GM Time Savers--basic NPC "bestiary" or archetypes

[Mister Negative]

It's also worth noting that while points totals may matter for PCs (for any number of reasons), PCs also often want a beast to be different from the norm.

People want smart creatures as allies, familiars that can talk, demons which are vaguely controllable (and affordable), and shapeshifting forms which retain their own intelligence.

Even if you provide a strict point total for each beast, that point total is still probably going to be altered by any PC which needs to know it.

[Woodman]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Point totals matter for PCs.

And Allies, Dependends, Enemies, Alternate Forms....

[Phaelen Bleux]

Originally Posted by ClayDowling

This thread comes up every so often. The answer is always the same: YAGNI, You Ain't Gonna Need It.

And yet, there seems to be a desire to have fully-fleshed adversaries.

"Need" is such an ill-defined word, especially around Christmas :}

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Point totals matter for PCs.

And for Allies, Enemies, summoned creatures ... for Bestiary 4e, the hold up, as Kromm as said, is the work involved in point totals.

[Rasputin]

Just because I've been jonesing to post this, here are some basic templates that should accompany Mailanka's that you can use for bases for foes with the racial templates in DF3:

Heavy Fighter

ST 14; DX 13; IQ 10; HT 12.
Damage 1d/2d; BL 39 lbs.; HP 14; Will 10; Per 10; FP 12.
Basic Speed 6.00; Basic Move 6.

Light Fighter

ST 11; DX 15; IQ 10; HT 11.
Damage 1d-1/1d+1; BL 24 lbs.; HP 11; Will 10; Per 10; FP 11.
Basic Speed 7.00; Basic Move 7.

Spellcaster

ST 10; DX 12; IQ 14; HT 11.
Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10; Will 14; Per 14; FP 13.
Basic Speed 6.00; Basic Move 6.

Add the template from the thread, adding everything from it to the base, like a Swift Killer Light Fighter Orc has ST 13, DX 16, IQ 9, HT 12, HP 15, Will 10, Per 10, FP 12, Basic Speed 8.00, Basic Move 8. Ignore attributes contributing to Basic Speed, it will make your life easier, and just apply templates to it. The exception to this is the Spellcaster template; it is already assumed to have the IQ and FP from the Caster template. You'd add it if you wanted to add Caster to one of the Fighters.

To make a mook one of these, lower all attributes by 1, as well as Basic Speed and Basic Move. To make an advanced version, raise all attributes by 1, other than Basic Speed and Basic Move. A fun foe should have more adjectives, so raising attributes too much without one isn't something I'd recommend.

I came up with these by averaging the templates in Adventurers in three groups: Barbarian/Holy Warrior/Knight/Scout for the Heavy Fighter; Martial Artist/Swashbuckler/Thief for the Light Fighter; Bard/Cleric/Druid/Wizard for the Spellcaster. I lowered all HT scores by 1 to make them more fragile (who cares about staying power for them), and IQ by 1 for the Fighters, ST by 1 for the Spellcaster, and rounded down DX 13.5 for the Heavy Fighter, to allow for templates and differences. I threw out some numbers because they were too influenced by one outlying template. They're near each other in point tallies, but that was how the math worked out, not a design choice. Without more than one of Mailanka's templates on it, one of these guys would not be an equal of a single DF character since a PC has loads of special abilities.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Bruno

The GURPS system is riddled with basic creatures. They're spread between animal writeups and racial templates, but outside of the modern line and some of the core crunchbooks, there are basic creatures all OVER the place.

Yeah, Mailanka actually used templates from the published books for the basic starting point of pretty much everything in that thread, IIRC, and I think the one time I deviated from the ones he'd already used was when I grabbed the Cavalry Horse from Campaigns and slapped on fairy stuff to make a Pooka. There's more out there than people think.