Encounter levels and your NPC buddy

[drdevoid]

I'm designing an adventure for two 8th level PCs and I want to give them an NPC to keep things moving.

If I give the NPC levels in expert, what level does he need to be for the party to face CRs/ELs of 6? Would it be an 8th level or 9th (using CL -1 similar to the rule for CRs of creatures with NPC levels)?

Thanks in advance,
Joe

 

[Telperion]

If you want to have someone around who can help out with the fights why not throw a Warrior into the party? One level higher than the characters and he shouldn't be terribly underpowered. Well, he won't be doing anything special, but that's why it's called an NPC class .

If you are up to the task of running two NPCs as hang-alongs then my suggestion is to go with a warrior and an expert.

 

[Scharlata]

[...] two 8th level PCs and I want to give them an NPC to keep things moving. [...] Would it be an 8th level or 9th (using CL -1 similar to the rule for CRs of creatures with NPC levels)?

Hi!

It could be 9th level if she were an npc-only-class or if she were a 8th level pc class + 1st level npc class or any combination thereof.

The suggestions Telperion gave sound right.

Kind regards

 

[drdevoid]

Thanks, Telperion and Scharlata, it's an inherited game where we switch off DMing, so I'm just ruinning with what I've got. This is mostly a try something fun one-off session. The PCs are normally the henchmen of a high level party.

So a 9th level expert with two 8th level PCs is roughly an EL 6. Any other opinions on that?

Telperion is right, of course, there are other NPC/PC classes better suited for bumping the party level and rounding the group. Here I'm working with existing NPCs. The only one logically friendly in this scenario was an expert- the personal chef of their patrons.

You also hit it on the head, I don't want to run to 2 NPCs either. This group is used to playing with less than 4 and I'm only an average DM.