A bandit who just got brains

Alternate start:

The armory across town bursts in flames, Harad was succesful. Your own team pushes forward, into the throne room. The battle isn't long, your companions engage the players helping King Graveth as your thermal lance melts anyone else, reducing rouges to ashes, encasing knights in their own armor, turning mages into shadows on the wall. It takes only a few minutes and only the King is left, you don't repeat you past mistakes and take his life.
Flames illuminate the city as you make your way back.

You awake. That dream was nice, it ended in great triumph, the memory what triumph it was already fades, but the triumph itself and the satisfaction that come with it stay. You allow yourself to lie down for a few more moments, not really thinking about anything, simply enjoying. It is with a groan that you fully return to the concious world and get up, leaving the straw and blanket you call your bed behind. The room you're in is the very same you always respawn in, the smaller and inner of two caves. You go through the short tunnel that connects to the bigger entrance-cave. Not only does the sunlight flowing in allow you to actually see something, the reflection of the water springs pool even allows you to see yourself if you so wish, or you can look at the others of your gang. That's right, gang, you're not just some bandit, you're a bandit leader, the boss of a small gang. Which brings us to a peculiar little phenomenon that has made your life more interesting and enjoyable in the past, bandit leaders such as yourself have a much broader spectrum to be assigned classes from. In the past you got to be various kinds of archers and crossbowmen, the longbow was particularly fun. Or your horse when you were some kind of cavalry, the cuirassier was great, simply riding through the enemy, amazing.

Anyways, with every respawn you change, class, looks and so forth, only memories and a few other things remain, in other words, how are you now? A relatively normal face, male and human, with some washing it might even look a little bit handsome ... now it does look not too bad, albeit wet. Somewhat long and unorderly hair of a dark brown color, paired with storm grey eyes, all topped of with a surprisingly well developed body. All in all, you look not bad, not bad at all, pity you won't be able to hold these looks for long, your gang does't really get enough success to keep everyone well fed, and such a body won't stick around without enough food, it's not like you're a walking mountain of muscle, but still, very nicely built this time, ahh, anyways.

Next part is the good ole' character sheet.

<Bandit leader>
Level 5 Lightning sorcerer
NPC, Bandit, Explicit
Experience to level up – 600
Attributes:
Strength 19
Dexterity 22
Stamina 18
Charisma 24
Intelligence 40 (+5)
Wisdom 30
Skills:
Lightning magic 40
alchemy 15
cooking 10
Feats:
Gang leader - Increases Intelligence based on number of gang members, does not include non-champion undead.
Lightning prodigy - You have a natural talent for everything related to lightning, receive 50% less lightning damage and cannot hurt yourself or allies with lightning attacks and effects.
Spells:
Tickling fingertips - Unarmed attacks deal 10 % of Intelligence as lightning damage. Requires but does not consume at least one mana to activate.
Shock - Lightning crackles from your fingertips and deals lightning damage equal to 50% of your Intelligence (rounded down). Has a range of 10 meters and a cooldown of 5 seconds, cooldown can be bypassed for 10 mana.
Lightning bolt - Shoots a bolt of lightning from the palm of your hand. Deals two times your Intelligence as damage and has a range equal to your wisdom, hits multiple enemies in a line. Costs 70 mana.

This is new. A magical class, you never had that before. But it explains that you think so much about things today, with gang leader you always were smarter than your gang members, but now, 45 Intelligence! Holy crap, that means 90 mana to boot. You never had so much going on in your brain.

The caves open up to a plateau of about medium size, right now it's flooded with sunlight. You step outside almost giddy with anticipation to try out magic for the first time. Without ever having even heard how to do it you draw from the crackling ball of energy inside you and pour it inside the form you want it to have. With an audible crackle a small bluish arc springs from the fingertips of your outstretched right arm and hits the stone floor, leaving a small burn mark. Again you will yourself to do magic, this time taking far more energy from the source within you, 70 mana to be exact. BOOM, the thunder when the lightning bolt hits the mountain are deafening, although more surprising than hurting, you have no idea how that worked, but it seems, with your lightning prodigy not even the sound from your attacks will actually hurt you, or maybe the gods only thought to make this attack impressive and didn't want the sound alone to be a danger, whatever it may be, loud but not dangerously so.

"Wha-What's happening?", "Ahhh!", "Lemme sleep I just died!" The sound has woken up your gang, you go back inside to calm them. "Everyone calm down, we're not being attacked, that was just me, I tried something out", they had years to grow used to your commands and build trust, it's touching, really, to see how quickly they calm just because you said everything was okay.

A few minutes later everyone is upright and has gathered on the plateau, just like everytime whenyou run into a player and get killed. "Ok everyone," you say "you know the drill, open your character sheets, see if you know how to read them, we gotta find out what we can do". Ah, only seldomly do you have the brains to make it sound so orderly, almost more like some kind of squad than a gang of misfits. "Also, you might not remember that, but we always have the same argument, if your character sheet says B-sqiggly line that's not your name and it can absolutely happen that multiple of you have that, so don't start laying into each other." you thought of that just in time, it always wastes a few minutes and it is somewhat embarassing to have grown men arguing who of them is called Bandit and who isn't. Four of the five stare with utterly non-understanding eyes into the air, trying to decipher the words only they can see although they can't read, only one seems to understand something, his lips slowly form a word "Baaa-Baatl-Baaatlem-Baaatlem ast- Baaatlem ast er, Boss, I think I'm a Ba-Baaatlem-aster or something" he eventually says. That makes sense, looking around at the others you can see that your own caster-yet-boss body is the most ahem "impressive" one around, apart from that very guy, tall, broad shoulders, very muscular, maybe not as refined as you but certainly string and impressive, almost like he could wrestle an Orc, which he actually could if necessary. "You're a Battlemaster, that means you have better stats than the others and can fight much better, trust me, I had that class a few times in the past, it's great" you tell him, your experience, Intelligence and observation of his appearance give you certainty, "Ok Boss, got it." he even has higher Intelligence than a typical bandit, enough to comprehend and reply quickly, fan-tas-tic. The other four all turn out to just be normal bandits, nothing much to speak of stat- skill- or appearance- wise.

Last but not least, equipment. You hadn't paid much attention to this point so far because it was common to pool everyones stuff after a new respawn to make sure that at least you and those who were lucky enough to get a better class than normal could have "good" equipment.

3x Wooden club
A club of wood. Deals 1 damage.

1x Blunt iron axe
An axe fashoined from wood and iron, it is blunt. Deals 2 (3) damage.

1x Rusty iron sword
An old iron sword, rusty from water, or blood? Deals 4 (6) damage.

4x Bandit clothing
Dirty and of low quality, common among low level bandits. Fills chest slot as well as both arm and leg slots. Offers +1 armor (physical).

1x Reinforced bandit clothing
A bandits clothing that has been reinforced with some leather. Fills the chest slot as well as both arm and leg slots. Offers +2 armor (physical).

1x Bandits robe (blue)
A short low quality robe that's sometimes worn by bandits, there is a blue hue to it's grey. Also comes with simple pants and a hood. Fills the chest slot as well as both arm and leg slots.

In the past it was typically you who got the best equipment, this time however, that just makes no sense, the sword, easily the best weapon, goes to the Battlemaster, the other weapons to the bandits, you yourself can help yourself with Tickling fingertips, it's about as powerful as those clubs are for the bandits and only the sword would be better, which is just wasted when not given to the Battlemaster. "Armor"-wise you decide to go with what you spawned with as well, the robe. The lack of armor should be affordable as the front line isn't your place anyway. Your, well, minions, have greater need of what meagre protection the Bandit clothes offer, they will have to soak up damage for you after all, and losing the Battlemaster because he didn't have enough armor would be simply stupid. Long story short, everyone puts back on what they spawned with.

"Okay everyone, we know who we are, somewhat at least, we have equipment, lets talk tactics. When we fight, you guys have to keep me alive, I can't take much damage, but I can do this" BOOM, your mana had long since recovered enough for another Bolt, looks and sounds leave no doubt this little show of **** makes it abundantly clear why you have to be kept alive in combat "and you," you point at the Battlemaster "you make sure that you stay alive as well, I know you can take a lot, but still, you.could.die, make sure it doesn't happen. Everybody understood?" "Yeah Boss, keep you alive, 'll do Boss." one of the bandits answers as the Battlemaster simply nods.

Not long afterwards you all make your way down the mountain. You live in the outskirts of the Emporne Massif, remote enough that soldiers rarely come, yet close enough to the countryside to access the nearby forest and trade route. All that however, hasn't really mattered much in the past, you'd just wait somewhere by a path until someone shows up and proceed to rob them, or rather try as most people on these paths are players and adventurers. "But this time, I have a different plan" you tell your minions "we'll avoid heroes and instead of robbing passer-bys we rob some houses, farms and the likes". One of the bandits seems to not really understand the reasoning behind such unusal targets "but boss, what's the use in robbing farms, I mean, we kill players and stuff to get their money, right?" you answer him while leading the party along "Yes, we normally try to rob money, but, what's the use in that, don't we actually just want power, a comfortable life all this stuff and more? what I'm trying to say is" you try to make it easier as you notice that you might be making it to complicated for the bandit "we don't need money, we can't spend it anyways. Besides, what's the point of stealing, if we die in the process, no no no, we rob NPCs, live through it and actually get to enjoy it, we're gonna win this time!". The last bit draws some cheers.

You don't meet any adventurers on the road or rather "road" and reach a mountain pasture after maybe an hour of brisk walking. One or two dozen cows graze and enjoy the juicy grass, a lone man watches over them, his back is turned towards you and he hasn't noticed you yet, last but not least a small shack, albeit made from stone, stands nearby, no doubt giving the man shelter during the night and allowing him to store his rations and produce. You whisper for your followers to, well, follow you and silently go closer to the man, when your group is maybe ten meters away he hears you and turns around. A drunk might mistake you for adventurers or simply a group of travellers, but the man isn't drunk, he sees you are Bandits and tries to run away. BZZT, the lightning jumps from your fingertips and hits the man in the back. He was just in the reach of your shock, which was evidently enough to kill him in one go, apparently he only had (45/2=22.5 rounded down=)22 or less hp. With an appreciative cackle a bandit runs up to the body only to get smacked by the not so dead after all cattle farmer. The bandits freak out over the simple trick and the terrible shock of being slapped, the battlemaster charges forward. You calmly spend 10 mana to immediately shock the man again. This time a little loot beacon hovers over the body and the bandit doesn't receive any pushback. This first succesful battle of your current spawn-cycle, against the might cattle-man was a success. Apart from some xp for you and some trash in his pockets the only reward is getting to plunder his home and herd. The cows are practically worthless xp-wise, critters, nothing more, yet you let your team kill and loot two of them while you check out the cabin, or shack for consistency. The building isn't much, no lootable foodstocks sadly, but wood for the fireplace in front, a sleeping bag made from fur and leather, a workbench that, according to the triggered window, allows to turn milk into cheese, a stool with bucket and a cabinet with some stored cheese inside, technically not foodstocks but rather produce. The others bring the meat and leather from the dead cows.

Your cooking skill may be abysmal, yet it exists, it is therefore you who lights the fireplace and makes a late breakfast/early lunch from beefcuts and cheese, water comes from a creek next to the shack. After the meal it only takes you a minute or two more to make some beef stew and store it in your inventory, just good you don't have to make the bowls for that.

As your group leaves the pasture everyone is happy, the others are happy because one of your "operations" actually succeded and they are better fed than they were ever before (even before they could really get hungry after spawning), you are happy for the same reasons, but also because of what you won here, you have prove that you strategy of picking less valuable but less dangerous targets can work while also having gained some useful things.