NPC Equipment

[Ilmryn]

An issue i always encounter when I dm is the issue of equipment for npcs. My npcs often end up with crappy ac because i can't give them too good equipment since that would escalate the wealth of my pcs by a lot. Does anyone have a few good ideas on how to let npcs use equipment on par with that of the pcs without the pcs getting hold of it? The solution needs too be repeatable...

[PersonMan]

An issue i always encounter when I dm is the issue of equipment for npcs. My npcs often end up with crappy ac because i can't give them too good equipment since that would escalate the wealth of my pcs by a lot. Does anyone have a few good ideas on how to let npcs use equipment on par with that of the pcs without the pcs getting hold of it? The solution needs too be repeatable...

Just lower the amount of treasure we get for the rest of the encounters. If we would be getting 10,000 total plus 8,000 GP for the boss battle, then give the boss 16,000 GP worth of treasure and only 2,000 elsewhere, or something like that.

[Choco]

Grafts (most are not lootable!), templates, consumable items, DM Fiat (do what 4th edition does, give them inherent bonuses and abilities that take the place of the magic items they WOULD have if they were PC's). Those are the 4 options I can think of off the top of my head.

[Ilmryn]

Just lower the amount of treasure we get for the rest of the encounters. If we would be getting 10,000 total plus 8,000 GP for the boss battle, then give the boss 16,000 GP worth of treasure and only 2,000 elsewhere, or something like that.

Still, 16000 gp for the boss would probably be way short of what the pcs have if they are in an adventure where they get 18000gp total loot.

Grafts might be a good idea...I'll have to look through Lords of Madness again...

Inherent bonuses would cause trouble from a certain PC who's all in favor of following the rules to the letter...when he stands to benefit. He would cause insane amounts of trouble over bonuses with no source...

[PersonMan]

Still, 16000 gp for the boss would probably be way short of what the pcs have if they are in an adventure where they get 18000gp total loot.

Grafts might be a good idea...I'll have to look through Lords of Madness again...

Inherent bonuses would cause trouble from a certain PC who's all in favor of following the rules to the letter...when he stands to benefit. He would cause insane amounts of trouble over bonuses with no source...

That was just an example. Basically, if you give X loot for the whole adventure, give, say 4/5 of the loot in the boss battle, and the rest in small chunks. It might not be a 100% solution, but it'll be better.

And if you have high-AC bosses, make sure that they can't deal horrendous amounts of damage every single turn, especially if there are some high-HP mooks in the fight, too.

[Scorpina]

If it's reasonable for the character to have access to them, give NPCs weapons that are magical but either evil or something, so the PCs won't use them, or designed specifically to only work for that character. The latter has the advantage that the PCs mightn't even be able to tell the sword is magic.

[Choco]

If it's reasonable for the character to have access to them, give NPCs weapons that are magical but either evil or something, so the PCs won't use them, or designed specifically to only work for that character. The latter has the advantage that the PCs mightn't even be able to tell the sword is magic.

YES!!

If the NPCs are evil, load them up on equipment that only works for evil characters.

Of course then you gotta get creative about how to stop the PC's from selling that for a huge amount of money.

[Runestar]

Use base monsters with a fair amount of NA to help crank up their AC. Templates can work. Spellcasting isn't too shabby.

If your monsters have excess bab, take the war devotion from complete champion, which improves fighting defensively (majority of foes can't use expertise properly). There is also the protection devotion feat.

Alternatively, look to buffs which make them more hardy in combat, such as shield other, miss chances or additional temp hp.

[Knaight]

Alternately, have a ton of gear, and just get sunder happy.

[Irreverent Fool]

I'm assuming 3.x/Pathfinder...

Bonded Items, DMGII. That +4 Mithral Full Plate of Greater Fortification the enemy leader is using? It's only +1 Mithral Full Plate for others.

If the players are fighting primarily humanoids with class levels, I can see this sort of thing becoming an issue. This is part of the reason after level 5 or so I run mostly monster encounters. It's a lot easier to deal with Treasure: Standard entries than trying to properly equip NPCs based on WBL.

Items with charges are good to equip NPCs with. Wands and scrolls can make an encounter more challenging and each time they use the item they effectively diminish the treasure the PCs can gain. Judicious use of such things as oils of magic weapon and magic vestment can increase attack rolls and AC without increasing value.

Augment crystals from the Magic Item Compendium are great because only one can be attached to an item at a time and PCs will often be reluctant to simply sell them. This has the advantage of also providing the PCs more options (since swapping crystals is a mere move action) without significantly increasing their power.

[Grommen]

I've been using a lot of spell buffs, Ya know like Bull's Strength, Mass instead of strength enhancing magical items. Same net effect, but no magic item left for the players. And Yes I do drop a lot of Evil aligned items on my baddies, and bane weapons.

Don't forget cursed weapons. Not only are they hard to remove but they are practically worthless unless the players are not nice people.

And if they turn around and sell stuff, remember that it's at at least half price so they don't amass nearly as much wealth. Not only that but when they do go to sell things their might be a glutten of "+1 Evil" weapons about so perhaps the price is only 1/4 the listed in the book.

[The mage]

Give the npcs +5 swords that dissappear into dust once their owner is killed, there.

[Runestar]

Somewhere, a lv20 wizard is buffing the weapons of your foes with chained greater magic weapon from behind the shadows...

[Sc00by]

I'll second oils of magic weapon, Greater (and, of course, magic vestment, greater)

Barkskin, shield of faith and even the shield spell can all buff up AC (and still allow the evil guys to use Two handed weapons for extra damaging goodness)

All my PCs loot these days are masterwork items and empty potion bottles, mind you they stand to make a fortune when they trade in the empties!

:)

[Irreverent Fool]

Give the npcs +5 swords that dissappear into dust once their owner is killed, there.

That's not fun at all.

The thing about consumables is that the party can loot said consumables if there are any left after battle. Especially clever PCs might even manage to steal the items beforehand. Such options can be highly entertaining.

[BritishBill]

You can always raise the stats of equipment, but just dont tell the pcs. For instance if you want your bad guys to have magic weapon stats, but you dont want to have your party receive magic loot just tell them its mundane. You can always tell them if they get suspicious that he has high strength or dex or some sort of justification for high stats. As the dm you can do whatever you want!

[bloodtide]

1.Master Work Items. You can tie up a good amount of most peoples wealth in such items. If the NPC has any type of job, they should have masterwork tools for it.

2.Types of Valued items-the average NPC might not have gold and silver items, but have a lot more bone, brass, coral, ceramic , tin, or other such material. They might cost as much as say a gold, but a player might not figure that out.

3.Odd items. Make the items of value something odd. Something the players might over look or just ignore.

4.Combine one and two and three. So you get a masterwork coral spyglass or a masterwork brass hammer.

5.Disposable items. Potions, scrolls, charged items and such. I often have mages with wands of frieball(10 charges).

6.Common magic. Magic items that don't do much. A cup that keeps liquid cool. The fun part here is use expensive magic. A shot glass that distengrates items left inside or item of Ironwood.

7.A lot of an NPC's wealth will be in big things. Like a house or horse or a farm or a fountain.

[PersonMan]

@^ Yes, but how will this improve their AC? The OP said he needed ways to enhance combat abilities without overloading the PCs with wealth. I don't see how a masterwork coral spyglass is going to help someone fight off violent murderous hobos.

[Irreverent Fool]

Combat Expertise and Improved Combat Expertise are a good way to shore up AC. It can also serve to confuse players. "What? A 24 hit last round!"

[Scorpina]

Of course then you gotta get creative about how to stop the PC's from selling that for a huge amount of money.

Well, the only people who'd buy that would be evil people, and most good PCs would have issues selling evil people the tools with which to do greater evil. Even if that isn't a problem for your players, selling such items would likely get them into trouble with the law - or at least the local Order of Paladins or other Good-aligned clergy.

[Cicciograna]

I had the same issue in the past.

The solutions I came with were disposable, single use item. Never use wands, unless you plan to use all the charges in a single fight: it's nice when your PCs loot a Wand of Fireball with 6 charges left, but when they found another one of Lightning, one of Web and one of Bull's strength they have way too many free spells. So potions and scrolls are your friends.

Plus, feel free to increase enemies' stats: your standard bandit has 14 to Dexterity? Fine, bring it to 16, or 18, then add Cat's grace: his AC will rise and your players won't know that he was better than average. This comes especially handy when your PCs have classes in widely different Tiers, as the encounters become more challenging without being lethal.

[BobVosh]

Give them the advance template

Also remember consumables are great. Potions in particular, as anyone can use them. Only up to level three, but that covers GMW(+5), Magic Vestment, shield of faith(+5), +4 to x stat, barkskin (+5), heroism, lots of other decent buffs.

[Snake-Aes]

@^ Yes, but how will this improve their AC? The OP said he needed ways to enhance combat abilities without overloading the PCs with wealth. I don't see how a masterwork coral spyglass is going to help someone fight off violent murderous hobos.

Tactics. Two humanoids holding a line with their shields and defensive combat protecting two marksment behind them are more dangerous than 4 humanoids charging with their axes.

[prufock]

Potions and oils. Cheap(-ish) and effective most of the time. Buff the NPCs prior to encounters, if they're aware; if they're unaware, have them retreat/buy time somehow while they down a few potions. AC? Mage armor, barkskin, cat's grace, shield of faith. Drop in a bear's endurance for extra HPs and bull's strength or something similar for combat. And since they're consumables, you can go over your NPC wealth limit a bit without worrying about upping the treasure gained from the encounter.

Or just cheat. You're the DM, after all. Yeah, he had all eighteens.

[Runestar]

Combat Expertise and Improved Combat Expertise are a good way to shore up AC. It can also serve to confuse players. "What? A 24 hit last round!"

They also won't be hitting much. I presume the OP wanted ways to improve his npc's defenses without degrading their offensive capability too much.

[Curmudgeon]

The elite array (which is what you should usually use for opponents who aren't mooks) has a couple of odd stat numbers in it, and then you'll add stat increments every 4 levels. Give some of the NPCs inherent boosts to one or two odd numbers to make those work for them. Include some used-up Tomes and Manuals in the "treasure".

I also highly recommend magical buffs. One wand can buff a 20-person group of ambushers a couple of times, and at the end it's only got 10 charges left for the PCs to acquire. Plus 20 normal (not even masterwork) weapons after those Greater Magic Weapon spells wear off. 10 remaining charges of Greater Magic Weapon are nice to have, but the PCs probably already have that covered. For smaller parties without spellcaster support, oils and potions just leave empty vials afterward.

[sdream]

I second two previous suggestions:

Foes play smart - a little bit of circumstances goes a long way, have their enemies fortified with traps and cover.

Custom magic - The market for magical items would have become saturated long ago if most magic items weren't specific to the person they were designed for.

Remember, the appropriate loot for a CRX foe is found on the random loot table, NOT the WBL table. Don't let the whiners overrule you, if they really like a armor or weapon effect they can buy one for themselves with THEIR wbl.

[PersonMan]

Tactics. Two humanoids holding a line with their shields and defensive combat protecting two marksment behind them are more dangerous than 4 humanoids charging with their axes.

Yes, but what does this have to do with NPC wealth being tied up in masterwork coral spyglasses, or masterwork bronze hammers?

[Ilmryn]

I've been using a lot of spell buffs, Ya know like Bull's Strength, Mass instead of strength enhancing magical items. Same net effect, but no magic item left for the players. And Yes I do drop a lot of Evil aligned items on my baddies, and bane weapons.

Don't forget cursed weapons. Not only are they hard to remove but they are practically worthless unless the players are not nice people.

And if they turn around and sell stuff, remember that it's at at least half price so they don't amass nearly as much wealth. Not only that but when they do go to sell things their might be a glutten of "+1 Evil" weapons about so perhaps the price is only 1/4 the listed in the book.

Hmmm...Is there an equivalent of unholy for armor? A permament protection from good?

[Devils_Advocate]

Well, if your concern is that NPCs aren't presenting as difficult a challenge to the PCs as you'd like, then, as an alternative to what you're asking for, you could just make the NPCs higher level. Prevent party wealth from outstripping the Wealth By Level guidelines by giving them more XP instead of less wealth. Of course, if your group's playstyle is such that finding a "legit" way to improve some aspect of a character at no meaningful cost is assumed to be part of the fun for both the players and the DM, then never mind.

Have you considered the "Screw AC" approach of relying on a different line of defense, like giving attacks against a character a miss chance? That's the big one, I think, but maybe there are other viable options too.