D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

[Micah Sweet]

I'm honestly not sure what the answer is for 5E. Arcane Burst came about for the same reason that monster damage increased so much in the 2025 Monster Manual... because the old versions weren't hitting as hard as their CR would recommend, at least not without customizing their spells and running them super optimally. (And don't get me started on the '14 mage having only 40 HP at CR6).

Arcane Burst is clumsy but it may be necessary idiot-proofing.

They should have just lowered the CR IMO. Compatibility be damned!

 

[Chaltab]

They should have just lowered the CR IMO. Compatibility be damned!

Fair! My other thought would be reducing HP growth for PCs, but that seems like a change for a full edition number, not something trying for backwards compatibility.

 

[Lanefan]

3E introduced the idea that all NPCs must follow the same PC rules, in general. And got rid of "special crazy unbalanced powers and abilities". Anything a 3E NPC had, a PC could also have.

As an Old School Gamer, you should just embrace it and make up unique NPCs.

I'm an "Old School Gamer" (at least according to many here ) and I think 3e got this bang-on right for NPCs that are PC-playable species. If an NPC can do it then a PC of the same class and species should at the very least have the potential to do it; ditto for the reverse.

Where 3e got it wrong was trying to expand the same idea to cover a lot of non-PC-playable species.

 

[Older Beholder]

Do you want an NPC Ranger? Good luck, there is no such thing at all.

Personally, for Ranger I’d use: Scout / Scout Captain.
First line of description: Scouts are warriors of the wilderness, trained in hunting and tracking.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

Yeah, this is annoying. I often end up modifying NPC statblocks to make them more PC-like, and I do not love that the 5.5 design has taken PCs and NPCs even further apart.

I would really like to have simplified PC-like statblocks for NPCs of various classes and levels. You can streamline things for usability, but they should still come across as the same thing.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I can only go off of the experience I have. I cannot go off of an experience I haven't. Unless and until I actually experience something different, how can I possibly account for all the theoretical experiences I could have had? How could I even hope to potentially pick out one that even resembled the true state of affairs?

The only evidence I have is what I've experienced.

Well, if you can only go off the experience you've had... why do you keep trying to speak for every other DM out there? This is what you said further up...

Who cares there's a fix somewhere when 3/4 of GMs don't know it's there, 3/4 of those who do will refuse to ever even consider using it, and 3/4 of those who might consider using it have other things they want to focus on instead?

The vast majority of third party products functionally don't exist for most players. The official game and the GM's one favorite product are all most of us ever see.

How do you know how many GMs don't know about the fixes or refuse to consider them or might consider them but focus on other things? You don't. But apparently the only way you can make your personal point abut third-party material into a universal one such that WotC would ever consider changing their policies on it is to speak as though what you believe is one that everyone believes. But that is not true.

If your GMs never allowed for third-party material, so be it. But that does not in any way, shape, or form give you insight on what other GMs do or don't do, so you can't use your personal experience as some sort of credible argument for why using third-party material to solve this "problem" is not an actual solve.

 

[Reynard]

Arcane Burst is clumsy but it may be necessary idiot-proofing.

Another import change for theoretical. 6E: they stop assuming their customers are idiots. It is okay if things are a little bit complicated.

 

[Horwath]

I like NPCs as PC built.

Short rest mechanics are tripled and used as Long rest and casters use Spellpoints so they can go "nova" vs PCs.
5th level wizard will probably not have 6-9 rounds to use all spellslots(depending if using shield/absorb elements).

with spellpoints there is room for 5 3rd level casts and one 1st level.

 

[TiQuinn]

...Okay but do you really want to go back to doing that? Because I would much rather spend my time playing the game and less time prepping it.

Yeah, I can’t imagine spending an hour whipping up one NPC. Or rather, I could, but that’s absolutely not what I want to be doing.

 

[el-remmen]

Maybe someone else mentioned it but there is at least one 3PP product that provides CR 1 to 20 NPCs of every class.

This may not be the WotC support some people want but by allowing for 3PP products and setting up the DMguild they essentially are.

I don’t need NPCs and PCs to be built exactly the same but I do want them to have some recognizable class abilities. So if I want a ranger, I give a scout hunter’s mark and to hit bonus for “archery style” and so on.