D&D 5E DM's: How Do You Justify NPC's Having Magic/Abilities That Don't Exist in the PHB?

[Umbran]

Strong disagree. PCs are not a different species in my game.

Yes, but you are asking the questions of people who aren't you. So, your disagreement isn't going to be relevant to our answers.

 

[see]

For ex., you want your BBEG to appear in hologram/projected form before the pc's and kill one of his own minions with Power Word: Kill. His projected image then sits and has a conversation with the PC's, inviting them to join his forces.

Sure looks like a 9th-level version of project image to me.

(5th edition project image, 7th level, does everything described except serve as a conduit for spells. 3rd edition project image, 6th level, can serve as an origin for spells, but the range was much shorter and the caster had to maintain line of effect to the image. Adding the 3e spell conduit to the 5e spell is powerful, but not such that it's clearly beyond other 9th-level spells.)

How does one justify the fact that this individual has access to magic that isn't available to the PC's

"It's a unique spell the BBEG invented."

and what might you say to the party wizard who says they want to learn to do that?

"Can you cast 9th level spells? Cool, now you have to acquire or invent it normally."

I, personally, decidedly do not like it when NPCs of (theoretically) the same nature at the PCs have powers PCs cannot get. So if my BBEG is a human wizard, everything she does is something a PC human wizard could, at least in principle, duplicate. ("Sure, that power comes from cutting off your hand and replacing it with the Hand of Vecna. Feel free to do that.")

 

[Dausuul]

Looking for some input on how you DM's justify in-game mechanics or magical effects that some npc's may have, but aren't listed in the PHB? For ex., you want your BBEG to appear in hologram/projected form before the pc's and kill one of his own minions with Power Word: Kill. His projected image then sits and has a conversation with the PC's, inviting them to join his forces.

Fun idea but there's nothing in the PHB to allow this specifically. How does one justify the fact that this individual has access to magic that isn't available to the PC's and what might you say to the party wizard who says they want to learn to do that?

Many thanks in advance for any thoughts!

Often, when NPCs in my game have special powers not available to PCs, it's the result of having submitted to the will of something very big and bad. You, too, can have toxic blood and the ability to vomit napalm; you just have to let a demon lord drive you insane and make you his permanent thrall. Any takers? Step right up, folks, the cult is always recruiting...

Then there is the class of NPC powers that's a simplified version of stuff PCs can do -- basically just streamlining the mechanics to make them easier for me to manage. For those, if a player notices the difference and asks about it, I'd just be up front about it: "This is because I have to run an entire world instead of this one dude, so I'm cutting out the detailed bookkeeping."

In the case where neither of these applies, when a player asks, "How can my character learn to do that?" I'd say, "Good question. What are you doing to find out the answer?" If the player wants the ability enough to devote effort to finding out, I'll start homebrewing a feat or epic boon or prestige class or whatever. Otherwise, it shall remain a mystery.

 

[Mallus]

I arrange a bunch of words in my brain and then open my mouth. Sometimes I skip the first part.

 

[Bill Zebub]

We are empowered to make things. Monsters have lair abilities and other effects. We can make monsters.

Why couldn’t an npc have abilities we make that are not for players?

Yeah, this is a big one. Why are NPCs a special case from monsters?

 

[Warpiglet-7]

Yeah, this is a big one. Why are NPCs a special case from monsters?

I think it can help keep mystery—-when everything is “too lawful” in a world of magic I feel a little uninspired.

I like rules and mechanics but like when they are broke and things are made.

 

[Thommy H-H]

Let's flip the question: why would anyone else in the world be able to do what PCs do?

The characters don't know they're taking levels in a class. As far as they're concerned, their experiences and the benefits they gain from them are unique to themselves. A random wilderness scout can't fight things for two Adventuring Days™ and then get an animal companion; the party's ranger, however, can form a mystic bond with a beast of the wild early in their adventures because this is a story about a person who does that. They might be the only person in the game's world who does that, or it might be a more commonplace thing, but even then, their animal companion is tied to them by their particular story and the adventures they've had. If they meet an NPC 'ranger', that character need not share any of the same precise mechanics, because their path to ranger-like abilities was necessarily different.

Basically, as DM, you shouldn't be treating PCs' class features as just normal things that a person like their character would inevitably pick up by killing a certain number of orcs or whatever. Class levels are a gamist conceit that help to create the experience of fantasy heroes growing from random nobodies into mighty demigods. Every PC is blazing their own trail, and their class features should feel like organic outgrowths of what they got up to in order to attain them. The fighter gets better at swinging their sword because they did a lot of that. The wizard gets better at casting spells because they're the one doing all the spellcasting. The classes aren't vending machines that anyone can shove XP into to get features.

At least, that's how it works at my table.

 

[Micah Sweet]

PC rules apply to PCs only.

Agree to disagree on that one.

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's not a thing that's answerable in a general, context-free manner. It is a question that can only be answered in a case-by-case way, and usually doesn't need to be answered at all, as the PCs aren't asking the question.

Again, I agree in principle, but in this case the OP said the players were asking.

 

[Maxperson]

From the DM (or the player), in-universe, whenever the situation comes up.

The vast majority of the time an explanation never comes up. The enemy used the ability or cast the spell and ends up dead. Nobody to find an explanation from. Sometimes you find the spell and see that it requires something unique or so hard to find that it might as well be uncastable.