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[SR5] Die Hard NPC

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Bushw4cker

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« on: <01-17-15/2329:28> »
Thinking about adding this character to campaign to Face PC's. I thought about giving him Feign Death ability from Bullets & Bandages book, but decided it didn't fit character and the players at my table are pretty thorough on making sure NPCs are really dead.

I was wondering how to introduce NPC to players...

All Muhammad ever wanted to be was a Martyr, but he must have failed Allah in some way, because it seems he has been cursed to live. The first suicide attempt ended just like the second one, shortly after his fellow Jihadists had him strapped into the suicide vest, the vest detonated killing everyone, but leaving Muhammad barely singed. Disgraced, he has left for the land of the Great Satan to find out what Allah has planned for him.

I was trying to think of a NPC that is almost impossible to kill. With Edge, he can roll 35 dice for damage resistance tests. Also, I thought it would be funny to have character with Demolitions and Gremlins Negative Quality.

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

Thanks

DEUS VULT! (COST: 4 KARMA)
The words “Deus Vult,” “God wills it” in Latin, were the
words that helped launch the First Crusade in 1095. Similarly,
the assassin sees himself as on a crusade to eliminate
the enemies of his religion. These enemies might be
striking violently at the people or holy sites of his faith,
or they might simply be “sinners” in his eyes. Either way,
they must be eliminated.
While the Code of Honor is called “Deus Vult,” it is not
limited to any particular religion. A radical pagan can take
this Code as justifiably as a fanatical Christian. Note that
this Code might require some research on the player’s part
to properly roleplay his character’s devotion to his religion’s
tenets.
Advantages: The assassin’s faith sustains him even in
the face of terrible wounds. Make a Willpower check at the
beginning of the character’s Action Phase if he has taken a
wound, either Stun or Physical damage, since his last Action
Phase, with the threshold being equal to the number
of wounds taken in that time. Success on the roll means
that the assassin ignores all wound penalties. The assassin
should continue making rolls before each Action Phase,
with the threshold for the test growing with each wound;
for example, if a character makes a roll after sustaining two
wounds, then sustains two more wounds before his next
Action Phase, the threshold would be 4 for the next roll.
If one of these rolls fails, all wound penalties immediately
come into play and this advantage cannot be used until
the next combat.
Disadvantage: Perhaps as overcompensation for violating
his religion’s tenet against killing, the assassin demands
much more of himself in observance of the other
tenets of his faith. The assassin must make a Charisma +
Willpower roll to act against his religion’s tenets, with the
threshold varying based on the severity of the violation:
simple theft would likely call for a threshold of 1, while
great blasphemy or renouncing his religion entirely would
call for a much higher threshold. If the character fails the
roll, they refuse to perform the action and actively seek to
stop anyone they see attempting it.
"Stupid men are often capable of things the clever would not dare to contemplate." -Terry Pratchett

Glyph

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« Reply #1 on: <01-18-15/0011:41> »
Your Magic rating limits how many levels you can take of a power (not sure if Qi foci can take it over that limit, but I'm pretty sure mentor spirits can't).  He could just take 2 levels of improved attribute: Body instead (or 4 points of spell resistance).  I don't know if this NPC would be a good idea for your campaign.  Given your description of players who like to "make sure" an enemy is dead, they might find an NPC that they can't seem to ever hit to be annoying rather than a recurring gag, or feel like this is one of those special GM's pet NPCs.

Bushw4cker

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« Reply #2 on: <01-18-15/0044:47> »
Your Magic rating limits how many levels you can take of a power (not sure if Qi foci can take it over that limit, but I'm pretty sure mentor spirits can't).  He could just take 2 levels of improved attribute: Body instead (or 4 points of spell resistance).  I don't know if this NPC would be a good idea for your campaign.  Given your description of players who like to "make sure" an enemy is dead, they might find an NPC that they can't seem to ever hit to be annoying rather than a recurring gag, or feel like this is one of those special GM's pet NPCs.

Thanks for the Reply.

Qi and Mentor- Yeah, I was wondering about that as well.

I'm pretty sure players know I never have any Pet Npc's. Last Cybered Up NPC I sent against them, they ended up selling all her cyberlimbs. The only NPC that I would even call close to a pet, would be a Toxic Shaman that never directly encounters the players. In fact not even sure they even realize NPC exists.

"Stupid men are often capable of things the clever would not dare to contemplate." -Terry Pratchett

The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #3 on: <01-18-15/0125:40> »
Like any other focus, a Qi Focus allows you to do an end-run around one aspect of magic.  In this case, the focus enables you to have more levels than your magic, because some of those levels are part of the magic of the focus.  You could say that the level of the focus adds to your Magic, but only for the power the focus adds.

Conversely, the Mentor spirit's free power is a cost-break, and cannot enable you to go over your Magic in levels.
Pananagutan & End/Line

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"Oh, gee - it's Go-Frag-Yourself-O'Clock."
New Wyrm!! Now with Twice the Bastard!!

Laés is ... I forget. -PiXeL01
Play the game. Don't try to win it.

Rift_0f_Bladz

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« Reply #4 on: <01-19-15/1658:58> »
One way to make him not seem as pet NPC is to make him more comic relief. Like his edge is only for soak or I'm not dead. Where his evil plans fail or just glitch a lot. More of a joke villain, a pain in the PCs' ass, but normally not much of a threat.
Quote- Mirikon on 7/30/2019 at 08:26:51
Agreed. This looks like a 'training wheels' edition, that you can use to introduce someone to the setting, and then shift over to something like 5E or 4E. Like how D&D 5E is best used as training wheels for D&D 3.X.

Turned in Toxshaman for ¥1 million/4 once.

psycho835

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« Reply #5 on: <01-19-15/1808:40> »
One way to make him not seem as pet NPC is to make him more comic relief. Like his edge is only for soak or I'm not dead. Where his evil plans fail or just glitch a lot. More of a joke villain, a pain in the PCs' ass, but normally not much of a threat.
The "must have failed Allah in some way, because it seems he has been cursed to live" part of description does give him that sort of vibe...

Rift_0f_Bladz

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« Reply #6 on: <01-20-15/2020:16> »
I understand, instead of it being kinda there, play that up more, while making him overall less of a threat, but an constant pest.
Quote- Mirikon on 7/30/2019 at 08:26:51
Agreed. This looks like a 'training wheels' edition, that you can use to introduce someone to the setting, and then shift over to something like 5E or 4E. Like how D&D 5E is best used as training wheels for D&D 3.X.

Turned in Toxshaman for ¥1 million/4 once.

cyclopean

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« Reply #7 on: <01-21-15/0129:00> »
I like this guy a lot! so much potential for hilarity. I made a somewhat similar NPC in my campaign, he's a batman-wannabe costumed vigilante who has decided to gear up and fight crime on the streets. Has a fortune and a butler and such, but has been a shut-in after losing his mind during Crash 2.0, and has been honing his skills in near-isolation the whole time since. He's got an insane amount of soak and really high edge (43 dice total), but I'm hoping to keep it more on the fun side than the frustrating side. Hopefully to have an obnoxious but entertaining recurring opponent who is pretty hard to get rid of permanently. He has a lot of major negative qualities (including bad luck, and social stress if he is ever unmasked in public) to keep it interesting.