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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spinozajack" data-source="post: 6616149" data-attributes="member: 6794198">That sounds about right.Usually for NPCs to get a power boost I give them a few levels of champion. This gets them heavy armor proficiency for an AC boost, and a to-hit boost and other stuff from the class. Once I made a battlemage who was basically just an EK and the PCs were running scared when the NPC flew in wearing black platemail with a flaming sword and unleashed two fireballs in a row on a third group of unsuspecting NPCs (action surge). It was a three-way fight. That one display convinced the players to set aside their differences and join forces with this NPC, whose ultimate goals they knew to be largely different than their own.I also agree about pre-selecting the NPC abilities. Most of the time, ranger spells are basically Hunter's Mark and Cure Wounds, while I haven't played a Druid but I've seen one briefly. I guess just cast the easiest, most obvious and straightforward spells you can. Use one of the excel character generators that have spells built in, and make sure your NPCs have the spell effects and ranges handy so you don't have to look up various spells mid combat. Spell lookup is the real time waster. Most of the other abilities are fairly straightforward but you still need to have a rough idea how to play these classes.I don't recommend picking any complex character options for NPCs, at most they will get used a couple times. Recommend you actually play these classes yourself before DMing them as DM PCs (or NPCs). Being a player will really educate you on which ones are a lot of work to maintain and will guide your character creation or spell selection decisions later on. Best to learn a few spells really well. Actually I recommend memorizing the most iconic spells of the PHB. This will more than pay for itself early in the edition's run because you will probably end up knowing many of them off the back of your hand regardless. Might as well get a head start.</blockquote>

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