D&D 5E 5e Dragonmarks thematically problematic?

[Klaus]

Grant the non-dragonmark'd folks in the party a free magic item, and YES.

Not hard to do, in Eberron's "commonplace magic" paradigm, which is nice.

 

[RealAlHazred]

If I can't trust you as a DM, then the game is unplayable.

We are in agreement on that.

An NPC looks exactly like a PC of the same class and level, from a distance, if you squint. You can still tell that they're both representing the same thing, though, and "phenomenal cosmic powers but only a meager handful of Hit Points" isn't something that is supposed to exist within the world. All of the examples of NPCs in the Monster Manual will back that up.

...Way back in the day (1982), there was a module where your player characters wander about the Yatil Mountains. Lo and behold, they come across a dirty hermit, dwelling the peaks all alone. He doesn't have many hit points. He's hasn't got some great treasure. What he does have is mass domination psionic powers to the 19th level of mastery.

I wonder if Gary got the same complaints.

 

[RealAlHazred]

I've been thinking about Heir of Syberis and trying not to reintroduce prestige classes into 5E (they wore thin early in 3E, for me). My current thought to make it a "subclass" of either Warlock or Sorcerer, due to the way I implemented the marks, themselves.

I was thinking the way to best fit the fluff text (and to reflect the mechanics of the 3.5 version) would be to make it a feat with an 11th level prerequisite.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Not hard to do, in Eberron's "commonplace magic" paradigm, which is nice.

Bingo. It could even serve as a character development moment on par with electing to be dragonmarked: what is this item to you? How did you find it? Did you make it? What does its enchantment say about you? A few random charts'll liven that right up.

 

[Remathilis]

Kinda, sorta. What 5E lets you do is to skip a lot of small decisions, and hand-wave a lot of the details. You get an archmage with 18d8 Hit Points instead of 18d6 (+some higher amount from mandatory Constitution increase), but you still don't get 9th-level spells without the HP to back them up.

An NPC looks exactly like a PC of the same class and level, from a distance, if you squint. You can still tell that they're both representing the same thing, though, and "phenomenal cosmic powers but only a meager handful of Hit Points" isn't something that is supposed to exist within the world. All of the examples of NPCs in the Monster Manual will back that up.

Not really...

Acolyte: 2 HD, 1st level caster. Has one too many HD.
Assassin: 12 HD, but sneak attack of a 7th level rogue. Has two attacks.
Cult Fantatic: 6 HD, 4th level caster.
Druid: 5 HD, 4th level caster. No wild shape.
Spy: 6 HD, SA of a 3rd level rogue.

There isn't a direct link between HD and class level/ability. Additionally, NPCs get abilities PCs can't (Pack Tactics, Brute, and Parry), but lack lots of abilities that are bread and butter to PCs (action surge, second wind, cunning action, channel divinity, etc).

Besides, we're talking if an NPC can get a "feat" ability three levels earlier than a PC. The answer is "why not." We've established that NPCs don't have "levels" that seem to correlate with anything, so its not going to break the game, world, or anything else anymore than a PC asking "Hey, Father Soenso the Priest in town casts 3rd level spells, why doesn't HE turn the undead in the cemetery?"

(And that doesn't even touch the fact first and second level are like a session each; most PCs will get their first feat in no time.)

Trust me, if you overthink NPC creation, you'll go mad. The best way to look at it is "if you squint, you see a class, but they most certainly don't correlate in any way like a PC does and don NOT use the same rules for creation."

 

[I'm A Banana]

I mean, you COULD create an NPC using precisely the same rules as a PC.

But what you would gain from doing that is beyond me.

Outside of that, all you need to do is roughly adhere to the monster construction rules - how much damage can they do and how many hits can they take? You could have a critter with 9th level spells and 2 hp, but, again why?

 

[Mercule]

I was thinking the way to best fit the fluff text (and to reflect the mechanics of the 3.5 version) would be to make it a feat with an 11th level prerequisite.

Probably a better plan for Syberis. I was juggling lots of things, including Favored in House, and questions from players, so I probably got carried away. I still like my idea as something of a rarity among the houses.

 

[AngryOgre]

Well, would building a NPC dragon mark heir like a PC break the game? Would doing this for any NPC break the game?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I mean, you COULD create an NPC using precisely the same rules as a PC.

But what you would gain from doing that is beyond me.

You get a greater sense of the world as a consistent place which follows immutable natural laws, regardless of what those laws may be. It becomes more of a world, and less of a story. Your characters become more real, since their abilities reflect their place in the world rather than their place in the narrative.

Outside of that, all you need to do is roughly adhere to the monster construction rules - how much damage can they do and how many hits can they take? You could have a critter with 9th level spells and 2 hp, but, again why?

The monster construction guidelines exist so that you can determine an accurate CR for a creature. It's descriptive, rather than proscriptive. You look at this creature, and it has Strength X and natural weapons Y and a total of Z Hit Point because that's what the creature is, and then you use the DMG to figure out what the CR for it should be.

But super-powerful-wizard-with-no-hit-points doesn't describe anyone in the world, because every path to super magic involves gaining a bunch of HP in the process.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Well, would building a NPC dragon mark heir like a PC break the game? Would doing this for any NPC break the game?

The whole point of making quick NPCs is that it wouldn't change anything if you statted them out fully. You can represent the same character either way, but the main thing that the NPC is missing is just detail that isn't likely to matter.

If you're fighting a wilderness scout, and you expect it to die or run away after one encounter, then its tracking ability is irrelevant. It should be able to track, though, if you try to recruit the character's aid - that the ability is omitted from the NPC sheet is just to ease bookkeeping. It's the same with NPC clerics, who totally should be able to turn undead, but they save a lot of space in the Monster Manual by not including complicated abilities like that when they're unlikely to come up in the first place.