First of all, this is not a 5e hate thread. I'm still adjusting to 5E and it's taking time.
One of the things I loved about 3.5e was how everything had a mathematical breakdown. There was a pattern to everything, including NPC classes. I really miss these classes and haven't found a good way of portraying via stats a very experienced NPC in 5e. The Commoner available in the Core rules is a good start, I suppose, but it was really cool having NPC classes in 3.5e that allowed NPCs to become experienced but never on par with PC classes.
So, how do you guys figure out how to make your NPCs experienced on paper? Not every NPCs is going to have PC class levels, but there should be a way to increase their stats without being arbitrary.
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C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
Assuming that I had an NPC hanging out with the party for a campaign-length of time, I would just occasionally upgrade them as needed depending on what class they were supposed to be. So a Commoner might eventually morph into a Bandit and then a Thug or eventually a Spy. Caster classes might follow the same progression with stuff like Acolyte or Apprentice Wizard and going from there to higher CRs of casters every few levels or so. It's not like I can't manually edit what spells they know to suit my needs.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
Going along with Metamongoose, there are alot of varying CR npcs in the Monsters Manual. I usually just tweek those to make them stronger or weaker as needed.
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First of all, this is not a 5e hate thread. I'm still adjusting to 5E and it's taking time.
One of the things I loved about 3.5e was how everything had a mathematical breakdown. There was a pattern to everything, including NPC classes. I really miss these classes and haven't found a good way of portraying via stats a very experienced NPC in 5e. The Commoner available in the Core rules is a good start, I suppose, but it was really cool having NPC classes in 3.5e that allowed NPCs to become experienced but never on par with PC classes.
So, how do you guys figure out how to make your NPCs experienced on paper? Not every NPCs is going to have PC class levels, but there should be a way to increase their stats without being arbitrary.
C. Foster Payne
"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around."
Assuming that I had an NPC hanging out with the party for a campaign-length of time, I would just occasionally upgrade them as needed depending on what class they were supposed to be. So a Commoner might eventually morph into a Bandit and then a Thug or eventually a Spy. Caster classes might follow the same progression with stuff like Acolyte or Apprentice Wizard and going from there to higher CRs of casters every few levels or so. It's not like I can't manually edit what spells they know to suit my needs.
Going along with Metamongoose, there are alot of varying CR npcs in the Monsters Manual. I usually just tweek those to make them stronger or weaker as needed.