DMG2 Excerpt: Companion Characters

[MrMyth]

That excerpt was awfully wordy, and almost the opposite of "concise".

I feel as if this piece of text could be edited and condensed into a short paragraph, and that could be it. That feeling might turn out to be wrong.

I don't know - I really wouldn't want them to add these to the game in such a half-hearted manner. Companion characters are a very tricky element to add to a game. They can easily cause any number of problems - overshadowing the PCs, unbalancing the fights, slowing down combats, distracting players. Tossing them in with less mechanical support for balancing their stats, or with less advice on how to use them and what to be careful of, seems a recipe for disaster.

Sabotaging newer DMs for the sake of a little extra space seems to be exactly what the 4E DMGs are trying to get away from. They can afford to explain things thoroughly and go into detail. I can't see any decent rules or advice that would come from summarizing that entry into a single "short paragraph" - what is it you would cut out to get it 'down to size'? I'm genuinely curious here, because I don't see too much that could easily be trimmed.

The paragraph giving examples of companion characters in the genre?
The paragraphs and bullet points cautioning about the potential dangers of adding in a character?
The paragraph about the problems they can solve?
The advice on allowing the PCs some input, but keeping it primarily within the DMs hands?
The rules and advice on actually constructing the character to fit a balanced role in the party?

I don't see any of that as out of place, or any part that could easily be removed to make it more 'concise'. I mean, maybe you could trim down one paragraph overall, but any more than that, and you start losing actual advice and material.

The thing to keep in mind is that these rules are mainly for making combat relevant NPCs - figures that actually adventure along side you and help accomplish your goals. If all you need is a simple 'henchman', sure, you probably don't need something this extensive. But adding in a character is a complicated enough task, with a strong enough impact on combat, that doing so without solid guidelines would have a negative impact on a lot of games, and hardly worth saving that extra page or two of text in the book.

 

[filthgrinder]

I'm already using a monster stat block for an NPC traveling with the party. It'll be nice to have the tables for hitpoints/healing surges and level advancement.

I actually REALLY liked this article and wished we got all the charts and tables they referenced. I'm planning on introducing a "companion" character into my game TOMORROW.

The players are going to rescue some captured slaves from their old village that has been sacked. However, amoung the slaves is a rather curmudgeony goblin. He happens to know the location to the gnoll hideout that the PCs ultimately need to get to. I'm hoping the PCs follow the railroad and drag the grumbling goblin along and I like adding a colorful companion to the game.

Instead of just taking his stat block, I used the monster builder and gave him a few extra abilities. To flesh him out, I was wondering about how to handle healing surges and the like. This excerpt is written just for me!

 

[MichaelSomething]

Like most crunch in this edition there is a bit too much tweaking and fiddly bits. The automatic level adjusting kind of rubs me the wrong way.

No bonus gained from magic items? Taking the care to equip your companion well should be rewarded.

You complain that there's too many things to manage yet you also complain when there isn't something for you to manage. That can be confusing...

 

[Cam Banks]

I had players going through DL7 (Dragons of Light), which is absolutely bulging at the seams with NPC companions. At one stage, every player at the table had a hireling to manage (Theo the Gnome, Vanderjack, Silvara, Theros Ironfeld, etc). And yet, it was surprisingly streamlined. They each had just enough flavor to feel unique (Vanderjack's shifty mercenary tactics, Theros's all-or-nothing hammer swings), yet they took very little extra time to play.

This is exactly how to handle the Classics modules when the NPC roster swells to huge size.

And have you read my Vanderjack novel yet?

Cheers,
Cam
Ex-Pat Kiwi

 

[Scribble]

I can't see any decent rules or advice that would come from summarizing that entry into a single "short paragraph" - what is it you would cut out to get it 'down to size'? I'm genuinely curious here, because I don't see too much that could easily be trimmed.

I was actually thinking of asking that exact question, but you beat me to it. What exactly should be trimmed?

 

[gribble]

I can see a place for them, although I agree with those who have pointed out that the existing NPC/monster rules already handle this stuff, so I'm curious to see how these rules are different.

More concerning to me is the glaring rules error. The first bullet point talks about adjusting the companions hp from the monster stats, and then a later one instructs you to just ignore the monsters hp and use a table... which is it?
I hope this isn't copy from the published book!
:S