians? For the Melee Warden, in his tank-like role, give the troops the Sturdy boost and give the Ranged troops the damage boost. Or should it play more to their weaknesses? If the MW is already pretty sturdy, should he and his troops get the damage boost? And if the RW is slightly squishy, should they get the sturdy boost?

Y'all may have have picked up on this, but I figured I may as well explicitly state it. When I thought of Devotion and its effects, I was thinking of the relationship between a commander and his troops and how that plays out in real life. Devotion to a commander doesn't make a troop's senses more keen or make him more agile. His commander's voice might rouse him from a stupor, or bring him back from the brink of death, or give him a bit more energy. But it can make him more willing to fight through the pain, or fight a little bit harder (or go berserk!). Hence, Sturdy and Enrage.

Originally posted by themilton

Y'all may have have picked up on this, but I figured I may as well explicitly state it. When I thought of Devotion and its effects, I was thinking of the relationship between a commander and his troops and how that plays out in real life. Devotion to a commander doesn't make a troop's senses more keen or make him more agile. His commander's voice might rouse him from a stupor, or bring him back from the brink of death, or give him a bit more energy. But it can make him more willing to fight through the pain, or fight a little bit harder (or go berserk!). Hence, Sturdy and Enrage.

The highlighted portion actually gives me an idea for an upper-level primary power - Rally Cry. It gives the troops (and teammates) a temporary endurance recovery boost and resistance to hold/confuse/sleep effects. Maybe even a temporary HP regeneration boost. After the effects of the Rally Cry wear off, leader (and troops?) is drained of HP (50% maybe?) and endurance.