Normally I'd just flip through a few issues of Dungeon and see if I could find an example, but I'm not at home at the moment.
When making a stat block for an NPC with levels in the Expert class, do you list the 10 skills selected as class skills anywhere? If so, where, and what should the format of the line be?
Thanks!
-- John
Normally I'd just flip through a few issues of Dungeon and see if I could find an example, but I'm not at home at the moment.
When making a stat block for an NPC with levels in the Expert class, do you list the 10 skills selected as class skills anywhere? If so, where, and what should the format of the line be?
Thanks!
-- John
You come up with some good questions!
I wouldn't list the class skills in the stat block, but I would include a list in my stat block work for the editors. Alternatively, you could put a superscript C next to each class skill and note at the bottom of the block that this indicates a class skill.
But that's just me... hopefully one of the pros will provide a definitive answer for us!
- Ashavan
You come up with some good questions!
Thanks - I try. :)
Creative Director
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There's no need to indicate what skills are class skills for an expert; as long as they have less than 10 skills, it's safe to assume that all of them are class skills.
That said, it's usually a good idea to "show your work" in adventures, so that the editor knows where and how you spent your NPC's skill points. In cases where an NPC's skill point breakdown isn't provided, I'll usually just rebuild their skills from scratch and try to make the final spread as close to the original as I can.
There's no need to indicate what skills are class skills for an expert; as long as they have less than 10 skills, it's safe to assume that all of them are class skills.
Sounds reasonable.
That said, it's usually a good idea to "show your work" in adventures, so that the editor knows where and how you spent your NPC's skill points. In cases where an NPC's skill point breakdown isn't provided, I'll usually just rebuild their skills from scratch and try to make the final spread as close to the original as I can.
Yep - everything I've done has a "show the work" section. I've actually been listing skill point selections per level, as well as modifiers and such.
You just haven't received any of them yet, since I'm still working on one and editing the other down to a reasonable word count. And none of these are adventures, but Campaign Workbooks - not that that changes anything.
Thanks for the answer.
The "worksheet" where the author shows their game mechanic calculations--do you want that at the end of the document, a seperate file or a comment box...what's easiest for the reviewer? Working with the others on the collaborative submission we put together last month has inspired me to try my hand at sending something in.
The "worksheet" where the author shows their game mechanic calculations--do you want that at the end of the document, a seperate file or a comment box...what's easiest for the reviewer? Working with the others on the collaborative submission we put together last month has inspired me to try my hand at sending something in.
For an adventure proposal, we don't need to see it. For an adventure manuscript, put it in a separate file. For a Campaign Workbook, put it and the end of the document.
Confusing enough for you? :)
nope - perfectly clear, just like mud. :P
That's exactly what I've been doing with the Campaign Workbooks I'm working on at the moment. Glad to see I picked the "favored" method.
The "worksheet" where the author shows their game mechanic calculations--do you want that at the end of the document, a seperate file or a comment box...what's easiest for the reviewer? Working with the others on the collaborative submission we put together last month has inspired me to try my hand at sending something in.For an adventure proposal, we don't need to see it. For an adventure manuscript, put it in a separate file. For a Campaign Workbook, put it and the end of the document.
Confusing enough for you? :)
Cool, thanks....hopefully I'll someday get to the point of actually having to worry about that :-)
Quick question; When will there be some updated writer's guidelines? I know you all are very busy, continually putting out awesome magazines, but it would be nice to at least have a guideline for the new stat block format for those who don't have DMGII (or wherever it appeared). Also, on a side note, for Critical Threat articles (I'm thinking of sending my first in), are you only looking for evil or enemy NPCs, or could good or allied NPCs have a place too?
Thanks.
WaterdhavianFlapjack
Here's another question that's kinda, sorta stat block related:
When you're building a stat block, and that person has an item creation feat, is it reasonable to take that feat into account when "purchasing" gear? For example, if I have a 5th level wizard who has the Brew Potion feat, is it reasonable for me to only charge half-price for any potions he has when it comes time to flesh out his equipment? If so, does this include [u]any[/u] potion (since more than one person could work together), or would it only apply to potions made from spells the wizard can cast himself?
Thanks! :)
-- John
Any help would be wonderful Jeremy!
WaterdhavianFlapjack
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Creative Director
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Check out page 110 of the Dungeon Master's Guide, the 4th paragraph under Handcrafted NPC:
"When selecting gear for a spellcaster, count magic items that she can make herself as 70% as expensive as normal. This rule effectively treats the XP cost as an extra gold piece cost. If the item is chargd, then count it as half-normal value (a net 35%) and determine charges left randomly."
Excellent - thanks. :)
Yay - more questions...
I've just flipped through four issues of Dungeon, so I think I know at least part of the answer - though I'm not sure why the answer is what it is.
I was looking for how to format a stat block for a familiar. What I found is a bit puzzling. When a sorcerer or wizard even has a familiar (most don't, it seems), all the poor critter gets is a brief mention on it's master's "Special qualities" line. Here, it says something like, "Summon Familiar (name, type; hp; monster manual page)." Yet, animal companions seem to get a complete stat block.
So a pair of questions. 1) Is it correct that familiars don't get anything beyond about 8 words? 2) If so, why? Especially when it seems animal companions get special treatment. What is it that makes an animal companion get a stat block while a familiar doesn't?
Thanks, yet again, for any assistance.
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Creative Director
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Short Answer: Dungeon Hates Familiars.
Longer Answer: Sometimes, an NPC wizard, sorcerer, or adept doesn't have a familiar because it really makes no sense for them to have a familiar. (In fact: if I ran the show, I'd make Summon Familiar a feat that spellcasting classes could take, and then find some other way to fix the sorcerer and wizard's resulting loss of cool.)
Another reason: I'd say that about 75% of the wizards, sorcerers, or adepts in adventures submitted to us simply ignore the summon familiar ability. The writer simply forgets to include a familar with the NPC, and by that point, more often than not, adding a familiar to the mix makes all sorts of changes to the adventure. So it's usually easier at this point to come up with some cheesy explanation why the NPC doesn't have one.
For the most part though, we don't give familiars a full stat block simply because they're not worth the space. Familiars are rarely sent into combat; in the cases where a familiar is a siginificant part of an NPCs tactics, we'll provide a full stat block like we do for animal companions (who, unlike familiars, ARE intended to make a difference in combat).
So in order to save space, we've lately taken to simply listing a spellcaster's familiar on the SQ line of his stat block, somehting like this:
SQ summon familiar (cat named Pywakit)
If people really want us to include full stat blocks for familars... sound off! It'll take about 200 or so words away from an adventure (200 words per familiar, that is) for the stat block, but if the familiar's that important we can change our ways.
I just don't think that, in 95% of the cases, presenting a 200 word statblock for a familiar is worth it.
Once again, thanks for the answer James. :)