Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - 'Kalinore' from Tomb of the Witch King (spoilers)

larsdangly · 01-31-2020, 08:43 AM

This thread is to discuss the main villain from Tomb of the Witch King, Kalinore the Lich, and more generally the ways major NPC's are presented in the published materials. If you don't want to know anything about him, I suggest reading no further!

The issue, as I see it, is that this great NPC concept was expressed through quantitative stats in a way that makes very little sense from the perspective of the game's rules and the character's back story.

Kalinore is described as an Archmage who used powerful lost magics to turn himself into a Lich. When he was magically transformed, he gained 4 points of IQ (according to the general description of liches). He also bears a magic ring that further raises his IQ by 2.

Kalinore is presented as: ST 20, DX 12, IQ 20. That means that at the time of his tranformation, he, as a living archmage, had ST 20 or less, DX 12 or less and IQ 14 or less.

This is a totally possible character: It would be not unreasonable for a character to rise through experience to ST 20 (though obviously his or her other stats would need to stay quite low because of the slow rate of progression at high stat totals), though a few Wishes would almost certainly be required to get to a stat block of 20 - 12 - 14. And, of course, Kalinore could have had lower stats than this when alive and raised them through the long years of XP accumulation after becoming a lich.

But the point is, this Archmage is presented in such a way that IQ and DX must have been similar to those of a starting character (and never raised through the centuries over which the lich learned gobs of spells). It is possible, but very odd, bordering on totally implausible — when alive, Kalinore would not have been employable as a top-tier Town Wizard.

If this were the only NPC like this I wouldn't pay it much attention, but several from Tolenkar's Lair are also oddly statted (in those cases, in ways that likely can't be reached within the games rules).

So, the question is, what is going on with the NPCs in the official materials? Is this an intentional choice to present powerful NPCs as beings that live outside the rules and normal patterns governing PC attributes? Or is it a less purposeful thing?

It is hard to say, and not particularly important to know the answer. But I think it is worth having players provide feedback as to whether they do or don't like this approach. Personally, I dislike it, as it goes contrary to the very structured approach the rest of the game takes to attributes, prerequisites, etc.

01-31-2020, 08:43 AM	#1
larsdangly Join Date: Dec 2017	'Kalinore' from Tomb of the Witch King (spoilers) This thread is to discuss the main villain from Tomb of the Witch King, Kalinore the Lich, and more generally the ways major NPC's are presented in the published materials. If you don't want to know anything about him, I suggest reading no further! The issue, as I see it, is that this great NPC concept was expressed through quantitative stats in a way that makes very little sense from the perspective of the game's rules and the character's back story. Kalinore is described as an Archmage who used powerful lost magics to turn himself into a Lich. When he was magically transformed, he gained 4 points of IQ (according to the general description of liches). He also bears a magic ring that further raises his IQ by 2. Kalinore is presented as: ST 20, DX 12, IQ 20. That means that at the time of his tranformation, he, as a living archmage, had ST 20 or less, DX 12 or less and IQ 14 or less. This is a totally possible character: It would be not unreasonable for a character to rise through experience to ST 20 (though obviously his or her other stats would need to stay quite low because of the slow rate of progression at high stat totals), though a few Wishes would almost certainly be required to get to a stat block of 20 - 12 - 14. And, of course, Kalinore could have had lower stats than this when alive and raised them through the long years of XP accumulation after becoming a lich. But the point is, this Archmage is presented in such a way that IQ and DX must have been similar to those of a starting character (and never raised through the centuries over which the lich learned gobs of spells). It is possible, but very odd, bordering on totally implausible — when alive, Kalinore would not have been employable as a top-tier Town Wizard. If this were the only NPC like this I wouldn't pay it much attention, but several from Tolenkar's Lair are also oddly statted (in those cases, in ways that likely can't be reached within the games rules). So, the question is, what is going on with the NPCs in the official materials? Is this an intentional choice to present powerful NPCs as beings that live outside the rules and normal patterns governing PC attributes? Or is it a less purposeful thing? It is hard to say, and not particularly important to know the answer. But I think it is worth having players provide feedback as to whether they do or don't like this approach. Personally, I dislike it, as it goes contrary to the very structured approach the rest of the game takes to attributes, prerequisites, etc.