GoodbyeSoberDay
2011-07-10, 10:24 AM
Hi playground,
I'm thinking of running a 3.P game some time in the future for some people who don't waste spend as much time optimizing as I do when it comes to D&D. Granted, they're clever folk with clever solutions to problems; they're just not well read on mechanics, and I can't really blame them. Thing is, when crafting NPCs I enjoy the optimization process, and I don't really want to tone things down just because the players aren't the same way.
With this in mind, I was thinking I could just add the 'optimized' template to certain key NPCs (and keep other ones more 'by the book' when I just wanted quick and dirty stat blocks), where said template would just add to XP. So, as a rule of thumb, what do you think it would add? I guess it varies, so I'll give two examples with varying levels of op:
Beguiler with Mindbender dip for Mindsight, Versatile Spellcaster, Ray of Stupidity, UMD'd custom runestaffs, maybe Darkstalker, etc, played to his strengths obviously. If a 'standard' NPC of that level is CR X, what is mister Beguiler?
Rogue/Sorcerer/Spellwarp Sniper/Sorcerer+ firing split ray spellwarped wings of flurry, with celerity + quick recovery, arcane fusion, arcane spellsurge and others for action economy breaking. If a 'standard' NPC of that level is CR Y, what is mister Spellwarp Sniper?
I know I'm ultimately going to have to judge what's an appropriate party challenge and what XP to give by myself (perhaps mister SWS wouldn't be appropriate for an unoptimized level 20 party), but I figure the playground can give me some intuition for starters.
I'm thinking of running a 3.P game some time in the future for some people who don't waste spend as much time optimizing as I do when it comes to D&D. Granted, they're clever folk with clever solutions to problems; they're just not well read on mechanics, and I can't really blame them. Thing is, when crafting NPCs I enjoy the optimization process, and I don't really want to tone things down just because the players aren't the same way.
With this in mind, I was thinking I could just add the 'optimized' template to certain key NPCs (and keep other ones more 'by the book' when I just wanted quick and dirty stat blocks), where said template would just add to XP. So, as a rule of thumb, what do you think it would add? I guess it varies, so I'll give two examples with varying levels of op:
Beguiler with Mindbender dip for Mindsight, Versatile Spellcaster, Ray of Stupidity, UMD'd custom runestaffs, maybe Darkstalker, etc, played to his strengths obviously. If a 'standard' NPC of that level is CR X, what is mister Beguiler?
Rogue/Sorcerer/Spellwarp Sniper/Sorcerer+ firing split ray spellwarped wings of flurry, with celerity + quick recovery, arcane fusion, arcane spellsurge and others for action economy breaking. If a 'standard' NPC of that level is CR Y, what is mister Spellwarp Sniper?
I know I'm ultimately going to have to judge what's an appropriate party challenge and what XP to give by myself (perhaps mister SWS wouldn't be appropriate for an unoptimized level 20 party), but I figure the playground can give me some intuition for starters.