Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Pretty much what the title says. I'm making a custom Crooked Moon campaign, and wanted to include a specific 'major NPC', who I would also be basing off an old character of mine, whom I love very much.
So I was wondering, how do I keep her from winding up as just 'The DM's PC'?
Hello I am a completely ordinary human being.
"Hot" take: Rain World is the best platformer game ever ([/roll]1d20[/roll] for platforming)
homebrew here.
this is Gato's way. copy Gato. [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] = [roll][roll:-4]+[roll:-3]+[roll:-2]+[roll:-1][/roll]
Making them not tag along with the party would definitely help. She could be more like a quest giver or someone the characters can seek out if they need help than an extra party member.
I would say there are three potential pratfalls you need to be careful of:
1. Making the party feel like they are unnecessary. Especially if the NPC is very powerful, it might feel a bit like “why is that NPC not just solving the problems?” This does not mean the NPC should be weak - strong NPCs can be a pretty great part of the campaign and help avoid the “player characters are unparalleled superheroes” feel high level PCs can sometimes have.
What it does mean? You should come up with some reason they cannot solve problems and the party is necessary. Maybe they were injured in a prior fight. Maybe they are now in a position of power and can’t just leave to go on a quest. They can be strong - but their strength forces them to rely on others like the party.
2. They should be able to shape the world in some ways, lest they feel impotent, but you need to be careful not to allow them to always have meta knowledge that guarantees their success. This is where the real fun of the relationship comes in - the party has a powerful ally who can influence events in a different way than they can… but their influence is based on what information the party does or does not share. Give the party access to information and let them shape the NPC’s actions - that way it feels more like a partnership with the NPC than “the DM is telling us to do things.”
3. You cannot let your love of the NPC cloud your judgment. If the party does not like the NPC and does not want to interface with them? Don’t force it because you want to play that character. The party messes something up so badly that NPC might die? You have to be careful to avoid making it feel like the NPC has too much plot armor.
I played in a campaign where no one liked the DM’s darling NPC and the DM seemed a little crestfallen at that - and I think it ended up derailing the entire campaign the DM built around that NPC. Got to be careful you do not wind up in that position - not every NPC is going to land every time.
Thank you! I'll be sure to use this. Ty!
Hello I am a completely ordinary human being.
"Hot" take: Rain World is the best platformer game ever ([/roll]1d20[/roll] for platforming)
homebrew here.
this is Gato's way. copy Gato. [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] = [roll][roll:-4]+[roll:-3]+[roll:-2]+[roll:-1][/roll]
Yeah, Quest NPC is about what I intended. Ty!
Hello I am a completely ordinary human being.
"Hot" take: Rain World is the best platformer game ever ([/roll]1d20[/roll] for platforming)
homebrew here.
this is Gato's way. copy Gato. [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] = [roll][roll:-4]+[roll:-3]+[roll:-2]+[roll:-1][/roll]
I’d also say don’t have them adventure with the party all the time. Maybe they have a specific goal/mission that lines up with what the party is doing, and they travel along for a few sessions. But when the mission ends, they go off on their own again. Then, sure, the party can run into them again later, and now they’re a trusted friend who can be a credible quest giver.
First of all, basing an NPC on a favorite character of yours is probably a bad idea -- it will tempt you toward pulling the focus off the PCs, and the game is fundamentally the PCs' story. You can avoid that, but better to start from scratch.
If you're going to have an NPC quest-giver, boss, etc., you have a lot of freedom to work with. The main thing you should avoid is a situation where they're sending the PCs out to do things they could easily do themselves. Which isn't hard to avoid, but it is something to keep an eye on. This is a classic NPC role in many campaigns. (As are "quest-giver whose agenda only sort of overlaps with the PCs" and the closely related "quest-giver who's actually evil".)
If you're going to have an NPC travel with the party, they should be noticeably less powerful than the PCs. This doesn't mean they should be useless, but if they're useful, it should primarily be by providing something that the PCs don't have, usually knowledge. For instance, a guide who knows the area the PCs are traveling through. If they can fight, they should be lower-level, but not so low-level that they're a significant handicap. If they bring plot, that plot probably should not take over the game for long periods, and they should fade more into the background the rest of the time. (This assumes that the plot isn't the escort quest, but even if it is, the NPC should not be foregrounded all the time.)
Give them strong motivations which prevent them from joining the party. One of my favourite NPCs was one of my first PCs, who runs a shop. He couldn't leave if he wanted to, such is the magic of his shop. When the party goes to see him, he's enthusiastic, and will help wherever he can, if they ask him to, but he stays in the shop.
The best thing you can do, that I've found - get invested in your villains. Make them your DMPCs. lean into their stories, their motives. Let the players pick up the "good guys" side of things!
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I think this is generally good advice, but I did want to provide so guidance on what to do if the party is travelling with someone more powerful than them.
The first thing, any such situation should be brief - this should not be a new party member, but someone who is there to do exactly one specific task.
Second, just because someone is powerful does not mean they have to fight to display that power. Maybe they need to do a ritual in combat to beat the bad guy, or hold up some kind of magical barrier. so the encounter goal is “keep the powerful guy alive for 10 rounds” - that displays their power, but makes the players the ones actually doing the combat. Big displays of power are not always “I Meteor Swarm the bad guy.”
Third, if you want them to be a combatant, you don’t have to pilot them. You can make a pared down character sheet and rotate the NPC through players during combat encounters. NPC might still be strong, but it is the players who get to have fun playing those strengths.
This should not be something that happens often - and you really only should bring in a more powerful NPC when the story really requires it, in particularly if the story requires it because the players took actions that brought about the situation. The goal should always be supporting the players, not showing them up, and if there is any doubt in answering “can I manage both the mechanics and roleplay of a powerful NPC being here without also making players feel bad?” then it is probably a situation to be avoided.
Give them an agenda that slightly contradicts with the PCs. Enough so that they're willing to work together, but also just enough to put each other on edge. Let the character spool out over time. While the PCs are off doing one thing, the NPC is doing another thing.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
I generally advise against being too fond of or attached to any of your NPCs, because in the end it's kind of their job to fail -- either because they're the PCs opposition, or because their failure is what gives space for the PCs to succeed.
Thank you guys!!! This'll be really helpful!
Hello I am a completely ordinary human being.
"Hot" take: Rain World is the best platformer game ever ([/roll]1d20[/roll] for platforming)
homebrew here.
this is Gato's way. copy Gato. [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] + [roll]1d8[/roll] = [roll][roll:-4]+[roll:-3]+[roll:-2]+[roll:-1][/roll]