Odd thing, but who are some 'big name' NPC's for name recognition these days?

[Odessa333]

Topic. Last time I DM'd, it was Elminster and Drizzt all over the place. As a player, it seems Blackstaff is in a lot of the modules these days, but I'm not up to date on my lore. Long story short, I'm being dragged out of retirement to run a high level (15th - 20th) campaign for 5E, and at this level, the PC's are not nobodies. They are reasonably well known, and so I'm wondering who knows them? What high level NPC's would know them, and they know in return? Any suggestions on good NPC's or a resource on where to better research myself would be most appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[Seclora]

Depends on the setting really. Faerun, Eberron, and Wildemount all have books you could check. Mordenkainen got a book, and still has a bunch of spells to his name. In that vein, I guess Otiluke's still out there too. Laeral Silverhand got a dice set, that's worth something, right?

[T.G. Oskar]

Last I recall, there's Minsc (from the Baldur's Gate games) who got promoted to super-stardom, there's some minor-level NPCs that get pushed up a lot (lord Dagult Neverember's mentioned several times) and Laeral Silverhand also got a push. Elminster and Drizzt are still around, though - those buggers are hard to kill. If you consider their inclusion canon, there's also Acquisitions Inc. and their protagonists (Omin Dran, Jim Darkmagic, Viari, Morgaen, etc.), as well as the "C" Team.

Eberron, sadly, doesn't have a lot of brand-name characters in the same vein as Minsc and Drizzt. About the only one that has some degree of recognition, and only because she's jumped into Faerun nowadays, is the gnome artificer Vi. That said, if you're gonna make a game on Eberron, there's a bunch of notable NPCs - the rulers of each country (king Boranel of Breland, queen Aurala of Aundair, king Kaius III of Karrnath, speaker Jaela Daran and High Cardinal Krozen of Thrane, and prince Oargev of New Cyre; there's also the Lhesh Haruuc of Darguun and the High King of Valenar), the moving forces (Lady Illmarrow, aka Erandis d'Vol; the Great Druid Oalian of the Wardens of the Wood, the daughters of Sora Kell in Droaam, the Lord of Blades) and the big threats (the Eberron book has information on a couple of Daelkyr and Demon Overlords; the former has a canonical appearance of Belashyrra and newcomer Dyrrn, demon overlords include Rak Tulkhesh and Sul Khatesh). There's also less looming threats (Bel Shalor, the Shadow on the Flame, and the Inspired).

As for Wildemount...can't say much, except watch Critical Role and see the NPCs they interact?

[Kobold_paladin?]

I generally run new groups to help them get acquainted with the game and then let them move on into the community. Most of them seem to know acereak and drizzt, but that's it.

[Sigreid]

For forgotten realms the ones that immediately come to mind are Elminster, Drizt or how ever the hell his name is spelled, volo
For Grayhawk/can show up anywhere Mordeniken, Bigby, Zagyag the mad mage, Tensor.

[MaxWilson]

Topic. Last time I DM'd, it was Elminster and Drizzt all over the place. As a player, it seems Blackstaff is in a lot of the modules these days, but I'm not up to date on my lore. Long story short, I'm being dragged out of retirement to run a high level (15th - 20th) campaign for 5E, and at this level, the PC's are not nobodies. They are reasonably well known, and so I'm wondering who knows them? What high level NPC's would know them, and they know in return? Any suggestions on good NPC's or a resource on where to better research myself would be most appreciated. Thank you for your time.

Personal taste, but I nominate Borys of Ebe (Dark Sun), the Lord of Blades (Eberron), Twilight Jack (Spelljammer) (http://www.spelljammer.org/tales/Wayfarer/03_Wayfarer.html), Strahd (Ravenloft), Conan (Earth literature), Hercules/Heracles (Earth myth), and... Jack Brennan (Larry Niven).

I'm not joking per se, I think that would be an awesome campaign, but I put it in blue because I don't expect you to take my tastes seriously.

My real answer for you is that one of the best experiences I've had gaming have been when I read an inscription[1] on a piece of treasure and suddenly realized that the twelve Swords of Power from Fred Saberhagen's books were in this very D&D game!

So, I would advise you to make a custom homebrew setting and fill it with allusions to things the players think are cool. Is one of them a Sherlock Holmes or Psych fan? Make a Sherlock Holmes/Shawn Spencer expy. How about a Conan expy? (Discworld has Cohen the Barbarian for similar reasons.) Harry Dresden? Mystique from the X-Men? Keyser Soze? James Bond? Helmuth-Speaking-For-Boskone? You don't necessarily have to lampshade the expy's origins--fans of the original will have their own moment of realization eventually. (Or won't.) What books/shows do your players like most?

You're playing a Tier 4 game, lots of room here to model most fictional concepts, and then do surprising things like make Superman-expy turn out to have been an alien double agent for his "destroyed" home planet all along.

I think if you just stick to boring old D&D tropes in WotC books purely because they're already in D&D, you'll be missing out on opportunities. Find out what the players think is cool and stick that into your D&D game.

-Max

P.S. I would love to insert Gharlane of Eddore into a D&D game. He should scare the pants right off of anyone who's ever read Lensman. Maybe make him the Big Bad of an multiracial empire, with hyperintelligent Jack Brennan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_(novel)) running an underground human-centric rebellion against him and giving the PCs missions.

[1] I almost lost my mind when my PC read this one:
I shatter Swords and splinter spears;
None stands to Shieldbreaker.
My point's the fount of orphans' tears
My edge the widowmaker.

Shieldbreaker?!? In D&D?!!!

Unfortunately the implementation of Shieldbreaker, and Doomgiver, turned out to be terrible, nothing like the actual Swords, and I lost interest at that point. But the concept was amazing.

[cZak]

I guess it depends are your Named NPC's protagonists, antagonists or window dressing

I don't know much about Forgotten realms, but I like the background of the Greyhawk setting
Rary, Evard, Gord and Robillar

Only Gord had novels written about him, but they all have some background info so you can feel free to build their story to fit your theme

[Vessyra]

Mordenkainen and Volo have both appeared in multiple modules, and have had books named after them. Laeral Silverhand, the Xanathar, Elminster, Driz'zt and Bigby are all major names, as well, though only the first two have had module appearances in 5e as far as I know.

[SunderedWorldDM]

Arkhan the Cruel is a newer, but really infamous NPC who was just recently given "canon" status in Descent into Avernus.

Check out Critical Role's campaign 1 characters, they really epitomize being epic level characters as well. Pike, Grog, Percy, Keleth, Vax, Vex, Scanlan- even for a casual, occasional watcher like me, these names inspire images and emotions.

Some other new "epic NPCs" that I think are pretty cool and should probably have some name recognition are the Xanathar, Jarlaxle, Lord Soth, Demogorgon, Orcus, the Lord of Blades... and nothing is stopping you from making NPCs up! If you want Sylthan the Archmage of Underhelm to be a big player in your campaign, you can make it happen ith the twin powers of Description and Exposition. Follow your feelings- if you don't feel something when you name-drop an NPC, then how can you expect your players to?

[HappyDaze]

For Forgotten Realms, the gods themselves are pretty much "big name" NPCs.

[da newt]

You are the DM - if you want Sam and Frodo and Gandalf to play a role - go for it. The world is your oyster - go nutz.

[Barbarian MD]

+1 to Laeral Silverhand in Waterdeep. You could resurrect her sister Alustriel in Silverymoon. The Blackstaff (now Vajra, Khelben is gone), Volo maybe. Elminster is still around, but much diminished in power since the spell plague. Bruenor Battlehammer is king in Gauntylgrm. Drizzt is still around somewhere.

For my game my players are building relationships for future epic play with Silverhand and Bruenor, as well as the Kings in Adbar and Felbarr, as well as some homemade ones. They *think* Elminster has helped him, but it's all a ruse, and if they ever track him down they'll find a bitter old man, a shell of his former power.