Worst Types of NPCs

[JoeGKushner]

So what are the worst types of NPCs you've run and learned from or been a player in a game and said, "Alright, he's got to go."

I remember one type I was hyping on the description so much of an NPC that the party just decided, "This guy is too important. We don't let him join the party." or something along those lines. It was pretty funny when it happened at the time.

The types of NPCs I hate, are those that are better than the group's specialist who stick with the group for a long period of time. I have no problem with a pop in appearance of a mentor or other higher level character but hate it when they travel with us.

I also hate it when we're basically the NPC henchement and have to fight other NPCs who are overpowered only to be saved by our NPC patron. We called that NPC theater.

 

[VirgilCaine]

I also hate it when we're basically the NPC henchement and have to fight other NPCs who are overpowered only to be saved by our NPC patron. We called that NPC theater.

What if you had to save the useless NPC boss (who cons clients into thinking he is a "great adventurer" and he only knows how to con people) from failing and to save your own butts from the situation he got you into...?

 

[JoeGKushner]

What if you had to save the useless NPC boss (who cons clients into thinking he is a "great adventurer" and he only knows how to con people) from failing and to save your own butts from the situation he got you into...?

Quite different and probably worth a good laught or two. "What do you mean you brought us here to fight him? We're supposed to be handling the orcs and ogres!"

 

[Lord Pendragon]

The types of NPCs I hate, are those that are better than the group's specialist who stick with the group for a long period of time. I have no problem with a pop in appearance of a mentor or other higher level character but hate it when they travel with us.

I also hate it when we're basically the NPC henchement and have to fight other NPCs who are overpowered only to be saved by our NPC patron. We called that NPC theater.

We usually have the opposite problem. Our group (at 10th-level now), is fairly high-powered, and we face tough threats as a result. NPCs that wind up traveling with us are very fragile, and it's extremely difficult to keep them alive. We've lost one NPC ranger, and nearly lost an NPC cleric three times in the same adventure (he nearly went under every single encounter that round.)

Indeed, the fragility of our NPCs is one of the things that has thus-far kept me from picking up a cohort for my paladin.

So my PC often tries to keep NPCs separate from the party, not because they'll steal the show, but to keep them from getting killed!

I can sympathize with your issue as well, though I've been lucky enough not to have DMs ever use the "uber-NPC" technique in my gaming groups thus far.

 

[FreeXenon]

In my games there are usually one or 2 important, and sometimes idiosyncratic, NPC's the players hate or love-to-hate.

The ever powerful and absent minded mage mentor. You would go to his tower and the door would never be in the same place or might not even be on the same (ground) floor (it is not usually visible either). To get his attention you would approach his tower and say something like " Oh mighty, great, and powerfeul Oz!" and poof he would usually appear. He appeared once sleeping upside down in the air - snoring. Sometimes the door will appear and it will be in a place that they cannot get to - say several floors up. They liked the absent minded elvish wizard.

In the same campaign they were hounded by, and had to get the help of, a master of a thief guild (prophecies are annoying). In the very beginning of the campaign he hounded the PC's as they were rogues and were "working" in his territory. In the end of hte campaign they were so happy to be able to kill him and his Number One. The Number One schooled one of the pc's in the first session.

I have another absent minded mage in a campaign I am running but he is absent minded for a reason. They PC's are really annoyed at his incompetance. They are even more so annoyed at his scowling and micromanaging secretary.

 

[diaglo]

the NPC know nothing.

the players can't decide what they want to do. so they place the decision in the hands of the NPC. and then get upset when he is completely wrong.

 

[fredramsey]

I'd say the worst has to be one that steals the spotlight from the characters.

Now, that's a broad statement for sure, and yes, often characters have to meet NPCs who are more powerful than them (especially at low levels).

But it's hard to keep that balance, to keep the characters at the center of things when they meet the stereotypical high level wizard who is powerful enough to take over a kingdom but doesn't.

 

[Rystil Arden]

The biggest mistake of an NPC I ever created? The well-stocked NPC wizard magic item shoppe owner. He had a really quirky and interesing backstory, as well as an obsession with collecting every Ioun Stone from the 2E Encyclopaedia Magica, but he was still a problem. I've learned from my mistake not to do this again, although with the advent of the Magical Artisan feat, he has not been as much of a problem in that campaign (he refuses to sell for anything less than slightly marked-up over full market price, and if you want a deal, you can forget it, whereas if you travel across the world to exotic marketplaces, you might find a wizard with the Magical Artisan feat for the item you want who will make it for 75% of the usual market cost. Plus for common items, there's the undercutters who are attempting to drive competitors out of business by selling the items at what would be at creation cost if not for Magical Artisan)...Still, no matter how tempted you are to make a well-stocked magical item shoppe owner, and how natural it seems for a metropolis to have one, learn from my mistake and resist the urge unless you want the players treating magical items with very little awe.

 

[Triana]

once, and only once

I ran a game a little over a year ago. I had the most interesting rogue npc. I liked him so much I decided that I would give him a back story. Bad idea.
Once it was done he lasted about two games. My players decided they did not like this guy ( he WAS trying to kidnap someone) and they beat him to a bloody pulp by some good dice rolls.
SO the worst kind of NPC is the kind you work hard on, because I swear players seem to like killing them quicker.
I learned my leson on that one.

 

[Chimera]

Hands down, the GM's Pet Badguy.

The one who always gets away, no matter what.

Who won't go down no matter how hard you hit him - or if he DOES go down, he's got a contingency teleport to get away.

The one for whom the GM willingly violates the rules in order to let him get away. Blatantly, right in front of you, usually with a hand-wave excuse.

He teleports in on you in the middle of nowhere just to mock you - sometimes for no apparent reason other than to give the GM some jollies.

He kills NPCs near you just to show you how powerless you are to stop him.

And worst of all, he has some crappy name that gets the GM off but elicits nothing but groans from the players.