d20 needs different rules for NPCs

[I'm A Banana]

If the goal of the evening is to make it as enjoyable as possible for everyone involved, there is no need of "fairness" in the tools that the GM uses.

You know, sometimes the only way the evening is enjoyable is if you give the players the ability to control the outcome with their ability. GMs who just say "my guy makes the save" or "the enemy deals # damage" without even rolling make it troublesome for me. I feel cheated out of a valid use of my abilities if the GM just makes up whatever he wants to happen and imposes it.

That's what I speak of when speaking of fairness.

And I think it's nessecary to have that fairness, lest the DM just basically be playing a game by himself wherein the story in his mind is told without the work of having to write characters.

These villain rules don't seem to be going in that direction, so I'm more in favor of them now.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

The moment I hear Mearls, my eyes glaze over and lose interest.

 

[Mark]

I'm not sure which week is this, anymore? Are we trying to make DMs unnecessary or an anathema?

 

[iwatt]

Villain classes are an absolute necessity in Iron heroes. Since the rules for PC classes are a lot more complex (specially token pools) any tool that saves the GM time and makes it easier for him to run encounters is a bonus in my book.

For vanilla D&D, I used to love statting out NPCs. But after a while it get's tiring. I'd love something like villain classes for NPCs in D&D.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

For my use, pre-stated NPC's would not be something I would bother with. I already have invested enough time to be able to run mooks listed in an adventure as 'Mook: F2/R2, LSword + Shield' Medium level Mooks {MMooks?} take a bit more effort as they need things like 'MMook F4/R2, Cleave, Greatsword Flaming Burst'

My bad guys, Lt's and Bosses in CRPG parlance, I stat out in full as a PC. They occasionally have access to abilities that the group has not access to, or even know the name of.

To me the effort of learning a new templated approach would not counter the saved time in using them... not to mention you lose variability, unless you plan to template/stat out all the combinations possible.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

The only thing about NPCs that I think needs changing, in order to make them worth a damn against PCs, is to change magic items and the wealth guidelines so that NPCs can have equivalent wealth to PCs.

...Oh wait, I already did that!

 

[Mouseferatu]

The only thing about NPCs that I think needs changing, in order to make them worth a damn against PCs, is to change magic items and the wealth guidelines so that NPCs can have equivalent wealth to PCs.

...Oh wait, I already did that!

I've considered doing that, too. (Or at least, I have in those campaigns I run that use the wealth-by-level guidelines; not all of mine do.)

How have you solved the problem of the PCs having way too much loot once they've defeated said NPC?

 

[Hussar]

I could see this being really, really useful.

I want a BBEG orc bruiser. I whack on the Bruiser class, jack it up a few levels and everything is handed to me. Great.

Yeah, I could see this. Villain templates are a great idea.

 

[TemplarSaint]

I love this idea. Statting up the bad guys, especially spell casters, is the worst part of GMing for me.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

And that works for you and that's great . This wouldn't work in my group. The players in my group would get upset if I did this. As a player I would be annoyed if the DM just randomly decided that the spell I just fired off failed.

Edit: Point is this would not fly with all groups

Mutants & Masterminds 2E has a nifty resolution for this: Every time a villain arbitrarily escapes or the powers of one of the PCs malfunction, all involved PCs get a "Hero Point" (equivalent to Action Points) they can spend later...