Turning a monster into a NPC follower.

[Petrocorus]

I'm running LMoP with my gaming group. After the raid on the Tressendar Manor, the half-orc Barbarian deecided to keep the goblin Droop as slave. After a few session and much talk, the other PC, not willing to let the half-orc do it but not willing to let Droop go free (out of fear he might go back to the Cragmaw and tell them all he knows aout the PC) offered him a job as help and a silver piece a day. He's ok to turn on the bugbears and the hobgoblins given how they treated him and the others goblins.

Bottom line, Droop is now a NPC follower and can earn XP. The issue is that i don't really know how to have a monster gain XP, how to have him evolve and gain HD, proficiency bonus, etc. I haven't perform to find the rules in the DMG.
Should i simply give him more HD with the same level/XP table than the PC and the appropriate proficiency bonus? Should i give him a class? What would be the racial feature of a goblin in this case? Etc...

Thanks.

[Goober4473]

Might I recommend my Companion System (see signature)? It's a great way to add an NPC to the group.

[Ninja_Prawn]

This is totally up to you. Aside from deducting an equal share of any XP from the PCs, there isn't anything in the RAW for this. Even the optional rules like giving monsters class levels and the 'loyalty' system are pretty sketchy.

I'd give Droop an extra hit die per level, and increase his proficiency bonus when he hits level 5, 9, etc. I'd give him Extra Attack at 5, but probably no other class features, unless one of the PCs explicitly tries to teach him.

[SLIMEPRIEST]

I would give him a loyalty score. If the pcs start making him open doors and go first, them roll to see if his loyalty to them overcomes his cowardly nature. He's probably evil so make sure he does something nasty every once in a while just to remind the pcs he's a freakin goblin. If they try to take him to cragmaw, they should all be wondering when he'll betray them. Wait till the best possible moment.

[mgshamster]

Might I recommend my Companion System (see signature)? It's a great way to add an NPC to the group.

I strongly recommend this system. I've been using it for my Out of the Abyss campaign (which has a lot of NPC followers in it) and it's been working very well.

[Petrocorus]

This is totally up to you. Aside from deducting an equal share of any XP from the PCs, there isn't anything in the RAW for this. Even the optional rules like giving monsters class levels and the 'loyalty' system are pretty sketchy.

I do intent to use the loyalty system. But i would like to hear about experiences with using monster with class levels, never done it myself. I'm currently thinking about doing this 3.5 style, with the class replacing his monster features.



I would give him a loyalty score. If the pcs start making him open doors and go first, them roll to see if his loyalty to them overcomes his cowardly nature. He's probably evil so make sure he does something nasty every once in a while just to remind the pcs he's a freakin goblin. If they try to take him to cragmaw, they should all be wondering when he'll betray them. Wait till the best possible moment.
They did took him to Cragmaw and i ruled that, due to the abuses, he will turn on the bugbears and the hobgobs, but not on the goblins. Now, i wait to see if they will try to kill the other goblins with him.

[JellyPooga]

You could pull a fast one on the PCs and change goblinoid ecology on them by making goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears all merely different stages in the life-cycle of the "goblinoid" creature. Have Droop "grow-up" into a Hobgoblin when he gets to level 2 or 3 and then once the Players have wrapped their heads around that, let him grow-up again into a Bugbear at level 5.

Heck, it's just an idea but you could make Droop a unique kind of shapeshifter, perhaps, constantly changing his form as he gets more powerful; goblin -> hobgoblin -> bugbear -> quaggoth -> ogre -> ogre mage -> giant etc. See how long the players try to get away with paying him a measly silver piece! Make up some plot about it; the players have made a conscious decision to involve him in the game, so involve him in the game.

Have a Wizards Guild hunt him as a curiosity to study, maybe; do the PCs hand him over for a phat reward, or do they try to defend their new "friend"?

At the end of the day Droop is an NPC; you are required to abide by the Class/Level/XP system the players do. You can give him whatever abilities you want, whenever you want.

Want to explain my idea for him being a shapeshifter? Have him be what he eats; when he chows down on Orc, the next morning he's an Orc. The players defeat a dragon? Droop has a munch and turns into a wyrmling. That way he'll only ever be as powerful as the last thing the players defeated themselves.

[NecroDancer]

When "Volos guide to monsters" comes out you could make him an actual character. Basically make him a goblin with class levels

[MBControl]

No real help here, I just thought I'd relate a story from the time we played LMoP.

We persuaded Droop to join our group by convincing him to join if we gave him a "jeweled eyepatch" which he wore as a loincloth. Droop broke everything he touched. If you tried to give him a gold piece, he'd immediately drop it over a cliff. He was dumb and useless, but on several occasions, Droop would come up huge in battle and save our group with crit roll after crit roll.

According to our DM, he assumed that Droop would die within 1 or 2 encounters, but he ended up leveling up 1 or 2 levels with us. We used and abused him. threw on traps rather than disarm them, and he kept on ticking, until one day he suffered a critical hit from a rather high level bad guy, and died. We had grown very attached to Droop. As all new D&D players, this is the first close ally to die, and we all felt like absolute crap for the rest of the evening.

It was great.