dunbruha wrote:The standard template for creatures does not include any Abilities. I realize that the creature stats are meant to be simple, but sometimes an Ability score is needed, like Stealth or Scrutiny in a surprise situation. Are there any guidelines for determining Die Ranks for some of the more common Abilities? Obviously, this will be somewhat dependent on the type of creature, and obviously, I can make up anything I want, but I was wondering if anyone had thought of some general guidelines for scaling Abilities with Challenge Score.
Let's see. At the end of this post, I'll tackle that a bit. First, a reminder: Challenge Score is really for trying to balance combat encounters. That's about all with CS. If you were to add skills to monsters that increased the difficulty of the encounter, then I'd increase the Victory Points or Role-Playing rewards at the end of the encounter. Or, if the creature presented a "situation" that ended up being non-combat, you can reward Victory Points based on situational success (1 to 5 VPs, from easy to nearly impossible situation, see page Xx..uh, just kidding, see page 59).
Also, there are XP awards for dealing with creatures that would harass or thwart the efforts of the PCs (page 59).
Individual RP Awards:
5 Points
Good, but ineffective idea or action:
10 points
Clever use of skill, feat or ability:
25 Points
Good, helpful idea or action, beneficial conjecture, excellent tactical maneuver:
50 Points
Excellent Role-playing
Daring or personal sacrifice
Quick-thinking idea or action
Let's try this as a starting point, and we'll have a dialog about it.
Fodder: Allowed 1 non-combat ability above D4, but up to 1D12.
Standard: Allowed 2 non-combat abilities above D4, up to 2D12 each.
Exceptional: Allowed 3 non-combat abilities above D4, up to 3D12 each (implying mastery).
Full-Fledged: whether created with the stats of an exceptional creature or a full PC matters not. The GM can list a number of abilities limited only by the character concept.
Or if you want to build the full-fledged with all the DPs, etc, use this guide:
The GM must consider Character Point totals when designing adversaries.
Respectable (1-5): 70 CPs
Good (6-10): 140 CPs.
Great (11-15): 210 points.
Superb (16-20): 280 points.