An advantage to including an officer—as well as commanders or a squad leaders (from other entries)—in an encounter is that such a character effectively increases the challnge provided by each individual ally he brings with him. When designing encounters using officers, the Gamtmaster should keep in mind that the other enemies in the encounter will be slightly more powerful (though not enough to adjust their CL); although this might not make any difference in an encounter that features only a small number of enemies, the effect becomes cumulative when more enemies are added to the encounter. Each additional enemy is one that is more likely to sucessfully use the aid another action for its allies, causing the heroes’ defense scores to drop while enemy attack bonuses rise. Add to that the officer’s ability to share talents (effectively giving nonheroic opponents access to abilities usually reserved for heroic characters), and an encounter’s difficulty can jump drastically. Nonheroic enemies under an officer’s command can become tougher to hit and can deal more damage, so Gamemasters who include large numbers of non heroic enemies in an encounter with an officer should be careful to monitor the effects of an officer’s talents on the overall encounter difficulty.
906Articles