D&D 5E Do NPCs in your game have PHB classes?

[CapnZapp]

The only thing I can think of that could make you spend an hour designing an NPC is if it took you that long to customize the spell list. And it would take you equally long to customize the spell list of a monster-statted NPC like an Archmage, so that really has nothing to do with PHB rules vs. MM rules.

I was talking about 3rd Ed. Thanks anyway.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

In the reality which the players agreed to play within, a character so resilient that its mechanical representation has 120+ HP would survive the impact of any fall.

There is no mandate which says that the players can agree to play with the maximum effect of a fall being a roll of damage, but cannot agree to play a game, like D&D, in which the maximum effect of a fall can be narration that the fall was lethal without any dice being rolled.

The main point being that an agreement to play D&D "by the book" is an agreement to let the DM have authority over what is and isn't rolled - you describe your character's actions, the DM narrates the results, involving dice only if there is uncertainty to resolve.

 

[Jediking]

I don't see how these issues of NPC motivation are connected to the minutiae of mechanical build. Nothing about the build of a champion fighter compared to a berserker barbarian compare to a NPC veteran tells me whether or not the character would be interested in glory, sex or wealth.

I'm referring to how a piece of the stat block (like a Special Trait or Action) affects a monster's abilities. A Hobgoblin Warlord is able to inspire leadership, and their Martial Advantage trait gives a mechanical and roleplaying motivation to fight alongside their own allies. Goblins with Nimble Escape are more likely to use hit-and-run.

A NPC Fighter might have the Parry reaction added, but I think a more offensive trait or action would fit a NPC Barbarian better (like Savage Attack). A high Dex NPC with low Str would act and have different mechanics than one with high Str but low Dex.

Unless you are talking about giving NPCs personality traits

No. Sometimes I may jot down a couple words to help me describe one, but that's just a reminder for my own use, not a part of building their stat block. Unless it's something defining for that NPC, like the Inspiring Leader trait.

 

[Jester David]

Fortunately for us, Mister Dresden lives in an interesting world, and he has bills to pay. He also has friends and enemies, who complicate things for him.

But everything that happens to him, it's just a result of him acting like himself, and everyone else acting like themselves. It is their world, playing itself out, without the intervention of outside entities. If there was ever a case where Harry was stuck in a tight jam, and the author reached into the world to solve his problems for him (or the reverse, and the author reaches in to paint a monster in his path where there was none before), then we would all mark that as the point where the series had truly jumped the shark; nobody would care about what happens to him if we know there's a deus ex machina contriving things around him.

Players (and Game-Masters) can influence the game world, but only through the agency possessed by their characters (where background elements are a type of character that is controlled by the GM). That is the central tenet of what an RPG is - that we are all playing characters, and the decisions which we make as those characters matter because there's no omnipotent outsider surreptitiously warping reality around them.

Lots of games have you fill a role. You're a named character of your choice in Battletech, which is a miniature wargame not a RPG. You're effectively filling a role in Clue and could totally speak and act in character. Heck, even in a game as simple as Candyland you're taking a role:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candy_Land#Characters

Playing the role of a named character is a pretty weak sole determinant for what makes an RPG.
Roleplaying games are in a weird nebulous intersection of adopting a role, narrative storytelling, and some random event resolution. It's a very vague concept with very few universals.
Even something as common as "dice" isn't in every RPG as cards (playing or custom), rock-paper-scissors, and even Jenga towers can be used as the random element.

 

[Jester David]

gateway timeout double post

 

[The Crimson Binome]

The main point being that an agreement to play D&D "by the book" is an agreement to let the DM have authority over what is and isn't rolled - you describe your character's actions, the DM narrates the results, involving dice only if there is uncertainty to resolve.

If this character has more than 120 HP, and your DM says that it is "certain" that this fall is instantly fatal, then I don't know what to tell you. Your DM is so far removed from the game in the book as to make discussion pointless, and I can't imagine an entire table full of players putting up with that sort of thing.

The rules actually do tell you when an outcome is certain. If a character has less than 10 HP, then a fall from 200 feet is certain death, and you don't even need to roll; if it has more than 10 HP, then death is not certain, and you do need to roll.

The game is supposed to be about the PCs, and the decisions which the players make on their behalf, but none of their decisions mean anything if the DM goes around house-ruling without telling them about the changes. If your DM wants to house-rule that a fall from 100+ feet is certainly fatal, and this is made known to the players beforehand so they can buy into it, then that's one thing. Otherwise, you're telling them that death is certain when they have every reason in the world to believe that survival is certain.

 

[Shasarak]

The other interesting thing about reading through the Queen of the Demonweb Pit was noticing how many NPCS were stated up as PCs.

It is almost as if it has been happening from the start of the game.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Playing the role of a named character is a pretty weak sole determinant for what makes an RPG.

That is why playing a role is a necessary but not sufficient condition to qualify as an RPG. There's also a bunch of stuff you can't do for it to be an RPG - using out-of-game knowledge to make in-game decisions being the most obvious example.

 

[MechaPilot]

Creating NPCs using different rules than the ones for creating PCs is NOT a problem at all. If you don't like using differing methods for the two, and you want to use the same rules for both, then you have every right to do it that way. You even have every right to spout off that other people are "wrong" if they don't use those same rules for both PCs and NPCs: in doing so, you will reveal yourself as the kind of TTRPG player to whom I hate talking, because the whole "you're doing it wrong because you don't do as I do" concept is one of the things I truly despise about people in this hobby.

 

[MechaPilot]

That is why playing a role is a necessary but not sufficient condition to qualify as an RPG. There's also a bunch of stuff you can't do for it to be an RPG - using out-of-game knowledge to make in-game decisions being the most obvious example.

I have to call BS on that. People use a plethora of out-of-game information all the time. Current HP totals, knowledge of how AoO rules work, +X values of magic items, the odds of hitting target numbers with attacks or saves, etc.