SC2.0 Style NPC Generation For Modern

[jezter6]

This tool = AWESOME. Now no more complaining on how long it takes to make d20 Modern NPCs.

And yes, this does deserve it's own tool, and I immediately thought of Vascant. Maybe in my spare time this weekend I'll give it a shot.

 

[Morgenstern]

And "lens" technology spreads to take over the world !

I'll just sit here in the corner like 220 lbs of chopped liver .

 

[Pbartender]

Hasn't been fully playtested yet, only been edited once by myself ...

Two things I noticed straight off...

Attribute Focus (+0.2 CR)
The NPC has an especially powerful Attribute. Choose an Attribute the NPC possesses, which has a Saving Throw. The Saving Throw DC of this Attribute is increased by +2.

Doesn't the Ability Focus feat already do this? You can pick it up using the Feat attribute, which incidentally has the same CR cost.

Combat Training (+0.3 CR)
The NPC is trained for combat (e.g. Soldier, SWAT personnel, knight). The NPC immediately gains one weapon proficiency feat and one armor proficiency feat appropriate for the gear the GM wishes to equip the NPC with, ignoring any prerequisites.

Again, I know you get a bit of a deal on this one, but why not just use the Feat attribute?

 

[Armistice]

Heap, if you're going to to adhere to the SC 2.0 paradigm, wherever possible use the tools already created. Since you no longer have to worry about how many 'legal' feats you give a character, a quality like combat training really shouldn't be neccessary. The ability to choose feats for an npc freely should take care of it.

Regarding 'Deadly, Unreasonably So'...how would it interact with pc abilities that allow actions while at -1hp or below?

Morg, your name is mentioned in the OGL. What more d'ya want

 

[Pbartender]

Heap, if you're going to to adhere to the SC 2.0 paradigm, wherever possible use the tools already created. Since you no longer have to worry about how many 'legal' feats you give a character, a quality like combat training really shouldn't be neccessary. The ability to choose feats for an npc freely should take care of it.

If this was for D&D in stead of D20M, I'd keep it, but change the benefit...

As is, D&D proficiency feats go like:

Light Armor - all light armors
Medium Armor - all medium armors
Heavy Armor - all heavy armors
Shield - all sheilds except tower shields
Tower Shield - tower shields

Light Weapons - all light weapons
Martial Weapon - choose only one martial weapon
Exotic Weapon - choose only one exotic weapon

Now, tower shields and exotic weapons are kind of special cases, and are balanced by the fact that they require specific seperate feats, so ignore them for the moment.

All the other feats grant proficiencies in a broad category of weapons or armor... except for the Martial Weapon feat. And this is despite the fact that most combat classes automatically are proficient in the entire Martial Weapon category, effectively getting DOZENS of feats for free. So, to emulate that particular benefit of the combat-oriented classes, for D&D, I'd reword the attribute like so...

Combat Training (+0.5 CR)
The NPC is trained for combat (e.g. Soldier, SWAT personnel, knight). The NPC is proficient with all simple and martial weapons.

But, of course, D20 Modern proficiencies work a bit differently from the D&D standard.

 

[Armistice]

This is for Modern, right? So the feats your dealing with are Archaic Weapons Proficiency (Covers basically all Martial-type weapons in one go), Armor Proficiencies (light,medium,heavy), Exotic Melee Weapon Proficiency, Personal Firearms (feat tree). For simplicities sake I just don't see the need to add a special npc quality for combat training. That will be inherent in the feats and qualities chosen and you can do it up to five times according to your write-up of the Feat quality.

Is there any way to change the Feat quality so that you don't have to walk up the feat trees (especially with the limit of 5)? Something like a +.x to CR for each waived pre-requisite.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Boy ... play WoW for a few hours and all kinds of questions. Played WoW because there was nothing to do on ENWorld ... figures.

VASCANT: Er. Sorry. I'm not usually up on all the electronic toolsets and suchnot ... I was just looking for something to call it other than: "NPCs".

PBARTENDER: Concerning the Attribute Focus feat, yes, Ability Focus from D&D does the same thing ... but I was working with the d20M SRD when I was building it, as I was thinking of d20M at the time, and as far as I know that feat isn't in d20Modern. Not that it CAN'T be, but for the sake of completeness and coherence I figured highlighting that 1) wouldn't hurt and 2) would allow people using d20Modern to add +2 to the DC of some abilities without needing to know/remember Ability Focus from D&D. It is superfluous and wouldn't stack.

Regarding the "Combat Training" attribute and "Feat" attribute ... note that Feat requires the NPC to have all prerequisite feats before taking the next feat in a chain AND average NPCs are only allowed 5 feats. Heavy Armor Prof has prereqs of both Light and Medium Armor, meaning ordinarily Heavy armor eats up 3 of the 5 feat "slots". In creature creation, though, equipment is largely secondary ... thus the stipulations in normal creation that a creature is proficient with whatever weapons and armor it is written as having. That's sort of what Combat Trained does ... it allows you to have a Knight with Heavy Armor Proficiency and Archaic Weapons Proficiency for +0.3 CR instead of +0.8 CR.

Deadly, Unreasonably So is meant to take people "out of the fight", so my intent wasn't to have Tough heroes slog through it. It is, so far, the most troublesome of the ideas I've had and prone to TPKs. I need to rewrite it. When I added it, I was thinking about how, usually, it's impossible to put a real "threat" down on higher level PCs ... they don't have much to worry about, but in D&D tend to get real freaked out about Medusae and other "Save Or Be Neutralized" abilities, even if they'll only fail on a 1. Often enough to avoid the encounter altogether. I tried to boil it down to the essence ... which was: "I don't want to be taken out of the fight by one hit." That's what I was trying to go for there ... not just the medusa, but other Deus Ex Screwyas. "Oh no, it's Teryaki Pete, the most deadly assassin in the world. His Ham Fist Strike can cripple!" etc etc.

--fje

 

[Armistice]

Ah. So specifically meant to deal with the 5 feat cap. Design decision, your call. Deadly... does seem to need a bit of extra work especially re: things like the remain concious talent. Still, this is a great start.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Is there any way to change the Feat quality so that you don't have to walk up the feat trees (especially with the limit of 5)? Something like a +.x to CR for each waived pre-requisite.

It's not just the prereq feats, it's the COSTS of those feats in terms of CR. In all honesty, Heavy Armor Prof doesn't change the EL of the encounter 'that much'. Certainly not +0.8 CR.

Adding an additional increase would keep that issue. And yet, dropping the req entirely opens up OTHER top-level chain feats that are, usually, more powerful than their low-end counterparts ... Improved Trip, Whirlwind Attack, etc. Generally just WEARING heavy armor has enough penalties to overbear the additional Def bonus, while picking up Whirlwind Attack for 0.2CR is much different than picking up Alertness. The inequality of feats was a sticky wicket when I was considering how to do the attribute.

--fje

 

[Vascant]

VASCANT: Er. Sorry. I'm not usually up on all the electronic toolsets and suchnot ... I was just looking for something to call it other than: "NPCs".

No problem and I do understand completely, went thru the samething when I had to create a name beyond: NPC Generator which Mr Buck had made a name for himself with. I figure if you are going to work hard enough to release something for the d20 Modern system then why not have a name you get full credit under and people will know this is not my NPC Designer but instead something new and unique. I tried to extend NPC Designer to handle Modern but never could get any dedicated testers, so I wish you luck.