NPC Classes - Need more

[alchemyprime]

So, though it's a few levels off, my players are looking at taking Leadership. More specifically, three of them are. So now they want to know what their followers are.

So I was looking into any homebrewed NPC classes that folks like. I already grabbed the Gleaner - my Players are all in love with that one.

So we have
Adept
Aristocrat
Commoner
Expert
Gleaner
Magewright
Talent (Essentially a Commoner with psionic powers)
Warrior

Any others that folks can think of? Any favorites?

[rockdeworld]

Huh. Forcing cohorts to take NPC classes. Not a bad idea at all.

You've covered all the ones I know of. Just be aware that a party of 7 can be hard to keep track of in battle.

[HunterOfJello]

There's an alternate version of the Adept for use within cities in one of the Eberron books. (Note: I'm not talking about the magewright). Might be called the Urban Adept.


Urban Adept from the Sharn: City of Towers book


~

The Soulborn and Divine Mind might as well be NPC classes. The Adept is likely superior to both.

[dungeonnerd]

Any primarily passive or supportive class would work too - Marshal, Dragon Shaman, Healer, etc.

[eggs]

Dragon Magazine's Mlar and Dreamscarred Press's Augur are relatively widely distributed NPC classes.

If you're dipping into third party stuff and want diversity in throwaway followers, there are a few books I'd give a gander that were written for horror games and are filled with a couple dozen different archetypes of cannonfodder apiece:

Fantasy Flight's Darkness and Dread and a Ravenloft book called Masque of the Red Death. Ignore the casters, and they'd add a lot of variety to your crappy henchmen.

[Gavinfoxx]

Use every tier 4 and under class! I wrote a big huge writeup for populating towns with npcs of various classes! It was initially for a D&D strategy game sort of thing, though. The idea is that people in this setting tend to be REALLY LOW LEVEL. =D

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I think I have an idea! Okay, here's how I see towns developing! FYI, Mlar is in Polyhedron #159.

Most of your population is Commoners. They are probably farmers of some sort, but they could be herders or fishermen or whatever.
You have a few Healers in each town. These are your hedge priests.
You have a few Warriors in each town. You have slightly more in fortified towns.

I'm trying to simplify what settlements can make, to make it somewhat like Heroes of Might and Magic, or perhaps more accurately, Kohan Immortal Sovereigns or even Age of Wonders. The idea here is that each city tends to specialize to be really good at something, and you want the abilities of each city to be different than the other cities. Thus the loss of any given city has a major impact on the kingdom it is in.

Every Settlement is known for something special, to differentiate it. Each and every location can pick one tier 4 class that they are especially good at producing from List one.

Settlements larger than Villages have an extra 'slot'. This can be filled in two ways. Either a training camp for producing extra numbers of people from one of the options in list one, which is the main way an area can produce large numbers of people from that option, and lets you choose again extra classes that area produces from that camp, or to retrain people to have those classes. For example, if you have a martial training facility as the 'extra' facility, you can produce people from the Martial list beyond the small numbers of the wealthy that are produced naturally in each settlement. If you want to produce people with skillsets like those from the bottom of society, you can build a facility to do that. The second option is to have an option from List Two, to get access to more exotic classes. Filling an extra slot automatically lets you choose another Tier 4 class that such a place is known for. The Tier 4 class chosen doesn't have to be from the slot you just filled, though. It's just that bigger places tend to attract more capable people in general. The tier 4 classes are in brackets.

At the start of the game, you can't double slot from list number 2; that, along with other upgrades is to happen in actual gameplay (such as upgrading your adepts to be Religious Adepts, for example).

The capital starts with two extra slots, rather than just one, being a City.

After game start, you can pay people to move to one of the training facilities created with the extra slot, so that more people end up a particular class - or even a particular build of a particular class -- for your army. This is stressful for the area, and drains your budget. However, it can be worth it if you want more than what places tend to produce naturally.

Sometimes, if you have been investing lots of money or time or attention into an area, or just as a random event, the DM might have someone exceptional come about in certain areas. Some suggested options for these are in double parentheses.

No one other than player characters or player character cohorts can be above Tier 3 without DM intervention. No area produces Tier 3 or more powerful classes without DM intervention.

No, Truenamer is not on this list because that class introduces lots and lots of headaches.



CRAFTSMEN: For each settlement, pick two classes from this list that the craftsmen tend to have: Expert, Healer, Magewright, Mlar, [Master-Craftsman].

CRIMINALS: For each settlement, pick two classes from this list that the of people on the edge of society tend to have: Expert (with exotic skills allowed), Swashbuckler, Ninja, Lurk, Chaos Monk, Battle Dancer [Rogue, Savant, Nightstalker, Master-Professional]. If boosted by DM, might produce the occasional ((Psychic Rogue)).

BUREAUCRATS: Each settlement has nobles or an aristocracy or a bureaucratic class whose job it is to do actual management and governing, so pick a class from this list of people who care about governing places. This is your aristocracy that doesn't care overly much about fighting: Aristocrat, Noble, [Savant, Master-Performer]. If boosted by the DM, this might produce the occasional ((Bard, Factotum)).

MARTIAL: Each town also has nobles whose job it is to generally be wealthy, and use that wealth to equip themselves and train themselves in the martial arts. These are your nobles whose job it is to defend the peasantry. Pick two classes from this list for each town: Paladin (and variants), Knight, Samurai, Fighter, Mariner (if near water), [Dungeon Crusher Fighter (this is, in general, fighters with various useful ACFs chosen; look at the fighter handbook if you want to know about them. Thug is a good example.), Marshal]. If boosted by the DM, might produce the occasional ((Warblade, Crusader, Ardent))

Note that Warriors are easy to produce. You don't need a facility to do that. Any Commoner that you draft and give a few weeks of intense weapons training can be a Warrior.

ASCETIC: For an area where people are introspective, like monasteries or whatnot, pick two classes from this list that such an area produces: Divine Mind, Monk, Soulborn, Soulknife, [Adept, Sohei]. If boosted by the DM, this area might produce the occasional ((Swordsage, Psychic Warrior, Wilder, Shugenja))

ARCANE: For areas where specialized arcane skills are taught, pick one class that such a place teaches: [Dragonfire Adept, Dragon Shaman, Spellthief, Warmage, Master-Sage] If boosted by the DM, might produce the occasional ((Beguiler, Duskblade))

NATURE: If it is a nature-y training area, it can produce pick one class this place teaches: [Barbarian, Ranger, Wilderness Rogue, Scout, Totemist]. If boosted by the DM, might produce the occasional ((Incarnate, Shaman, Druid with several nerfs, Ranger with a lot of useful obscure ACF's))

UNHALLOWED: An incredibly freaky, probably evil, place that is near indescribable can produce Eidolons, [Jester, Hexblade, Montebank, Warlock]. If boosted by the DM, might produce the occasional ((Binder, Dread Necromancer))



Example village 1. This Village has an Asian theme, and is home to a small Ninja clan.
Craftsman: Mlar, Expert
Criminals-Slotted: Ninja, [Nightstalker]
Bureaucrat: Noble
Martial: Samurai, Paladin

Example Town with Extra Slot double-filled for Martial. This coastal town is especially good at training a wide variety of martial types of people, and in large numbers.
Craftsman: Magewright, Healer
Criminals: Expert, Swashbuckler
Bureaucrat: Aristocrat
Martial-Slotted: [ACF'd Fighter], Mariner, Knight, [Marshal]

Example town with a heavy nature and mounted combat and animal using focus:
Craftsman: Healer, Expert
Criminals: Ninja, Battle Dancer
Bureaucrat: Aristocrat
Martial: Knight, [Marshal]
Nature: [Ranger]

Example Town with Extra Slot filled for Ascetic. This town is especially good at producing and exporting lots of goods, having Tier 4 in Bureaucrat and in Craftsman. Further, the people in the monastery don't need much equipment...
Craftsman: Expert, [Master-Craftsman]
Criminals: Lurk, Battle Dancer
Bureaucrat: [Savant]
Martial: Fighter, Paladin
Ascetic: Soulborn, Soulknife

Example Town focused 100% of crafting magical items. This town has access to lots of spellcasters that can make magical and psionic items that don't require casters of levels beyond 3rd. In other words, if you want a town where people can work together to attune gems, brew potions, craft cognizance crystals, craft universal items, craft wondrous items, infuse herbs, craft alchemical items, scribe scrolls, and ink psionic tattoos or spellstoring tattoos, this is the town to do it. If the item requires a power or spell or prayer or item creation feat that can be made by the abilities of characters level 3 or under characters from this list, it can be done. If you are curious where these things are from, go to realmshelps and search the feats by item creation; these are the things that can be made by characters of level 3 and under. This does not maximize invocations or supernatural abilities in general, just ones that can be used for item creation.
Craftsman: Healer, (Magewright OR Mlar)
Criminals: Lurk, [Nightstalker]
Bureaucrat: Noble
Martial: Paladin, Sentinel (NG Paladin)
Ascetic: [Adept]
If this is a capital, add either:
Arcane: [Warmage] OR
Unhallowed: [Jester]
This maximizes the actual prayers, spells and psionic powers available to the population for crafting into items.

Example Capital City with a focus in arcane and evil things, where people with spells or invocations or overtly supernatural abilities are considered more useful than those without.
Craftsman: Magewright, Mlar
Criminals-Slotted: Lurk, Ninja
Bureaucrat: [Savant]
Martial: Despot (LE Paladin), Paladin of Tyrrany (LE Paladin)
Arcane: [Dragon Shaman]
Unhallowed: [Warlock]

[alchemyprime]

Well, for the Cohorts, I'm using PC classes, but the weaker end of things really.

My rules on Cohorts/Followers -

1. Your Cohort will be an NPC of your alignment and the GM's creation. So far, the Irda Sorcerer has a female Half-Orc Warlord (It's Pathfinder, and I like some of the Tome of Secrets stuff) and the Houri Bard will eventually get a Tiefling Wilder (yep, I love me some unoptimization). They can have PC classes, but don't expect to have just the right person want to follow you.

2. Your followers join in this order - Commoner, Expert, Other. You can't get Aristocrats with a score of less than 16. You may pick your Others, but the Race and Gender are determined by the GM (meaning I roll on a big table).

3. Followers are not cannon fodder. They're more folks who like living near you for protection. You start using them as cannon fodder, you start losing Leadership points.

So I'm mostly doing this so I can have a nice spreadsheet of the town, and see who owes loyalty where. I actually can trust my group not to go too crazy, so these work for me.

Hm... which classes are low enough tier to use for NPCs? Well, besides CW Samurai and Truenamer, natch.

[Gavinfoxx]

Hm... which classes are low enough tier to use for NPCs? Well, besides CW Samurai and Truenamer, natch.

All the ones I quoted, including Fighter, Monk, Paladin. Seriously, if Adept is considered a NPC class, there is no reason Fighter or Paladin or un-ACFed Ranger can't be a NPC class.

In other words, the Tier System is a superior split of power and versatility level than the NPC/PC class split.

[thorr-kan]

Green Ronin's Freeport setting has a Cultist NPC class. Half sneak attack/half cleric, no alignment restrictions.