5e NPC Classes?

[Argothair]

Hey everyone,

I vaguely remember there used to be some kind of NPC classes in earlier editions of D&D -- Commoner, Expert, Aristocrat, and so on. They typically weren't as powerful as a given level in a PC class, and they definitely weren't optimized for adventuring, but they would give NPCs some extra HP and some cool abilities that helped flesh them out mechanically as the "important" NPCs, who would be valuable allies and dangerous enemies.

I'm particularly interested in fleshing out some of the politics and economics of the D&D 5e world in my campaigns, and so it's important to me to think about who the NPCs are, what abilities they have, and how they all interact with each other. So far all I've been able to find in the RAW is the backgrounds section (an NPC might have the Criminal background, e.g.) and the wages section, which explains that some workers are "skilled artisans" and earn a higher daily wage and are considered to have proficiency with their toolset, and that you *might* be able to hire a Wizard to cast low-level spells for you in a large city.

This isn't really getting up to the power tier that interests me -- sure, some NPCs have proficiency with a toolset or a political connection or speak a second language, but I want some of my NPCs to be able to expertly manipulate their political opponents, or craft magical items, or research new spells, or find medicinal herbs in what looks like a barren swamp, or fight off a kobold raid without PC assistance. What are the stats on a "soldier," anyway? If you have a regular medium infantryman in the duke's armies, what are his stats? STR 10? STR 12? How many HP does he have? 4? 6? 8? Why? How do you stat out the guy who builds and maintains the trebubchets and catapults, or the architect who designed the local cathedral, or the plumber who arranged an aqueduct to bring fresh water from the mountain springs into the city in the valley? Who builds sailing ships, and who captains them? Isn't a captain of a trireme or longship with 20 years of experience more skilled (and more important) than just a villager with "proficiency in sailor's tools?" I feel like even at the 12th-century tech level that many D&D campaigns are set in, there are still all these technical skills that aren't adequately accounted for by the standard rules. Am I missing something? Should I try to brew my own rules?

[Joe the Rat]

NPCs do not have to follow PC rules, or any, really. Write up whatever it is you need them to do. Give them hit dice by how tough and or plot important they are. (d8s, taking the average roll).

Use the DMG rules on moster creation to get a CR, should defeating them in combat be relevant.

For reference, the NPCs in the Monster Manual are a good frame. Take one of those closest to your target, and add/remove relevant traits.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Read the MM, especially the NPC section in the back. Generally, class levels are an abstraction for player convenience, not an in-world thing. NPCs have whatever statistics they need to accomplish their fictional role. Game statistics model PC-World interactions, not World-World interactions. A blacksmith (non-PC) can just make items, he doesn't necessarily follow all the PC rules for smithing. A baker doesn't need to make any kind of check to do his thing, he just does it. A ruler can be a low-power Noble stat block (a Commoner + a few weapon proficiencies and a little better health).

This nicely avoids the "all master bakers can also fight off a huge number of guards if given the right equipment" problem of 3e.

[Unoriginal]

Hey everyone,

I vaguely remember there used to be some kind of NPC classes in earlier editions of D&D -- Commoner, Expert, Aristocrat, and so on. They typically weren't as powerful as a given level in a PC class, and they definitely weren't optimized for adventuring, but they would give NPCs some extra HP and some cool abilities that helped flesh them out mechanically as the "important" NPCs, who would be valuable allies and dangerous enemies.

I'm particularly interested in fleshing out some of the politics and economics of the D&D 5e world in my campaigns, and so it's important to me to think about who the NPCs are, what abilities they have, and how they all interact with each other. So far all I've been able to find in the RAW is the backgrounds section (an NPC might have the Criminal background, e.g.) and the wages section, which explains that some workers are "skilled artisans" and earn a higher daily wage and are considered to have proficiency with their toolset, and that you *might* be able to hire a Wizard to cast low-level spells for you in a large city.

This isn't really getting up to the power tier that interests me -- sure, some NPCs have proficiency with a toolset or a political connection or speak a second language, but I want some of my NPCs to be able to expertly manipulate their political opponents, or craft magical items, or research new spells, or find medicinal herbs in what looks like a barren swamp, or fight off a kobold raid without PC assistance. What are the stats on a "soldier," anyway? If you have a regular medium infantryman in the duke's armies, what are his stats? STR 10? STR 12? How many HP does he have? 4? 6? 8? Why? How do you stat out the guy who builds and maintains the trebubchets and catapults, or the architect who designed the local cathedral, or the plumber who arranged an aqueduct to bring fresh water from the mountain springs into the city in the valley? Who builds sailing ships, and who captains them? Isn't a captain of a trireme or longship with 20 years of experience more skilled (and more important) than just a villager with "proficiency in sailor's tools?" I feel like even at the 12th-century tech level that many D&D campaigns are set in, there are still all these technical skills that aren't adequately accounted for by the standard rules. Am I missing something? Should I try to brew my own rules?

Check out the end of the MM and the Volo's.

Most regular folks are Commoner (CR 0, stats in the MM), with sometime some modifications to represent their job if needed (ex: the dinosaur-handlers of Chult in the ToA module are Commoners with +5 to WIS (Animal Handling) checks). Note the NPC templates in the MM don't have the racial modifiers, so, for example, an human Commoner will have 11 in all stats instead of 10, a wood elf Commoner will have proficiency in longbow, and a kobold Commoner (as presented in the Tales of the Yawning Portal) has less health.

For the "player race" species, most of the combatants will likely be Guards, Bandits or Tribal Warriors (CR 1/8), with Scouts (CR 1/2)Veterans (CR 3), Knights (CR 3), Thugs (CR 1/2), Archers (CR 3) and Berserkers (CR 3) and others being less numerous. Officiers tend to be Nobles (CR 1/8), Veterans (CR 3), Thugs (CR 1/2) Bandit Captains (CR 1) or Knights (CR 3), but really any stat could be used for them.

[Madfellow]

I home brewed a set of NPC classes a while ago because I was feeling nostalgic. I could post them here later; I'm posting from my phone right now.

[The Jack]

One time, I looked at a stat block, and a CR 1/2 humanoid had multi attack!! You can build an NPC using a character class, but I'd do this sparingly. The DM's guide gives the Death domain cleric and the Oathbreaker paladin subclasses for this very purpose.

Mixing monster abilities and character classes can lead to some terrifying results, and you should be really careful with it, or you could make your barbarian cambion-githzerai with an unarmoured AC that can only be described as nightmare fuel.

Player backgrounds are a great resource for adding things to NPCs.
Leadership (give an ally 1d4), parry, multi-attack should be common. ASI's should probably be fighter-thief common. Perhaps they get extra skills after a few levels. After level 11, perhaps we should start talking legendary actions- let an ally use a reaction to make an attack, pass a failed saving throw, cast a cantrip, move an ally...

[Zonugal]

For a quick system, why not something like this:

5E Commoner Mini-Class Chassis
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per Commoner level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per commoner level after 1st.
Proficiencies
Armor: None
Weapons: One simple weapon
Tools: None
Saving Throws: None
Skills: None
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
-- any one simple weapon (with ten pieces of ammunition if a ranged weapon is chosen)
-- an explorer's pack

5E Warrior Mini-Class Chassis
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d10 per Warrior level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per warrior level after 1st.
Proficiencies
Armor: All armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: None
Skills: None
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
-- (a) chain mail or (b) leather armor, longbow, and 20 arrows
-- (a) a martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
-- (a) a light crossbow and 20 bolts or (b) two handaxes
-- (a) a dungeoneer's pack or (b) an explorer's pack

5E Expert Mini-Class Chassis
Hit Points
Hit Dice: 1d8 per Expert level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per expert level after 1st.
Proficiencies
Armor: None
Weapons: One simple weapon
Tools: One of your choice.
Saving Throws: None
Skills: One of your choice.
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
-- any one simple weapon (with ten pieces of ammunition if a ranged weapon is chosen)
-- any one tool set/kit
-- any one equipment pack

Still allow each NPC to have a background (this is where their initial skills will come from) and for stats grant them an ability array of 12, 11, 11, 10, 10, 10.

[Asmotherion]

You can build however you want.

For simplicity sake, when I want to make an NPC more Awesome, I level him up as a character of a particular class.

I consider it's actual CR the Base CR+(Class levels I put on the monster/4).

As a rule of thumb, generating a CR above 30 is virtually imposible without adding more than 20 Levels to something, or using the Tarrasque or Tiamat as a Template. This could come handy for epic game-play as well (been there, done that. Was not so bad after all).

For HD, I usually keep the Monster ones, and add the class ones on top. Seems more fairer, and more appropriate. I treat the Monster part their "race", and the rest their Class.

The "official" way, if you reverse-mechanic the Archmage from the MM and the Warlocks from Volo's, seems to suggest that, if NPCs don't get a Subclass at 1st level, they don't get one at all (also supported by the fact that, classes that get a subclass at 1st, are more defined by their subclass than those who don't).

That said, don't let that discourage you. Build however you feel like.

If you want to add just a bit of flavor to a character, something like Magic Initiate, Ritual Caster, Brawler or Martial Adept can put enough Flavor to an NPC, to colour him with a pseudo-"class", without making you investing loads of time and effort on it. For example, Magic Initiate for Fire Bolt, Create Bonefire and Burning Hands, and you have yourself a perfect Pyromancer. Add a single level of Sorcerer or Wizard, and you can add a considerable amount of spells and cantrips, to make him an Evocer Student in an Arcane School. Brawler on a Wood Elf can emulate a monk very well, wile the same elf with Sharpshooter and profficiency in Sleight of Hand could pass for a Rogue; Change the profficiency in Animal Handling, and you got yourself a Ranger; Make sure to judge how much you invest on a Character from the amount of Screen time you plan to give them. If they turn out more important than you planed, you can always revamp them latter.

[Unoriginal]

Still allow each NPC to have a background (this is where their initial skills will come from) and for stats grant them an ability array of 12, 11, 11, 10, 10, 10.

You can just add the benefits of a background to a NPC statblocks.

Making NPC class levels add confusion.

[2D8HP]

....the NPCs in the Monster Manual are a good frame. Take one of those closest to your target, and add/remove relevant traits.



Read the MM, especially the NPC section in the back...



Check out the end of the MM and the Volo's....


As indicated upthread, the DMG and MM are great for NPC's, as is Volo's Guide to Monsters, there's also NPC's in the Adventures, and in third-party material like Fifth Edition Foe"s (https://www.froggodgames.com/fifth-edition-foes)

[Argothair]

Mad Fellow, I'd love to see your homebrew when you're back at the keyboard. Thanks everyone for the reminder to read the Monster Manual and the reminder that npcs can behave "as needed" without formal rules. I like the idea of leadership (1d4) and parrying.. both seem like ways of making an NPC stand out without making them instantly lethal to PCs.

That said, I feel like so far nobody has addressed the technical / social / political half of my question. I'm not just concerned about combat stats; after all, there's an entire manual full of evil and/or wild creatures for PCs to kill. I'm more interested in the positive qualities that NPCs might have to offer. Once you learn the cantrips/ 1st level spells of "Mage Hand," "Goodberry," and "Create Water," why would you ever want to interact with civilian society ever again? How can cities and towns be made interesting to midlevel PCs as something other than just a place to pick up new quests or a series of victims in need of rescuing?

Adventurers can't be the *only* interesting people in a compelling fantasy Universe. What kinds of non-adventurers are interesting, and why?

[Unoriginal]

That said, I feel like so far nobody has addressed the technical / social / political half of my question. I'm not just concerned about combat stats; after all, there's an entire manual full of evil and/or wild creatures for PCs to kill. I'm more interested in the positive qualities that NPCs might have to offer. Once you learn the cantrips/ 1st level spells of "Mage Hand," "Goodberry," and "Create Water," why would you ever want to interact with civilian society ever again? How can cities and towns be made interesting to midlevel PCs as something other than just a place to pick up new quests or a series of victims in need of rescuing?

Adventurers can't be the *only* interesting people in a compelling fantasy Universe. What kinds of non-adventurers are interesting, and why?

Well, PCs are people in a world, so logically they would want to interact with people for a variety of reason, unless they're all misanthropic recluses who are forced to tolerate each others.

NPCs provide all kind of goods and services, serve as contacts, minions, employers, or just counterpart for the players to RP with.

It's not really quite possible to quantify what makes a character interesting, as it depends of each individual players.

As a recent example: in the campaign I DM, one of the Paladins befriended a Tabaxi street musician just because the Paladin loves music. I had no plan about him, he was just a street musician.

Personally, I think giving some noticeable personality to NPCs, as well as using the interaction to reminding the PC that those people have their own lives and stories when the PCs aren't there, is pretty useful. NPCs have personalities, and drives, and personal issues.

[Beeba17]

That said, I feel like so far nobody has addressed the technical / social / political half of my question. I'm not just concerned about combat stats; after all, there's an entire manual full of evil and/or wild creatures for PCs to kill. I'm more interested in the positive qualities that NPCs might have to offer.

I love making NPCs to fill the world, because I love interaction. Seeing characters played by the players becoming friends with that one kid wizard, or talking later about “man that guy was a jerk”. It feels real. Sometimes I have a NPC fill a need in a scenario. For example. A campaign I created involves a city that was magically transported to the plane of the air. Entry into that city was needed, but they don’t have a planeswalking spell. So I happily reused a wizard character of mine named Lucas. His snobby attitude didn’t bode well with the players, but he got them into the city, and I established that the people of this city had machines to make plane travel happen. So once they got in they needed to find the inventor a kid named Percy. Who they liked because he was a cute kid. XD

NPC’s are fun to pad the story and add some fun interactions.

[Madfellow]

Alright, here it is:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19HORKsBEZ_RrE895usgX_iYpcAHFCL_pCdf8BIx2fCM/edit?usp=sharing

[PhoenixPhyre]

I rarely find that it's the mechanical pieces of the NPCs that matter to the players. It's the behaviors, attitudes, and other characteristics.

Two examples, both from my last long-running campaign.

At about level 4, the party was understaffed for what I had planned (only 2 of the 4 were there). So I provided a bunch of small robotic (magitech) bots to accompany them. Of those, only 1 survived, a small hovering eye-bot. Its only notable features were that it crit on a 19 or 20 and that it made an indignant bleeping sound as its only form of communication (like R2-D2). Once the party finished in that area, they shut off the magitech computer that controlled the bots, and so Crit-Bot (as they nicknamed it), stopped functioning. They then invested a large fraction of their wealth and a powerful artifact into rebuilding CB so it could accompany them. I never saw that party get so furious as when they were facing a boss who came from that same facility. She used a command word to dominate CB. Didn't do much, but they immediately turned from "let's see what we can do" to "she dies. Now." They put a lot of time and effort into CB, despite its lack of significant mechanical effect.

The second came with a bunch of goblin children. In my setting, goblins aren't evil. The party was traveling through goblin territory, and made contact with a small tribe. They spent a session, and a day, helping the tribe gather food, playing with the kids, and generally RPing despite the fact that only one character spoke goblin. The GOO lock nudged the kids using telepathy to tease the racist high elf, who softened tremendously as a result. That session, which was completely spoken (no rolls involved at all) and completely ad-libbed on my part, changed the tone and shape of the campaign. It led them to create an international body to face threats and to work to bring the nations together and had lasting consequences. Because the NPCs acted like people, not like cardboard cutouts with mechanical properties.

[Argothair]

I appreciate the (interesting and touching) stories, but I feel like maybe they're still missing part of the point of my question. Like, yes, of course, if you have witty, friendly players and you give them juicy psychological hooks that help them tell an interesting story together, then you'll get a satisfying story. Conversely, if you have clever, strategic players and you give them elegant, complete mechanics that help them solve interesting puzzles together, then you'll get an interesting story. If you have BOTH, that's even better, and you'll get an AMAZING story. Right this minute, I'm trying to work on the mechanical side. It doesn't mean I don't value good roleplaying or that I don't want to learn how to improve my group's roleplaying; that's just not what I'm doing today.

Some people don't want anything more out of their NPCs other than a bit of comic relief or human interest. That's 100% valid, if that's all you're looking for, but I happen to want more. What I want to do is run a campaign where NPCs help drive the action by providing players with opportunities, loyalties, threats, conflicts, new points of view, huge profit margins, and important resources that collectively matter more than any one magic item or extra level.

The Standard Adventure Model (tm) works something like this: you figure out which Supervillain is terrorizing the countryside, you make sure all the PCs have a reason to want to stop the supervillain, you arrange a series of obstacles that keep the PCs and the Supervillain from clashing too directly until the end of the story (henchmen, distance, lack of knowledge about the Supervillain's identity, etc.), and then you build your campaign around the heroes' attempts to make themselves powerful and knowledgeable enough to confront the Supervillain and save the world. As the heroes wander around your world trying to stop the supervillain, they will encounter a variety of minor NPC enemies, which will force them to stop and rest occasionally in somewhere safe-ish, which is usually a town of some kind, which will usually be filled with some neutral NPCs who will sell the PCs some combat and adventuring equipment, and maybe one or two friendly NPCs who will helpfully offer the PCs some key information or some temporary assistance. If you're a good DM, you might add a couple more NPCs in the towns just for flavor, like the kid pilot or the loveable street musician, which gives the PCs a chance to show off what nice guys they are and have a few laughs together in between bouts of Mortal Peril (tm). Fine. It all works. It's popular *because* it works. I have no problem with it, as far as it goes.

What I'd like to do is add to and build on the Standard Adventure Model by having such a richly detailed model of who the NPCs are and what they're doing off-stage that it can support a sandbox-style adventure where the PCs have real freedom to pick any of several meaningfully different directions for their adventure. The plot isn't driven by the Supervillain; the plot is driven by the PCs' interactions with otherwise neutral NPCs. Like, let's say the largest town in the region has a sort of Arcane Stable where an NPC (let's call him Gerald) is breeding drakes and gryffons and wyverns, some of which get sold to the local Merchants' Guild (which uses them for long-distance trading), some of which get sold to the various standing armies in the region (for use as artillery and close air support), and some of which are released into the wild and cared for by a self-righteous conclave of Druids who are convinced that magical creatures should live in freedom. So Gerald's a pretty important guy in the region. He's not the *only* person who knows how to breed these creatures, but he's kind of a big deal. If you piss him off, or if you earn his friendship, then it can really affect what happens to you and your friends, even if you're a mid-level adventurer. You could try to compete with Gerald, or go into business together with Gerald, or ask Gerald for a favor, or help Gerald with one of his problems, or help one of Gerald's customers get a better deal from Gerald, or just spit in Gerald's face and see where that gets you -- but it matters how you interact with Gerald, because there's a plot hook dangling in pretty much every direction. It doesn't really matter as much how you interact with the street musician, because the street musician is just there to add flavor.

And, yes, to make Gerald come alive for the players, it helps to know what Gerald's family life looks like, and what kind of personality he has, and whether he has any hobbies. But it *also* helps to know what kind of profit margins he has, and what kind of CHR score he has, and what kind of equipment he might use to protect himself against getting scalded by an irritated young fire-drake, and whether he has access to magical healing after an accident, and why or why not. Can I ad-lib that stuff as the DM and make up a ruling when I need one? Sure. But if I'm improvising every mechanical trait for every NPC all through the session, then I'm likely to make important mistakes, and even if I get it all right, it limits my ability to pay attention to other important stuff, like dialogue, and scenery, and pacing, and whether all the players are having fun. I want to plan all that stuff out in advance whenever possible, for the same reason that I want to plan out the stats and spell blocks for the evil Ice Witches that are going to waylay the party if they venture into the arctic zone in the winter.

I also want a mechanical model for Gerald that I can use to help me generate ideas about what Gerald and the Merchants and the Druids and the Earl's 3rd Infantry Division might be getting up to when the players aren't directly interacting with them -- both to help me brainstorm new plot hooks, and to help me flesh out Gerald's personality. In my opinion, people's personality traits often *come from* their economic and social circumstances. Like, let's say drakes need a ton of open space to fly around in, and don't behave well around strangers. Raising drakes is more much profitable than farming corn, but not nearly as profitable as teaching magic or holding high government office. And just from that tiny socioeconomic sketch, we can deduce that Gerald grew up isolated from other humanoids, that he always plenty of money for food, but that he just couldn't afford tuition at the regional Arcane Academy, all of which has left Gerald lonely, awkward, comfortable outdoors, over-weight, and curious about wizardly magic but sort of bitter about never having had the chance to study it in detail. The local economy determines an NPC's history, which in turn determines the NPC's personality.

You *can* run that process in reverse -- start with the desired personality, and then infer the history you'd need to have and make up a portion of the local economy to suit...but I think if you do it that way, you're much more likely to run into inconsistencies. Either breeding drakes is more profitable than farming corn, or farming corn is more profitable than breeding drakes -- you can't really have it both ways at once. Will most players care about or even notice that kind of inconsistency? No, but I care, and it's part of the fun for me to try to build an internally consistent world.

So: that's where I'm coming from. I don't use and don't like "mechanical cardboard cutouts," but I do care about NPC mechanics, and if anyone is able to offer any further advice on how to build those mechanics, I'll be grateful to you.

[PhoenixPhyre]

My disconnect is that none of that is mechanical. It's all standard world building. It may be informed by the bigger ideas of the game system, but doesn't depend on any particular implementation unless the system demands it. 3e did, with class/level being a defined thing for all NPCs (tied to skills, spells, etc). 5e doesn't. Nothing in there cares what the stat block looks like, or how many hit dice (for example) a creature has.

I've been writing about some of the more major NPCs in my setting--each one gets a paragraph about their role in society, a paragraph about their demographic, a sentence that roughly categorizes then mechanically (tier 2 wizard, MM commoner, etc), and the same personality traits as a PC (trait, ideal, bond, flaw, alignment).

Less major ones get procedurally generated names, jobs, personality, and age/race/culture. These use standard stat blocks (Commoner unless there's a reason to use something else).

I also procedurally generate towns based on culture, size, and role (agriculture, mining, etc). That sets what's available and generates some key NPCs.

I actually wrote a package to do all this generation based on data about the setting.

[Unoriginal]

Some people don't want anything more out of their NPCs other than a bit of comic relief or human interest. That's 100% valid, if that's all you're looking for, but I happen to want more. What I want to do is run a campaign where NPCs help drive the action by providing players with opportunities, loyalties, threats, conflicts, new points of view, huge profit margins, and important resources that collectively matter more than any one magic item or extra level.

The Standard Adventure Model (tm) works something like this: you figure out which Supervillain is terrorizing the countryside, you make sure all the PCs have a reason to want to stop the supervillain, you arrange a series of obstacles that keep the PCs and the Supervillain from clashing too directly until the end of the story (henchmen, distance, lack of knowledge about the Supervillain's identity, etc.), and then you build your campaign around the heroes' attempts to make themselves powerful and knowledgeable enough to confront the Supervillain and save the world. As the heroes wander around your world trying to stop the supervillain, they will encounter a variety of minor NPC enemies, which will force them to stop and rest occasionally in somewhere safe-ish, which is usually a town of some kind, which will usually be filled with some neutral NPCs who will sell the PCs some combat and adventuring equipment, and maybe one or two friendly NPCs who will helpfully offer the PCs some key information or some temporary assistance. If you're a good DM, you might add a couple more NPCs in the towns just for flavor, like the kid pilot or the loveable street musician, which gives the PCs a chance to show off what nice guys they are and have a few laughs together in between bouts of Mortal Peril (tm). Fine. It all works. It's popular *because* it works. I have no problem with it, as far as it goes.

What I'd like to do is add to and build on the Standard Adventure Model by having such a richly detailed model of who the NPCs are and what they're doing off-stage that it can support a sandbox-style adventure where the PCs have real freedom to pick any of several meaningfully different directions for their adventure. The plot isn't driven by the Supervillain; the plot is driven by the PCs' interactions with otherwise neutral NPCs. Like, let's say the largest town in the region has a sort of Arcane Stable where an NPC (let's call him Gerald) is breeding drakes and gryffons and wyverns, some of which get sold to the local Merchants' Guild (which uses them for long-distance trading), some of which get sold to the various standing armies in the region (for use as artillery and close air support), and some of which are released into the wild and cared for by a self-righteous conclave of Druids who are convinced that magical creatures should live in freedom. So Gerald's a pretty important guy in the region. He's not the *only* person who knows how to breed these creatures, but he's kind of a big deal. If you piss him off, or if you earn his friendship, then it can really affect what happens to you and your friends, even if you're a mid-level adventurer. You could try to compete with Gerald, or go into business together with Gerald, or ask Gerald for a favor, or help Gerald with one of his problems, or help one of Gerald's customers get a better deal from Gerald, or just spit in Gerald's face and see where that gets you -- but it matters how you interact with Gerald, because there's a plot hook dangling in pretty much every direction. It doesn't really matter as much how you interact with the street musician, because the street musician is just there to add flavor.

And, yes, to make Gerald come alive for the players, it helps to know what Gerald's family life looks like, and what kind of personality he has, and whether he has any hobbies. But it *also* helps to know what kind of profit margins he has, and what kind of CHR score he has, and what kind of equipment he might use to protect himself against getting scalded by an irritated young fire-drake, and whether he has access to magical healing after an accident, and why or why not. Can I ad-lib that stuff as the DM and make up a ruling when I need one? Sure. But if I'm improvising every mechanical trait for every NPC all through the session, then I'm likely to make important mistakes, and even if I get it all right, it limits my ability to pay attention to other important stuff, like dialogue, and scenery, and pacing, and whether all the players are having fun. I want to plan all that stuff out in advance whenever possible, for the same reason that I want to plan out the stats and spell blocks for the evil Ice Witches that are going to waylay the party if they venture into the arctic zone in the winter.

I also want a mechanical model for Gerald that I can use to help me generate ideas about what Gerald and the Merchants and the Druids and the Earl's 3rd Infantry Division might be getting up to when the players aren't directly interacting with them -- both to help me brainstorm new plot hooks, and to help me flesh out Gerald's personality. In my opinion, people's personality traits often *come from* their economic and social circumstances. Like, let's say drakes need a ton of open space to fly around in, and don't behave well around strangers. Raising drakes is more much profitable than farming corn, but not nearly as profitable as teaching magic or holding high government office. And just from that tiny socioeconomic sketch, we can deduce that Gerald grew up isolated from other humanoids, that he always plenty of money for food, but that he just couldn't afford tuition at the regional Arcane Academy, all of which has left Gerald lonely, awkward, comfortable outdoors, over-weight, and curious about wizardly magic but sort of bitter about never having had the chance to study it in detail. The local economy determines an NPC's history, which in turn determines the NPC's personality.

You *can* run that process in reverse -- start with the desired personality, and then infer the history you'd need to have and make up a portion of the local economy to suit...but I think if you do it that way, you're much more likely to run into inconsistencies. Either breeding drakes is more profitable than farming corn, or farming corn is more profitable than breeding drakes -- you can't really have it both ways at once. Will most players care about or even notice that kind of inconsistency? No, but I care, and it's part of the fun for me to try to build an internally consistent world.

So: that's where I'm coming from. I don't use and don't like "mechanical cardboard cutouts," but I do care about NPC mechanics, and if anyone is able to offer any further advice on how to build those mechanics, I'll be grateful to you.

Not to sound rude, but it seems you're looking at a square hole and asking us for a round peg.

What PhoenixPhyre says is true:



My disconnect is that none of that is mechanical. It's all standard world building. It may be informed by the bigger ideas of the game system, but doesn't depend on any particular implementation unless the system demands it. 3e did, with class/level being a defined thing for all NPCs (tied to skills, spells, etc). 5e doesn't. Nothing in there cares what the stat block looks like, or how many hit dice (for example) a creature has.



If I were to write Geralt the Monster-Breeder, I would just imagine than someone who can handle monsters is both good at their job and demand high price for their services, and leave it at that. Then I could describe his family, or his equipment, or anything I want. Then if I wanted to say he was interested in learning magic, but couldn't get in the school because of a lack of mean, I could say that he doesn't like spellcasters, so he'll be rude to them if spellcasting PCs show up. Or maybe he admires spellcasters, and it will reflect in his attitude. Or maybe he learned magic later in his life, making him a beginner wizard even if he's past 30.

Trying to create some kind of gamist system for NPC personalities and histories is just too much work for no gains.

[The Jack]

Remember to use the PHB backgrounds, though don't give them the starting equipment of that background

Basic person.
Any two skills of your choice.
Light armour
Quaterstaff, club, greatclub, dagger,

1st level. Training
You may recieve any of the following training as a non player character. Ranks may reflect your ability to acquire training, how favoured you are by the gods for divine magic, the quality of resources available, or other circumstance. A silver rank is probably ten times more expensive than a copper rank, though other factors (time,rarity) vary wildly depending on what you're trying to learn and the source you're using.

Academia:
None- You can do very simple maths and maybe recognize written numbers. You cannot read.
Copper rank- You gain literacy and basic numeracy.
Silver. You have some basic scientific knowledge. You can write well and your skills with maths comfortably meet the needs of a merchant,mason, alchemist or siege engineer.
Gold. You could be a wizard.

Trade-Copper rank- You are a common labourer. You may get half proficiency with a tool, and may take advantage of the expanded uses for tool profeciency in XGtE.
Trade-Silver rank- Any tool of your choice. Note that certain backgrounds already provide this, so they may be considered silver rank and may train for gold.
Trade- Gold rank- You get 1.5 your proficiency modifier for one tool of your choice, and you may take a 5 on a d20 roll relating to your tool if you roll less.
Trade- Platinum- You get advantage on all checks relating to your profession.

Might consider revising this magic section because Gold rank might as well be "just be the player class" but I think I like the idea of going through initiation stages to become a full caster.
Magic- Copper rank- You are a 1/3rd spellcaster of any class. You can use Rituals/Focus if that class can, and you may access domain/patron spells.
Magic- Silver rank- You are now a 1/2 spellcaster of any class. You may acquire eldritch invocations, begin the study of the druidic language, use metamagic, channel divinity, join a college, or acquire an arcane tradition; However, all these features occur at twice the level they would normally, because you're a half caster. Paladin gets smite, immunity to disease and oaths.
Magic- Gold rank- You're a full caster of any class. A druid can unlock wild shape and may join a druidic circle.
Magic- Platinum rank- Gain a second domain, pact, tradition,circle, college... Your cap for your spell-casting attribute also increases by 2.
Electrum- You're a psyion and may pick one spell per level from any psyionic monster (such as the gith and Illithid), provided the spell would be of a level you could pick if you were a full caster.

Martial, copper rank- All simple weapons, one martial weapon, which may be a seige weapon
Martial, Silver rank - +Medium armour, shields, three additional martial weapons.
Martial, Gold rank- +heavy armour, all martial weapons, One weapon feat.
Martial, Platinum- +All Weapon feats. Gain martial manouvers/superiority dice like a battle-master.
Martial, Electrum- Choose between Monk and Barbarian features.

2nd level- ASI- As an NPC you probably start with suck, so more ASIs are all the merrier, and feats would really flesh out an NPC's character
3rd level- Choose either an extra skill or a MM feature belonging to an "any humanoid" character like Dark devotion, keen hearing and sight, brave, pack tactics, leadership.
4th level- ASI increase
5th level- Multi attack, assuming one has silver (or electrum) martial training.
6th level ASI increase
7th level- Another skill or MM feature.
8th level- ASI increase
11th level- Multi attack, assuming at least gold martial training.
12th level- ASI increase.
13th-level- skill or MM feature.
16th level- ASI increase
18th level- Skill or MM feature.
19th level- ASI increase
20th level- Multi attack, assuming gold martial training.

[Baptor]

I'm not one of those people who fawns all over Matt Mercer. That said, I thought his idea of giving NPCs a "class" or more accurately a "job" title was a nice way to categorize them.

For example in the Taldorei Setting Guide, he's got NPCs that read:

John Doe
Male Human Alchemist

Jane Doe
Female Elf Scholar

John Smith
Male Dwarf Archaeologist

And so on. Nothing mechanical but a nice way to keep up with what an NPC is good at or "all about."

[OriginalTharios]

I think the issue here is that those trying to answer the question still haven't quite gotten the point.

Imagine an extremely high-magic setting. Magic in all forms is utterly ubiquitous. It is, even more so than in Eberron, a direct and full replacement for technology. So common, and so accessible, that it relatively easily provides for every possible need of a society.

In such a world, one or more nations might well have public education systems, in which all children are educated effectively free of charge (paid for by the taxes everyone pays). Meaning that everyone, from earliest childhood, is educated in the fundamentals of magic. By the time they complete their basic education, they're all either ready to become wizards, bards, or one of the other "gish" class variants, or to join one of the local temples, or such.

Someone like myself...(and I imagine the OP, considering the topic) want a framework whereby we can set a baseline for that with ALL NPCs equally, rather than simply splatter paint blindly on a canvas.

Sure, when you're trying to create art, you don't do paint-by-numbers (and you also don't do it blindly and aimlessly), but when you have to mass produce it for whatever reason (it is, after all, entirely reasonable and worthwhile for an individual to want to own a proper reproduction of a classical work), then yeah, you want everything neatly and consistently laid out from the start.

You want cookie cutter NPCs with specific values to start with, and THEN you'll adjust specific NPCs as needed by their interactions with the PCs.

So let me put the whole question this way. How would you account for all NPCs in a world where all but a tiny few are basically trained to go to university and become 1st level Wizards or to the temple and become 1st level Clerics? A world where every NPC (at least in certain nations) is multilingual and knowledgeable about at least the basics of magic and its principles in relation to the natural world?

Would you do anything different at all, or just keep NPCs functionally as they are in the core game. If you'd leave them as-is, why?

[Lord Ruby34]

I honestly stopped using a unified template, and just make stats that feel right. For example, there's a grumpy old hermit the PCs were using as a guide. I gave him proficiency in heavy crossbows, 14 Dex, 14 Wis, and Expertise in Survival, Nature, and Animal Handling. Then I just made up a number for his HP that left him fairly squishy.

[Unoriginal]

Please don't necro a thread.