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Do you build NPCs to live or to die?
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<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 4768467" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>Am I building an NPC, or an encounter? Or an NPC who can turn into an encounter if the PC's povoke it? Or an encounter that can turn into an NPC if the PC's diplomacy it into submission?</p><p></p><p>In combat, I agree with you, high defenses are <em>obnoxious</em>. It is no fun to miss, it is no fun to do no damage. They sometimes make sense, but I would just as soon convert those defenses into MORE HP, or healing abilities, and have them always hit and always dealt lots of damage (and have "phases" where their strategy changes so it's not just hacking at a wall). </p><p></p><p>But your friend isn't wrong -- just perhaps a bit paranoid. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> I don't design my characters with a focus on defense, either. I focus them on theme, or personality, or archetype. One of those is "defense," but it's certainly not all of them. </p><p></p><p>Life on either side of the DM screen is pretty cheap and disposable. That contributes to the kind of cinematic wahoo that I like in a game. Your friend appears to like to play things grittier, grimmer, more desperate. His NPC's reflect his PC's like that because that's his style: more about "living to see tomorrow" than about "badass ninjas with magic missiles." </p><p></p><p>He's not wrong, but he might want to find a better system than D&D to play his high-DEF tanks in, since D&D doesn't have a satisfying way to fight these untouchables. Give him a more gritty system, where one-hit-kills are common and where you're always a few pips on the d20 away from obliteration, but maybe that uses "stables" of characters rather than one PC, or that has good resurrection/respawning rules that are common....D&D (in 4e, and also in other editions) doesn't quite deliver that level of grittiness.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 4768467, member: 2067"] Am I building an NPC, or an encounter? Or an NPC who can turn into an encounter if the PC's povoke it? Or an encounter that can turn into an NPC if the PC's diplomacy it into submission? In combat, I agree with you, high defenses are [I]obnoxious[/I]. It is no fun to miss, it is no fun to do no damage. They sometimes make sense, but I would just as soon convert those defenses into MORE HP, or healing abilities, and have them always hit and always dealt lots of damage (and have "phases" where their strategy changes so it's not just hacking at a wall). But your friend isn't wrong -- just perhaps a bit paranoid. :) I don't design my characters with a focus on defense, either. I focus them on theme, or personality, or archetype. One of those is "defense," but it's certainly not all of them. Life on either side of the DM screen is pretty cheap and disposable. That contributes to the kind of cinematic wahoo that I like in a game. Your friend appears to like to play things grittier, grimmer, more desperate. His NPC's reflect his PC's like that because that's his style: more about "living to see tomorrow" than about "badass ninjas with magic missiles." He's not wrong, but he might want to find a better system than D&D to play his high-DEF tanks in, since D&D doesn't have a satisfying way to fight these untouchables. Give him a more gritty system, where one-hit-kills are common and where you're always a few pips on the d20 away from obliteration, but maybe that uses "stables" of characters rather than one PC, or that has good resurrection/respawning rules that are common....D&D (in 4e, and also in other editions) doesn't quite deliver that level of grittiness. [/QUOTE]
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