Birthright 4E Major NPC Thread

Dungeons & Dragons BRCS 4th Edition
1

Anyone that is playing around with 4E and Birthright can post the major campaign NPCs here! Since my pbp game deals with Ghoere as a major threat I have done up a version of him with the Character Builder. I used the Character Summary to copy the raw text and altered it slightly to get a postable version…

Gavin Tael, level 9
Human, Fighter
Build: Great Weapon Fighter
Fighter Talents: Two-handed Weapon Talent

ABILITY SCORES
Str 20, Con 16, Dex 14, Int 12, Wis 13, Cha 12, Bld 25

AC: 24 Fort: 23 Reflex: 18 Will: 17
HP: 84 Surges: 14 Surge Value: 22

TRAINED SKILLS
Streetwise, Athletics, Intimidate, Endurance.

FEATS
1: Action Surge
1: Durable
2: Toughness
4: Armor Proficiency (Plate)
6: Potent Challenge
8: Power Attack

POWERS
1, At-Will: Sure Strike
1, At-Will: Tide of Iron
1, Encounter: Steel Serpent Strike
1, Daily: Brute Strike
1, At-Will: Cleave
2, Utility: Boundless Endurance
3, Encounter: Dance of Steel
5, Daily: Crack the Shell
6, Utility: Battle Awareness
7, Encounter: Reckless Strike
9, Daily: Thicket of Blades

ITEMS
Champion’s Plate Armor +2, Dread Morningstar +2, Strikebacks (heroic tier), Helm of the Stubborn Mind (heroic tier), Cloak of Distortion +1, Counterstrike Guards (heroic tier), Belt of Vigor (heroic tier)

2

It´s a mistake to create NPCs with player character rules. You should build them using monster building rules: choose a basic monster (this includes things like a human wizard) and apply templates or levelling to it, like making it a Solo. Using PCs creating method for NPCs makes them overpowerfull and goes against the 4th ed philosophy.

3

Certainly NPC’s are allies, not something characters will fight, and should be designed as such.

4

Given that it is quite conceivable that NPC’s will become PCs in time as they marry/are adopted into the PCs family/domain, players shift characters, etc they should all be made along PC lines. The PCs are, after-all, the same race, etc as most npc’s so an identical creation process is a must - otherwise PCs are ‘better’ simple due to creation flaws, much as with the 3e PC and NPC class fiasco where there were no ‘experts’, just ‘rogues’, as any npc with the brain of a chicken realised that the xp cost was the same but the rogue gave them extra’s.

Of course, my philosophy assumes that NPCs are every bit as devious, cunning, powerful and creative as PCs - if you want PCs to be ‘better’ inherently to compensate for some expected player deficiency then obviously you need to give them a crutch of some sort, otherwise the fact that the PC gets 50+% of a players attention whereas an NPC gets 5%- of the DMs should be enough of an advantage for any PC.

And NPC should however be given at several different levels in order to match it to a given campaign more easily.

5

Pabloj is right and I didn’t even really think about the NPC rules. On the other hand the Character Builder is so much easier and quicker to use then hand-crafting NPCs. Wizards definitely needs an NPC generator… I will redo Gavin Tael later today.

Kgauck: Gavin Tael is not an ally to my PCs, as a matter of fact, he is about to invade their Osoerde and therefore is likely that the PCs will want to push back the invasion and maybe even push into Ghoere. I am just being prepared.

AndrewTall: I don’t see NPCs in my game becoming PCs at anytime or place even though marry/adoption, they are still not the Player’s Character. That being said I am trying to maintain a 4E NPC Thread, and there are specific NPC rules in place for 4E.

6

And now I present the Elite Gavin Tael under the 4E NPC rules!

Gavin Tael, Level 9 (Elite)
Human, Fighter, Battle Champion

STR 18 (+4)
CON 16 (+3)
DEX 13 (+1)
INT 12 (+1)
WIS 11 (+0)
CHA 10 (+0)
BLD 24 (+7)

Hit Points: 176
Healing Surge: 1 (44 HP)
Action Point: 1

Defenses
= Armor Class: 26
= Fortitude: 26
= Reflex: 19
= Will: 18

Features
Combat Challenge
Battle Lord Tactics
Battle Talent
Inspiring Assault

Powers
= At-Will Exploit
== Reaping Strike

= Encounter Exploit
== Reckless Strike

= Daily Exploit
== Victorious Surge

= Utility Exploit
== Boundless Endurance

Skills
= Athletics
= Intimidate

Equipment
Scale Mail, Dread Morningstar +2

Attack & Damage
Dread Morningstar (Melee)
Attack Bonus: +14
Damage: 1d10+5

Reaping Strike (Melee, At-Will)
Attack Bonus: +14
Damage: 1d10+5
Miss Damage: 5

Reckless Strike (Melee, Encounter)
Attack Bonus: +12
Damage: 3d10+5

Victorious Surge (Melee, Daily)
Attack Bonus: +14
Damage: 3d10+5
Effect: Heal 44 HP