High Level NPCs, Followers, and DMPCs | Running the Game 

In Ventrue Bross, Monarch explained delegation to his henchmen: "I know it sounds crazy, but you guys have the perfect combination of being totally expendable while being tough enough to handle whatever I throw at you."

A quote on Diplomacy: "I'd trust my best friend with my bank accounts, my house keys, and my younger sister. I will NOT trust that son of a bitch with Belgium."

best DMPC that I ever encountered was with a buddy of mine who was very unfamiliar with the system. He wanted to DM and wanted friends that would cut him some slack when he screwed up. He ended up rolling a bard that was enamored with the party. He did give some ideas on occassion, but whenever a PC made a suggestion, he was immediately behind it (Making us question how intelligent he really was sometimes). For the most part, he was around to give the party buffs in case he made the encounter a bit too strong, and when he finally felt comfortable with running the game, enough that he didn't feel like he needed to give the players a Handicap, The bard ended up sacrificing himself for the rest of the party in one of those "Someone has to hold the door" trap things. I still miss that rhyming bastard.

The high level characters are taking care of the problem in the city... By hiring some whelp adventurers to take care of it for them. Delegation.

One more thing; I think a lot of DMs get frustrated with their players because they IMAGINED this perfect game, but the players are doing their own thing. So the DM makes a DMPC to "show them how to play right!" That is probably a bad idea! Players want to have fun their way, not yours. Best to find a compromise, rather than try and "teach them how to play right!" Well, there isn't a right way. What you mean is "the way I want! The way I imagined!" This is closely related to the railroad problem. IF the players did what you wanted all the time...what's the point of having players? To dazzle them with your brilliance? Better to take your ideas and turn them into a novel where pesky players won't ruin your story.

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. And never let anybody tell you that a small group of dedicated people can’t change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Okay, your blacksmith's daughter showing up in armor that's too big and a sword she can't lift is ADORABLE! I only know that much about her, and already she sounds like the most perfect cinnamon roll!

I'm getting the impression Matt likes trying to convince his friends to play talisman with him haha

Well, Skyrim gave an universal reason why high level NPCs don't go around solving problems... 'I used to be an adventurer like you, until I took an arrow in the knee'

That awkward moment when Matthew calls me a cowardly cleric...thanks man :P

"I'd like to deposit this cheque please." "Sir, this just says 'gospel'." "That's right, I'd like to deposit the gospel please." "Please, move along sir."

the DMPC is a challenge all DMs face at some point, until you realize you already get to play in your game except you have unlimited amounts of cool characters to play!

I know it's easier to say it 'never works out' but the issue is usually the difference between a DM telling a collaborative story, and a DM who wants to go on a power-trip. It's not that hard to run a DMPC that doesn't steal the other PC's thunder, and instead enhances it. I've had DMPCs in campaigns I run (for different reasons in each) and my players love them! I've actually tried phasing them out some way but my players are very adamant in that they want those characters to remain in the story. But for me, it's easy to run a story with characters like this with my group because we've done collaborative story (text) roleplaying for over 10 years with two of them. They enjoy the characters I develop and part of their fun IS interacting with them. So... I suppose that makes a big difference. I'm also very harsh to my DMPCs, and they don't get loot without the other PCs handing it to them, they're the last ones to get magical items, level up and are generally on the quiet side when it comes to decisions and problem solving, waiting for the PCs to tell them what to do in most scenarios, and rolling to see if they know/help in others.

"-Let's ask this high level priest to help us. -Sir, please, we need help." Heden shrugged.

"Bla-bla Down Below" is a great duregar diplomacy setting, BTW. Kinda like Game of Thrones, but with shorter folks.

If you *ARE* running a DMPC, one thing is absolutely mandatory, _Every single roll is out in the open!_ Because if your DMPC rolls a natural 20 to crit and kill the Beholder, ..good luck convincing people of that if you rolled it behind the screen.

I've run campaigns with many different groups, and I've always included one constant NPC. A Pirate Captain who is usually first seen with his leg up on a wooden keg, Captain Morgan. Captain Morgan is always introduced whenever the characters inevitably attempt to go sailing, or need someone to help them cross the ocean. He generally waives fees in the trust that the characters will bring him danger and excitement. He longs for a good battle, and is usually quite insane and dark sometimes. He's really fun to play with and the people in my groups are always in for a treat when they encounter him.

Did you use 3 different takes back to back about hiring effectively a second character?

DMPCs/GMPCs are like ghost peppers, work best if diluted and occasionally, and even then some people won't have them, ever. Only use if skilled.

We're about three levels deep of this in my campaign right now. Not only are the previous adventures and party members baked into the lore, but each generation in between is filled with "parties" of NPCs and the adventures they went on.

That sign off gave me chills... thanks for the hope.

I mean if you're running an NPC in the party, whether it's "your" character or not, the trick is largely to not view challenges that they solve as encounters within your game. Because they aren't; they're just story unfolding in front of the characters. Obviously YOU know how to solve your encounters, so it's really just narration. So the central problems have to be ones that the NPC can't or won't resolve (though they may help, or provide key information, or screw up and CREATE challenges). Add in that they have their own drives and goals, and you'll usually do alright. Just don't always have them do tactically optimal things, and remember that the only way they make mistakes is if you make them make mistakes. In a group of ~10th level PCs, I had a fifteenth level wizard focused in conjuration and evocation, specced out to be more or less unbeatable, who was a cocky, flamboyant ass that did things like get in bar fights or summon dinosaurs and ride them (he was my attempt to make a wizard bro) join them for a little while. He'd hired them as, essentially, his own lower level guards for a dungeon. And you'd think all of those things I just said would make him ruin all the fun of the game; he even had ubermensch stats, but the players thought he was great, and they had a good time adventuring with him. Because he didn't solve all their problems, and he had his own motives that made him act in sort of his own frame of reference, and while he compensated for mistakes the players made, he made his own mistakes, and he wasn't throwing money away on components or wasting high level spells. Ultimately, he was there for himself, and expected the players to act as his hirelings, not as just this great guy who joined the group. It's not something I do all the time, but it can be done; you just have to have a plan for how you control this super cool character you're putting in the group and make sure that the players are still overcoming central challenges. This guy would go on to become... essentially the main villain of my entire setting. And it was because of things he'd done while in-group with the players that he was able to do the things he did. So I think it made him more personal as an enemy for them.

I think the DMPC problem is somewhat similar to, and has severe overlap with the railroading problem. It's hard to avoid using out-of-character knowledge if you're both a player and the DM, and typically that makes the DMPC authoritative and an instrument to taking away choice, which is bad. It's why I almost always build allies as support characters, or have their fight be its own separate thing the players can influence with their successes and failures - "Okay, while is dealing directly with , the BBEG's subordinates are trying to get in and dogpile on the fight. You, the player characters, can decide the outcome of the fight by clearing the distractions." Also, as for when and how to use NPC's to bail the players out, *always* consider buffing and healing before just solving the problem for the players. If the players are trying to hold off a dragon attacking the town and they're struggling, having the NPC Cleric cast Bless or Healing Word on the players, and having the magic item shopkeep chuck them a few healing potions and spell scrolls of Expeditious Retreat with a nod while he pulls the last peasants out of some rubble, makes the heroes feel like they were doing the right thing - whereas having an NPC suddenly start holding off the dragon for them makes them feel like they didn't matter that much.

"When Gandalf goes off to deal with this Necromancer we can imagine that that's setting up the next adventure" And in the movie's that's exactly what happens!

I often rewatch these videos and my only problem is that is not possible to like more than one time.

Hello, it's me (again). I just wanted to drop into the blabla to tell you (again) how much I appreciate what you are doing here. A++ work! Stay shiny!

I would really like it if you could do a video on how you run your strongholds, wizard towers, druid graves and the like and what you get by having them.

Esmeralda from CoS can be done really well. Our DM had her join the party (I don't know whether this was suggested in the book or not, I haven't read it) and she was always there if we wanted to ask for her opinion on how to approach something or even join combat. She never did anything out of character so it always felt right.

I'm wondering, on the topic of followers and high level NPCs, has anyone else had their players actually attempt to outright recruit a villain? I've encountered a few situations where my players have tried to convince a captive villain or villainous lieutenant to join their cause, or party directly (and annoyingly, since they're usually very powerful), or attempt to talk them down. The problem is, sometimes they manage to construct frustratingly good arguments in favour of doing this, far beyond "Join or die", and often roleplay it very well, so I don't want to take their success away from them. On the other hand, while they might think it would be super awesome to have Dread Keraptis team up with them, I can't really let them have a character constructed to challenge their entire party follow them around.

Matt! Cover your stronghold rules damnit! You're killing me here.

I really liked that bit at the end about the arc of the universe bending towards justice. Thanks, Matt Coleville. Sometimes it's just good to be reminded of that sort of thing.

We have these two players who both play rogues, and whenever they're not able to show up to a session, we just rule it that they're making really good stealth checks.

I want to be a NPC

The DMPC I play in a game is very reserved in RP unless it involves drinking and bashing heads. I use intelligence rolls to determine if he would speak up about key information he might know, just as I'd allow party members to make to see if they'd know something. I actively make him more of a tagalong then the story focus. I almost ignore he exists unless he cracks a joke or is contributing in combat.

There's never a need for anything more than a temporary tag-along. As DMs, we get to play so many things with all sorts of abilities, sometimes even villains have class levels, so enjoy it mann.

Wonderful ending to the video, Matt. It's something that needs repeating (imo)

Oh no, you missed your chance to title this one "NPCs 2: Electric Boogaloo"! -Nerdarchist Ryan

I just laughed so hard when you said "I don't know why you would take the gospel to the bank" 😂

Never have I heard a more inspirational statement as the one presented in the last 30 seconds of this video. I am now hopeful again, thanks to you, Matt Colville. Bravo!

"Let's take a break from politics for one or two videos." -15 videos later-

I loved your ending comments; very welcome words I am going to keep in the back of my mind. Thank you.

Howdy Matt, could we get a video detailing strongholds? I'd love to see your full array of charts regarding class-specific followers. Anyways thanks for all you do, your channel is inspiring.

Your moment with the flash was exactly how I felt speaking with Mordenkainen in Curse of Strahd. Didn't know he'd be there, and my first interaction with him was counterspelling his fireball... When I found out who he was, I was starstruck.

My group always has DMPCs (it's one of the only ways we can agree on who DMs since we'd all rather play!), but we're very good about making sure the DMPCs have the least amount of limelight during RP so that the PCs truly shine.

Running the game #27 subtitled: "Recruiting what is effectively a second character." I think I heard you say that 5 times. Fun times. :D

I practically drop everything when I get a notification from your channel, Matt! Great stuff! Love the tips! Thanks for all the work :)

Dear Matthew, I was sitting here, absent-mindedly listening to your musings, when I realised this is the umpteenth binge of your content I have been on. Your wisdom is apparent and it is simply a joy to hear you talk. I want to be like you when I grow up. Kind regards, Skimble

18:48 and 19:04 Matt! You used the same clip twice!

"Why's Matt burned out from politics?" *looks at video date* "Oh.. yeah.."

I run a DMPC in my game and all of my players love it and for the most part I think it's because originally I chose to do it because... well a group without a healer is dangerous so yeah. Essentially though I'm a Druid who's very stoic and doesn't care much about civilization but the PC's are on a quest where she's essentially the guide... I guess think Gandalf but while she does help them in combat and other stuff she's rarely of any help or doesn't even care about what's going on socially unless it's Undead, Aberrations or destroying nature. She's actually been the last to get magic items and has the least still so it's not like I favor her I just look at her as an NPC that is in the party... sorta near permanently because there's no story reason they'd separate for the foreseeable future. ALTHOUGH if RPG's and life have taught me anything it's the the foreseeable future never goes how you want it to.

18:48 19:04 you got the same scene twice, almost thought I was going crazy

What's more fun is one a character's old NPC now becomes the villain.

First time I heard some mention about the high level npc's, I totally understand in a campaign a play in a high level npc regularly appears and has really made the group feel useless in a few situations

I use to hate DMPC characters, until I started running them from time to time. Basically a DMPC can work if the following criteria are meet: 1) You are playing in round robin game. Basically the group shares DM responsiblities some how. Like for example DM runs this chapter, and then someone else runs the next chapter. 2) When it is your turn to be DM you make sure you push your DMPC to the side as much as possible. Like for example in a game of Exalted I ran, my DMPC was a Lunar exalted who had who own nation near the PCs base operations. As such, he was always busy dealing with his nation when it was my turn to DMPC. And those few times he showed up it was to ask for help from the PCs with a problem in his nation. And in a recent game of Pathfinder, I ran session of the game so that we did not have to wait 3 weeks for a new game. Basically in order to get him off the stage, I had the entrance to the dungeon be a small tunnel he could not fit down, but the PCs had access to a Reduce Person so he Basically when you are DMing, you shove your DMPC off or to the side of the stage as quickly as possible and NEVER use him to solve challenges. 3) Be highly ethical about running your DMPC. Don't give him anything you would not give a PC. And when you have the slightest doubt that something could be unfair, throw it out for the rest of the players to decide what the most fair thing to do would be.

I actually had a DM that managed to pull off the DMPC thing pretty well. He made this prince, who was a bit cowardly but became quick friends with the party. He managed to balance his usefulness with some cowardliness and we always knew not to rely on him, because his idea of how to do things were more frequently wrong than right. It was actually a lot of fun.

19:10 you can't do this to me, Matt, I feel like I'm going crazy

doobly do and bla bla, matt your starting to sound like a jazz artist.

I think the only way that a DMPC has worked for me was when the NPC was the giver of the plot hook. They journey'd, helped incidentally(because no one wanted to be a wizard or sorcerer), then when they hit 'high level', I had the NPC leave, and pursue their own agenda. The players ran into them again later, but then they were captured by the bad guys.

These videos are a gold mine! Thank you so much for disrupting your writing schedule for the sake is perpetuating more D&D!

I like the idea on using your non-gaming friends as high level NPCs. When I had DMPCs, I always kept them at “home base” wherever that was (party’s ship, castle, house, shop, wagon, whatever) practicing their trade and doing whatever administrative tasks the party needed. It gave a good RP reason for a character to stay home, and it was an easy job to rotate characters in an out of depending on who was DMing that adventure. And, of course, the DMPC could keep an ear out for rumors and find work for the party, making it an easy way to deliver adventure hooks.

Wait. You like The Sword and D&D?! OMG. Did we just become best friends?

I know it’s been six years since you posted this video but wanted to let you know that your “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice” comment brought me to tears. Thank you.

In Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, in the Darksun Campaign Setting there was a mechanism for what was called a Character Tree. It was a fun system where the player could have a pool of PCs to choose from, they would only play one at a time (generally) but while the PC they played earned XP the rest of the characters in the tree also gained XP (at a reduced rate of course).

This guy... This GUY is a briliant DM, has amazing big community, works on games, is awesome writer and HE MET FLASH. can YOU trump that?

I'm planning on running a game just for my girlfriend and myself to play, but she isn't familiar with 5E at all, so I was planning on playing an NPC companion for her, or a DMPC as you mentioned. I am a little worried of removing her agency in the game, so I plan on playing a gnome who isn't very smart, and who is always getting into trouble, to help guide her through these underground tunnels in the beginning of the game. He WILL make mistakes, as its simply a part of his character, but he will also be there to help her in battle, but I will tell my girlfriend that she has to tell him what she would like him to do in battle, and I will help her make sense of his abilities. Over time, I'm hoping she will just take full control of the gnome as well as her own character in battle. Thanks for these videos, you have given much insight into running games I plan on doing in the future.

"Never let anybody tell you that a small group of dedicated people can't change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." Thank you for that. Along with "A man is greater than the worst thing he's ever done" I'm starting to think you have a knack for deeply ethical statements.

In my current campaign in which I play a Cleric of Trickery, the DM does have a character in the party that everyone loves. Her name is Delai and she’s the exception that proves the rule. For one thing, our DM didn’t have the “I have to run but I wanna play” attitude you were mentioning before, they really just wanted to help balance the party and fill in any gaps left by the relatively small group of PCs. That helped out, but another big thing that made Delai work was that she was with the party from the beginning and had a close relationship with all of them before the game started, on top of also being a genuinely awesome character. And she also never outshines the group during play, because the DM has excellent “Table manners” as we refer to them. Delai has her moments, but she’s not the protagonist, the group is the star of the show as it should be.

would just like to throw out a huge thank you, i dont GM games often so im always open to tips and thanks to you im throwing together stuff id never think of. I have just finished watching your video on skill challenges and now my party are totally going to do one tonight :)

Is it just me or is there repetition around 19:00 ish?

My GM plays a character in our party but does an excellent job, his character doesn't steal the show, is as flawed as any of our characters and usually takes more of a support role to the party - power level is comparable to the rest of the party but doesn't lead in decision making or get the plot hooks. As players we also don't look to that character for GM knowledge-bleed. It works well for our group, especially because we are a small group already and we've played sessions with only 2 players so we needed the GM's character so that there's enough of us to not die. We have had one of our players guest GM for a few sessions his own adventure so that was the first time our GMs character played a larger, more active role and got more character development. But I totally get advising against GMs playing characters as it's hard to do well and few people achieve that delicate balance.

DMing my first session this Monday, using a lot of advice from your channel. Thank you, Matt, for inspiring me to be a Dungeon Master.

Loved this video! Apologies ahead of time for the essay of a comment I'm about to leave, but I have a lot to say about DMPCs: I've seen DMPCs done poorly a lot of times, but I also think you can do them right as long as you follow one common sense guideline: they should never be more important than the players. You can have your NPC make suggestions. But they should only be on rare occasion, and should ideally never be a full plan (Eg, instead of "We should go find a captain in this port to sail us to the next town where we can petition help from the Lord of this territory", it should be more like "I think maybe we could petition for help from somebody?"). You can have your NPC be stronger in combat. But you have to balance this out somehow: maybe the NPC is strong enough to kill cultists in one hit, but the players are the only ones capable of stopping the demon-summoning ritual. So the NPC will be holding off the masses of enemies while the PCs are fighting the final boss. You can have your NPC be (outwardly) more integral to the plot. But the players should be the ones making the actual decisions. For example, maybe the players are traveling with the Lost Princess, and the plot is to kill Tyrant Evildude and reinstate her as queen. But the players should be the ones to make the battle plans and trying to garner the support of other political figures. You can have your DMPC be all sorts of things, but ultimately it has to be the PLAYERS making the decisions. To compare some examples from how I've seen DMPC's done: In a game I ran, I had a DMPC. His name was Sir Elias Gregor of Wigston. He was a lovable cinnamon roll of a paladin who cared dearly for his friends (the PCs). He was an NPC from the second session all the way to the very end of the campaign, and the PCs absolutely loved him (I specifically asked, and they unanimously said he was one of their favorite NPCs in any game they had played). And I think a big part of this was because: -He was never stronger than anybody in combat. He was far weaker than the other melee-oriented PC -He still played an important role in combat, namely protecting the party sorcerer from harm -He was vocal during downtime RPs, but always let the rest of the party make the decisions (because he cared more about protecting his friends, not being a leader). -He NEVER took treasure from the party. Magical items were always given preference toward the actual PCs. Contrast with a DMPC in a game I'm currently playing in: There is a Sapphire Hierarch (Cleric PrC) named Blue. He is the leader of a powerful organization, and incredibly LG. He hired us to help him unite different factions through the world to fight against a powerful necromancer. He has been an NPC in our party for this entire arc of the game (~10 sessions), and I hate him. This is because: -He makes all the decisions FOR us. He chooses which factions we appeal to, the order in which we visit them, and when it is time to negotiate, he *refuses* to let us participate (despite the party rogue maxing out his Diplomacy skill). -He makes us unnecessary. This entire game would have been the exact same if our PCs were replaced by iron golems following him around and protecting him in combat. -He never speaks during downtime RPs, but ALWAYS superceeds us when we try to suggest ideas for how to proceed. Thus, we don't care for him as a character, and can't stand him as a leader. tl;dr, DMPCs are perfectly fine, as long as you make absolutely certain that they never make the players feel like they aren't necessary.

That outro was heavy.

Matt, can we get your stronghold rules sometime?

2 years ago I had my own PC in the game I was running and I didn’t have a problem with it and neither did my players. He was a war cleric who was with them at the beginning of Storm King’s Thunder. He died “off screen” during the siege of Bryn Shander. I only put him in the story cause at the time no other PC knew how to heal and o knew they needed a healer. He didn’t take initiative in conversations and didn’t have any magic items other than a silver mace.

I ended up with a full-on DMPC once (started because we didn't have enough players, continued because she served as both a healer and a rogue). For ease of access, I copied her (digital) character sheet onto a piece of notebook paper, and would at times hand the paper over to the players (in general, the players as a group dictated her combat choices, and sometimes even rolled for her). This worked out really well - when a PC was incapacitated or at a different in-game location, their player could play the DMPC. Once a player brought his girlfriend to the game because she was in town, and instead of leaving her on her phone for hours like they had planned, I handed her the DMPC sheet and she controlled the character for that session. I found it worked out a lot better than the stereotypical DMPC for several reasons: 1) The character was a healing and out-of-combat utility character, so the party found her really useful. She was good in combat, but only did substantial damage when in a good position. Occasionally she'd do tons of damage when set up perfectly, but the other players took that as something to celebrate, because the party was getting things done. 2) Her personality was not very assertive, so she didn't try to steal the spotlight (though she would occasionally make observations, propose ideas and vote for less murderhobo-y plans). 3) I was good at separating my "DM" and "player" minds and knowledge, and the other players trusted me to do that. I suspect these factors together are not super common among DMPCs, but in my experience they made it work.

Matthew I want these follower charts! They look awesome, but I can't find them online can you help me?

You look like my old calc teacher. That's not a bad thing, by the way. He's a cool guy.

We've played Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 1st and 2nd edition alot over the years, decades, and something we always end up doing is adopting NPCs. We latch on to some random NPC, well planed by the GM or just a random on the spot inspiration, and adopt them, make them into close allies, into party members, hired help and so on. I think the GM(s) usually find that very entertaining, having NPCs close to the characters that the players get to interact with often and that even get to experience what the character experiences, having that constant development to entertain yourself with as a GM, and we love having them to interact with, build bonds, friendships, relations and something more than just a group of adventurers, a seed of an organization. One of my personal favorits was a playthrough of 1000 thrones where in none of the players characters was any good at fighting or even magic. We were students, nobles, egnineering professors (dwarven schoolar) and social manipulators (spy) and we had to rely on contacts, allies, hierlings and others to actually fight if not for us then atleast with us and if we ended up in situations with out help - make deals, no matter how evil and corrupt they might be, just do whatever you have to survive to fight another day. It was an incredible campaign and I still miss my own characters network of students, "sparrows", running errands and keeping eyes on possible suspects through out the major cities. WHFRP, such memories. Shame we never got to see that group of characters grow into the investigative inquisitors they were meant to be.

So you mentioned how you make your DMPC's as sidekicks. That is good as a lot of the DM NPC's/PC's that I have encountered have stolen the spotlight and really made me as a player feel like secondary or tertiary character. A great experience I once had as a player was to play as 'the sidekick'. While I usually have an active role in our group; take the lead in negotiations, lead the charge in combat. But when I was playing Bill the Bard I was submissive in the game world. I cooked their food, washed their clothes, setup camp, broke down camp...His motivation was his performance. In combat I would use bardic music to enhance the party and then ready an action to run away if any enemies came near me. While he wasn't a hero, the people I play with still remember Bill the Bard. That could be because he weighed in at 350lbs+ wore a ring of sustenance, ate and drank WAY more than normal and with all the feats, could travel nearly 70 MPH when fleeing.

... Are you sure the city wasn't called "Los Santos"?

Can we get a link to that chart? I'd love to have that in my campaign.

I often introduce lots of fun characters that my players can recruit to bring with them on their quests. I once ran an entire sea faring campaign where every island had dozens of NPCs with distinct personalities I sourced from Twitter and they could recruit the ones they liked to crew their ship. Melee characters tend to occupy a minion or two and sometimes need to be saved when they dock in a city secretly run by a cult or if their ship is under attack. Casters tend to sit in the back and cast support and buff spells so that they don't steal the spotlight. I think that usually goes really well and many times, my players have fallen in love with these characters. When that happens, I write some kind of quest relating to their backstory because I know the players will follow it.

In the game I'm currently in, there's a DMPC who's working brilliantly-precisely because the character exists to fill a series of needs in the party, and although she's had a few badass moments, the DM consciously keeps her out of the spotlight. Mechanics wise, we all built the characters we were most interested in playing, and wound up with 5 casters (Wizard, Sorcerer, Tome Warlock, Cleric, Bard) and a rogue- so having a DMPC fighter on our side helps balance out the party and make us less squishy. But what our DM did which I think was genius was making her a Battlemaster-so when she's in combat (and she isn't necessarily in every fight) a lot of what she does is making the rest of us better. But beyond combat, the way the character works is likewise super helpful. Our characters are, well, a bunch of eccentrics, as you might expect from spell-casters and rogues, and most haven't had much experience being on teams before, let alone facing massive cosmic stakes. Most of the time, our DM lets us bicker and debate and come to decisions, but when shit goes sideways having this military character who can yell "run you idiots" when we're standing around gawking at our impending doom can be very helpful at moving things along. In both cases, the character works because it feels a supporting role the party needs, and isn't a chance for the DM to make himself the big damn hero.

OH MY GOD YES! Just in time too! I was planning a one on one this weekend for a friend and I've been waiting for this video. Thanks Matt! This waiting on those stronghold rules :P

These videos have been incredibly useful as a new DM. Thanks, Matt!

Matt, Thank you for answering my question about Followers, Cohorts and Hirelings. This was very informative! Great job!

i played d&d maybe twice around 10 years ago but i think i've still watched all your videos hahaha, i just love hearing this guy talk

Ah... You bring back fond memories of my early years of D&D! Thanks!

I ran a DM NPC and she was basically constantly getting the party into scraps or worse. She pushed a good aligned paladin to his death, she sold drugs behind the party's back which backfired, she was constantly causing brawls and other issues. She was really just great for shaking things up when we needed something to happen

In an older game that was dropped, my Noble Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut acquired a squire that was named "Billy the Squire". They had a very tumultuous relationship and the Paladin was very mean to his Squire, right up until the squire saved the entire party (for around the third time) after the Paladin had died in the first round of combat (for around the third time). That got Billy the Squire turned into Sir WIlliam, Knight of Bahamut.

Matt the way you ended that Video gave me chills. Thank you for such encouraging and educated words.

I have 2 things to comment on this 1: I almost always play a GMPC with my group, because there's only two of them besides me and they always get bored of just talking to each other, so it's good to have someone else they can chat with. I usually try to make them fill some niche in the party that no one else wants to (I'll play a spellcaster if they're both playing fighter types, or i'll make her a cleric since no one ever seems to want to play the healer, or a trap-deactivating specialist rogue or something like that) and as far as I know it's never been an issue. Now they could just be hiding their annoyance from me, but I don't *think* they are. Just my thoughts on it. 2: When it comes to players' "second characters" that they recruit... I've had this issue a few times but one of my players is really bad about it. They come up with this really neat character idea that they want to play (The latest was a dire tiger they'd had as a companion for a while, that they sought out a druid and had her awakened so she could become intelligent and take class levels as a rogue) but then after they have all that done he just... gives up on it. it suddenly becomes my burden to outfit and stat and control and rp what's essentially a full new character that i didn't make or even necessarily want to make. So now i'm in charge of this character that I'm not terribly invested in and don't put a ton of thought into because it's kind of a side thing to me, not my main focus, and he gets upset because the character isn't as cool as he thought and i'm not putting the work in to make her believable and all that... while being entirely unwilling to play the character himself. So the question there i guess is: what do

I used hirelings a lot in my last game. They were a lot of fun. They’d always be “support types” to not steal the thunder of the players; Men at arms with halberds, elf ranger types, minor priests. Good times. I would sometimes use them as “red shirts”, and the NPCs/Monsters would target them in combat first, so the PCs could gauge the attackers. The time the players watched their hireling Howitzer Greenleaf (essentially the Green Elf from Gauntlet) get max damage crit’d and killed by the Minotaur, is still a moment talked about by the players, and served to show how gross the thing the players were up against was.

I love this episode, even 6 years later. When I use a DMPC, I use them to tech the game at low levels. My typical DMPC will be a slightly higher level, one or two levels up and will always be what the party is missing(Cleric) I try to use them to teach basic mechanics, role play and action economy. I've had a lot of success introducing new players in this manner. I don't let them carry on with the party, I narratively "write them out" at some point. Just thought I'd throw this here for a DM/GM who has a table of brand new players.

Damn, dude, I could have guessed within a couple weeks when you recorded this video as soon as you said, "Gosh, I am burned out on politics now for obvious reasons." It's 2022, and I still feel this. :(

I run DMPC's in my campaigns for a few reasons. One, we don't have enough players which is especially important for running published adventures that are balanced for 4-6 players. Two, to let my players play the cool characters they want. My players want to play glass cannons like sorcerers and rogues, I'll throw a meat shield barbarian in the party to help them out. Three, to have someone that can occasionally nudge them forward to keep the game moving. I try not to do this unless the players are really indecisive or lost. I guess I use them mostly as an extra man in combat that occasionally throws out hints. It seems to be working out so far. My players are happy and feel like the stars not supporting cast. This works for our games but I can see how it can get out of hand. New DM here btw, these videos have really helped so thanks Matt. I see you read Locke & Key, nice.

Loved those ending words!

DMPCs are working out in my campaign. Other than cooking meals and watching the wagon they're mostly there to make up for player absences. Or raise the ceiling of the party's capabilities to tackle a very challenging set piece encounter or boss fight. Even in those scenarios, they're playing a supporting role to the PCs. The PCs generally want to minimize the number of encounters in which NPCs or DMPCs participate because it splits XP. So they don't make use of them casually.

Absolutely helpful episode. Loved it and thank you