NPC classes

[Mark]

I've just released the first of what I term "Culture Classes". It's an addition to NPC Classes that I've used in my own campaign for a couple of decades (updated for 3E/d20, of course ). You can check it out here-

http://www.creativemountaingames.com/games/index.asp#trun

As always,
Mark

www.CreativeMountainGames.com

 

[Horacio]

I use them, and I even find some of them quite utils.

For example, the Adept. IMHO, an Adept is almost (almost) as good as a PC class, and it's the ideal magic user henchman. Her mixture of arcane and divine magic is a worthy addition to any adventurers party.

 

[Wolf72]

I like the aristocrat, as above I gave them leadership at 6th (but at 7, 10, 13, 16, 19 they get a +1 to leadership score instead of another feat). Max starting gold and +100gp for every lvl they gain (not much but a little)

Expert gets a free skill focus at 4,6,10,14,18 (w/ skill focus being +3 instead of +2)

I haven't had a chance to use them yet ... someday I hope.

I want to start a campaign were everyone gets to start out as either a warrior/expert/noble ... then they can talk PC classes later.

 

[Olive]

I didn't know there _were_ NPC classes other than those in the DMG.

well, there's the thug from traps and trechery, and i think one of the sailing books has a sailor class (seas of blood maybe?).

personally i always thought a sailor was a commoner with profession sailor...

 

[drnuncheon]

well, there's the thug from traps and trechery, and i think one of the sailing books has a sailor class (seas of blood maybe?).

personally i always thought a sailor was a commoner with profession sailor...

Mongoose has made a couple of them: the Sailor (Seas of Blood) and the Slave (Gladiator: Sands of Death). Along with FFG's Thug those are the only ones I know about.

Mongoose's are unusual in that they each have only 5 levels (although it'd be easy to extrapolate up to 20 should there be a need).

I don't particularly like any of them.

The Sailor is just a Warrior with a different skill set - I see no point to that. Regular sailors should be Commoners, good sailors should be Experts. There's no need for a separate class, and no reason I can see for them to be just as good in a fight as a trained combatant (the Warrior).

The Slave has even less point - why not just use Commoner? Sure, they have some kind of rules tweak where you can ignore the Slave class or swap it for another class or something similar, but one could just make that a general rule instead of something special to the Slave class. (I already don't count NPC classes towards multiclass penalties as a house rule.)

The Thug is slightly better than either of the Mongose creations but even so it's kind of iffy. It's meant to be to the rogue as the warrior is to the fighter - it has a weird half-form of Sneak Attack that gives bonus d4s. I would be inclined to just use warriors or low-level rogues rather than complicate matters with a new class.

 

[El Ravager]

I voted that I didn't use them. I do use the aristocrat on rare occasions and I could see myself using the expert class but haven't yet. For combative types I perfer to just use the core classes rather than complicate things by using NPC classes.

I have never really liked the assumption that the PCs are 'special' or inherently better than the rest of society. I perfer heros that start out as average (or sometimes a bit above average) Joes that have been put into sitiuations and risen to the challenge. If an NPC I make is supposed to be lesser in power I just give them low level and/or lower stats than the average PCs. The NPCs that the party interacts with that would be classified as Commoners I tend to not really feel I need hard and fast stats for.

=========
El Rav

 

[Chimera]

Don't quite agree with El Rav on the "better than normal" type of thing. By their very nature, PC classes have much more training than the "norms".

When 3e came out, I vehemently objected to the idea of leveled "commoners" and such. I liked the old "zero level human" type of thing. That being said, I am getting used to the idea, using all five of the DMG classes for NPCs IMC. (I also agree with a previous poster: "high level" commoner is absurd.)

OTOH, unlike some of the earlier posters, I have made these classes even wimpier, with fewer HP and much reduced attack charts.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I like the NPC classes in the DMG. At the moment, I run them "as is", though I may give experts bonus feats (Skill Focus, Greater Skill Focus, etc.)

 

[Tsyr]

Fading Suns has a "Yeoman" NPC class