My problem lies in fact that if you want level X NPC you must calculate if he can have the skill level you are also looking for and what else skills he also might have and at what level. If there is a shortcut for that, I am all ears (or eyes in this case).
Easy. take the number of skill points he gets per level, and give him that many skills at max level he could have. If you really want him to have more skills than that, give him two lots of half that. Better yet, give him only the skills he might actually use and forget the rest.
The point I was making was that for new players, a class/level based system gives a lot of guidance as to what sort of characters work, whereas a skills based system gives less.
Funny, while I hate to create NPCs for Rolemaster I still find running combat with it pretty fast. Maybe the same would be with d20 but I still find it offensive to call speed of combat in Rolemaster as fast as the speed of a glacier
I have met some people who know by heart the RoleMaster combat tables, and can run it at an acceptable speed. I say "some people": I actually mean two people. I am in awe of these demigods. For the rest of us a standard RM combat round:
Attacker: Divide OB between your attack and your defences, bearing in mind that your Defense Bonus is a pool that is reduced as you allocate defences to attacks. Defender: Allocate your defenses against the attack from your remaining DB. Attacker: Roll d100, rerolling if over 95 or under 5. Add your OB, deduct defenders DB. Determine defenders Armour Type (from 1-20). Look at the attack table for your weapon (yes, there's a seperate attack table for each weapon, and when I say each weapon, longswords, shortswords and scimitars are different weapons. There's an entire rulebook full of these things). Cross reference your net attack result with the defender's armour type on your weapon table, and determine the hit points, the critical and the critical type, and the secondary critical and critical type (if any). Defender: Deduct the hits from your opponent's total and calculate the effects on your skills and so on for crossing a hit point milestone. Attacker: locate the appropriate critical table for the type of critical you did (there are fewer of these: usually bash, pierce or slash, less commonly impact or unbalance plus a whole load of more exotic ones, which are not often used except for magic. Your secondary critical may be one of these, as they often come from weapon properties like Flaming or Holy). Look at the appropriate column for the severity of your critical result (A-E) and roll d100 again. Cross reference your result with the appropriate column, and determine the results. Repeat for secondary criticals if appropriate. Defender: apply the critical result. This can include skill penalties, loss of use of limbs, stunning, loss of hit points, loss of hit points per round, permanent maiming, unconciousness, death or a number of other effects. If still in the fight, hit back.
takes a while.
I suppose you are talking about pure D&D and not d20Conan or are there NPC classes in Conan, too?
D20 Conan is D20 compatible, so you can port them straight across. All you need is to allocate a defence bonus and you're away.
"Mistake" is perhaps excessive, don't you think? It's not that you know how the TRUE Valeria was statted in the first place. It's just a view of things, surely not wrong nor correct. YMMV of course, and that's what is important.
[Nerd rage]To a degree, of course, its a matter of opinion, but this strains that degree. As even a quick read of Red Nails reveals, Valeria is NOT a clinging damsel in distress. She is a legend in her own right, and operates in the novel as an ally of Conan, not a helpless dependent. She is less formidable than he is, partly because of his incredible physique, and partly because she has specialised in pircay and is out of her element in a jungle, whereas he has roved all over the world and is on familiar ground. Still, she comes closer to being Conan's equal than anyone else in the canon except Belit, and this is Conan at the height of his powers.
As far as the antagonists go, Olmec beats her, but he is clearly wary of her prowess with the sword. he bluffs his way right up to her and takes her by surprise in a grapple. She kills Tascela, and she carves through pretty much everyone else, only in trouble at one point through a lucky grapple attempt (again) at odds of three to one.
Stat blocks? I don't have them to hand, but from memory Conan, Tascela, and Olmec are around 19, Techotl is 13, and average nameless residents are 8. And Valeria is 9.
In other words, she's rammed firmly back into "Damsel in Distress!" mode. Well, YMMV, but thats not what I got from reading the story.
Valeria fought beside him, her lips smiling and her eyes blazing. She was stronger than the average man, and far quicker and more ferocious. Her sword was like a living thing in her hand. Where Conan beat down opposition by the sheer weight and power of his blows, breaking spears, splitting skulls and cleaving bosoms to the breastbone, Valeria brought into action a finesse of swordplay that dazzled and bewildered her antagonists before it slew them. Again and again a warrior, heaving high his heavy blade, found her point in his jugular before he could strike. Conan, towering above the field, strode through the welter smiting right and left, but Valeria moved like an illusive phantom, constantly shifting, and thrusting and slashing as she shifted. Swords missed her again and again as the wielders flailed the empty air and died with her point in their hearts or throats, and her mocking laughter in their ears.
[/nerd rage]
