Scene stealing NPC's

[stoutstien]

In reading this I’m reminded of Fred the super dog DMPC from my campaign I referenced in my original post. My Dm also didn’t waste much time thinking how his presence would affect the actual players.

The difference is agency. The players found the npc and decided to place the item on its head. They were welcomed to leave him behind at any point or just remove the item but instead they kept him around. If I recall it was originally meant to be food and one of the players decided to roll for cuteness and got a 20 and the rest is just what happens when players decide as a group that Will Wheeking should stick around.

Definitely didn't have any plot armor either I lost count the number of diamonds they end up using to resurrect the thing.