Posted By DasBarba at

How will death affect an npc? Will they spirit walk like a PC or will they suffer immediate permadeath?

Immediate permadeath is my understanding. If that is the case, they'll probably breed like rats to make up for it.

I don't think this has actually been hammered out yet.

Scheneighnay is correct in saying that permadeath was (is?) supposed to be what happens. Due to griefer concerns I read that they were re-thinking that strategy. (forget where I read that at so you'll have to take me at my word)

Imagine a Commando style squad sneaking into enemy territory and killing off an entire farming village or villages full of NPCs. The effects could be pretty nasty if it's perma-death for an entire village or villages

The wars between kingdoms in my opinion would devolve completely into who can kill off the other kingdom's NPC population faster.

There won’t be that many NPC’s. I am sure SbS wants to make that up with more players. But the NPC’s in town will be invaluable and important to the economy so if someone goes around slaughtering them carelessly; I don’t expect instant respawning. It is ultimately the Kingdoms responsibility to protect them and the innocent players in their Duchies. So I can imagine if such a killing spree occurs there will be an NPC drought until the city has a safe reputation. NPC’s won’t come to a city that is dangerous. Something to consider.

Save the NPC’s lol.

The question of balance regarding perma-death-able NPCs ultimately turns on how combat and damage are balanced out. Perma-slaughter raids won't gain a lot of traction if NPCs can 1-2 shot a player with a good bow before they're within bowshot themselves. Even if armour behaves as it should - not acting as a mitigator to damage, but deflecting hits that don't strike at weak points or come from a weapon made of equal or superior material - an elevated vantage point from which to shoot, along with (presumably) good lighting throughout a village if not well-maintained walls should be more than enough to prevent villages from being slaughtered overnight.

Solo serial killers slowly knocking off the population while everyone sleeps after doing their homework on lighting, guard rotations and population habits in a village would be a far more serious threat.

I have questions concerning this as well. For a non-important NPC last I heard it was going to be perma-death, meaning if they die they are gone forever. Now with the ability of NPC to run towns and cities, this would certainly thrown too much chaos into the mix. Just kill every NPC lord you find and you can purchase or take over there lands. Since they will be in a perma-death situation they can't come back and point fingers at who killed them, so that would make them easy targets. SBS needs to take a look at the deaths of important NPCs, however I don't have any doubts that things will work smoothly (fingers crossed).