gmkeros@gmail.com 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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spallshurgenson@gmail.com 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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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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^'

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