Great GM - Creating Powerful NPCS for your roleplaying game - Game Master Tips GMTIPS
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- Опубліковано 12 вер 2024
- How to create Powerful NPC's for your role-playing game!
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Time stamps for anyone interested:
1:14 - brute force
2:57 -wealth
4:40 - rank
6:30 - seduction
8:30 - speaking/dialects/accents
10:40 - knowledge/withholding it
13:04 - obligation
14:11 - disability
15:39 - humor
16:44 - mixing it up
18:38 - power used for good
20:22 - power used for evil
21:37 - final thoughts
Thank you for the inspiring video! Apologies for finding it 3 years after it was posted :(
I used a stutter to mask the evil intentions of an NPC and before the reveal i had dropped the stutter for a solid 5 minutes of conversation before he successfully made his plan come to fruition
"No, I'm NOT going to tell you my plan... Ha-ha!"
- Supervillain
That's the eevilest thing I've ever heard.. :O
"Knowledge is power. Hide it well."
Ben Agar an excellent quote good sir
Hide all the power.
The lead PC in my group was a talker. He was extremely confident, quick witted, persuasive, and everyone just differed to him as the natural leader. I introduced a Paladin character (described as a toothpaste commercial) who all the PCs rolled their eyes at and the NPCs absolutely loved... except for the NPCs in the know who passed worried glances and hinted that Sir Tim may not be all that he seems. The talker was intimidated by Sir Tim. When they had a confrontation Sir Tim showed his true face to them for a second (Not lawful or good) and then convinced the entire town to go the way he wanted instead of what the PCs wanted. My lead PC was now terrified of the 'Paladin' because his power of words and persuasion outstripped what he had always relied on. He was also intimidated by the succubus who charmed the entire town against him and horrified when it appeared that she (it?) was going to hook up with Sir Tim and joined forces with him.
Having a DMPC outshine your pcs is a good way to lose your players.
@@Sabamonster not necessarily. It also can create a nice villian that the pcs are going to try to beat.
Not everyone looks to be the most awesome all the time.
When you want to use a powerful npc, it should be more so as the pcs. Otherwise they can just ignore the npc.
The most powerful NPC my PC had ever met was a high ranked noble woman who accepted an audiention request, met my PC in person, but barely said a word. Her well trained maids did it - greetings, introductions, small talk during official dinner, questions, etc. It created a certain separation between my PC, a commoner who managed to climp up the social ladder and her, one of the most powerful and influental people on panetary scale. So when she suddenly acted interested and spoke in person it was a bit shocking and even dominating.
find myself having a character tired of her and saying this.
"We both know the truth her, milady. You are not strong. You have not been born with magic such as myself. You were not gifted some strength by gods or demons. You are neither capable of physical feats beyond mortal men, nor have an intellect that would make Beholders and Mindflayers seem like dullards. The only 'power' you have is your luck. the luck of coming out of the womb of a rich woman. And that everyone around you has fallen under this delusion that because you came out of a noble's womb you somehow have some attribute, some right, to rule.
"The light of everyone's delusion has cast your shadow upon the wall. They see a giantess, not seeing the small mortal standing there. So you may have found yourself competent at playing this game of delusion, where the rich ignore that little voice in the back of their mind that threatens to convince them they are but men, and the poor believe falling out of a noble's vagina gives one right to rule. But that is all it is. And if any of them realized that they are the ones with power and not you... Well, there is no more to say. You are at least smart enough to understand what would become of you."
Tad Dad If this great woman had any of the other powers noted - power of knowledge (not necessarily intellect), of association, of beauty, etc - she would likely then use her power(s) to counter how you’ve tried to embarrass her in this game. Your tactic MAY work in a few instances, but I anticipate your tactic would more likely not work for your goals or your party’s goals (& likely, not your GM’s goals).
I just got into DnD. I've been watching an immense amount of videos on how to play and to DM.
I believe this video is the most helpful of them all.
Thank you.
We've had several NPCs thrown into our long term campaign that have been really REALLY fun to both encounter and run (As I've said before, we pass DMship around the table as we go) One of them is Bobo, the crazy powerful rogue who's...not interacted with us a ton, but when he ran off, we saw Straud's castle kinda....explode. Another fun set is Xanathar and Nazathar, beholder brothers. Xanathar is the head librarian for the order of Bahamut and is....somehow unaware of his own race and mostly uses his powers to control an army of a few thousand silk gloves he uses to handle the books and quills, while his brother Nazathar lives underneath a ruined city, and is absolutely obsessed with mushrooms. So while these beholders are....clearly powerful, as beholders are, they're so laid back that they don't really show it off much.
I love the beholder idea. Totally using that in my next campaign.
The best description of a powerful character I have ever seen omes from the Umineko series. It goes something along the lines of: "Someone who holds true power has no need to actually use it."
It refers to the incredible influence someone with power has on the weaker individuals around them. A truly powerful person would never even need to directly subdue any opponents as they would give up from simply hearing of it, or facing the minions who, out of fear, would come in between as to avoid the rage of their master.
I find it inspiring when creating an overlord for campaigns
This explains why most people just surrendered to the Huns or Mongols.
Reminds me of Jeoffry from game of thrones, “I AM THE KING!,” and his grandfather replies “Any man who must say “I am king” is no true king,”
You're looking quite dapper in this vid
Yeah Emperor Palpatine not only used his bullshit talking skills to gain the love and adoration of the entire senate to legitimately become Emperor of the Galaxy, but he also had enough money to build 2 death stars and an entire armada of gigantic space ships.
He also had the military power to blow up a planet....and the battle power to fight pretty much anyone in combat. Oh yeah he also seduced Darth Vader to the Dark SIde with promises of secret knowledge. He was also old and infirm.. he almost fit every category you went over. He was seriously OP.
If you really want to mess with your pcs when they're up against an npc, have that npc reward them every time they do something to thwart or deny him. They've wiped out an entire outpost of his troops? "You have my thanks, brave heroes! Have this pouch of gems and gold!". They've managed to somehow damage his reputation with someone of higher rank? "Touché! You have thwarted me again. Here, take this powerful and expensive item!". Sit back and watch hilarity ensue as the pcs try to figure out what happened and how this npc just turned the tables on them.
Oh, I LIKE that, nasty, and hilarious all in one.
There are plenty of reasons why a villain might do this kind of thing, too. There are a lot of things in, say, D&D, that are playing the stupid-long game. For instance, the aboleth who's enslaving the giant chieftan who's commanding the firenewts you just slew? Doesn't honestly care that the pawns of its pawns were killed and this tiny portion of the plan was delayed for a mere century or two. It might have the giant give you his Ring of Fire Elemental Command just to see what you'll do when given enough rope.
Especially considering the concept that villains are often untrustworthy by nature. Often times they have schemes to one up their allies for status or personal agendas. With those that have the long game in mind, you could very easily be keeping the biggest bad guy securely in power by keeping all his scheming lieutenants too weak to overthrow him.
Another sort of power is association. As in individual, an NPC may be fairly stupid, weak, and somewhat poor. However, due to lucky social connections, they may have a lot of political pull, financial support, strong hirelings, or restricted knowledge.
I always leave your videos with some inspiration on how to better my games. I think that means you are doing a pretty good job. Thanks Guy!
Agreed. You actually can get something practical here, not just people flabbering about their feelings.
My son wants to write books (I just want to write a good campaign), so I share these videos with him to improve his character writing. So many things to learn here!
Could you guys do a video on weather in a campaign?
This would be so helpful... any time I try to do interesting wether effects it tends to fall flat.
“President...silly faceless man. Do you know how much power Is have to give up to be president?” -Lex Luthor
As a "well-bosomed individual" (as you put it 😉) this is a great video, & you have a fantastic voice, I loved the different accents 😊
My bosom has no power over men.. bummer.
"Poor innocent prince, someone who can't defend themselves because they have to wear pink and purple underwear on the outside and their name is Adam."
Ooooooh, that was a shoooooooot!!!!!!
my favorite trick I've used:
while the PCs still thought the villain was a nice old frogman, they go to talk to him. as they walk in, he sneezes, bursting the servant in front of him like a water balloon. "oh, dearest me. next servant! now, what did you fellows wish to talk to me about?"
I once had a really bad DM introduce a friendly NPC into our shared universe in our game store. This guy was a wizard and was described as "level 40" in our 5E game... He was used to basically to win tough fights if the players were SLIGHTLY losing...
These days, years after he left he now sits in the back of a pub never doing anything cause we can't effectively kill him off...
spy cab overlord
You could always drop a plot important meteor on him. Magic/Magic-Negating space rocks are always fun.
+Drake Ford Nah, way to cheap. He just sits in a naughty corner of bad writing.
Guy is really entertaining to watch. I generally just listen to videos while I’m doing something else hoping to get inspired to come up with a new idea or two, but I actually watch his. He always makes me laugh with his phenomenal role-playing abilities. 🤭🤣
I like the idea of using an ultra-powerful OP NPC as a questgiver, perhaps the primary sponsor of the party. That way when the party pulls off something that the NPC was unable to do (or they'd just complete the quest themself) then the players feel amazing.
I love the campaign I'm running. The party was fighting one of the villains captains. They had cornered him on a wall. He was trying to invade the elvish kingdom and they said his invasion had failed (as he only brought 20 or so men) but then he smiled and waved his hand uncasting a very powerful invisibility spell and behind him stood a 150ft colossal demon. He smiled as the party ran.
Knowledge is power. Power corrupts. Study hard. BE EVIL!
Knowledge is power, France is bacon.
Knowladge is power, and I know a lot!
Lawfull evil to fill the hells
What about spiritual power? Like an NPC that cannot defend himself nor force directly the PCs to do something, but is so well respected because he's some kind of important priest that the population expects people to treat him with respect and help him without asking questions
The power that comes from being a spiritual leader is fundamentally the same as the power from being a civil leader. Obviously in D&D religious leaders tend to ALSO have a ton of magic, but that's beside the point.
5:17 I used this for a "viking" type quest to where the player approaches a little fremmik boy and guards instantly interferes and tells the player to get back, without the right variables the player wont be able to speak to the boy npc, and you would get attacked by the guards if you made certain dialogue, to where if conditioned variables are met the boy npc is gonna tell the guard to stay down, cause he's heard about another quest that the player had to finish first
Your video topic is great! Good dialogues are really important.
The bumbly old fool really got me... especially after all that: "...if you don't mind."
Pure gold xD
A truly powerful discussion. I shall neatly hide this away and make much use of it later on my unsuspecting player characters.
your acting skills are out of this world
I have a necromancer NPC who is much more powerful than the player characters. However he runs a shop and uses his undead that he controls as his “employees”. He’s basically the PC’s favorite merchant and they go to him a lot. They’ve only seen him a few times in combat and I’ve made it very clear he is a very strong spellcaster. However he doesn’t care about power and rank and only wants to run his shop and help out the PCs. My players love him
This is by far my favorite video thus far.
your videos are just as relevant and helpful 5 years later! thank you !
In my group everyone's gotten to the point of being supper poweful...but only physically, it's best that if you tailor your NPC's to avoid the party character's strengths and hit them where they are weakest. My PC's are mostly Joe average or only really powerful in one area. However the reason I don't usually (there have been a few times) lose characters because they are intelligent, the might of the sword means very little without a sharp mind to match.
Simple. Create NPC's that are very physically powerful in one or two ways of combat, then give them the above average intellect to match, when and if the party defeat's them they will always remember that character, not for being overpowered but because of the wit and cunning they had to employ to defeat him or her...or it for that matter could be a machine or something.
One could say this episode was...
powerful
I thought of the power of connections. That would make a good story line of someone that knows a guy that can help, but in return you perform a favor, and can use those connections to inconvenience players.
So very well done. I enjoy the many different ways about which you speak to a subject. It's not always the "most direct" that makes a memorable campaign/NPC/treasure/Monster, etc.
When it comes to political power / station / rank, one thing I would suggest to convey that to the players is to have an NPC they already know, or at least have heard a lot about swear fealty to the king/baron/whatever. They may have seen Lancelot in action and think he's the best of the best - and then he willingly submits himself to the rule of Arthur. And not just Lancelot, but all those other knights who are probably more powerful than the PCs are. That should make it a little easier to convey to the players that their characters are not at all equals of King Arthur and should not treat him as if they were.
[How to introduce a new world to the players ?] I would really like to see a video featuring this. I mean, start it with the Star Wars style "In a galaxy far far away....." and tell them about what kingdoms/intergalactic factions are the stongest bla bla bla.. ?
Or just drop the players in the middle of everything (cliche sitting in a tavern with amnesia stuff, knowing nothing about anything)?
The world I was making for a few years (and got asked to let them play in it) has some "rules" they just couldn't figure out on their own, like weaknesses for very common monsters. But I would just spoil half the fun and the plot if I told them "Oh, you see there a warrior cutting that monster on some specific place and the monster falls apart".
How did you do it with Brexia ? How do you guys do it with your new worlds/campaigns ?
Lots of spells and effects send you to another plane. Easy enough to have the plane be your homebrew campaign rather than one of the standard set.
A handful of your videos apply to writing in general and they're really useful, thanks for the great content, sir! :)
I loved this session on creating the different powers your NPC's can exhibit,. Bravo and Touché!
I find that Players respect NPCs with rank and nobility when they show and prove their worth to the PCs. I had one NPC who was a prince and a paladin that went along with the PCs for a journey he hired them for, pulling his weight and showing and expecting respect for and from the players. The players considered him quite the ally during the campaign. Compare that to the brother of the emperor, who was snide and a jerk and who the players compared unfavorably to Joffrey from Game of Thrones.
Power magnifies a man's character. If you wish to see a man's true character. Give him power, and see what he does.
I was expecting to learn a few things about strong heroic NPC. Now I have learned much more than that. Thanks.
The power of rumour. Build an npc by reputation way before the party meet them. Let them know about their areas of power and how they use it, that way the party know what to expect should they cross them.
I absolutely loved Anthony Hopkins portrayals as the absent-minded villain in Red 2 an his role in Transformers Last Knight...and obviously his phenomenal portrayal of Hannibal Lector.
Just what I need! One an evil king died, a soldier took over from the rebellion. This will help a lot!
Absolutely great video! Keep doing what you're doing :)
I am both a player and a DM and so far I haven't really used any of those techniques as a DM, but I have used at least three of them as a player to great success and I am currently starting a new campaign with several NPCs who are powerful in their own way, although, many of them are closer to equals.
Loved the Jurassic Park reference.
Ever thought about publishing an (e)book?
I have an npc in my game right now, duchess Ma’reeb Lashay, she’s a Gnoll and has many of these attributes, sexuality, extreme wealth, knowledge, magical power and refined speech, she’s a Nobel and many fear, respect and love her.
As a first time dm with first time players,my method of making a strong npc was was showing her only once in combat (2levels higher than my players), described her weapon, having her just watch fights happen and say that she's the go to person for anyone who needs quests doing in her lawless town filled with bandits
It backfired since one of my players now flirts with her constantly
Fantastic video! I will definitely incorporate this into both my book (trying to become a writer in my spare time) and for my D&D sessions (I'm trying to learn D&D and DM'ing).
On the way of speaking and accents, I guess that was one of the things that the early episodes of SW did well.
“Humor is a powerful… lubricant” I learned that in high school 😏
I introduced the king of my land, who is a powerful spellcaster, by having him come into initiative while the PCs were fighting another, less powerful mage. The mage had downed one of the PCs, majorly injured the rest of the party and was laughing maniacally the whole time. The king cast power word kill (which I described in vivid detail) and instantly ended the mage.
Thanks, catching up, great help.
very good points. I had never though of a disability as a form of power.
It might be that you intended to include this with brute force or knowledge, but powerful spellcasters weren't mentioned at all, which I kept waiting for lol
For the seduction aspect of things, it can also be an old bartender with missing teeth, greasy hair, bad breathe and who clearly did not showered in the past year or so, but who rolled a critical success in Charisma and now one of the player cannot stop but thinking about that old bartender in a romantic way every time they see a bartender.
Believe me when I say that this is hilarious. Fun for the whole party, GM included.
(PS: I am not forcing the player to act this way. But they were clearly seduced by that old bartender and paid way to much for a chamber and no meal.)
Just a note than in 5e, criticals apply to attack rolls and death saves only - not ability checks or saves. There's no 'critical success in Charisma', characters can automatically make the check even with a 1 or fail it even on a 20. This rule helps to greatly reduce the ridiculousness, should it be needed. Of course as DM you can fudge the DC to get the outcome you want regardless of the roll.
I Made a (in my opinion) really powerful npc without him having direct Power. He was a mage once that started experimenting with animals and over time figured Out how to combine them,Change them and make them stronger and more efficient. He wasnt necessarily directly strong and wasnt even good or Bad He was Just some curious monstrosity(He used His Research on himself,thats why He could become so old). The Thing about him was that anyone who got hold of him basically had the Potential to have the Most powerful army in the world and Huge Battles were fought to capture/protect that Guy.
Know what I like more than my new power? Knowledge.
Only flaw in this video is that i would have needed it in january...
My pc's are a lawless bunch of murderous thiefes spending most of their time in a rather lawless environment, so most npcs had to be either too powerful or too poor to be worth a nighttime visit...
Oh hey french GM here trying to do his best to run great games.
I love your videos and i think you're doing a truly amazing work !
Keep on bringing the good stuff ;)
(Also what is the outro music ?)
I did made a really strong npc its technically an ally to the party, the way to show it, it stoped a shapeshifted ancient dragon charging at the party with little to no problem
"..Apparently I'm also deaf" xD
A quite common handicap among role players!
Flash: so, what's your super power
Batman: I'm rich
I would like to see a video on how good characters can do bad things, and still be good a good character, and vice versa. :)
I run game where my pc's are part of rat race. They are 1 out of 10 teams who have only destination and key to unlock safe. It is fun scenario where everything is possible :D Sometimes they kill other teams, steal transport, run authorities and all kind of craziness.
Nice job awaiting the next vid.
Yet another fantastic video! If i only succeed at effectively using half of what you've passed on, I'll be an amazing dm. Obviously i haven't gotten there yet, but your videos are amazingly helpful. I don't know how you do this, but please keep doing it.
I know my old GM struggled with this. We were about to draw swords against a of the council of the Elven city because we thought he was a necromancer. Well, he was, its just we were disorganized and the party was 14 people, 9 if you don't count the snogging people and three people who where doing their own thing. No wonder that was one of the last sessions before the campaign ended...
14 players is absolutely insane, even 9 is far too many. No wonder the campaign collapsed.
Great video!!!! Thank you!!!!!
The thing is that after 20 years of RPGing my players know how much time I invest in fleshing out my NPCs, since I strongly believe that they have their place in the world and they are not idly waiting their turn to be interacted with or simply killed off by the glorious heroes. So when they see that there is too much going around an NPC or he/she is slightly more than simply "Ron the Barkeep" or "Tula the tavern wench" they are immediately very, very, cautious of him/her. LOL
Remember: You need to eat their brain to absorb their power!
Perhaps that is why there are so many zombies out there.
The Elder Brain approves of this method.
About skills an power:
IN my vampire-group I've placed an NPC. a little girl, the group msut teach her how to deal with the world she's in now. one tries to teach her obfuscate. the little girl manages to disapear and apear shortly after that behind another groupmember who is a little paranoid anyway. after that they are highly suspicous about this "little girl", because she has powers they didn't even know that they exist. it's fun to see them try to figure out what is the deal with the little girl.
A strong human network (contacts) is powerful
I'm running a campaign set during the Black Hawk War, a real-life war fought in 1832 against Black Hawk and his Redskin buddies, and Abraham Lincoln fought in the battle.
His Hagrid voice😂
“seduction is a form of power”, … yeah tell me about it.
@How to be a Great Game Master
If you are not a voice actor already, you should be :)
In the Star Wars campaign I am running the "evil" mastermind has the force power of Forsee. (They are using it to changed the future, to stop a terrible event but using extreme methods.)
I want to introduce this power by have mastermind tell the PC to shoot him and being able to dodge blasters with no effort. He wants to recruit them to his side. He will give them knowlegde that not all of their "allies" have been honest.
In truth if they choose to join mastermind, I have plan for that by having "allies" outright turn on PCs and the old "allies" become new mastermind.
One of the most powerful NPC's I had in a game was a librarian. She was mistress of her domain (minus the secret archives) in spite of being old. I established this with her with knowledge on how to eliminate "rats" (really ghouls, but they admin refused to call them what they were), being impossible to lie in the presence of (possessed a mystic idol of the god of Truth, and her library restored sanity the more time you spent in it.
The Joker uses knowledge and humor in terms of power. I wonder how NPCs could manipulate PCs with the power of strength? I want to do so in ways are unorthodox.
Has anyone ever told you the left side of your text box looks like Homestarrunner?
It's over 9000!!!!!!
I wanna play in one of your games so bad......
How does hanging someone properly make them more powerful?
poilboiler it's a rigor mortise thing
There was a good Robin Hood series in which the Sheriff dared Robin to stop a public hanging. Robin showed up to save the day. But the Sheriff revealed that Robin's friends were secretly hung hours earlier. Sheriff then gave a speech to the people that Robin is powerless to help them and this was the proof. That was an Epic power move! Ü
It strengthens their neck. Plus it gives you those " I'm so badass I survived being hung" scars.
@@silentshadow1292 until the arrow pierced his neck halfway through the speech.
okay that probably didn't happen but honestly, that would have been the best move. robin then could face the crowd and say, as the sheriff is chocking on his last breath.
"Anyone can win by cheating and lying. They do that because they are weak and too afraid to fight directly. "
A Question, competly Off-Topic:
I'm from germany and I read, that my favorite PnP-Game "Das Schwarze Auge" was published in english, called "The Dark Eye".
Have you ever heard of it and could you do a comment of the game?
WaldschratMonster Bauerngaming. :3
Ach ihr Süßen :3
You must be in the pocket of Big Apostrophe.
Select a min max... there's your big nasty evil.
Now give him 4 min-max lieutenants.
i was thinking of a hidded power, for instance when your group starts have them meet many nice and kind people but after they do some missions on people have those same people and everyone they meet shun them and treat them like outsiders
then raise the prices to absurd heights like a single 50gp item costs 3450gp now
the way it works is that they fucked with the wrong guy, he's the don of this place he's a nice guy unless you fuck with his business then you feel his wrath the way you reveal this is by giving the pc's bits and pieces of information if they intimidate someone or maybe make a listen check from the guards nearby but you never give the full story
make it bits of info like yea these people have their common rights revoked and must be treated as if under black card membership or something like that,
XD That bumbling idiot accent was great!
Showing the divine presence of gods in your campaign?
You know i have an interesting subject that id like to see you cover (sorry this is off subject so much) How would you run a lvl 20+ campeign (epic/godly) level. 4th edition d&d had rules for up to lvl 30 but not beyond and most games dont have rules for lvl 20+
An important rule I've kept for myself when creating a combat powerful NPC is if I want to keep it from being a hassle, then I don't fully flesh out its abilities as if making an entire character sheet down to class details. I'm the GM after all so I can break the serules to establish flavor and a blunt fighting force without being bogged down in legitimacy. If players can power-game, then why can't I when setting up a strong and tough NPC to challenge the equally powerful party Fighter?
A good way to use a powerful NPC in a game is make a almost unstoppable battle and have the npc save the party, have them as a friend, and at the end, weaken him so he's defeatable, and have him betray the characters. Yes, I know I'm evil...😈😈😈😈
luring them sideways...what?
"I'll just buy the GRRGGLREWEEWR!"
that is the sound of a knife going into the rich man's throat btw/ Money means nothing at all when they are right into your face. money is an illusion. the only thing money can get you is to convince people with actual power to fight for you.
I wish I was funded by the universe.
What about damage. Damage is power.
That's essentially what the first one is.