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So, my group loves Skald. And, obviously hates Avner. I tired to play up the shadowy nature of Skald, but they just 'liked' him for some reason. Guess they saw through his 'sneaky bastard' facade.
So, when they were in Fort Blackwell, they got involved in that Redcap side thing and asked Skald to come help them. Killing redcaps seemed like a heroic thing, so he went with them.
After that fight, I decided that Skald now had enough EXP, figuring if the PCs are going to drag him around any more, he desperately needed to get another level under his belt to keep up with them.
So now he's a 4th level Ranger. At 4th level he gets a animal companion, I thinking I am going to have him take Avner's horse as the animal companion... (Avner will LOVE that.)
I level some pc's, too. Only the ones that seem to be sticking around: Lirith, Skald, Amella, and Churtle. Along with the pc's, they round out the crew of the Sea Wyvern, and since it's going to the Abyss soon, I figure a crew of 4th level npc's would be way out of their league.
I'm kepping them about half the pc's level, meaning that as of SoS, Churtle is an expert 2/sorcerer 4 (the weakest, she is just the cook), Lirith is a fighter 4/rogue 3, Skald is a ranger 7, and Amella is a Rogue 8. Lower in power than the Jade Ravens, but not pushovers, either.
Or take one of the class variants, like the PHB2 ability that lets the rest of the party treat anyone he shoots as being flanked for one round. Your party rogue will love him.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6
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Or take one of the class variants, like the PHB2 ability that lets the rest of the party treat anyone he shoots as being flanked for one round. Your party rogue will love him.
We played that ability wrong for a while. Note that they are only flanked for purposes of the next melee attack, not the entire round. Does give some benefit to having the archer spread-fire.
When I ran AoW, certain NPCs that seemed to have a resonance, I kept up with and leveled. (A personal favorite was an acolyte of Vecna, turned cleric of Wee Jas, later turned into the new head priest of the temple to St. Cuthbert in Diamond Lake). In some ways, I did it for my own amusement, as their stats were rarely of significance, but it affords the opportunity for more social PCs to invite an old pal/acquaintance/former enemy into a sidequest/dungeon with them. I'd say three or so meaningful ones are worth the effort, but even the most fastidious DMs might feel like their spending too much time fleshing out any more NPCs than that, stat-wise that is.
I liked Skald, too, and would likely do the same with him. But it's all those villainous NPCs hinted at in the Sasserine backdrop and Savage Tide Player's Handbook (primarily devoted to Sasserine, anyway) that I'm eager to use. Errix Vorn has already reared his terrifying visage--in homage to Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man from Phantasm...boy!
Dont't forget leadership. As a cohort he would need to be beefier to keep up with the party (should happen in just a few encounters), but it does give an avenue for the extra hand to the party. I also am going to recommend it for my two characters who want to be ship captains. The cohort will make an excellent Gilliga...uhh... 1st mate, and followers can fill out the crew/marines of a ship.
I level some pc's, too. Only the ones that seem to be sticking around: Lirith, Skald, Amella, and Churtle. Along with the pc's, they round out the crew of the Sea Wyvern, and since it's going to the Abyss soon, I figure a crew of 4th level npc's would be way out of their league.
I'm kepping them about half the pc's level, meaning that as of SoS, Churtle is an expert 2/sorcerer 4 (the weakest, she is just the cook), Lirith is a fighter 4/rogue 3, Skald is a ranger 7, and Amella is a Rogue 8. Lower in power than the Jade Ravens, but not pushovers, either.
I only give NPCs experience if they actually did something to help the fight, for example if Urol would have had to use one of his Stone Salves to aid a character who had been turned to stone, I would have included him in the split with the PCs. They don't like it, but if they were turned to stone, and I did not split experience, why would I split magic items the NPCs have. Now with that said, if the NPC is going along, and the PCs are doing all of the fighting, they don't get anything.