Hey guys
I need your help since I'm a bit out of my depth here.
I wish to create two NPC's for my adventure.
One is a dual-class Rogue 4/Fighter 3 ship captain (this is an NPC from a PS scenario that does not have any stats in the adventure itself. The only info I have on her is the above. I modified the scenario for my campaign and I need the character to be engaged in combat and to be able to interact with the world).
Second NPC I want to bring in is a race from 3.5, specifically a Fishman (I did not find anything comparable in Pathfinder). He is a first officer on said ship and about to become an important character. I found its racial stats and all, but do not know how to create a stat block.
I searched in different NPC generators but none of them are as specific as I need, and I'm not really sure how to create these from scratch.
Any advice on how to proceed?
Thanks.
The guidelines for building NPC's can be found here. It's not very different from building PC's.
If you need help with building a statblock, the best way to learn is by looking at an existing statblock that's similar to what you want to create. Keep all the same sections, and replace the contents with the information specific to your character.
So for attributes, an NPC with PC class levels has an array of 15/14/13/12/10/8. These can be arranged however you like, and then you'd add racial bonuses and penalties. Since your NPC is higher than 4th level, you'd also gain an extra +1 that can be placed anywhere you like.
You've already selected your classes, but you may want to select your archetype. Once you have that selected, you'll want to select your feats. This is really up to taste and what you want your NPC to do, but with named NPC's like this I find patching up any weak spots is advisable. For instance, a Fighter/Rogue is likely to have weak will saves so taking Iron Will is a very good idea.
Once you've placed feats, you should place skills. This is a little bit annoying with a multiclass character, but it's not too bad. You have four levels of Rogue so 4x8 = 32 skill points, and three levels of Fighter so 3x2 = 6 skill points. Don't forget bonuses from intelligence or race. You may also want to figure out how you're spending their favored class bonus at this time, since that can be used for skill points if you want.
Finally there's gear to pick out. As a 7th level NPC, the character should have 6000 gp worth of items. I generally recommend a "keep it simple" approach with NPC's, so a +1 weapon, a +1 armor, and a +1 cloak of resistance is a solid combination. That still leaves 2000 gp for other miscellaneous equipment.
Once you've made all your decisions regarding the character, all that's left is to fill out the miscellaneous sections of the stat block. Most of these are relatively straightforward, and you can just look up how they're calculated (initiative is usually just your dexterity modifier, AC is usually just dexterity bonus plus armor bonus plus shield bonus, etc). The most complicated and error-prone one is hit points. NPC's don't roll for hit points, and instead take average results (average of d10 is 5.5, average of d8 is 4.5; add all the dice averages together, then round down). Like PC's, they get maximum results at 1st level, so you need to choose whether that's going to be Fighter or Rogue and treat one of those dice as being maximum (10 instead of 5.5, or 8 instead of 4.5). You also need to add in favored class bonus and any bonus from constitution.
If you have any further questions, just ask.
There are also programs available that can help with this.
PCGen can be used for NPCs just as easily as PCs. It's free, and open-source. It tends not to have the newest material in it, because it takes a fair amount of time and effort to get that coded up, and it's a volunteer effort.
Hero Lab also works well for creating NPCs. It's always up-to-date, but it's also a paid product and it can cost a fair bit depending on how much content you want to license. Initial price $35 as of this writing, which includes just the core rulebook; adding additional books like the APG or one of the bestiaries tends to cost about $10 per title. Smaller splatbooks like Blood of Shadows tend to come in mini-bundles of about 3 splatbooks for about $5. There are larger bundles that drop the per-title price slightly, and occasionally they'll run a sale, generally during December.
I swear by Hero Lab, personally, but the costs definitely add up as you license more material. If that's an issue for you, definitely take a look at PCGen, it's also good and a lot less expensive.
Dasrak, thanks for your detailed walkthrough.
Tinalles, I have downloaded PCGen and played around with it for a while, but haven't found yet how to create a dual class character. Do I just need to level it one at a time like a regular character, but do it all at once?
Yes, just add the levels one by one. Technically speaking the order you take the levels does matter, but this is typically ignored for NPC's for the sake of ease-of-build.
There are a few rare examples of Paizo NPC's that would not be legal if built from a 1st level character (for instance being an 8th level character with two feats that require base attack bonus +6 as a prerequisite, and no bonus feats to explain it).
My first thought is to look at the Market prices of ships. Then look through lists of Wondrous Items for things that would be useful for ship to have and are proportional in price to the ship you want. In my campaign, for instance, you could assume that almost any ship of a certain size will have a Lyre of Building that is issued to one the Ship's Bards.
Then I would look at those ships' cargo capacities and come up with a rough idea of the average values of sundry types of cargoes.
The value of the ship + magic gear + average cargo= the Captain's Treasure.
Then I would look through NPC guidelines for treasure possessed by NPCs to find the Level of the Captain. The levels of the officers should be proportionally lower. The petty officers and chiefs, lower than that. The sailors, lower still.
Scott Wilhelm wrote:
Then I would look at those ships' cargo capacities and come up with a rough idea of the average values of sundry types of cargoes.
The value of the ship + magic gear + average cargo= the Captain's Treasure.
Only gear that is kept on her person should count against the captain's wealth limit. Other possessions or assets that are stowed elsewhere don't count against the 6000 gp budget. The ship and any cargo/treasure contained on it should be handled completely separately.
If these NPCs are opponents for the PCs, one thing to think about is: what will your players do if they capture the boat? I once accidentally handed the party a longboat worth 10,000 gp because the dice decided to hate my baddies. I had planned on them escaping. The party looted the bodies, chucked them overboard, and towed the ship to town, where they sold it.
Dasrak wrote: Scott Wilhelm wrote:
Then I would look at those ships' cargo capacities and come up with a rough idea of the average values of sundry types of cargoes.
The value of the ship + magic gear + average cargo= the Captain's Treasure.
Only gear that is kept on her person should count against the captain's wealth limit. Other possessions or assets that are stowed elsewhere don't count against the 6000 gp budget. The ship and any cargo/treasure contained on it should be handled completely separately. I feel compelled to point out that I am giving my advice based on how I would design the encounter in my own campaigns, as such my advice is axiomatically correct. In other words, it really is my advice and it really is what I would approach designing the character/ship.
But you couldn't have meant it that way. You must just be offering your own advice in competition with mine.
I firmly believe the difficulty of the challenge should match the value of the treasure and vice versa. The owner of a shipping company should put qualified people--sufficiently high-level people--in charge of valuable assets, including ships, cargo, and magic items to protect ships. Possibly the captain might not be the one to have the levels, but some person or persons defending the ship should, or there should be a reason why.
Also, I am a GM who counts treasure as including gear, trade goods, ropes, ships, anchors, fishhooks, and all manner of other things as part of the treasure. I have been toying with other methods of rewarding treasure, such as the PFS method or the d20 Modern Wealth Bonus Ability Score/Purchase DC/Profession Check, but for the time being, I'm going more old-school, and that's my advice.
Tinalles wrote: If these NPCs are opponents for the PCs, one thing to think about is: what will your players do if they capture the boat? No, the NPC's are allies of the PC's. They are there to help them and protect them, but my plan in the long run is for the PC's to lose the NPC's and have them captain the ship themselves out of necessity, with a skeleton crew...
Since none of them have Sailor profession, it's another bend of the rules I will have to figure out.
Well, that bit is no problem. Once they've been on the ship for a while, just tell them you're giving them some bonus skill points that can only be used in Profession (sailor).
Or if you don't want to just hand them those skill points, make it a challenge. They can earn those skill points in the form of training from crew members who want stuff. Maybe the bosun is a musician, and challenges the party bard to a sea shanty sing-off consisting of three opposed Perform checks. If the bard wins, the bosun trains her and she gets the skill. Similarly, maybe the navigator is a deeply religious man and asks the party cleric for religious instruction. And so on.
These are some great ideas, but I was thinking something along the lines of "our captain and first officer are gone, we're just lowly crewmates and you're hardy adventurers, so what do we do now... captains?" and the challenge of the PC's is to figure out how to be captains.
I guess I can combine with this some of the ideas above, maybe one of them asks a crewman to teach them how to tie ropes, and the crewman asks for something in return. But the point is the crew members look at the adventurers with some sort of reverence and expect them to know what they want and what they're doing. But giving them bonus Profession points sounds pretty good to me.
I know I'm straying away from the original topic here, so my apologies.
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