Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5355868" data-attributes="member: 82106">If it is an ally of the party that will actually travel with them then it can be a companion. Certainly any henchman of a PC would be a companion character and probably themed around a class. Otherwise if it will fight the party it is 100% a monster. If it doesn't fight at all then it is a non-combatant. It MIGHT have stats, or maybe even just 1 or 2 key stats, a skill or two, a description, and 3 sentences or less of motives, place in the story, personality, etc. If the NPC grows more story important it might graduate to one of the other levels of being fleshed out.I wouldn't use monsters STRAIGHT as companions. The rules in DMG2 are solid. You end up with something that won't outperform party members but can fill in a weak niche in the party somewhat and be simple to run. The old DMG1 NPC rules I honestly don't use. The resulting stat blocks are glass cannons basically. XP rewards for them are not ever defined, MB doesn't support them, and if it ain't going to fight all that is a waste (and besides most ordinary folks qualify as low level minions, so they have little combat significance to a paragon character anyway).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 5355868, member: 82106"] If it is an ally of the party that will actually travel with them then it can be a companion. Certainly any henchman of a PC would be a companion character and probably themed around a class. Otherwise if it will fight the party it is 100% a monster. If it doesn't fight at all then it is a non-combatant. It MIGHT have stats, or maybe even just 1 or 2 key stats, a skill or two, a description, and 3 sentences or less of motives, place in the story, personality, etc. If the NPC grows more story important it might graduate to one of the other levels of being fleshed out. I wouldn't use monsters STRAIGHT as companions. The rules in DMG2 are solid. You end up with something that won't outperform party members but can fill in a weak niche in the party somewhat and be simple to run. The old DMG1 NPC rules I honestly don't use. The resulting stat blocks are glass cannons basically. XP rewards for them are not ever defined, MB doesn't support them, and if it ain't going to fight all that is a waste (and besides most ordinary folks qualify as low level minions, so they have little combat significance to a paragon character anyway). [/QUOTE]

Verification