Taking NPC-Class Levels

[Land Outcast]

What do you think about this?

Whenever you could take a new level in a PC class, you have the choice of taking 2 levels in a NPC class.

You get:

-The Hit Dice of both levels
-The skillpoints of both levels
-The Class Abilities of both levels
-The Bab of the first of those two levels
-The Saving Throws of the first of those two levels

For all purposes and intents aside from hp, you have only gained one Hit Die.

So, what do you think?

 

[Arkhandus]

Only real problem I can see right away is that 2 levels of Warrior = +2 BAB really quick; take that option 2 or 3 times and you're picking feats like Spring Attack at 3rd-level, Improved Critical or Improved Two-Weapon Fighting at 6th (or 5th if you multiclass into Fighter after the Warrior levels), and so on and so forth. Might not be particularly unbalancing if you use Core Rules only, but with some of the splatbooks (Complete Warrior maybe?) it might get bad. Oh, and that rapid BAB acquisition, along with rapid skill-point acquisition, may qualify the character for Prestige Classes several levels earlier than the designers intended.

Hmm, secondary problem: taking 2 levels of Adept several times in a row could get you 3rd-level and higher spells sooner than advancing as a Cleric or Wizard, but only a little sooner I think.

 

[smootrk]

I think it is a bad idea. Just think of the individual who all of a sudden gets 2 levels of Expert with all the skill points - more than rogue. It would really throw off PRC qualifications that deal with skill points, especially for the light skill point classes, since the Expert chooses 10 class skills (they are not assigned).

Slightly Off Your Topic - but listed for your consideration.

I have done a sort of reversal of the process for my NPC's that I want to improve (to keep them viable in relation to the pc's). When I level up a npc with the associated pc class, I allow transform 1 extra npc class level to the appropriate PC class as well. A 6th level warrior upon becoming 7th level and choosing instead actual Fighter class (due to better training, or whatever), then I might choose to make the character a War5/Fgt2. Then if the npc character gains another level (8th level), I would make the character War4/Fgt4.

Not all classes would want to do this sort of exchanging. For instance an Expert would not all of a sudden become a rogue or paladin with this method.

This process works best (from a logical standpoint) for the Warrior class (also Commoner, Adept (for spellcasters), & Aristocrat), but excluding Expert. I guess you could argue that the expert is closest to rogue, but the theme of the class IMO is more of a crafter/professional than a 'thief'. It works especially good for my campaign, as I have additional 'lite' classes for NPC's that are logical for nearly unskilled npcs. They include:
Hunter - ranger-lite
Wilderness Warrior - Barbarian-lite
Minstrel - bard-lite
Bandit - rogue-lite (with wilderness/outdoor theme)
Thief - Rogue-lite (urban - also called Burgler, Thugs, cut-purse, etc)
Priest - Cleric-lite minus combat qualities
HedgeWizard - Wizard-lite (with variety of names)
Witch/Warlock - Sorc-lite (not to be confused with the PC Base Class)
Squire - Knight-lite (new add-on, can be used for Mounted Warrior/Calvary types)

All of these classes make better sense for me, and they were quite easy to create, having only a few changes. For instance for the fighting classes, I start with Warrior and make changes to Proficiencies to match the appropriate PC class, change the Skill choices to match, add in a special quality or two (but otherwise stripping out all the PC Base class functions). For instance a Squire is a Warrior with Knight proficiencies, skills, and a Mounted Feat or Two (over a few levels), while a Hunter is a warrior with proficiencies, skills, and tracking of a Ranger (and thats it).

Again, granting 2 levels in most of the NPC classes for PC's will throw off the balance, expecially with warriors (for BAB) or Experts (skill points), especially for the PRC qualifications, so I would not go there.

 

[Land Outcast]

I'm slightly bothered noone seemed to see this:

-The Bab of the first of those two levels

Well, the point of the idea would be getting more skillpoints (but remember "For all purposes and intents aside from hp, you have only gained one Hit Die" IOW: your max skill ranks doesn't increase).


Spells in the Adept spell list for 3rd level:
Animate Dead, Bestow Curse, Contagion, Continual Flame, CSW, Daylight, Deeper Darkness, Lightning Bolt, Neutralize Poison, Remove Curse, Remove Disease, Tongues

Doesn't seem much...


But yet I see problems if people choose to spend enough levels to get the benefits of a 20th levels in a NPC class... maybe limit it to 5 levels per NPC class (say, you could be an Adept10/Aristocrat10/Warrior10/Expert10)

Also change the Bab progression to be "you can never have Bab greater then your number of HD".

It wouldn't be meddling with PrC requirements, because
1st: Bab increases normally (At "worse" it will increase "as Fighter")
2nd: maximum ranks in skills are unaltered
3rd: you don't gain more feats

The idea of this variant is to grant some minor spellcasting for those who want it (they won't be able to improve it afterwards anyway), more hp for those who are low on it, and more skillpoints to spend for those who feel they need them.