Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Zardnaar Sep 19, 2014 15:49:59	Almost 2500 years ago 300 Spartans marched off to war and in the process became legends. The Battle of Thermopylae has echoed down through the centuries and has had movie adaptions such as the movie 300. The Spartans were very good soldiers but what made them excel was they were professional soldiers in a time where most armies were really militia. Their social system allowed each Spartan to be fully equipped in armour while other Greek cities had to make do. For example recent estimates have indicated every hoplite had a shield, 1 in 3 had greaves while one in 10 had the full hoplite ensemble.    There were drawbacks to the Spartan system as well like their social system was unsustainable. The stereotype of the Spartans never surrendering is not true as they surrendered at Pylos during the Peloponnesian War and they were eventually beaten by Thebes in 371BC where they could only field 1000 Spartans while the rest of their army was more or less the same as any other Greek army.    Anyway I thought I would stat out a basic Spartan for use in 5E. In previous editions they would be a level 2 fighter or so while everyone else is a level 0 or level 1 warrior. Hoplite Armor would roughly equal breastplate.   Spartan Armor Class 17 (breastplate + shield) Hit Points 67 (9d8 + 27) Speed 30 ft. STR 16 DEX 12 CON 16 INT 11 WIS 11 CHA 10  Skills Athletics +5 Perception +2 Senses passive Perception 10 Languages Greek Challenge 2 (450 XP) Multiattack. The Spartan makes two melee attacks or two ranged attacks. Actions Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6+3) piercing damage.   A more advanced Spartan could perhaps have the defender combat style ported from the 5E fighter, not sure if they would be CR2 in that event. I decided to keep the Spartan somewhat basic and refluffed the Berzerker and tweaked the armour they used. This Spartan probably doesn’t look that eopic but it is roughly as tough as an Ogre. Also one would have to consider what they actually faced in battle. I would argue that the average Persian soldier in game terms would look like this.   Persian Conscript Armor Class 12 (leather armor or shield) Hit Points 9 (2d8) Speed 30 ft. STR 12 DEX 11 CON 10 INT 10 WIS 11 CHA 10 Senses passive Perception 10 Languages any one language (multi ethnic empire) Challenge 1/8 (25 XP) Actions Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) piercing damage.   This is a refluffed cultist from the HoTDQ PDF.   And there you have it. The Spartan is better equipped and a lot tougher, the conscript is roughly on par with a Kobold. THe Spartan could also be tweaked a bit further and equipped with some Javelins for a ranged attack. The Spartan could also be used to represent any professional soldier with decent armor as opposed to a caravan guard.
#2 Diffan Sep 19, 2014 16:06:08	Why aren't they also wielding ξίφος, or Xiphos in english? Further, they were awesome as formations, something that might be able to emulated with feats. Does the shield master feat still allow attacks with it? That would be something they could do well.    They should have some sort of feature when gathered in a phalanx, consisting of 3 or more Spartans. Maybe a collective +1 bonus to AC and Reflex saves?
#3 Zardnaar Sep 19, 2014 16:24:52	Diffan wrote:
#4 Mirtek Sep 20, 2014 0:47:00	Zardnaar wrote:
#5 Zardnaar Sep 20, 2014 3:09:49	Mirtek wrote:
(Reply to #3) Diffan	Zardnaar wrote: