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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wyrmshadows" data-source="post: 4449494" data-attributes="member: 56166">No, because, as I state in my last post all the DM has to do is find a believable reason not to involve the NPC. This isn't difficult if the world isn't brimming with uber-NPCs.  Fair enough. FR was guilty of this because there were a large number of extremely powerful NPCs. If I recall correctly, there were also a large number of evil NPC potential villains who were nearly, if not equally, powerful.  Don't put words into my mouth so you can build a straw man and proceed to knock it down. I never said I wanted to have NPCs do anything of the sort. My setting is not a video game with some heroic vacuum that sticks the heroes in a bubble of cool guaranteeing them ultimate badassitude wherever they happen to be. If the PCs wisely seek help then good for them. They help others so once in awhile needing an assist is fine. Sometimes heroes wander into places that are too tough for them at their current level of experience....<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> happens.  Ah, there you go. Don't speak for everyone. Uneeded by you. Unwanted by you. The demographics were provided to allow DMs to set up a believable world that DOESN'T scale up like a videogame. Lord so and so of the Shinging City, a retired adventurer, is 10th level fighter regardless of whether or not the PCs are 1st level or 13th level.  Wow, for a perennial problem I have only really seen it vocalized by an angry minority of FR players. It is far from a burning issue for most non-FR players because most settings do not abuse the NPC/PC relationship that way FR does. Most griping I have heard comes from those who read the FR novels and come to realize that their 3rd level wizard isn't ever going to be Elminster. You want to be an Elminster type badass....earn it. Have your PC do great and heroic things. Hopefully, with skill and a lot of luck he'll live long enough to be Elminster's peer or better if the DM wants to run that high level a game.  Good idea. Fight your way out from under the shadows. Make your exploits so bold that they outshine those of others in the setting. Make your greatness obvious, not by merit of some mystical 'PCs are the heroes' bullocks, but by your deeds. Well realized NPC have backstories and reasons they are who they are. A low level PC is currently living the backstory that others will recall in tales when he is a reknowned paragon of heroism. Then one day someone will outshine that PC and so the world turns. Give me an example of any internally consistant setting that is devoid of heroes and villians far, far more powerful than low to middle level PCs. No published setting, designed for long-term RPing campaigns work that way. I will reiterate the ways to use NPC properly: 1. They should not be the focus of the campaign though they do exist in the world and serve the function of adding to the credibility of the PCs environment. 2. They can be more powerful than the PCs but there must be reasons they cannot be directly involved in the PCs exploits so players don't bridle under a blow to suspension of disbelief. 3. They live or die based on the DM's needs in regards to the story. 4. They can help the PCs when either asked or when their involvement is necessary for the plot. They can provide resources, contacts, succor, etc.  5. They exist to make the world seem real and dynamic and to enrich the game not to upstage the PCs or provide deus ex machina for bad storytelling on the part of the DM.   Wyrmshadows</blockquote>

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