How would you level up the NPCs? My players are already talking about getting themselves a fleet, and we just finished The Wormwood Mutiny, so I got a feeling we'll be having to put some NPCs in charge of other ships, as it stands we already have I think 3 NPC officers.
Any good ideas how to level these guys up? I was thinking something to the effect of APL -2 for the officers and leave the rest alone until they get promoted...
Just a little confused...
maybe use the guidelines for the Leadership feat. Which actually would be a great choice to ensure their loyalty etc..
We are, after all, talking nefarious cheating pirates here.
My NPC file for Skull & Shackles on my Herolab is growing now that the group needs to recruit crew.
A solution for this was I created a few different "Generic Crewman" at level 2 (Level 2 warrior, Level 2 Expert, Level 1 Warrior/Level 1 Expert) for background redshirts. If one distinguishes him/her/it-self and becomes an "Officer" or other notable status, they'll get their own stat block.
Named NPC's such as Sandara, Rosie, and Crimson Cog are on the "Slow" XP progression so they don't level as fast as the PCs, but still level up. Since I just have my group level up based on where they are in the AP, this is a bit easier for me.
I tend to keep them (NPCs) in their classes as they've been described, but without a PC Arcane caster (Our sorcerer's player has been pre-occupied with a summer love interest), I may come up with an additional NPC to cover that gap.
As for their loyalty to the PCs, some are more than others. Since my Players are starting out on book 2 this weekend, I have a while until they really need to worry about that.
I'm running my group on the slow track and adding stuff into the adventure. So what I'll probably do is give the officers of the ship 50% of what the players get when they are in no danger. If the players decide to take them along or want them to particapte actively in ship vs ship combat they will receieve an equal split of XP. They also are avaliable for players to take as cohorts if they so desire.
The regular crew will just get a generic NPC stat block I figure once they port some will quit and ohters will join keeping their level roughly the same.
We'll probably finsih book 1 next week. So we're not quite there yet.
Thanks guys, a lot of good ideas, I'll talk with my guys and see about which idea they prefer.