Constituent, Undaunted (Basic Lore)

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Constituent, Undaunted (CR 18)

Constituent, Undaunted
Neutral, or, any alignment the GM requires. - Medium - Monstrous Humanoid
The Constituent is the monster format used by the GM to generate all the NPC's.

If you are the GM, there are many, many times when you will need to have the players fight 'other people'. As you look over the Bestiary, you will doubtless notice that there are Monsters galore, but what about all the Elvish Assassins, Dwarf Pressgangs, Gnome Shopkeeps, Ifrit Sorcerers, Oread Bartenders, and pretty much...everybody else? In other words, where are the stats for the NPC's?

In other D20 System games, the GM can simply use the Character Creation Rules to make NPC's, and to be fair, you can do that in Epic Path as well. But honestly, creating an entire NPC Wizard as a Player Character takes a loooong time. If you just need a gang of street toughs in a hurry, what do you do? Remember, in Epic Path, Monsters and Players are very deliberately built differently. So, the way you can generate combat stats and skill numbers for NPC's is to make them Constituents.

Constituents are 'generic people'. Using the Million Monster Machine, it is easy to tweak Constituents to be any level you want. Most shopkeeps, bartenders, housewives, and craftsmen, will range between Challenge Rating 1 and Challenge Rating 5. Constituents are available of any level, though!

So what about that wise old Wizard you need the players to talk to? What happens if your players are (heavens forbid) RUDE to the oldster? Just how tough is the mage? Using Constituents and the Powerful Mage Pattern, it is easy to 'whip up' rough stats for NPC Wizards or Clerics or Sorcerers of literally any level in minutes, so you have something to work with at the table. This same principal can be used with various Roles and Patterns to create 'quick and dirty' NPC's for random encounters in minutes.

The head of the thieves guild is a Constituent of the appropriate CR with the Sneak Role. The Mayor is a Constituent with the Leader Role. The Evil Sheriff is a Consituent with the Heavy Role, and a scary fellow he is, too. Tanks, Shooters, all these Roles can be used to create memorable and easy NPC's in minutes.

Constituents are for those times when the players do the unexpected, when the bar fight breaks out, when the Dwarf Miners Club gets rowdy, when the scary Tinker you met on the road decides to help the players with a pitched battle, when a friendly Ranger gets pulled into an encounter, etc, etc, etc.

Constituents are all the 'characters' the GM gets to play. If you need somebody in your stable of characters to have actual stats, here's how you can generate them almost instantly and keep your story flowing smoothly. If you really like that person, or type of person, you can write them up in as much detail as you want, later! The 'Goons' are examples of this process, how you can turn a memorable NPC encounter into an on-going feature of your game.