Forums of the Megaverse®

I'm interested in putting together a bit of an escalating archetype for an NPC in a module. My intention is that it be useful both in convention games accommodating pre-gen parties of disparate power levels, as well as with depicting a recurring nemesis. I thought about PU2's Minor Heroes as a possible stage in this progression, and was wondering if others have either done something similar, or perhaps just scaled a sidekick up to hero status in a home game.

The Demon Caller from Chaos Earth: Rise of Magic is nominally a practitioner of magic O.C.C., but is largely reliant on bluster and being in the right place to come across to others as a summoner. They develop a small P.P.E. pool for use by those demons they entice to hang around, but have no spell knowledge themselves. They can call demons, with increased likelihood on/near a Blue Zone/ley line, but this is distinct from summoning. Their skill list is akin to that of a HU character from an advanced culture without much higher education.

I want to use a Minor Hero as an intermediary stage in between Demon Caller and perhaps Mystically Empowered by a Demon Lord, the progression culminating with one of Rifts Shifter/Mega-Hero/PU2 Immortal. The Minor Hero would make use of the minor superpower Summon Lesser Demon/Devil from Armageddon Unlimited, and maintain their fairly small P.P.E. pool which they can't use as something falling a little below a second minor power.

When scaling up a Minor Hero would, in the peanut gallery's opinion, it be more useful to maintain continuity by showing how Minor modifications are undone, or instead keep things tidy by just recreating the character at the next tier? How would you handle such a NPC's initial spell access? How much of this could even reasonably be noticeable in a con module's series of stat blocks?

Are you going to have character sheet for each level, so as the PC goes up a level, you replace the sheet with a new one?
Alternately, do you want to have a mixed OCC of levels 1 through X having the abilities of a Demon Caller, then from X to Y switching/upgrading abilities to those of a Minor Hero with Demon Caller looking SFX, and then from level Y to Z becoming a full Mystically Empowered character?

If the first, then it shouldn't be very noticeable as long as there is an in-game explanation and the PC doesn't lose anything the player really loved.

If the second, you might just want to make a new OCC called...um...something really cool (empowered mystical demon caller? Nah, that's terrible...) so that each level of progression you mix the class abilities that you think should go there. I think that this approach is the best from a GM perspective as it allows you to build in stuff that the game/party will need at each stage.

-STS

Curbludgeon wrote:I want to use a Minor Hero as an intermediary stage in between Demon Caller and perhaps Mystically Empowered by a Demon Lord, the progression culminating with one of Rifts Shifter/Mega-Hero/PU2 Immortal. The Minor Hero would make use of the minor superpower Summon Lesser Demon/Devil from Armageddon Unlimited, and maintain their fairly small P.P.E. pool which they can't use as something falling a little below a second minor power.

Sounds like a Witch with one or more pacts.
You can also consider possibly using Companion Immortal from Mystic China.
Also, Empowered by Weapon/Item at later levels could work too.

Having the baddie gain wealth & power can also make a 3rd rate joke start threatening like a 1st rate Nemesis.
If your baddie also happens to have some skills, he can CREATE his own tech/powers (think Dr. Doom). He (or she) could also trade favours/cash/etc for additional power effects. If he is rich enough, he can PAY people to create technology to create powers for him.

Anyway, good luck!

I would allow Sprecial Training types,to make them more of a challened.

gaby wrote:I would allow Sprecial Training types,to make them more of a challened.

Special Training? Really? How does that even relate to what is being discussed?

hmm I see it, sort of a dual class thing, where you've only got so much innate power, so you add a ton of skill to it to make up for it.

Changing char templates twice?
As per what Kevin S. said in R(.5, that the HU power categories are more akin to RCCs that a char from a race 'Has To Have' rather that a mear job class. Note this was being talked about before any optional addendum to the changing class rules in the PF game. (Also note that if you want an argument over the PFRPG 2nd ed changing Classe rules that is to be done in the PF forum.) So what was meant when it was said was that HU chars had to stick to the power cat.s they had. Without any freedom to change them.

That being said...

As a GM I might treat the minion villain moving to a major villain being talked about like a juicer wannabe if I was feeling liberal about things. But to move from a demon caller the char would have to 'Give Something Up' for the move.

I have a feeling the DC is in a Rifts book of some sort...so I probity don't have that book anymore. So I'm not going to touch what the DC would give up to make the transition. (AU is first and foremost a rifts book. even thou is says it is a crossover book.)

Then as a GM that is being more ....unforgiving....but still would allow the move I would impose a EXP doubling at each change of char template (from 1..to x2...to x4), along with he DC giving up something from the DC template.

The Companion Immortal char augmentation doesn't work well with the idea unless the demon is with he char. It would be more like a Reformed Demon (still talking about the mystic china book) except going the other way.

Those are some fun suggestions Borast, Slade, zerombr, and gaby. Thanks!

To be clear, I was mainly looking at this as a formatting issue.
When is it more efficient to depict multiple versions of an NPC by referencing other texts as a shorthand instead of as a series of stat blocks? e.g:

• Lower power PCs (Special Training w/limited equipment, no superpowers/magic): Treat NPC as Chaos Earth Demon Caller
• Mid-power PCs (small budget Bionics/Robots, Psychics, et al): Treat NPC as Minor Hero with 1 year of college and superpower Summon Minor Demon
• Higher power PCs (Aliens/Mutants with lucky rolls, Experiments, et al): Treat NPC as Russian Night Witch or Shifter

Since this was for an NPC, PC-specific concerns are largely irrelevant. Were I to do the above with a PC I'd either go with a custom cross between Mystically Bestowed and a Mutant with Continuous Mutation, or if with O.C.C.s a Demon Caller that subsequently takes a Witch Pact. The latter approach would make use of the Dual Class Rules from the Palladium Fantasy errata within the Cutting Room Floor, being the most recently published thus directly supplanting any previous iterations thereof.