D&D 5E DMGuild: Adversaries & Allies: over 50 new NPCs for 5e

ProgBard

First Post
Good morning 5E players - and especially DMs! I have a new pay-what-you-want release available on the Dungeon Masters Guild. Adversaries & Allies is an expansion on the NPCs in the Monster Manual, and includes over 30 pages of new spellcasters, rogues, lords, clergy, and other folk great and small.

The product page is here - please feel welcome to download it for free, and if you like it or have other commentary, feel free to leave a comment there or here.

Thanks, and happy gaming!
 

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jshaft37

Explorer
Material looks good and is certainly helpful for the improv style DM. On first review, I'm curious if there isn't some issues with the CRs on some of the NPCs. For example, in the MM the 9th Level Spellcaster Mage is CR 6. In your product, the adept, cleric, diabolist, the enchanter, fey witch etc are all CR2. I just want to verify this is correct, it seems like they should possibly vary in CR and be higher than they are listed.
 

ProgBard

First Post
I would've guessed that way too, but that's not the way the calculations seem to have worked out. The mage in the MM benefits a great deal from being able to sling a high-level fireball, which nudges up CR a couple of notches; I didn't feel like every spellcaster ought to have that kind of artillery, which kept a lot of those characters at lower challenge brackets. (For comparison, look at a monster like the sea hag, which also has a CR of 2 despite some pretty formidable powers, and only gets a small bump from being in a coven and getting access to combat spells.)

OTOH, there's a reason I majored in the arts, and it's certainly not impossible my math is just wrong. :)
 

Redthistle

Adventurer
Supporter
Re your OTOH, ProgBard:

In the game Rock, Paper, Scissors (Lizard, Spock version, too) it's always seemed to me to be a place where Art and Math are interwoven.
 



ProgBard

First Post
Much obliged, [MENTION=57584]Xethreau[/MENTION]! Thanks for your kind words, and I look forward to reading your review.
 

Good morning 5E players - and especially DMs! I have a new pay-what-you-want release available on the Dungeon Masters Guild. Adversaries & Allies is an expansion on the NPCs in the Monster Manual, and includes over 30 pages of new spellcasters, rogues, lords, clergy, and other folk great and small.

The product page is here - please feel welcome to download it for free, and if you like it or have other commentary, feel free to leave a comment there or here.

Thanks, and happy gaming!

Is there any way at all to peek inside prior to purchase? I've begun disliking blind purchases, but I don't mind paying good money for good stuff so I also don't want to just set payment to $0.01 or anything.
 

ProgBard

First Post
[MENTION=6787650]Hemlock[/MENTION] - I wish I could; I really wanted to set up the file with a preview so the first few pages were available, but I seem to not have the sort of profile that allows such a thing.

BUT, I really, truly don't mind if you download it for free, either. If you like it enough that you feel compelled to afterwards, repurchasing for the sake of leaving a tip is certainly appreciated, but absolutely not necessary; if I cared that much, I wouldn't have made it a PWYW item.
 

I left a review as Maximilian W: http://www.dmsguild.com/product_reviews.php?products_id=172470

What it says on the tin: MM-style NPC stat blocks for a variety of archetypes, mostly drawn from PC classes. Nice presentation, has some unique mechanics and weapons (like the City Watch's Mancatcher weapons) listed for certain variants. If you like and use the MM NPCs more than PHB NPCs, you will enjoy and appreciate this book. Even if you prefer to create NPCs using PHB methods, you will still derive some value from the spell lists and fluff text, and from NPCs like the Smith, the Ruler, and the Street Urchin who don't come from PC archetypes.

I'm giving it four stars out of five because I felt the product is a bit shallow, on par with the 5E MM but not exceeding it. In order to get five stars the product would need to supply insights into how to use these NPCs effectively at a glance--after all, stat blocks are the easy part. Coming up with motivations and behavior is hard.

For example, I'd love it if a given archetype (Necromancer) had a short list of common Names (Theophilus the Grave, Uric of Tibia, Sazael); common Motivations to create potential conflict with the PCs (Plunder treasure, Steal Bodies to Animate, Trade/Steal Spells); common Tactics in a fight (order zombies to attack and cast Stinking Cloud followed by successive Fire Bolts; as soon as the tide turns and six zombies are defeated, Dimension Door away and Hide); and common rewards for allying with/pleasing/impressing/defeating them (Bounty: 500 sp from local sheriff for killing known criminal; a collection of skulls with gems inset for eyes totalling 440 gp in value; a lengthy lecture detailing common weaknesses of ghouls, vampires, and liches, and how to spot the signs of their presence; membership in a secret cabal).
 
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