3 NPCs your party will obsess over
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- čas přidán 23. 08. 2024
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Man, maybe I should feel embarrassed or naive for assuming people will befriend NPCs instead of murder them, but mostly I'm just INCREDIBLY thankful that I've never had to play at that kind of table. What a nightmare!
I absolutely adore these characters. And I had an idea for the shopkeep: instead of different prices for different colors, they ONLY accept copper pieces for red items, silver pieces for blue items, and gold pieces for green items. Same prices as the other shops, but he rounds down to the nearest gold or silver and he politely refuses to make change for the pricier coin.
If you want to buy the short bow with the blue handle and the red arrows, you have to walk down the street to the town bank to break that 26 GP into 250 silver and 100 copper.
@@JLPicard1648 Would you mind me stealing this idea? It is amazing
@@glarak9819 Go for it!
@@glarak9819 you have to ask this on a sub comment chain on CZcams? Lol
That's how I make my characters and super wholesome I don't make O. P NPCs then they are secretly O. P
You didnt describe npcs... You described my players...
... not the characters?
@@CarpeVeracity nope. 1 of my players is literally 3 kobolds in a trench coat. We pretended not to notice in the beggining and it would be kinda awkward to bring it up now... Good chef tho
@@CarpeVeracity one would think thats the case.
I feel called out by this comment. 😂
lol, just.. lol XD **chef's kiss**
Had my party encounter a weeping Hill Giant named Donk who asked them to retrieve his "puppy" that was stolen by a "mean" Fire Giant. The "puppy" was, in fact, a trained owlbear that understands commands in the Giant language. After saving Bob the owlbear, the party returned to find that Donk had uprooted a tree and had carved it into a beautiful piece of furniture. They were enamored with Donk and let him live in a cave near their residence, and every time they visit him, he has crafted more and more elaborate wooden furniture and decorations. Donk is dumb as a bag of hammers, but he's a master carpenter.
That's so beautiful
That is a real thing. Bit mean and unnecessary to use the term “idiot savant” in this era, but there have people with recorded IQ as low as 40 who were somehow incredible sculptors and craftsmen. Maybe all their neurons went into being kinesthetic learners. Who’s to say?
@@emilysmith2965 i mean to be fair donk is a hill giant i am very happy for him and proud of him for his skills but hill giants are supposed to have an iq that competes with anything that isn't an orange cat
The Wood Whisperer - he brings forth what the log asked him to be
My players got obsessed with “onion elf”. In a mercenary gang I didn’t bother to detail all the members and just described one guy as an elf eating a raw onion. He never said a word, but the players immediately decided they needed his approval.
After many sessions he gave them a solemn nod before leaving into the sunset…
Two years later he returned as part of a rescue operation. As soon as the players smelled onions they freaked out with joy.
😂❤
The solemn from the npc who doesn't care that much but the players idiolize for some reason... i used and abused that trope.
My DM once made a beautiful npc named coins. You were only allowed to address coins as it, its, or by its name. Coins was a goblin that lives in a barn with its snail. Coins wore a potato bag that it had sewn pockets into, and loved to put little trinkets into them (those pockets had holes at the bottom of them.) Deep into the campaign it turns out that snail was a god that had polymorphed into a snail to trick coins. The big bad of the campaign was god the snail.
the way I CACKLED reading this😂💀
Based neopronouns
coins is just like me fr (uses it/its)
stealing this for my next campaign!
We encountered a band of goblins while traveling and after killing most of them there remained this one stubborn little guy that NO ONE could hit. We decided he was the epic action hero of his own story, taking on giants, dodging there attacks, cloak billowing in the wind. We stopped fighting him, calmed him down, paid him some gold and sent him on his way to continue his hero's journey.
DM better have had him come back with an AC of 25 to get revenge on you for killing his family.
I had one of those, except it was a zombie in a game I ran for one friend. Neither his barbarian nor the warlock I ran as his backup could manage to hit the guy, so we ultimately decided that he got one last chance. The barbarian threw a javelin at him and missed completely, causing Steve the Zombie to live on forever. Now he’s the CEO of an office.
At least you compensated him and sent him on his way.
Similar situation happened in my Eberron 3.5 campaign, where they'd killed all of the goblin miners except one, so the wizard offers him 2gp per week to join the party.
Later on, same thing happened with some kobolds.
Of the items they had found, they gave the goblin sorcerer a Ring of Protection +1, and they gave the kobold a set of small, antique full plate mail.
After clearing the dungeon, the party, with their hirelings, head back to the city of Sharn and sell off all of the other items.
I asked him if he wanted to sell off the Ring and the armor before ending the session. He did not.
I jotted that down on a sticky note to ask him again at the beginning of next session. Still no.
They all set sail along the southern coast of Khorvaire to the Goblin nation of Darguun.
They arrive in the town, and they make their way through the market looking for their point of contact. They find the bar where he's been known to frequent and head inside.
Well, the party does.
The goblin sorcerer makes a show of holding the door open for them. The kobold paladin in training brings up the rear.
They head over to the only human in the bar and start negotiating with their contact for transportation to the Quarry.
The wizard's about as friendly and diplomatic as a rabid wombat, so their contact has not been swayed to take the risk for the price being offered.
So the Wizard goes to sweeten the deal with the Ring of Protection+1 💍
He turns around and the goblin sorcerer and the kobold paladin (of St. Cuthbert) are nowhere to be seen.
The player immediately loses his 💩 his face turns red, and he starts shrieking, *I REFUSE*‼️ over and over again.
The rest of the players are like, what did you expect would happen?
You murdered their friends and family in front of them, are only paying them 2gp per week, and we came to the Goblin nation of Darguun. He gave you two chances to sell off the Ring and the armor, a week apart, so you had plenty of time to think about it.
You planned this!
Yeah, I had this *possibility* in mind for them, but, like they said, I gave you two chances to sell it off. I wasn't going to force the issue, only having them run off if the opportunity presented itself.
When you all entered the bar I had everyone roll Spot, announcing DC 15. No one got higher than a 12. No one wanted to spend an action point to roll a d6 and add it to their rolls. It was a chance to look around and get a headcount on the party.
Most of the party went up to the bar for drinks. Your Human Wizard and your fiancee's Half Orc Monk went over to meet with the contact...
Shortly thereafter we stopped gaming with him. *I REFUSE*‼️ has been a running joke ever since.
I should update their stats to 5e and give them a few levels. 🙂
@@AnnoyingNewslettersyeah, the pay for a skilled hireling (ie one with training with weapons) is 2 gp per day. So he was underpaying by 12 gold a week. He was paying them a day's wages every week. Definitely the consequences of his own actions.
yeh, its always this random Goblin(or similar) that just keeps rolling 20s/everyone fails against.
The last one that happened with is now the King of the Nightmare March Goblins. The Script does not see them as a relevant party in the conflict but now it might just be the extra bit of "manpower" the players need to convince to take over the Capitol of the traitor Paladin.
I had a puzzle that required a poem, so I made up a talking door to recite it. My party absolutely fell in love with her and returned to the dungeon to rescue her.
I'm stealing this
My party is.... currently stealing a talking door from the dungeon of the mad mage. His name is Danny (Doorvito) and we love him lmao
So they are walking around with a sentient door? Why does that seem so funny to me.
“Hey who’s turn is it to carry her now… my back hurts!”
“You only just got her. Quit whining”
“But i have mild scoliosis!” 😢
@@subaru4920i'm sorry what...?
We had a goblin named Boblin that was addicted to mountainous dew. Needless to say we almost got ourselves killed multiple times to get him more mountainous dew
I made an NPC Gnome Fighter named "Thumbs" who couldn't speak because she didn't have a tongue so she only responded with a thumbs up or a thumbs down. The plan was for her to be a background guildmember type who would pop up when they needed to talk to someone for a simple question or directions. Thumbs was unceremoniously adopted and the party refused to let her go.
My party straight up nearly ignored the BBEG and most of the campaign because their favorite shop keep was in danger. He was definitely just a weird little guy
My players favorite npc was a drunken hobo they found in a pile of crates. They took care of him, clothed him, helped him through his alcoholism and he eventually became sober and joined them full time
Love it
wtf I’m crying that’s so wholesome
What a lame party.
@@Mr1121628 Unbased opinion
my cinnamon roll in danger was a tiefling by the name of Terran, who worked as a librarian in a DEFINITELY cursed library in a vampire's mansion- they were nervous and jittery and ended up quite literally getting dragged onto the party's warg mount and tagged along with them for the rest of the game. still get doodles of my dearest Terran from some of my players, and i'm thinking of bringing them back for the next campaign, because they're adorable tbh.
Our DM introduced a barmaid that seemed to be in any tavern we ever entered, on any plane. Eventually she became Vesa (she was everywhere we wanted to be) and I had to work up a full character sheet for her. We all looked forward to running into her when we went to wind down after each adventure. One power she had that the others didn't figure out at first was any water within 10 feet of her would be purified and become Holy Water. Considering we were all vampires, that led to a few interesting barfights.
Love this! 😂
A goblin ghost who loves tax evasion is one of my players’ favorite NPCs to visit
Love that!!!
Wait how? I mean he is dead so they shouldn't need to pay taxes. I need to know more.
@@nukerwolf7788
While he hasn’t been earning taxable income, the city argued that he did not own the house he was haunting because he was not paying property taxes on it.
I then had him say he never payed taxes even when he was alive, because he just loves tax evasion.
That’s how the party’s goliath learned about taxes for the first time: from a libertarian goblin ghost.
Me
In my homebrew game, the fav NPC for the party is Grump, the god of cursing/swearing
NOT curses
cursing
He's a tiny, insect like being
If you swear a lot, he just.. shows up, and starts to also swear/curse, and throw insults around
Untill he lightens the mood
Then he pats your shoulder, says "There we go!" and leaves
you can imagine the chaos this can cause..
Early in the campaign, they met this older adventurer whose party had all been brutally killed, leaving him very cynical and angry, prone to "stab first and ask questions later". For some reason, they ended up really liking and respecting him, despite (or perhaps because) he was a bit of a loose cannon. So I kept bringing him back -- sometimes he'd ask for their help against some big bad, other times they'd have to intervene and stop him when he was about to go too far. The battle that killed his comrades had also cost him a leg, and he now wore a prosthesis. It became a running joke that the PCs would always ask, "How's your leg?", and he'd respond by making up some fantastical new ability his latest version had: "Yeah, this one lets me jump 50 feet in the air", or "This one shoots fireballs out of the big toe".
Reading this I am 100% sure this guy speaks with a Scottish or Irish accent.
@@Martell364 I am terrible at accents, but I will accept this as canon anyway. 😆
A hobgoblin they spared from an encounter. Wasn't meant to survive. Named him Jim and helped the group because he needed to survive. Eventually, the group got him a new job are a cartographer and prepaid an apartment for them for a year...
Haha, nice. I've been working on a similar concept for a PC, but rather than being an amputee, he restarted as a Drunken Master monk.
I am leaving a huge gap for the DM to weigh in on why he's restarting, but deep down, his goal will always be the same; to prevent his next group from failing like his last. To the world, he's seen as a famed hero that could do no wrong, but to the party, he appears to be nothing more than a drunk old has-been.
Aight, but just once the leg has to actually do what he says it does.
his name was thomas, he was a bandit... when he crit failed the stealth check and got the bandit group caught, the bandit group yelled at him and so the party felt bad and took him in. truly a story worth telling he NEVER rolled better than a 1 we made sure the dice wasnt weighted but every roll done by him was a 1, it was amazing. but after so long, and a whole training arc, and instruction from a player, he rolled a 2
Back when I first tried DMing, my party fell in love with these two little girl shopkeeps I made. Their names were Madison and Addison and they were twin humans around 10 years old. They 'ran' a small knitting shop where they would sell the yarn their mom made as well as all sorts of little things they'd made out of it. Mostly scarves, hats, and socks.
I made them as a small tie-in for our barbarian(who liked knitting) and he pretty much fell in love with the two, along with the whole party.
Had a water mephit who sold magic items in a dinghy.
He would follow the waterways the players traveled.
Players were then attacked by pirates, then water mephit dumped his store inventory into the water at his own loss, asked the players to jump in the dinghy, and then used his movement power to push dinghy like a "motorboat" to move them to safety.
Pirates later banished him to the elemental plane of water after grievously wounding him.
Real years later, I forgot about the mephit, and at the end of the campaign in high levels, the players surprised me by using a reward wish spell to bring him back instead of their own treasure.
That is so sweet omg
I love your players
Full circle moment 🥲
Players never forget their fave NPCs
I also love that Mephit now
Edit: I wanna clarify, I don't even play, I just love your water mephit
I created a half-orc barbarian studying with a monk to get a handle on his out of control anger issues. I made him always hungry and searching for food as a quirk which resulting in a number of funny side moments. The point that turned them was when a druid party member gave him a good berry and he burst out near to tears “is this what it feels like to be full? I never knew!” They absolutely melted not realizing the depth of that hunger they thought was just a funny quirk.
I love that!
Tarrare? (The hungriest boy who ever lived, deeply strange historical account.)
@@emilysmith2965 I just read the Wikipedia article on him 😳
Alas I’m not familiar with that reference but am now compelled to find out.
@@emilysmith2965 Wow.... I think this is the first time I am sorry I looked something up on Wikipedia.
My party has basically gotten themselves a party dad in a old halfling traveling merchant. Hes a wise and really kind hearted man that loves to travel. They first met him when fleeing from a bandit attack on a town very early on, and he offered to carry them for free. He told them stories how he buys stuff in major cities and then sells or sometimes even gives them away to poorer settlements. That with the continent timing he often shows up and his huge knowledge of the world has made him be quite loved by the party
Goblins’s name is Grugg, and he was being bullied by two Hobgoblins. Mind you, he had escaped the party’s torment some sessions ago when he traded the whereabouts of the hideout for his life. The party rescued him and offered to teach him how to act more properly. Now he cooks and cleans at the local inn and the Paladin (who was once very murder-hobo against goblins) wants to arm and train him.
Apparently everyone loves Grugg now. More than they love each other. How did we get here?
The town guards sent a detachment along with the players to “show them around town” (i.e. keep them out of trouble.) One of the guards didn’t quite get that the players were some potentially very dangerous people. He was an innocent gangly teenager, newly minted into the guards and happy to show off his shiny new mace and talk enthusiastically about any aspect of town. And of course he loved to hear about all their tales of adventure.
When they saw him wandering around with a thousand yard stare after his first battle, they quickly grabbed him so they could cheer him up and give him all sorts of life advice.
Man brings tears to my eyes
A Christmas One-Shot, my players fell in love with a little elf named Jolly Jingleson, who’s bravery was far bigger than his HP pool. He promptly charged the boss holding Santa hostage. He went down fast, the party had nothing to resurrect him, so instead they buried him and held a short funeral. It’s been about 7 years since then but all my players still go “man, remember Jolly? I loved him” around the holidays 😂
I had a DM introduce a character who was just known as "Captain of the Gaurd." We never got an official name for him but everyone in the group loved this character all because he always wore a cape that was enchanted to play trumpet fan fare and blow in the wind. He even called one of our party members slacker because he was charged with attempted murder after him and another member in the part started fighting in the streets and knocked the other guy unconscious. His death was probably the only reason our party stayed together to take down the BBEG.
I had an unnamed kobold that guided them through some tunnels and they treated him with kindness. When asked for his name, i paused and just said "GUIDE!" He's the party pet now.
Greebles the sideways goblin. He has a shop in town, but you don't enter the shop. You stand at the window and watch the items roll by. He pokes just the top of his head out, so you only see down to his nose, and ye SCREAMS the prices at you. And is immune to Distort Value.
"YOU WANT MECHANICAL WINGS? ON SALE!!!! 5000!!!!!"
Greebles is also unaffected by gravity, when he chooses.
Greebles sounds amazing.
this is the greatest character I've ever read about.
He sounds like a hoot!
I would die for Greebles
I had these children npcs once. They were siblings, and were supposed to be around for a scene or two. The girl was a genius in the making and the little boy was a weird little gremlin of a human child. The party went insane. At the end of that adventure, the party adopted them
Well I hope it's okay for you if I adopt this idea! It's adorable ☺️
@@BlertaPupu please do so! It was very fun to rp as both of them, I hope you have fun too
Ah yes Harpy the ship's navigation AI that I made up on the spot because I needed to think of a way to give my players some critical information at the time.
When the airship that Harpy was in was eventually destroyed it got more of an emotional response than the death of their Professor/Handler who I had two pages of backstory prepped for
Our party’s favorite npc was just some dude who we bought bread from and asked questions. We all instantly decided we loved him for no reason.
I have an NPC named Jeremy who is a rabbit man dressed like a middle aged man, always says "oh hi dere" when he sees you, and expresses his undying loyalty and friendship to everyone he meets.
To the point where he temporarily joined the evil cult that killed and resurrected him, just because he thought they "seemed nice"
Half of my players love him and want to protect him with their lives, the other half find him insufferable and want any excuse to knock him out
May I steal this?
I can't stop laughing at this. Like I'm almost crying. It was the last sentence
@@piperdude82 yeah feel free, Jeremy's influence will spread
Any Join The Party fans here? A cousin of January?
You mean Jerry... cause that's Jerry from Rick and Morty...
In my game, our wizard wanted to buy some health potions, so our DM made a random NPC named Kalahan, who owns a tower. He's very weird, constantly explodes things, and his tower is always emitting some kind of coloured smoke (if it stops, people get worried and evacuate the area). He was later made a half-gnome-half-goblin, and our party loves him dearly.
He lives with us now and has a nice crater on our manor grounds in which he blows things up.
Ziggs, is that you?
Why didn’t they just go to the potion store
I am new to dnd and wanted to try being a dungeon master because I like storytelling, so I made a short little one shot and had a yuan-ti with a Russian accent running an inn. He was supposed to attack them while they slept, but instead they convinced him to join them in the quest.
Now I forever have the iconic npc Jasper the shady Russian innkeeper in my arsenal. Jasper is good boy.
on our very first campaign on the very first encounter, my party captured a goblin. many campaigns later and gumbo goblin still makes regular appearances.
Our first foray into DnD was the starter pack that comes Mines of Phandelvar (or something)
Theres a goblin named Droop. We immediately adopted him. The Paladin converted him (sorta. Droop didn't understand what he was agreeing to but handed out pamphlets and got people coming to the new church lol). He still lives in and maintains our homebase.
“Just a weird lil’ guy” is the #1 guaranteed way to make anyone and everyone instantly invested in a character in any situation, highly recommend, we need more weird lil’ guys out there XD
Made a mermaid who was working as an herbalist in a pirate town. She couldn't speak common very well, but she got her meaning across well enough. Gave her a scratchy voice that made her throat seem extremely dry (cause she's normally speaking underwater) and my players were in love. Her name was Minnie, short for Minnow
As a player in this campaign, me and my party got attached to an incredibly old elf woman who runs a botanical shop and we always make a point to visit her whenever we are in town. They have given lots of valuable information about the plot so far
My Pathfinder group adopted a lil Goblin with the very creative name "Boblin", who knew how to read.
Pathfinder goblins think that reading "traps your thoughts in a book" and fear/hate it. So this lil guy was shunned by his tribe, when all he wanted to do was read childrens' books.
In D&D there was a town guard who dreamt of becoming a musician, and after much coaxing, he performed a duet with our bard in the tavern.
Boblin the Goblin is classic.
I love how so many people have creative names for there NPCs while my group gives them names like Bob, Chad, and Eugene. We have to step up our name game. Btw Boblin is so cute
I spent days working on an intricate NPC with backstory, goals, and lots of power. They disliked him and called him oatmeal because his name was omael. Instead, they fell in love with a ball of light named Shooty Bam Bam who used gun-named attacks
They adopted a child with no tongue that tried to steal from them on their way home from a quest, now the entire campaign is centred around keeping her safe and I love it!!!
My party has an NPC who’s the tough grouch, but the players have collectively decided to treat him as if he’s the cinnamon roll, leading to everyone in the party calling him “son” despite him being a few decades older than everyone
His name was Steve. The Goblin was Steve. And now he's the leader of the rival adventuring party
Lmao I want more context on this please!
My party's favourite NPC is a random knight who was barely involved in our quest. He was missing along with an actually important NPC who multiple people were looking for. We took offense to nobody caring about the knight so we made it a point to care about him. We've rescued him at this point and try to go talk to him whenever possible.
no literally, the weird little guy will win all of us over every damn time. we love a funky little lad
His name is Muck. He’s a goblin paladin with amnesia. He primarily remembers that he’s on a quest. What that quest is? Nobody knows. It also helps that he was introduced in a high-stakes moment of the story where we were more likely latch onto things that made us smile.
My most successful campaign had my party adopt an orphan boy who was obsessed with heroes and thought the party were going to save the world. At the end of the campaign I had that kid become the final boss who stole the powers of the gods in order to clense the world of evil...everyone cried...
Incredible story but also how dare you
@@Dori6584 This campaign was a straight up evil campaign, the party did war crimes, captured dragons to let them loose on cities with the intent of setting up their own pawns into power, and so much other political subterfuge that ended up throwing the entire continent into all out warfare. Suprisingly they wernt murderhobos, everything was too well planned out... but yah, the kid believed in heroes and saw that the party was evil incarnate, so he stole a relic that he used to siphon power from the gods to gain the ability of a god, then he was going to use this power to take away free will from the world, so no one would willingly do evil again. Not sure if that justifies my decision but that was my thinking😅
@@Dori6584AGREED
Reminds me of a 3 year campaign i played a rogue in. Origin of my rogue was that I was a merc for hire and veteran of several wars, grizzled and realised there is no glory in war so now I fight for myself. Another player was an orphan that I had saved when the orphanage had burned down. We developed a father son dynamic and I had funded his training through wizard school as he was naturally talented in magic.
Skip to the grand finale, my character had been the secret bbeg pulling the strings in the background. I had discovered the young boy through a prophecy and knew he would grow up to be the one to unlock the big evil world ending artifact that would turn me into a god. I had set fire to the orphanage so I would have the perfect set up to save the boy and cause him to lose everything he knew and all he had was this old rogue that had saved his life, so naturally he would latch on to me.
There were actual tears at the table. It had been something that the gm had been working with me on for the last 2 years. To that was about 15 years ago now and everyone at that table refers to that story with the same reverence as "luke i am your father"
@@nickalvarez3635 First off, respect as that is geuinely a fantastic end to a 3 year campaign. It sounds like it deserves to be held up to the origional Star Wars. Second, this right here is why we play the game, to tell such a story and to be the heroes, or in this case the villains. Thank you so much for sharing this story, and tell you DM that he is geuinely evil and that some guy on the internet has true respect for what the two of you pulled off!
I had an npc merchant who sat on a rug and sold boxes with things in them. He wouldn't say what's inside them, he would just say, " You want this box." When the pcs couldn't afford his prices, he would smile and say, "I tell you what I do..." then haggle with them. He is so beloved that he has appeared in multiple campaigns.
We were obsessed with a shopkeeper who could only focus on the challenge of making magical items rather than the business of running a shop, was very socially awkward, got attached to her stock, couldn't really figure out how to price things, and didn't care anyway. Later, we found out that the shop itself was sapient and was actually running the business. We decided that she must be protected at all costs and set up a system where we could buy/send things to her, even after we left town.
My party’s favourite npc was a spectator that guarded a door underground for nearly a century and had a super upbeat attitude about everything. They had never seen the outside world and so their only desire was to touch this weird thing called grass they’d heard about. The party named him Earl and brought him grass and a pet fish he named Nearl.
A small, golden flying elephant named Paddock, he was only visible to one party member, and its mission was to drive him mad. It pretended to be a familiar, but interpreted commands/requests in a way to annoy his master, but make the rest of the party smile by giving them tiny gifts, or performing random acts of kindness. An example . "Go and find this item that had disappeared"... 4 days later character gets annoyed, resummons his only to be told, "I found it just like you asked. Oh, you meant I should come back to tell you? Why didn't you say so"
that is wicked funny
I need this in my life
My party kidnapped one of the enemy cultists named Jimmy even though he actively fought against them whenever they grappled him. They’d overheard other cultists whilst they were undercover complain about how snobby Jimmy was. And so they snatched him. Also his name was Jimmy and he was adorable we had to give him back to his family who’d been missing him.
My players have an ever growing polygamous kobold cult following them around. It started as a one off joke but two of the players adopted the kobold queen so they're here to stay. My other party ignored the 12 fully fleshed out npcs I introduced over 3 sessions but wound up latching onto a grumpy orc I threw in for flavor text. These tips work
Made a pair of NPCs that were a hit with my players. A 40 year old Goliath river boat captain named Garath, that barely spoke common and so only said "Yup" or "Nope". Pretty tough and stern looking but of course the sweetest guy. He would pet their horses and sneak them sugar cubes when he thought no one was looking, and in addition he was a fabulous home chef. Made the party a lot of fine comfort food for the few days they were on board (The party had hailed them down and bargained for passage to the next city instead of tromping through the forest). The second was Garath's first mate, Ilas, an 18 year old halfling that did most of the talking for Garath. He'd been abandoned by his parents and was picked up by Garath several years prior. He had a high, raspy voice, like Forager from Young Justice. he read a book aloud to our bard (who can't read and still hasn't told most of the party), and gave her the book and showed her the basics so she could finish it herself someday. He also told the party about Garath (who never ate with them and was always helming the boat), and told them that Garath had often been attacked by people who thought he was a marauder from the Northern Steppe, even though he never threatened anyone. Ilas never knew why Garath was so far south, just that he was a kind and gentle soul who would probably have loved to be a professional cook if he could fit in most people's kitchens. As it is he liked being a boat captain because it gave him leave to travel unmolested and see the country. Ilas helped Garath communicate, and Garath made sure Ilas was safe.
So basically yeah by the end of that session the party had found their new favorite NPCs. I'll have to bring them back someday!
🥺 what a sweet little found family.
omg that is adorable, just... so creative, love the dynamic, my gosh ur good
The closest one for me was the cinnamon roll archetype - in a previous game, the party was about to embark on an ocean voyage and needed a navigator. Their patron offered the services of his beleaguered half-elf indentured servant, and the party immediately bonded with the world-weary, perpetually anxious throwaway NPC I came up with on the spot. Our bard taught him songs, the paladin began teaching him to fight, etc. When they encountered a vast storm and their friend was washed overboard, the paladin lept over and cut his own tether in the rescue attempt. It broke my heart that they failed and he died, and I still wish we'd been able to finish the heartfelt side quest none of us intended to start.
Did the paladin die too?
@@antonstrandberg3013 almost - he was one save away from drowning.
I made up a goblin named Philipe on the spot for my characters to interact with because he was the only goblin who spoke common. They proceeded to murder all of the other goblins but befriend Philipe, and have requested that he appear in every campaign I run. To this day there is a parody song about him (“Philipe Navidad”), my players will randomly use his name as a battle cry, and there’s a tacit agreement that they won’t mutiny as long as I include Philipe in every adventure.
I didn't make her. But my family absolutely adores Donnabella Fiasco from Dragon of Icespire Peak, she's a perfect little blend of all 3. I introduced her in Session 1, to help fill out their party, and she was an immediate hit. The Essentials Kit comes stocked with some great NPCs.
I remember that I was about to deliver a massive plot twist, but my players were obsessing over the hellhound I wouldn’t let them keep in the last room. Had to repeat myself twice before they actually grasped what just happened.
I had my players obsessed over a cute little green haired dryad that came about from planting an enchanted acorn on their property. They stole it from an evil sorcerer that had enchanted the acorn as a spirit trap to enslave a powerful dryad. They weren't sure what to do with it and finally decided to plant it on a small plot of land they had previously pooled their resources and purchased from a local lord to build a house for a base for downtime activities.
The tree sprouted and grew into a sapling overnight (as it was enchanted to do) and because it wasn't used for its intended purpose, it developed a new independent spirit on its own. Thus was created Jinee (they named her, but I have to admit to using a certain similarly named personality for inspiration of her description 😏)
That's adorable
a random wizard i named Noah on the spot that ran the city’s teleportation circle hall. they had him literally chauffeur a baby dragon through circle to the biggest university. he appeared like twice. in the epilogue, one of the pcs married him.
I’ve been doing this for years and have never consciously noticed these categories. Fantastic call out!
Our DM gave us a chance to use the deck of many things. I pulled a card that summoned an npc that was fully committed to me. Overtime he grew on the party and now he's a valuable and trusted member of the group. We love him so much to the point where we were willing to risk a TPK to save his life.
His name is Ralus and he is the sweetest boy
I love it, my chaotic good players convinced the big bad in my home brew to be a good guy before they knew he was the big bad so the story is getting a little crazy they treat him like a cinnamon roll lol h
I made a homebrew hybrid race called a Gnoblin (gnome goblin) swamp druid who rode a dire toad (not very practical). Her mom was tricked by a fey creature when she wished "The next gnome I see to sweep me off my feet". The fey cursed a goblin to look like a gnome and they both fell madly in love (although she couldn't figure our why a gnome would be green). Her name is Grin and she has no sense of personal space.
My DM was so sad that we didn't care about the NPC he put so many hours into. Instead we all decided to care and protect this Goblin that we took prisoner. His name is Eugene and he wants to be a cook unfortunately he has terrible at it. We protect him at all costs.
We also had another Goblin named Fred but he died so... RIP Fred I guess.
I just love all the wholesome and funny stories everyone has told in the comments and I definitely saved this video just for the story's in the chat❤
I made a plothook npc once. He was just supposed to be a paranoid drunk pointing the party in the direction of a spy that had been watching them. They ended up bringing the guy everywhere
My party met two Quasits who they made a deal with to travel with them. One, who the fighter carried with her, was more talkative, funny, agressive, but due to his agression he became very usefull in early combat (putting a mage out of concentration 95ft in the air). He eventually died when a trap went off. The second was extremely muscular, calm and spoke with a deep voice. He was in frog form most of the time, but always with clear muscles. He meditated every morning and was the only party member who really apreciates the bard's bagpipe music for relaxation.
My players obsessed over an alchemist gnome who had 4 fingers left between both hands and dozens of wobbly shelves full of Oil of Impact, Alchemist Fire, Thunderstones, Turpentine, and barrels full of marbles. Every time they returned to the city and sought him out, his previous location was in ruins and he had relocated a few blocks away, with less hair and teeth, but a bigger smile every time.
A monk aarakokra that "fell" from his sky bound monastery, hit his head and forgot how to fly and properly talk... he was renamed as Taekwondodo
He was such a hit in the table that i had to give him some importance after his purpose with the party was done for, and made him the leader of a guild called "Fallen Nest", which works as a group for everyone rejected by their own, and want to be part of a community
I'm a player but I wanted to share one NPC my group's DM made in a previous campaign. He was a druid but when first introduced he was a squirrel that one of our party members shot out of a tree for acting sus. This prompted the druid to turn back to his human form and go "What da feck is your problem!?" in the most Scottish accent (our DM is Scottish so he just went all in). We were all so surprised by this we burst into laughter. This NPC travelled with the group for a bit and is to this day the one NPC we remember most fondly.
Funnily enough, my two npcs that my players love are an honest and just priest and a traumatised murderer.
I don’t understand.
My most iconic NPC was a random mercenary who randomly had a musket as his weapon (This was a modern setting, in the John Wick universe). They decided to recruit him instead of kill him and thus he became Lord Montgomery MacDonald, The Earl of Sandwich. He ended up performing shockingly well in combat and spoke with a very posh accent and he survived longer than both of the pcs that recruited him
i feel so called out. She literally described 4 out of 5 PCs in our group even though this is supposed to be NPCs
Any variation of the Mom, aunt or uncle character. One of the NPCs I had was essentially a giant hellhound (Cerberumon, it was a Digimon campaign) who’s entire attitude was “Why has no one told these kids anything, we are going to die with these oblivious children as our hope” and they absolutely loved him.
How do you run a digimon campaign? How does the digimon work? Are they like characters?
@@minefish They were esentially NPCs that the players controlled during battles.
@@kokirij0167 ah ok, thank you!
My party’s favourite NPC was a lizardfolk called Hugo who literally just gave them a taxi between two mountains. Idk why tho, I guess it was just how humble he was.
My players are obsessed over a trio of goblins from one of our highschool games, to the point ive recycled them as easter eggs in every game since.
They're a pair of twins with a simulacrum triplet. The brother is an alchemist, the sister is an artificer, and the simulacrum/golem/homunculus is a necromancer.
I even managed to reflavor them and throw them into our sci-fi campaign.
Jimmy was the corpse of a goblin we carried around and called him the manager of our band (we all played instruments). We had a level 1 wizard who dreamed of being a necromancer, so we assumed it would work out eventually. He was a stone cold negotiator for us, though.
Susi - I was running a Vampire the Masquerade game and my players decided to raid a hotel. I placed a tired old lady at the front desk, who the proceeded to invite the players to a game of cards to pass time. Players immediately wanted to know if she is cheating. She wasn't - until a bottle of brandy became the stakes.
And that is how my players became obsessed with an alcoholic grandma who then made an appearance in other campaigns as various variations.
My party started with 2 players and no healer. When the rouge managed to get thrown in jail, the fighter was able contact a distant friend, Earlick. Earlick, with his questionable practitioner certifications, was able to prove the rouge was sane and managed to release the charges. Earlick is now a sidekick goblin healer with severe emotional/attachment issues and is often very absentminded as well as incredibly protective of the party. Most of the party has grown very fond of him. I wonder how my players will feel when he gets killed off 😈
2nd Archetype: Everymorning before my players got their base, the grouchy morning keep Zephen would scream "Times up! get out of the rooms!" at 6am sharp, and he didn't tolerate tardiness. He didn't ask what they wanted to eat, just served them (he was a horrible cook anyways). Later on, when checking out the library (that he owns and curates in his spare time) They caught him teaching a group of the town's orphans how to read. They've loved him ever since
Archetype 3: Squeakers the kobold. Named for his Mighty Squeak! (I made him up in an encounter and then when they finally got him to speak my voice cracked trying to make up a voice on the spot) He is the town's favorite wizard (he doesn't know any spells he just saw a purple robe with stars and a matching hat in a shop and the players bought it for him)
The cinnamon roll is the best sacrifice for the villain to use to make players hate him, the grouch is an amazing ally that saves the party at the last second and the weird npc is often a great Segway character from one plot point to another.
You have to be careful doing that. If you go too far, the party will blame *you* for the death and burn your entire campaign to the ground as revenge.
@Aredel good :)
If they are blaming me that makes sense. I write the npcs, and the party is allowed to act however they want. The more extreme the more opportunity as a dm you have to turn them into the villains or possibly make a god or bigger being take notice.
If they are trying to ruin the campaign then they aren't good players and didn't deserve a proper story to begin with. Resurrection spells exist, all kinds of special magic can be used.
If they throw a tantrum that's a bad player. If they just get filled with rage over the villain that's amazing and I will use that fire and help them destroy the entire world.
One of my players decided that since they are a noble, they may know this prince of the country they were in. I let them roll to see, they passed, I invented the character, and they fell in love with him. To the point that he helped them in the big final assault of the campaign
Good ole Randy Hatbuckle, the first NPC to give us a quest, to kill a cave of goblins. He wanted to get his "thinking cave" back, and in exchange he'd give us a boat. He's now our captain. Randy has already helped the party in ways I didn't even think was possible for some old guy with a Buckle-less hat.
I just got done running" out of the abyss" for my players. The one character that everyone seemed to latch onto was as broken by the name of gash. Had no real reason to latch on to him but they realized how how abused he was and how broken and they started to fix him and by the end of the campaign, he was a well-rounded individual on the men from his psychological wounds and a member of the party
My players love Tony, the troll who would rather draw in the sand with a small stick than bash things with a large club. They're currently on a quest to find him again and recruit him into their pirate crew lmao
Our party's favorite NPC is a goblin we met when half the party was thrown in jail. His name was Poggy and it was his second time in the ringer. We wanted the world of him and later on we ran into him again at a fighting pit across the sea. He got his butt kicked, but we were so happy that he was at least attempting to make a living.
Meanwhile, there was a gnome named Slouch who got scammed into buying a warehouse of towels and tries to badly salesman us. He is the primal definition of incompetence and we all hate that he stays alive somehow.
My GM had a cool wizard NPC meant to help us briefly on our quest, and when we visited his tower tge GM thought to himself "a powerful wizard wouldn't answer his own door" so came up with a talking door with a funny voice on the fly. We were obviously instantly obsessed and have always cared more about this talking door than almost any other NPC he's had in any game he's run.
You're content is so incredibly jarring, you have such a strong and wholesome vibe that everytime you show up on my feed it feels like a cultural shock. It always a pleasant surprise though
I guess my weird little guy would be the Cave Dwelling Lizardfolk that spoke broken common and sounded like Mark Hamill’s Joker if he was doing a Stitch impression.
Honestly was expecting them to not like the character and want to fight.
Nope you accidentally created weird lil guy
In my first campaigne we were told that an ettin was in the field of herbs that the town needed. I was playing a very bubbly and dumb halfling ranger. She went out of her way to go to the library and learn very basic giant so she could talk to them. Found out it was their field and the town was built and taking over their land. Caused a war all because she fell on love with an ettin who was just as dumb as she was. He sacrificed himself to save everyone. RIP Thunk, you were a real one.
Me and my dungeon master are the only two people at my table that wouldn't absolutely murder these archetype the second we saw them
I have a trio of Hexblood Witch-sisters in my campaign, NPC's all of them. The oldest is wise but seems a bit aloof and heavily enjoys knitting, the middle one is grumpy and sassy, but with a soft spot like you mentioned. The third is very tall, muscular and a bit of an energetic goofball (as she has red hair and freckles, my group describe her as Pippi Longstocking with ADHD). They love these NPC's to bits and would probably burn the entire world down if they died. Make NPC's that are fun yet relatable or just plain adorable and watch your PC's love them. Great video, Ginny!
Players also love an NPC with a hilariously incongruous voice (a Goliath with a high, shy voice; a tiny pixie with a low gruff voice; a cute rabbit that sounds like a Bond villain)
I had an NPC Paladin that I intended to sound tolerant and compassionate, but the players said that instead he came off as flirtatious, the total opposite of his personality. So naturally that became his trademark; a grizzled old veteran who can't help his smooth caressing tones - Sir Pondus the unwitting seducer!
The high Charisma’s gotta come from somewhere
I like the idea of a large, hulking orc or a tall black knight being protective of an old lady they just decided to help one day because she showed them kindness when no one else would.
In the 1st game I ever played, the DM made up a Lil goblin for us to fight named Stinky. He ended up getting adopted by the party, and now has an ex-nun orc girlfriend named Bloodthrasher who thinks he's a gnome (and, in his defense, he thinks she is a dwarf). He also stated that we are his goblin clan now, and calls us "Stinky's Goblins". Our characters even have pins that he made that say "We Is Stinky Goblins".
I don't rum D&D anymore, but in my Scion game, one of the characters is a Scion of Bastet. Her mother gave her a cat which she can mentally communicate with and which can act as a messenger of sorts between her and Bastet, and to travel between worlds. The party called him Mr. Cat for the first several sessions. He is snarky AF and does stuff like randomly knock things off tables and counters when he wants attention. He's also woken up party members by sitting on their chest and smacking them in the face while they're sleeping.
Everyone loves Mr. Cat.
I genuinely laughed at the “yes, no and perhaps”, I love that to death😂
I made an oracle NPC once who only answered with "Of the yes" or "Of the no". I forget why I did that, but the players loved it, even started using it themselves!
in one of my campaigns there was a town guard who was always ready to fight for what is right, always willing to lay his life on the line for justice. he has a wife, and a child and the party try so hard to keep him alive and ensure he retires. in their early encounters with him while he was just a trainee they asked for his name. on the spot i said he was Gung-Ho as in the term used for being excited... they took it as his actual name.
My players favorite npc is a blacksmith who hates how much they talk, responds to all of their questions with a gruff annoyance, and actively calls them his most frustrating clients. They love him because they can buy metal flowers from his shop
Weird Little Guy gets us every time. DM introduced a frazzled old lady shopkeep as a reoccurring character. And by reoccurring I mean she is from Limbo and her shop teleports all over the continent just to show up randomly in a large city. A small village in the sticks, or even a cabin in the middle of a mountain range.
Our DM had a bunch of archers assisting us in defending a location but rolled trash for their attacks except for one NPC; an unnamed old man who we obviously insisted we have to encounter again.
My party fell head over heels for a random castle guard, Stephan, we will protect him at all costs and if anything happens to him we will destroy whatever did it.