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<blockquote data-quote="Unwise" data-source="post: 6033416" data-attributes="member: 98008"><p>Every companion character that I use has a few things in common:</p><p></p><p>- They generally have some mental impairment that stops them from always making the rational and logical choice e.g. The insanely brave knight errant. The cowardly magician. The beserker. The pacifist healer. Even when it is a trope, this stops them feeling like a Mary Sue character.</p><p></p><p>- They are generally competent, but have one thing that they are amazing at. For instance, the theif is an ex-engineer, he is a competent thief, but give him time and he will make traps that would make a dragon wince. The knight is a good fighter, but an amazing horseman. Mounted, with a lance, he is the hardest hitter in the group. The archer is in to zen archery, he never misses the mark if he has time to prepare.</p><p></p><p>- They have no powers to overshine the PCs. In 4th edition, this means no daily powers and very limited encounter powers.</p><p></p><p>- They have very well defined utility powers. It is way too easy for the DM to fall into the trap of having their companion NPC pull out a Deus Ex Machina utility power to help the party. After a while this feels very cheap and tacky. It also makes the party feel ripped off when you don't do it "What do you mean the wizard does not know the fly spell? He knew invisibility, linked portal, animal familiar, etc, etc ,etc when we needed them". What I tend to do here is make spell users highly specialised e.g. This guy is an expert mentalist, so any mental utility spell he probably knows, but nothing else.</p><p></p><p>I am currently running a single player campaign which involves a bunch of companion characters. I just thought I would quickly share how I run those. They need to be kept simple yet effective. This is for 4th edition D&D, but the same can be applied to some other game systems. Each NPC has the following:</p><p>- 2 at-will powers.</p><p>- 1 basic encounter power that they can use twice per encounter. This is tied to their main role. E.g. Healing Word, Backstab, Powerstrike, Intercept.</p><p>- 1 powerful encounter power tied to their speciality. E.g. Beserker rage, fireball, dominate, super-flying-kick.</p><p></p><p>This makes the NPCs good at what they do and at least comperable to a PC on a standard turn. Whenever the PCs use a limited resource though, they overshadow the NPCs.</p><p></p><p>This makes it really easy to run as a DM. I actually show the PCs what the NPCs can do so they can help run them. This also makes them a known quantity and gets rid of the Deus Ex Machina feeling. Recently I have decided that all companion NPC damage rolls will always be the same, they of course roll to hit though. I just always take the average of that particular NPCs damage. This really speeds things up.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Unwise, post: 6033416, member: 98008"] Every companion character that I use has a few things in common: - They generally have some mental impairment that stops them from always making the rational and logical choice e.g. The insanely brave knight errant. The cowardly magician. The beserker. The pacifist healer. Even when it is a trope, this stops them feeling like a Mary Sue character. - They are generally competent, but have one thing that they are amazing at. For instance, the theif is an ex-engineer, he is a competent thief, but give him time and he will make traps that would make a dragon wince. The knight is a good fighter, but an amazing horseman. Mounted, with a lance, he is the hardest hitter in the group. The archer is in to zen archery, he never misses the mark if he has time to prepare. - They have no powers to overshine the PCs. In 4th edition, this means no daily powers and very limited encounter powers. - They have very well defined utility powers. It is way too easy for the DM to fall into the trap of having their companion NPC pull out a Deus Ex Machina utility power to help the party. After a while this feels very cheap and tacky. It also makes the party feel ripped off when you don't do it "What do you mean the wizard does not know the fly spell? He knew invisibility, linked portal, animal familiar, etc, etc ,etc when we needed them". What I tend to do here is make spell users highly specialised e.g. This guy is an expert mentalist, so any mental utility spell he probably knows, but nothing else. I am currently running a single player campaign which involves a bunch of companion characters. I just thought I would quickly share how I run those. They need to be kept simple yet effective. This is for 4th edition D&D, but the same can be applied to some other game systems. Each NPC has the following: - 2 at-will powers. - 1 basic encounter power that they can use twice per encounter. This is tied to their main role. E.g. Healing Word, Backstab, Powerstrike, Intercept. - 1 powerful encounter power tied to their speciality. E.g. Beserker rage, fireball, dominate, super-flying-kick. This makes the NPCs good at what they do and at least comperable to a PC on a standard turn. Whenever the PCs use a limited resource though, they overshadow the NPCs. This makes it really easy to run as a DM. I actually show the PCs what the NPCs can do so they can help run them. This also makes them a known quantity and gets rid of the Deus Ex Machina feeling. Recently I have decided that all companion NPC damage rolls will always be the same, they of course roll to hit though. I just always take the average of that particular NPCs damage. This really speeds things up. [/QUOTE]
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