Have some low CR baddies - featuring the pact world races!

[Silaas]

I went on a creature creation spree and made a bunch of low leveled baddies. What if my players run off to fight some gang? What if they suddenly get into an altercation while on someone else's ship?

So I made 13 CR 1 NPCs, all of them being "level 1 [race]". Ya know how you have your level 1 human fighters running around acting as thugs, bandits, mercenaries, guards, etc.? Well now we have level 1 mechanics, technomacners, mystics and soldiers doing the same!

I followed the creature creation rules found in the back. They're pretty nifty: it's quick to make nearly anything I want by slapping grafts around. But it does feel like a lot of the creatures end up pretty similar.

I also had some fun playing around with the "special ability" that they all get. Sometimes I used that to give them a feat, or some extra equipment, or make up something new. Since AC/attack/damage tends to be really similar, I wanted variety in the little tricks they get.

So here they are.

Includes two CR 1/2 creatures (cannon fodder and a mobile laser turret) and 13 CR 1 npcs (android mechanic, android operative, android technomancer, human soldier, human technomancer, kasatha solarion, kasatha soldier, kasatha mystic, lashunta envoy, lashunta soldier, shirren mystic, shirren opperative, vesk soldier)

critiques welcome!

[pithica42]

Excellent, and, added to drive...

That's pretty awesome. I have three, minor, critiques.

For the android mechanic, you say that mag boots work "in vacuum". Wouldn't it be more correct/useful if they worked in 0-G?

For the Lashunta Envoy, doesn't "Don't just stand there" mimic the fourth level improvisation, "Hurry"? I don't necessarily think it's broken to give it to them early, just curious why the name change?

For (it looks like) all the soldiers, you didn't explicitly specify what their soldier styles/abilities do. I know I can look these up, but it doesn't match what you did with a lot of the others. Moreover, as a general thing as a DM, If I'm using an NPC statblock, I prefer to have everything in the statblock so I don't have to thumb through a book in the middle of play. Of course, I'm not sure if that's OGL allowed or not to share, but that's how I always do my statblocks for myself.

EDIT: Kasatha and Lashunta are not the same thing, despite how my brain refuses to recognize this.

[Silaas]

Thanks for the look over!

I agree, switching "in vacuum" to 0-G sounds a lot more clear and concise.

For "Don't Just Stand There", I didn't realize that was already an Envoy improvisation. Accidentally made a better version of it there! Going to fix it or replace it with something else.

Would adding a note or recapping the soldier styles' ability be more useful? Human bombard has a note (just that their grenades have extra range) but no direct mention of why.

[pithica42]

You're welcome. Thank you for doing the work. One of the biggest weaknesses with the game so far (IMO) is the lack of random crap to throw at PC's when they get bored. Stuff like this really helps and I appreciate it.

Quote:

Would adding a note or recapping the soldier styles' ability be more useful? Human bombard has a note (just that their grenades have extra range) but no direct mention of why.

It'd be more useful to me and the way I typically use NPC sheets. I know it's redundant to have the information in a bunch of different places, and it can make some (especially high level) NPC sheets virtually unreadable. Especially if you take it to the extreme and stat out every spell and feat and what-not.

But unless I have a particular ability memorized (like Pounce and Improved Grab), I prefer having the ability explicitly spelled out on the NPC sheet, so that I don't have to crack open a 400 page book and dig through the index to find it mid fight.

There's probably a balance that most people would prefer. Yours may be right, as-is, and it may just be me. I haven't poured over the soldier abilities multiple times the way I have mechanic/technomancer/operative. So it may just be my own lack of familiarity that caused me to notice it and say, "wth does that do?" I'd wait to do all that extra work until someone else chimes in, if I were you. Don't just take my word for it.