Most fun NPC or DMPC you've ever run

[Scorpions__]

For me I think my favourite NPC has gotta be the epic level Binder, Chuck Dirt, that I'm currently running in my campaign. A big hairless dwarf with psionic tattoos of all the vestiges sigils on him. He's totally into the 'you can do bad things for good ends' morality and for me he's a nice break from the old wise man with the beard stereotype for a recurring NPC that drops hints on the plot.





DM[F]R

[Silly Wizard]

I had to DMPC a cleric at one point, due to our cleric dropping out of the game and no one to fill the healing role [no druids :(]. I ended up just running the cleric's character as a healbot. At one point, I screwed up while doing an encounter and a player died. He decided to become our cleric- so I decided that the cleric I was running became distraught with his failure to save a comrade and left the group to become a stronger life-giver.

Cue many weeks later: the entrance of the BBEG's new apprentice- an old face, and a newly apprenticed necromancer whose been corrupted into believing his comrades let the PC die.

[Forever Curious]

I had to DMPC a cleric at one point, due to our cleric dropping out of the game and no one to fill the healing role [no druids :(]. I ended up just running the cleric's character as a healbot. At one point, I screwed up while doing an encounter and a player died. He decided to become our cleric- so I decided that the cleric I was running became distraught with his failure to save a comrade and left the group to become a stronger life-giver.

Cue many weeks later: the entrance of the BBEG's new apprentice- an old face, and a newly apprenticed necromancer whose been corrupted into believing his comrades let the PC die.

That's just awesome :smallbiggrin:

[Vitruviansquid]

I think mine and my players' favorite NPC is a Ficker, the historian, from a Savage Worlds campaign I'm running where the basic premise was that the players are "like the ghostbusters, but in the Renaissance."

Basically, what happened was that a bunch of undead were waking up in burial mounds that, in the present day, have been seen as tourist attractions and charmingly quaint antiques of the past. The players were hired to exterminate the undead and investigate the incident. Despite all reason to believe that everyone in the area was in mortal danger, Ficker would demand, in a shrill, nasally voice, that the players not harm the undead and damage anything of historical importance. His lectures about the importance of history was always high-handed and obnoxious, his motto is that "our Past is where we come from and where we will go" (whatever that means)

oh, and he sleeps in the nude.

[BarbarianNina]

A weasel. One of the players had a gnome character and decided to use her racial ability to speak with burrowing animals, so I got to try to develop a typical weasel. Unfortunately, I failed to make weasels a running gag.

On a more serious note, Lord Marric Delson, the LN and honor-bound clan chieftain who the CN party rogue (who had massive daddy issues resulting from a *very* controlling wizard-king father) randomly decided to form a father-son bond with. He was fun to play for his own sake, and more fun to play because he gave the rogue character development.

[LoneStarNorth]

I guess I'll pick just three to keep it brief.

My online game has Soffik, who was magically conjured into my D&D game from another world. He's sort of like a small girallon, but smart and possessed of magical flight. He doesn't approve of any other kind of magic, nor any technology more advanced than a sword. He's also completely amoral, but smart enough not to kill people randomly. He joined the party briefly after they managed to lift the geas that was making him attack them. It was fun having the party travel with such a loose cannon type, especially knowing that he could probably kill any one of them if he felt like it.

My RL game featured the gelatinous paladin briefly. He was a gelatinous cube with that template that gives it an Int score, which then gained greater intelligence by eating a headband of intellect (among other items) and chose to become a paladin. In the underdark. He helped the party wipe out the illithids as a race, but perished in a fight with a shadow dragon shortly afterwards. He's one of the most famous heroes of my setting, and stories are told of him in every tavern in the world, though most people think he's fictitious. I mean really, it's such a stupid character. Couldn't possibly be real.

Both my D&D groups have had experience with Oberon, King of the Fairies. In my setting he's a god of the hunt, and believes that it's in mankind's best interest if he scares the crap out of them periodically, so they don't get complacent. He singles people or groups of people out and puts them through 'tests', which usually involve fighting for their lives against some damned soul that he collected from a PREVIOUS test. Both parties have only barely survived such tests, and more than a few one-shot adventures ended with Oberon laughing over the mangled, terrified corpses-to-be of the PCs just before adding them to his collection.

Good fun! I have lots of other NPCs that I like but I'll give someone else a turn.

[Jerthanis]

In my Exalted game a while back, one of my players took Followers, but it's very hard to personify 30 - 100 people following you around, so I took their spiritual leader and gave him a name and a personality to represent their opinions on the character's actions and leadership.

Warden of Sacrament was a very stoic, serious man with a great knack for organization and a head for numbers. When the PCs inevitably settled down as permanent rulers of a city-state, Warden was the filter through which the eccentric mandates of the idealistic rulers went through before it reached the people. He also structured government so that despite the PCs as the heads of state, he himself levied more actual power.

When they needed to make a political alliance with Chiaroscuro they had to agree to marry their ruler to one of the Tri-Khan's nieces. When they met the woman, she was a shrewd, calculating businesswoman who didn't suffer fools. The group's Sidereal took a look at her fate and basically related it to the party as, "She and Warden are going to have a billion babies."

It was probably the only time I've run a DMPC advisor/mouthpiece that lasted more than a few short sessions. By the end of the game, people were making Chuck Norris style jokes about Warden, which was funny because he wasn't any stripe of Exalt.

[faceroll]

Thrallin & Ballin, a pair of dwarf miners that filled the clerical rolls for a low level party exploring goblin infested caves. They carried kegs of stout on their backs and spent most of the time getting wasted and casting party-friendly spells.

[Fhaolan]

A NPC I ran once as a one-shot guest DM/player in another person's game: Pex, the half-ogre sorcerer, who's dire rat familiar was *considerably* smarter than he was. Pex was basically a 8' tall child capable of walking through a brick wall without noticing, running around, confusing the heck out the party. The rat who Pex named Kitty, but who called himself Fluffy... yeah, I was having fun with this one... was desperately trying to become a wizard on his own because he believed that when Pex eventually killed himself by accident, Fluffy would cease to be sentient as he would no longer be a familiar. The rat-logic being that if he could make himself be his own familiar, he'd retain sentience.

I'm now the DM full-time for that group, and they still dive for cover when I pull out the Pex-voice booming out "KITTY!"

[Grommen]

The "Jynx"
Part Bard, Thief, Lady of the Knights, Con Women, and on occasion Information broker. Knighted in some states, indited in most others. Founded thieves guilds all over the Realms, Waterdeep, Cormyr, Darmara (prolly does not count as she is the magistrate as well). Became a presitege bard and made it all the way to 25th level. Loved casting Prismatic Spray (It's like a box of chocolates, you just never know what / where you might end up). Mixed in a few illusions, and some uncontrollable hideous laughter and you have one hell of a good night. O ya, a bluff skill in the upper 30's.

I would go into more detail but I feel that it might incriminate her. :smallcool:

O the times..

[Katana_Geldar]

Would have to be Bo, a little twi'lek kid that stowed away on my players' ship and ended up hanging around for a lot longer than anticipated. he was a lot of fun to roleplay and had the most critical hits in the party.

Currently, he's on a bus.

[illyrus]

A succubus expert/fleshwarper disguised as a older female halfling shopkeeper going by the name Cora Greenbottle. She sent the "good" PCs on a variety of errands that started at fairly neutral activities but then lead to kidnapping and murder. The PCs at the beginning thought that she might be evil but after she paid them well for each job their suspicions dropped and they generally began to see her as good.

At one point 2 of the players (not PCs but players) called another player an idiot because they couldn't believe that Cora asked his character to murder someone and bring her proof. Then when I interrupted and explained for OOC knowledge that yes she did the other players/PCs still believed she was good.

The shocked looks on their faces for the "big reveal" was priceless, made more so as they had plenty of IC and OOC knowledge to suggest that she was an evil entity and only their greed to suggest that she might be "good".

[Totally Guy]

There is a street urchin in our game called Annoying Jiminy. His main schtick is appearing in random locations and asking the wizard to show him a trick.

The wizard himself has a trait that makes Annoying Jiminy to show up all the time to bother him even if it would be quite a coincidence to have it happen. It's hillarious. If the wizard ever manages to escape Annoying Jiminy some other new "best friend" will show up to start annoying the wizard all over again. So there's no particular motivation to get rid of him.

It's feels so free the have an NPC that explicitly thrives on contrived coincidence with no need for complicated motivation. He just wants to see some magic and scavenge his own dinner.

[ka_bna]

Frig (because it's a friggin' wolf), an awakened wolf/druid, who used to be a pet of a famous druid. He guards some patch of forest with his animal companion Snatch, a raven. Frig smokes an ornate pipe (luckily the party never asked how he was able to use a pipe) and wears a hat. Yea, like how I imagine Sherlock Holmes. Besides that, he speaks with an British accent.

Frig helped the party, but fled when they encountered some undead. When the party found him again, he was enchanted by an evil bard. They loved him so much that Frig was knocked unconscious instead of killed. While Frig was unconscious, the party's cleric stole his pipe, because he wanted to smoke himself.

Also, a couple of kobolds, who'll always go about "You've driven us from our lands! You killed our clan! You killed my father! You killed my brother! You..." until either the PC's wait 5 minutes, or a surprise round begins:smalltongue:

[some guy]

A weasel. One of the players had a gnome character and decided to use her racial ability to speak with burrowing animals, so I got to try to develop a typical weasel. Unfortunately, I failed to make weasels a running gag.


The most fun I had was as a badger. The NPC's were lost in a forest so the druid used her Speak with Animals on a badger. He was an incredibly grumpy badger, but once the group promised him more worms than he could eat, he was so excited (still in a gruff way). Afterwards, the druid covered him in worms (summon swarm). It was the most happy and most grumpy badger, swimming around, Scrooge-McDuck-style, in worms.

My players still think it was the best moment of the campaign.

[Choco]

My favorite/most fun would have to be "Granny". She was the village elder of a village the PC's were just passing through on their way to their next quest, and wasn't even intended to appear again. The PC's did a small sidequest for her and got some info, thats bout it. Then the PC's left town and due to some seriously crappy rolls (I mean damn, when 2/3 of the ENTIRE PARTY'S rolls combined are 1's, including the damage dice in the off chance they hit, thats bad...) they were about to get their asses kicked in a random encounter by a group of bandits that was 3 CR below the party level.

I decided this was the perfect time for a Deus Ex Machina, and instantly thought of Granny. On the spot I made her a high level monk and had her jump in and let loose on the bandits with some uber martial arts. Since I was already pushing it this far, I had her pulling off moves from Asian martial arts movies (with a bit of Star Wars/Yoda acrobatics mixed in) all the while talking mad trash and cursing like a sailor. She proceeded to kill the bandits in highly theatrical ways (punched one guy in the chest so hard his heart flew out his back, that kinda stuff) and didn't get a drop of blood on her. After the first 2 or so dropped no one cared about combat order anymore because they were laughing so hard and just let me keep narrating the embarrasing ways Granny killed off the bandits. She then, much like Yoda, busted out her cane, started slowly walking with a limp, and went back to being a sweet old lady.

We had to stop the session there, even though it was about 2 hours early, cause we were all laughing too hard to keep playing and our focus for the night was already gone anyway.

[Gnonai]

Kelly the thief. He is a horny, gluttonus, and curious Gnome. At one point in the story One of my players gave the gnome 5 gold to go out and buy supplies for himself, but instead bought 5g in Cupcakes. The gnome was also into Necrophilia, which led to quite a few .... Say Whaaaat? Moments :smallbiggrin:.

[Lin Bayaseda]

I had a low-level NPC fighter tag along with my party of adventurers. He was a wide-eyed youth that got enthusiastic about anything adventuring-related and just WOULD NOT SHUT UP. His name was Nebeer, and he was based on a character of the same name in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (if you played the game and have been to Trademeet, you know who I'm talking about).

A typical convo involving Nebeer went like this:

PC: So, once we enter the Wizard's tower ...
Nebeer: But for all we know he could be a Sorcerer.
PC: Whatever. So, the entrance ...
Nebeer: What's the difference between Wizard and Sorcerer, I could never quite grasp it?
PC: Later. So the entrance is probably going to be trapped ...
Nebeer: I know traps.
PCs (incredulous): Really? Aren't you a fighter?
Nebeer: Well, my sister once put a bucket of water over the door, so it'll fall on me, but I ...
PC: Look, it's real traps, not games you played with your sister.
Nebeer: She thought it'll make me all wet, but I just got my boots wet, that's all.
PC: Whatever. So, the rogue will examine the door for traps...
PCs continue planning. Five minutes later:
Nebeer: Those were good boots thought. And she ruined them.
PCs ignore him still and continue planning. Ten minutes later:
Nebeer: I hate my sister.

His death scene looked like this:

DM: The Beholder uses Disintegrate on ... (tense silence as dice are rolled) ... Nebeer!
PCs: Yes! *high-fives all around*
DM: He makes the touch attack (the table is in a state of total exhillaration) ... Fortitude save ... rolled 18! Just made it! (the PCs are crestfallen. Some can barely hold back their tears) ... but the damage kills him anyway.
PCs: Yay! *hugs all around*
DM: I guess a Resurrection would be out of the question?

[Masaioh]

Billy Mays the Demilich, with his soul gems hidden inside an epic golem.

His intro was "BILLY MAYS HERE FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE WITH MUMMY PUTTY, USING ALL-NEW DEAD-TO-LIFE TECHNOLOGY!!!!!"

A cookie to whoever gets all the references.

[Vorpalbob]

I had a low-level NPC fighter tag along with my party of adventurers. He was a wide-eyed youth that got enthusiastic about anything adventuring-related and just WOULD NOT SHUT UP. His name was Nebeer, and he was based on a character of the same name in Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (if you played the game and have been to Trademeet, you know who I'm talking about).

A typical convo involving Nebeer went like this:

PC: So, once we enter the Wizard's tower ...
Nebeer: But for all we know he could be a Sorcerer.
PC: Whatever. So, the entrance ...
Nebeer: What's the difference between Wizard and Sorcerer, I could never quite grasp it?
PC: Later. So the entrance is probably going to be trapped ...
Nebeer: I know traps.
PCs (incredulous): Really? Aren't you a fighter?
Nebeer: Well, my sister once put a bucket of water over the door, so it'll fall on me, but I ...
PC: Look, it's real traps, not games you played with your sister.
Nebeer: She thought it'll make me all wet, but I just got my boots wet, that's all.
PC: Whatever. So, the rogue will examine the door for traps...
PCs continue planning. Five minutes later:
Nebeer: Those were good boots thought. And she ruined them.
PCs ignore him still and continue planning. Ten minutes later:
Nebeer: I hate my sister.

His death scene looked like this:

DM: The Beholder uses Disintegrate on ... (tense silence as dice are rolled) ... Nebeer!
PCs: Yes! *high-fives all around*
DM: He makes the touch attack (the table is in a state of total exhillaration) ... Fortitude save ... rolled 18! Just made it! (the PCs are crestfallen. Some can barely hold back their tears) ... but the damage kills him anyway.
PCs: Yay! *hugs all around*
DM: I guess a Resurrection would be out of the question?

Bahahahahahahahaha! Oh, man. I've run (and been forced to deal with) DMPCs like this. One was a magic user of some sort who threw greatswords with Telekinesis (or some spell). He eventually died, but his legacy lived on in my friend Alex's character. Despite being a fighter, he was determined to become a spellcaster. He started collecting greatswords. At first he explained the 8 greatswords on his back by saying, "In case my main one breaks." He told us eventually when he multiclassed into (whatever class that casts Telekinesis).

[EDIT]: Ninja'd for the second time today. And how could I not know Billy Mays?

[The Glyphstone]

By far, it would be Captain Boom. He was a fairly high-level warmage who fought in an undescribed war (players didn't ask, I didnt care) and never really came home from it, especially after he got Charmed by the BBEG. He was the Evoker in an 8-level 'Mage's Tower' dungeon themed around each school, his fighting room was set up like a WWI battlefield with trenches and fences and obstacles. It was meant to be a dangerous fight, advancing up the room while he chucked Aoe artillery spells at the party.

Then, they busted out the natural 20 on a Diplomacy check to convince them that they weren't enemy troops, but a 'special forces team' sent as reinforcements from 'HQ' to back him up. I didn't even roll his Sense Motive, because that was so awesome and unexpected. He showed up again once or twice, awarding himself a promotion to Colonel when they had met again before the final boss fight - Boom was last seen laughing maniacally as he chain-Fireballed an endless horde of mooks so the party could make it to the artifact chamber and save the world.

[AtwasAwamps]

Hobb the Cook. Hobb is my favorite NPC ever. He is the cook/assistant/accidental poisoner of the inn the party is currently using as home base. He was introduced to the players as background noise…the sound of things crashing in the background as he helped set up rooms, the sound of pots exploding, the sounds of things going wrong somewhere in the building. He was only met when one of the PCs snuck into the inn via the kitchens…where he was discovered eating dinner with his dog, Barnaby, a huge mastiff that was sharing the table with him in the kitchen.

Hobb has cooked for the party repeatedly, creating alternately delicious and terrifying foodstuffs. He’s very very good with breakfast and incredibly hit or miss with lunch and dinner. Foodstuffs that have been created:

Stewcake (there was leftover stew and leftover cake. Stewcake bounced. The dread necromancer’s undead dire rat has eaten pillows, sheets, blankets, and old other rats, but would not touch the stewcake. Hobbs thinks its delicious. I could not tempt the party into eating it.)

Traditional Dwarven Pork Pie (Delicious, but only the cleric was willing to try it.)

Bacon and Eggs (So delicious. They enjoyed it, but didn’t know Hobbs made it till they had already eaten quite a bit.)

A “delicious” roast ham (caused a fort save for the cleric)

An unidentifiable lump of meat (nearly inflicted shaken status on the party just by existing)

Cupcakes (They have Dreadful Presence)

[Zanatos777]

D&D examples:

Addie without a doubt was the best.
Originally an enslaved (from birth) sorceress that I expected the party to treat as a weapon as the setting dictated. Instead they decided to free her from her magic enslavement and teach her to be a person. She became the most beloved NPC I have ever had in a game. Though she was far and away the most powerful character in the party they never felt overshadowed by her since they liked her so much. It also helped that the PCs worked themselves into roles, two characters started acting like a father figure towards her (one with repressed lust for her which he never let spill out of his thoughts or actions), another acted like a mother or big sister, while another acted as a brother and later husband. She became a goddess of freedom at the end of the game and continues in my current game.

Another favorite was Crimson, along with most of her army.
She was another sorceress along with Addie who had been freed years before. The players were divided on whether or not Addie becoming like Crimson was a good thing as she was evil. She had a very relaxed personality and was originally intended to be the BBEG until the character with reason to hate her threw away his revenge (much to all of our surprise) to get Crimson to help Addie understand herself. She became the party's most powerful ally. They embarked on a quest to free her from an imprisonment spell cast by the BBEG (a former party member). Currently serves as Addie's second in command and has been compared (favorably) to a Solar (Exalted) in terms of power.

The Phantom/Not Baldemar
A doppelganger assassin who wanted to get out of the assassin business. He impersonated a PC who had been killed and attempted to lead a peaceful life. Unfortunately the PCs figured him out and took to calling him Not Baldemar (PC's name was Baldemar). They used his apartment as their headquarters despite his protests. He was a lot of fun.

[Mongoose87]

Xavier Pendable, the city guard captain. It was his last day on the job...

[Lin Bayaseda]

Xavier Pendable, the city guard captain. It was his last day on the job...And, let me guess, he was too old for this <expletive> ?

[TheCountAlucard]

The shocked looks on their faces for the "big reveal" was priceless, made more so as they had plenty of IC and OOC knowledge to suggest that she was an evil entity and only their greed to suggest that she might be "good".

And here I was going to go on about a "Helpful Evil" NPC of my own... :smallamused:

[Binks]

PX-3, the macguyver of pilot droids. Built a set of hydraulic landing gear, speaker system, neon lights, and half a dozen other things...using mostly electrobinocs.

My players were jedi (knight and padawan, eventually master and knight). They ended up stealing a smuggler's shuttle, and its pilot droid, one PX-3 (to fly to a secret meeting).

The pilot droid ended up with a mind of it's own, however, as it constantly modified the shuttle (despite being built into the floor and having no parts) while the players were gone. He had a few particular favorite modifications he made to the shuttle, and replaced when they were removed, including hydraulics, a giant disco ball, a ridiculously loud speaker and light system (which they ended up using in battle by having PX run into an enemy ship then flip them up to max, deafening, blinding and stunning everyone on the other ship for a bit), a binder cuff launcher (also used when they needed to bind someone), and a half dozen other upgrades.

It was a lot funnier than it sounds, and my players got really into it, considering way to use all of the silly upgrades I had him add, as well taking advantage of the fact that he followed all their orders to the letter (so long as they didn't interfere with his modifications).

One session involved PX being locked up as the jedi council wasn't very happy with him and his modifications and the players weren't inclined to fight them on that issue. So I gave them exactly what they wanted, a dull pilot droid who just did his job. By the end they practically begged the council for PX back.

And in the last session PX got two great moments, the first being the background implication that he had been responsible for the design of the Aethersprite jedi starfights (from episode 3, this was just before episode 2) and when he got his own ride of the Valkyries moment as he led ~100 jedi delta-7's to engage a swarm of enemy fighters so that the players could take on the BBEG.

And of course he spoke completely in beeps with the players pretty much just interpreting what he said for the most part (one had speak binary, but I only translated when they asked, otherwise I let them decide what he'd said). By far the most fun NPC I've ever run.

[TerrickTerran]

Zhanna a mute female thief who was able to talk until her mouthiness caused some ogres who captured her to cut out her tongue. Despite this, she was very good at communicating with the party just based on the expressions of her face. She hung around for a long while simply because she was so much fun to play and the other players enjoyed her despite her tendency to prank them at times.

[Jayngfet]

A succubus expert/fleshwarper disguised as a older female halfling shopkeeper going by the name Cora Greenbottle. She sent the "good" PCs on a variety of errands that started at fairly neutral activities but then lead to kidnapping and murder. The PCs at the beginning thought that she might be evil but after she paid them well for each job their suspicions dropped and they generally began to see her as good.

At one point 2 of the players (not PCs but players) called another player an idiot because they couldn't believe that Cora asked his character to murder someone and bring her proof. Then when I interrupted and explained for OOC knowledge that yes she did the other players/PCs still believed she was good.

The shocked looks on their faces for the "big reveal" was priceless, made more so as they had plenty of IC and OOC knowledge to suggest that she was an evil entity and only their greed to suggest that she might be "good".

Fact: Players really don't care about the morality of their actions, if it means getting a sword with another +1 attached to it and they know there's no other way even a paladin would kill an old lady. It's almost depressing, I had an evangelion game where the players pissed off NERV by running off to get married, leaving the NPC unit zero(the slowest and most poorly equipped unit) to fend off an angel attack.

They immediatly assumed the person angry with them was the BBEG because he didn't like that they were being selfish and dooming mankind through poor prioritizing.

Immediatly after they asked him for a better weapon, just to see how far they could push it.

Yes, my players are really, really stupid.