Rivals and strong NPCs

[Illuvia]

I was looking at the NPC page and got to wondering how we are meant to encounter stronger people, such as a rival that's always besting you even when you're an expert or a mage that killed your friend that you're hunting down.

I might be mistaken, but I think those NPCs are limited to being competent at stuff, which isn't that difficult for us players to beat given a little time.

[Pig Boy]

City NPCs are a good standby for developing an antagonistic sort of enemy to be a perennial thorn in your character's side. Some of us spend point bank (earned through various means by doing stuff on site, whether dev work, peer reviewing, or other activities) to bolster the personal npcs skills. There are some places that allow you to develop some quick npcs (that follow specific rules so do read up on those), like this thread in Melrath: Unwashed Hordes. This is also a good option for a more advanced npc that can give your pc a challenge.

Also, you can overwhelm your pc with greater numbers. Sometimes it doesn't matter how good a pc is at fighting, greater numbers with reasonable tactics will overwhelm them, and if not certainly challenge them.

In addition to that, the NPC page clearly states that the skill limits for personal npcs (which can also be used to develop antagonists), is 160 xp total, which can be up to 60 xp (expert skill) or as low as 5 xp for any individual skill as long as it adheres to the overall total. I think that's usually good enough for a beginning pc to have a decent villain that can grow with them, provided they write them into threads.

Just remember you gotta PSF personal npcs or do dev work for city npcs. Flavor npcs being competent at most is perhaps a problem if you don't wanna go through the work of developing npcs. But that's the deal.

[Illuvia]

Thank you! I figured personal NPCs couldn't be antagonistic, but I guess that makes sense.

[Pig Boy]

Well, some might consider the effort that goes into personal npcs would be wasted if they're just going to bump up against your pc and thwart them, but I've always enjoyed having heels. To each their own, there are those threads and city npcs for people who don't wanna invest and dont mind if others use their antagonist here or there.