Who Was Your Favorite NPC?

[dshai527]

I have had so many in my campaigns, but the one that sticks out is Black Bart. He was supposed to be a easy pirate encounter to start a campaign but after the heroes nailed his foot to the deck of his ship and left him (yes in Yellowbeard fashion), he became a reaccuring joke. Two more encounters left him with a hook hand and eye patch to go with his now pegged leg.

The standard has been, and still is, that at some time in the campaign the adventurers will meet Black Bart and Crew as he still hunts for the original heroes who humiliated him. He is always a fun encounter, and not always a bad one depending on the plot.

As a DM it has become a fun task to sneak him into the campaign when everybody has forgotten about him. Its a blast.

 

[Clefton Twain]

Hmmm

It's a toss-up between the two following:

1. A goblin lackey named "Bait" who latched onto the half-orc character in the party. He was fun to play as he got kicked around.

2. A not-so-smart halfling named Berbil Brandybritches. He just got introduced to the party and is still with them. I'm not really sure why he's fun...probably because he's not a cookie cutter character.

 

[Ringmasta]

My favorite NPC was Hunts-In-Silence a Tabaxi warrior with a real mean streak and a magic item that granted him the ability to move through earth like it was water. He was brought in as a one-shot opponent originally and ended up a major antagonist for the remainder of the campaign.

In fact, the campaign kinda died before they ever managed to defeat him, though they did hurt him enough to run him off a time or three (he tended to run for it after the slightest injury so that he could set up a new ambush later on).

There was one battle in particular that was just awesome, in which he and another tabaxi (a PC) carried out a drawn-out duel while leaping between treetops 50' above ground level.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Ixthil LeVaye- A Dark Elf that is not quite a bad guy but unmistakeably not a good guy. I had my PC's scratching their heads for MONTHS about this Mercenery. He was always polite to them, and never harmed them directly, but he set them against all kinda of challenges that could have destroyed them but ended up just making them stronger. In the end, they cornered him and let him go, they just couldnt kill the gentlemen Drow!

 

[Numion]

That'd be the chief criminal inspector of Scardale, a gnome named Thimble Toefoot. His combat skills were pretty unimpressive, but he usually just let the PCs dig their own holes. Surprisingly easy. In game stats he was around Exp level 5 or 4.

 

[chatdemon]

Jbyril Filjin, High Priestess of Lolth

That's the joke actually, she is in reality a fairly low level mage/thief (2e, sue me) drow who is unfortunately deluded into thinking she is the chosen of lolth on oerth. Lot's of fun to play, because the party never could decide whether she was crazy, or if she did actually talk to lolth.

I liked her because she was one of the few chances I got to run a truly vile NPC without the party just summarily executing her.

She's currently holed up in her cavern lair in the Crystalmist mountains, researching a method for becoming a drider (which she is convinced is the form lolth actually wants her children to ascend to, I told you she was deluded.)

Oh, and she's got this wacky girl/girl dominatrix type thing going on with a a fallen Yochlol. The demon believes the delusions, and thinks that serving Jbyril will help her get back in lolth's 'good' graces.

It's been a while since the party ran into her, I might have to drag her up again for a bit of fun.

 

[Larry Fitz]

So many possibilities...


Slinky the kobold thief who did not speak common and became a follower of the party's leader? He was convinced that the phrase "Don't touch me" was some form of endearment. "PC's favorite quote was when Slinky was trying to learn Common he started saying "ooo ike inky" for "Do you like Slinky?"

Mangog the Beholder who along with his Half-demon henchmen Gorth ran one of the most powerful city states in my world as an aside to seeking Immortality. The PC's were in it with mangog up to hteir eyeballs when Gorth turned on his master and stepped up to become their archenemy for the next 5 or six years of gaming.

Thourngrym the insanely powerful CG Wizard who was secretly behind half the PC's histories. He could be menacing and ominous one moment, and then uproariously funny the next.

Old Gruff, a Ranger who befriended the party and sacrificed himself fighting the Valkyrie that came to take a fighter in the party that he had come to think of as a son. Gruff was just that, a tough wizened old guy, like the old Bear Trapper in Jeremiah Johnson.

I think my favorite is Nadir the LE Transmuter who saw that the future was the PC's and decided to hitch his wagon to their wagon train.

Larry Fitz
Instigator/GM

 

[Guilt Puppy]

Though I'm sure he was totally non-canonical as I played him (all I've read are the few references to him in the core books), Kas.

I mucked with the D&DG templates a little, basically to reduce the bennies for hero-deities. Kept him human (as in, non-outsider), made up some back-story that I liked.

The PCs were never exactly intended to run into him, but because he was on the PMP and in the area where the PCs were adventuring (and, indeed, tied to the plot-line they were investigating), I decided to put him together, Just In Case. Mainly I saw it as an exercise in using D&DG's mechanics.

Lo and behold, the PCs do run into him -- and they're all around 5th level. They go to interrogate him (he's leading an army of kobolds through the woods, which makes sense in plotline, and they figure "if he's working with kobolds, he can't be that tough!"), the Cleric of Corellon manages to Bluff himself off (yes, successfully), as "Voorhas the Ranger, keeper of these woods!" and demands to know his business.

A rough exchange of dialogue, and Kas issues a warning-threat ("let us along our way or die," or something of the sort.)

Cleric casts Hold Person on Kas. I had made the decision not to change his type to Outsider (based on Vecna being Undead), so he's not immune. Critical fumble. Kas is held.

The Barbarian makes a coup de grace attempt when they realize his (obviously subserviant) companion is whupping on him. Kas has a huge Fort save, naturally, but it's not infinite. I do the math -- he needs an 18 or higher to survive. 19. Dodged the bullet of trying to decide whether or not to fudge the roll.

At this point the party realizes they're in over their heads, and run off...

Much later... Players enter a tavern -- shortly they after, they hear a bellow from across the room. "VOORHAS!"

Yes, Kas is drunk, and happy to see anyone he knows in this world. You see, the guy who summoned him was a staunch Vecnite, and betrayed him at the first opportunity. The characters notice the bandaged stump. And no hard feelings about the attack -- he's not going to contest a man's right to protect "his woods."

Kas, fresh from the Nine Hells, has no money, and few material positions -- so he's perfectly willing to let the players hire him to act as their bodyguard. And he acts as one, for a while, until they go to check out an orc encampment in some old tombs. Intimidated, the players send Kas to investigate -- after he's been gone a lengthy while, the Rogue goes (while invisible) in to check out the situation, only to find the deity slugging down ale and swapping war stories with the orcish general.

Deciding he's more trouble than it's worth, the players decide to leave him behind.

Which was fun to play out as a storyline, but it's harder to express the more enjoyable part -- playing out the personality of this rugged, ancient, drunken general. "I'll tell ya, it's nice being able to just sit here and drink and relax and drink with ya, after being stuck in the damn INFERNAL PLANES for SIX HUNDRED FRICKIN YEARS. Y'd think you might find a cuppa mead there, y'know, but no, not mead, just trenches, trenches you dig for SIX HUNDRED FRICKIN YEARS."