NPC and Monster Design

This is GM-only construction guidance. It records only the NPC and monster rules that are currently established. Unresolved balancing methods are identified rather than filled with assumptions.

Confirmed Construction Model

1. Choose how much XP the NPC has already converted through prior use, practice, or instruction.
2. Use the shared XP-to-skill-point conversion to determine how many skill points that training produced. An authored historical NPC may be assumed to have completed the required training before play.
3. Assign every point to a specific Mind-owned skill at +1% per point.
4. Record the NPC's Embodiment independently. Skill points do not create or improve its physical properties.
5. Record its equipment, circumstances, and current job separately from both Mind and Embodiment.

Jobs and Skill Selection

A job is evidence for the skills an NPC has practiced, not a package, class, fixed priority list, or source of free proficiency. Assign skills from the NPC's actual history and duties. Two NPCs with the same job and the same amount of converted XP may distribute their points differently.

For example, a miner will probably invest in Mining and may know Ore Refining or Engineering. A mine guard will probably invest in a weapon skill. These are characterization decisions, not mandatory distributions.

Possessing an item never grants its trained skill. A miner carrying a pick is not automatically trained in Melee Weapons, and a guard carrying a spear is not automatically proficient with it.

Spending Ledger

Every authored NPC or monster records XP converted through training, skill points produced, every separately rated skill, and the total spent. Every spent skill point must appear as +1% on one skill, and the ledger must balance. Any earned but unconverted XP or available but unspent skill points are recorded separately.

Embodiment stats, hit dice, armor, movement, senses, natural attacks, Stamina, base size, and other physical properties are recorded separately and cite the body, machine, equipment, or embodiment-upgrade Item that supplies them. Skill points never alter these values. Embodiment Points acquired through purchase, construction, installation, growth, downtime, or another physical source may develop one specific body under the EP spending rules. XP never becomes EP. A Mind skill can improve how the creature uses its Embodiment without changing the Embodiment itself.

A monster is handled as an NPC with a nonhuman Mind, Embodiment, or presentation. Sapient monsters use the same Mind skill economy. How instinct-only beasts, flora, fauna, and living hazards receive or represent Mind-owned training is not yet defined and must not be inferred from their physical capabilities.

Not Yet Defined

• No universal NPC skill-distribution formula has been approved.
• No universal relationship between job names and exact skill ratings has been approved.
• No encounter XP-award formula has been approved.
• A creature's converted XP records prior training; it is not automatically the XP awarded for overcoming it.
• Rules for instinct-only creatures and mindless living hazards remain to be designed.

Construction References

• Monster Template
• D&D 2024 Monster Adaptation
• Skill Compendium
• GM System