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NPC Vallaki Guardsmen

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Blight:
NPC Vallaki Guardsmen are misrepresented on the server by their level.

PC characters are supposed to be above their peers in talent and ability, and having the NPC Guards and Radu at level 10 is not accurately representing that relationship.

Furthermore, it creates more accountability for PC Guard players to reduce the NPC Guard level. Having low level PC Guards have access to level several level 10 summons at any given time is overpowered when taking into consideration that Vallaki is a starter area. It's often stated that Vallaki Guard are supposed to be underlevelled and outmatched but that really isn't accurate when they have access to such high level summons.

I'm recommending that the level of Vallaki Guard NPCs is reduced to level 5 to properly reflect the theme of the Vallaki Guard and to give more responsibility, accountability and focus to the PC.

This would also have the benefit of reducing the likelihood that the Guard Horn is used as a Win Button and assist in redirecting Guard PC mindset into less of an us vs them mentality and into generating additional non conflict related roleplay.

peps:
Hardly any reason to justify this change. The guards are meant to add another layer of fear. If even a person who commits a week of average play can knock them down like dominoes, then why even have them present? For immersion?

I could only share this opinion, if there were PC guards abusing their power willy nilly, but that's not the case at all in my experience.

booksarefun666:
A guard's going to use a guard horn when you resist them on a hood check whether they're level 2 peasants or not.

You don't really join the Vallaki guard to win. They're barely in the same league with the rest of us maniacs, I sincerely doubt the plucky underdogs need a nerf.

Arawn:
The faction is essentially prohibited high-level gear; they can't cast magic; they reinforce the setting. So they have the power of law and official standing to offset that. It's carefully designed and has worked very well. Every PC doesn't get to be a "hero" and win over the "evil Garda." The Garda have the entire city on their side.

Blight:
They can have the entire city on their side without the guards being Lvl 10. They can have official power too, without high level summons. I'm fully in support of that.

What they shouldn't have is mechanical advantage. They are a poorly trained and uneducated grunt force in a backwater village. And in any case where a PC is below level 10, they do.

Everything you described, Arawn, is still in effect whether the NPC Guards are level 10 or level 5.

The only difference is one is more accurately portraying the setting and level range of NPCs. These NPC Guards should not all be in the "exceptional" class in a backwater village when they aren't much more than paid, untrained thugs given a castle.

Changing the level of the NPC "Evil Guarda" isn't going to suddenly make the outlander "hero" suddenly triumph over them.

The same thing will happen as always. The Outlander will win in combat, the Guard will probably die, somebody will raise him and then that Guard will post a bounty. Some outlander will hunt down the criminal, kill him, and deliver the corpse to the house of the dead. This isn't going to change.

The only thing that is going to change is that Guard players won't have mechanical advantage over other PCs under level 10 as much as they do. I can say that in about 90% of confrontations, the very first thing the Guard does in a conflict scenario is blow that horn. Three guard npcs rush up, and even if that non-guard pc is level 9( which, by the way, is supposed to mean that PC is EXCEPTIONAL in ability), he is going to get steamrolled by the Guard NPCs.

If you go and read the bounty board, you're going to find that only about 10% of the bounty board doesn't read "CAUGHT!" Does that actually seem reflective of the setting? Are the Vallaki Guard ACTUALLY as underpowered and devoid of magic as people claim? I know of very few Guard PCs who aren't wearing a ghost hood. During my time in the Vallaki Guard  aside from very new PCs, I saw few Guard characters who didn't have gear on par with what most characters under level 10 do. Their arrest and prosecution rate is likely higher than any known police force in the entire world today, and that's with modern day technology.

All we would doing in reducing the level advantage the mechanical summon system is giving PC Guards the opportunity to think outside the box, focus more on create ambience in Vallaki,  and encourage them to rely on the power of the law and the only real results is their roleplay will be more cautious regarding picking fights with outlander away from the Vallaki walls and the diversity of how Guards choose to approach conflict will expand.

Isn't that the way it should be?

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