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Spoony Bard
2013-02-24, 07:13 PM
I'm looking to run a campaign based on a city with no PCs that has been trapped in an underground prison through a curse bestowed by a God as divine punishment.
I'm not looking for fluff here. I'm looking to expand upon the basic NPC classes and prestiges to offer more archetypes to my players. They shouldn't be as strong as PCs, being as that's the point.
The players will be making their way through a dungeon that's supposed to lead to the surface to receive forgiveness from their God. So, I'm thinking stuff that narrows in on being explorers, but not "Adventurers". The idea is to focus on versatility and problem solving to deal with stuff they have no business fighting.
I'll be giving them the number of citizens in the city and they will be able to roll up that many characters until they run out. So, a good mix would be nice.

Any help on how to work the numbers without unbalancing this?

Omnicrat
2013-02-24, 07:27 PM
I don't think this is quite what your looking for (as it makes npcs more powerful) but it might help. You could probably go from 1 humanoid HD and HD progression to levels of commoner plus a knack.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253278

Pyromancer999
2013-02-24, 08:20 PM
I don't think this is quite what your looking for (as it makes npcs more powerful) but it might help. You could probably go from 1 humanoid HD and HD progression to levels of commoner plus a knack.

What is a knack? Never heard of it.

If you want to boost the power a little bit, you could let players choose NPC classes, then maybe choose an association (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=234951)or a bloodline (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11487854) to gain abilities from on top of it, and let commoners choose 2 of those.

Also, could maybe just up the HD and saves of the commoner by a little bit.

Spoony Bard
2013-02-24, 08:32 PM
The bloodlines might be a good thing to add...
I was thinking of more some class feature trade outs to give them some more specializations. I'm not sure how to keep them underpowered enough to still be within npc range, but not be completely useless most of the time.

Omnicrat
2013-02-24, 08:38 PM
I edited in the link. Don't know why I forgot it the first time...

Spoony Bard
2013-02-24, 08:49 PM
Those Knacks look fairly handy. I think I may try those out and see if they play within the range I'm looking for. :smallsmile:

Omnicrat
2013-02-24, 08:58 PM
Those Knacks look fairly handy. I think I may try those out and see if they play within the range I'm looking for. :smallsmile:

Could you let me know how it works? Always nice to have playtest input! :smallbiggrin:

LOTRfan
2013-02-24, 09:04 PM
I made a Magician (arcane spellcasting) base class and Taskmaster (buffing role) prestige class a while back. Could either of those be of use to you?

Spoony Bard
2013-02-26, 04:24 AM
Yeah, they might be quite a bit of use!
Do you have a link? I could add them in when we playtest this.

Scholar23
2013-02-26, 09:14 PM
Hey there this book is filled with npc classes that I think will fit your campaign. also the total system in there is real esay to use and fun to play, can be found on 4shared.

Legends_&_Lairs_-_Darkness_And_Dread[1]

LOTRfan
2013-02-26, 09:24 PM
Here's the Magician (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10452506&postcount=1), and here is the Taskmaster (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=10943057&postcount=1).

Istari
2013-02-26, 09:33 PM
Perhaps put in some template stacking? Depending on how meta you want it to be, the NPCs/Players may try to get themselves bit by vampires/werewolfs etc. to get the bonuses.

Arkhaic
2013-03-05, 12:21 AM
Welknair made a bunch of NPC prestige classes. And it makes sense for NPCs to have them, too.