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Justifying high level 'guards', 'pirates', 'soldiers', 'assassins', etc.
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<blockquote data-quote="S'mon" data-source="post: 4484556" data-attributes="member: 463"><p>As others have said, I don't do this as such. The Imarr City Guard are ca 3rd level when the PCs are 1st, and still 3rd level when the PCs are 20th.</p><p></p><p>I do create rare ultra-elite military units, such as the 15th level Malgedan Sunguard - the personal Emperor's guard of a 10,000-year-dead inter-dimensional empire awoken from a Stasis Vault for one final battle... But I don't think that's what you're thinking of. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>The general rule with City Guard police types is that, if they are successfully keeping order (not, eg, Rio de Janeiro police) then they must be tougher than their typical opposition. So these days I try to avoid the Gygaxian trope of zero-level city guards, unless the city is inherently very peaceful & orderly. In 3e, 3rd level Warrior is typical, if I ran 4e something like the MM Human Guard looks reasonable. The interdimensional metropolis Nexus has city guards who are 6th level Fighters. </p><p></p><p>Likewise, with pirates - most typical pirates are going to be low level, in 3e 1st or 2nd level Warriors is typical. Inter-dimensional Reavers like the crew of the Rogue Mistress might be 6th or even 8th level Fighters and such, but I'm not going to go above that. 9th level characters are Lords, in any D&D game I run, and aside from Emperor's-Personal-Bodyguard are almost never encountered in multiples.</p><p></p><p>Edit: I haven't run 4e but I'm satisfied from reading rpgnet threads that 4e is not intended to function with fixed NPC stats. So rather than keep the NPC Guard/Pirate stats constant, the trick is to keep their XP award constant and change the stats to fit the XP. As the PCs advance in levels the same pirate may go from being a Solo to Brute to Minion - durability goes down, offense goes up, overall threat stays constant.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="S'mon, post: 4484556, member: 463"] As others have said, I don't do this as such. The Imarr City Guard are ca 3rd level when the PCs are 1st, and still 3rd level when the PCs are 20th. I do create rare ultra-elite military units, such as the 15th level Malgedan Sunguard - the personal Emperor's guard of a 10,000-year-dead inter-dimensional empire awoken from a Stasis Vault for one final battle... But I don't think that's what you're thinking of. :) The general rule with City Guard police types is that, if they are successfully keeping order (not, eg, Rio de Janeiro police) then they must be tougher than their typical opposition. So these days I try to avoid the Gygaxian trope of zero-level city guards, unless the city is inherently very peaceful & orderly. In 3e, 3rd level Warrior is typical, if I ran 4e something like the MM Human Guard looks reasonable. The interdimensional metropolis Nexus has city guards who are 6th level Fighters. Likewise, with pirates - most typical pirates are going to be low level, in 3e 1st or 2nd level Warriors is typical. Inter-dimensional Reavers like the crew of the Rogue Mistress might be 6th or even 8th level Fighters and such, but I'm not going to go above that. 9th level characters are Lords, in any D&D game I run, and aside from Emperor's-Personal-Bodyguard are almost never encountered in multiples. Edit: I haven't run 4e but I'm satisfied from reading rpgnet threads that 4e is not intended to function with fixed NPC stats. So rather than keep the NPC Guard/Pirate stats constant, the trick is to keep their XP award constant and change the stats to fit the XP. As the PCs advance in levels the same pirate may go from being a Solo to Brute to Minion - durability goes down, offense goes up, overall threat stays constant. [/QUOTE]
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Justifying high level 'guards', 'pirates', 'soldiers', 'assassins', etc.
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