I am running a loosy-goosy kind of game (5 sessions in, we just turned level 3) for my nephew and the conflict seems to begin revolving around a Lord's Alliance v Zhentarim kind of (sub)plot. I need to plan ahead a bit, though, so my question is this:
Is there any "official" statbox/ CR suggested for various levels of the more well known factions? I know that I can just make it up, but it would be nice to know if e.g. the CR 8 young black dragon I have working as a freelance Zhentarim agent in Helms Hold could potentially be a leader or merely a dough boy compared to the guys running around in Darkhold or Zhentil Keep. I basically need some kind of "corner" to work from.
The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide might have little parenthetical suggestions of what class/level various notables are? You might also find that sort of thing sprinkled around in a campaign that deals with Lord's Alliance and Zhent notables, like Tyranny of Dragons or Storm King's Thunder?
Failing that, the 3.5 Forgotten Realms guide books pretty much always put a class/level note in parenthesis whenever they mentioned a NPC. But... a lot of in-game time has passed between 3.5 and 4 and 5, so humanoid NPCs might not be common between those editions?
Keeping track of "who's who" in Forgotten Realms has always struck me as one of the more overwhelming drawbacks of the setting, so don't let yourself fall down the rabbit hole too much. There's plenty of political, social, and logistical reasons why a CR 8 black dragon might need to work under a CR 2 human boss, not every organization (even the shady ones) leaves leadership decisions up to an arm wrestling contest or a duel to the death...
Hi all - and happy new year!
I am running a loosy-goosy kind of game (5 sessions in, we just turned level 3) for my nephew and the conflict seems to begin revolving around a Lord's Alliance v Zhentarim kind of (sub)plot. I need to plan ahead a bit, though, so my question is this:
Is there any "official" statbox/ CR suggested for various levels of the more well known factions? I know that I can just make it up, but it would be nice to know if e.g. the CR 8 young black dragon I have working as a freelance Zhentarim agent in Helms Hold could potentially be a leader or merely a dough boy compared to the guys running around in Darkhold or Zhentil Keep. I basically need some kind of "corner" to work from.
Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide might have little parenthetical suggestions of what class/level various notables are? You might also find that sort of thing sprinkled around in a campaign that deals with Lord's Alliance and Zhent notables, like Tyranny of Dragons or Storm King's Thunder?
Failing that, the 3.5 Forgotten Realms guide books pretty much always put a class/level note in parenthesis whenever they mentioned a NPC. But... a lot of in-game time has passed between 3.5 and 4 and 5, so humanoid NPCs might not be common between those editions?
Keeping track of "who's who" in Forgotten Realms has always struck me as one of the more overwhelming drawbacks of the setting, so don't let yourself fall down the rabbit hole too much. There's plenty of political, social, and logistical reasons why a CR 8 black dragon might need to work under a CR 2 human boss, not every organization (even the shady ones) leaves leadership decisions up to an arm wrestling contest or a duel to the death...
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Not sure if this would help...
http://www.epicwords.com/attachments/16476
at the very least, it’ll provide ideas as to ranks within the factions.
Thank you both for your replies! Much appreciated.