Comments on: 300th Post: Creating King Leonidas

By: Warforged – Creating an Identity for an Artificial Being — Dungeon's Master

Warforged – Creating an Identity for an Artificial Being — Dungeon's Master — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 13:12:14 +0000

[...] Our 100th post was a list of 100 Great Things About D&D. For our 300th post Wimwick and I each created King Leonidas from the movie 300. Post 404 was all about Errors I’ve Made as a DM. With the 500th post looked [...]

By: GRANT

GRANT — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 17:24:01 +0000

I have to disagree with the general opinion here and say that Leonidas is more of a fighter-warlord than a true warlord. The hybrid choice seems to be the way to go, at least in my opinion. I preffered Ameron’s ability score choices, feeling they were more like the leonidas in the movie, but i feel the warlod-fighter is the way to go.

By: Wimwick

Wimwick — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:15:40 +0000

@ Everyone
Thanks for the feedback. It was a tough balancing act to get the character right. In the end the focus was Sparta and how Leonidas was the ultimate soldier. This resulted in the hybrid build, but it is the one thing I wrestled with throughout the creation process.

@ Skallawag
With the hybrid build I was limited in my class skills. I really don’t see Leonidas as being trained in diplomacy, he’s the king of Sparta, not Athens. The reason I went with a lower intelligence is some of his decisions were very rash, for example when he kicks the messenger down the well. This isn’t a well thought out decision, but it’s something that his wife (the real intelligence behind the operation) supported. Leonidas was shrewd enough (wisdom) to realize this.

As for the boots, I wanted something that would support a phalanax attack system. So dwarven boots worked. Any attacks that granted him movement were always shifts, not full moves. He’s in light armour so there is no movement penalty incurred, as a result I eliminated boots of striding.

If I could change one aspect of the character it would be charisma. Perhaps sacrificing a few points from strength and wisdom.

@ Ameron
I’ll concede you may be closer to Leonidas, but only a little bit closer. Let’s just agree that together these two would make a deadly combo on the battlefield.

By: skallawag

skallawag — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:28:12 +0000

Congratulations on your 300th post!
Good attempt at King Leonidas on both parts. I would have to agree that the full warlord is the way to go.

Ameron’s stat in Int and Cha more closely resemble what Leonidas portrayed. Intelligence in the part of fighting in a narrow area to provide a combat advantage, stacking dead bodies of the dead enemies and then using the bodies to their advantage. Charisma to lead 299 other men to certain death against impossible odds, each unwavering and feeding off the confidence of Leonidas.

I’m not sure where Wimwick was going with selecting History as a skill, but I liked the choice of the Dwarven boots, even though I would have picked the Boots of Striding myself.

All in all, very entertaining 300th post and keep up the good work!

By: Ameron

Ameron — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:22:30 +0000

@DanTracker
I toyed with the idea of making him a Fighter, or even a Fighter/Warlord hybrid, like Wimwick suggests, but in the end I felt his personality (Charisma) and leadership had to be the focus of this character.

@Rook
Thanks, Rook. This seemed like an interesting way to mark our 300th milestone and put together an article that actually had some substances. We didn’t want to merely post something that was just us bragging about ourselves (“Look at us, we have 300 posts. Aren’t we awesome?”)

@Dungeon Newbie
Fair enough. I think Wimwick’s take on Leonidas is probably has a greater damage output, but mine is the leader in terms of game mechanics and in terms of leading his troops.

By: Dungeon Newbie

Dungeon Newbie — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:58:15 +0000

I think that the Wimwick guy is better as although i know nothing about this sort of stuff his description sounds fitting to the movie Leonidas

By: Rook

Rook — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:20:32 +0000

Nice post guys, I love this idea. I gotta say I’m going with the full warlord as well. I can’t wait to see what my wife says about this. She is a gamer, but more importantly, she is a HUGE Gerrard Butler fan and adores that movie.
So I’ll just thank you for her now, because I know she’ll love it.

And Here’s to another 300 posts! Cheers!
.-= Rook´s last blog ..4e Magic Item Use: A Compromise =-.

By: DanTracker

DanTracker — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:26:39 +0000

I’d say that I like him best as full warlord rather than the hybrid. The warlord build took advantage of the existing proficiencies and added much more leadership and formation style fighting than the hybrid fighter/warlord. I imagine that others of his 300 may have been hybrids, some multiclassed and most fighters or rangers and rogues.

However, i see this as a problem of the hybrid system and multiclass system. I can imagine that he began as a common rogue, then grew into the skillset of a ranger. As he surpassed those marks he reached to being a true soldierly fighter, and then began to learn the elements of leadership that would lead him to being the warlord. So, in that transition he would have been a fighter-warlord and then fighter/warlord, and then warlord-fighter until he truly reached the point of being fully a warlord, placing his skills and abilities to use as a leader of soldiers and rising far above his initial station when he began the walk from his home to the training grounds of the Spartans.

so, while i think the fighter/warlord was in him, i think that the character illustrated in the movie was the warlord, pure and fully fledged.