Berty Dastard
This is the first of a regular column on NPCs. In each of these articles, you'll get an NPC who can be slotted into your campaign without too much trouble, and a few notes on how he was created. Note, however, that for legal reasons, we cannot tell you certain things about this process - for that you'll have to get Core Rulebook I. So, in this article, you will not find out the following details:
- The means by which the NPCs' ability scores are generated. Dice may have been involved, or point assignments, or even communication via Ouija board with a cabal of demons - have fun arguing over how it was done with your friends!
- The levels at which the NPC gets feats. There will be a bit of text explaining why feats were chosen, but that's it - it's all a look at the process of shaping the character by making decisions.
That said, let's begin. When creating NPCs, you have one main luxury - you don't have to create them in front of the rest of the players; it's no concern of theirs if you simply assigned their stats willy-nilly. What's important is that the concept and the character are believable. Get your purpose in mind and then work out a statblock to suit it. Figure out their personalities, their in-game strengths and weaknesses, and a bit about their appearance, and write a paragraph about them first.
Thousand-Faced Thralgar is a master of disguise. A spy by trade, there's nothing going on in the city that he doesn't learn about. No-one is quite sure what he looks like, including (as his career progresses) himself. He's changed his appearance more times than he'd care to remember; one face is much like another. He could be anyone; the barman who just served you a pint of stout, the young lad who's looking for work and agreed to carry your weapons for you while you're down in the dungeon - even the prostitute who agreed to do all the horrible things you wanted her to do to you last night that your wife would never dream of doing! It's an unpleasant job, but the gain far outweighs the pain. Regardless of what he wants, his motives are selfish and almost certain to run against those of the heroes. He could even be called upon to play a very fiendish role - to imitate a member of the adventuring party, infiltrate his way into their ranks and learn their secrets!
His main assets are his ability to insinuate himself into almost any situation, and find a way to work it to his advantage. His lack of physical strength is his chief weakness, but in his opinion muscle is overrated, and if a job has to be accomplished with a lot of unpleasant exertion, then chances are it's either not worth doing, or some big, muscled, well-meaning idiot can do it for him.
All set? Let's continue.