D&D 4E 4E NPC's not walking treasure troves?

[Jack99]

I certainly hope I can substitute "making an NPC a couple of levels higher" for ensuring he has the correct magical equipment. Hell, I'd like to avoid so many NPCs even having the "big three" items, myself, and if by shoving up their level, I can do this and still make them challenging (which didn't work terribly well in 3E, to put it briefly), then I'll be happy. I hope the DMG has some way to account for whether an NPC has items or not in however you calc his XP value, though.

One solution (in 3.5) that has worked really well for me, is implemented a modified version of Hong's Innate Magic in my campaigns. Both myself and my players love it, and it bring my NPC's at par, without "cheating", while avoiding massive amounts of magic items falling into my players laps.

 

[Derren]

If every creature was capable of using Rituals, you don't need to treat this as doing something "exception" or breaking the internal logic of the game.
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Yes, rituals are the big if. Depending on their implementation all my concerns might be solved or prove true.. For example rituals might just be a second list of spells available for wizards and monsters are not getting any rituals either.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Yes, rituals are the big if. Depending on their implementation all my concerns might be solved or prove true..

It's one again a situation where we can speculate a lot and beg that our hopes are not crushed and dream that they are exceeded.

 

[FourthBear]

Yes, rituals are the big if. Depending on their implementation all my concerns might be solved or prove true.. For example rituals might just be a second list of spells available for wizards and monsters are not getting any rituals either.

Actually, beyond the Pit Fiend having a note about a potential wish granting ritual, the recent Realms article on the Wailing Dwarf noted that nagas, at least, are monsters capable of collecting and learning rituals.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/drfe/20080114

Though the guardian nagas in the Wailing Dwarf devote themselves fiercely to their appointed task, they also thirst for new knowledge and are not quick to attack intruders. In fact, they may offer to spare intruders' lives if the intruders can teach them a new ritual or spell, or if they give up a magic item.

I does note that nagas can learn new spells, too. That may indicate that spells can be learned outside of leveling. Or it could be simple fluff.

 

[Chris_Nightwing]

I can see that some people might have a problem with a lack of transparency in the rules governing NPCs vs. PCs. You don't want to kit out NPCs with the same equipment you'd expect of a PC of that level, so it doesn't all get stolen and sold. You equally don't want them to suck against the PCs, so you add bonuses to compensate. The trick is either tying equipment to that NPC, or the bonuses themselves, in such a way that a PC can't exploit the same rules.

One obvious way is the 'I made these items, they only work for me' trick. It tires quickly, but for powerful mages, actually suits. Secondly, PCs typically face foes on unfamiliar ground, and you can tie the mysterious equalising bonuses to that ground - to altars, sacred ground or somesuch. Finally the idea of non-standard rituals can be used for those bonuses at home or away, since the PCs may never get hold of such a ritual. Give the NPC in question the equalising bonuses due to some complex ritual involving monetary or other sacrifice and you solve both the 'where's his cash' and too-many-items problem, without weakening the challenge.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

It wasn't terribly hard in 3.5 to use NPCs who weren't walking treasure troves -- you just had to adjust the CR by estimating what the non-magic NPC was comparable to.

For a non-caster, figure it's basically unchanged for levels 1-4, -1 CR for levels 5-8, -2 CR for levels 9-12, and so on. For casters, maybe -1 CR for levels 8-14 and -2 CR for levels 15-20. YMMV, but it's easy to look at the numbers and make an estimate.

You could make an NPC Ftr12 with no magic items and call him CR9 or CR10 if his numbers are pretty similar to the with-magic Ftr9 or Ftr10.