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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Keith" data-source="post: 2069045" data-attributes="member: 10752">Hi,A couple of things spring to mind on this, for me.  First, wanting to throw a group into some situations that are above their level is a common problem, I think- and I think the best solution is patience: find something for the party to do in between to raise their levels.   A 7th level party might be fine, or might get slaughtered by CR 9 encounters.  I think adding NPCs for this reason, i.e. you as DM are predicting the party's future and are adding resources for that reason alone, not for any in-game story reason, is really a very bad idea for a DM.  I would say simply don’t do it, ever.  Whatever level of role-playing your game has (it may be low, while still being a fun game), it is completely ruined by this approach, I think. Also, to pull the party strength up this way, all of the improvement will really lie with the NPCs- which will make your players feel like they are now the sidekicks for those NPCs.  I’ve played through this type of situation, and it was awful.  To make it worse, while “the party” may beat CR 9 encounters because of some 11th level NPCs, the PCs will be the ones most likely to die, in encounter after encounter, while the NPCs strut about.  Finally, there is the risk that players may suspect you are keeping your NPCs alive regardless of what occurs.  Ordinarily, I don’t think this is a major problem- DMing is story telling, and sometimes an NPC needs to survive as part of the story.  But ones that are “party” members should be in the same boat as PCs, always.  Basically, if you have a good group, don’t endanger it by adding DM-PCS.  They are always lame, in my opinion.   There is nothing worse than watching the higher level DM-PC fight it out with the monster your PC can’t even approach…Wait two levels, is my advice- the other options are not very good ones.  Best of luck in any case, though.</blockquote>

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