So my party just defeated the stag lord and did a year worth of kingdom building and next we are starting adventure 2. One of the players asked if the NPCs would gain levels as things progressed. Iw as wondering what would people thought about this should I let the npcs level but stay 3- 5 levels behind the npvs or should I leave them be. I remember in Shackled city the important npcs like jenya and shensen leveled with the party and thought this could be cool with the kingdom leaders what do you think?
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I plan on having my leaders level as well. If not exactly “with” the PCs, then at least along the same lines. For instance, Jhod begins a few levels ahead of them, but by book 6 he’ll likely be behind them by a few, etc.
One thing a sidebar mentions in book 5 (specifically when talking about Lord Irovetti of Pitax, but it also is applicable here), is “NPCs gain levels, too!”
Something this does is helps the rest of the Kingdom remain alive (read: not stagnant). Otherwise, the PCs are out leveling and…the rest of the Kingdom leadership is just sitting like logs? Kinda boring, IMO. They have lives, too!
I am definitely leveling the NPCs, in order to keep the kingdom bonuses competitive.
They can conceivably level down as well. In comes poor brother or Sir whomever disheveled after an attack. Being helped by some men. He has been attacked by some nasty undead and has lost a level or 2. What shall the pc's do...
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I've had the NPCs remain as the level they begin at until the PCs hit level 7, around the end of RRR. From now on, all the ones they have in Leadership roles will level at a rate of 1 level for every 2 the PCs get. So around the end of the campaign (level 17 for the PCs), the other Leaders will reach 10th level.
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I took a slightly different approach.
I allowed NPC rulers to have a small (+2) bonus to the appropriate stat when first place, but gave in game reasons how those bonuses could improve by building certain buildings, increasing 2 times to a +4 total.
For instance A'Kiros is the Royal Assassin. When Gallows is built (using and alternate building found elsewhere in these threads), the bonus would increase to +3 - (Gallows has a Jail prerequisite). Essentially is additional incentive to build other buildings than just a lot of graveyards, monuments and brothels. :-)
Each of the NPCs have one building of medium size (or two small) to increase, and then a major building (or two mediums) to increase to +4.
So far PCs are level 6, just about to start book 3. It's been 4 full years of their kingdom, and they've built 5 buildings (out of 13) to increase the stats of the NPC rulers.
Robert
I'm thinking of using Kage's idea, if any.
I wasn't really planning on leveling them, since they do trivial work most of the time...
One of the main "problems" I don't want to handle is bringin down the lethality of Kingmaker by having Jhod cast "Raise dead" if someone dies... :-/
I've been thinking about this lately. My pcs are about halfway through Rivers Run Red. I'm thinking of splitting important NPCs into three categories: (1) leaders, (2) allies, and (3) nemeses.
Leaders are the npcs that take leadership roles within the kingdom so have much more demanding roles.
Allies are npcs that are friends but not leaders.
Nemeses are npcs that have combatted the pcs but got away.
Leaders gain levels at 3/4 ratio of pc level advancement.
Allies gain leves at 2/3 ratio of pc level advancement.
Nemeses gain levels at 1:1 ratio of pc level advancement.
From what I've looked at, this would keep npcs at levels that would make them helpful but not overshadow the pcs. Enemies of the pcs i intend to bring back in at later points through assisation attempts and other realm events.
The way we've been doing it is to have the NPC leaders follow a level progression on the Leadership Feat list. We get the faux leadership score monthly and it is = to the kingdom size + city districts - unrest (min 1). If unrest gets too bad we don't reduce NPC levels but they don't advance. We then put a cap on the upper end to keep the max NPC level in line with what one of the PC's could attract.
It's not a perfect system but it's simple and there is enough book keeping in Kingmaker without tracking a percentage of party xp or forcing an NPC into an adventure.
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The way we've been doing it is to have the NPC leaders follow a level progression on the Leadership Feat list. We get the faux leadership score monthly and it is = to the kingdom size + city districts - unrest (min 1). If unrest gets too bad we don't reduce NPC levels but they don't advance. We then put a cap on the upper end to keep the max NPC level in line with what one of the PC's could attract.
It's not a perfect system but it's simple and there is enough book keeping in Kingmaker without tracking a percentage of party xp or forcing an NPC into an adventure.
Isn't this system just 'two levels behind the PCs at all times'? The kingdom size is expected to go to 50ish before the 3rd book. Even with subtracting a min 1 of Unrest, that's still 49, and well beyond the scope of the Leadership feat. o.O
Yup, 2 levels behind the PC's once the kingdom catches up to them which may happen in adventure 2 or 3 depending on how quick your kingdom builds. For my guys their kingdom was only 6 hexes with 3 unrest and one city district through adventure 2. Once the kingdom stats got to that level-2 range we left well enough alone. That's why it's capped so that we just ignore anything rediculous like 49. It worked in our case, but as with all things YMMV.