my first antagonist

[tribble]

So, I'm STing a game of Exalted, and it's my first time. My group is all dragon blooded, and dynasts to boot. Two out of the three are social based characters primed for magnificent bastardry and the third is a patsy who is good at fighting. The group is sailing to Skullstone to investigate and hopefully kill a solar pirate who has been raiding ships belonging to one of the PCs.

Now, as anyone can tell you, building a fully-fledged Solar is kind of a lot of work. I want to make a sort of boss who is challenging, but killable for three dragon-blooded. I don't want to do all the work of creating this character, especially since he is not my BBEG. (In fact, he's quite a minor character, who exists to give the players something to do while I wait for them to start intriguing.)

So, what things about this Solar should I flesh out, and what should I ignore in favor of not spending hours upon hours creating a foe with no connection to the plot?

[tribble]

I will bump exactly once, and if I do not get a response, I will take my question to the exalted general thread.

[gkathellar]

If he's just That Guy They Kill At The Beginning Of The Game, all he really needs to be is a visually impressive foil. If he's a jerk, emphasize his jerkiness. If he's not a jerk (but is still a pirate what) emphasize the moral ambiguity of beating him up. Have him taunt the characters or interact with them in superficial ways that bring out their personalities. Have him beat them up in a particularly show-offish manner when he gets around to it. Give him a parrot. A talking parrot that whispers secrets.

Basically, entirely superficial hooks make an interesting but disposable villain.

[tribble]

If he's just That Guy They Kill At The Beginning Of The Game, all he really needs to be is a visually impressive foil. If he's a jerk, emphasize his jerkiness. If he's not a jerk (but is still a pirate what) emphasize the moral ambiguity of beating him up. Have him taunt the characters or interact with them in superficial ways that bring out their personalities. Have him beat them up in a particularly show-offish manner when he gets around to it. Give him a parrot. A talking parrot that whispers secrets.

Basically, entirely superficial hooks make an interesting but disposable villain.
http://video.dragoart.com/tuts/pics/5/5820/how-to-draw-an-angry-anime-girl.jpg
I KNOW that, I'm not dumb. What I don't know is how much to develop him mechanically, because he is specifically intended to be a disposable villain, and the prospect of statting out a disposable villain completely just has me mumbling "do not want".

[Keinnicht]

I KNOW that, I'm not dumb. What I don't know is how much to flesh him out mechanically, because he is specifically intended to be a disposable villain, and the prospect of statting out a disposable villain completely just has me mumbling "do not want".

Whoa, let's cut out the page-stretching anime spam, shall we?

Moving on, don't fully stat him out, just stat out what's going to be important: Combat stuff, equipment, charms, etc.

EDIT: Thank you for ninjaing me by cutting it out.

[gkathellar]

It is impossible to take frustration seriously when it is preceded by a face like that. Your question was pretty ambiguous, I'm sorry that you feel offended.

In any case, solar NPCs are pretty easy to stat. Attributes + Abilities + Charms + Artifacts. As long as you don't feel the need to come up with custom material, I can't see it taking more than twenty minutes to flip through some book and write down how many dice he rolls, how many motes he has, which excellencies he gets and what perfect defenses he spams.

[Claudius Maximus]

If you want help actually building they guy to be a decent but beatable threat, perhaps some more information is in order. How strong are the PCs? What are their builds? How do you foresee them dealing with the problem?

If you have two manipulators it might be a nice idea to make "allies" for the pirate that they can turn against him, so they can use their strengths in the conflict. Or otherwise make it so they aren't forced to punch him to death.

I don't know how feasible or appropriate these suggestions are because I am not familiar with the mechanics of this game, but hopefully they're helpful.

[tribble]

It is impossible to take frustration seriously when it is preceded by a face like that. Your question was pretty ambiguous, I'm sorry that you feel offended.

In any case, solar NPCs are pretty easy to stat. Attributes + Abilities + Charms + Artifacts. As long as you don't feel the need to come up with custom material, I can't see it taking more than twenty minutes to flip through some book and write down how many dice he rolls, how many motes he has, which excellencies he gets and what perfect defenses he spams.

Right, so make dice pools, charms, and equipment. That is all I needed to know. Thank you.