Creating a fourth player

[Rapida]

Hello I seek seom help in a small problem I have. The problem being that I only have 3 players, and I was planning on taking them through CotSQ. Since I don't want to weaken every encounter they meet I figured I needed to give them some help. Since I can't find another player in this small town I wanted to give them an npc ally in game. The problem with that is I can't be bothered to roleplay it and the npcs they meet. Plus my players are prone to take any advice a npc party member gives them as the dm telling them waht to do. I don't like that so I decided to give them a construct npc. That is the problem though I'm not sure how to balance it. I thought maybe I could give them a level 8 fighter warforged (I would call it a lesser shield guardian). Then give it the wealth of a level 8 npc fighter. Then give the control of it to the wizard player, but let any of them control it in combat. The reason I posted was to get any advice on an alternative situation. Any advice? oh yeah sorry if my thoughts came out garbled, my mind is a chaotic place and all of this came directly from it without me organizing it (good luck )

 

[Oryan77]

You could introduce an NPC who has had his tongue cut out and can't speak. Just create a Snake Eyes type of character. He can hear and communicate a little with hand gestures, but he can't communicate enough to give advice or take the roleplaying away from the PC's.

Or what about a monster race as an NPC? An Orc or a Half-Orc that doesn't speak common chooses the path of good and teams with the party. He's helpful and a great friend, he just can't speak the parties language.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Create an NPC who is significantly off his rocker, but no so much as to constitute a danger. The PC's will know he's not to be believed, but can interact with him normally. Maybe make him a Jekyll and Hyde character - two aspects fighting for dominance - the mild-mannered wizardly type, and the uber-barbarian type who failed a few rolls on the potion miscibility tables. That way they can almost get two NPC's for one - they can have fun trying to get one aspect or the other to manifest depending on what their needs are right at the moment.

 

[Particle_Man]

Create two NPC's, the mute one who is subserviant to the other, the "Talker". Have the "talker" die in a way that he cannot be brought back (or kidnapped to another plane or something equally out of PC reach) early in the campaign. Have the grief stricken mute NPC follow the pc's like a lost puppy.

This works best with a low charisma (no strong personality, will follow others). The danger is that the other pc's will abuse this and make him the "trap detector/magic item tester/etc." so he has to have enough willpower to refuse to be their b!tch.

 

[rushlight]

I solved the problem by just giving them an NPC. In my group, rarely does anyone choose cleric. However, they still need that magical goodness. So, as a group the players rolled up a cleric, and he's a party character. I don't run him at all, excepting that the players decide he does something I think he wouldn't. No running down the halls springing traps or whatever.

Essentially, he just stays in the background. No one asks him for his input. He just follows along and does what he's told. It seems to work really well, and I've done the same with fighters in a party who needed them, and with wizards when the party needs firepower. Through all the campaigns I've run, no one's expected the NPC to do anything more than his job.

So I say roll up a fighter, let the players assign his feats and items. Let a player control him, or let them share rolling his dice. Continue gaming as normal. Don't worry about why he doesn't give advice about this, or ideas to do that. Just accept that he doesn't and move along!