HeapThaumaturgist said:
Standard NPCs are there to be an annoyance. They have a Damage Save to speed up how fast the PCs can knock them down. They can't crit without a specific attribute that represents a "contract killer, trained assassin" or the like (I.E., everybody shouldn't have it). The SWAT team might come in with 1d10+1 SMGs, but the PCs average d10s on VP, as well.
...
It means the multi-benefit feats are a SpyCraft convention because that's the style of play it adheres to. The PCs are meant to be very capable action heroes of high class and caliber. Sort of James Bonds. (If I get a chance to be on the player side of the fence, I want to play a Russian Pointman/Faceman with "Style Over Caliber" and "Bloodstain Resistant" and a PSM.) James Bond doesn't get gunned down by the Kalishnakov-toting Ruskies, he runs through the library while they blow all of the books to fluttering scraps around him.
I swear, I keep thinking you're talking about 1st edition
. The point he's making, and I think its a fair one is that NPCs don't
have to be mere annoyances nor do you have to let players shine like gods in comparison to their opponents. That is presumption of playstyle that is just not true in the second edition. There are credible (heck, downright savage) opponents stated up ready-to-go in the book and building your own is so easy as to be a non-issue. Damage saves can easily be set high enough to make NPC virtually bulletproof (and that before putting on an actual bullet proof vest!) and giving them "tough" one or more times (increasing the number of damage saves before they go down) can actually make them quite a bit more resilient than the players are. Opponents that thickl are simply worth a few more more XP, encouraging players to try something other than the gettum/frontal assualt.
Similarly, you can ratchet players down quite a bit. The default may be willfully and deliberately summer blockbuster, but there are campaign qualities to drop back to TV show scale (heck, it's called "small screen") or even all the way down to more dangerous and bloody than real life - in a consistant, easily understood way. We didn't somehow miss that D20 Modern enthusiasts have been telling us for years that they like playing regular joes. Happy to oblige
.
As to feats like "This... Is my Boom Stick!", it needs to be understood in the context of the rest of the Ranged Combat feat tree. The leading choices for firearms butt kicking combat effectiveness are the 3-part chains: CQB Basics-Mastery-Supremacy, Marksmanship Basics-Mastery-Supremacy, Sharpshooter Basics-Mastery-Supremacy, and Follow-up Shot and Hail of Fire. These feats give you your bread and butter benefits and apply equally to all guns. Scattered around the edges are a couple of stand-alone feats the focus on a single narrow weapon type. These are the shtick feats. If you want to be good with guns, you work one of those chains. If you want to be the guy that makes a shotgun dance or a flamethrower sing, you only need to spend one feat to pick up all the odd-ball little perks that are unique to that weapon. Lets look at "This... Is my Boom Stick!" (that's the actual name of the feat - quotation marks and all) ~
Shotgun as club - Ok, so after you've put a couple of blasts into the advancing wall of chemo-zombies, it's nice to be able to Babe Ruth one in the head without breaking stride. Powerful? Not really - it's a fricken'
club, yeah? But damn if it doesn't make you feel cool when you do it
.
Fire a Shotgun with one hand 1 hand at a -2 to hit - Ok, now this is a game where shields are really, really uncommon, so why aren't you using both hands? Because you're doing something cool with the other one like typing in a password, hanging on to a buddy who's been knocked over the rail of a catwalk, or maybe clutching the all important maguffin you just picked up to your chest. The point is this is a trivial benefit - it's letting you use a shotgun (at a penalty!) the same way your buddy would use a pistol. But it gives you options when you need that other hand. It says "I've got style."
+4 to the DC of Damage and Takedown saves - So, if you are shooting at goons
with a shotgun, wouldn't you like to know that they are going to die?! And if they don't die, at the very least they are gonna be knocked on their butts in a pool of their own blood? Yeah, this is the meat and potatoes of the feat for the combat min/maxer, but it doesn't work so well against folks with w/vp - meaning it lets you clear obstacles (literally - it's
great for blowing doors off their hinges) but it doesn't let you just plow right through the final fight with impunity.
When you hit an opponent with a shotgun, they are pushed back 5 ft. - Remember those chemo-zombies? Now your buddies are especially glad you brough Ol' Bessie. And that punk you left in a pool of his own blood? He didn't just crumple - you knocked him on his butt. Tactical value? Some. Sheer glee factor? I'm calling it about a 9.2
.
Finally, the large picture of a guy with a smoking double-barreled shotgun right below the feat also helps sorta suggest what it does in case the movie quote is unfamiliar
.
...And if you think we didn't put a whole lot of thought into feat names, I'll point out that with only two exceptions (from late edits I didn't catch), EVERY SINGLE FEAT CHAIN IN THE BOOK is in alphabetical order.
Every Basics -> Mastery -> Supremacy chain.
...and all the ones with seemingly irregular names...
Advanced Skill Mastery -> Grand Skill Mastery -> Perfect Skill Mastery.
Combat Expertise -> Expert Disarm.
Quick Draw -> Snake Strike.
All or Nothing -> Better Luck Next Time -> Fortune's Fool.
Fortunate -> Fortune Favors the Bold -> Lady Luck's Smile.
Lucky Break -> Misfortune -> Peculiar Dodge.
Driving Instincts -> Professional Driver - Closed Course.
Offensive Driving -> Relentless Pursuit.
Bludgeon -> Whack.
Deadly Precision -> No Quarter.
Executioner -> Merciless.
Silver Spoon -> Well Funded.
Political Clout -> Political Favors -> Political Immunity.
That's
not an accident. They appear in the book both in alphabetical order and in the order you can take them so if you're just reading through causually, you know that any prerequisite you see is somewhere earlier in that section, and any follow on feats, well, they follow it in the book. And they look good when you write them on your character sheet
. Neat. Tidy.
Definitely worth the extra time and care that went into naming them
.
