An irritating thing the developers of DND 5e decided to do was to create NPCs that essentially serve as an NPC versions of Wizards, Rogues, Fighters, etc. However, in the infinite wisdom of 5e developers they decided to give them all their own unique names, like Warlord, Swashbuckler, and Transmuter instead of common sense names like mid-level Rogue, high level wizard, high level fighter, etc.
So when I find myself needing to throw together a combat, I don't have every creature name memorized in 5e. Is there a list that exists anywhere of these what amounts to NPC versions of PC classes anywhere? A complete listing like the following:
I mean, they don't translate one-to-one between statblocks and PC classes, especially if you're using the MotM ones. You can ballpark it based on how many Hit Die they have, but for combat building purposes CR is the more relevant statistic. If you really want to use the classes and get things just so, it's better to just knock together an actual character sheet, although then you're really guesstimating on comparative power levels.
It's actually a good idea to do it this way. The problem is that the CR is poorly designed. That is to say, it does not make any sense to establish equivalent levels between the NPCs and the PCs. The CR concept is infinitely a better design. Now, it has to be well adjusted. And the combat creation rules should take many things into account, not just the level of the PCs and their number. They should look at how Pathfinder does it. That's a much better design.
I mean, you can never truly make CR more than a loose guideline because party performance is going to vary wildly based on composition at the player, class, subclass, equipment, and variable features level. Plus CR is meant to provide a fight a group of the appropriate level can consistently win, so the "Challenge" part is really a bit of a misnomer.
Everyone who has replied so far is missing my point. IS THERE A LIST OF NPC NAMES as WOTC has concocted them that equates to PC classes. Obviously, that was WOTC's intention. I'm just looking for a fast way of slapping together an encounter. The secret of great DMing is spending as little time on prep as possible. I'm just looking for a list. That's literally all. If one doesn't exist, I guess I'll go make one myself, but I can't believe of all the gamers in the world no one has done that already.
I’m not sure I understand the question. There’s NPC statblocks with names that are fairly self-explanatory for what kind of character they’re for, but they’re not 1-to-1 ports of actual classes and- again- CR is a better baseline for encounter design than level. There are also a handful of proper name statblocks, but those are more to either create a specialized boss for a module or to convert a character from another medium such as Honor Among Thieves to something that can be used at a table.
An irritating thing the developers of DND 5e decided to do was to create NPCs that essentially serve as an NPC versions of Wizards, Rogues, Fighters, etc. However, in the infinite wisdom of 5e developers they decided to give them all their own unique names, like Warlord, Swashbuckler, and Transmuter instead of common sense names like mid-level Rogue, high level wizard, high level fighter, etc.
So when I find myself needing to throw together a combat, I don't have every creature name memorized in 5e. Is there a list that exists anywhere of these what amounts to NPC versions of PC classes anywhere? A complete listing like the following:
Warlord = 15th level fighter, etc.?
Archmage = 9th level caster Wizard
No, because the NPCs don’t “=“ any PC level anything.
Everyone who has replied so far is missing my point. IS THERE A LIST OF NPC NAMES as WOTC has concocted them that equates to PC classes. Obviously, that was WOTC's intention. I'm just looking for a fast way of slapping together an encounter. The secret of great DMing is spending as little time on prep as possible. I'm just looking for a list. That's literally all. If one doesn't exist, I guess I'll go make one myself, but I can't believe of all the gamers in the world no one has done that already.
I don't think anyone has ever done something like that simply because that's not how it works. And that's what we were trying to tell you, basically. Not that we have not understood you.
An irritating thing the developers of DND 5e decided to do was to create NPCs that essentially serve as an NPC versions of Wizards, Rogues, Fighters, etc. However, in the infinite wisdom of 5e developers they decided to give them all their own unique names, like Warlord, Swashbuckler, and Transmuter instead of common sense names like mid-level Rogue, high level wizard, high level fighter, etc.
So when I find myself needing to throw together a combat, I don't have every creature name memorized in 5e. Is there a list that exists anywhere of these what amounts to NPC versions of PC classes anywhere? A complete listing like the following:
Warlord = 15th level fighter, etc.?
Archmage = 9th level caster Wizard
I mean, they don't translate one-to-one between statblocks and PC classes, especially if you're using the MotM ones. You can ballpark it based on how many Hit Die they have, but for combat building purposes CR is the more relevant statistic. If you really want to use the classes and get things just so, it's better to just knock together an actual character sheet, although then you're really guesstimating on comparative power levels.
It's actually a good idea to do it this way. The problem is that the CR is poorly designed.
That is to say, it does not make any sense to establish equivalent levels between the NPCs and the PCs. The CR concept is infinitely a better design. Now, it has to be well adjusted. And the combat creation rules should take many things into account, not just the level of the PCs and their number. They should look at how Pathfinder does it. That's a much better design.
I mean, you can never truly make CR more than a loose guideline because party performance is going to vary wildly based on composition at the player, class, subclass, equipment, and variable features level. Plus CR is meant to provide a fight a group of the appropriate level can consistently win, so the "Challenge" part is really a bit of a misnomer.
True, but if you see how combat is designed in PF2 you will see that it can be done much better than CR in 5e. I hope 5e revised adopts that model.
Everyone who has replied so far is missing my point. IS THERE A LIST OF NPC NAMES as WOTC has concocted them that equates to PC classes. Obviously, that was WOTC's intention. I'm just looking for a fast way of slapping together an encounter. The secret of great DMing is spending as little time on prep as possible. I'm just looking for a list. That's literally all. If one doesn't exist, I guess I'll go make one myself, but I can't believe of all the gamers in the world no one has done that already.
I’m not sure I understand the question. There’s NPC statblocks with names that are fairly self-explanatory for what kind of character they’re for, but they’re not 1-to-1 ports of actual classes and- again- CR is a better baseline for encounter design than level. There are also a handful of proper name statblocks, but those are more to either create a specialized boss for a module or to convert a character from another medium such as Honor Among Thieves to something that can be used at a table.
No, because the NPCs don’t “=“ any PC level anything.
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I don't think anyone has ever done something like that simply because that's not how it works.
And that's what we were trying to tell you, basically. Not that we have not understood you.