Is there a quick way to add an NPC with a character class to a campaign, short of creating a fully fleshed out unowned character? The next phase of the campaign I'm running will have a lot of NPCs with character classes.
This has been something I’ve wondered for years - I wish there was a more straightforward way to make NPCs without having to use a separate campaign just to make NPCs ( which is what I’ve been doing).
There is the “create a random character” button, if that helps.
But generally, NPCs with class levels are pretty rare. Few NPCs need the kind of depth a character has. Usually it’s much simpler to build them like a monster with the 4-5 powers they’ll actually use, instead of the full array of PC powers.
I've been DMing since the late 1970s. There are definitely cases where you need a fully realized "character" as an NPC but you're right that most of the time what you need is something like a monster stat block with attack/spell capabilities, etc.
When you click create a new character, you get three choices: standard, quick build and randomize. Randomize can give you really weird stuff, like a fighter with a 7 str and 17 int, but it might work for a starting point.
Best I can recommend is Quick-Building some characters, and going from there. If you want to build up a BBEG, sometimes the best way is to have said enemy be just as powerful as the players that you're pitting him against. BBEGs will likely take a lot more work than your average lackeys, but still.
This has been something I’ve wondered for years - I wish there was a more straightforward way to make NPCs without having to use a separate campaign just to make NPCs ( which is what I’ve been doing).
You don't have to make a separate campaign. I just create them as characters of my own, so I can make them different than the standard monster stats, have different weapons and magical items and spells, etc. It is a good bit of work, so I only use it for the important NPCs, particularly those that I plan on having around in the campaign a lot.
This should be a thing by now. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything gives rules for creating sidekicks that, while they don't have character classes, they do have something approximating it, and even have rules for leveling them up. This is great for NPC's you plan on keeping around for a while. It makes them different than reskinned stat blocks without the hassle of an entire PC's worth of features.
D&D Beyond should REALLY make it easy to create and add sidekicks to your campaign. Tasha's has been out for a while and this would be a great addition.
MY Dm has something like 700 characters already written up. 5 years of storing them up.
I believe the master tier subscription will allow something like 12 player characters per campaign. If you have 6 active players that leaves 6 possible NPC BBG's. Anything more could be the NPC's sidekicks and monsters.
And you can move characters into and out of each campaign at will.
This is what I do too. I sometimes level them up with the players, or if I know the planned players level when they will interact with the PCs, I build at that level.
Yeah I have them made in dndbeyond but I can’t add them as enemies to the encounter builder tool
I just needed to do this, and what I did was first build the NPCs as characters, then take some humanoid monsters of the approximately right CR and caster/half-caster/melee type and replace their spells and abilities with versions of what the NPCs actually have, simplifying where needed. (non-combat abilities went away, abilities with charges became recharge abilities, complex damage boosting options just became flat extra damage dice, etc.) I left the HP at the original level, because PCs don't have the staying power to stand up to a bunch of other PCs.
Other times I've built NPCs as monsters just by modifying an appropriate humanoid straight out, but there's not enough variety in higher-level humanoids.
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Is there a quick way to add an NPC with a character class to a campaign, short of creating a fully fleshed out unowned character? The next phase of the campaign I'm running will have a lot of NPCs with character classes.
Thanks,
Ray Porter
This has been something I’ve wondered for years - I wish there was a more straightforward way to make NPCs without having to use a separate campaign just to make NPCs ( which is what I’ve been doing).
There is the “create a random character” button, if that helps.
But generally, NPCs with class levels are pretty rare. Few NPCs need the kind of depth a character has. Usually it’s much simpler to build them like a monster with the 4-5 powers they’ll actually use, instead of the full array of PC powers.
Where is the "create a random character" button?
I've been DMing since the late 1970s. There are definitely cases where you need a fully realized "character" as an NPC but you're right that most of the time what you need is something like a monster stat block with attack/spell capabilities, etc.
When you click create a new character, you get three choices: standard, quick build and randomize.
Randomize can give you really weird stuff, like a fighter with a 7 str and 17 int, but it might work for a starting point.
Best I can recommend is Quick-Building some characters, and going from there. If you want to build up a BBEG, sometimes the best way is to have said enemy be just as powerful as the players that you're pitting him against. BBEGs will likely take a lot more work than your average lackeys, but still.
Thanks.
You don't have to make a separate campaign. I just create them as characters of my own, so I can make them different than the standard monster stats, have different weapons and magical items and spells, etc. It is a good bit of work, so I only use it for the important NPCs, particularly those that I plan on having around in the campaign a lot.
This should be a thing by now. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything gives rules for creating sidekicks that, while they don't have character classes, they do have something approximating it, and even have rules for leveling them up. This is great for NPC's you plan on keeping around for a while. It makes them different than reskinned stat blocks without the hassle of an entire PC's worth of features.
D&D Beyond should REALLY make it easy to create and add sidekicks to your campaign. Tasha's has been out for a while and this would be a great addition.
I’d love to be able to create a rival adventure party and then be able to put them in the encounter builder
MY Dm has something like 700 characters already written up. 5 years of storing them up.
I believe the master tier subscription will allow something like 12 player characters per campaign. If you have 6 active players that leaves 6 possible NPC BBG's. Anything more could be the NPC's sidekicks and monsters.
And you can move characters into and out of each campaign at will.
This is what I do too. I sometimes level them up with the players, or if I know the planned players level when they will interact with the PCs, I build at that level.
Yeah I have them made in dndbeyond but I can’t add them as enemies to the encounter builder tool
I just needed to do this, and what I did was first build the NPCs as characters, then take some humanoid monsters of the approximately right CR and caster/half-caster/melee type and replace their spells and abilities with versions of what the NPCs actually have, simplifying where needed. (non-combat abilities went away, abilities with charges became recharge abilities, complex damage boosting options just became flat extra damage dice, etc.) I left the HP at the original level, because PCs don't have the staying power to stand up to a bunch of other PCs.
Other times I've built NPCs as monsters just by modifying an appropriate humanoid straight out, but there's not enough variety in higher-level humanoids.