So one NPC that I have been working on in collaboration with my world-building partner is a rogue who had one of his eyes gouged out and replaced with a gem of true seeing. The gem magically connects to remnants his optical nerves in the missing eye. It was meant to replace his eye but had the side effect of also giving him permanent True Sight in one eye as well, and because of this, he sees the world and the people in it in their honest, unfiltered raw form.
Tricks and illusions do not work on him, neither does sleight of hand or stealth or any kind of magic that affects sight, but which true sight is immune to, like darkness and so on.
He has also mastered his true sight capabilities to the extent that he can pick up on even the slightest of body language, gaining insight into people like whether or ot they are hiding something, or telling the truth and so on. Also, when and if he fights, his eye allows him to see the enemies movements as soon as they make them and detect their weak points, assuming of course that they are within sight of his eye. He can then devise counter-strategies based upon what he sees as the battle unfolds and alter his tactics accordingly, allowing him to take advantage of his enemies weaknesses during the fight.
One of his favourite parlour tricks when he first mastered his eye, was to mimic the movements of others, down to the smallest detail. He would have people perform elaborate dances and combat manoeuvres and mimic each precise action, without ever having learned them. Mimicking like this was an effective teacher though, and he became extremely good at dancing and combat by using his eye and copying what he saw.
There are some significant downsides to having true sight like this, though, mainly that the world loses its splendour. When you can continuously see the workings of the world and the people in it, there is no mystery, no secrets, no magic left. Also, being endlessly assaulted by the harsh realities of the world have turned him into a sad, depressed and lonely recluse, who has taken up residence inside a deep cave, far away from anything living, or dead - or even undead.
He is considered by many to be one of the wises humans ever to live, but he only wants to be left alone to live out his days as a hermit in his cave. People persist in coming to pester him though, asking him to share some of his wisdom, or see the hidden meaning behind some hidden text, or to stand in judgement of the accused because his eye can not be tricked.
The players are going to need to find a secret path through the mountain though. Unfortunately, ancient Dwarven magic has hidden the way, and the only ones who can see through the enchantments and illusions are either the descendants of the Dwarves whose magic first shrouded the road or the strange hermit with true sight, living in a deep dark cave.
Does this seem too op yo you for an NPC? I think it is too op and my co-creator are like, no it's not, we agreed that we were going to make a version of Kakashi, the copy ninja from Naruto, and this fits with what his eye can do.
What do you guys all think, both as fellow DMs/world-bulders and as players yourselves. Is this too op or not?
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A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Whats the plan for this NPC, is it just to help them find the hidden doorway or will he be regularly interacting with the party? If he is just the macguffin they need to find the door then sure, keep the narrative as is because its just flare.
By asking if this is too OP it sounds like you envision this NPC to be regularly interacting with the party, in which case - mechanically how are you going to do half the stuff you described? How you translate this into in-game actions makes a big difference. Looking at RAW - True Sight does the following: "A monster with truesight can, out to a specific range, see in normal and magical darkness, see invisible creatures and objects, automatically detect visual illusions and succeed on saving throws against them, and perceive the original form of a shapechanger or a creature that is transformed by magic. Furthermore, the monster can see into the Ethereal Plane within the same range." Additionally the Gem of Seeing only grants truesight for 10 minutes, but what you're describing is a permanent effect.
It doesn't mention anything like sleight of hand, performance / mimicry, or forming perfect counter-strategies. Are you just going to give him advantage on perception / insight checks? Thats probably fine. Saying they don't work on him sounds like any attempt by the PCs to deceive him etc... would just automatically fail. That happening once for narrative reasons could be fine, but automatic failure every time is just taking agency away from your players. If he is traveling with them through said hidden doorway and can "his eye allows him to see the enemies movements as soon as they make them and detect their weak points...He can then devise counter-strategies based upon what he sees as the battle unfolds and alter his tactics accordingly, allowing him to take advantage of his enemies weaknesses during the fight." then why wouldn't the party just hang back and let him do everything?
Personally I think you'd benefit from scaling back this NPC's abilities because it can potentially 1) take away player agency by removing a series of options, 2) take away from player engagement because the party isn't succeeding, the NPC is.
There's a lot of context missing here. If he's just a benign good guy, he could be Zeus mixed with Mohammed for all I care. If he's a villain, then... I mean, even then, will the players ever fight him? Is there a way to neutralize his power? Does he have an Achilles' Heel they can exploit? Need to know more about his role before "too OP" can be called. Orcus has a staff that can create unlimited undead, but who cares if you never have to fight Orcus?
Story-wise, I'd dig into why the gem in his eye grants more than standard true sight. What makes his power special? Might also provide insight into his weaknesses and how to exploit them.
This is D&D, where in many settings/games the PCs can reasonably expect to at some point interact with literal deities. There’s no such thing as “too OP.” It’s all about how you use the character. Are they there to constantly show up the PCs and demonstrate power the PCs can never hope to have just because the DM wants to do cool stuff? That’s a problem, but the problem isn’t that the character is too powerful, it’s that the DM is using the character incorrectly.
It’s okay to have powerful NPCs do cool things the PCs can’t do occasionally. It becomes a problem only when they dominate the entire game and consistently overshadow the PCs.
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Hi, guys
So one NPC that I have been working on in collaboration with my world-building partner is a rogue who had one of his eyes gouged out and replaced with a gem of true seeing. The gem magically connects to remnants his optical nerves in the missing eye. It was meant to replace his eye but had the side effect of also giving him permanent True Sight in one eye as well, and because of this, he sees the world and the people in it in their honest, unfiltered raw form.
Tricks and illusions do not work on him, neither does sleight of hand or stealth or any kind of magic that affects sight, but which true sight is immune to, like darkness and so on.
He has also mastered his true sight capabilities to the extent that he can pick up on even the slightest of body language, gaining insight into people like whether or ot they are hiding something, or telling the truth and so on. Also, when and if he fights, his eye allows him to see the enemies movements as soon as they make them and detect their weak points, assuming of course that they are within sight of his eye. He can then devise counter-strategies based upon what he sees as the battle unfolds and alter his tactics accordingly, allowing him to take advantage of his enemies weaknesses during the fight.
One of his favourite parlour tricks when he first mastered his eye, was to mimic the movements of others, down to the smallest detail. He would have people perform elaborate dances and combat manoeuvres and mimic each precise action, without ever having learned them. Mimicking like this was an effective teacher though, and he became extremely good at dancing and combat by using his eye and copying what he saw.
There are some significant downsides to having true sight like this, though, mainly that the world loses its splendour. When you can continuously see the workings of the world and the people in it, there is no mystery, no secrets, no magic left. Also, being endlessly assaulted by the harsh realities of the world have turned him into a sad, depressed and lonely recluse, who has taken up residence inside a deep cave, far away from anything living, or dead - or even undead.
He is considered by many to be one of the wises humans ever to live, but he only wants to be left alone to live out his days as a hermit in his cave. People persist in coming to pester him though, asking him to share some of his wisdom, or see the hidden meaning behind some hidden text, or to stand in judgement of the accused because his eye can not be tricked.
The players are going to need to find a secret path through the mountain though. Unfortunately, ancient Dwarven magic has hidden the way, and the only ones who can see through the enchantments and illusions are either the descendants of the Dwarves whose magic first shrouded the road or the strange hermit with true sight, living in a deep dark cave.
Does this seem too op yo you for an NPC? I think it is too op and my co-creator are like, no it's not, we agreed that we were going to make a version of Kakashi, the copy ninja from Naruto, and this fits with what his eye can do.
What do you guys all think, both as fellow DMs/world-bulders and as players yourselves. Is this too op or not?
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Hm, the powers this guy has, go really really far over what true sight offers in usual game mechanical terms. Might be the reason for it.
I mean, he has also forsight, can read movements, and can read intentions like there is no tomorrow. This guy is almost a demi-god with these powers.
It might border on not being too believable from a lore point of view.
As a stroy-relevant hermit, I would not care too much, if that works for your game.
Whats the plan for this NPC, is it just to help them find the hidden doorway or will he be regularly interacting with the party? If he is just the macguffin they need to find the door then sure, keep the narrative as is because its just flare.
By asking if this is too OP it sounds like you envision this NPC to be regularly interacting with the party, in which case - mechanically how are you going to do half the stuff you described? How you translate this into in-game actions makes a big difference. Looking at RAW - True Sight does the following: "A monster with truesight can, out to a specific range, see in normal and magical darkness, see invisible creatures and objects, automatically detect visual illusions and succeed on saving throws against them, and perceive the original form of a shapechanger or a creature that is transformed by magic. Furthermore, the monster can see into the Ethereal Plane within the same range." Additionally the Gem of Seeing only grants truesight for 10 minutes, but what you're describing is a permanent effect.
It doesn't mention anything like sleight of hand, performance / mimicry, or forming perfect counter-strategies. Are you just going to give him advantage on perception / insight checks? Thats probably fine. Saying they don't work on him sounds like any attempt by the PCs to deceive him etc... would just automatically fail. That happening once for narrative reasons could be fine, but automatic failure every time is just taking agency away from your players. If he is traveling with them through said hidden doorway and can "his eye allows him to see the enemies movements as soon as they make them and detect their weak points...He can then devise counter-strategies based upon what he sees as the battle unfolds and alter his tactics accordingly, allowing him to take advantage of his enemies weaknesses during the fight." then why wouldn't the party just hang back and let him do everything?
Personally I think you'd benefit from scaling back this NPC's abilities because it can potentially 1) take away player agency by removing a series of options, 2) take away from player engagement because the party isn't succeeding, the NPC is.
There's a lot of context missing here. If he's just a benign good guy, he could be Zeus mixed with Mohammed for all I care. If he's a villain, then... I mean, even then, will the players ever fight him? Is there a way to neutralize his power? Does he have an Achilles' Heel they can exploit? Need to know more about his role before "too OP" can be called. Orcus has a staff that can create unlimited undead, but who cares if you never have to fight Orcus?
Story-wise, I'd dig into why the gem in his eye grants more than standard true sight. What makes his power special? Might also provide insight into his weaknesses and how to exploit them.
This is D&D, where in many settings/games the PCs can reasonably expect to at some point interact with literal deities. There’s no such thing as “too OP.” It’s all about how you use the character. Are they there to constantly show up the PCs and demonstrate power the PCs can never hope to have just because the DM wants to do cool stuff? That’s a problem, but the problem isn’t that the character is too powerful, it’s that the DM is using the character incorrectly.
It’s okay to have powerful NPCs do cool things the PCs can’t do occasionally. It becomes a problem only when they dominate the entire game and consistently overshadow the PCs.