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For questions about NPCs (non-player characters). NPC refers to any character in an RPG whose decisions and actions are handled by the game master (or a designated assistant) rather than by a player.

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Do NPCs in Chuubo's have Will, just like the PCs, or do they resolve their Intentions mainly through the Skills they have, plus things like Tools and so on? I know PCs can get a really high Intention ...
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I recently played a session of Chuubo's Marvellous Wish Granting Engine where I had a character doing A New Job Quest: I wanted to hit a Major Goal of spending money on someone else and I pitched to ...
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I'm running a game for a bunch of teens and they have stumbled into a dungeon. In this Dungeon of Forgotten Things, they are going to find some helpful items and some clues for upcoming plot points. ...
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The new Monster Manual has gotten rid of a lot of classic humanoid monsters. There are no more drow, orcs and duergar. The book is instead instructing us to use NPCs. Here is the text (in excerpts, p. ...
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In a recent discussion, my counterpart was of the opinion that "you" in the PHB applies only to player characters. The argument was that since it is the "Player's Handbook", the ...
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I'm unable to handle NPC vs. NPC situation, such as a group of PC with allies (say, a group of dwarves) fighting a band of Orcs. Since rules are PC-centric (TN, bonuses, defense etc.) what do I have ...
piffy's user avatar
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The party is about to start my own 5e conversion of the classic 1e module Q1: Queen of the Demonweb Pits. I am considering converting one particular NPC, In roll20, this ability is listed as being ...
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I'm reading through the Shadowdale: the Scouring of the Land adventure module for D&D 3.5e and I found some inconsistencies about Syluné's fate. The spoilers below are integral to the events of ...
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FFX is one of my favorite games of all time. The story, world building, themes and plot twists are something I wish more people could experience. No one else in my d&d group has played the game ...
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I am new to DMing. I have done two sessions as of now (two one-shots). The world is a homebrew of mine. The idea is to make a one-shot and see if the players (3 friends) are interested in it, and ...
Benjamin Bernigaud's user avatar
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To preface this, I'll start by saying that I've been playing D&D for years! I've been a player in plenty of campaigns, and have ran a couple 5e campaigns of my own. My point is, I have quite a bit ...
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So, I came up with a concept for an NPC character for pathfinder 1.e that involved a grey paladin with the pact servant trait not just being basically a pseudo hellknight, but being a direct worshiper ...
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I've been playing a D&D campaign with some friends for a while, we made 4 sessions already and between these sessions, there's strange man who appears to aid or guide them towards an objective. ...
Henry's user avatar
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NPCs emulating character classes are many. A very incomplete list would include: Abjurer, Archer, Blackguard, Bard, Champion, Conjurer, Diviner, Druid... You get the idea. Among the monsters there's ...
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Can characters/NPCs understand what a crit (Nat 20) is? If so, can they tell that Adamantine Armor negates crits? Context: I'm trying to figure out if there's any good reason Tier 4 PCs wouldn't bring ...
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I'm running a superhero campaign in Cortex Prime. During our bank robbery session, one of the robbers managed to escape with the cash and jump in the getaway car, which started to drive off. Our ...
DLosc's user avatar
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One of the characters of our roleplay is an elf with amnesia. His background is that he lost his memory and is looking for someone but doesn't remember who he was. I asked the player for more details ...
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In Tyranny of Dragons, on page 184, an NPC stat block makes no sense. I’ve checked the errata and have found no correction. It says the NPC “is a 7th-level spellcaster that uses Intelligence as his ...
Kerrick's user avatar
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I hope someone can give me a good answer to my question: In my campaign there is a NPC, an important NPC. But for story reasons they should die. I want to do this in a big fight (with the NPC helping ...
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I'm running a thought experiment to see how many DnD 5e commoners it would take to defeat an Ancient Red Dragon. Use the following constraints for the scenario: For the commoners, use the stats on ...
Dacromir's user avatar
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hopefully you folks can answer this for an older game system I've been trying to run. I'm new to this so maybe I'm missing something. To start, I don't know if the wounds listed on statblocks are ...
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This involves two player characters: A wealthy cleric and a sorcerer with detect thoughts. They are cooperating whereby the cleric is giving gold to NPCs for free, simply asking them to pray to a god ...
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Spoilers for Giantslayer book 5: if you suspect you're one of my players, don't read further! Preamble ramble Anvil of Fire, the fifth installment of the Giantslayer original Adventure Path for ...
Zachiel's user avatar
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I have a player who has decided that she wants to move on to playing a new character in a long-running Numenera game. So, I want to convert the existing character into an NPC. Since Numenera/Cypher ...
Savanni D'Gerinel's user avatar
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We're playing the Dragon of Icespire Peak adventure (from the Essentials Kit). My PCs are trying to get Adabra Gwynn in the Umbrage Hill Quest to come to Phandalin with them, and they are very ...
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I'm fairly new to D&D and I wanted to create my own NPC's. What is the currently accepted "correct" way to specify spellcasting for a monster or NPC? Does it go under the "actions&...
Willem's user avatar
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This question contains minor spoilers for the Kingmaker adventure path I am using the new version of the Kingmaker adventure path (the one released for Pathfinder 2e). During the rushlight tournaments ...
Patta's user avatar
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I am a beginner DM and also a player. In our current adventure (Rise of Tiamat), where I am a player, we are tracking some shady individual (Mr. X) involved with a cult. We recently entered a tavern, ...
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9 votes
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The books for a published adventure I've GM'd recently (PF1's Wrath of the Righteous) contain a lot of background information about NPCs, events and locations, which is very fun to read for me as a GM ...
Petr Hudeček's user avatar
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In the game I'm playing, the DM gave each member of the party control over an NPC in combat, in addition to our own characters. My NPC is a scout, so she can use her action to make 2 melee attacks ...
Jonathan Greco's user avatar
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I'm struggling to work out what to do with allied Supporting Characters (allied NPCs) during a skirmish conflict in Dune. Some parts of the rules seem to imply the GM treats them like they would an ...
DrBob's user avatar
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The Pathfinder 2e Gamemastery Guide includes stats for a bunch of NPCs, including bandits, pirates, and (city) guards, but it doesn’t include any kind of soldiers. Looking at the online indexes for ...
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The Leadership feat has always interested me, but many times I have seen people call it overpowered, unbalanced, and ripe for abuse by min-maxing players. And these are all fair points, not just about ...
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The Monster Manual (7) says: A monster's hit points are presented both as a die expression and as an average number. For example, a monster with 2d8 hit points has 9 hit points on average (2 x 4 1/2)....
Kirt's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
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When the DM is rolling initiative for its monsters, does their Dexterity modifier apply, or does the DM just roll a d20 on its own?
Benny S.'s user avatar
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I was toying with the idea of my character, a Chronurgy Gladiator, sending gold home to support his family (mother, father, and two younger sisters). This idea was spurred from the oddly succinct ...
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29 votes
10 answers
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I'm a newish DM, and I'm having a hard time coming up with a strategy to roleplay conversations between NPCs. For example, in the game I'm currently running, there is a "town council" ...
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3 votes
1 answer
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Pseudo was a heroic Grue metamorph in 2E Freedom City's Freedom League (I have a vague memory that he was not in the 1E book, but I might be wrong on that count). In the 3E Freedom City book, he's no ...
Sean Duggan's user avatar
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I'm currently running a guild heavy campaign with the two major guilds being the Bandit's Guild and the Adventurer's Guild. The bandits guild runs in territories where noble rank and lord rank bandits ...
TheDCD9000's user avatar
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1 vote
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Let's say a regular NPC Duergar is Large, and wants to hide behind something Smallish, or a Mind Master is currently Tiny and he knows he'll be making Athletics checks in less than a minute. Their ...
Niall Forman's user avatar
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I'm working on a supplement for Strixhaven where the players take the roles of counselors at a magical summer camp. I wanted to list some potential tie-ins to other products, specifically where child ...
The Grumbleputty's user avatar
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7 votes
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One of my player characters disguised themselves as a prince to marry a princess in order to steal something. Along the way, the PC and the NPC fell in love for real. The problem is that they are both ...
PotatoLeeg's user avatar
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7 votes
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I have this concept for an NPC that I would like to throw into a world I am building for my friends. We are all novices to dungeons and dragons. The NPC is a Baron in a backwater village that sits in ...
Andrew Micallef's user avatar
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14 votes
1 answer
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I've been GMing PF2e for a few months, but I still struggle with understanding stealth, especially when it comes to enemies. An example from an upcoming dungeon I'm planning: There's a room with an ...
stardust_hippi's user avatar
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10 votes
1 answer
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The Waterdeep: Dragon Heist adventure has some rather colorful NPCs that, as part of their backstory, were adventurers exploring the Undermountain in the past. Among them are: Durnan, the proprietor ...
Nobody the Hobgoblin's user avatar
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8 votes
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Due to time constraints, I simply do not have the time any more to read through the list of all the feats, all possible enchantments, and all the prestige classes, to then build a boss. What are the ...
Digius's user avatar
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41 votes
9 answers
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In my current campaign, a plot point is going to involve the PCs finding a dying man who has been kept prisoner and beaten repeatedly over a long period of time. He is able to give the party some ...
Darth Pseudonym's user avatar
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Most of the references to DMPCs I see in fora and stuff seem to be describing characters played by DMs who want to have their cake and eat it too—both to DM and to play. In these references it’s often ...
Joel Derfner's user avatar
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22 votes
8 answers
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A NPC in my adventure (set in Eberron), which I lead as DM, wants to replace some maps in a book with different maps. The person removes the maps by cutting out the pages containing them and somehow ...
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25 votes
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A Green Hag (MM, p. 177) has an Innate Spellcasting trait that includes the spell vicious mockery. The description of the vicious mockery cantrip states, in part: [The target] must succeed on a ...
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