Hello, I'm currently making a mage NPC and I was wondering, how many spells do you give your NPCs?
I want this mage to have counterspell, so I used the wizard spell list and spell slot progression. However, I soon realized he had way to many spells and would be too powerful for the PCs to fight.
I love drow, rogues and Chinese weapons. I mean come on, rope darts are awesome.
My current character is a drow shadow monk, with a "unique" honor code (give him some time, he's working through some stuff). He also sucks on the socialization side of interacting with all other living creatures. which is very fun to RP.
If you use a PC build for the NPC, then you would just follow normal character creation rules.
However, you could just as easily ignore spells entirely and write in custom magical abilities. If you want the mage to be a healer, then just say they can heal 2d6+Mod as an action 3/day. Don't bother calling it "Cure Wounds" or whatever.
If the character will be spending a lot of time with the party, then giving them a more complicated spell list can help them be more interesting. However, if the party is only going to fight them, then keeping it basic will make it much easier to run and no one will really know the difference.
As the previous reply said, give them 1-2 spell like abilities, don't really bother giving them actual spell lists, too much of a headache for you.
Only time that is worthwhile is for a BBEG or something similar. Something the players will interact with multiple times, across multiple levels. Focus your time and energy on the most important things
The list or number of spells on the wizard spell slot progression would maybe be the maximum number of spells that the NPC would have access to. So maybe some of them are non-combat utility spells that wouldn't play into how you would use the NPC during combat and would just be in the way. Keep what is useful and discard the rest.
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“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I agree with and love what has already been said about building NPC's roughly as PC's to determine this.
I would just add that when it comes to townsfolk and commoners some might have a cantrip or two (particularly elves or other similar races that get a cantrip as a racial feat). Even basic casting with level 1 spells is probably pretty rare for almost anyone you'd come across. Exceptions to this might be with players attending Strixhaven, high magic towns, guilds that accept spellcasting, etc.
Don't bother with spell slots, just give them a number of uses of "magical" effects. You can use existing spells as a template, but just assign them as abilities and you're all set.
Don't build a whole new character sheet. Look at how mages are presented as NPC monsters and scale up and down from there. The NPC literally only matters mechanically in its relation relative to the PCs. Everything else is simply world building handwavium.* To that end, I think the more constructive question would be given arcanist monster stat blocks, what does the addition of counterspell do to the statblocks CR?
There's nothing "wrong" with "vanity DMPCs" who are character sheets that DMs make and work to calculate levels commensurate with the PCs experience ... except time. At the end of the day if you're setting up this NPC as a combat adversary, you're real job is to make a mechanical challenge commensurate to the PCs ability, so rather than worry about levels and slots, just think in terms of basic attack options and special actions and plug spell effects into those.
The party shouldn't be "dueling" character sheets, they're contending with a challenge.
You might want to do something like look at Arkham the Cruel a major but not the biggest baddie in BG:DitA, he's based on a character that actually apperaed in Critical Role and may be statted somewhere in that scene. But I don't know if you could reproduced Avernus NPCs well on a character sheet, and to me the stat block seems more DM friendly for what would be a messy encounter given the rest of Arkhan's entourage than bunch of character sheets and a bunch of statblocks.
Don't build a whole new character sheet. Look at how mages are presented as NPC monsters and scale up and down from there.
Even mage monster stat blocks are overbuilt. They usually have a whole list of spell at every level. For example Drow Mage. It's got 12 spells, not including cantrips. Most fights last around 3 rounds. So you're never going to use all 12 of those spells in one combat. Plan your combat, think about what spells you'd like to use. For the Drow Mage, I'd probably mostly use Cloudkill or Evard's Black Tentacles and upcast Lightning Bolt for damage. I might enter the combat with Greater Invisibility or Fly already up. Depending on the terrain, a use of Misty Step might be justified situationally. Shield is basically part of its AC and I'm just going to use it any time I need it.
So if you're building a mage from scratch, you really only need 3-5 spells. And as far as spell slots, it makes sense that you can't spam your best spell every round. Give them 1-2 uses of their max spell slot, just like PCs. But you don't have to give them a full list of level 1 spells that you'll probably never use, unless they are good ones to upcast.
If in the middle of the combat you think, "Man, it would be really cool if I cast Conjure Minor Elemental right now," then just go ahead and do it, and pretend it was part of your spell list all along. As long is the spell is on the spell list of the type of caster they are and is a level they have a spell slot for, it's fine.
Don't build a whole new character sheet. Look at how mages are presented as NPC monsters and scale up and down from there.
Even mage monster stat blocks are overbuilt. They usually have a whole list of spell at every level. For example Drow Mage. It's got 12 spells, not including cantrips. Most fights last around 3 rounds. So you're never going to use all 12 of those spells in one combat. Plan your combat, think about what spells you'd like to use. For the Drow Mage, I'd probably mostly use Cloudkill or Evard's Black Tentacles and upcast Lightning Bolt for damage. I might enter the combat with Greater Invisibility or Fly already up. Depending on the terrain, a use of Misty Step might be justified situationally. Shield is basically part of its AC and I'm just going to use it any time I need it.
So if you're building a mage from scratch, you really only need 3-5 spells. And as far as spell slots, it makes sense that you can't spam your best spell every round. Give them 1-2 uses of their max spell slot, just like PCs. But you don't have to give them a full list of level 1 spells that you'll probably never use, unless they are good ones to upcast.
If in the middle of the combat you think, "Man, it would be really cool if I cast Conjure Minor Elemental right now," then just go ahead and do it, and pretend it was part of your spell list all along. As long is the spell is on the spell list of the type of caster they are and is a level they have a spell slot for, it's fine.
I"m thinking NPC/monsters with more spells than they could possibly use in a balanced combat isn't exactly a flaw, but encourages a DM to think how a squad of casters may synergize
Hello, I'm currently making a mage NPC and I was wondering, how many spells do you give your NPCs?
I want this mage to have counterspell, so I used the wizard spell list and spell slot progression. However, I soon realized he had way to many spells and would be too powerful for the PCs to fight.
I love drow, rogues and Chinese weapons. I mean come on, rope darts are awesome.
My current character is a drow shadow monk, with a "unique" honor code (give him some time, he's working through some stuff). He also sucks on the socialization side of interacting with all other living creatures. which is very fun to RP.
If you use a PC build for the NPC, then you would just follow normal character creation rules.
However, you could just as easily ignore spells entirely and write in custom magical abilities. If you want the mage to be a healer, then just say they can heal 2d6+Mod as an action 3/day. Don't bother calling it "Cure Wounds" or whatever.
If the character will be spending a lot of time with the party, then giving them a more complicated spell list can help them be more interesting. However, if the party is only going to fight them, then keeping it basic will make it much easier to run and no one will really know the difference.
As the previous reply said, give them 1-2 spell like abilities, don't really bother giving them actual spell lists, too much of a headache for you.
Only time that is worthwhile is for a BBEG or something similar. Something the players will interact with multiple times, across multiple levels. Focus your time and energy on the most important things
The list or number of spells on the wizard spell slot progression would maybe be the maximum number of spells that the NPC would have access to. So maybe some of them are non-combat utility spells that wouldn't play into how you would use the NPC during combat and would just be in the way. Keep what is useful and discard the rest.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
I would use official monsters as a template start with something like a mage or illusionist and swap spells as you see fit.
I agree with and love what has already been said about building NPC's roughly as PC's to determine this.
I would just add that when it comes to townsfolk and commoners some might have a cantrip or two (particularly elves or other similar races that get a cantrip as a racial feat). Even basic casting with level 1 spells is probably pretty rare for almost anyone you'd come across. Exceptions to this might be with players attending Strixhaven, high magic towns, guilds that accept spellcasting, etc.
Don't bother with spell slots, just give them a number of uses of "magical" effects. You can use existing spells as a template, but just assign them as abilities and you're all set.
Don't build a whole new character sheet. Look at how mages are presented as NPC monsters and scale up and down from there. The NPC literally only matters mechanically in its relation relative to the PCs. Everything else is simply world building handwavium.* To that end, I think the more constructive question would be given arcanist monster stat blocks, what does the addition of counterspell do to the statblocks CR?
There's nothing "wrong" with "vanity DMPCs" who are character sheets that DMs make and work to calculate levels commensurate with the PCs experience ... except time. At the end of the day if you're setting up this NPC as a combat adversary, you're real job is to make a mechanical challenge commensurate to the PCs ability, so rather than worry about levels and slots, just think in terms of basic attack options and special actions and plug spell effects into those.
The party shouldn't be "dueling" character sheets, they're contending with a challenge.
You might want to do something like look at Arkham the Cruel a major but not the biggest baddie in BG:DitA, he's based on a character that actually apperaed in Critical Role and may be statted somewhere in that scene. But I don't know if you could reproduced Avernus NPCs well on a character sheet, and to me the stat block seems more DM friendly for what would be a messy encounter given the rest of Arkhan's entourage than bunch of character sheets and a bunch of statblocks.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Even mage monster stat blocks are overbuilt. They usually have a whole list of spell at every level. For example Drow Mage. It's got 12 spells, not including cantrips. Most fights last around 3 rounds. So you're never going to use all 12 of those spells in one combat. Plan your combat, think about what spells you'd like to use. For the Drow Mage, I'd probably mostly use Cloudkill or Evard's Black Tentacles and upcast Lightning Bolt for damage. I might enter the combat with Greater Invisibility or Fly already up. Depending on the terrain, a use of Misty Step might be justified situationally. Shield is basically part of its AC and I'm just going to use it any time I need it.
So if you're building a mage from scratch, you really only need 3-5 spells. And as far as spell slots, it makes sense that you can't spam your best spell every round. Give them 1-2 uses of their max spell slot, just like PCs. But you don't have to give them a full list of level 1 spells that you'll probably never use, unless they are good ones to upcast.
If in the middle of the combat you think, "Man, it would be really cool if I cast Conjure Minor Elemental right now," then just go ahead and do it, and pretend it was part of your spell list all along. As long is the spell is on the spell list of the type of caster they are and is a level they have a spell slot for, it's fine.
I"m thinking NPC/monsters with more spells than they could possibly use in a balanced combat isn't exactly a flaw, but encourages a DM to think how a squad of casters may synergize
Otherwise, right on.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.