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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 4449461" data-attributes="member: 32740">Not at all. If an NPC wizard, king, or high priest goes off on some ass-kicking world-saving quest you just don't need the PC's to follow them around and watch.  If the PC's are presented with an opportunity to go on some ass-kicking world-saving adventure then they SHOULD NOT be thinking they need to report this to the king first, or tell Mr. Wizard about it so that he can deal with it INSTEAD, or ask the High Priest if he'll help them survive the experience by going with them. Keeping the NPC's from stealing the stage that is there for the PC's to shine on is the goal.  You don't have to make them weak and doddering to accomplish that - but it might help if the setting has provided an NPC whose mere existence screams for their constant appearance as deus ex machina. If you want villains taken care of by NPC's then do so.  If you want villains taken care of by PC's then keep your NPC's away from them and LET the PC's take care of them.  If the PC's are outmatched then either you screwed up by letting them get involved before they were ready or the players screwed up by ignoring your clear warnings that they weren't ready (and in that case the PC's get what's coming to them and the NPC's still don't need to be involved.) In 3rd Edition it was very easy for DM's to assume that everything was SUPPOSED to scale to the PC's current level of ability - unless he'd really paid attention while reading the DMG and noticed that encounters were supposed to range from occasionally very easy to very infrequently having one or more PC's dying.  And reading comprehension was again important in noting that the demographics tables were provided for use by the DM in a pinch and not as a model to base every campaign upon.  That meant, of course, that DM after DM kept filling his world with unneeded and unwanted NPC's.  And then there's the perennial problem existing since 1E AD&D of DM's assuming that because there are xp tables up to 20th or higher and written descriptions of spells up to 9th level that there MUST be NPC's of that level whether you want them or not and that they HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THERE - that the PC's are NEVER breaking new ground. Getting out (and staying out) from under the skirts of NPC's is a good place for that.</blockquote>

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