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General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
DMPCs, Companions, etc.
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<blockquote data-quote="fba827" data-source="post: 5880803" data-attributes="member: 807"><p>Similar to corwyn77's experience, I don't find them less balanced.</p><p>The difference is that they are less complicated/detailed than full PC stats giving two main benefits: a) easier to build (no worrying about feats etc, it takes me 10 minutes or less to build a companion that is very much very much 'real' and in story with the PC's actions) b) fewer options to wade through, as they have maybe 4 or so powers so their turns go by quickly)</p><p></p><p>Some random thoughts you might consider:</p><p></p><p>a) ditch the full DMPC and instead make it two companions</p><p>b) rather than your proposed split, make 3 companions (giving you 3 PCs + 3 companions) and make each companion be specifically tied to a particular PC (the squire for the knight, the acolyte from the church, or whatever your PCs are) -- then you can have the companions run by the associated players (or at the very least, run by the players during combat but they are handled like NPCs out of combat). Just realize though that this means you will have to balance encounters for effectively 6 PCs.</p><p>c) option b but instead just make 2 companions and one player would not have a companion assigned to him</p><p>d) make both your companion full DMPCs -- it will just seem very odd to have such different levels of details between the two NPCs that go with the group. If you're willing to go through the effort to make one DMPC, just bite the bullet and make them both DMPCs</p><p></p><p></p><p>As for what role to have them fill, it would (in my opinion) depend a lot on what roles you get covered by the PCs. And if you're worried about stealing attention away from the PCs, I think the only thing there is to simply not pick any/too many powers that would overshadow (and if you went with companions, this sort of takes care of it itself since companions don't get the big show-stopping dailies like the PCs will have).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="fba827, post: 5880803, member: 807"] Similar to corwyn77's experience, I don't find them less balanced. The difference is that they are less complicated/detailed than full PC stats giving two main benefits: a) easier to build (no worrying about feats etc, it takes me 10 minutes or less to build a companion that is very much very much 'real' and in story with the PC's actions) b) fewer options to wade through, as they have maybe 4 or so powers so their turns go by quickly) Some random thoughts you might consider: a) ditch the full DMPC and instead make it two companions b) rather than your proposed split, make 3 companions (giving you 3 PCs + 3 companions) and make each companion be specifically tied to a particular PC (the squire for the knight, the acolyte from the church, or whatever your PCs are) -- then you can have the companions run by the associated players (or at the very least, run by the players during combat but they are handled like NPCs out of combat). Just realize though that this means you will have to balance encounters for effectively 6 PCs. c) option b but instead just make 2 companions and one player would not have a companion assigned to him d) make both your companion full DMPCs -- it will just seem very odd to have such different levels of details between the two NPCs that go with the group. If you're willing to go through the effort to make one DMPC, just bite the bullet and make them both DMPCs As for what role to have them fill, it would (in my opinion) depend a lot on what roles you get covered by the PCs. And if you're worried about stealing attention away from the PCs, I think the only thing there is to simply not pick any/too many powers that would overshadow (and if you went with companions, this sort of takes care of it itself since companions don't get the big show-stopping dailies like the PCs will have). [/QUOTE]
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