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KoDT69
2007-06-05, 06:35 AM
Aristocrat
I was baffled when I read the Aristocrat NPC Class features. To me it sounds like it should be a class for rich, stuck-up NPC's and class features that exemplify that mentality and lifestyle. Instead it's a 3/4 BaB class with access to all simple and martial weapons and ALL armor and shields... Why? Really they can use a tower shield when a trained Fighter or Paladin can't? I don't understand that, plus the fact that it seems more a martial class than what the name says.

Adept
This seems decent for an NPC class to have some divine spells and stuff, but it seems to me that a 20th level Adept is like having a 7th level Cleric with maybe some extra HP? Why is there no Arcane counterpart? Or did I miss it?

Warrior
And you thought that Fighters were weak? Regdar can now feel better about himself :smallbiggrin:

Expert and Commoner
These are really the only ones that make sense to me. My only question would be... How do you become a commoner level 20 and get a bunch of HP (for a commoner anyway) and not be smart enough to go for a PC class level?

Heh, maybe somebody could try a NPC Class style campaign sometime and see how it would play out. I thought about it and I might try myself. It would keep the power creep out of the campaign for sure. 20th level? No problem! The party can now defeat a troll AND 2 ogres!

Fenix_of_Doom
2007-06-05, 06:43 AM
an aristocrat is not a rich fat gut, that's probably a expert merchant type, an aristocrat is more of a rich knight that is heir to some form of power.

adept is supposed to be some form of hybrid arcane/divine caster, ebberon had the magewright, which is an arcane user, but I don't know what he does.

and ofcource warriors are weak, that's the whole idea.

Shhalahr Windrider
2007-06-05, 07:13 AM
Aristocrat
I was baffled when I read the Aristocrat NPC Class features. To me it sounds like it should be a class for rich, stuck-up NPC's and class features that exemplify that mentality and lifestyle. Instead it's a 3/4 BaB class with access to all simple and martial weapons and ALL armor and shields... Why?
The well-educated prince has had more than a few fencing lessons. He also needs to know the ins and outs of combat should he find himself in the position of commanding his land's miltary forces. The same goes for lords of small fiefdoms and their militias.


Adept
This seems decent for an NPC class to have some divine spells and stuff, but it seems to me that a 20th level Adept is like having a 7th level Cleric with maybe some extra HP? Why is there no Arcane counterpart? Or did I miss it?
That's something that's bothered me, too. For an Arcane counterpart, check out Eberron's Magewright.


Warrior
And you thought that Fighters were weak? Regdar can now feel better about himself :smallbiggrin:
The folks that become warriors are the ones that don't endure the intense training that yields all the bonus feats and extra hp. Plus they don't get that aura of "PC-special".


Expert and Commoner
These are really the only ones that make sense to me. My only question would be... How do you become a commoner level 20 and get a bunch of HP (for a commoner anyway) and not be smart enough to go for a PC class level?
Who needs a PC-class to tend the farm, forge, stables, or other tasks around the village?

Matthew
2007-06-05, 07:16 AM
Erm. Fighters can use Tower shields, they are completely proficient. I get what you're saying, but you just have to think of Aristocrat as not quite a Warrior. It's basically supposed to represent leader type NPCs, capable of both combat and non combat leadership.

NPC Classes are intentionally weaker than Adventurer Classes. It's basically an attempt to adapt the 0-Level NPC concept to the levelling system. It doesn't really work, as there is a lot of confusion with overlap and inability to convert (A Warrior 10, for instance, cannot 'convert' to Fighter, he has to remain Inferior Class X/Fighter Y).

As for the Adept, take a look at the Spell List. It's a cross over between Divine and Arcane Spell Casting, but it had to, in the end, fall into one camp or the other.

ZeroNumerous
2007-06-05, 07:16 AM
Who needs a PC-class to tend the farm, forge, stables, or other tasks around the village?

Artificer. Go where the big money is, selling PCs their magical items. 'Cause goodness knows they can't waste precious feats on Crafting.

SilverClawShift
2007-06-05, 08:05 AM
My group did an all NPC adventure once. Of course, we weren't NPCs... we were.... PC NPCs :smallconfused:

In any event, it was obviously more fun for the roleplaying than the actual features of the game. We had an Adept, two Aristocrats, and two Experts. The Adept was a combat medic, and wound up acting as a funky cleric/ranger/survivalist crossbreed. One aristocrat was an uber-charming fencer. The other was a horse riding 'knightly' type who was "exactly 17 steps away from legally becoming king", but would never actually go through the deception and treachery to make it happen because he was a decent person.
The Experts (I was one) were basically a pair of private detectives, one being a well rounded social face, the other a tough-rogue type.

It was a lot of fun. I don't think we'd do it again though. We can roleplay without stripping away all our class features.
But I think that game is where my group kind of learned to 'think outside the box' when it came to roleplaying and strategizing.

Ninja Chocobo
2007-06-05, 09:05 AM
They're good for making tough enemies, though. Thanks to the magic of non-associated levels, the Ogre Warrior 18 (with his 18d8 HD and +18 BAB), is a lower CR than an Ogre Fighter 10 (with 10d10 HD and +10 BAB).