[Legend] Making some NPCs

[DoctorGlock]

So, since the other Legend thread is here, I am going to assume this can go here as well, maybe a mod will add the legend descriptor to the subforum.

So, I was planning some NPCs for an upcoming game and some of them have me stumped. In addition I need to give them survivability, being as I've seen some of the monsters my players are making.

Everything is ECL 20 (this is a conversion of the epic game i started planning some time back)

So, big enemies and suchlike

Nidhogg, big ole dragon from norse myth, i was going to go full buy in with dragon/utter brute/spell circle (shaman)/x, where x is either rage or serpent path. Rage makes the beast hit with greater accuracy and gains a load of HP. Serpent gives him far more attacks and better damage, and utter brute already gives a huge hit bonus. Dunno which is better.
Probably going to have a legendary ability of each tier. Indestructible, x, colossus, x. Dunno what to pop in the Xs, i feel if i give him titan his natural healing will make him nearly impossible to take down.

Leviathan, giant sea monster. Ok, so here's the issue. I don't want another carbon copy of the above. Utter brute should probably be part of a massive ship crushing fish horror. What else would you use?

The equivalent of an advanced solar. Well, we got the demon track, we got the smiting track, we got the spell track. do i give him another track or loads of shiny items? I want a melee monster with a devastating array of spells. Fluff wise, this guy is Iblis, so a fiery burn the world theme would be nice for a final track or a way to buff his rather lackluster defenses. Alternately, as a big boss type, would it be fair to pop an extra track on?

[Draz74]

Suggestions just off the top of my head ...

Nidhogg, big ole dragon from norse myth, i was going to go full buy in with dragon/utter brute/spell circle (shaman)/x, where x is either rage or serpent path. Rage makes the beast hit with greater accuracy and gains a load of HP. Serpent gives him far more attacks and better damage, and utter brute already gives a huge hit bonus. Dunno which is better.
Probably going to have a legendary ability of each tier. Indestructible, x, colossus, x. Dunno what to pop in the Xs, i feel if i give him titan his natural healing will make him nearly impossible to take down.
In general, if you're combining Dragon and Utter Brute, it's better to make the creature's actual race be Utter Brute, so that it can benefit more from the massive constitution bonuses than a Dragon could (via KOM). Unless you're planning to make heavy use of Charisma or you really want Rage, that is. Therefore, I'd probably drop the Rage track and go with the Utter Brute chassis and the Serpent path. Or Elementalist ... did Norse dragons not breathe fire?


Leviathan, giant sea monster. Ok, so here's the issue. I don't want another carbon copy of the above. Utter brute should probably be part of a massive ship crushing fish horror. What else would you use?
Yeah, I'd skip Dragon on this one for sure. Discipline of the Dragon (Monk track), on the other hand, could be an interesting defensive option.

Water Elemental also comes to mind, but I'd have to look over it again specifically to see if it would be easy to re-fluff for a deep sea monster. The doesn't-exist-yet Grappler track might work well, too.


The equivalent of an advanced solar. Well, we got the demon track, we got the smiting track, we got the spell track. do i give him another track or loads of shiny items? I want a melee monster with a devastating array of spells. Fluff wise, this guy is Iblis, so a fiery burn the world theme would be nice for a final track or a way to buff his rather lackluster defenses. Alternately, as a big boss type, would it be fair to pop an extra track on?

For most monsters, Full Buy-In is a good idea, and I think this even applies for Solars with their tradition of carrying a few magic items. After all, at Level 20, even with Full Buy-In you'll get three magic items. And do you really want the Solar to be carrying twelve magic items around?

So yeah, count on four tracks. Soon, there will be a Celestial racial track coming out that will surely be more appropriate than the Demon track. Smiting is cute, although, really, any Paladin track could work.

Celestial / Smiting / Judgment / Shaman casting would certainly be competent.

[DoctorGlock]

Suggestions just off the top of my head ...

In general, if you're combining Dragon and Utter Brute, it's better to make the creature's actual race be Utter Brute, so that it can benefit more from the massive constitution bonuses than a Dragon could (via KOM). Unless you're planning to make heavy use of Charisma or you really want Rage, that is. Therefore, I'd probably drop the Rage track and go with the Utter Brute chassis and the Serpent path. Or Elementalist ... did Norse dragons not breathe fire?


Sometimes. At others it was just venom.


Yeah, I'd skip Dragon on this one for sure. Discipline of the Dragon (Monk track), on the other hand, could be an interesting defensive option.

Water Elemental also comes to mind, but I'd have to look over it again specifically to see if it would be easy to re-fluff for a deep sea monster. The doesn't-exist-yet Grappler track might work well, too.

Ok, I like this. Hadn't read up on water elemental path yet. I want to load this guy up on defenses though. Not sure what his primary offense will be though.




For most monsters, Full Buy-In is a good idea, and I think this even applies for Solars with their tradition of carrying a few magic items. After all, at Level 20, even with Full Buy-In you'll get three magic items. And do you really want the Solar to be carrying twelve magic items around?

So yeah, count on four tracks. Soon, there will be a Celestial racial track coming out that will surely be more appropriate than the Demon track. Smiting is cute, although, really, any Paladin track could work.

Celestial / Smiting / Judgment / Shaman casting would certainly be competent.

Yeah, demon is a placeholder in case the party does something silly and picks a fight with the devil before the celestial track comes out. I worry that the above lacks enough defense, since so far the party have some serious damage output (fire stacking elementalist, true mage swift spell spam, serpent monk)

The legendary abilities, think they will be enough to compensate? Some of these guys beg for the use of titan but I worry that the physical damage immunity might prove overkill. Any chance you have had any experience with that?

[Draz74]

The legendary abilities, think they will be enough to compensate? Some of these guys beg for the use of titan but I worry that the physical damage immunity might prove overkill. Any chance you have had any experience with that?

Nope, I haven't really played around with Legendary stuff at all, sorry.

[DoctorGlock]

Nope, I haven't really played around with Legendary stuff at all, sorry.

Darn. I guess my findings will become valuable feedback for the dev crew

[Flickerdart]

If you don't want to use Titan, Juggernaut and Towering emulate the "enormously huge creature" concept quite well. Ruinous Charge would also work well for a sea monster (since busting up ships is what they're all about).

[DoctorGlock]

If you don't want to use Titan, Juggernaut and Towering emulate the "enormously huge creature" concept quite well. Ruinous Charge would also work well for a sea monster (since busting up ships is what they're all about).

How does ruinous charge interact with magic stuff? One of the players has a destructible artifact mount (it isn't evil to break it, he has blacksmith and can easily reforge it)

[Flickerdart]

An artifact mount is probably made of tougher things than "iron or low-grade steel".

[DoctorGlock]

An artifact mount is probably made of tougher things than "iron or low-grade steel".

Technically it's made of human fingernails. His mount is Naglfar