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Seems the Kobolds ate my post...
Ok in another thread someone posted a list or problems with 3.x One of which was NPC villians take too long to create.
I can certainly see this as a problem. I propose a solution, similar to Iron Heroes (by Monte Cook). Villian Classes. These are special NPC only classes with a degree of power appropriate to the PC's level. The GM takes the base class and then tweaks it a bit and kills PCs.
It would be a great way to keep PCs guessing, streamline creation time, and create power appropriate villians.
What Ya'll Think?
I was thinking that one of the few things I like about 4e (don't flame me!) was the pre-built bad guys in the MM. Mind you, I don't like a book full of monster stat blocks with very little in the way of fluff, but something can be said about grabbing a few prefab Orcs to put together an encounter - "Lets see... I need 1 leader, a couple of shooters, a few brutes to put out front, and oh yeah, I need some sort od Shaman to back them up with spells"
That would take forever under 3e (to give them all feats and stat them out), but it only takes a few minutes in 4e.
There was a little-known source for 2e called the Rogues Gallery, and it was presented in the same format as the Monstrous Compendiums - I still use it all the time, even though I now how to convert stuff to 3e.
Basically, we could use a source that has somewhere around a hundred premade villains, all stated-up, for all different levels, and we could just keep using them over and over again (with different names of course). It would be so much easier for me to just grab 'Generic mage #7' from a book, then try to create something new for every encounter. Background and name is secondary here - it would only be useful the first time we used the NPC - but that kind of stuff I can make-up on the fly, especially if I don't have to worry about stats for every NPC my players meet.
The book could include everything from farmers and Town Blacksmiths right on up to a 'dread Necromancer' and 'Bandit Lord'. This would be a great resource for a 3rd party to do, but if Paizo does one, we could get all the Golarion-specific feats and what-not.
Well, I was thinking more generic - just a book of pre-built archtypes for all different encounter levels. I really don't need the fluff (I prefer to do that myself) as much as I need stats for an NPC.
Some people like to do all the builds themselves, but I've always hated the 'crunch' part of running the games, and anything that can make that part of my life easier is a god-send.
Especially Spellcasters... I hate trying to come up with Spellbook lists.
@Ericthecleric - Thanks for the The Website. I rarely ever use comp-tools for my games, and I really should get used to doing so.
Special treatment for villains? I don't like it.
I'd prefer a decent NPC generator in the core book. Top that with a new rogue's gallery (or a website with decent organisation and enough characters like this), and we're golden.
I used to do something like this for my games (before pathfinder): I'd create standard NPCs to sic on the players. Not quite all levels, but, say, 1st-level grunts, 2nd-level soldiers, 4th-level vets, 6th-level sargeants and 8th-level elite. I usually kept them somewhat variable, so I could use a number of different weapons with each build (and have the necessary variations to the stats written down), or I'd have two builds for one instance, like "2nd-level soldier, brute", and "...,tactician"
Back when I ran my last 3.5 campaign, I wound up using the same stats for soldiers in about three or four adventures. Thieves Guild grunts were 3rd level warriors with Guerilla Scout and Guerilla Warrior feats, and I used those guys for Order of Illumination hit squad soldiers as well. The players never really noticed (they were all just speedbumps anyway), but they were much more useful.
Build some stock NPCs that can be modified one way or another in either direction as you have free time, rather than statting up new NPCs each and every time you plan on putting out an adventure if it's trouble for you. I don't think it really hurts that much, and it's certainly still more personal than using a big book of NPC stats. Though, of course, there are plenty of resources out there for those who want them anyway. I stole the stats for a warforged artificer 5 for an adventure I was running recently. Glad I didn't spend the time actually writing him up, since the party went the other way...
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Free time? What is that? :) I get about 4 hours of sleep as it is :)
But I do like the pre-statted out grunts. Actually I may start doing that soon. So when they reun into the Grey Maidens there is some variety and depth to them. Different weapons and tactics.
I'll make one a trip monkey and really piss the PCs off!
Villian classes are an awesome and helpful idea. It is, however, suited to Iron Heroes, which takes a "fast and loose" approach to game world consistancy (for example, using tokens to represent everything from political prestige to character wealth to the toxin collection that an adventuring apothecary acrues as he collects plants and kills venomous monsters).
D&D usually favors a more detailed, tinkering precision with such things than some games. Mechanics like villian classes just rub some people the wrong way.
What I like them for is representing things ideas that (if not for villian classes) would probably be scaling monsters with electable abilities: representing these as a class is very clever, I think. Iron Heroes does this with the Demonic Brute/Knight: they're generic demons, available at virtually any CR, and they handily fill what I've often percieved as a void in the system (I don't know how many throw-away "demons" I've statted up just because I needed something ugly and physically powerful to fly out of a portal and there was nothing in the MM that fit). Here* is one I wrote up for a low-level mutant minion.
Here*, on the other hand, is one that serves the same roll as a character class, but is ment to streamline the process. It makes it easier to build standard ninja mooks and similar sneaky dirtbags. It isn't ment to be better than a rogue or thief, only different, and a lot simpler to build/use.
A good idea, but not for everyone: some DMs don't want their villians and their heroes playing by different rules, and some players will wonder why the badguys get to be Murderous Assassins instead of rogues and they don't.
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*both these cite Iron Heroes mechanics, but even if a few of the abilities are moonspeak to you this should give you some idea what a villian class is
You might want to check out these books, they break it down by race mostly but I've found them to be usefull. Although, I'd have to tweak them now for pathfinder.
http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?filters=0_0_0&manufacturers_id=807
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You're forgetting their ability to retroactively substitute paladin levels for blackguard levels.
The DMG has a bunch of tables of standard builds for the various base classes. Something like that could be easily adapted and stuck in the PRPG book for villains, just a list of feats in the order that they should be taken, a list of skills in the order they should be acquired, depending on Intelligence and a list of spells in the order they should be selected/memorized with a few tips on typical strategies, etc.
One page per base class, even with a couple of variations. You could stat up a boss-villain in 5 minutes.
I would like to see Blackguard overhauled to be a 19 level prestige class. In other words, a paladin can become at Blackguard at level 2.
That wouldn't be very prestigious. I'd rather take the paladin variants we already have.
http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?filters=0_0_0&manufacturers_id=807
0_0_0 ? I'm not going to check this out if even Lamashtu has that look on her face seeing it!
Sorry, I should explained better, the books are The Lazy GM (from The Creative Conclave)series which are full of stat blocks for various races such as orcs, goblins and kobolds. I would have linked you to their site but you have to navigate your way to finding them there.