WARNING: HERE BE MONSTERS
If you are not a Dragonmaster, read this section at your own peril. This information is not intended for you.
The players need enemies to fight against, politicians to bargain with, and quest-givers to quest-take from. This section explains everything that you, the DM, will need to use these NPCs as foils and fawns to your players.
What’s an NPC?
It’s in the name. Non-Player Character. An NPC is any character that isn’t a player character.
Then what’s a character? Simply anything that has Core Stats: Strength, Agility, Intelligence, Will, and Vigor. All characters have these stats as a measure of how powerful they are.
There are some limits that player characters (PCs) have and NPCs don’t. For example, PC’s can’t surpass the hard limit of 5 in any of their Core Stats, whereas NPCs can and often do. While there’s no limit on NPC Core Stats, they’ll generally never surpass 10.
Additionally and most importantly, the DM will never make Stat rolls for NPCs, only Damage rolls. In Dragonpact, players make the vast majority of game rolls. Players roll both Accuracy if their attacks are dodged by enemies and Evasion if they dodge enemy attacks. NPCs, on the other hand, use their Evasion and Accuracy values in these situations as stationary targets against the players’ rolls. The major exception to this is damage from NPC attacks, spells, and abilities. DMs will roll this and apply it to the player targets’ Armor and Resistances as normal.
In place of Stat rolls, each NPC will have a Power Level that determines how strong they are in every area. This Power Level is automatically added to every Stat in their Stat Block to juice them up to par and provide an adequate challenge for the players. To clarify the point, Power Level isn’t designed to equate to the level that PCs should fight an enemy. Sometimes if an enemy is designed to be fought by several PCs at once, its Power Level can outstrip the PCs’ intended character level by quite a bit.
Never add Power Level to an enemy’s Stats a second time — It’s already included for convenience. In the event that you want to increase or decrease an NPC’s Power Level, simply add the difference to the enemy’s Stats. For example, if you increase an enemy’s Power Level from 4 to 6, increase their Evasion, Accuracy, and other Stats by 2.
Then What’s a Monster?
Monsters are NPCs that actively oppose the players and fight them in battle. It doesn’t matter if it’s a Gurah Guard holding a crossbow and aiming with shaky knees, a Brigand Skirmisher fleeing for its life, a Dyrachnid rearing its poisonous fangs, or Baron De Fontaine and his Legionary Templars assaulting the party for stealing the Bust of Lachevelier from the family’s ancestral tomb — They’re all considered monsters while they’re in battle with the PCs. Another game term for monster is enemy.
Conversely, if an NPC is friendly to the PCs in battle, they’re considered allies. PCs are also considered allies with one another. This is important for targeting spells, abilities, and area effects that either only affect allies or don’t affect allies. If it’s not an enemy, it’s an ally.
Allies are different from party members. Parties consist of units that all take their turn during the same round in battle. Any allies in battle will take their turn during their own party’s round. The player characters are all in a party together by default — it takes a great narrative upheaval to change this, such as a player betraying the rest of the party shortly before leaving the game permanently. This is an extremely rare occurrence and should be handled with equally extreme care.
Setting-Specific Monsters
The world of Myrra has many of its own monsters for its unique setting. They have their fantasy counterparts, however. Gurah are generally considered goblins in other fantasy lore. Ratlings are similar enough to kobolds. There are plenty of other setting-agnostic enemies that can be used freely in any world. See the Campaign Setting section for more information and more setting-specific enemies to fight and loot.
Monster Tactics
Monsters in Dragonpact don’t use Stamina like player characters do. They have Tactics.
Tactics tell the DM at a glance what the monster will do on its turn. There are two general types of Tactics you’ll see in every monster stat block: Standard and Advanced. If the monster’s Tactics are considered Standard, they’ll be labeled as such. For example, a Gurah Guardsman will have two sets of Tactics depending on its armament: “Standard: Melee” and “Standard: Ranged”.
Standard Tactics are exactly that — a set of actions the monster will perform every round. In the case of Standard: Melee for example, the monster will always use up to two Stamina to Move its Speed and the rest of its Stamina to Attack with a melee weapon. This is simplified by every monster using Standard Tactics having three Stamina to ensure that combat is as easy as possible to run for the DM. Every monster with Standard Tactics will do the same thing each round.
Many monsters considered “minions” use Standard Tactics to ensure that they can be used en masse against the players. There are several types of Standard Tactics, but they’re all fairly similar and straight-forward. See a full list of Standard Tactics in the section below.
Standard Tactics
For running simple monsters in combat, they’ll use Standard tactics. You’ll know they’re Standard Tactics because they’ll say “Standard:” in the Tactics block on the monster’s Stat Block. Read on for a list of Standard Tactics and how to use them.
But first, there are some things about monsters that use Standard Tactics that are common to all of them. They aren’t simply automatons that do as instructed to the detriment of their health. Well, some are. But generally that’s not the case. Most monsters will do the following if they’re hindered from performing their Standard actions.
- If a unit is disarmed, they’ll spend Stamina to find a usable weapon, even if it’s not their own. What’s usable is up to the DM.
- If a unit falls prone, they’ll try to stand up if it’s advantageous to do so. It may be more advantageous for a unit to fall prone as a free action of its own volition.
- If a unit gets surrounded, they may try to get to a more advantageous position.
If there are any other common sense Tactics that the one might apply to Standard Tactics as a DM, feel free to. As a rule, Tactics are simply a guideline — Experienced DMs are welcome to run monsters in any way they see fit. Tactics are simply a shortcut to tell you how monsters tend to act in battle. Importantly, remember that monsters that make use of Standard Tactics are limited to 3 Stamina, and that one-handed attacks cost 1 Stamina to use and two-handed attacks cost 2 Stamina.
A list of Standard Tactics and how to employ them is as follows:
- Standard: Melee: The until will spend Stamina to move toward the nearest enemy and then any remaining Stamina to attack with an equipped melee weapon.
- Standard: Range: The unit will spend Stamina to move into attack range of the nearest enemy and then any remaining Stamina to attack with an equipped ranged weapon.
- Standard: Defensive: The unit will move into melee range and prioritize using one of its Stamina to guard each turn, preferring that to attacking.
- Standard: Disruptor: The unit will prioritize Tripping, Disarming, Shoving, and Grappling enemies. If an enemy unit seems disrupted by one or more of these or is in a position to be finished off, they’ll attack instead.
- Standard: Spellcaster: The unit will spend stamina to cast spells on enemies in range and move into range if they need to. The choice of spell is up to the DM based on the list of spells known by the unit.
Advanced Tactics
More powerful foes will use a different paradigm of Tactics. The Oth-Gurah Keeper, for example, is a much stronger foe for the players to face. It won’t rely on getting a lucky dagger or crossbow hit to fell a hero with the simple fighting style of its inferiors. This mighty Oth-Gurah has Advanced Tactics to ensure its victory.
Monsters that use Advanced Tactics will have a set of commands written explicitly in their Tactics block for the DM to follow. Monsters that employ Advanced Tactics are complex enough that there’s very little limit on how they can be run, but to simplify the process, the DM can follow their Tactics to the letter and the monster will be an effective foe for the players. On the other hand, skilled DMs are welcome to utilize a monster’s entire Stat Block to defeat the foes in any way they wish. Advanced Tactics should be considered guidelines that can safely be ignored in experienced hands.
There are several types of Advanced Tactics that monsters can utilize.
Command Choice: Most enemies who utilize Advanced Tactics will offer a choice of commands that they can perform. You’ll know these Tactics are a choice because they’ll be labeled with “Choose:” before the list of commands. Take this example of the Oth-Gurah Keeper’s command list, the monstrosity listed above who once fought four great heroes at once, nearly felling three in battle before the final one, wounded and muddied, managed to get the best of him.
Choose:
1: Charging Shock
2: Whirlwind
3: [Melee x3]
4: [Change Equipment, Melee x2]
5: Battle Fury
Charging Shock is listed as his first option because he often (but not always) opens battle with it to disrupt his foes and catch them off guard. Whirlwind is an area effect attack that must be moved away from as a reaction, or it’ll deal massive damage. He’ll often melee attack foes until they fall and begin bleeding out from his sharp weapons, and if necessary, discard the longsword and shield to wield his greatsword for greater power. If wounded, he’ll use Battle Fury to get his second wind and bolster his defenses. The choice of which to use and when is up to the Dragonmaster, and the monster is balanced around this choice.
Linear Commands: A set of linear commands are a round-by-round set of battle commands that the unit performs without deviation, repeating once they get through the list. You’ll know these Tactics are linear commands because they’ll be labeled as “Flow:” have a Round list (abbreviated as R1, R2, etc.). Here’s an example of the linear command list for Sevren Gall, Dyrachnid Master, a powerful monster defeated by a glorious hero in battle.
Battle Flow:
R1: Call Reinforcements — Summon two Dyrachnid Scouts that act immediately.
R2: [Melee]
R3: [Melee]
According to the Tactics list above, Sevren will first call for reinforcements so he isn’t alone. On the next two rounds, he’ll perform melee attacks with his monstrous clawed hand and move if he has to, spending all Stamina on these two actions and preferring the first if he’s in range. On the fourth round, he repeats the sequence calling for reinforcements again.
Random Commands: The DM will roll each round to select a random command from the list. This is signified by the word “Roll:” at the top of the Tactics list and an associated number for each command. This is an example of the random commands list for the chaotic Drelvar Assassins who once stormed the city of Corom in a nighttime raid:
Roll:
1: [Melee]
2: [Range]
3: [Spell: Usher Pain]
4: [Spell: Blind Eyes]
On each turn, this assassin will attack either with their equipped melee weapon, an equipped ranged weapon (in this case, the same weapon since they wield daggers), or cast either their pain spell or blind spell. In this case, the DM will roll a d4 and use the result to determine what they do. As Advanced Tactics are optional guidelines, the DM can instead choose which action the Drelvar will perform, a la Command Choice above. Note that this may somewhat boost the difficulty of the battle at no additional reward for the players. While there are no rules for offsetting this, DMs who choose this path may wish to offer additional treasure as a sign of good faith toward their PCs lest the players rise up in mutiny.
Follow the links below to find more information on Monsters and NPCs
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