So...no feats, stamina or resolve points?


Rules Questions


So I've noticed that NPC's and enemies in the Adventure Path and all of the stats in the Alien Archive don't seem to have any Feats, Stamina and Resolve points and just the barest hint of skills. Why is this? I feel like it really cuts down on their threat rating. Are classed NPC's still supposed to be ECL -1?


I know the NPC's are now built without all the details they have simpler creation rules that in alien archive in the back. I haven't test them enough to see how they fair. My assumption is that cr should still be equal to APL.


I mean don't get me wrong, building them without Stamina means the characters can mow through a hell of a lot more mooks but still - seems a little unbalanced in the character's favor.


The CR they give is what they should be, since they're built using the AA rules.

That said yes they do not have any of those things.


Hmmm...that means I can throw a lot more at my characters without a TPK involved. Maybe gonna keep the feats for my own personal game, though, for officers, big personalities and the big baddies.


I originally thought that their hp total would be equal to what a PC's stam+hp would be but I don't think that ends up being the case. Really NPC's don't need stamina cause they are not going to end combat and spend a resolve to heal up. so HP should be fine and resolve is unnecessary if they don't have anything to spend it on and you can always give them 3 timer per encounter or some such abilities.

However From what I understand their hp is about equal to a character at their levels hp pool alone which struck me as odd So I'm kind of hopping someone else comes in a clarify's it more for me too.


I'm personally working on a boss template myself.


New Earth Man wrote:

I mean don't get me wrong, building them without Stamina means the characters can mow through a hell of a lot more mooks but still - seems a little unbalanced in the character's favor.

They don't need stamina. They are built with different rules than PCs and have larger hp pools than equivalent level PCs.

Stamina is a system for players to regain hp without needing a healer during an adventuring day. NPCs don't need this, as they don't have adventuring days. Their health pool is bigger to be a CR appropriate challenge without needing stamina.

Don't think that just because the NPCs don't have the same systems as PCs that they are somehow handicapped.


Okay, I looked at Alien Archive and I see what you mean. I had no idea the book came with an NPC constructor, lol. Thanks for the help everybody!

Silver Crusade RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16

Instead of feats, you basically just give NPCs/monsters a bunch of powers that do similar things but with fewer restrictions. It's a pretty great system in my humble opinion.

Silver Crusade

New Earth Man wrote:

Hmmm...that means I can throw a lot more at my characters without a TPK involved. Maybe gonna keep the feats for my own personal game, though, for officers, big personalities and the big baddies.

Be VERY careful with numbers. The current CR numbers are, if anything, a little LOW especially for some of the critturs.

The fights in the PFS scenarios and Adventure Path are NOT pushovers as written.

Starfinder combat plays out quite differently than Pathfinder combat. I'd strongly suggest that you play a few scenarios (PFS, the Adventure Path) to get a feel before changing things wholesale.

PCs, for example, have significantly more "hit points" than their low level Pathfinder equivalents. But they also do WAY, WAY less damage on average. Combats run a lot longer than in Pathfinder.

If you toss in lots and lots of mooks I'd expect that
1) you'll see groups lose. A lot.
2) the combats will become a boring grind


I think Paizo probably should emphasize more that the CR curve does *not* mean the same thing as in Pathfinder. An equal CR challenge is not designed to be as easy as it was there, intentionally ( because PCs have more between-battle recovery capacity and are less dependent on limited use spells/powers ).

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Some creatures have resolve points. The first one in the Alien Archive is the Apari, which can spend resolve points to spawn "constituents." There is also a rule for calculating a creature's RP pool size:

Alien Archive wrote:
Resolve Points: Most NPCs don’t need Resolve Points, but if you give an NPC class features or special abilities that specifically use them, it receives a number of Resolve Points equal to its CR divided by 5, plus 3.

The first creature with a feat in the Archive is the air elemental (Flyby Attack). There is also a rule concerning feats applicable to monsters and NPCs:

Alien Archive wrote:
Only feats that give situational bonuses or allow for special combat tactics are listed in monster stat blocks. Feats that give the creature a static bonus (such as Improved Initiative) are already factored into the creature’s statistics, and they are therefore not listed.

Scarab Sages

NPCs are built differently than PCs because they do different things. PCs are designed to go through adventures. Combat NPCs are meant to be roadblocks. They have good to-hits, terrible AC, and the HP nessissary to give the PCs a run for their money without outright killing them.

And remember, not every PC comes into a fight at 100%. They may be a few HP off of max, or they may have taken a nick off their SP and not spent a resolve to recover it. So if the PCs aren’t 100%, should the enemies always be?

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