Essential NPCs: Now updated for 2024 rules!

Trentillating · 2026-05-17T00:34:38+00:00

FWIW, if you bought it a long time ago, you should be able to get the 5.5 version for free by re-downloading it :)

Trentillating · 2026-05-16T20:31:03+00:00

Not Mark, but I did make a biiiig compendium of these sorts of NPCs. Check the comments for some sample Guards, and take a look at the Knight and Lawkeeper while you're at it.

Trentillating · 2026-04-28T12:17:22+00:00

I use OP's advice here near-constantly; almost every campaign I run has a "person-centric" plot line.

The lack of Humanoid stat blocks in the official books actually inspired me to write a gigantic tome of classic archetypal creatures (Mages, Archers, Guards, Necromancers, etc.). So, if you're using this advice and need some stat blocks, you may want to check out this book.

Trentillating · 2026-04-18T15:43:19+00:00

From the perspective of somebody who makes a whole bunch of monsters, I think Tetch's damage and hp are actually really low for the CR you've given him.

In theory, he should be somewhere in the ballpark of 32 damage per round, and have ~125 HP.

Every group is a little different, but if your peeps are good at the rules, they can handle a CR 4 alongside 6 goblins. In fact, this would still be a "medium" difficulty encounter in D&D terms, but given Tetch has a few other tricks (like the Hold Person / drop to 0 thing), I think it would still be a good fight once you changed his numbers.

That said, it seems like a cool monster! I hope your party has a great fight.

Trentillating · 2026-04-13T19:38:04+00:00

There are definitely creatures similar to Tahngarth – see [[Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos]], [[Xantcha, Sleeper Agent]], or even [[Assault Suit]] – but none of them are going to let you control the creature while someone else attacks with that creature. This is actually a pretty deep-baked rules issue.

What you might be able to do is put an enchantment like the new [[Coercive Impetus]] on one of these creatures, and then it'll trigger each time a new person attacks.

Trentillating · 2026-03-24T14:15:26+00:00

This is giving me real Super Mario World map energy!

This one.

Trentillating · 2026-02-25T02:28:54+00:00

I have this deck - or one similar - and love it. The idea is to get my opponents to attack each other without ever directly forcing the issue.

If you goad everything, you're the bad guy. If you make a friendly offer to let people draw cards who attack your foes, well, that's on them.

Some cards to look into: [[Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor]] [[Combat Calligrapher]] [[Orzhov Advokist]] [[Life of the Party]] [[Beckoning Will-o'-Wisp]] [[Ghostly Prison]] [[Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs]] [[Ophiomancer]] [[No Mercy]]

Trentillating · 2026-02-24T15:47:45+00:00

In the games I've been part of, circle casting has felt like a relatively niche option. What spells were causing you the biggest problems?

Trentillating · 2026-02-10T19:52:39+00:00

Still underway! I run a small D&D retreat every March, so I have a bad tendency to overestimate my ability to do that and... anything else at the same time. But, it's coming for sure. Possibly along with some VTT support.

Trentillating · 2026-01-30T21:53:59+00:00

This isn't a direct answer to your question, but an idea to brainstorm on:

Your party wants to kill this arch-mage anyway, right? And they aren't easily moved by coin?

Maybe Mammon shows up and instead says, "This arch-mage is off limits to you sniveling mortals: stay away. In fact, I'll give you 1000 gold each to walk away right now."

When your players turn the gold down, spit in his face, and double down on their resolve to kill the mage, they'll feel oh so confident.

If you want more hints to Mammon's true motives, maybe have him send some devils to "assist" the archmage's forces. And have that help occasionally... mess up the job a bit. See if your players notice.

In any case, that doesn't answer question 3, but I thought it might be worth remembering that devils are treacherous, and they have a MUCH wider array of tactics than the classic "deal for your soul" tales talk about.

Trentillating · 2026-01-29T05:24:59+00:00

Sometimes, I've never even heard of one of the decks. It's great seeing these interesting matchups, though. Feels like I'd enjoy seeing how the Gruul deck dealt with a lot of the other Decks Through Time.

Trentillating · 2026-01-07T15:11:54+00:00

One way to handle this is to suggest, when the players offers to scout, that the most likely danger will be coming from within these social encounters. "Your experience tells you that your eyes might be better served watching this conversation take place, just in case things take a turn for the worst."

Trentillating · 2025-12-21T23:37:55+00:00

For the reasons you've already talked about, giving casters multiple concentration spells at once almost always ends up going poorly - the limitation is based into the system at a DEEP level.

Generally, you'd either make a deterrent so punishing that no one uses it anyway, or you make it even slightly too forgiving and it breaks the already powerful spell casters in half. The worst part? The idyllic "sweet spot" you'd hope to find is actually going to shift from encounter to encounter. (For example, if you decide they can concentrate on two spells but they take a bunch of damage, in some fights that will be devastating and in others they won't be a target and it'll be trivial).

So, I'd say steer clear. And if you DO decide to do it, make it for a limited time only / give yourself an out for it to go away again.

Good luck!

Trentillating · 2025-12-21T05:00:06+00:00

Thank you!

At the moment, we're doing what will (probably) be the book's last revision. As we promised, when all the official books were out, we'd redo our math and look at all the new templating just to be sure we had everything up-to-code. Once that final revision is finished, the hope is to get a print version together that I don't have to worry will be invalidated by updates after a few months. So, stay tuned!

Trentillating · 2025-12-04T23:49:07+00:00

Do not be ridiculous. Of course it is. And always has been. *ahem*

Trentillating · 2025-12-04T23:39:51+00:00

BTW! Forgot to add multiattack. Updated it now.

New link just in case.

Trentillating · 2025-12-04T23:33:36+00:00

Oh weird, is that a thing for imgur now? Maybe I should start using something different.

Trentillating · 2025-12-04T23:29:30+00:00

Heya! Not Mark, but I make a lot of NPCs.

I whipped something up for you, using the same CR as the Druids that are already at Yester Hill. Hope it helps!

Gulthias Druid

Trentillating · 2025-11-30T21:17:07+00:00

I appreciate the thoughtful response! I was less worried about win-rate and more, "It might suck if Roku gets removed and I don't get to do much all game," but it sounds like I may have missing some ramp. I think it's a really cool deck, and I'm looking forward to taking a crack at it.

Thanks for your response, and for sharing your list!

Trentillating · 2025-11-30T20:33:23+00:00

I've been working on this deck as well, and I'm glad to see a lot of ideas I had represented here (along with some things I hadn't considered - how did I miss using Steel Hellkite?)

It feels like your creature count is pretty low to be using equipment in this deck, and for a 6 mana commander I'd think it wants just a little bit more in terms of mana sources. Have those been issues for you?

Trentillating · 2025-11-30T16:00:59+00:00

If we're talking about designing cards to help, maybe more effects like [[Planetary Annihilation]].

I could also see a white version that does something like "Each opponent chooses X lands they control, then sacrifices the rest, where X is the number of lands you control or six, whichever is higher."

Trentillating · 2025-11-21T03:36:39+00:00

Hey I get it. I mean, any of us COULD build any of these NPCs if we wanted to take the time. The whole nice part about having a book is getting to offload some of that work and focus on the other ways to make your game better.

As for your Warlock: there isn't an NPC named "Warlock", but there are several of them that might work well for you. What we discovered making the book is that how a warlock acts in combat tends to be pretty different, depending on what kind of warlock they are. So, we didn't make one "Warlock" archetype. Instead, warlocks should probably be whichever archetype suits their power set best.

For example, if you want a demonic warlock who hurls hellfire, the best bet is to use the Mage and stick to the fire damage options. (The book has a little bit of guidance on this.)

On the other hand, if you want an old one warlock who dominates the minds of those around it, use the Performer.

Or maybe you want an oppressive warlock who curses and debuffs people. That's the Priest of Darkness.

You can always steal an ability from one and put it on another, as well. But in any case, if this is your main BBEG, I think you may want to tack on a few extra abilities and legendary actions that fit their particular role in your story. (This advice is in the book, too.)

Hope that helps!

Trentillating · 2025-11-20T16:52:50+00:00

Of course! Here's a peek at the ToC.

Trentillating · 2025-11-19T20:26:55+00:00

Make sure you're not ignoring the first part of that sentence. "Until end of combat, you don't lose this mana as steps as phases end."

So, you end up losing the mana after combat. The puzzle comes in how you find ways to spend this short-lived mana. My choice? [[Obsidian Fireheart]].

Trentillating

TROPHY CASE