I love the idea of critical threats. Pre-packaged, ready-to-go opponents complete with motivation, background and a really cool portrait can help spark the imagination of DM.
A "CT" can be used as the basis of a whole campaign, work as an underling for a DM's own BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guy) or help a DM with a single encounter or stand alone adventure.
But the one thing "CTs" don't have is a lot of utility -- unless the DM is willing to do the work to reverse engineer them or advance them up to the game's encounter level.
That means its harder to use a "CT" as an ongoing villain. If you take the time to figure out what a "CT's" skill points are at 3rd level and he's published at level 16, with cross-classing that's a heckuva lotta work.
The big problem is space. Right now, "CTs" get just two or three pages. The new stat block eats up even more space.
I would propose giving the "CTs" two more pages, one of which is dedicated to statting the character at 6th, 12th and 18th levels (mostly to help people understand the character's feat selection).
This format would allow the DM to advance the "CT" as his players advance.
Additionally, the description could also provide a list of goals the "CT" has for low, medium and high levels. These could include equipment goals, "knowledge" goals and professional goals.
So where would this extra space come from? You could rotate it back and forth between Maps of Mystery, slightly shorter adventures and skipping one Campaign Workbook article each month.
I know this general idea has been brought up before, but I hope the folks at Paizo consider a change.
With this adjustment, Critical Threats would quickly rise to the top of the most-sought after (and most contributed) mini-article you run.
Creative Director
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Our current philosophy regarding Critical Threats is that they should fill a specific NPC role in a campaign, such as "the infamous assassin" or the "corrupt general" or the "mad scientist wizard." We provide just enough information so you can use the NPC in a combat encounter and enough other tidbits of history and personality to get the brain thinking and to inspire for use in a campaign. If a critical threat is too complicated so he won't fit on a spread of 2 pages, he should instead be the focus of an adventure.
That said, providing seperate breakdowns for a critical threat at different levels is a pretty interesting idea. WotC periodically does this on their website, actually.
Yet a critical threat that takes up more than those two pages in the magazine is getting too big for his britches; the magazine has to maintain its primary focus on the three adventures, after all.
I agree that a single individual who the party faces only once, or who they meet many times in a non-combat capacity isn't worth more than two pages.
Would it be reasonable to do an organization as a 4 or 6 page article, though? The extra two or four pages would let a writer fit in suggestions on how to develop the plot threads tied to the organization in terms of where to insert them in other adventures, detail teams from the organization at different CRs, and sketch a total plot development using the organization. This, in addition to the background and full writeup of a major NPC to be the organization's head.
To me, this would be as or more valuable than a setting article, and I think such an article could be launched in the same way: In an issue where the organization is already used in one of the scenarios.
If that ever gets off the ground, can it cover the post Greyhawk Wars Horned Society? I've been itching to get the full story on what kind of Devil Erac's Cousin has become.
And, while you're at it, who were all of the original Hierarchs of the Horned Society?
(Sorry, we almost had them all on the Wizards boards, but nostalgia for out dated postings of mine forced my hand.)
Yes, I'd like to see something about the Horned Society as well. I never liked the fact that they were destroyed by Iuz's empire. They were a unique group in Greyhawk and provided some variety to the regular stock of villains.
Something I'd be interested in seeing is a Critical threat statted out ala the Stormblades in SCAP. I thought that was a clever idea and an easy way for the DM to create a challenging (if not overpowering) re-occuring villain in a campaign.