Leveling up NPCs

[GreyBlack]

Hey all! Question for the crowd. I've been running Curse of Strahd and my party had a couple of NPC'S running with them since pretty much the beginning. How do I determine how these NPC'S level up/what classes they might have? Is there a section in the MM or DMG that would help?

[FilthyLucre]

Hey all! Question for the crowd. I've been running Curse of Strahd and my party had a couple of NPC'S running with them since pretty much the beginning. How do I determine how these NPC'S level up/what classes they might have? Is there a section in the MM or DMG that would help?

Unlike 3.5 Edition D&D NPCs/Monsters don't have hard-and-fast rules/formulae for "leveling them up". Having run Curse of Strahd several times myself I would also, just by the way, caution you against that to begin with.

If you're hell bent on improving NPCs anyway, page 273 of the DMG will provide your only core guidance.

[JackPhoenix]

It's pretty much up to you. NPCs don't have classes by default, but there's this UA article (https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/UA_Sidekicks.pdf) if you really insist. The same rules are used if you play Essentials box with a single player.

[GreyBlack]

I get that, but I'm _really_ hesitant to send a 1/8 CR character into Ravenloft with the PC's. Especially when the book says that NPC's gain XP at half the rate of the PC's.

[Zuras]

Typically you just change their stat block to a better one that seems appropriate, and possibly give them the appropriate additional skills you want. Since they won’t be fighting the party you don’t even need to recalculate their CR.

Simple answer is give them a couple of extra hit dice and an ASI, and increase their proficiency bonus by +1. Just make sure they aren’t in a position to take any spotlight from the PCs