D&D General Are NPCs like PCs?

[SkidAce]

It boils down to two questions that are being conflated I feel;

1. Should you BUILD Npcs like you do Pcs? (No, use a smaller custom stat block, pick and choose abilities)
2. Should you RUN Npcs like you do Pcs? (Yes, a fireball by any other name* would burn just as sweet)

* there are always exceptions of course, a giant monster with the natural ability to cast say "Control Water" would not be actually casting a spell, and as such would not be dispellable.

However, IF (IF I say, IF...) WotC are replacing spells from obvious spellcasters across the board with non-dispellable abilities, thats bogus.
If they are changing spellcasting abilities to natural abilities for monsters and creatures that do it innately.cool, press on WotC.

 

[Lyxen]

It is not a distinction without a difference. Monsters are treated differently than "Other NPCs"

But they are still officially NPCs, since the section that you are showing is in the Non Player Characters - Roles of the DM. Q.E.D.

Which shows that, although they have a slightly different treatment than other NPCs, certainly not all NPCs were built along the lines of PCs.

 

[Sepulchrave II]

I like fully-fleshed out NPCs built using identical rules to PCs. Sometimes it's fun to give the NPCs to the players for one-shots, to resolve conflicts which would otherwise happen "off screen."

 

[Maxperson]

Beserkers say "Hi!"

Berserkers were an NPC subclass of fighter related to barbarians in 1e. They were in the Dragon Magazine as an NPC class, but in the 1e era where rules varied wildly from table to table, I can and did see Berserkers played as PCs. In 2e Berserkers were a PC kit. And in 3e it was a prestige class.

 

[Maxperson]

But they are still officially NPCs, since the section that you are showing is in the Non Player Characters - Roles of the DM. Q.E.D.

Which shows that, although they have a slightly different treatment than other NPCs, certainly not all NPCs were built along the lines of PCs.

It's not a slight difference. Monsters are built very differently than the NPCs in the Other NPC section. The latter were 0 level or else used class levels and included merchants, guards, elves, dwarves, wizards and all other similar NPCs. Monsters on the other hand didn't generally have class levels and often had special abilities that PCs could not learn.

 

[Irlo]

Berserkers were an NPC subclass of fighter related to barbarians in 1e. They were in the Dragon Magazine as an NPC class, but in the 1e era where rules varied wildly from table to table, I can and did see Berserkers played as PCs. In 2e Berserkers were a PC kit. And in 3e it was a prestige class.

Berserkers we’re in the Monster Manual.

 

[Maxperson]

It boils down to two questions that are being conflated I feel;

1. Should you BUILD Npcs like you do Pcs? (No, use a smaller custom stat block, pick and choose abilities)
2. Should you RUN Npcs like you do Pcs? (Yes, a fireball by any other name* would burn just as sweet)

There are other options than just those two. As I said in my first post, I use a mix. Some of my NPCs(the important ones) are built like PCs, and the unimportant ones are not. If the players go into a city and seek out an Archmage, I'll grab the stat block. If I have a specific Archmage NPC that they will be dealing with or as a BBEG, I will create it as the PC class.

 

[Maxperson]

Berserkers we’re in the Monster Manual.

And in the Dragon Magazine.

 

[John R Davis]

No. They are not and should be built differently

 

[HammerMan]

This is a spin off thread from one of the long and meandering "Monsters of the Multiverse" threads.

The question is relatively straight forward: do you prefer that NPCs and monsters operate by the same rules as PCs, or that they operate by their own rules.

I like the illusion of being the same but for them to be nowhere near the same.

4e did it best but 5e isn't terrible, and with building in spells I think it is going to get better.

I like my "master swordsman" to be just that... and makeing a high level fighter doesn't always work.