My DM would do this when we were low level or unskilled, it depends what type of stuff the players are doing. for example if their just adventurers going around killing monsters you could have the npc be a old man in the forest who is surprisingly good with a frying pan. Or if the are part of a crime organization there could be a thief who starts to trust them and help them through out the campaign. As for how many i would say 1 that is pretty much part of the party, and then you can afew that come and go like kings guards or soldiers. I would also say the you should make them with unique personalities, as long as the are not annoying or make bad decisions. Also something my Dm would do is have the npc go on 'scouting missions' when he thought it would be better to fight something alone, I hope you make up a better excuse to have the npc leave though i mean scouting missions?
i just read that the adventure will be against a cult, so the npc could be a ex cult member who had his memory wiped and is trying to remember all the secrets he knew about the cult, this way he will be a steady way to revel new plot points as they go along. then at the end you could always have him just betray them as a fun little twist. I followed this exact story on a small cult adventure that i ran.
Why are you wanting to put them up against 'really hard' enemies.
The main focus of the campaign will be a cult that is trying to destroy the world using these giant monsters
Start your party off small. The monsters might be coming through, but a byproduct of the summoning is that smaller monsters come through as well—the party has to clean those up. Or perhaps there are opportunistic looters and bandits the party needs to stop. Or maybe they try and stop some of the lower-level cultists before they can do a ritual in some area. Lots of things that would be level appropriate for the party to engage in.
Set that against the backdrop of the monster incursion. Make some NPCs the party intersect with and generally like, but who are high level characters fighting off camera. The party can hear of their exploits and heroism, and will regularly interface with them and receive tasks like those listed above.
And, when the party is high enough to fight the monsters and has spent levels upon levels working with these folks and growing attached to them, kill some of them. That’ll be an emotionally important moment made more powerful by the perception of “huh, so they’ve been stopping the really bad things, but now the torch is passed and we have to step up to the plate.”
All of that can be done in a way that keeps the “oh goodness, big scary monster” threat, without also falling into the trap of “darn, looks like we got upstaged by the DM’s NPC yet again. This campaign is a disaster!” faults folks have noted on this thread.
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My DM would do this when we were low level or unskilled, it depends what type of stuff the players are doing. for example if their just adventurers going around killing monsters you could have the npc be a old man in the forest who is surprisingly good with a frying pan. Or if the are part of a crime organization there could be a thief who starts to trust them and help them through out the campaign. As for how many i would say 1 that is pretty much part of the party, and then you can afew that come and go like kings guards or soldiers. I would also say the you should make them with unique personalities, as long as the are not annoying or make bad decisions. Also something my Dm would do is have the npc go on 'scouting missions' when he thought it would be better to fight something alone, I hope you make up a better excuse to have the npc leave though i mean scouting missions?
i just read that the adventure will be against a cult, so the npc could be a ex cult member who had his memory wiped and is trying to remember all the secrets he knew about the cult, this way he will be a steady way to revel new plot points as they go along. then at the end you could always have him just betray them as a fun little twist. I followed this exact story on a small cult adventure that i ran.
Start your party off small. The monsters might be coming through, but a byproduct of the summoning is that smaller monsters come through as well—the party has to clean those up. Or perhaps there are opportunistic looters and bandits the party needs to stop. Or maybe they try and stop some of the lower-level cultists before they can do a ritual in some area. Lots of things that would be level appropriate for the party to engage in.
Set that against the backdrop of the monster incursion. Make some NPCs the party intersect with and generally like, but who are high level characters fighting off camera. The party can hear of their exploits and heroism, and will regularly interface with them and receive tasks like those listed above.
And, when the party is high enough to fight the monsters and has spent levels upon levels working with these folks and growing attached to them, kill some of them. That’ll be an emotionally important moment made more powerful by the perception of “huh, so they’ve been stopping the really bad things, but now the torch is passed and we have to step up to the plate.”
All of that can be done in a way that keeps the “oh goodness, big scary monster” threat, without also falling into the trap of “darn, looks like we got upstaged by the DM’s NPC yet again. This campaign is a disaster!” faults folks have noted on this thread.