D&D 5E What do you want from an NPC list?

[Sacrosanct]

There has been mention of how one of things players wish WoTC did was release a list of 5e NPCs, what does that look like to you? Does it look something like AD&D's Rogue's Gallery, where you had a hundred human fighters, each one just one line long in a table of varying levels? Or do you want something more like this, where each NPC is covered from level 1 to 20, so it fits whatever level your PCs are?*



*No, I know I couldn't put together a product and distribute it looking like this, with no 5e specific license.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

I prefer seeds and rp info - though the above is certainly useful. Something like the below from Friends or Foes from Dragon Warriors is great for me...

 

[steeldragons]

I prefer something that looks like this:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/entry.php?233753-101-NPCs

Maybe a line of ability scores. A second line with some relelvant/important item or preferred weapons, etc... But not much more.

The top half of your example, without the 20 lvl crunch breakdown would do me just fine.

 

[Sacrosanct]

so when you look for NPCs, you don't worry about level appropriate stats or any of that, but focus on the personality and background? I'm assuming you'll then stat up as needed? Just trying to make sure I understand

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

Stats are good but they're the less interesting bit, for me. I like to have npcs who are interesting, regardless of level. Now, for an NPC villain, you may have to make it level appropriate but a soyrcebook with npcs of varying levels rather than differently leveled iterations of the same NPC, would be ideal. If that makes sense?

 

[neobolts]

I liked the approach in Pathfinder's NPC Codex.

 

[steeldragons]

so when you look for NPCs, you don't worry about level appropriate stats or any of that, but focus on the personality and background? I'm assuming you'll then stat up as needed? Just trying to make sure I understand

Quite right. If it is going to be an npc that will need stats, I'll throw some stats together. Presumably this means they'll have a class, so basic understanding of class features/abilities are needed and probably would require a quick look up [if, say, on the fly I had to make an npc combat-ready].

I mean, I know, as DM, if this is someone more/less/comparably powerful to the party, if they are a classed individual, just by virtue of who they are.

But, yes, the background personality is more interesting to me as a DM and, I find, makes for more interesting interactions/moments in game than having a page of stats for an npc.

To use your example above: I want to throw in a dragonborn fighter for...what? Is this just some guy they run into at a tavern who wants to join their group? [lowlevel]. Is this a captain of the town guard who's responding to some disturbance the PCs caused? [mid-to-high level] IS this the uber-BBEG-mastermind behind all of the party's woes? [super-high level] Your proposal permits any of these, yes. But I don't really need the minutia of "Is he 4th or 3rd level?", or "13th instead of 12th, he gets this/that." And, it seems, this the same [personality-wise] creature whether he's 3rd or 13th? That doesn't seem like it should be the case.

Maybe, just off the top of my head here, if you are going to present an NPC across 20 levels of crunch...maybe provide, say, 3 levels of flavor?

An "Encountered as low level: he's like this. Encountered in middling levels: he's like this. Encountered at high levels: he's like this."

Make him seem like a growing, breathing character. We seem to often forget the "C" of "NPC". That way, also, if they are the type of character that can be encountered more than once over a PC's career/lifetime, they aren't just the same cookie-cutter guy they met 10 levels ago.

And by making the categories, simply, "low/medium/high" level, instead of assigning numbers, that leaves things fluid/flexible enough for groups that say "low level stops at 3rd" while other groups cna say "low level" is anything under 10, or the "9th level is end-of-middling/start-of-high "name" level" crowd and the "you're not high level until 12+" crowd can use whichever personality/background works for their definition of those levels.

Just an idea. But yeah, I personally, generally, don't need/use 20 levels of stats for NPCs.

 

[Bupp]

I like what you did there. I usually don't have time to flesh things out, but I can improvise and build upon the basic personality that you've fleshed out. Having the range of stats available makes it nice to use as a recurring NPC.

 

[The Grassy Gnoll]

This kind of thing from Pelinore (Imagine mag) may float boats - seeds, some stats, plus locales.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Thanks everyone. In terms of disclosure, I was using Rogue's Gallery as my baseline. That was 90% just tables of hundreds of NPCs organized by class on a table. You had one line for each one of a random level and core stats, and that was it. The NPCs who did have a background were only at a specific level. So my goal was to get a range of class/race combinations, and then have values for every level so no matter what your PCs levels were, you could throw in the NPC. I really want to keep that aspect in scope.

As is no stranger to me, I let raw numbers get in the way of things I like the tiered approach. Rather than have stat lines for each level, just have brief stat blocks and seeds for each of the tiers.