Scorpp, the hill giant NPC, is hugely overpowered (he gains level as normal characters, while according to the Monster Manual, he should have ECL of 12, if I read it correctly ), so a level 1 hill giant should be equal to a level 12 human - so a level 10 hill giant in a game like ToEE is a huge imbalance. Is there any way to make him more balanced? Could he be changed to level 10 (with the current starting stats, HPs, etc.), so that he would not get any more Experience? The way it's now, he's obviously too powerful.
Hmm... the 3.5e SRD states level adjustment as only +4 for Hill Giants. Standard stats are Str 25, Dex 8, Con 19, Int 6, Wis 10, Cha 7 with hit dice: 12d8+48 (102 hp) with Armor Class: 20 (-1 size, -1 Dex, +9 natural, +3 hide armor), touch 8, flat-footed 20 Scorpp's current implementation (from Joviex's editor) is Primary class: Fighter Primary level: 7 Str 25, Dex 8, Con 19, Int 8, Wis 11, Cha 17 hit dice: 12d8+48 (102 hp) Armor Class: ? (if natural armor is indeed column 161, then he gets Natural Armor 20) Cha 17 for a Hill Giant? Well, there are a lot of very questionable field values like Pirates being Lawful Good so I wouldn't be surprised if some of the stats above were also coded in wrongly. Anyway, even if ECL is only 4, since he starts with 7 levels, that's already over the level 10 limit but I suppose this rule doesn't apply to NPCs, though it would be nice to be more strict with recruitable NPCs. Perhaps nerfing natural armor would be logical? For reference, other Hill Giants get a 12 in column 161 and Trolls get a 7.
It isn't? That's confusing. ??? I saw level adjustment for Aasimar and Tieflings as +1 and Drow as +2 and assumed that level adjustment and Effective Character Level (ECL) were the same. My bad. EDIT: Went through the documents once again and saw "To determine the effective character level (ECL) of a monster character, add its level adjustment to its racial Hit Dice and character class levels." Sorry for giving wrong info. :ashamed: So would Scorpp be ECL = 4 (level adjustment) + 12 (racial hit dice) + 7 (fighter levels) = 23 ?
I'm not a D&D expert, but this is from the SRD: EDIT: Yes, he would be lvl 23 with the ECL applied, which makes him equal to an epic human character!
Wow! Level 23. That's definitely way too high. I dunno. Maybe if someone has the original module they could look it up and see if Scorpp was as overpowered as he is now. If the original PnP module is more balanced, perhaps we could modify the stats so that they are a tad closer to the original. Not sure about how to go about changing his level to level 10 and keeping all his current stats. Could we change level 7 fighter to level 10 of "something with a lower hit die"... which would approximate a level 7 fighter's hps? Might hurt other parameters though so it's not really a good idea. Joviex mentioned that the newest editor version supports changing parameters but I haven't really tried it. Also is it at all possible to just lock his XP at level 7? I know characters stop gaining any XP once they reach 54,999XP. Is there any max level toggle or field in any file?
One very simple fix by editing your proto.tab file. -Find the Scorrpp's line... -Find the column with value 20 (don't worry, there's only one column with it) -Change the value to 12. (or anything you think appropriate, other hill giants have 12 so I took 12) -Save (oh, before that, you could also add him feats like Power Attack, Cleve, Weapon Focus... to fit to rules) Voila his AC will be fixed, which, to me was the biggest issue with this character. The other remaining concern would be : how to change his initial inventory so that he uses his greatclub, so that the first contact becomes more challenging... No column in proto.tab seems indicate any inventory slots for NPCs. What file should I edit? Eh? PS : you might also give him 10 levels of fighters so that he wont advance in levels anymore... I don't know cuz I haven't tried it yet.. And since it seems like level 10 means +10 basic attacks bonus in hard coded manner, you might give him -10 bonus to attack... And... errrm.... well good luck.
