Are NPC stat blocks inflated in the BRP book?

[Shora]

Hi all, I've been casually learning more about BRP through some solo play (and coming to greatly appreciate the system), and I have a question about NPC stat blocks in the Nonplayer Character Digest (pg. 240 in the latest edition of the book) in the Creatures chapter.

There is a line in the section opening that says the NPCs could be used as "quick player characters", and that sounded like a cool idea to consider, so I looked at the Gunslinger stat block and thought boy... those are some high characteristic values (14/15/14/14/15/18/13). Well above your average 3D6 rolls and equivalent to about 3x the Point Buy allowance for a Normal power level - even exceeding the Superhuman allowance by about 10% in this case.

This seemed to be a pattern when looking at the other NPCs. The lowest DEX of all but one NPC is 13, for example. Only the Thug has DEX 12. Most others are DEX 15+. My custom character has DEX 12. If I were to source enemies and followers directly from the NPC digest, he would always be in the last DEX rank.

Pg. 246 says these stat blocks are intended for campaigns at a Normal power level and do not typically need to be adjusted. And I guess there is some disconnect in my mind that is throwing me for a loop, partially because the book invites you to use them as quick PCs despite being way stronger than custom-built PCs could possibly be at a Normal power level. How should I be thinking about this? I know I can just change the values to be whatever I want, but I'd also like to get value out of the digest and/or understand the intent. Is there a reason the values seem abnormally high out of the box? Is there a reason these human NPCs ironically seem to be statted much higher on average than the actual creatures and monsters in the preceding sections?

[Jason D]

Generally, the NPCs were created to be a challenge for PCs, who usually have the advantage of better strategy, numbers, and better equipment. 

I tend to regard each NPC stat block as a "potential" with each individual aspect (characteristic, skill, power, piece of gear) being "this is what the relevant NPC has, but not all  of them", so that that they are composites of others. 

In short, don't think of them each as "every NPC of this type is exactly like this", but more "the particular NPC my characters are encountering has X for this characteristic/skill/power/gear and the rest of their stats are irrelevant or may be lower." 

 

[Shora]

Thanks for the insight Jason. Enjoying the book!