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  • Re: NPC classes

    From Ubiquitous@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Apr 2 11:36:27 2024
    [email protected] wrote:

    I recently was rethinking the use of NPC classes in my (mostly
    OSR-style) games. Previously I had dismissed them as unsuccessful
    attempts at making overpowered PC classes. But reading them "as written"
    they make much more sense as human boss monsters in a lot of cases.

    I specifically mean stuff like e.g. Lew Pulsipher's Necromancer class,
    which is a terrible class for players (it demands human sacrifices of >increasing specificity to advance), but does actually make more sense
    when used as a maybe recurring human antagonist who keeps getting
    stronger as over the course of a PCs career.

    I also looked at the Witch class from Dragon magazine but find that one
    oddly lacking.

    What are your preferred NPC classes, if any?

    I always liked the Death Master from Dragon Magazine. It was a bit
    overpowered for a PC, plus there was that inevitable march towards Chaotic
    Evil alignment, but I remember having fun making it a recurring NPC who eventually became a foe.

    Now that I mention it, I did play one as a character in a Munchkin Realms campaign and it got interesting when he became CE during the Time of
    Troubles.

    --
    Let's go Brandon!

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  • From Ubiquitous@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Tue Apr 2 11:38:41 2024
    [email protected] wrote:

    One of the problems I've found with 'classing' NPCs is that it leads
    to power creep. The king has to be a level 15 warrior, the blacksmith
    is 4th level rogue, etc. etc. Superficially this makes sense, except
    D&D classes are largely ranked around their combat effectiveness, and
    that's not the only way to achieve power. So I try to avoid giving
    levels and classes to the NPCs.

    I found the comcept of "NPC classes" interesting in 3.x edition, but a lot of time it was better to just give them a couple "real" classes to make them
    more dangerous to the PCs.

    I'd hate to meet a 20th level epic baker (expert), tho! :-D

    --
    Let's go Brandon!

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  • From Justisaur@21:1/5 to Kyonshi on Tue Apr 2 14:43:03 2024
    On 4/2/2024 1:58 AM, Kyonshi wrote:
    I recently was rethinking the use of NPC classes in my (mostly
    OSR-style) games. Previously I had dismissed them as unsuccessful
    attempts at making overpowered PC classes. But reading them "as written"
    they make much more sense as human boss monsters in a lot of cases.

    I specifically mean stuff like e.g. Lew Pulsipher's Necromancer class,
    which is a terrible class for players (it demands human sacrifices of increasing specificity to advance), but does actually make more sense
    when used as a maybe recurring human antagonist who keeps getting
    stronger as over the course of a PCs career.

    I also looked at the Witch class from Dragon magazine but find that one
    oddly lacking.

    What are your preferred NPC classes, if any?

    I never used any in AD&D. Pretty much whatever's fair for the PCs is
    fair for the NPCs as well and vice versa. I do think I remember letting someone use the Archer one time, but that didn't turn out well, because
    of course it was the resident rules-lawyer/power-gamer.

    I only even let any of the UA classes be used one time, not so much
    because Barbarian and Cavalier were overpowered, but because they were
    written in such a way that they didn't work well with the normal makeup
    of a party (Barbarians hating magic users and cavaliers having to Leroy
    Jenkins all threats.)

    The races I didn't like as they were obviously power creep.

    I did use the 3e NPC classes a few times for NPCs, but it was rare and
    not particularly memorable. Those NPC classes were far less dangerous
    than a normal PC of the same level though.

    5e NPC monsters are kind of like/hate. I like that they're easier to
    handle than full characters, hate that we have to use pared down
    versions of PCs because PCs are too complicated.

    --
    -Justisaur

    ø-ø
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