Generic NPCs

[Silverblaze]

I like to create my own NPC/critters for games, but I'd like to see someone else's take on Witchblade and Sara Pezzini (from the Top Cow Universe).

[Sanctaphrax]

Wow, there's a lot of action here all of a sudden. Anyway...

@HobbitGuy: Good points. I chose not to use a Faith Healing power because a) not much refresh to spare and b) I've never seen a Faith Healing power that really seemed to fit. As for Holy Touch, it doesn't work through weapons and it has unlimited uses. If you limited the uses and let it affect weapons, then the changes should balance each other out and give you something fair. I'll list those things as alternate options.

@Cipher: The Gamer/Occult Bookstore Owner would probably have solid Lore and Scholarship. I'll take a try at making one later today.

@Silverblaze: Not familiar with those characters. If you could tell me a bit about them, it would be great. I could just consult wikipedia, but that isn't always very helpful.

@zaczane: Wow. I can't imagine what kind of game would require characters like this. Anyway, I'll put up a first draft of King Blizzard later today.

PS: I think that Belial666 made the Legion Demon. As his name implies, he's pretty good with demons and other such things.

[Silverblaze]

Explaining the Witchblade from Top Cow comics is going to be rough, I think I'll just retract that one if you don't mind.

I'll replace it with something else: how about a Treant or Ent?

[zaczane]

the reason i need theses characters is i have my game setup with 5 players at submerged power level. two are white court vampires, one emissary to the summer court, a hexanwolf and pyromancer.  a nevernever entity actually owes a magically bonded favor and the other has a black court vampire that is under his control. the emissary to summer court and the pyromancer have been smart and not died in a while or actually not since we started and they made it though i think 3 major milestones so they actually have 13 or 14 refresh now. again thank you for doing this.

[Sanctaphrax]

I have decided that one uses Performance to game.

Occult Bookstore-Owning Gamer (On The Beach)

High Concept: Occult Bookstore-Owning Gamer
Other Aspects: Way Too Into This, Very Knowledgeable But Still In The Dark
Skills:
Good: Lore, Performance
Fair: Resources, Scholarship, Rapport
Average: Contacts, Presence, Empathy
Stunts:
Gamer Forever (Performance): +2 to Performance for RPGs.
I Own A Bookstore (Resources): Owns an occult library of quality equal to Resources.
Occultist (Lore): +1 to Lore concerning something, +2 concerning something else.
Total Refresh Cost:
-1 (Pure Mortal)
Refresh Total:
3

[Sanctaphrax]

Now, as for King Blizzard:

I have a pretty good idea of what I want for his powerset. I'm thinking a full set of physical powers including Mythic Toughness, Supernatural+ Strength, Inhuman+ Speed, Supernatural+ Recovery and Hulking Size. He'd have Human Form for the Hulking Size. He'd also have Marked By Power (himself) and Sponsored Magic (himself).

I haven't quite decided what his primary mode of attack will be. Either a really impressive Breath Weapon or Evocation + lots of Refinement. If I go with the latter I'll also give him Thaumaturgy, while if I go with the former I'll upgrade the physical powers, add True Aim, and give him some Weapons stunts.

I'm also planning to use the "Dangerous Aura" custom power from the custom power thread. If you don't like custom powers, say so now.

He'll have Physical Immunity to cold, which I might expand to cover more if you want me to.

That's probably about it. Unless you have something specific in mind.

Stunts and skills are giving me trouble. I simply have no idea what King Blizzard is supposed to be good at. Please help.

PS: Treant request noted.

[Cipher]

Awesome Sanctaphrax - I may amp him up if my players like him make him a bit in the know.

You can have all sorts of conversations in a gaming store and people will just think you are running some type of game.

[zaczane]

ok from what you tell me your on the right track. i believe King Blizzard would be more towards the breathe weapon and his wife would be more the evocation with the ladder.  i like the physical immunity  thing. i don't mind custom powers just some how label them if they are custom powers so i can tell the difference.  now i don't know what i wuld call this stunt but it would allow him and the rest of his family to have a 1/4 chance to be healed by the weakness or catch(fire). also thanks again and im kind of glad that i gave you a challenge for once. cause even for you i think it would be boring through together NPC with out a challeng e.

[Sanctaphrax]

I finished the first draft of King Blizzard a couple minutes ago. But my logged-in period expired while I was writing, so I'll have to redo him. Fortunately, I have a pretty good memory for stats.

I left his skills and aspects blank because I'm really not sure what role he plays. I'm thinking Epic Weapons plus high Presence, Endurance, Conviction, and Might. Contacts and Resources are a maybe, depending on whether King Blizzard is a real king. Other social and spellcasting skills are possible, but I don't know how good the King is supposed to be in those areas. Alertness, Athletics, and Fists will probably be unimpressive. King Blizzard relies on his Breath Weapon for offence, and he probably doesn't need to be observant or good at dodging. Actually, I intentionally made him easy to hit. If you don't like that, I'll just give him a stunt that lets him defend against ranged attacks with Breath Weapon.

I'll add more stunts later, with which ones depending on how his skills work out.

He's in negative refresh already. I hope that that doesn't bother you.

Oh, and one other thing. Do you want him to be immune to everything except fire and tough against fire or immune to cold and tough against everything except fire. In other words, what should his catches be?

My objective here is to make King Blizzard a good boss fight for a large number of characters.

[Sanctaphrax]

King Blizzard (Deep One)

High Concept: Father Of The Frost Family
Other Aspects: TBD
Skills:
TBD
Stunts:
The King Still Stands (Endurance): 2 extra mild consequences usable only when fighting multiple opponents.
Breath Control (Weapons): +1 to attack with Breath Weapon.
Deadly Breath (Weapons): Breath Weapon is weapon 4.
Long-Range Breath (Weapons): Breath Weapon has 3 zones of range.
Superior Breath Spray (Weapons): When making a spray attack with Breath Weapon, +1 to each individual attack.
Wide Breath (Weapons): May take -2 penalty to hit an entire zone with Breath Weapon.
More TBD
Powers:
Marked By Power (Frost Family) [-1]
Sponsored Magic [-4]
Breath Weapon [-2]
True Aim [-1]
Mythic Strength [-6]
Inhuman Speed [-2]
Mythic Toughness [-6]
Supernatural Recovery [-4]
The Catch (fire) [+3]
Physical Immunity [-8]
The Catch (not cold) [+6]
Human Form [+1] affecting:
Hulking Size [-2]
Custom Powers:
Random Recovery [-2?] When King Blizzard is exposed to fire, flip two coins. If both are heads, then prevent all damage and give King Blizzard the benefits of a scene of recovery.
Vast Hyper-Dangerous Aura [-7] Makes a Fantastic attack at weapon 2 against Endurance against everyone within three zones each turn.
Total Refresh Cost:
TBD
Refresh Total:
TBD

[Sanctaphrax]

By the way, King Blizzard has a few stunts and powers of questionable balance. But he's an NPC, so who cares?

Glad you like him, Cipher.

Here's the Treant. It's based heavily on the D&D 3.5 version, I freely admit.

Treant (Chest Deep)

High Concept: Animated Tree That Animates Trees
Other Aspects: Get Away From My Trees!, Good At Breaking Stuff, Looks Just Like Any Other Tree
Skills:
Great: Might, Fists, Endurance
Good: Lore, Conviction, Discipline
Fair: Alertness, Survival, Empathy
Average: Presence, Rapport, Scholarship
Stunts:
Take The Hit (Endurance): Defend against attacks with Endurance.
Bend And Break (Might): +2 to break stuff.
Trample (Fists): May take an action to move one zone and make a Fists attack at -2 against everyone in that zone.
Powers:
Hulking Size [-2]
Supernatural Strength [-4]
Supernatural Toughness [-4]
The Catch (fire, slashing weapons) [+3]
Ritual (Animate Trees) [-2]
Total Refresh Cost:
-12
Refresh Total:
-4

[devonapple]

Ritual (Animate Trees) [-2]

I was inclined to say that Ritual (Animate Trees) is limited enough to almost be a 1-refresh power, but if we keep it as it is, the Treant is free to generate a wider variety of cool thaumaturgical effects if we keep it in the theme of animating plant matter.

[Sanctaphrax]

I'm not really satisfied with Ritual (Animate Trees), but I really couldn't think of another way to model that.

We need to make a custom power that grants you access to one spell and one spell only (or at least a limited list) if we want to convert D&D characters to DFRPG ones. I'll give it a try soon. Suggestions are welcome.

That being said, your post makes it sound like Ritual (Animate Trees) is a better idea than I thought it was. So, yay.

[devonapple]

That being said, your post makes it sound like Ritual (Animate Trees) is a better idea than I thought it was. So, yay.

That does leave it open for the Treant to do a lot more cool things in DFRPG than it could do in D&D, but that may not be what every GM will opt to do.

We need to make a custom power that grants you access to one spell and one spell only (or at least a limited list) if we want to convert D&D characters to DFRPG ones. I'll give it a try soon. Suggestions are welcome.

I had to (for sanity's sake) ignore some of the spell-like abilities when I was converting the Nyambe demons, except when I could find a clear Power. Some of them had spells like poison, so I just added the Venomous quality onto their Claws power.

But generally, D&D creatures have either a small handful of key spell-like abilities, or a great big pile of them.

Some of those spell-like abilities are really more appropriate to a tactical game like D&D.
Others just don't translate well into DFRPG, like any of the teleport spells.
Still others aren't in line with how DFRPG/DV treats those types of supernatural creatures (Demons/Devils/Fey/etc.).
Also consider that those abilities in D&D don't act like they would cost stress.
At the same time, some of those baddies only ever get a chance to pop off with 3-5 of their precious spell-like abilities before they get taken down.

At the end of the day, I think it's probably best to give Sponsored Magic to the monsters with big piles of spell-like abilities. For those with a few signature abilities, try to find or create powers to take the place. For anything in between, find a middle ground between Sponsored Magic, Evocation and Thaumaturgy.

[Silverblaze]

That treant looks like a pretty good challenge for a group.

Especially if it had some prep time with the ritual.  I think it was a nice way to handle tree animation and such.  It can also be used to explain how they can sense things far away in their forests etc.

Could call it chloromancy!