What are the Advantages of Being a PC?

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Well, aside from things like choosing your race, along with class levels, feats, and skills after a week of adventuring, instead of training at them for years on end. Granted, those are major advantages, since PCs are played by players, and so we get to metagame.

What I mean is the mechanical bits and bobs that specify "you must be this tall PC to play," like the fact that Diplomacy explicitly doesn't work on PCs.

Are there any other things that PCs get that NPCs don't?

And if you were isekai'd into a D&D world as a character, how would you ensure that you get to be a PC with those benefits instead of being an NPC?

[Particle_Man]

Your ability scores are likely to be higher, depending on the campaign. Most PCs don't use the array but many NPCs do (assuming they don't get the even worse 10, 11, rinse and repeat other array).

Your wealth by level will be higher.

[Psyren]

And if you were isekai'd into a D&D world as a character, how would you ensure that you get to be a PC with those benefits instead of being an NPC?

Be as much of a bland, directionless, indecisive everyman in this world as humanly possible. Not only will this cement your role as protagonist-kun in any isekai world you land in, it'll guarantee that you get a harem the moment you arrive.

[Kalkra]

Be as much of a bland, directionless, indecisive everyman in this world as humanly possible. Not only will this cement your role as protagonist-kun in any isekai world you land in, it'll guarantee that you get a harem the moment you arrive.

Be either clueless to any differences between you and everyone else, or supremely arrogant, or both. Also, cultivate some obscure hobby before you get hit by a truck (rumor has it there are other ways to die too), as that hobby will inexplicably allow you to crack the fundamental problems which have plagued humanity (or whatever other race) since the beginning of time.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

Be as much of a bland, directionless, indecisive everyman in this world as humanly possible. Not only will this cement your role as protagonist-kun in any isekai world you land in, it'll guarantee that you get a harem the moment you arrive.


Be either clueless to any differences between you and everyone else, or supremely arrogant, or both. Also, cultivate some obscure hobby before you get hit by a truck (rumor has it there are other ways to die too), as that hobby will inexplicably allow you to crack the fundamental problems which have plagued humanity (or whatever other race) since the beginning of time.That stuff only works in isekai anime and manga, not potential RL isekais.

I think.

[Troacctid]

Don't forget action points! PCs get 5 + half their level, NPCs get 0.

[Yahzi Coyote]

What I mean is the mechanical bits and bobs that specify "you must be this tall PC to play,"
Other than WBL, nothing. Which is why makes 3/3.5 different from every other edition. And why I prefer this it.

[tiercel]

PCs are immune to having their attitudes changed by Diplomacy.

(Intimidate could theoretically change a PC’s attitude except that PCs don’t actually have social attitudes in the same way as NPCs, because PCs do what their players say they do, unless magically compelled otherwise. Thus, PCs are effectively immune to Intimidate outside its combat demoralization effect.)

[Malroth]

You are permanently under the control of some mad extra-dimensional being incapable of fear or empathy who for the most part finds the majority of your life irrelevant except the parts where he puts you in mortal peril or has you murder your king for no reason.

[Saintheart]

You are permanently under the control of some mad extra-dimensional being incapable of fear or empathy who for the most part finds the majority of your life irrelevant except the parts where he puts you in mortal peril or has you murder your king for no reason.

But he also gives you cool stuff.


More on topic, as a PC, you're by definition the only type of person in the world who doesn't have to multiclass in order to get bonus fighter feats!

[daremetoidareyo]

Unlimited bickering in the heat of battle

[Quertus]

PCs and NPCs can have different stats, but that isn't a given. Some tables roll for both, some tables assign both, etc.

By RAW, PCs and NPCs have different levels of wealth - even if the NPC is an active adventurer.

PCs tend to face level-appropriate (ish) challenges.

NPCs with monstrous LA do not tend to have level-appropriate WBL, and often face (and die to) very not level-appropriate challenges.

NPCs are all run by one person; PCs are run by different people, and often have a very alien mindset compared to the rest of the world.

And, of course, Diplomacy.


Unlimited bickering in the heat of battle

I so need to make a (three-headed?) monster that does this. Its power is "Metagaming" - it makes fighting it so annoying, that the players don't want to fight it.

[Elves]

Be as much of a bland, directionless, indecisive everyman in this world as humanly possible. Not only will this cement your role as protagonist-kun in any isekai world you land in, it'll guarantee that you get a harem the moment you arrive.

Someone sig this ASAP.

[denthor]

A cleric elf will touch a 1/2 orc wizard because the wizard needs healing. PC overcome stereotypes and hatred among the races. They promote love and cooperation.

[Kalkra]

You are permanently under the control of some mad extra-dimensional being incapable of fear or empathy who for the most part finds the majority of your life irrelevant except the parts where he puts you in mortal peril or has you murder your king for no reason.

More specifically, you're immune to panic (you can still be scared in a detached sense), pain, boredom, and physical discomfort. You have no objection to having your skin flayed off and being tied to a post for three days (or however the specifics go, I forget), you'd be glad to die and undie as many times as necessary in order to get some stat boosts, and you'll pay enough to buy three houses to be thrown in a pit for a week to mentally scar yourself, which will have no effect on your personality. You're okay with eating the same tasteless food for your entire life, and you don't mind sleeping in a sewer (or obligatory sewer-themed dungeon), nor do you go insane from not sleeping at all. Furthermore, you spend vast amounts of time offscreen, during which you were probably diligently doing something extremely boring.

Less noticeably, you're rarely impulsive, and could be in a room full of naked people and extremely good smelling food with only a minor circumstance penalty at most.

Perhaps the most powerful ability of a PC is the ability to directly talk to the DM, asking of things are okay, what will happen if he does a certain thing, or just buying him pizza.

Also, for some reason NPCs are never truly optimized, and you can be, although PCs have a unique weakness in the form of the DMs sacred weapon, the dreaded banhammer.

[Willie the Duck]

I so need to make a (three-headed?) monster that does this. Its power is "Metagaming" - it makes fighting it so annoying, that the players don't want to fight it.

Are the player's playing characters named Sir Robin and his minstrels?


Less noticeably, you're rarely impulsive, and could be in a room full of naked people and extremely good smelling food with only a minor circumstance penalty at most.

And yet, strangely, you'll do the most impulsively out-of-character things when the individual pulling your strings gets bored (and heaven help you if they get bored with you).

[InvisibleBison]

PCs gain XP by overcoming obstacles; NPCs do not.

[Telonius]

PCs and NPCs can have different stats, but that isn't a given. Some tables roll for both, some tables assign both, etc.

By RAW, PCs and NPCs have different levels of wealth - even if the NPC is an active adventurer.

PCs tend to face level-appropriate (ish) challenges.

NPCs with monstrous LA do not tend to have level-appropriate WBL, and often face (and die to) very not level-appropriate challenges.

NPCs are all run by one person; PCs are run by different people, and often have a very alien mindset compared to the rest of the world.

And, of course, Diplomacy.



I so need to make a (three-headed?) monster that does this. Its power is "Metagaming" - it makes fighting it so annoying, that the players don't want to fight it.


https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/threeheadedknight.jpg

"Brave Sir Robin ran away..."

[HeraldOfExius]

PCs gain XP by overcoming obstacles; NPCs do not.

On the other hand, (some) NPCs gain XP from the PCs overcoming obstacles, allowing the NPCs to get stronger without having to risk their lives facing obstacles.

[Pex]

All the plot important NPCs of the game world care very much what the PC does, for or against. As a PC you are the most important thing in the multiverse. Everything hinges on what the PC does. Certainly things can happen on their own, but it's Quantum Physics. Once a PC arrives to observe something happening that act of observance changes everything.

[martixy]

On the other hand, (some) NPCs gain XP from the PCs overcoming obstacles, allowing the NPCs to get stronger without having to risk their lives facing obstacles.

OotS even made a gag of this, with Haley's nemesis. :smallbiggrin: