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 NPC Adept, Have I gone too far? |
 Sep 4 2011, 11:31 AM
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#1
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Target  Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 28-July 11 From: NE Pennsylvania Member No.: 34,232  |
Submitted for your perusal... An NPC adept designed to be an adversary for my SR group. 500 bp build. Breaks the qualities cap and probably a few other character creation rules. To some, she may seem... familiar. ;)
[ Spoiler ]
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Sep 4 2011, 11:54 AM
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#2
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 7,116 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 1,449 |
NPCs don't really have to worry about things like quality limits, although that makes me wonder why you would bother using Build Point values in the first place. But despite going over the limit in qualities, not really that powerful of a build, especially for a 500-point character. A good adversary for a lower-powered campaign, but would get chewed up pretty quickly by the types of builds most players can make with 500 points.
I wouldn't get too attached to this NPC - she is far from difficult to kill.* Which can be a problem: I would rather deal with a legitimately tough NPC, rather than a not-so-tough NPC that succeeds by GM fiat. Since she is a gang leader, she should function more in that role than as a solo "end-of-level boss". *Unlike some comic book characters who have outstayed their welcome, including one who should have been killed without mercy by someone a long time ago. I mean, the Joker is a good character, but he's far past the point where people should just put him in a revolving-door jail after his latest mass murder. So I wish the real one died like this one, and having Harley Quinn do it would be even more poetic. |
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Sep 4 2011, 01:16 PM
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#3
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,272 Joined: 22-June 10 From: Omaha. NE Member No.: 18,746 |
1) What are the dice pools for your group?
2) 2 Edge? Against a group? Edge is a serious "I don't lose" button and with only 2 edge, she needs to not remain in combat long if you don't want the group to kill her. However it appears that she's designed with the thought that she will remain in combat for a long time. |
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Sep 4 2011, 03:42 PM
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#4
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Freelance Elf Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 7,324 Joined: 30-September 04 From: Texas Member No.: 6,714 |
She's a fun Harley homage, but...yeah. Not terribly threatening to your average whole Shadowrunner group, as-is (especially with that low Edge, which I'd argue Harley's got pretty decently high in-universe).
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Sep 4 2011, 03:57 PM
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#5
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The back-up plan Group: Retired Admins Posts: 8,423 Joined: 15-January 03 From: San Diego Member No.: 3,910 |
It looks like a fun NPC with a lot of character, though as a GM, I generally just make a few notes about skills and dice pool sizes. I don't write out a full character unless the NPC is going to be a major facet of the campaign.
I concur with the others that she won't stand long versus a group of characters all trying to kill her. That said, if she has a full gang of henchmen that they are dealing with and she bounces in and out tormenting the runners, she will survive longer. |
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Sep 4 2011, 04:18 PM
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#6
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,019 Joined: 10-November 10 From: Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia Member No.: 19,166 |
I find NPC's, and themed ones in particular, tend to not survive against the kind of groups the Dumpshockers are used to. That said, I like her, and think she would fair well in my average game (where I tend to use teams of NPC's, anyway).
I tend to get a lot of inspiration for characters, so go full tilt on the creation. Even after a fiasco where I lost much of my work, I currently have 13+ NPC's done up and ready to go, mostly seperated into affiliated groups. I'm re-working many of the lost characters, but I fear I will never have all 70+ re-statted again. |
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Sep 4 2011, 05:17 PM
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#7
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 973 Joined: 8-January 10 Member No.: 18,018 |
My players would probably go all batman on her...
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Sep 4 2011, 05:27 PM
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#8
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,019 Joined: 10-November 10 From: Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia Member No.: 19,166 |
QUOTE (Elfenlied @ Sep 4 2011, 01:17 PM)  My players would probably go all batman on her... Beat her, without hitting her, and then dump her in the care of a radical ecoshaman possession mage? |
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Sep 4 2011, 05:31 PM
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#9
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Neophyte Runner Group: Members Posts: 2,168 Joined: 15-April 05 From: Helsinki, Finland Member No.: 7,337 |
Yeah, nothing too harsh.
For one, I'd have swapped Agl and Str instantly. High Agl=godlike for a combat character. I'd have gone for Agl: 5 Rea: 4(5) and Str: 3. Second, edge. I'd scrape out more points for Edge as well(Hell, IMO 1 point of edge is worth far more than a Body 5.) I'd try to get one more point out as well. Edge 3-4 is minimal I'd want for a 'hard to beat' NPC. Hell, as she is now, drop 2 from Str and 1 from Body for 4/4/3/3 and go 5 Edge. Yeah, nice homage indeed! But not very scary, think those tweaks would make things a little more stacked on the NPC's side. |
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Sep 5 2011, 01:35 AM
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#10
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Target Group: Members Posts: 94 Joined: 28-July 11 From: NE Pennsylvania Member No.: 34,232 |
QUOTE (Glyph @ Sep 4 2011, 06:54 AM) A good adversary for a lower-powered campaign, but would get chewed up pretty quickly by the types of builds most players can make with 500 points. I wouldn't get too attached to this NPC - she is far from difficult to kill.* Which can be a problem: I would rather deal with a legitimately tough NPC, rather than a not-so-tough NPC that succeeds by GM fiat. Since she is a gang leader, she should function more in that role than as a solo "end-of-level boss". My campaign is essentially a low power game. I only have 2 players. They are both newbies at the game and haven't built optimized characters. One is a physad, the other is a hermetic mage (without assensing (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif) ). I can deal with less than optimal, especially since I haven't run Shadowrun for a number of years and am still getting used to 4th ed rules. She (the NPC) is not meant to be a stand up and fight character. Rather she's meant to be a harassing guerilla fighter. Hitting her targets with Narcojet, Gamma-Scopolamine (sp?), or Bliss. She does retain the ability to really mess up a character if she manages to cull one from the herd. |
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