"If this problem is so bad, why aren't YOU doing it, NPC?"

[Moon_Goddess]

I've always gone with the idea that the heroes have to handle this stuff cuz their the only ones around who can.

They are the toughest guys in town.

Unfortuinatly that's backfired on me the last few years and I get groups who upon finding out they are the toughest in town want to kill the king take his gold and use it to get drunk at the tavern. Someday I may have to just let them, and just be like have nothing happen they just sit at the bar with stolen gold till they get bored.

 

[Uzzy]

Large Countries/Organisations to run. That usually works well.
The high level NPC's solution would be to level the city. It works, it's quick.. and it's probably not what the PC's would want. High level NPC's like the Symbul would like this solution.
Bringing in high level NPC's would bring the attention of high level hostile NPC's. You don't really think Manshoon would ignore Elminster taking an large, overt action, do you?
Retirement/Lack of Sanity. High Level NPC's have saved the world countless times, and they've got the scars to show it, mentally and physically. They might not want to even get involved.
Off doing other things.
Training for replacements and allies. Sure, the high level NPC could solve plenty of problems, but then when he's taken out of action, who's left to solve this new problem? 1st Level commoners?
Or the high level NPC's do solve every problem, and now you've got a bunch of ultra high, untouchable level NPC's controlling the world and using the little guys as their pawns. Hooray for Dystopia.

 

[pawsplay]

Why didn't Gandalf hop aboard Gwaihir and fly the Ring to Mount Doom?

You'd have the element of surprise. Sauron would be very surprised Gandalf would make it that easy to locate both the ring and Gandalf! Also, his presence was required to make the War look credible and to save lives, which was important to buy the Fellowship enough time to complete their quest before Sauron realized he'd been distracted.

In D&D, I tend to just give NPCs mediocre Con stats and some non-combat feats. They are very capable, and in a pinch could be quite heroic, but they simply aren't professional adventurers, like the PCs.

Sometimes I do have the NPCs join the fights.

And in general, I try to fight NPC stat inflation. A 12th level wizard can teleport all around the world, do I have to make him an Archmage just so he can wear the big pointy hat? I don't have a problem, either, with PCs being the same or higher level than their mentors. In fact, in any "you are the chosen one" type story, it's required.

Example: In my current game, the party's "gandalf" is a 12th level Aasimar wizard. He has Str 8 and Con 10, Skill Focus (Knowledge [History]). Although quite capable, he hasn't fought alongside the characters since they were quite low level. The party has risen from 1st level to 18th under his tutelage. Although he is still the guy with the high Wis and some ranks of diplomacy, the world's most powerful mortal wizard is now in their party.

 

[The Shaman]

Another answer is that Gandalf wasn't only worried about falling to the Ring, but that Sauron would notice. The Eye was not going to miss Gandalf taking the thing to Mount Doom, where it might miss Frodo.

That's what I was alluding to upthread. Gandalf wanted the Eye looking away from Mordor, which is why it was important for the Heir of Isuldur to reveal himself via the palantir. It's also why they marched on the gates of Mordor after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

In game context, the powerul NPC is holding the line while the adventurers are performing a critical task, perhaps the critical task, in defeating the enemy.

Sometimes the most important move a powerful figure can make is no overt move at all. This is why most of the Cold War was fought through proxies. The nuclear powers were for the most part reluctant to force a head-to-head showdown, so much of the conflict was fought through allies and surrogates. This has been one of my oft-used rationales for having powerful figures who (appear to) do nothing in the face of a threat. Balance of power and all that.

 

[The Shaman]

The orcs are gathering again? Burn all the villages so they won't have any food and then they'll turn on themselves. Crisis averted. Oh, that means the peasants won't have enough to eat? That's fine, I have a magical soup bowl that feeds my army. It'll just cement my control over the population, who were getting too uppity for their own good.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

Y'know, that was pretty close to the foreign policy that Cardinal Richelieu and his primary advisor, Father Joseph, pursued during the early stages of the Thirty Years War. They supported the Protestants of Denmark and Sweden when it put pressure on the Catholics and then they supported the Catholics when it appeared that the Protestants might win. The fact that huge swaths of the Holy Roman Empire were devastated during the conflict just meant that France wouldn't need to worry about the Austrian Habsburgs while they were fighting the Spanish Habsburgs. Father Joseph in particular was a master at the realpolitik of the age, as ruthless as he was devout.

 

[Dausuul]

In general, I try to avoid having a lot of powerful good-aligned NPCs in the game. For those I do have, this is the model I follow:

That's what I was alluding to upthread. Gandalf wanted the Eye looking away from Mordor, which is why it was important for the Heir of Isuldur to reveal himself via the palantir. It's also why they marched on the gates of Mordor after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields.

In game context, the powerul NPC is holding the line while the adventurers are performing a critical task, perhaps the critical task, in defeating the enemy.

This accomplishes the goal nicely. The NPCs are tied down on defense, holding back the onslaught of evil by main force. This frees up the PCs to find a weak spot and take the fight to the enemy. It explains what the big NPC is doing, without taking the spotlight off the player characters.

 

[pawsplay]

That's kind of how I have things aligned in my current campaign. There's a CE elder evil on the loose that the PCs have to stop. There's an ancient gold dragon (LG), an impossibly old hag loremaster (NE), a half-fey ranger-druid (N), and an aasimar wizard (LG) who are essentially the Churchills and Roosevelts of the world. In addition to all holding the line against the end of the world, their alliance does not extend beyond that. Thus, in addition to being tied down by the conflict, each is wary of overextending themselves, leading to an undesired state in the aftermath.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

Here's what I usually do:

Build the setting so big that it's reasonable that even a deific power might not be able to keep an eye on everything.

Define raw power as having an inverse-proportion relationship to willpower and perceptiveness.
Power corrupts. Not-so-heroic people get evil or greedy. Heroic people instead get lazy and overconfident, start enjoying making other people do their dirty work and then giving themselves the excuse that "it's not enough of a threat to deserve my time".

Have the real heroes of legend be low-powered yet still capable.
Not everyone has to save the world with the power to blow up a mountain. There are plenty of stories out there where the day is won by wits rather than might.

 

[Mark Chance]

"If this problem is so bad, why aren't YOU doing it, NPC?"

Remove the link between political power and personal power. Consider very nearly any President of the United States. Would you really want him personally backing you up in a fight? I know I wouldn't. I'd much rather he sent a Marine or two with me.

IME, the Forgotten Realms is the worst offender here. I distinctly remember one absolutely dreadful Living City event in which our 2nd and 3rd level characters were expected to deal with danger while in the very next room there were 10th to 15th level NPCs somehow depending on our paltry PCs for protection.

Blech.

 

[JoeNotCharles]

- My favorite: There are other NPCs around, but there are also a lot of potential quest threads available. So the PCs chase after the story hooks their players find most interesting, and the NPCs can be deputized to take care of the ones that don't engage the player much. (I'm not terribly fond of world-shattering adventures that would be so important that it's obvious all the PCs and NPCs have to focus on this one thing.)

This is what I came to suggest. I like to handle dealing with the mentor NPC's (assigning quests that is) in email between sessions, so that the players can pick what they want to pursue and I have time to actually write that adventure. It gives them more choice as well as making it feel more realistic.