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<blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 4457534" data-attributes="member: 710">Abilities that either work or cause a great negative effect (e.g. death) also have the tendency to be great for NPCs, terrible for PCs - off course, entirely for meta-game reasons. The PCs are in the spot-light the entire campaign, the NPC only for one session. No one is really attached to the NPC, so why not have him use an ability that is 20 % likely to kill him, or 80 % likely to double his power, allowing him to crush the PCs? No one will really care if the NPC dies.If there is a chance that a possible, single action you can perform - like casting a spell - creates a powerful negative effect (like dying), it is always the &quot;ultimate gamble&quot; - but not in the &quot;gamist&quot; way, as in over-coming challenges due to smart play. It is just pure luck.And maybe the &quot;pure luck&quot; part is the flavor-first part - some things are beyond the control of an individual. And the resulting mechanic is based on pure luck. There could be other ways to create the flavor, though. For example, the power could be a &quot;once-in-a-lifetime&quot; or even a &quot;martyr&quot;-power. The player may decide to have his character use it once, and it will work (in-game due to incredible chance and luck), but the second time he uses it, it will kill him (possibly still giving him the benefit, to help his comrades, but in the end, the PC is dead). You can shorten the time-frame between use for beneficial/deadly effect that is less likely.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mustrum_Ridcully, post: 4457534, member: 710"] Abilities that either work or cause a great negative effect (e.g. death) also have the tendency to be great for NPCs, terrible for PCs - off course, entirely for meta-game reasons. The PCs are in the spot-light the entire campaign, the NPC only for one session. No one is really attached to the NPC, so why not have him use an ability that is 20 % likely to kill him, or 80 % likely to double his power, allowing him to crush the PCs? No one will really care if the NPC dies. If there is a chance that a possible, single action you can perform - like casting a spell - creates a powerful negative effect (like dying), it is always the "ultimate gamble" - but not in the "gamist" way, as in over-coming challenges due to smart play. It is just pure luck. And maybe the "pure luck" part is the flavor-first part - some things are beyond the control of an individual. And the resulting mechanic is based on pure luck. There could be other ways to create the flavor, though. For example, the power could be a "once-in-a-lifetime" or even a "martyr"-power. The player may decide to have his character use it once, and it will work (in-game due to incredible chance and luck), but the second time he uses it, it will kill him (possibly still giving him the benefit, to help his comrades, but in the end, the PC is dead). You can shorten the time-frame between use for beneficial/deadly effect that is less likely. [/QUOTE]

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