The Amazon Kit (Claren NPC mod pt 1)

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And then a couple of months ago I decided to get into modding. So what?

I decided I wanted to make my own NPC, As Bioware-styled as possible. So what?

She's going to be a Human Amazon. SO WHAT?!?

If you're still there: I didn't want her just to be vanilla Fighter, so I went all the way to create an Amazon Fighter kit. So I'd like some feedback! It's hard to know if a kit is balanced in terms of advantages and disadvantages, or even if it is useful at all.

It's not meant to be used by a PC, but in order to test it, I have done so. The file is *almost* ready however, so tomorrow I'll have a WeiDU installer to share. But maybe some of you people might wanna help me balancing the rules.

The kit was loosely based upon the Amazon kit from The Complete Fighter's Handbook. The main advantages and disadvantages were:

- Skills involving riding (not used in IE games, so next) and dealing with animals (charm animals a few times a day?)

- A +3 bonus to her first attack to anyone that's not a 5th level fighter/8th level any other class AND has never seen her fight anyone. I don't there's any way to get this right. It would be either giving her a permanent +3 to attacks (too cheesy) or nothing. I'll stick with nothing.

- A -3 penalty to their reaction checks. They tend to be infamous because of their "overfeminist" ways.

- Weapons: an Amazon can learn to use any weapon, but can only specialize in Spear and Long Bow (or all bows, can't remember).

Based on all that stuff I came up with a kit that looks a lot like the Archer, but has a few differences.

RACE RESTRICTION:
You have to be either a Human or Half-Elf. You still can have any alignment, though.

ADVANTAGES:
- +1 to Dexterity (making a 19 DEX possible to a human or HE). Amazons move and fight faster and more gracefully than other people.

- Faster movement rate: they walk 2 points faster than anyone, just like the Barbarian.

Here's where it becomes Archer II:

- Called Shot once per day every 5 levels (Archers have it every 4 levels, so I don't think it renders them useless).

- Charm Animal once per day every 4 levels.

DISADVANTAGES:

- A penalty of -2 to Charisma. It's supposed to reflect the penalty they get to their reaction checks.

- Can not wear metal armor (there is no such restriction in PnP, but if you can go with DEX 19, being unable to wear Plate Mail it's not a tragedy. Using the Shadow Dragon scale, you can go up to -3 AC, not TOO crap for a frontline fighter, if you want to use her like that). Also, I made that possible by giving the kit the Archer unusability HEX value. I know that might prevent her from using a few Fighter items AND making her able to use some Ranger-only items, but I decided it's fine. Rangers and Amazons aren't too different, I guess.

- She cannot go past 1 proficient slot with weapons, EXCEPT for Spear and Long Bow. You can go all the way to Grand Mastery with those two.

I know those are preety severe disadvantages, but they seemed to be necessary, with the extra DEX and movement rate. So you'd have a deadly archer who can also deal a lot of damage with Spears (a high-level Amazon with the Impaler or Staff of Wuthering is to be feared).

What do you think? Any feedback and suggestions would be more than welcome. I can live with criticism, too. Anyone interested on a WeiDU version of this one?

 

AFAIK there was already an amazon kit in a mod, though your ideas are good as well.

 

I realise that this is intended as a NPC class, and I have "PC sensibilities", so take the following suggestions as such:

1) +1 DEX is not that useful when making up a pure fighter character. A 19 Dexterity gives the same combat bonuses that an 18 would. When making up a character all one would have to do is lop off a point in a non-useful stat (like WIS) to get a DEX raise. How about instead giving her +1 "to hit" and -1 AC bonuses to represent her quickness & grace in combat as compared to other people of comparable Dexterity. Alternatively, give her an automatic two stars in two-handed weapon fighting.

2) I forget the old D&D Charisma table, but wouldn't a -3 CHR better simulate a -3 to reaction rolls?

3) I keep thinking she should have some type of stealth ability. Why not make the kit a Ranger kit instead, since "Rangers and Amazons aren't too different". The higher XP requirements for level advancement could balance out the stealth capabilities.

All in all I like your idea and would be interested in seeing a WeiDU version. I assume that it'll include a "Staff of Wuthering" - does it summon Heathcliff? (Sorry, I couldn't resist the literary reference)

 

Hey Desuma, good points you got there. I assumed the DEX 19 would be useful in terms of the bonus in AC, but I guess a +1 bonus combined with +1 to hit would be better. And I guess -3 to Charisma would be better. One might argue considering there's that damn ring that raises it to 18... but again, it's actually meant for an NPC!

I imagined the Amazon as a Fighter kit because I wasn't sure Priest spells would go well with such a character concept. I'm not exactly an expert in Amazons, though. And also because it would allow Grand Mastery in Spears, Bows and probably Axes (that was suggested in another board after I posted this topic here). Wouldn't that be too much for a Ranger (who can only specialize in any weapon)? It is a disadvantage when it come to fighters (who can GM in anything).

@ Silverstar: thanks! I think I'll look out for that one.

 

Seems overpowered. The disadvantages are not even that...disadvantage-y. Chr minus? We all know that's completely pointless on an NPC and only serves to bring out more interaction.

Added movemant rate is good. Maybe it should be a ranger kit so she could stealth too?

 

Yeah, I might be overrating the CHA penalty as a real advantage. I'm gonna keep it, but might need something else.

I'll give it all some thought and work on it during the weekend. I'm actually glad to go back to the kit part, as I was trying to make some custom items and had a very hard time dealing with BAMs.

The NPC is half-way done, though. I have a .CRE who can join a party, but no consistent dialogue or banters, of course. I was working on items so I could make different level CREs without having to edit so much from one to another.

But that's off-topic already, right? I wanna slip another question anyway: would an NPC like that be more useful if I gave her 17 INT, allowing a DC to Mage? I first thought of high WIS / Cleric, but it wouldn't make sense to turn your archer into something that can't use a Bow.

 

One reason I suggested making it a Ranger kit because the Ranger "game" screen has a Stealth button. AFAIK the proficiencies shouldn't matter - Archers can put 5 stars in bow and crossbow, so there should be some way to also do it for spears.

On the other hand, if you are wanting to dual her to mage, a ranger kit is not the way to go as rangers can only dual to cleric.

Here's a novel idea. Since this is just intended to be an NPC kit for a character mod that you're working on, why not just forget the kit, make the character a plain vanilla fighter, and assign her whatever special abilities you need her to have (like Mazzy)? That might be considerably easier to do in the long run.

 

I tested it as a Ranger but ended up sticking with Fighter. I think priest spells don't go with this type of character and if I were to make it unable to cast them, why change her class anyway?

You got a point on the vanilla Fighter thing. It's not like Minsc already came with his own berserker ranger kit (not putting myself up there with Bioware people, but you know what I mean).

The kit is kinda advanced though, so I'll try and finish it, and then if it's not worth it after all, I can always go back to vanilla Fighter with a twist.

Thanks a lot for your opinions, Desuma. I'll try and post a WeiDU installer as soon as I'm finished, case anyone's interested in giving it a try.