Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 6471585" data-attributes="member: 58197">As seldom as possible. I try to nudge my players away from recruiting NPCs into the party. I hate running party-NPCs.Including an NPC in the group puts me in the position of having to constantly switch roles in real time; one second I'm the world responding to the party's actions, the next second I'm a party member trying to engage with the world. It's a pain in the neck, especially when there's information the party (including the NPC) doesn't have but I do. Furthermore, I have to balance "have the NPC contribute and not feel like dead weight" against "don't overshadow the PCs." Finally, the one chance I have as DM to relax and take a breather is when the party is debating strategy. If I'm running a party member, I can't do that.All that is more hassle than I want to deal with and run a campaign at the same time. If the party is too small, it can be fleshed out with henchmen/women, and let the players run them alongside their own PCs. If there's an NPC who has to accompany the party for some reason, I'll usually write up a stat block and hand it to a player to run.</blockquote>