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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 2776654" data-attributes="member: 1165">I'm finishing off Khorforjan Gambit tonight, and I'll post an NPC short form from it. (It's not free, so I will limit what I post.)The full stat block is elsewhere in the adventure. (I put them on 4 x 6" index cards ... the long form ... and pull them out of my card box when needed.)Because it's boring, that's why. Especially the saves, which are just begging for metagaming. This guy is too weak for his CR - which doesn't mean much if you don't use CR, of course. I would find this boring as a PC; I can easily gauge how tough an opponent is just by ... looking at him. And I know I'm tougher than him, because my stats are reasonable, and his are all 10s. I would be suprised (pleasantly) if he turned out to have Improved Disarm or some other feat that I wasn't expecting, but since that guy doesn't even have any feats...Where is his +3 damage coming from? I'd like to know if he really knows his way around his weapon, or is he just strong? I kind of like to know if I'm facing the Hound, or the Mountain that Rides. (The latter is stronger, but less skilled overall.) Am I facing elite royal guards (but not their leader), or just thugs?I'm a Modern player, but I have to point out there was something I liked about Spycraft 1.0 NPCs. (I didn't like their classes, point buy system, etc.) They were characters. They weren't individual characters, but it was kind of fun taking down the HALO racers or the "hanglider commando" team, instead of just ... fighter/rogues. They had the skills and feats necessary to pull off these things, too.You can do the same thing for Modern, but I rarely see such wonderfully goofy Modern NPCs.That doesn't work for me, alas. I'm running D20 Modern, where skills just seem much more important, even to mooks. It's the lack of roles, really. In DnD, you know fighters can't Snese Motive or Spot, so you don't bother giving them any Sense Motive or Spot. In Modern, how do you know the guy standing near the door with the lead pipe wrapped in newspaper doesn't have ranks in Sense Motive or Spot? He certainly could through Tough levels (Spot only) or Dedicated levels (didn't expect that one?) or his Occupation... Maybe he's a competent doorman instead of "Fighter Build CDE".</blockquote>

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