Creating a Sith Lord

[Wisconsin Wookie]

I'm working on a new campaign to run for my group and am contemplating using a Sith Lord as the main villain. My group is not too used to playing with force characters that are that strong. Where might I go to get some help with stats for a character like that? How many attribute dice are we talking?

Also, this particular Sith Lord will be a little different. Due to certain events in the story, he will have slowly gone insane over the last several decades. What impact may that have on his skills? Any suggestions with how to proceed?

[Drop Bear]

All Sith Lords are insane anyway (Megalomania and Sadism), but I think you may mean Mad in other ways as well, mechanical I can't see any difference, RP wise depends on his/Her Brand of Crazy.

perhaps to make things a bit different, have him go Old School with Talismans and Sith Blades (Tales of the Jedi) and long forgotten force powers.

Dose the party have it's own Force users and what Dice do they have in Control, Sense & Alter?

[Guardian_A]

Mmmm, Sith Lords. If you are looking for examples, the Tales of the Jedi Companion is probably the best place to start.

You should consider several things when when deciding how powerful to make important characters.
1. How long is the campaign going to be? If the campaign is going to run a long time, the player characters will have a lot of time to close the power gap.
2. When/if that important character dies, is it going to be in single combat? Against a group? Or is the character going to die by secondary means (Blowing up a Death Star, Dropping a moon on the character, disease, a victum of his/her own experiments?)
3. Are the player characters going to have some secret weapon that can level the playing field in an encounter?
4. Be careful to not make an important character TOO powerful. You can always add or increase an NPCs abilities, skills, or powers to make him more formidable in later stages of the game. After all, your players characters arent the only ones who can learn new tricks.

Even before starting to build an important character, I tend to take a little time to consider that character's roll in the story, their motivation, and what it was that made them who they are. With Force users I try to give the character a trademark power, or set of similar powers. Does the character like to manipulate others? Use minions? Use brute force? I find that defining this tends to help make the character stand out.

Being insane isnt necessarily going to affect the character's skills, abilities, or powers. It is however going to affect the characters thought process, goals and reactions.

Drop Bear has a good point about using some of the Sith information from the Tales of the Jedi Companion, using long forgotten items and powers could serve to add a lot of unique flavor to your Sith Lord.

[Wisconsin Wookie]

I like the idea of going old school with Talismans, etc.  I don't intend him to be on the same level with Sidious or even Dooku.  Maybe more like C'baoth from the Zahn trilogy.  Old, out-dated and maybe even hermit-like.  Power-hungry, but really not able to control whatever power he seeks.The group of characters hasn't actually formed yet, but I am thinking there will be one, maye two force users, though none all that powerful.  So I want him to be defeatable.  Death by one of those secondary means is definitely what I had in mind.  I appreciate your thoughts on this.  Does that Jedi Companion give examples of how to allocate attribute dice for different force users?

[Guardian_A]

There are some sample characters in the back like there the ones in the back of the core book. There are also some minor Sith Lords that could be easily converted. But there really isnt any guideline for how to build a Sith Lord. Much like any other character, every one is unique.

[garhkal]

Perhaps have his power wax and wan with the moon as many old tails link the moon to madness.. So the closer it is to a new moon, the sainer he is, but the lower his skill D are (say 5-7d)
Half moon he is around 7-9d) and full, is his full potential, say 9-12d..
_________________
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[Raven Redstar]

[Guardian_A]

I dont know if this will help or not, but I have a formula for creating new NPCs from scratch. I rarely use these exact numbers, but it makes a good "Target." I've found that a major villan at about two levels above the starting group (3-4 players) tends to work out nicely.

When using this guideline, all Force powers come from the Skill dice pool, but all Force powers cost X 3. In other words 3D worth of Skills = 1D worth of Force.

Keep in mind that the first baseline is a little weaker than a starting character, and the top baseline could go toe to toe with the Emperor, or Boba Fett and fight either one to a draw.

Insignificant
Attributes 12D
Skills/Force 10D

Novice
Attributes 12D
Skills/Force 20D

Experienced
Attributes 13D
Skills/Force 35D

Veteran
Attributes 13D
Skills/Force 50D

Advanced
Attributes 14D
Skills/Force 75D

Minor Hero
Attributes 15D
Skills/Force 125D

Experienced Hero
Attributes 16D
Skills/Force 175D

Veteran Hero
Attributes 17D
Skills/Force 230D

Advanced Hero
Attributes 18D
Skills/Force 290D

If you have any questions, or want some clarification, just let me know.

[Wisconsin Wookie]

After reading these replies and thinking it over, I think C'baoth is a good example of what I may want to do. I don't own that particular book, but I am sure I can find those stats somewhere.

[Wisconsin Wookie]

[Guardian_A]

[Raven Redstar]

[Wisconsin Wookie]

Thanks for the stats on C'baoth! That saves me a lot of searching.

[Bren]

[Raven Redstar]