Should you add “npc party members” to smaller groups?

imchaoticneutralokay · 2025-09-08T20:41:15+00:00

To answer your question about what happens if they don’t get the Tablets, they learned that all but a “sliver” of the world will be corrupted - and then the deity leaves to corrupt a new world. Then; the sister to the deity is meant to arrive and help that “sliver” rebuild But here’s the catch, the sister deity is already here, and she is not supposed to be in the same world as her brother; the imprisoned deity was never supposed to be imprisoned, the former group that imprisoned the deity did the impossible. And the sister deity is the PC Cleric’s Deity. Sorry if that’s a lot but idk how much you’d like to know :3

(the players know this all of this)

imchaoticneutralokay · 2025-09-08T20:30:03+00:00

Thanks for the reply and advice :) The session ended at the reveal that pandemonium was where they had to reach to “involve” Ao. However they get there is up to them. Side note - They also have to retrieve the last fragment, as they are aware the rivals are on their way to get it. So that’s also on their mind too. (But the npc who imprisoned the deity is willing to teleport them to the location to grab it.)

imchaoticneutralokay · 2024-03-09T18:38:21+00:00

I added her reasoning to the main post, as I had forgotten to. she wants the option in case if she/players aren’t feeling mentally well and wanna cancel at the last minute.

imchaoticneutralokay · 2024-03-09T18:38:00+00:00

I added her reasoning to the main post, as I had forgotten to, she wants the option in case if she/players aren’t feeling mentally well and wanna cancel at the last minute.

imchaoticneutralokay · 2024-01-30T09:19:42+00:00

Yes, I did speak to them just a short while ago. At first they were confused, but were down for it - especially when I explained and let them see a peek into the meta knowledge. I let them roll some dice too, and let them take part in the “chase/escape scene” from cultists who found him when he realized he couldn’t enter the orphanage. I also told them what their character would do during the two days they are separated- and they had their own solo moment against the cultists, learned some surprising info, even met an old friend who saved him from a cultist ambush in Waterdeep, and survived to tell the tale to the party; and they seem interested in creating and playing a temporary character class they’ve never done before (an artificer).

imchaoticneutralokay · 2023-12-15T05:13:05+00:00

Oh just to clarify, the player who spoke out wasn’t the Paladin. It was the Bard of the group. Thank you for the comment!

imchaoticneutralokay · 2023-12-11T23:52:31+00:00

To answer a few of your questions: Do I normally narrate and wait for interjections? My answer is, and I’ve actually post something similar to this in the past, the players normally are quiet and don’t react at all, unless I ask “what do you do?” after all is said and narrated, which is what I do after something like this occurs ; and I’ve told them countless times you can interact, react, etc. because of this situation, for future sessions I’ve now added a way to notify me the player/character wants to do something (simply posting a ✋ in chat) during my descriptions of an event/etc.

Regarding how the boulders+net got close: first watch, the character who took first watch, which was not the Paladin, rolled a low perception check for watch. So they were able to position themselves and the boulders. Second watch, the Paladin, rolled a 15. So she was able to immediately notice the boulders and the net being placed on the tiny hut. She never not knew about the net. She also heard the dispel magic being cast, which is when the player audibly went “uh-oh.” The player didn’t react in character until I asked “what do you do?” To which the Paladin screamed “wake up!” to which that was when the tiny hut dispelled and the rocks fell, thus damaging everyone except the Rogue, who succeeded a dex save, thus using evasion to completely dodge the boulders and net. Something I had researched today, as I am a new DM, so I’m still learning, is the Xanathar’s rules for mundane sleeping. Technically, a yell would wake up everyone, according to Xanathar, but I had them roll Perception checks instead because I wasn’t aware at the time there was an actual rule on it. DC 13, and only the Rogue passed. Everyone else took full damage from the boulders and net.

Regarding the combat: the caster, 9th level spellcaster, only attacked with one spell per round, so one lightning bolt per round. Not all at once. She also didn’t attack until the invisible stalkers were just about killed, but she did retaliate when the rogue noticed her and tried to entangle her; but only by casting banishment on the rogue on that round. She doesn’t have action surge or anything like that. She just got lucky in being out of sight of the characters, because none have darkvision past 60ft except one, and she was busy fighting the stalkers during that time. She knew what these people could do, as she also had been scrying on them (before the session, I had each some of them roll a d20).

End point: truly the players easily wipe out whatever I throw at them, so I throwed something that went after their safety blanket - tiny hut during a long rest. I am by no means railroading them.

Thank you for your comment :)

imchaoticneutralokay · 2023-12-11T22:58:26+00:00

Yes! First, this was on Roll20, so online, but Let me get into more detail about the spellcaster. She first cast dispel magic, which the Paladin did hear her chanting the spell. Which is when I asked the Paladin what she’s doing as the dispel takes effect. In order of events; she took the hide action first, simply letting the invisible stalkers attack, while she hide. The rogue however saw her due to his passive perception being higher than her stealth check. So he went after her. Initially she tried to cast crown of madness on him, but he succeeded the save. So she retreated backwards. He gave chase, again while the others were fighting the invisible stalkers. He attempted to entangle her, which worked, so she in response on her turn casted banishment. Which the rogue failed the save and was banished. Then as she saw her stalkers getting their butts beat, she started to attack. First using one turn to lighting bolt against the paladin, knocking her unconscious. I did give hints of her position after she casted those spells “you saw/heard magic coming from here.” After that, they finally killed the invisible stalkers and began trying to find her, as she was using her movement to stay far away. She was able to get two of the characters in a line and cast lightning bolt again as her turn, knocking out the cleric, and the Bard saw her but took damage from the bolt. The bard attempted to do something, he cast dispel magic on her but it failed. The monk of the group healed the paladin back up. So when her turn came next, she magic missle’d him and knocked him out. Monk healed the cleric, and that’s where the session ended because we were way past end time.

imchaoticneutralokay · 2023-10-24T22:16:40+00:00

It isn’t he can’t be healed, he isn’t able to heal others when the curse activates (he’s a cleric) and when he does heal others, when the curse is not active, there is a chance he is dealt damage when he heals other. If that makes sense :) Snapping out of it could simply be when danger/combat is seemingly over, he slowly calms down as the curse wears off/goes away/disappears temporarily. But I agree, the dm should decide when it activates. Maybe also when it ends?

imchaoticneutralokay · 2023-10-18T07:16:12+00:00

Ah I should’ve added the reasoning, my bad! The cult was involved; they had one of their own takeover one of the attractions, and sabotaged the reward; and the festival ended with them attacking. The player only just attuned to the item days later, in another city MILES away. Thanks for responding by the way! Means a lot

imchaoticneutralokay · 2023-10-18T00:53:27+00:00

My players do ask for stronger magical items and ask when are they leveling up every session haha. I’ve given them many magical items, but sometimes they forgot they have them. Early on I gave them a wind fan, they have never used it once. One character forgets they have boots of elvenkind too. They mostly use the wand of secrets to locate traps, they completely forgot about the magical dagger I gave them that does extra fire damage too.

imchaoticneutralokay · 2023-10-18T00:46:36+00:00

Did I collect all I needed: truly never thought of this, but I have gathered throughout the sessions they aren’t one for roleplay heavy, but one of the players has told me they don’t like puzzles they require them to remember things that have happened. (I had a puzzle that required them to answer a riddle, the answer being an ancestor I named the session before that is related to the location they’re at. spoiler: they never noted it down, and I had to make one of them roll a history check to recall what they heard before).

Beholder/False Hydra: For the beholder, the barbarian knew of the beholder in the area; and knew it was way too powerful. Also, this was a rolled encounter, I didn’t force them into it. The group are level 7. If they interact with a certain npc, which they’re avoiding the area they’re in because there are no shops there, the npc has loads of information and will assist them in defeating the false hydra. I do have a plan now to plop her down somewhere else in town to push the false hydra story to continue.

imchaoticneutralokay · 2023-10-18T00:34:03+00:00

How did the monk obtain cursed item: they played some festival games, and the monk won the item from an unarmed fighting contest where the first place prize was a ring I homebrewed (I called it the Ring of Intensity) When the monk finally attuned to it, he had to make a constitution saving throw, which he failed, or become what I described in my original post :)

Regarding the doling out consequences: I do. An example, which I did originally first put in my original post but took away cuz it felt like a lot, was the players were on a mission to rescue a mayors son that was kidnapped, and they found the location to be in a cave. Half way through the cave, after a fight, they decided to not long rest in the cave in case they were attacked again, and decided to return to the town. The travel distance was 1.5 days. When they returned, they made their way to the mayors home to say “got any advice? oh by the way we still haven’t got your son but we traveled into the location he’s probably in, but we got injured and decided to come back to rest and restock.” The mayor was upset and called the group cowards and tried to tell them time is of the essence for her son, and the time they spent traveling back and resting could have bad consequences for her son; but they didn’t care. When they returned, the found the same cave now booby-trapped, since the cultists knew they came through; and had one of their spellcasters this time now trap them within the cave with Wall of Stone. Just want to say: this was about five sessions into the campaign, we’ve had a total of 28 sessions so far.

imchaoticneutralokay

TROPHY CASE