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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 6269482" data-attributes="member: 7006">For me, everything is centered around the story and the PC's place in it.  I don't partake in the whole "top-down" view of world creation.  So it's not so much that there's a difference between Fighters and common soldiers... it's that there's a difference between the Protagonists of our story (who might have levels of Fighter) and all the other non-Antagonists they run into.)So for me... the game mechanics for these common soldiers are all based around what makes the most sense story-wise when put up against my Protagonists.  If they are a group of thugs a PC is up against and meant to go through quickly to show off his derring-do... they might be level 1 Minions.  If they are a part of an army in a large battlefield war... they might be several Swarms of like 100 men each.  If it's a single guy who is wanting to be a henchman, perhaps he matches the PC's class but is several levels lower.I don't have any need to try and put these non-Antagonists in a kind of objective "power chart" when compared to the other important players of the world (IE needing to make a 'Warrior' NPC class that is less powerful than a Fighter class so that common soldiers are "not as strong" than Fighter PCs.)  All NPCs are only mechanically important to me as a reflection of what my PCs need to tell their story.  So a Level 1 Brute Minion, a Level 5 Fighter, or a Level 15 Army Soldier Swarm are all exactly the same to me because of their place in the world narratively-- and not because of the numbers in their stat block.</blockquote>

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