Replacement dregs for undead warbands

Hi all,

I thoroughly enjoy playing as undead but if there is one thing that's regrettable about the warband it's that the dregs are so monotone with one another. They will usually end up similar in skills since the selection is limited unless you deliberately take them down different paths which I've been doing recently. My proposal is to shake things up by taking some inspiration from an earlier attempt by me to re-envision the undead in a new direction, where the hero dregs were replaced with "thralls" to represent weak-willed youngbloods of the mercenary warbands who have fallen under the vampire's sway. They all had different skill tables available to them to show their different backgrounds. So instead of having the following:

- 3x dregs with combat + strength skills.

There could be:

- 3x thralls, one with combat + strength skills, one with combat + speed skills and one with combat + academic skills.

Aside from this they would follow the same rules as dregs, with the same equipment options and starting profile & experience. You'd only be allowed to have up to one thrall of each type in the warband at any time.

I'm considering if I should ask for permission to try this out in an upcoming campaign. Can you spot any issues or imbalances that could arise from this?

Thanks in advance!

I rarely play an Undead warband, so I'm not too bothered by the standard dregs. However, your idea seems like an interesting approach.

I really like this idea. I don't think there is too much to kick up a fuss about.

Another spellcaster isn't a worry - you can always hire one any way, and you still need to get a tome.

The most effective thing I could think of with my limited experience is a sprinting dreg, giving the Vampire yet another buddy to team up with, along with Dire Wolves and Ogre Bodyguards, making the speedy posse more viable.

But again, it's just for the one dreg, and you could achieve this more or less with with buying a horse anyway.

And there's always a chance that you might not roll many skills anyway.

I'd allow it, and it would definitely help to avoid the 'samey-ness'.

Thanks for your input. I talked it over with the guys today and they liked the idea, although not that one of the thralls would get academic skills. They felt that the haggle and wyrdstone hunter skills would be unfair to have on such a cheap hero, and I can see their point. Instead I'll be going with a combat + shooting skills thrall, which was actually their suggestion in return. It'll be interesting to see how this can change things.

My only issue, with combat+shooting, is the warband itself, can’t take shooting skills.

I told them the same thing, that it went against the original spirit of the warband, but they didn't think that was so bad. They actually said that I could try out any combinations I wanted except for academics, and the only remaining one that doesn't involve shooting or academics is strength + speed. That's a potent combo but perhaps still more suitable.

Having a single marksman in the warband is not going to cause any balance issues.

I've tried this out with my undead warband, purely for WYSIWSG purposes - I'd modelled one of my dregs as a deformed halfling. It didn't seem right him getting combat and strength so we allowed him to have speed and shooting. We didn't find any balance issues. Granted, the halfling in question lost an eye, so was never likely to make a top marksman, though he was pretty handly with his blunderbuss.

I love you proposal for the alternatively talented dregs.

I also would allow an academics only dreg. Only one skill tree instead of two for the same costs.

Odin Morgrimmsson wrote:

Granted, the halfling in question lost an eye, so was never likely to make a top marksman, though he was pretty handly with his blunderbuss.

I can alreasy picture this guy - very cinematique!