Killing my NPCs

[hong]

I'm a gearhead DM. I'm not a world builder, or a story teller. I might be a ham when drunk, but that's not really the same thing.

Basically, I like building characters: not in terms of backstory or personality, but in terms of raw numbers. 3E, needless to say, is great for this. I'll happily spend an hour tweaking an NPC bad guy in terms of feats, skills, classes and items, to get things just right.

Then the PCs will kill him in ten minutes.

Sometimes he gets away, but that just means they track him down later and finish the job. There is no escape. EDIT: or rather, that just means I chuck him back into the fight. I have no mercy for my own creations.

This is not something I'd imagine is limited only to gearheads. You could spend an hour writing up a guy's backstory, or their personality traits, and they'll still die in ten minutes.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you. In fact, the last time one of my major bad guys lasted longer than an hour, it was a bit of a downer all round. But it's still a bit weird. I can imagine it's like what modellers must feel when they build stuff for a movie, knowing it'll get trashed in the final fight scene.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

What about abjuration wizards, illusionists, potions of expiditious retreat, or gizmawtchit of dimension door (2/day)?

I first realized that most DMs needed a dose of powergaming during a Shadowrun game where the arch-villian was taken out with one shot from an assult cannon. I think a lot of DMs would love to have their bad guys last 10 minutes or an hour. Less than one combat round is the thing to avoid.

 

[hong]

Actually, I think I might have overplayed the dim door thing already. See previous whinge of mine on this matter.

High-level D&D is also a bit weird this way. It's a fine line between the BBEG lasting ten minutes (but still losing) and the BBEG wiping the floor with the PCs.

 

[SeRiAlExPeRiMeNtS]

Actually, I think I might have overplayed the dim door thing already. See previous whinge of mine on this matter.

High-level D&D is also a bit weird this way. It's a fine line between the BBEG lasting ten minutes (but still losing) and the BBEG wiping the floor with the PCs.

I´m a gearhead DM too Hong, I realy like to tweak NPCs to fight my PCs.. and what you said about high level D&D is so true! I´m dming my version of the "bastion of broken souls" and is so hard to create a NPC that is a good fight...

 

[Salad Shooter]

I think I'm a gearhead player...dozens upon dozens of characters created, never to see the light of day...including one magnificant, 21 page long (not counting history) Werewolf: the Apocolypse character....

 

[Thanee]

I think a lot of DMs would love to have their bad guys last 10 minutes or an hour. Less than one combat round is the thing to avoid.

Heh. Once a battle with the bad guy lasted something like 6 RL hours. And the Sorcerer still had tons of spells left by then!

Bye
Thanee

 

[hong]

I´m a gearhead DM too Hong, I realy like to tweak NPCs to fight my PCs.. and what you said about high level D&D is so true! I´m dming my version of the "bastion of broken souls" and is so hard to create a NPC that is a good fight...

Oh, I've heard all about your games from Nockermensch. Hee hee.

 

[cybermonkey]

I faced the same thing back in my DMing days and borrowed from the movies for dealing with this situation.

Never allow the heroes to recover the body. If there is no body, then you could always bring them back during a later session. Then there's siblings and other relatives that could come after the adventurers. You've already done the bulk of the work on the background, it shouldn't take much to tweek and add another family member.

 

[hong]

Well, I'm not setting out to screw the PCs over, if they've legitimately won a victory. The bad guys will have an escape plan where possible, but if the outcome is that they die and the PCs get to loot the body, then that's what happens.

Like I said, I'm not COMPLAINING that these NPCs of mine go down every session. Heck, you could even say it's an opportunity: if a bad guy dies today, that means I get to make another one tomorrow. It's just an observation about some of the paradoxes in DMing.

 

[Schmoe]

It is so true. Kind of like building a car you know is destined for crash-testing. But hey, once the results of the test are in, you get to go back to the drawing board! I think the NPC's I've created and never used outnumber the NPC's I've used by about 10:1, and I don't see a problem with that