Simplifying NPC Spellcasters

[CrimsonCarcharodon]

Have you considered only giving your spellcasters access to spells if you already know how they work? Instead of inventing new monster abilities out of whole cloth, you just need to remember how fire bolt and burning hands work. You don't even really need to track spell slots, unless you expect combat to last more than three rounds.

That's the easiest way to do it, yeah. For most cantrips, I just put it down as an attack, same way I would on my own character sheet.

Sometimes, though, I really like having crazy 'spells' that are different enough so that the players don't go "oh, it's just a fireball. 8d6 damage, we can handle that." Same reason I don't color code my dragons by alignment, really.

 

[Quickleaf]

Have you considered only giving your spellcasters access to spells if you already know how they work? Instead of inventing new monster abilities out of whole cloth, you just need to remember how fire bolt and burning hands work. You don't even really need to track spell slots, unless you expect combat to last more than three rounds.

Sure. That does take time to familiarize yourself with the spells. And when you’ve got multiple editions of spell descriptions floating in your head, it can get tricky. And trying to track lots of other factors apart from that caster, and it’s easy to forget. Well, there’s a lot to be said for having it right there at your fingertips.

One thing I’ve considered as far as spell slot tracking is only to track the highest two levels of spell slots, which is generally enough to get through a combat with all but the toughest contenders.

 

[S'mon]

Sometimes, though, I really like having crazy 'spells' that are different enough so that the players don't go "oh, it's just a fireball. 8d6 damage, we can handle that."

You can always cast it in a higher level slot.

Quantity has a quality all its own. In a recent fight with NPC Saralya the Vrilya mage (level 8 caster) and some Vrilya soldiers, I basically just spent the battle repeatedly casting lightning bolt for 8d6 or 9d6 damage. It worked very well and the PCs were certainly worried as the damage stacked up. She could have used other spells but piling on damage was a pretty optimal tactic.

 

[CrimsonCarcharodon]

You can always cast it in a higher level slot.

Quantity has a quality all its own. In a recent fight with NPC Saralya the Vrilya mage (level 8 caster) and some Vrilya soldiers, I basically just spent the battle repeatedly casting lightning bolt for 8d6 or 9d6 damage. It worked very well and the PCs were certainly worried as the damage stacked up. She could have used other spells but piling on damage was a pretty optimal tactic.

Fair enough. I do like the idea of an NPC caster throwing out some spell that leaves my players going, "uh, what? That's not on my spell list!"

I also just really like a recharge mechanic, especially for innate casters. Something like an explicit NPC wizard, yeah, a condensed spell list is probably the right way to go, but even then I like to add in little custom touches, even if it's just an existing spell with some reskinning. Like a fireball that deals both fire and poison damage, or eldritch blasts that deal necrotic damage.

Maybe it's just me, but for NPC wizards and such, I like to emphasize that they're not lone wolves. They have minions and lackeys, undead that they've raised, monsters that they've created (owlbears, anyone?), even apprentices. That kind of thing tends to stack up in a battle.

 

[Li Shenron]

One of my main problems with 5E is the way it treats NPC or monster spellcasters, in that it treats them exactly like PC spellcasters. Managing spell lists and spell slots is fine for PCs, since they only have one character to manage. But a DM might be running, for example, one main spellcaster bad guy, two acolytes with their own spell lists, plus any other NPCs/monsters around. It's a lot of brainpower needed for the DM to keep track of all those spells, especially since some spells may be coming from separate sources - homebrew spells or just spells from books like Xanathar's or something on the DMs Guild.

Looking back, I think 4E did magical NPCs the right way: a short list of combat powers written up in the stat block itself. So that's how I'm going to build spellcasters from now on. Now, a lot of my casters will also have ritual books, with actual spells, but since ritual spells take way too long to cast in combat, it won't really come up in play as much, at least not while I'm juggling stat blocks.

I like cantrips, since a creature throwing magic around every turn just feels magical. Some recharge abilities are cool, too. Like, for the below goblin, if I wanted a higher-level version, I'd probably throw in an equivalent of Burning Hands or similar on a 5-6 recharge.

I made some house rules to add a few spellcasting levels to monsters: http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1495

I think you may want something different in order to have higher level spells immediately, but anyway my idea was to have simplified monster spellcasters.

 

[S'mon]

Maybe it's just me, but for NPC wizards and such, I like to emphasize that they're not lone wolves. They have minions and lackeys, undead that they've raised, monsters that they've created (owlbears, anyone?), even apprentices. That kind of
thing tends to stack up in a battle.

Oh, definitely. All NPC casters need non-caster allies in 5e, same as pre-3e. 3e was the only edition where I could challenge a whole party with a single pre-buffed caster NPC.

 

[MwaO]

DM's Guild has a few very useful pdfs called "Simple Caster NPCs" from Andy Pearlman. They are inexpensive and well written.

Thanks!

 

[DND_Reborn]

Maybe it's just me, but for NPC wizards and such, I like to emphasize that they're not lone wolves. They have minions and lackeys, undead that they've raised, monsters that they've created (owlbears, anyone?), even apprentices. That kind of thing tends to stack up in a battle.

Oh, definitely. All NPC casters need non-caster allies in 5e, same as pre-3e. 3e was the only edition where I could challenge a whole party with a single pre-buffed caster NPC.

I would have to say that depends a lot on the NPC caster and the scenario. We've had two big BBEGs that were lone casters: the first was a CR 7 clerical type, the second an archmage. In both battles we barely triumphed with several PCs down for the count (or death save). The second battle against the archmage we lost. Nearly TPK except one PC.

Having "back-up" for casters is fine and can definitely add more oomph to the encounter, but not essential to make the encounter challenging. Even in 2E that was the case, but I can't say much for 3E or later since I didn't play them until 5E.