itch.io

Nope :)

All NPCs have all the Harm options, always.

The difference operates at the moment when an NPC suffers harm.

As the victim, the NPC's player (aka The World) chooses which effects to mark among the ones that are both available and fitting the fictional situation. Just like a PC/Player would.

But while a Player will usually want their PC to survive the longest, suffering the least problems and injuries... the World plays according to a different set of goals and principles. The World doesn't care for the specific NPCs, but for how the NPCs can serve the narrative.

That's why there is what amounts to an easy "KO" effect at all levels, be it Temp or Serious or Deadly. To help the World handle mooks and cannon fodder without bothering with real bookkeeping ;-)
So a goblin COULD go down with a cartoonish hammer-punch to the head... or they could fight direly to the bitter end.

It's one tool for the World to regulate play difficulty and the combat's narrative flow. To highlight important adversaries, and to gloss over unimportant extras. Same goes for handling GROUPS. Which is another tool for the World to easily keep track of just one or two play entities, while describing great numbers of characters.

The difference between a goblin and a dragon is thus 100% fictional positioning.

A relatively proficient swing of a sword could be Deadly to a distracted goblin, or Serious for an alert goblin, or Temp for a goblin that is ready and armed and skilled.

But a dragon? A relatively proficient swing of a sword will never do any amount of Harm to such a building-sized and tank-scaled beast :P
Then again...
Once the PCs come up with a clever plan, and execute it with cool and risky actions, and finally plunge a sword deep in the creature's eye... is the World really going to say "yeah well, it's Deadly harm but the dragon will only die _eventually_" ?
Maybe. Sometimes it might be appropriate.
But some other times it would be much better to have the wyrm die instantly, in an epic and dramatic fashion. It has fulfilled its narrative purpose , it has exhausted its use as a prompt for Players to be clever. Why drag things out? Why sour their victory? Unless there is a good and specific reason for the World to just end the scene, why linger?

Does this answer your questions? :)

EDIT:

In the opposite direction, the World might opt to inflict on their own NPCs effects that are more hurtful than what the PCs intended, to tense a situation and heighten the drama. To show the risks of violence and to kickstart interesting consequences.

"I just wanted to rough him up a bit! I didn't intended to really hurt anyone! How did this go so badly out of hand? T_T"

>:D