More miscellaneous queries

[Valamir]

1) NPCs have Divine Favor.  Is it possible for them to have a god and get Favored Ability bonuses as well?

2) You can buy an Advantage die for 1 Strife.  Can you buy Advantage dice for Minions, and if so is it 1 per Minion, or is there a group discount like there is for paying for Minions to begin with?  Like if I want 10 Minions to have the advantage "Charging down hill", is that 1 Strife or 10?

[John Harper]

1) What are these "Favored Ability bonuses" that you speak of? :-) But, yes, they should have a patron god or goddess.

2) Good question! Um... I don't know. Maybe you group the minions and then buy an advantage die for the group. If a minion gets "ungrouped" it doesn't get to use the die. How's that sound?

[Valamir]

1) What are these "Favored Ability bonuses" that you speak of? :-) But, yes, they should have a patron god or goddess.

That was me being stupid and merging two questions into one :-)

I started to ask about about Favored Abilities with the idea of whether NPCs get to have Interludes of their own when player's called for them and could thus make Sacrifice rolls to refresh divine favor.  And somehow that got mangled into my next question about whether NPCs could ever get the Heroic bonuses...perhaps purchased as a sort of Power with Strife...I've got one NPC that I'd love to buy Man-Slayer for.

[John Harper]

I just added that very thing (Heroic Traits for NPCs) to the wiki yesterday. We are of one mind.

[Valamir]

Sweet.  Malleus the Leader of the Hundred Swords has just gotten SOOOO much more nastyyyy.  d10 Armor, 2 Swords, Multistrike, Offense d8, and now Man-slayer...

But as to part one of the question, do NPCs get to refresh and stuff when players call for Interludes?


BTW:  I like the new Tricks, and Refreshment options as well.

[John Harper]

Now THAT'S an NPC. Very nice.

And yeah, I think NPCs get to refresh when the Heroes do. Or you could say that the 4 Strife you get for an Interlude cancels 4 impairments and/or wounds on your NPCs.

[Valamir]

I'm also fond of Derkylos the Reaver.  d10 with the Bow, with Ambush, First Strike, Armor Piercing, and Poison.  Far-Seeing will round him out nicely.  With d10 Athletics and an additional +2 to positioning it should be pretty hard for heroes to close with him...heh.  I could have given him Swift as well, but I figured I'd save something for later.

[Darren Hill]

There should be a thread for people to post stats of NPCs and Monsters! (As well as one for posting Quests.)
I can't wait till one of my characters gets up to a d12 Name Die, then I'm going to throw in the following beastie (or something like it)

Hydra: Name d10 (3), Strife 28.
Arete: Insight d4, Grace d4, Might d10, Spirit d8 (2)
Craft: all d4 except Orate (for roars, etc.) d6
Sport: Athletics d4, Hunt d8, Cunning d8, Wrestle d4
Battle: Aim d8, Shield d4, Spear d4, Sword d12 (2)
Armour d10 (3)
Weapons:
Heads 2d6/2d6 (Swords)
Long Reach d6+1 (Javelin)
Scaly Hide d8
Powers:
Multi-strike 6 (12)
Fear (1)
Reposition (strides boldly into the middle of its foes, scattering them with its head attacks) (3)
Defence 1d8 (2)

This creature has Natural Weapons and 7 Attacks. Could it make 3 attacks with javelins and 4 attacks with swords?

Also, is something like this okay as a method of monster killing or is it too fiddly:
* Must chop of each head and apply a burning brand to the wounds.
* In game terms, any wounds inflicted heal in the break phase, unless you apply a burning brand to to the wound before the Break. This requires a successful melee attack.
* Once 6 wounds have been inflicted, the last head writhes in pain and is easily removed.

(Of course, players might bypass it and use Divine Favour.)

On the Multistrike 6 thing: I could design it as having fewer attacks, to get some more formidable offense and defence bonuses and/or other abilities (or to build it on lower points), but designing it was fun.

[John Harper]

That is a sweet Hydra. I'm going to start some repository threads for NPCs and Islands.