I’m suppose to eventually be doing my first one-shot instead of my usual DM sometime, and I‘m trying to keep it as much of a surprise as possible while still asking him questions as needed. My story revolves around 3 NPC’s (besides the players, of course), one of which wishes to hire the party to deal with a monster. I realized I don’t want them to be too strong because then they wouldn’t need to hire anyone to help. Having said that, one is suppose to have had combat experience (and borderline PTSD, but just comes off as drunk and grumpy) as a war cleric, another is suppose to be a hunter, and the other to have bard-like music talent. I have made level 1 characters for them also in the event of a party wipe so they could revive them with healing spells one more time (if the party implies that’s what they want or the story goes that way. If the party tells them to run, I will respect their wishes.) This was also to give them more flavor and help determine things like what kind of money or items they might have offhand. (Example: even though he can’t carry them with his inventory, I thought the hunter might use the last of his spending money to buy hunting traps. It’s also worth noting they would have access to goodberry and create or destroy water, so they don’t need to buy food to survive.)
My question is should my 3 NPC’s be considered level 1 at least. Would you have them any higher than that? Would you have them not even be that? Would you not even have them possess items like I am planning, or is it more or less just my call? Just trying to brainstorm here, so any thoughts or questions as long as they are respectful are welcome. Thank you.
I’m suppose to eventually be doing my first one-shot instead of my usual DM sometime, and I‘m trying to keep it as much of a surprise as possible while still asking him questions as needed. My story revolves around 3 NPC’s (besides the players, of course), one of which wishes to hire the party to deal with a monster. I realized I don’t want them to be too strong because then they wouldn’t need to hire anyone to help. Having said that, one is suppose to have had combat experience (and borderline PTSD, but just comes off as drunk and grumpy) as a war cleric, another is suppose to be a hunter, and the other to have bard-like music talent. I have made level 1 characters for them also in the event of a party wipe so they could revive them with healing spells one more time (if the party implies that’s what they want or the story goes that way. If the party tells them to run, I will respect their wishes.) This was also to give them more flavor and help determine things like what kind of money or items they might have offhand. (Example: even though he can’t carry them with his inventory, I thought the hunter might use the last of his spending money to buy hunting traps. It’s also worth noting they would have access to goodberry and create or destroy water, so they don’t need to buy food to survive.)
My question is should my 3 NPC’s be considered level 1 at least. Would you have them any higher than that? Would you have them not even be that? Would you not even have them possess items like I am planning, or is it more or less just my call? Just trying to brainstorm here, so any thoughts or questions as long as they are respectful are welcome. Thank you.
Well if your goal is for NPCs to raise the dead they need to be higher…. :D
In my experience, NPCs are not typically built using the rules for player characters, and don't have classes or levels at all. It makes them way too complicated.
Using the archetypal NPC stat blocks from the Monster Manual (perhaps with a few minor adjustments to fit specific NPCs' backgrounds) is much, much easier. In newer sources these stat blocks typically specify what sort of items they might be carrying in addition to their other stats.
Ok, when I said wipe, I meant avoiding a wipe. Like they were all downed and needed healed. Sorry for the confusion.
I guess I need to take a look at the monster manual then and see if I can find something close to what would be acceptable for the circumstances. Thanks for the tip!
Don't make them a player characters, they will be far too fragile which can be really annoying if the players are trying to keep them alive. It's also way too complex for what is needed for an NPC and will make your life harder as a DM if they do end up in combat.
NPCs I generally give them at least as many hit points as the players, and similar AC, so they don't become a burden on the players to keep alive (unless that is the point of the NPCs). Then I give them one baseline thing they do in combat - it might be a cantrip, or a weapon they use, that is the one and only thing they do on their turn. Then I give them one special move, maybe it's healing, or grappling, or a trap or something like that, which they can use 2-3 times per day.
For items:
Basic gear appropriate to them - e.g. chain armour a sword and shield, or a crossbow, dagger and leather armour.
One personal item that expresses their personality / backstory - e.g. a wedding ring, a locket with a picture of a child, some perfume, a carved wooded wolf, etc...
Two bits of equipment or consumables - e.g. a minor healing potion and a rope, or a backpack and a herbalist kit, or a scroll of minor illusion and dice set.
My 2 cents are this. I usually make my NPCs, at least the ones that have something to share, capable of defending themselves just in the event the player party goes sideways. The level depends my on party and their characteristics. Hope that helps.
Is there any chance they’ll end up in a fight with the party? I know, I know, there’s always a chance, but is it a realistic possibility?
If not, I usually don’t stat them at all. I might have a sense of something like their insight and other social skills. Besides that, if I need them to have a power, they just have it. As wagnarokkr said, they don’t have to follow PC rules.
For one, it’s a big time saver not starting them all out. For 2, letting them just do different things helps add to the mystery. What do you mean they’re a fighter who can cast fly? It helps keep players on their toes when they think they’ve got everything figured out.
I wasn’t planning on them fighting persay. Like Xalthu said, there’s always a chance my party will try to murder them for items. I do sort of worry about completely homebrewing basically a monster even with those guidelines. Again, I don’t want to make them as strong as the party, otherwise there’s no real point in hiring them. I do see where you’re coming from, but having it come out of left field that they are secretly strong doesn’t make much sense either. I get what you mean by mystery I think, but at the same time I want it to make sense too.
For reference, the party is level 7. The monster(s) is CR7. So far only three players have made characters for this one-shot. Heck, there’s a chance it may never even happen, but since I expressed interest when he brought it up i want to be prepared. Plus, I overall am enjoying the creative process of doing so.
I do have some dice roles planned out in advance, such as the gruff one’s intimidation and the musician’s performance.
To revisit this, it really depends what level the one shot is.
As others suggested the Monster Manual has many good options. You could tweak anything and just make it a heal bot.
If I was going to use a full PC I would make it an artificer alchemist that uses spare the dying and just gives out healing potions from a bag of nothing, unlimited supply but only one at a time. I think a custom “Wand of Healing Word” could also do the trick with 50 charges per day LOL.
Thank you everyone for your input. I should have access to shared material like the monster manual via my main campaign, so I’ll refer to them for ideas. I’m hoping it doesn’t come down to me using them, but better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them.
A note: You can also make custom stat blocks by tweaking existing ones, and can even add some relevant player abilities. For instance, I've come up with a general shell for Sorcerer NPCs where, instead of Sorcery Points, they just have X uses of a couple of Metamagic options (and I list what it does in the block as a reminder). Usually simple ones like Quickened or Subtle. That way I'm not worrying about fully piloting a Sorcerer, converting points, etc, it's just a couple of checkboxes and they're done using that.
This is just an example, not a rule of how to do it, naturally.
I did this with Artificer too. Gave them the Magic Weapon spell, then specified the extra damage if they have it active in their attack block.
I’m not really sure how to customize them in a balanced way yet. At the same time, I only found some statblocks that fit my npcs, so I’m not quite sure what to do.
The best way is to choose the closest statblock and modify them. If you want one to be a war cleric, maybe you could choose a priest acolyte and give them the appropriate stuff like armour or a few extra spells their allowed to cast.
For the revive spells, you could easily give them access to scrolls.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I’m suppose to eventually be doing my first one-shot instead of my usual DM sometime, and I‘m trying to keep it as much of a surprise as possible while still asking him questions as needed. My story revolves around 3 NPC’s (besides the players, of course), one of which wishes to hire the party to deal with a monster. I realized I don’t want them to be too strong because then they wouldn’t need to hire anyone to help. Having said that, one is suppose to have had combat experience (and borderline PTSD, but just comes off as drunk and grumpy) as a war cleric, another is suppose to be a hunter, and the other to have bard-like music talent. I have made level 1 characters for them also in the event of a party wipe so they could revive them with healing spells one more time (if the party implies that’s what they want or the story goes that way. If the party tells them to run, I will respect their wishes.) This was also to give them more flavor and help determine things like what kind of money or items they might have offhand. (Example: even though he can’t carry them with his inventory, I thought the hunter might use the last of his spending money to buy hunting traps. It’s also worth noting they would have access to goodberry and create or destroy water, so they don’t need to buy food to survive.)
My question is should my 3 NPC’s be considered level 1 at least. Would you have them any higher than that? Would you have them not even be that? Would you not even have them possess items like I am planning, or is it more or less just my call? Just trying to brainstorm here, so any thoughts or questions as long as they are respectful are welcome. Thank you.
Well if your goal is for NPCs to raise the dead they need to be higher…. :D
In my experience, NPCs are not typically built using the rules for player characters, and don't have classes or levels at all. It makes them way too complicated.
Using the archetypal NPC stat blocks from the Monster Manual (perhaps with a few minor adjustments to fit specific NPCs' backgrounds) is much, much easier. In newer sources these stat blocks typically specify what sort of items they might be carrying in addition to their other stats.
pronouns: he/she/they
Ok, when I said wipe, I meant avoiding a wipe. Like they were all downed and needed healed. Sorry for the confusion.
I guess I need to take a look at the monster manual then and see if I can find something close to what would be acceptable for the circumstances. Thanks for the tip!
Don't make them a player characters, they will be far too fragile which can be really annoying if the players are trying to keep them alive. It's also way too complex for what is needed for an NPC and will make your life harder as a DM if they do end up in combat.
NPCs I generally give them at least as many hit points as the players, and similar AC, so they don't become a burden on the players to keep alive (unless that is the point of the NPCs). Then I give them one baseline thing they do in combat - it might be a cantrip, or a weapon they use, that is the one and only thing they do on their turn.
Then I give them one special move, maybe it's healing, or grappling, or a trap or something like that, which they can use 2-3 times per day.
For items:
My 2 cents are this. I usually make my NPCs, at least the ones that have something to share, capable of defending themselves just in the event the player party goes sideways. The level depends my on party and their characteristics. Hope that helps.
Is there any chance they’ll end up in a fight with the party? I know, I know, there’s always a chance, but is it a realistic possibility?
If not, I usually don’t stat them at all. I might have a sense of something like their insight and other social skills. Besides that, if I need them to have a power, they just have it. As wagnarokkr said, they don’t have to follow PC rules.
For one, it’s a big time saver not starting them all out. For 2, letting them just do different things helps add to the mystery. What do you mean they’re a fighter who can cast fly? It helps keep players on their toes when they think they’ve got everything figured out.
I wasn’t planning on them fighting persay. Like Xalthu said, there’s always a chance my party will try to murder them for items. I do sort of worry about completely homebrewing basically a monster even with those guidelines. Again, I don’t want to make them as strong as the party, otherwise there’s no real point in hiring them. I do see where you’re coming from, but having it come out of left field that they are secretly strong doesn’t make much sense either. I get what you mean by mystery I think, but at the same time I want it to make sense too.
For reference, the party is level 7. The monster(s) is CR7. So far only three players have made characters for this one-shot. Heck, there’s a chance it may never even happen, but since I expressed interest when he brought it up i want to be prepared. Plus, I overall am enjoying the creative process of doing so.
I do have some dice roles planned out in advance, such as the gruff one’s intimidation and the musician’s performance.
There are various npc's in the monster manual.
They dont need levels and all that, they just need a basic statblock for scores, saves, attacks, hit points, and ac.
You just need the basics in case the players decide to find a kinetic solution to some problem
To revisit this, it really depends what level the one shot is.
As others suggested the Monster Manual has many good options. You could tweak anything and just make it a heal bot.
If I was going to use a full PC I would make it an artificer alchemist that uses spare the dying and just gives out healing potions from a bag of nothing, unlimited supply but only one at a time. I think a custom “Wand of Healing Word” could also do the trick with 50 charges per day LOL.
Thank you everyone for your input. I should have access to shared material like the monster manual via my main campaign, so I’ll refer to them for ideas. I’m hoping it doesn’t come down to me using them, but better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them.
A note: You can also make custom stat blocks by tweaking existing ones, and can even add some relevant player abilities. For instance, I've come up with a general shell for Sorcerer NPCs where, instead of Sorcery Points, they just have X uses of a couple of Metamagic options (and I list what it does in the block as a reminder). Usually simple ones like Quickened or Subtle. That way I'm not worrying about fully piloting a Sorcerer, converting points, etc, it's just a couple of checkboxes and they're done using that.
This is just an example, not a rule of how to do it, naturally.
I did this with Artificer too. Gave them the Magic Weapon spell, then specified the extra damage if they have it active in their attack block.
I personaly just have NPCs just have millions of HP but keep them at 1/2 the average party level
"There are few problems that cannot be solved through the application of overwhelming arcane firepower" Mephistopheles
Titles Bestowed Upon Me
Baazle: Third Initiate of the Cult of The Fox | Golden The Burning Questioner
Alt Account of Good_Drow(aka I forgot the password)
PM me the word avocado
I’m not really sure how to customize them in a balanced way yet. At the same time, I only found some statblocks that fit my npcs, so I’m not quite sure what to do.
The best way is to choose the closest statblock and modify them. If you want one to be a war cleric, maybe you could choose a priest acolyte and give them the appropriate stuff like armour or a few extra spells their allowed to cast.
For the revive spells, you could easily give them access to scrolls.