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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 7154357" data-attributes="member: 71699">I like this because it gives us a short-cut to place the MM stat blocks into the tiers. A thug will be tier 2 for instance. Please note that I see those stat-blocks as time savers - representative abstracts - rather than a fundamental disconnect between PCs and NPCs. A Mage can be fleshed out with detail from the Wizard character class, for instance.That is something I would like to improve. Do you have any suggestions? One goal is to answer arbitrary searches by the party - is there a Resurrection level Cleric here? (Before anyone chimes in piously - yes, the DM can hand-wave anything. Rules are there to guide and validate.)For me it is useful to have a guideline for about how many such NPCs there could be in our world. That gives context to how significant the presence of a single one is, and how many might be engaged in a given affair. That yields better consistency, which per-Tolkien sustains the fiction. Can you explain better your objection to a guideline for a rough number of them? Do you think you'll need more than that number? Is your concern that if you don't represent every last one of them in your game, your PCs will mutiny?Again I feel this premise is mistaken. The D&D game is expressly made for having random high-level NPCs. And that is what makes it great! Consider the Blackstaff. From my point of view that is a random character. Produced by arbitrary processes in an author's mind that I had no control over. The method proposed suggests at least 1 other Epic level character in Waterdeep. I love that! It makes me curious to know who they are and what they are up to?I feel like a community consensus has emerged around a frank power disparity between 5e PCs and the recommended level of challenge for them. Throughout my DMing career I have found that ultimately, character-class individuals create the most lively challenge for players. Hmm... okay, I'm flat-out saying it is a bug. Why do you think it isn't? What breaks when you challenge PCs with character-class equiv. NPCs?</blockquote>

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