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<blockquote data-quote="Ralif Redhammer" data-source="post: 8519340" data-attributes="member: 30438"><p>The Appendix B: Nonplayer Characters at the back of the Monster Manual is a great resource. You can quickly grab one of about the right power level and theme and either use it directly or reskin. For the pirate, you could easily use the Bandit Captain stats, or take the Gladiator and reskin the spear attack to a rapier.</p><p></p><p>If they surprise you by zigging when you expected a zag, it's okay to take quick moment to regroup. Look at what you had planned and see what you can salvage and re-use. For example, if you expected them to go into the mountains and they went into the swamp, maybe don't use that Galeb Duhr encounter you had planned, but that giant vulture attack could be fine, and if you had a merchant who was about to fall off the side of a cliff for them to rescue (or not), maybe that merchant is now stuck in quicksand in the swamp. Throw in a bit of improvisation as well and your players won't know you didn't plan for this (though there's nothing wrong with being upfront about being caught off guard).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ralif Redhammer, post: 8519340, member: 30438"] The Appendix B: Nonplayer Characters at the back of the Monster Manual is a great resource. You can quickly grab one of about the right power level and theme and either use it directly or reskin. For the pirate, you could easily use the Bandit Captain stats, or take the Gladiator and reskin the spear attack to a rapier. If they surprise you by zigging when you expected a zag, it's okay to take quick moment to regroup. Look at what you had planned and see what you can salvage and re-use. For example, if you expected them to go into the mountains and they went into the swamp, maybe don't use that Galeb Duhr encounter you had planned, but that giant vulture attack could be fine, and if you had a merchant who was about to fall off the side of a cliff for them to rescue (or not), maybe that merchant is now stuck in quicksand in the swamp. Throw in a bit of improvisation as well and your players won't know you didn't plan for this (though there's nothing wrong with being upfront about being caught off guard). [/QUOTE]
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