NPC Stats

[Kevin McIntyre]

So I've played PFRPG for nearly 15 years. I am converting my current game that I am running to PFRPG and ran into an odd thought. Where or what OCC do you use to stat NPCs such as cultists and normal people. Just use a basic peasant OCC with specific racial modifiers added in or just wing it? Just trying to think of the best and fastest way to set up a bit of basic cultists.

Also, I found no information on undead such as skeletons, zombies, etc... I'm not looking for special types of barded skeletons that cast magic or psi-zombies or other crazy monsters just a basic listing for stats for skeletons, zombies, etc...

Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

[BABSDAGGER]

you can find stats for for zombies in the "create zombie" spell on page 250 of the second edition palladium fantasy core book. you can allso find pretty much the same basic information under the necromancer OCC in adventures on the high seas page 34, though an animated skeleton without any flesh is something i don't believe has a write up anywhere in palladium. The closest thing to this i can think of would be the skelbots of rifts or the necroborgs of splicers both of which are techno based.

as for cultists your still dealing with a priest of darkness for occ, the average follower may be there own occ such as peasants etc. Religion normally is not your job its just something you have faith in for those with a special calling they may take up preaching and such but for the most part a cultist is just an average joe with a low IQ or ME willing or manipulated to believe/do things for a non mainstream religion.

[Prysus]

So I've played PFRPG for nearly 15 years. I am converting my current game that I am running to PFRPG and ran into an odd thought. Where or what OCC do you use to stat NPCs such as cultists and normal people. Just use a basic peasant OCC with specific racial modifiers added in or just wing it? Just trying to think of the best and fastest way to set up a bit of basic cultists.

Also, I found no information on undead such as skeletons, zombies, etc... I'm not looking for special types of barded skeletons that cast magic or psi-zombies or other crazy monsters just a basic listing for stats for skeletons, zombies, etc...

Any ideas or help would be appreciated.

Greetings and Salutations. In my opinion, the Peasant O.C.C. is not the best place to start. I actually believe that ordinary people don't have an O.C.C. as detailed in PF (BtS1 & 2 I believe have some such stats). The Peasant O.C.C., for example, I always viewed as the heroic peasant, in the sense they're tougher and better trained than the average one.

A basic cult probably isn't going to have combat trained characters. I'd probably just wing it. Something like ...

Untrained cultist: No combat bonuses. Various skills (depends what seems fitting if it even comes up).
Cultists, minor training: +1 to strike, +2 to dodge. (Note: I may decide they're like level 3, basic HtH and 1 W.P., and figure out the bonuses from that, depending on the feel I want for it.)
Cultist, elite guard: Pick an O.C.C., varying levels.

Note: If the cult is specifically targeting trained warriors or something, that can change things. However, for a general cult just recruiting ordinary people, see above.

As for skeletons ... you'll have to see the spell Invocations for that.

Animate & Control Dead: PFRPG2; page 200.
Create Mummy: PFRPG2; page 210-211.
Create Zombie: PFRPG2; page 212-213.

There are, of course, other options as well such as Necromancer options for Undead (slightly different) found in Book 3: Adventures on the High Seas, the Ghouls/Nasu in the demon section (PFRPG2; page 318), or the Bone Fiend from Land of the Damned 2 (I think that's the one). However, the simplest and most basic are the ones from the Invocations.

Anyways, hope that helps. Thank you for your time and patience, please have a nice day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.

[Kevin McIntyre]

I honestly hadn't thought of the Priest of Darkness for the cultists which seems perfect to use. Although the three ideas you threw down seem like they would fit just as nice. And thank you for the page number and reference, it makes it much easier to locate the needed information.

[The Dark Elf]

I never develop skills for any NPCs I use and I stat out very little.

When I do it predominantly about the races attributes. Roll some average stats. Most will have little bonuses, but some may well have a PS/damage bonus etc.

Then pick a level that suits the needs of your group, challenge-wise. Usually a couple of levels below for things like cultists.

Then look at the bonuses for HTH basic and include those. Then add WP bonuses (whilst they have a weapon).

Lastly work out the SDC for their OCC and then the maximum Hit Points possible on that level + their PE attribute (e.g. lvl 6 with a PE of 12 = 6x6+12=48). I then select a number I want under, in this case, 48 depending again on the challenge I want. I use the HP as the boost if I want a tougher opponent. I dont worry about SDC boosts through physical skills for NPC fodder. Make them as tough or weak as you like.

In summary: Racial attributes, Lvl, HTH, WP, HP. Job done.

You might notice that this is in fact virtually OCC irrelevant. Makes them usable in all situations. I may give men at arms an additional +1 str, par, dod, dam etc.

[Kevin McIntyre]

Yes. DE, that's what I had finally ended up doing. My only concern now is keeping the encounters on par. What is a good rule of thumb for palladium for keeping encounters difficult but acceptable. Remember I'm converting this from another game so stats, health, etc are all different.

[kiralon]

I use a printable spreadsheet with their combat stats (HP, what weapons they have etc) in a row and the npc's going down, this is for the fodder, the sargeants on up have stats usually and equipment
For the full blown bad guys and important npc's i write up a character sheet unless they are only ever going to be a talking head.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Another place to find a good skill set for "ordinary people" is from the NB/NS main book, from "The Psychic" PCC. However, this skill set is more tilted to a modern day ordinary people skill set. As a GM you would need to play regulator on the three "work" related skills (*waves hand like when you look at it you will understand which three*), but otherwise it gives a good set of non-class specific skills.

The HUGMG gives NPC Mook/Bad Guy/Boss bad Guy templates. They would need to be modified a bit for use in the PF setting.

Then there are the saloon girl/barmaid and saloon bum classes that are easily convertible to work in PF as a tavern wench/barmaid and tavern bum by eliminating the modern skills and equipment.

[Kevin McIntyre]

This all helps a ton, thanks guys.

[The Dark Elf]

Yes. DE, that's what I had finally ended up doing. My only concern now is keeping the encounters on par. What is a good rule of thumb for palladium for keeping encounters difficult but acceptable. Remember I'm converting this from another game so stats, health, etc are all different.

Honestly - change the stats each melee!

I sometimes use +2 for all NPC roles. If the NPC seems to be winning (or losing) too quickly I will increase it to +3 the next melee....

Players dont know what Im doing...

[Soldier of Od]

Yes. DE, that's what I had finally ended up doing. My only concern now is keeping the encounters on par. What is a good rule of thumb for palladium for keeping encounters difficult but acceptable. Remember I'm converting this from another game so stats, health, etc are all different.

Honestly - change the stats each melee!

I sometimes use +2 for all NPC roles. If the NPC seems to be winning (or losing) too quickly I will increase it to +3 the next melee....

Players dont know what Im doing...

Well, now I do...

[Kevin McIntyre]

I use a printable spreadsheet with their combat stats (HP, what weapons they have etc) in a row and the npc's going down, this is for the fodder, the sargeants on up have stats usually and equipment
For the full blown bad guys and important npc's i write up a character sheet unless they are only ever going to be a talking head.

I am always interested in charts, spreedsheets, etc that make my GMing job easier... I actually have World Books for each one of my players. Individual folders with world information that they know, where they are from etc. What does this spreedsheet look like if I may ask?

[kiralon]

I use a printable spreadsheet with their combat stats (HP, what weapons they have etc) in a row and the npc's going down, this is for the fodder, the sargeants on up have stats usually and equipment
For the full blown bad guys and important npc's i write up a character sheet unless they are only ever going to be a talking head.

I am always interested in charts, spreedsheets, etc that make my GMing job easier... I actually have World Books for each one of my players. Individual folders with world information that they know, where they are from etc. What does this spreedsheet look like if I may ask?

PM me your email address and i will email it to you

[MADMANMIKE]

One of my projects is a set of Palladium Fantasy Paper Miniatures (examples of base artwork in my sigpic); there are two reasons this project hasn't been published yet; 1, I suffered a hard drive crash when I was nearing completion of the first two packages of minis, meaning I have to redo the art (not actually too difficult, I have the base files, they just need to be run through my creation mill), and two, I felt that a major selling point would be having an NPC stat card for each of them so GMs could just whip out the card in game for spontaneous encounters; I cover every base O.C.C. from the main book with my minis in the first two packages, so that means running out the stats for each of them, with obvious variations on combat and attributes.. for about 100 NPCs..

As I started that part of the process I realized that the least fun part of character creation for me is the only part necessary for NPCs.. and so I haven't gotten far on them..

[The Dark Elf]

Yes. DE, that's what I had finally ended up doing. My only concern now is keeping the encounters on par. What is a good rule of thumb for palladium for keeping encounters difficult but acceptable. Remember I'm converting this from another game so stats, health, etc are all different.

Honestly - change the stats each melee!

I sometimes use +2 for all NPC roles. If the NPC seems to be winning (or losing) too quickly I will increase it to +3 the next melee....

Players dont know what Im doing...

Well, now I do...

Well "Pool Hall Thugs" just got +10...

[kiralon]

its on the combat spreadsheet 3rd or 4th tab along

[Kevin McIntyre]

I use a printable spreadsheet with their combat stats (HP, what weapons they have etc) in a row and the npc's going down, this is for the fodder, the sargeants on up have stats usually and equipment
For the full blown bad guys and important npc's i write up a character sheet unless they are only ever going to be a talking head.

I am always interested in charts, spreedsheets, etc that make my GMing job easier... I actually have World Books for each one of my players. Individual folders with world information that they know, where they are from etc. What does this spreedsheet look like if I may ask?

PM me your email address and i will email it to you

Some of that I've already seen but there is definitely some worth using and checking out, thanks.

[zyanitevp]

One of my projects is a set of Palladium Fantasy Paper Miniatures (examples of base artwork in my sigpic); there are two reasons this project hasn't been published yet; 1, I suffered a hard drive crash when I was nearing completion of the first two packages of minis, meaning I have to redo the art (not actually too difficult, I have the base files, they just need to be run through my creation mill), and two, I felt that a major selling point would be having an NPC stat card for each of them so GMs could just whip out the card in game for spontaneous encounters; I cover every base O.C.C. from the main book with my minis in the first two packages, so that means running out the stats for each of them, with obvious variations on combat and attributes.. for about 100 NPCs..

As I started that part of the process I realized that the least fun part of character creation for me is the only part necessary for NPCs.. and so I haven't gotten far on them..

Thanks for telling us what delayed it!
If you want help doing the NPC's hit me with a pm- happy to help! Probably have 50% of them already.... although would have to dial down power level, as the group is mostly 10-12 level now...