Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Character Builds & Optimization
Do you build NPCs to live or to die?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 4766945" data-attributes="member: 58197"><p>I agree with your general approach, although I'll add that I don't necessarily build NPCs to die per se. If a 1st-level party meets my campaign world's equivalent to Raistlin Majere*, he's not going to be designed so that they can take him down. But he will be designed to make the game more fun for all concerned.</p><p></p><p>For NPCs I want the party to fight, I design them to make the fight fun, and ultimately to lose - but not before giving the party seven kinds of hell, because a fight that's too easy is no fun for anyone. (If the party is supposed to win easily, I just handwave the entire combat - "You attack the beggar. He dies. What's next?"</p><p></p><p>Since I run 4E, I'm not sure how I would go about "optimizing" a monster or NPC anyway. They aren't built the way PCs are, after all. I'm not digging through sourcebooks to find their feats and spells; I'm simply glancing over the DMG guidelines and then picking their stats out of the air - well, I was doing that in 3E too, but now the game no longer provides elaborate hoops to jump through in order to justify my out-of-the-air numbers. Hence, trying to maximize their combat stats is an exercise in pointlessness. I can assign them stats in the billions if I want, so why bother?</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 9px">*Not Elminster. My worlds do not have equivalents to Elminster.</span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 4766945, member: 58197"] I agree with your general approach, although I'll add that I don't necessarily build NPCs to die per se. If a 1st-level party meets my campaign world's equivalent to Raistlin Majere*, he's not going to be designed so that they can take him down. But he will be designed to make the game more fun for all concerned. For NPCs I want the party to fight, I design them to make the fight fun, and ultimately to lose - but not before giving the party seven kinds of hell, because a fight that's too easy is no fun for anyone. (If the party is supposed to win easily, I just handwave the entire combat - "You attack the beggar. He dies. What's next?" Since I run 4E, I'm not sure how I would go about "optimizing" a monster or NPC anyway. They aren't built the way PCs are, after all. I'm not digging through sourcebooks to find their feats and spells; I'm simply glancing over the DMG guidelines and then picking their stats out of the air - well, I was doing that in 3E too, but now the game no longer provides elaborate hoops to jump through in order to justify my out-of-the-air numbers. Hence, trying to maximize their combat stats is an exercise in pointlessness. I can assign them stats in the billions if I want, so why bother? [SIZE=1]*Not Elminster. My worlds do not have equivalents to Elminster.[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
Character Builds & Optimization
Do you build NPCs to live or to die?
Top