D&D 5E (2024) NPCs, and the poverty of the core books

[Remathilis]

This is all a question of degree right? It's not wild to have a specialized Oracle of the Moon Pool, it's pretty crazy to have a unique ability on a local sergeant of the watch.

Degree is a factor, but I can argue that even a local military could have specialized techniques they learned for specific situations. For example, the the Borderwatch guards frequently fight against orc raiders on hogback, they may gain abilities that give them advantage vs orcs and to dismount riders. But that is a hyper specialized example.

 

[TiQuinn]

You know what I’ve noticed?

Everyone here, and I mean absolutely naughty word everyone, seems to be a master DM or super experienced player across multiple systems or editions and crazily enough, everyone still disagrees and has different experiences. No newbies here. Everyone here runs perfect games, amirite?

So maybe bragging about how many games you’ve played, or adventures you written, or years of experience you have doesn’t really matter much at all?

 

[Micah Sweet]

First, bold to assume all possible factions or cultures are available, or you would gain the features of them. For example, you can claim heritage from a Vistani tribe, but you will never gain the same prophecy or Evil Eye abilities NPC Vistani have. You can try to emulate them with spells, but you will never be one of the blood, Giomorgo.

As for your Brotherhood of Shadow PC, While you were learning how to be a Rogue/assassin (which includes abilities the brotherhood NPCs don't have) you missed out on the abilities the NPCs get.

And those things are fine. It's not "any PC can learn what any NPC knows". It's "Anything an NPC could know a PC could know, under the right circumstances".

 

[Micah Sweet]

Degree is a factor, but I can argue that even a local military could have specialized techniques they learned for specific situations. For example, the the Borderwatch guards frequently fight against orc raiders on hogback, they may gain abilities that give them advantage vs orcs and to dismount riders. But that is a hyper specialized example.

And IMO there's no reason a PC under similar circumstances couldn't learn those techniques.

 

[billd91]

You know what I’ve noticed?

Everyone here, and I mean absolutely naughty word everyone, seems to be a master DM or super experienced player across multiple systems or editions and crazily enough, everyone still disagrees and has different experiences. No newbies here. Everyone here runs perfect games, amirite?

So maybe bragging about how many games you’ve played, or adventures you written, or years of experience you have doesn’t really matter much at all?

But... but... how will I attain ALPHA-NERD status if I don't brag and boast?

 

[TwoSix]

Bold is emphasis. A drow can be a unique cleric of Lolth that has abilities a PC cleric wouldn't have. I have no problem extending that logic to other classes. An elf swordsman who dedicated 200 years to the art of the blade can do things a PC elf isn't able to do. The assassins of the Brotherhood of Shadow engage in foul rituals that allows them to kill with a single stroke and disappear into shadow. The Cult of the Foul Lord are warlocks who engaged in such blasphemous acts they have unlocked magic beyond the ken of most warlocks.

You want those powers? Retire your PC, join their faction, and after years of training, you too can become an NPC with their abilities. If you want to keep adventuring here and now, there is the Player's Handbook.

This is my approach to building out my 5e games in a nutshell.

This is all a question of degree right? It's not wild to have a specialized Oracle of the Moon Pool, it's pretty crazy to have a unique ability on a local sergeant of the watch.

Why not? The world is wide and vast. Every NPC can have their own backstory if it's relevant.

 

[TiQuinn]

But... but... how will I attain ALPHA-NERD status if I don't brag and boast?

I assure you that if you have as many posts on this message board as we do, you are already an Alpha-Nerd!

 

[AlViking]

Ok so it was a problem 10 years ago but is no longer a problem?

Also when you say "playing" do you mean as a player? If so then what you learned is not really relevant to this because we are talking about DMs creating custom monsters.



No they don't because monsters that are not homebrew come with a CR, and while certain monsters can be more difficult for certain groups (Trolls when the party has no acid or fire), for the most part designing an encounter with off the shelf official monsters within the guidelines will result in an encounter that is not likely to cause a TPK if the players play intelligently and have average rolls. As a matter of fact, within those bounds it will almost never result in a TPK.

I discuss how likely the characters are to die when we do our session 0 with the understanding that death will never be completely off the table. Meanwhile we like tough combats which means there is a risk of death. A few sessions ago, the characters had just gotten done fighting some vampire spawn. It wasn't a particularly dangerous fight, and wasn't meant to be, but there were some terrain features that made it a bit tricky so a couple of the characters were pretty beat up. At that point they overheard an enemy group entering an adjacent room, searching the same area they wanted to search. The players decided it was a good idea to attack the enemy even though they had not had a chance to recover from the vampire spawn fight. A fireball and some bad rolls later, the remaining characters surrendered.

Assuming the players play intelligently is not an assumption I would make, even when we've been gaming together for several years now and they know I don't hold back. In other cases the player's dice were just cold and I was rolling one 20 after another while recharging abilities left and right. Sometimes the dice just go against the players. So I guess I don't know what you're trying to get at, 5e like all versions of D&D, can be lethal or not depending on what the people at the table want. In early versions it was more likely to accidentally kill off players, but if I want a TPK in the current edition it wouldn't be that hard no matter what level the party is. I can always stack the deck.

Meanwhile the guidance in the DMG for 2014 5e was a bit on the low end which to me makes sense. A newbie DM with newbie players should be soft-balling the threat a little bit until they figure out what they're doing. I'm still getting used to the 2024 guidelines while also using monsters from the new MM or more recent books. I've had to dial back a bit on expectations, but I'm still trying to find a balance.

 

[pawsplay]

So what do y'all do when you need a CR 5 bard NPC?

 

[Bae'zel]

So what do y'all do when you need a CR 5 bard NPC?

I'd find a "close enough" NPC spellcaster stat block and replace its spells with Bardic ones, I guess. Give it some Bardic inspiration points to dish out to its allies.

Or if I was really desperate, I'd build a level 5 Bard PC?