D&D 5E Running NPC allies

I agree with the advice to do it old-school... give the players the NPC ally stat block and let them run the ally. Just step in only if an NPC would not go along with a player's choice of action.

Even if they are just temporary allies, distribute control over them to your players and give them a rough idea of their personality so they can role play them.

I run some old school D&D where hirelings and followers are expected. In my experience, I've found that if the player is role playing their followers and making their attacks and noting their damage, they get more attached to them.

They start taking on a life of their own and kind of become an extension of the player character.

robus said:

So it keeps happening that the PCs manage to end up with some NPC allies and I, as DM, run them. But it's really starting to grate on me as I end up rolling dice against myself and basically playing alone while the players sit and watch. It's a bit ridiculous and I feel awkward about it (especially if there is a number of allies...) I feel bad if I don't run the allies optimally (because I'm not giving the full aid) and I also feel bad if I run them too well (and end up outshining the PCs!)

What are some better ways to handle this? The most obvious one, of course, is to have the players run the allies, but are there others? And, if the players do end up running them, what kind of information do the players need (beyond a stat block) to make it work smoothly?

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In one campaign I ran, the PCs befriended an ogre who then occasionally accompanied them for a couple adventures. The ogre was a couple hit dice higher than the party's level.

I ran him during combat narratively only, not affecting things directly - but if the players thought "hey, let's have the ogre throw the dwarf then he'd be doing that sort of thing. To some degree, you could say I was letting one player each round control the NPC to aid his character in some way.

But the players didn't try doing it too often, because ultimately they wanted to play their own characters, wanted their characters to be the hero.

Oh, and I just remembered when the party had an elder paladin along with them. Although he was like 8th level when they were 2nd, I had described him as old, and so while in combat I again resorted to a more narrative use for him in combat, described as engaging and fighting, but treating most of his rounds as using the Aid Another action (5e's Help), although I also remember using him as a way to illustrate grappling, and for that I was rolling the dice as though he was a PC.

Doh! I forgot to add my advice: Flat out tell your players that treating the NPCs like a PC, with a full round worth of actions each and every round just isn't fun for you, and you wa t to find some balance between that and doing nothing at all.

Work with your players on what that balance is.

My solution, wich has served me well over the years, is:
I design the NPC
I RP the NPC
The players control them in combat/make any dice rolls for them.
I retain override power - because sometimes players will attempt to have the npc do the darn darndest things. Things they'd NEVER have their actual pcs do....

Monayuris said:

I agree with the advice to do it old-school... give the players the NPC ally stat block and let them run the ally. Just step in only if an NPC would not go along with a player's choice of action.

Even if they are just temporary allies, distribute control over them to your players and give them a rough idea of their personality so they can role play them.

I run some old school D&D where hirelings and followers are expected. In my experience, I've found that if the player is role playing their followers and making their attacks and noting their damage, they get more attached to them.

They start taking on a life of their own and kind of become an extension of the player character.

Click to expand...

We used to do this, and one of my NPCs eventually became one of my favorite characters. At some point he kind of morphed into my world's version of Elminister. If Elminister was an atheist who believed gods are just supernatural beings lying to their followers about eternal life and was neutral with borderline evil tendencies.

I'm seeing some good advice in this thread. Unfortunately, not all of it is applicable when you're running one of the official 5e modules. Many of them not only include a slew of potential NPC allies, but they also include a number of NPCs with secrets that would be spoiled by having the players run them.

*SPOILERS AHEAD!*

For instance, in Out of the Abyss, one of the NPC prisoners that can escape with the PCs in chapter 1 is a drow infected with Zuggtmoy's spores. At some point during the adventure, he dies in a rather explosive manner. I wouldn't want the players to know there was something wrong with the guy too soon, which might be the case if I were to let one of them run him.

In Tomb of Annihilation, which I have just started, it is strongly recommended that the PCs hire a guide. Many of the guides harbor secrets. One is a couatl in disguise, another is a yuan-ti pureblood in disguise, another is a weretiger; one pair is completely incompetent, while another is in league with the Zhentarim; and so on. I wouldn't want to risk having my players catch on too early by letting them see the guides' stats.

By the end of our first session we had four active PCs, one inactive PC (his player wasn't present), one NPC companion from a previous adventure, two NPC guides (one of whom also has a vegepygmy sidekick), and an NPC ally who is traveling with them to a specific destination. One of the guides is a druid, and the ally is a priest. I've already been letting the players run their companion (a kobold), and I could let them run the druid, the vegepygmy, and the priest as well, but the other guide is the couatl, so I'd have to keep her to myself, which might make them suspicious.

So you see, it can all get a bit complicated sometimes.

The Zeitgeist AP has an example of a Companion style NPC in chapter 1. The boost a stat or give an extra ability vs. being an additional PC with a full turn's worth of actions. Honestly, having fewer pieces on the board (figuratively) is one of the advantages of 5e in helping it to move faster. Adding full NPCs back in to combat just slows it down.

[MENTION=54629]pukunui[/MENTION] - at least they’re not combat allies. I think most of the ones you describe easily could become “helpers” or hiders (or just nonentities) during combat and not cause too much headache then at least.

I'm about to start up a new campaign where an NPC guide will feature heavily, as the players are travelling to a new locale where things are done very differently.

My plan is to have the players hire him as a guide, but not a combat character, because that would be too expensive. At the start of every combat, he'll just cast invisibility and fade away until it's safe...

robus said:

[MENTION=54629]pukunui[/MENTION] - at least they’re not combat allies. I think most of the ones you describe easily could become “helpers” or hiders (or just nonentities) during combat and not cause too much headache then at least.

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True.

The kobold isn't much of a combatant, and neither is the vegepygmy. The couatl is pretending to be a middle-aged woman, so I could have her play at being a noncombatant as well. So it's mostly just the priest and the druid who would actively get involved in combat, and I don't mind handing their stats out to the players.