Yes, and it's just wrong. Why do you keep saying something that's so obviously wrong? I've given you the example of PCs and you keep saying that you think that PC's are "different" somehow; that just because PCs can do it, doesn't mean NPCs can. In fact, you seem to be insisting that they can't.
Once again you are not reading. My point is that PCs level orders of magnitudes
faster than NPCs. I've even explained
why (that PCs are pushing themselves right to the limit on a near continual basis) and
what you would expect to see if an NPC was levelling like a PC. Much ass being kicked and many names being taken. The fates of countries or realms changed. Rivers of blood and mountains of skulls (even if not expressed that way).
If your NPCs are not doing this then they are not levelling like PCs. And if Experience Points are gained independently of experiences and NPCs level at the same rate as PCs without the same risks then you change the world in a way I've already explained (hordes of really high level NPCs and there being nothing much for low level PCs to do (unleash the slightly bored housewives!))
That is a patently and obviously nonsensical thing to say. It's just flat out wrong in inanely obvious fashion. It's the equivalent of saying that grass on earth tends to be purple and the sky tends to drip blood.
No. It's simply that you keep claiming that PCs can do something and
ignoring how they do it. And the
consequences.
IF THE PCs CAN DO IT, THEN SO CAN AN NPC. Otherwise, NPCs wouldn't be able to have PC classes at all.
But this is a case of the NPCs not doing what the PCs do. Your whole argument misses this point.
If liches can exist in the campaign setting at all, THEN AN NPC CAN BECOME ONE. You keep insisting that this is impossible. Your insistence, then precludes the very existance of liches.
And once again, you miss my point. It's not to deny that there are high level NPC mages capable of turning themselves into Liches. There clearly are. It's not to deny there are incredibly intelligent NPCs. There clearly are.
It's that this doesn't happen overnight - and seldom in ten years. In the case of superhuman intelligence, you want to
reroll her stats? In the case of levelling, to level even that fast you
need to behave like a PC. And this involves
changing the setting like a PC. And, while we're on the subject,
gaining a reputation like a PC.
Some NPCs can become Liches. Just as
some PCs can. If you're a Fighter, you're SOL. This doesn't mean
all have that potential. Or that
any can do it in a short timescale.
Again... none of those are changed, because none of them were defined.
Ah, now I understand what lead to the weirdness in
The Forest Oracle. It isn't defined that people aren't jumping around on pogo sticks unless it explicitely
says they aren't.
A few sentences of backstory does not define attributes, class or much of anything else.
No. But it does pull out notable features. If a feature is extremely notable and wasn't mentioned, then adding it
is a change.
Your continued insistence that this is a change when it, in fact, is nothing of the sort, is another example of your stubborn wrongheadedness.
Fine. It isn't a change to say that she has two heads and eight arms?
Please... if we're going to have an intelligent discussion about this issue, QUIT MAKING STUFF UP ABOUT IT and then insisting that what YOU MADE UP must be true. It simply isn't the case that just because you say something over and over again it's true.
Then try addressing rather than ignoring my points.
There you go making stuff up again. Every other ambitious mage in the land? So; again, liches can't actually exist in D&D then? Characters can't actually advance, then?
Will you quit with your damn strawmen? Especially when I've already dealt with them?
NPCs can advance like PCs if they behave like PCs. This leaves a visible trail of destruction and makes them famous. And gives them a
very short life expectancy.
NPCs can also advance like NPCs. This is a
lot safer (which is why most do it that way. It also takes a lot longer. Wizards take more than a year per level most of the time (normally a lot more). Which is why most of the high level mages are very old. The other way is to behave like a PC. Anything else blows the setting assumptions out of the water and leaves the land littered with incredibly high levelled NPCs.
Seriously, think through these ridiculous claims before you make them. Shooting holes in your arguments are like shooting fish in a barrel.
No. It's like tilting at straw men and then declaring victory.
OF COURSE I THINK THAT! There are rules, right there for anyone to read in just the first few pages of the PHB that describe exactly how that happens. That's happened in every single campaign of D&D that I've ever heard of that ran that long. If PCs can do it, then OF COURSE ITS POSSIBLE TO DO and your continued insistence that its impossible is.... just... gah! So ridiculous!
She didn't
behave like a PC. She didn't do a single thing a PC did to gain experience points.
That's not true either. There's no correllation whatsoever between level and fame. Most D&D PCs are doing their thing in dungeons, not population centers. Plus, if you were trying to become a lich, don't you think just a little bit of discretion might be a good idea?
And if you are doing it the slow way, then all your arguments about the way PCs gain levels are demonstrably useless
Again, with the totally unjustified and made up restrictions. Seriously, cut that out.
So. She doesn't fight. She doesn't adventure. She doesn't explore. She doesn't do
one damn thing a PC does to gain experience points. And yet she gains them at the same rate. And you say I'm making up unjustified restrictions?