I've been playing D&D for about 40 years now, and I've seen things change a lot. I've only been running 5e for a short time and using D&D Beyond to do so for even less. So please be patient with any stupid questions :)
How does 5e handle building NPCs? In editions past, it was common to see them written up as almost a hybrid of a PC and a Monster. There'd be a shorthand of race and class levels with the pertinent stats presented.
It seems as though they're now statted out a lot more like a monster. It's hard to see what a particular NPC might actually be, in terms of what classes and feats they have at their disposal.
Also, how does one use this new method to build a full NPC stat-block w/in D&D Beyond?
5e does not differentiate between 'NPC' and 'Monster'. Most adventures assign any given named NPC the most appropriate humanoid stat block, such as gladiator, bandit captain, or noble, and call it a day. You can think of it as not so much a 'Monster' stat block as a 'Creature' stat block.
The easiest way to create custom stat blocks for NPCs depends on what you consider easy, and how likely the NPC is to need to fight. If you just want some social scores and an HP meter for a shopkeep or the town mayor, I'd record those in your private DM notes. If you want a full stat block, I'd use the "Create a Homebrew Monster" function if I was going to need custom stats, or I'd just assign an appropriate pre-existing humanoid stat block to save time. Full PC-style character sheets are generally unnecessary and often get in the way.
As one example, I created a boss critter for a PC in my game that had elements of barbarian, paladin, and fighter abilities all in one character, due to the source of his strength. I started by putting PC class features in the homebrew document, but the more I monkeyed with the character, the more I realized that limiting him to the PC rules was needlessly restricting my design options and making the character a lot more complicated than it needed to be. I didn't need a huge list of proficiencies, background features, extra spellcasting, and all that nonsense - I needed a critter with copmbat superiority, some Unholy Smite action, and the ability to go into a rage. So I just built a creature stat block with a 1/day Unholy Smite, the ability to enter a rage-like stat as a bonus action, and a few 1/turn options that were evocative of maneuvers. The end result was a creature that panicked the players because "holy SHIT this guy's a barb, a paladin,. AND a ******* Battlemaster?!" and got them to pay serious attention, when the critter was none of those things - I'd just given him simplified abilities based on all three options.
That is the best method, I would say, for doing any stat block beyond a straight-up PC.
What Yurei says, but additionally in due course (once the code for Tasha's is up and running) the full sidekick rules in there should also permit the simple addition of 1 or more levels of any of the sidekick classes to any statblock. As I understand it from what Jeremy Crawford was saying (source: the most recent DragonTalk podcast from WotC) the intent is for DMs to be able to create any sidekick for an adventuring party by adding the relevant levels to any creature CR 1/2 or lower, but he also said there's no certainly reason why the same ruleset can't be used to bump a couple of levels onto any statblock.
Must say, the first thing I did was starting filtering the monster stats on CR to see what options might be entertaining to use once the book drops (and is implemented, ofc) - there'll be a preorder from here as soon as that becomes an option...
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I've been playing D&D for about 40 years now, and I've seen things change a lot. I've only been running 5e for a short time and using D&D Beyond to do so for even less. So please be patient with any stupid questions :)
How does 5e handle building NPCs? In editions past, it was common to see them written up as almost a hybrid of a PC and a Monster. There'd be a shorthand of race and class levels with the pertinent stats presented.
It seems as though they're now statted out a lot more like a monster. It's hard to see what a particular NPC might actually be, in terms of what classes and feats they have at their disposal.
Also, how does one use this new method to build a full NPC stat-block w/in D&D Beyond?
Any insights are most welcome!
Thank you
5e does not differentiate between 'NPC' and 'Monster'. Most adventures assign any given named NPC the most appropriate humanoid stat block, such as gladiator, bandit captain, or noble, and call it a day. You can think of it as not so much a 'Monster' stat block as a 'Creature' stat block.
The easiest way to create custom stat blocks for NPCs depends on what you consider easy, and how likely the NPC is to need to fight. If you just want some social scores and an HP meter for a shopkeep or the town mayor, I'd record those in your private DM notes. If you want a full stat block, I'd use the "Create a Homebrew Monster" function if I was going to need custom stats, or I'd just assign an appropriate pre-existing humanoid stat block to save time. Full PC-style character sheets are generally unnecessary and often get in the way.
As one example, I created a boss critter for a PC in my game that had elements of barbarian, paladin, and fighter abilities all in one character, due to the source of his strength. I started by putting PC class features in the homebrew document, but the more I monkeyed with the character, the more I realized that limiting him to the PC rules was needlessly restricting my design options and making the character a lot more complicated than it needed to be. I didn't need a huge list of proficiencies, background features, extra spellcasting, and all that nonsense - I needed a critter with copmbat superiority, some Unholy Smite action, and the ability to go into a rage. So I just built a creature stat block with a 1/day Unholy Smite, the ability to enter a rage-like stat as a bonus action, and a few 1/turn options that were evocative of maneuvers. The end result was a creature that panicked the players because "holy SHIT this guy's a barb, a paladin,. AND a ******* Battlemaster?!" and got them to pay serious attention, when the critter was none of those things - I'd just given him simplified abilities based on all three options.
That is the best method, I would say, for doing any stat block beyond a straight-up PC.
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What Yurei says, but additionally in due course (once the code for Tasha's is up and running) the full sidekick rules in there should also permit the simple addition of 1 or more levels of any of the sidekick classes to any statblock. As I understand it from what Jeremy Crawford was saying (source: the most recent DragonTalk podcast from WotC) the intent is for DMs to be able to create any sidekick for an adventuring party by adding the relevant levels to any creature CR 1/2 or lower, but he also said there's no certainly reason why the same ruleset can't be used to bump a couple of levels onto any statblock.
Must say, the first thing I did was starting filtering the monster stats on CR to see what options might be entertaining to use once the book drops (and is implemented, ofc) - there'll be a preorder from here as soon as that becomes an option...