NPC Sorcerers?

[bradius]

I find creating NPC characters to be difficult and time consuming. Particularly Scholars/Sorcerers. Anyone have any suggestions on how to make this less painful?

I'd be happy to buy a Mongoose supplement with lots of NPC (particularly sorcerers).

 

[rabindranath72]

It is the problem of most d20 games. Also, keep in mind that it is quite difficult to have a correct character writeup. In many of these published by Mongoose the number of skill points is wrong, or the feats are not correctly allocated. The major offenders however are the skill points.
That's why I hate with a passion d20; how to turn a game into a sterile accounting exercise :x

I might suggest a different system I have been using, imported from Star Wars Saga.
- Essentially, at character creation every character chooses a number of skills equal to the skill points, plus intelligence modifier. These are considered trained skills.

- Skill checks are done as follows:1d20 + half character level (rounded down) + 5 if skill is trained, +5 if skill is focused.

- To acquire trained skills, you must spend a feat which allows transforming a class skill into a trained skill.

- When you multiclass, you simply pool all skills from the different classes, which are then considered all class skills.

- The skill focus feat allows adding +5 to a trained skill roll.

- The skill training feat allows adding +5 when doing a skill check with a trained skill.

- When a race gives a bonus to a skill check, you simply allow a reroll in place of adding the bonus. So no math is involved.

That's all. It is practically impossible to do an error with this system, and it is MUCH faster than the standard one.

 

[Krushnak]

when creating npc sorcerors i find it easiest to bend the rules and just give them what i think they should have. so generally see how many styles they should have for what lvl i want them to be and then just give them whatever spells i want from the styles i choose for them. pretty much the only prereqs i keep to are MAB and lvl based ones.

skill points for all my npc characters tend to be selecting a number of skills equal to the total amount of skill points they get and giving them a total equal to their lvl + stat modifier, for important and recurring npc's who i think it might matter what skills they have then i flesh them out properly but for mooks they just get the ez mode treatment.

 

[librarycharlie]

As a GM, the solution here is much simpler than any formal system of skill point averages, etc.

Sorcerers shouldn't be fair.

When they are required to know a spell, and it's something they have the capacity to know, they know it.

NPC Sorcerers don't, or shouldn't, make a habit of revealing their spellbooks (metaphorically) to players.

That way the players never know what an evil wizard has up his sleeve. Maybe a recurring villain has a "favorite spell" that he's unleashed at them a time or two, but beyond that... it should be a surprise. Sorcery is supposed to be terrifying and unpredictable. Characters shouldn't know every available spell in every discipline, and it's the terror of the unknown that makes sorcerers as frightening as they are.

As for skill points... who cares?! If the sorcerer is good at alchemy (in your mind, not on paper), roll a die secretly, then... guess what? He succeeded. Who cares what you actually rolled? It's a game, but it's also a story.

Unrelated reference point: When Han shoots point blank at Greedo, he hits because he's good. There never was a chance of him "rolling a one" and screwing it up. Don't let dice or the major task of accounting get in the way of your story.

If your "terrifying sorcerer of vast reputation" needs to summon a demon in order to continue plaguing your PCs, by all means, ignore the character sheet you made for him, and let him cast the spell!

 

[Hervé]

The advices given by library charlie are good and could apply to any RPG: mood and story should be more important than rules...
And that's where we can see that the D20 system is totally flawed. The rules are highly detailed, but what's the point in having such complicated rules if no one seems able to use them properly? Most D20 GMs do same, that is imrovising NPCs because creating them by the rules is sooo complicated... So we all end by using NPCs that don't use the same rules than PCs. Quite weird, indeed, for a game that focuses heavily on the rules for sacrosaint "game balance"...
I was using a revamped version of the BRP/Chaosium system before I decided to go D20. There was so much good Conan material already printed in D20 that I thought it would be the easier way. That wasn't my best idea...
Eventhough the D20 offers much more nice options in character customization, the price to pay is too steep: lots of flipbooking during play and lots of pain for this poor GM when making up balanced (by the rules) NPCs when creating adventures. I'll probably change system again after my current campaign arc...

 

[rabindranath72]

The advices given by library charlie are good and could apply to any RPG: mood and story should be more important than rules...
And that's where we can see that the D20 system is totally flawed. The rules are highly detailed, but what's the point in having such complicated rules if no one seems able to use them properly? Most D20 GMs do same, that is imrovising NPCs because creating them by the rules is sooo complicated... So we all end by using NPCs that don't use the same rules than PCs. Quite weird, indeed, for a game that focuses heavily on the rules for sacrosaint "game balance"...
I was using a revamped version of the BRP/Chaosium system before I decided to go D20. There was so much good Conan material already printed in D20 that I thought it would be the easier way. That wasn't my best idea...
Eventhough the D20 offers much more nice options in character customization, the price to pay is too steep: lots of flipbooking during play and lots of pain for this poor GM when making up balanced (by the rules) NPCs when creating adventures. I'll probably change system again after my current campaign arc...

Wholeheartedly agree. I am revising the HD2 module by Thulsa for AD&D, and I am playing it with some friends to test it. The end result: the "effects" are practically the same as the d20 version, but the "run time" is much faster, and the module is nearly half the length of the original. I cannot believe how much wasted space in the d20 books there is for needless things. For example, in the Conan Compendium pages and pages are wasted for full stat blocks of mooks.

 

[thulsa]

I find creating NPC characters to be difficult and time consuming. Particularly Scholars/Sorcerers. Anyone have any suggestions on how to make this less painful?

I'd be happy to buy a Mongoose supplement with lots of NPC (particularly sorcerers).

See this thread....

- thulsa