Re[2]: [WW] Class Balance

[Arne Reuter <reuter@tse-online.de>]

> grandmasternilus@hotmail.com said:
>   And if the Scout player takes one level of Officer (or vice versa) that
> advantage is negated.  Now, the one officer in the group is an interesting 
> idea, but what incentive is there to continue as an officer after 1st level?

I picture the office a kind of like the magic-user sans spells: He is
the one to be able to decipher enemy plans, interrogate prisoners (on
the fly), interpret enemy movements, things like that. He will be the
one who has access to privileged information and so on. A good officer
will make his group heroes - a bad one will make them dead ;-). So the
player should be willing to take the responsibility.

As to advancement: higher level officers might survive longer and
become better at their trade. Until the get promoted out of the front
ditch.

BTW, I favor the 1 officer rule, too. And even for a squad that would
normally be too much - you'd have to have a platoon at least to go for
a lieutenant. Exception: If you have Fahnenjunker or Fähnriche
(officer candidates) in combat. But I don't know whether they were
actually in combat in WWII as opposed to academy ranks.

>   Really?  I see the grunt or officer as the first to get killed.  Anyone
> carrying around a heavy weapon is a prime target in battle, and so are the 
> leaders.  At least the scout is skulking around...

Too be fair as a GM one should think just how hard it can be to
identify an officer once the lead starts flying. Once in real combat
they don't look that much different under all that grime ;-).

So it will be up to the GM to script NPC behavior. The concept of fire
lanes does well here: In a line of enemies everybody will only attack
targets in his designated segment...

Therefore not everyone would concentrate on one PC, for example.

Mit freundlichen Gruessen,

Arne Reuter

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