Teh.BEST.NPC.Evar!!!11!!!!

[Mark]

Spill your guts about the best NPC you've ever run as a DM or seen run by a DM. Level? Male or Female? Class? Race? Items or Gear? How was it portrayed vocally and physically? Was it described in a way that is impossible to forget? Do you have nightmares or fond memories about this NPC? Have you absconded with it for your own game (if it was someone else's)?

 

[sukael]

Simple--the 30-headed pseudonatural half-fiend anarchic 200-HD divine rank 0 tarrasque I put together once.

Your character hasn't seen fear until he's faced a creature that can do 2000+ damage a round and has to take 12000+ damage just to even -think- about dying.

Now that we have obligatory munchkin bait out of the way, how about some NPCs with actual personality?

 

[Crothian]

His name was Jacob. He was a half elf, raised by his half sister. His parents were killed defending angainst an invasion by another country. He was a woodsman by trade, but really just a kid. He was 15 when the players first meet him. He guided them along hunting trails and was able to be a great ally in the woods that he knew. He looked up to the characters and wanted to be like them. His sister Karen really did not approve of the adventures or the effect they had on her brother. She understood that adventureing was a dangerious job, but Jacob didn';t see that. And as you can guess it ends badly. They let Jacob come along with them on adventures and they never thought anything bad would happen to him either. But they encounteresd a Dragon and Jacob died. It is the only time I have had players get tears at the gaming table. Jacob was an innocnet boy who looked up for them for years in the campaign and out of the campaign. He was a major NPC and a friend they had. And when they had to go back to Karen and explain how her brother had died there was not a dry eye in the house.

I never meant for him to be a tragic hero or even as big an NPC as he was. But the players took to him, and agreed to let him come. THe dice fell where they fell.

I've had plenty of other fun and interesting NPCs in my games by Jacob will always be the one I remember the most.

 

[the Lorax]

Best NPC Evar

I think one of the best NPCs I ever ran was a cleric/mage named Glass. Glass was remembered as a huge pain in the ass, but most of all for his death which gave at least 2 players multiple nightmares and even now, 8+ years later, gives chills to at least one of them.
Glass came from a large family and was the son of a PC whose player no longer played in with the group. This was back in 2nd ed. days. Glass was a thorn in the side of several PCs (upon who he blamed his fathers death) for about a year of real time. Family members and friends were kidnapped and killed. Houses were assulted and ruined. Plans ruined. Glass and his siblings and cousins caused terrible havoc. After one particularly dastardly event (where a hidden sanctuary was invaded), the PCs managed to capture a few of Glass' cousins. Using the cousins, the PCs lured Glass into a confrontation. Into an area where he could not easily teleport out of. Glass was protected by some crazy AlQuadim spell that kept his heart outside his body, as well as his life. The players were getting annoyed and even though they had him where they wanted him, he was still laying down the smack with spells until someone used Mordenkainen's Broken Dispel...er I mean Mordenkainen's Disjunction on him, breaking the spell. Glass tumbled to the ground with the final words gasping from his lips..."There's...a...hole...in...me......." as blood began to trickle from his lips and stain the front of his shirt from the inside. Death scenes are SO important!

 

[demiurge1138]

You know, I was about to start a thread much like this.

The one NPC who inspired the most hatred in my games was probably Locke. The party first met Locke when a TPK made me do a forced reset. The cleric of the previous party was wearing a circlet of blasting in the shape of a golden tiara, and Locke met with the party when they were making preparations to storm the mansion that claimed the last party's life and take the bounty of the necromancer who lived there.

Locke, a tall, nattily dressed human man with ginger hair and a broad smile, explained that he was a dealer in gems and art. He told them that he was trying to contact the dead cleric to arrange a sale, and would pay handsomely for the tiara if they would return it to him. They braved the mansion, got the necro's head for the bounty, and returned to find Locke and bring him the tiara. The paladin in the new party had found in the mansion an amulet that could cast true seeing 1/day, and when he detected evil on Locke right after the exchange, he used it to satisfy his curiousity.

At which point, I the DM grabbed my right wrist in my left hand and rotated my right hand (the effect actually works in long sleeves). The right hand then rotated the left, and I described to them the tiger-headed humanoid with backwards facing hands that just took the tiara.

Everyone's jaws dropped. Explicatives were shouted, in and out of game. The paladin drew his sword, and Locke the rakshasa teleported away.

From that point on, everywhere they went, they found traces of Locke's "art trade" everywhere they went. The illithid that kidnapped one of the halfing rogues was carrying shipments of rubies engraved with a cursive L and a tiger's paw. The same symbol appeared on the collars of the displacer beasts that they fought off when defending a museum of magical artifacts (almost all replicas...) from kuo-toa trying to steal a cloak that served as a companion piece to the tiara (the tiara and cloak were dedicated to a mysterious demigod known as the King in Yellow...). They were assaulted by Locke's minions when they were trying to track down the kuo-toa theives, and found ample evidence in their stronghold that Locke provided them with materials and goods.

They hated him. And the best thing? He's still at large. If I ever return to that campaign world (it was an alternate universe Greyhawk), Locke will come back with it.

Demiurge out.

 

[Kelek72]

My favorite was a mentor/ much needed adventuring buddy of the party named Caraskan. He was a conjurer who inadverdently helped the party get sucked into Ravenloft, (Azalin's realm). He died saving the party from one of Azalin's vampire secret police guys.

My players really liked a throw away character I created named Thrain. He helped the dwarven battlerager escape from some humans before the dwarf met the rest of the party and the player insisted on having the party meet up with him again. When they found him they kept hanging around him until I finally said "he goes home...for real guys, he goes home. He's not a plot hook or an adventure seed. Leave him alone." :\

 

[dvvega]

I have many NPCs that I have liked and admired ...

*** Run by Other DMs
It would have to categorically be Jeeves, Bodyguard and Butler to our party's nemesis. Our DM then is a Bond fan. He knew every movie, villain, scenario, setting, gadget, read every book, owned every DVD etc etc.

Jeeves was the ultimate amalgamation of many of the bodyguards. I can't remember the nemesis' name but I can remember Jeeves. He had a polished English accent, he had fantastic manners, even whe he was beating the living snot out of you, he was polite, cordial, formal, and diplomatic.

*** d20 D&D
Jobe. The party needed a cleric - badly. So I had developed a min/max healer, and a couple of "dodgy candidates" like the vermin priest, and then there was Jobe. He started out being a young wandering member of the Sword Brotherhood. He used a bastard sword, he wasn't the best healer, the female priest was the obvious choice. But the party wanted to interview people for the position. I honestly thought they would hire the female healer, but Jobe got the job. It was his manner of speaking (soft spoken, short to the point, no wasted energy), his manner of dress (stylish manga meets Equilibrium meets goth), his reliance on his sword arm and not magic items. It was definately something.

He couldn't heal very much, he was dedicated to "The Way of the Sword" but he excited the party, made them respect him more than any NPC has been respected before, and he intrigued the female members of the party as well. Somehow Jobe hit a nerve deep inside the men - pure coolness, and in the women - a real man who doesn't need to show off.

He still lives, the party ensured he never died once.


*** d20 Modern
Not so much as a single NPC but rather a group of them - "The Twelve". Developed for a convention game I wrote/ran, they were the 12 apostles, the 12 men of the Pope, his specialist team. They wore high tech armour, they hunted down evil wherever it lay, they were weapons experts, stealth/infiltration experts, the Navy Seals would be embarrassed by them.

And they wanted to kill a young boy the party had adopted/were protecting. No effort was great than the annihilation of the 12. Every single member of this group was killed. Nay dismemebered then killed.

The clash of ideology (religion annihilating things they didn't deem worthy for example) triggered reactions in players that you see everyday on news bulletins but don't experience. Very satisfying.

As you will note, the NPC that stick in my mind have emotional attachments. If an NPC can't generaet emotion in me, they don't get remembered.

D

 

[ThirdWizard]

2nd ED AD&D Ravenloft.

His name was Chris and he was lower level than the PCs. But every time I rolled an attack, I rolled high and got criticals often. The PCs thought he was ultra-powerful, but he was only like a 3rd level fighter. The party eventually died, but they're just waiting to find out what happened to him in a later campaign, after surely defeating various dark lords and escaping from Ravenloft.

 

[A'koss]

There's one NPC I was reminissing about recently who used to be favorite in our old Greyhawk campaign - a paladin by the name of Mathus Atrim. He was an NPC who grew out of several campaigns, eventually ending up as a General in the Furyondian Army and some years later - a kind of living legend that other PCs looked up to.

He wasn't what you'd call your stereotypical paladin, who are often defined by their very concious efforts to be Lawful Good. Mathus just went about like any other guy, did what was right and never seemed to struggle to make any decision. Despite his somewhat laid back attitude, Mathus's life however, was certainly not uneventful...

He's probably best know for his luck with women - as in, all bad. And I mean that literally - they were all bad - as in no fewer than 28 succubi have tried to seduce him over the years. He's flabberghasted as to why they keep trying - especially since if a woman shows even the slightest interest in him, 6 paladins will suddently appear out of nowhere and be all over the girl before Mathus can even blink. Needless to say, the man has long since resigned himself to bachelorhood...

And if you though his luck with women was bad, his luck with horses is probably even worse. Let's just say he's long lost count of how many of these poor bastards have died in his service. It's a popular, albeit quietly whispered, saying amongst the Furyondian soldiers that Mathus sitting on any animal is the kiss of death.

Fortunately, the man has hobbies - he loves to build things. He doesn't really care what though, so long as it's big.

He once built a really, really, big chair...

Did I mention Mathus's poor luck with women?

Mathus's most recognizable possession is a battered old medium shield which even Demon Lords recognize on sight - Irongate. Made by the dwarves of city of the same name, this rather plain looking shield with the faded Irongate logo looks like it was used a Tarrasque's chew-toy. But the damn thing still works. That shield can take virtually any kind of beating and in Mathus's hands has saved many a PC's lives. He even dove in front of a blast from an artifact called the *cough* "Eye of Traldar" which basically sent him packing a quarter mile away, killed yet another horse and vaporized his +5 Plate - but gave the PCs a chance to reach the wizard an impromptu biopsy...

What a guy...


Cheers!

 

[Kuld]

Durin Broadaxe: Dwarven Cleric LVL 1 / Bard LVL X
Durin was born into the Broadaxe clan, for which he still holds much pride. However, in the eyes of his clan, he did not follow the course of his destiny. He was to continue the work of his forefathers, who were all great clerics and champions, revered by his people since the ages of old.

In the beginning, he gave it his all and did fairly well, given the high standards he had inherited, but deep in his gut, he knew it wasn’t to last. When he finally came of age, he confessed this to his guild master. Expecting the discussion, the wise cleric suggested that Durin should leave the stronghold, listen to his heart, and find his true calling. The following spring he left the safety of the stronghold along with the first caravan of the season.

After years of traveling, he finally settled down in the city of Silverymoon and married his adventuring companion, Learra, a human warrior of no small reputation. They had one child; a daughter named Taera, and lived very comfortably in the "old town" district of the city. There, Durin found his calling. He became a premiere instructor at the Silverymoon University, teaching bardic knowledge and history with an emphasis on architecture and engineering.

Time had passed and his wife eventually passed on from old age. With his daughter grown, he decided to adventure once again.

More background to come as campaign progresses...


Taken from my weblog. This NPC is probably the most diverse yet. He is an archeologist in pursuit of ancient artifacts (not necessarily magical) and is a good resource for the PCs as far as quests and info. Gotta love'm.