Creating Nonplayer Characters

A nonplayer character is any character controlled by the Dungeon Master. NPCs can be enemies or allies, regular folk or named monsters. They include the local innkeeper, the old wizard who lives in the tower on the outskirts of town, the death knight out to destroy the kingdom, and the dragon counting gold in its cavernous lair.

This chapter shows you how to flesh out nonplayer characters for your game. For guidelines on generating monster-like stat blocks for an NPC, see chapter 9, “Dungeon Master’s Workshop.”

Designing NPCs

Nothing brings your adventures and campaigns to life better than a cast of well-developed NPCs. That said, NPCs in your game rarely need as much complexity as a well-crafted character in a novel or movie. Most NPCs are bit players in the campaign, whereas the adventurers are the stars.

Quick NPCs

An NPC doesn’t need combat statistics unless it poses a threat. Moreover, most NPCs need only one or two qualities to make them memorable. For example, your players will have no trouble remembering the no-nonsense blacksmith with the tattoo of the black rose on his right shoulder or the badly dressed bard with the broken nose.

Detailed NPCs

For NPCs who play larger roles in your adventures, allow more time to flesh out their histories and personalities. As you’ll see, ten sentences can sum up the main elements of a memorable NPC, one sentence for each of the following:

• Occupation and history
• Appearance
• Abilities
• Talent
• Mannerism
• Interactions with others
• Useful knowledge
• Ideal
• Bond
• Flaw or secret

Although the material here focuses on humanoid NPCs, you can adjust details to create monstrous NPCs as well.

Occupation and History

In one sentence, describe the NPC’s occupation and provide a brief historical note that hints at the character’s past. For example, the NPC might have served in an army, been imprisoned for a crime, or adventured years ago.

Appearance

In one sentence, describe the NPC’s most distinctive physical features. You can roll on the NPC Appearance table or choose a feature that suits the character.

NPC Appearance

Abilities

You don’t need to roll ability scores for the NPC, but note abilities that are above or below average-great strength or monumental stupidity, for example-and use them to inform the NPC’s qualities.

NPC Abilities

NPC Low Abilities

Talent

In one sentence, describe something that your NPC can do that is special, if anything. Roll on the NPC Talents table or use it to spur your own ideas.

NPC Talents

Mannerism

In one sentence, describe one mannerism that will help players remember the NPC. Roll on the NPC Mannerisms and Quirks table or use it to generate your own ideas.

NPC Mannerisms

Interactions with Others

In one sentence, describe how the NPC interacts with others, using the NPC Interaction Traits table if necessary. An NPC’s behavior can change depending on who he or she is interacting with. For example, an innkeeper might be friendly toward guests and rude to her staff.

NPC Interaction Traits

Useful Knowledge

In a sentence, describe one bit of knowledge the NPC possesses that might be of use to the player characters.

The NPC might know something as banal as the best inn in town or as important as a clue needed to solve a murder.

Ideal

In a sentence, describe one ideal that the NPC holds dear and which governs his or her greater actions. Player characters who uncover an NPC’s ideal can use what they’ve learned to influence the NPC in asocial interaction (as discussed in chapter 8, “Running the Game”). Ideals can connect to alignment, as shown on the NPC Ideals table. The alignment connections here are suggestions only; an evil character could have beauty as an ideal, for instance.

Ideals

Good Ideals

Evil Ideals

Lawful Ideals

Chaotic Ideals

Neutral Ideals

Other Ideals

Bond

In a sentence, summarize the people, places, or things that are especially important to the NPC. The NPC Bonds table offers suggestions in broad categories.

The character backgrounds in the Player’s Handbook explore bonds in more detail, and player characters who uncover an NPC’s bond can use what they’ve learned to influence the NPC in a social interaction (as discussed in chapter 8).

NPC Bonds

Flaw or Secret

In one sentence, describe the NPC’s flaw-some element of the character’s personality or history that could potentially undermine the character-or a secret that the NPC is trying to hide.

The NPC Flaws and Secrets table provides several ideas. The backgrounds in the Player’s Handbook can be used to create more detailed flaws. Player characters who uncover an NPC’sflaw or secret can use what they’ve learned to influence the NPC in a social interaction (as discussed in chapter 8).

NPC Flaws and Secrets

Monsters as NPCs

Named monsters that play a significant role in an adventure deserve the same attention you would give to a humanoid NPC, with mannerisms as well as ideals, bonds, flaws, and secrets. If a beholder mastermind is behind the criminal activities in a city, don’t rely solely on the entry in the Monster Manual to describe the creature’s appearance and personality. Take the time to give it a bit of background, a distinctive quirk of appearance, and especially an ideal, a bond, and a flaw.

As an example, consider the Xanathar, a beholder that runs extensive criminal operations in the city of Waterdeep. The Xanathar’s spherical body is covered in leathery flesh with a texture similar to cobblestones. Its eyestalks are jointed like the legs of an insect, and some of the stalks have magic rings on them. The Xanathar’s speech is slow and deliberate, and it prefers to turn its central eye away from creatures it speaks to. Like all beholders, it sees other creatures as inferiors, though it understands the usefulness of its humanoid minions.

The Xanathar uses the sewers beneath Waterdeep to access virtually any location within or under the city.

The Xanathar’s ideal is greed. It craves powerful magic items and surrounds itself with gold, platinum, and precious gems. Its bond is to its lair-an elaborate cavern complex carved out between the twisting sewers of Waterdeep, which it inherited from its predecessors and cherishes above all else. Its flaw is a weakness for exotic pleasures: finely prepared foods, scented oils, and rare spices and herbs.

Establishing this information allows you to play the Xanathar as more than an ordinary beholder. The complexities of the creature’s characterization create more memorable interaction and interesting story possibilities.

NPC Statistics

When you give an NPC game statistics, you have three main options: giving the NPC only the few statistics it needs, give the NPC a monster stat block, or give the NPC a class and levels. The latter two options require a bit of explanation.

Using a Monster Stat Block

Appendix B of the Monster Manual contains statistics for many generic NPCs that you can customize as you see fit, and chapter 9 of this book offers guidelines on adjusting their statistics and creating a new stat block.

Using Classes and Levels

You can create an NPC just as you would a player character, using the rules in the Player’s Handbook. You can even use a character sheet to keep track of the NPC’s vital information.

Class Options

In addition to the class options in the Player’s Handbook, two additional class options are available for evil player characters and NPCs: the Death domain for clerics and the oathbreaker for paladins.

Both options are detailed at the end of this chapter.

Equipment

Most NPCs don’t need an exhaustive list of equipment. An enemy meant to be faced in combat requires weapons and armor, plus any treasure the NPC carries (including magic items that might be used against the adventurers).

Challenge Rating

An NPC built for combat needs a challenge rating. Use the rules in chapter 9 to determine the NPC’s challenge rating, just as you would for a monster you designed.

NPC Party Members

NPCs might join the adventuring party because they want a share of the loot and are willing to accept an equal share of the risk, or they might follow the adventurers because of a bond of loyalty, gratitude, or love. Such NPCs are controlled by you, or you can transfer control to the players. Even if a player controls an NPC, it’s up to you to make sure the NPC is portrayed as a character in his or her own right, not just as a servant that the players can manipulate for their own benefit.

Any NPC that accompanies the adventurers acts as a party member and earns a full share of experience points. When determining the difficulty of a combat encounter (see chapter 3), make sure to include all NPC party members.

Low-Level Followers

Your campaign might allow player characters to take on lower-level NPCs as followers. For example, a paladin might have a 1st-level paladin as a squire, a wizard might accept a 2nd-level wizard as an apprentice, a cleric might choose (or be assigned) a 3rd-level cleric as an acolyte, and a bard might take on a 4th-level bard as an understudy.

One advantage of allowing lower-level characters to join the party is that players have backup characters if their main characters take time off, retire, or die. One disadvantage is that you and your players have more party members to account for.

Since lower-level NPC party members receive equal party shares of XP, they will gain levels more quickly than the adventurers (the benefit of studying under such experienced masters), and might eventually catch up to them. It also means the adventurers' advancement is slowed somewhat, as they must share their XP with an NPC shouldering only part of the adventuring burden.

Powerful monsters that are an appropriate challenge for higher-level characters can deal enough damage to instantly kill or incapacitate a low-level follower. The adventurers should expect to spend effort and resources protecting lower-level NPC party members and to provide healing when this protection fails.

Adventurer NPCs

If you don’t have enough players to form a full party, you can use NPCs to fill out the ranks. These NPCs should be the same level as the lowest-level adventurer in the party and built (either by you or your players) using the character creation and advancement rules in the Player’s Handbook. It’s easiest on you if you let the players create and run these supporting characters.

Encourage players to roleplay supporting characters as true to the NPCs' personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws as possible, so that they don’t come across as automatons. If you don’t feel that an NPC is being portrayed well, you can take control of the NPC, give it to another player, or simply have the NPC leave the party.

NPC supporting characters are easier to play if you limit their class options. Good candidates for supporting characters include a cleric with the Life domain, a fighter with the Champion archetype, a rogue with the Thief archetype, and a wizard specializing in Evocation.

Optional Rule: Loyalty

Loyalty is an optional rule you can use to determine how far an NPC party member will go to protect or assist the other members of the party (even those he or she doesn’t particularly like). An NPC party member who is abused or ignored is likely to abandon or betray the party, whereas an NPC who owes a life debt to the characters or shares their goals might fight to the death for them. Loyalty can be role played or represented by this rule.

Loyalty Score

An NPC’s loyalty is measured on a numerical scale from 0 to 20. The NPC’s maximum loyalty score is equal to the highest Charisma score among all adventurers in the party, and its starting loyalty score is half that number. If the highest Charisma score changes—perhaps a character dies or leaves the group—adjust the NPC’s loyalty score accordingly.

Tracking Loyalty

Keep track of an NPC’s loyalty score in secret so that the players won’t know for sure whether an NPC party member is loyal or disloyal (even if the NPC is currently under a player’s control).

An NPC’s loyalty score increases by 1d4 if other party members help the NPC achieve a goal tied to its bond. Likewise, an NPC’s loyalty score increases by 1d4 if the NPC is treated particularly well (for example, given a magic weapon as a gift) or rescued by another party member. An NPC’s loyalty score can never be raised above its maximum.

When other party members act in a manner that runs counter to the NPC’s alignment or bond, reduce the NPC’s loyalty score by 1d4. Reduce the NPC’s loyalty score by 2d4 if the character is abused, misled, or endangered by other party members for purely selfish reasons.

An NPC whose loyalty score drops to 0 is no longer loyal to the party and might part ways with them. A loyalty score can never drop below 0.

An NPC with a loyalty score of 10 or higher risks life and limb to help fellow party members. If the NPC’s loyalty score is between 1 and 10, its loyalty is tenuous. An NPC whose loyalty drops to 0 no longer acts in the party’s best interests. The disloyal NPC either leaves the party (attacking characters who attempt to intervene) or works in secret to bring about the party’s downfall.

Contacts

Contacts are NPCs with close ties to one or more of the player characters. They don’t go on adventures, but they can provide information, rumors, supplies, or professional advice, either for free or at a cost. Some of the backgrounds in the Player’s Handbook suggest creating nonplayer characters contacts for beginning adventurers, and characters are likely to secure more helpful contacts over the course of their adventuring careers.

A name and a few choice details are all you need for casual contacts, but take the time to flesh out a recurring contact, especially one who might become an ally or enemy at some point. At the very least, give some thought to a contact’s goals and how those goals are likely to come into play.

Patrons

A patron is a contact who employs the adventurers, providing help or rewards as well as quests and adventure hooks. Most of the time, a patron has a vested interest in the adventurers' success and doesn’t need to be persuaded to help them. A patron might be a retired adventurer who seeks younger heroes to deal with rising threats, or a mayor who knows that the town guard can’t handle a dragon demanding tribute.

A sheriff becomes a patron by offering a bounty for kobold raiders terrorizing the local countryside, as does a noble who wants an abandoned estate cleared of monsters.

Hirelings

Adventurers can pay NPCs to provide services in a variety of circumstances. Information on hirelings appears in chapter 5, “Equipment,” of the Player’s Handbook.

Hireling NPCs rarely become important in an adventure, and most require little development. When adventurers hire a coach to carry them across town or need a letter delivered, the driver or messenger is a hireling, and the adventurers might never even converse with that NPC or learn his or her name. A ship captain carrying the adventurers across the sea is also a hireling, but such a character has the potential to turn into an ally, a patron, or even an enemy as the adventure unfolds.

When the adventurers hire an NPC for long-term work, add the cost of that NPC’s services to the characters' lifestyle expenses. See the “Additional Expenses” section of chapter 6, “Between Adventures,” for more information.

Extras

Extras are the characters and creatures in the background that the main characters rarely, if ever, interact with.

Extras might be elevated to more important roles by virtue of adventurers singling them out. For instance, a player might be hooked by a passing reference you make to a street urchin and try to strike up a conversation with the youngster. Suddenly, an extra on whom you placed no importance becomes a central figure in an improvised roleplaying scene.

Whenever extras are present, be prepared to come up with names and mannerisms on the fly. In a pinch, you can plunder the race-specific character names found in chapter 2, “Races,” of the Player’s Handbook.

Villains

By their actions, villains provide job security for heroes. Chapter 3 helps you determine suitable villains for your adventures, while this section helps you flesh out their evil schemes, methods, and weaknesses. Let the tables that follow inspire you.

Villain’s Scheme

Villain’s Methods

Villain’s Secret Weakness

Finding and exploiting a villain’s weakness can be very gratifying for players, although a smart villain tries to conceal its weakness. A lich, for example, has a phylactery-a magical receptacle for its soul-that it keeps well hidden. Only by destroying the phylactery can the characters ensure the lich’s destruction.

Villain’s Weakness

Villainous Class Options

You can use the rules in the Player’s Handbook to create NPCs with classes and levels, the same way you create player characters. The class options below let you create two specific villainous archetypes: the evil high priest and the evil knight or anti paladin.

The Death Domain is an additional domain choice for evil clerics, and the Oathbreaker offers an alternative path for paladins who fall from grace. A player can choose one of these options with your approval.

Cleric: Death Domain

The Death domain is concerned with the forces that cause death, as well as the negative energy that gives rise to undead creatures. Deities such as Chemosh, Myrkul, and Wee Jas are patrons of necromancers, death knights, liches, mummy lords, and vampires. Gods of the Death domain also embody murder (Anubis, Bhaal, and Pyremius), pain (Iuz or Loviatar), disease or poison (Incabulos, Talona, or Morgion), and the underworld (Hades and Hel).

See the Cleric for more information.

Paladin: Oathbreaker

An Oathbreaker is a paladin who breaks his or her sacred oaths to pursue some dark ambition or serve an evil power. Whatever light burned in the paladin’s heart has been extinguished. Only darkness remains.

A paladin must be evil and at least 3rd level to become an Oathbreaker. The paladin replaces the features specific to his or her Sacred Oath with Oathbreaker features.

See the Paladin for more information.