Fredrik Svanberg
First Post
I've been building a lot of npcs lately, both as enemies and potential allies to the party.
Certain classes depend upon healing surges to do their jobs, both as enemies and as allies. Paladins, for example, may spend surges to lay on hands or to activate certain powers like Paladin's Judgment. It seems like paladin npcs who only get one healing surge at heroic level are unnecessarily limited by this.
I don't think it would be unbalancing to give important npcs and allies a larger number of surges. They can still only use one Second Wind per encounter so in order to gain any use of their extra surges they need powers that use them, or allies with powers that will let them spend them.
My other concern is npc allies of the party who have just one healing surge won't be able to keep up with the party since they can't spend surges during a short rest like everyone else. While this may be dramatic enough ("Leave me, I'll just slow you down.") it's not always appropriate.
My idea is to grant some npcs extra daily healing surges equal to their constitution modifier. I don't think this will be too powerful, and it certainly won't let them outshine the real heroes, but it will allow some of them to use their powers correctly and it will help them keep up with the party if they have to.
Another option would of course be to build these npcs as if they were real characters but most of the time I don't really want to do that. It takes too long, and it means I will have to keep track of even more stuff during a fight.
Any comments?
Certain classes depend upon healing surges to do their jobs, both as enemies and as allies. Paladins, for example, may spend surges to lay on hands or to activate certain powers like Paladin's Judgment. It seems like paladin npcs who only get one healing surge at heroic level are unnecessarily limited by this.
I don't think it would be unbalancing to give important npcs and allies a larger number of surges. They can still only use one Second Wind per encounter so in order to gain any use of their extra surges they need powers that use them, or allies with powers that will let them spend them.
My other concern is npc allies of the party who have just one healing surge won't be able to keep up with the party since they can't spend surges during a short rest like everyone else. While this may be dramatic enough ("Leave me, I'll just slow you down.") it's not always appropriate.
My idea is to grant some npcs extra daily healing surges equal to their constitution modifier. I don't think this will be too powerful, and it certainly won't let them outshine the real heroes, but it will allow some of them to use their powers correctly and it will help them keep up with the party if they have to.
Another option would of course be to build these npcs as if they were real characters but most of the time I don't really want to do that. It takes too long, and it means I will have to keep track of even more stuff during a fight.
Any comments?