If you were a DM, would you like....

[ghettognome]

As a DM would you like having an NPC villian that is created as a PC? I am writing an adventure that really involves the pc's in what is going on, and they interact with these NPC's throughout the adventure. They generally won't know that the same people they interact with will also be the villian they encounter. I was advised to just create the villians using the NPC templates, but I really wanted to give them flavor, so I created them from scratch as PC's. I thought that any DM who is running this adventure would enjoy having a villian to play like a regular character. I am also semi-new to adventure writing, but I had an idea that I could really expand upon. The advise that I was given stated that if I created each main villian by hand as a PC it would just be too time consuming, but if people like it, I like doing it. For all I know, this is common in homebrews or something like that. I don't frequent these boards enough to know what is common and what isn't, but I want to finish writing it, and knowing if people appreciate that sort of thing will help in the amount of work I put into it.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

It's fine to create an NPC using PC rules. It helps make them a little more 3-dimensional and believable. There are even a lot of PrC's that are more applicable to NPC's than PCs.

Watch out that you don't start thinking of the NPC as your PC, though. The NPC is there to further the story and provide a foil for the PC's, not to let you DM and play at the same time. I've seen and read of too many campaigns where the party felt like they were just there to serve as victims for the DM's pet NPC.

 

[ghettognome]

That is definitely not my intention, I just want to dm to enjoy the villian more by having the extreme detail put into the NPC. It is a 6 part adventure (really long) with 5 sub-villians, and then the final. These are the only ones that I am going out of my way to make as believable as possible, as well as much fun as possible to play against the group when the time comes for the battle.

 

[snarfoogle]

That is definitely not my intention, I just want to dm to enjoy the villian more by having the extreme detail put into the NPC. It is a 6 part adventure (really long) with 5 sub-villians, and then the final. These are the only ones that I am going out of my way to make as believable as possible, as well as much fun as possible to play against the group when the time comes for the battle.

A word of caution... if you're going to put a lot of work into a villian, make sure the combat doesn't last one round. Give him a contingent spell or some minions to summon.

 

[Chupacabra]

Most of the big bad-guy or main adversary NPC's I create are built with character levels, not with the npc class levels. I find them to be more robust and well-rounded this way.

Only very rarely will I create a main villian with only npc class levels. The pure npc classes I feel are just too lacking in that certain je ne sais qua to be as memorable as I want them to be.

 

[ghettognome]

You better believe that I am going to make the battle last! I intend to make it challenging with cohorts and summoned creatures...etc... I can't imagine putting all this work into a great NPC villian and have the battle not last. I am making sure to include in the context writing for the DM the different things the villian will do in which situation, as a way to create a good well rounded battle that leave the pc's feeling heroic when they finally defeat the villian.

I do appreciate the advise, since dm'ing isn't something I do much since I have a regular dm. It takes a dm's perspective and advice to help make the adventure that much better.

 

[Torm]

Most of the big bad-guy or main adversary NPC's I create are built with character levels, not with the npc class levels.

What are npc class levels? Seriously, though, every villain and a lot of the "extras" I've made for any of the games I've run who had an actual name has been built like a PC - partially for detail, and partially because I never know when one of my players is going to decide to up and attack, oh, say, a 10 year old boy they just rescued from bandits or what-have-you.

 

[Kalendraf]

I like to give NPCs as much attention during the adventure creation as possible to make them into believeable foes. Besides the obvious stuff like feats, skills and items, I like to provide them with short histories and motives for why they are here doing whatever it is they are doing.

Though I expect most of these encounters will resort to combat, it really helps to have a character this well thought out so that they can be run more believably in the case of a diplomatic solution.

As someone else mentioned, if the character is going to only last 1 round or 2, then it's not worth it. Make sure you give them a fighting chance if you're going to spend that much time on them.

 

[ghettognome]

I have a background story, and I also have a place for them in the town that I have created, each NPC will have to interact with the group at different times, some times helping, others misleading so not to give away who or what they are. I am writing this with the possibility of posting as a free pdf, the levels of each main NPC is separated enough for the character to level and get more involved in the story, which is going to have a lot of background for the players. The first villian will be level 4, and as of right now every 2 levels until the final one which will be a lot tougher, and will include a nice dungeon to get too, so that will be more than 2 levels. I may change some of it as I develop more of the encounters.