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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 6470844" data-attributes="member: 29398">Full-patch NPC party members are pretty much SOP around here; sometimes due to party recruitment (we need a Thief, let's try to pick one up in the next town), sometimes due to story considerations (we're sending an observer with you to make sure things don't get out of hand, please bring her back alive and in one piece), sometimes when someone's hench becomes significant enough to warrant full-member status (the longest-serving NPC I've ever had started out this way), sometimes for pure entertainment reasons if I-as-DM think things are getting a little stale, sometimes to flesh out an otherwise too-small party (I've both played in and run parties of 2 PCs and 3 NPCs), sometimes as charmed ex-enemies, and sometimes for DM-nefarious reasons* e.g. a spy or traitor...or some combination of some of these.Most of the time the players take care of the dice-rolling, and I make sure the NPCs stay in character and that they don't know too much (I've had parties go way wrong now and then because the players thought an NPC was giving hints where in fact he or she was as much in the dark as they, and just guessing); and if someone's character dies or there's a visitor the NPC acquires a player for a while.  A few times I've had situations where a player likes playing an NPC so much they take it over as their own actual character.And then there's this story: a player had a character who had really fallen afoul of the party and left in a hurry; but the player wanted the character in play and to be accepted by the party.  So we hatched a scheme whereby the actual PC would return in disguise and be brought in as if an NPC (I'd get instructions by note or out-of-game), and at the same time a second character would come in, actually an NPC but run in all respects as if it was this player's PC (again, instructions would be given out-of-game).  The idea was that after a few adventures we could reveal all and, as the actual PC had behaved herself and shown herself to be useful the party would take her back in.  This all worked fine except on the reveal the party threw out the original PC a second time - but kept the NPC!* - and to pull this off there need to be non-enemy NPCs in the party on a regular basis, otherwise the sudden appearance of an in-party NPC sets off too many unjustified-in-character alarm bells.Lan-"giving me an NPC to play is a fine method of murdering an otherwise useful character"-efan</blockquote>

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