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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 4010602" data-attributes="member: 42582">Voss, with respect to NPCs and magic items:NPC stats will be generated in the same way as monsters, that is:*choose a level;*choose a role;*read the appropriate numbers of a table;*add appropriate powers for level and role (this may involve one or more of picking from a table, applying one of a finite number of templates, or some other technique I haven't thought of yet).Of these four points, 1 to 3 are confirmed via various designer posts plus W&M. Point 4 is (I think) rational extrapolation by myself and other posters. What follows is also rational extrapolation (but I'll bolster my credentials by pointing out that I did predict the magic item changes - see post above!).How to explain those numbers in the gameworld? Up to the GM.So consider your Orc leader with his +2 axe. Suppose you are building him as a Level 7 Brute (or whatever the relevant role is), and the table tells us he should have +10 to hit and deal 1d10 + 10 damage. Well, we know his axe is factored into that.Suppose he now loses his axe, so he drops to +8 to hit, 1d10 + 8 damage. We now look up the table in reverse and discover that he is only a level 6 Brute (and so worth fewer XP, easier for the party to defeat, etc).In short, monster levels and NPC levels do not measure anything in the game. They are purely a metagame device to help the GM design encounters, and to determine the XP players receive from overcoming challenges.Two upshots of this: if any spell description looks up opponent level, it will be a bit wonky, because the targetability of the Orc chieftain will depend on whether or not he picks up his axe. My prediction is therefore that spells won't target opponent levels, but rather something else like Save numbers, Bloodied condition, etc.Second upshot: if you decide to build an NPC using PC build rules, that character will have two levels. The first is the PC-equivalent level. The second is the monster-equivalent level (determined, as with the Orc chieftain, by reading the monster table in reversse).</blockquote>

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