Latest revision as of 12:46, 26 March 2007

NPCs spice up your RP.

This page presents sample NPCs for the Philsys RP system.

Sample NPCs

These basic stat blocks present NPCs that are pregenerated. They can be used "out of the box" or modified to suit the needs of a specific GM. The basic stat blocks present "archetype" characters such as fighters or mages; NPCs that do not have combat purposes may not even need stat sheets, depending on GM preference.

The main purpose of these stat blocks is to assist GMs who want to generate NPCs quickly or who need a base set of character stats for sudden, unpredicted reasons. It also gives GMs an idea as to what the "average" strength of an NPC in combat should be at various levels. Only combat-useful skills are listed, so these characters do not have all of their skill points spent. Remaining skill points can be spent to further customize an NPC.

A sample NPC might not have any techs. If you would like to customize NPCs with techs, feel free to do so.

Fighter

Any character that relies primarily on weapons to do battle is a fighter.

Fighter, Standard

These stats are appropriate for a standardized warrior, a basic member of the city guard, a rowdy ex-soldier in a bar, etc. His (or her) skills can be customized to suit specifics, but the assumption is that such a character will use a 1-handed weapon, carry a ranged weapon for backup, wear armor, and carry a shield.

The stat block provided here can be used for fighters of any race, even more exotic types, with a few small adjustments. For example, to create a skeletal warrior, you could use very similar stats and simply apply appropriate innate abilities or weaknesses (such as bonus AC against piercing damage or a vulnerability to holy elemental magic).

The [s]Armor Mobility skill listed reduces PA penalties for heavy armor by 1 point per 2 ranks. It costs 1 point per rank.

Fighter, Dextrous

A dextrous fighter may two weapons and engages in ranged combat with more frequency than a standard fighter. He wears less armor so as to avoid compromising his mobility. His attacks are focused on using accuracy to penetrate an opponent's defenses, not raw strength.

Spellcaster

A character that is primarily focused on casting spells to deal damage or support allies in combat is a spellcaster.

Mage

This sheet lays out basics for a mage-type character that will be using primarily elemental offensive magic. His schools of magic are left for the GM to decide upon generation, but for simplicity, a mage of this sort has a "wild card" spell that allows the GM to avoid doing any extra work.

A mage with a more complicated skillset should have his skills and spells decided by the GM before the RP.

Support Caster

Support casters are indispensable in prolonged fights. The ability to heal damage is incredibly useful, and other abilities can turn the tide of battle against difficult foes.

Monsters

Some generic monster categories.

Non-humanoid monster NPCs can sometimes be difficult to represent by the standard method of stats, skills, and techs. Often their attributes will be widly varied; building them on 21 points and using standard formulae would be a mistake. For example, creating a character such as an ooze would probably, by standard definitions, necessitate stats like -5 DEX, and the guidelines for character creation do not deal with "nonabilities," such as the typical oozes's lack of intelligence.

As such, it is recommended that a GM wishing to create such creatures ignore all of the typical rules for character creation, assigning numbers to relevant stats and substats and eschewing the rest. For example, while a GM might want to know the STR score of a golem he is creating, it is hardly necessary to know the golem's INT or COU; both stats are irrelevant to such a mindless creature.

If a creature does not have an ability score for whatever reason and a check against that ability must be made, treat the score as +0. In many cases, creatures will be immune to effects that would require opposed checks. Zombies are generally fearless, for example, so no amount of typical threats is going to cause them to flee in terror.

At the request of a few specific individuals, listed here are a set of statistics for several types of more exotic creatures.

Oozes

Gelatinous Cube

A gelatinous cube is a large, semi-transparent cubical creature made of what appears to be semi-solid slime. They live in dark places, typically underground, and move about slowly feeding on whatever they can find. Much of a gelatinous cube's prey simply walks into the cube as a result of being unable to see it in a dark environment, where its paralyzing acid rapidly digests the foe. Gelatinous cubes are not intelligent and typically are concerned only with eating.

Grey Ooze

A grey ooze resembles quicksilver (liquid mercury) and moves around at surprising speed. They feed on metal objects and ores, digesting them with their acid and absorbing the resulting metal ions. Grey oozes will typically only attack adventurers that are carrying sufficient quantities of metal to make a good meal.

Black Ooze

A black ooze resembles a puddle of liquid tar. It feeds on whatever comes near enough for it to grab. Many adventurers have found themselves overwhelmed by black oozes because of their characteristic "splitting" and resiliance.

Magical Creatures

Displacer Beast

Displacer beasts are puma-like creatures with luxurious, black fur and a pair of muscular tentacles sprouting from the shoulders. They are roughly the size of a Bengal tiger and weigh roughly 500 lbs. Displacer beasts eat just about anything, and consider nearly everything and anything that moves potential prey.

Phase Spider

A phase spider has an 8-foot long body and is typically characterized by white and blue markings. They earn their name from the ability to teleport to the ethereal plane in order to escape or surprise foes.

Creature Type Modifiers

The generic NPCs listed above are assumed to be races with no extraordinary characteristics, primarily humans. The same set of statistics will work for a wide variety of other similar creatures, such as elves, dwarves, orcs, or whatever other humanoid creature the GM desires with very slight modifications, such as the noting of elves' innate ability to see better in darkness and the like.

More complicated modifications to creatures might involve exotic races, such as dragonhalves or vampires. Using the guidelines presented here, it should be possible to at least have a basis for most adjustments. These standards also give some baselines for creating non-humanoid monsters, and while they can be ignored on a case-by-case basis, they ought to serve as a good baseline and hold true in most cases.

• Celestials -- Celestials vary greatly, but they all share some basic characteristics. Celestials can see well even in low-light areas. They are usually vulnerable to shadow elemental attack types (2x damage) but immune to holy elemental damage. Most celestials are immune to diseases and poisons.
  • Half-celestials -- Typically, a half-celestial is resistant to holy (50% damage) and takes double damage from shadow elemental attacks.
• Constructs -- Golems and similar creatures are typically mindless. They are fearless and immune to charm spells or other mental effects. They do not have (or need) COU, WIS, or STA scores. Their INT score, if applicable, refers only to their perception abilities. Constructs are immune to poison, disease, stunning, paralysis, and sleep. They have auras, so they are not immune to astral magic despite being objects. Some constructs are immune to certain types of critical hits. The material from which a construct is made or the magic used to animate it might determine its vulnerability to certain forms of attack.
• Demons -- Demons, like celestials, can vary greatly. They can usually see well even in total darkness (though not necessarily in color). Weaker demons are typically resistant (50% damage) to shadow elemental attacks, and stronger demons are totally immune. They usually take double damage from holy elemental damage sources. Most demons are immune to diseases and poisons.
  • Half-demons -- Typically, a half-demon is resistant to shadow (50% damage) and takes double damage from holy elemental attacks.
• Elemental Creatures -- This includes both actual elementals and creatures like dragons, as they are tied to elemental forces. Most weaker creatures of this nature resist their attacks of own element (50% damage). Stronger creatures will be completely immune or even recover health. Some elementals lack physical bodies, which renders them immune to a wide variety of attacks.
  • Dragonhalves -- A dragon-half has resistance to the element of his or her type and vulnerability to the opposing element. Dragonhalves might have some sort of damaging breath weapon, though it may only be usable if the dragon-half is assuming a draconic form.
• Ethereals -- These creatures do not have physical bodies and exist only on some tangent plane to the material. They are highly vulnerable to astral magic. They do not have physical stat scores relative to things on the material plane and can only manipulate physical objects with magic. Ethereals are immune to nonmagical weapons, sleep, poison, paralysis, stunning, and other similar effects. Some creatures can become ethereal temporarily as opposed to permanently existing there.
• Undead -- An undead creature does not functionally have (or need) a STA score. Its hit points are assigned based on its relative durability (which can be derived from the living creature's STA score if desired). An undead creature is immune to any effect that requires a STA check unless it also affects objects, and they never tire. Undead are typically mindless and immune to mental effects, illusions, and charm spells. They are fearless and immune to any effect that requires an opposed COU check. Undead are immune to poison, disease, stunning, and sleep effects. Some undead may not be vulnerable to critical hits with weapons. Undead do not need to eat or sleep. They are healed by shadow elemental magic and vulnerable to holy elemental magic (2x damage).
  • Skeletons -- Typically, skeletal creatures are resistant to attacks with piercing weapons, such as spears. Treat a skeleton's AC as 10 points higher against such attacks. They are vulnerable to attacks with blunt weapons, such as maces. Treat a skeleton's AC as 10 points lower against such attacks.
  • Vampires -- Vampires, unlike many undead, are not necessarily mindless, but they are still immune to most forms of charm magic. A typical vampire has several special attacks at his disposal, but not all vampires necessarily have access to all of them (PC vampires would need to take skills in order to use them at all).
    • A vampire can charm a target that fails to resist as a magic spell; the vampire's effective "magic attack" for such an effect is CHA*3 + 4 + (vampire's character level - 1)*2.
    • A vampire that engages in a successful grapple with a target can bite its neck and drain blood, dealing triple unarmed attack damage each round until the target "dies," at which point the target can be raised as a subservient vampire.