Hello every-nyan

So I recently started to DM my first ever campaign of 5e with some friends of mine and was wondering if anyone would be up to help me fill out some NPC ideas. basically, help come up with some quirky characters.

I need some adventures, shopkeepers, possible NPC party members my players may recruit.

noting really fetishy or hypno related. just think it would be fun to hear you guys spitball some ideas for me. just don't get too out there or insane.

if this isn't really allowed feel free to delete the thread ^_^

and feel free to suggest stuff

Characters I have come up with thus far.

Mee-ma level 4 barabarian.

Age ??? (really old)

race ???

She is basically like everyone's grandma who cooks and kicks ass. very senile and fights with two frying pans.

Tiny

Age- too old\]

Race Cat.

wight-really fat

Mee-mas cat who rolls around and is mainly used as her hat.


Hammer Horn level 3 monk.

age 30

race teifling

A traveling Blacksmith who molds is weapons with his iron-like fists.

www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1556371

Roll 3d6 in order they said.

It'll be fine they said.

Your luck can't be that bad they said.

Squishy boi ;_; he’s just trying his best.

In DnD i often joke to my group's DM he should add me in, as a shifty jerkass innkeeper, so perhaps an Innkeeper is needed

Leven Hardgrath

Race : Human? (Oddly short but not a Dwarf?)

Hair: Bald as a stone

Eyes : Some dark color, the light inside is too poor to tell

Personality : Shallow as a pond, and quick to scrutiny, makes conversation about as well as a troll but with less tolerance for fools.

Quote : "We've got Ale with spit or spit with Ale, choice wisely"

Occupation : Innkeeper of the "Ranger's Canteen" a disgusting hovel only still standing based on the amount of dispair and sadness most bars eck. The bedding isn't much better, whoever it beats sleeping on the ground.

have someone whose like...super shifty. And then when the party suspects him it turns out he helps the homeless or something.

What's the overall setting? Might help shape a local or two.

It's kinda like konosuba or how to pick up girls in a dungeon. The world is still deadly thought alitte silly. The main dungeon is a magical tree that's kinda like a world tree with ever changing dungeons. Imagine Pokémon mystery dungeon.

I'm going to break out of my shell and take advantage of one of the few topics I know about.

I've been a DM for quite a while now and although I have the basic 5e book, I'm more of a Pathfinder nerd, so I'll just tell you the basics of a recurrent character of mine and you can translate it to 5e.

I tend not to use this character more than once for every different group, since the shock dissipates rather quickly if found multiple times, but he has been a rather interesting method of "fixing" bad party choices or behavior.

Ahrq Narta is a Demonic Prince, born of the Abyss and walking the planes of reality. Unlike most of his fellow demons, Ahrq has no interest in mortals or divine beings, falling more under the ruling of a Chaotic Neutral character. His only interest is knowledge, be it of whatever origin, and being completely honest his only function is to be a Deus Ex Machina dispenser at heavy prices.

I tend to present Ahrq when the party has made a horrible choice that left them with little to no way of fixing the campaing, or when they have completely fucked up. He is either revealed to be one of the NPC's that the party has met a few times or a completely new character that appears for one reason or another, mostly due to not really wanting the world to be destroyed, or conquered, or whatever. I've gotten used to introducing him as a gigantic minotaur or beast-folk with a mountain of books and papers chained to his back, but that's mostly if my party tends to murderhorbing and I want to keep them from attacking him.

Ahrq will always have what the party needs, in one way or another. A book that answers a riddle, a scroll with the perfect spell, a dictionary of that one strange dead language, etc. And he is always willing to sell them, although the prices are quite high. In one of my plays, Ahrq sould three books to the party when they desperately needed the answers, and his payment was the barbarian's pet (Which he needed for his arquetype and could never replace, thus gimping his character severily), the paladin's oath (Cutting the paladin's connection to his God, making it so he'd never be able to refill his miracles or class abilities unless he became an anti-paladin) and the berserker's black blood (Which would, in lore, allow Ahrq to create multiple abominations that would, sooner or later, become a worse problem that what they were trying to fix)

My way of DMing might be harsher than yours, so of course the prices might be lowered. A piece of equipment that is dearly needed, a limb, placing a curse, etc. The thing is that he is a manifestation of the party's mistakes. One way or another, he knows where they fucked up, he knows they need him, and he can fix it all if they pay. The best possible scenario, both as a DM and for the players, is when their pride is hurt enough that they ignore Ahrq and decide to either fight him or try and find the answers for themselves. Kind of a "Jesus in the desert" situation.

You can even add a bit of a plotwist if you are unsatisfied by the "last boss" and elongate the campaing a bit more to make the party deal with the consequences of their meeting with Ahqr. In the play I mentioned before, they had to roam the land dealing with the abominations born from the berserker's blood, ruining their fame from defeating the dragon as people came to know the true origin of these beasts and destroying their chance at glory.

I don't know if this is what you wanted, sorry if it isn't. And sorry for the wall of text.

If you need something silly/fun, I really like wild mages. Last time I did some wild magic (homebrew system, but it still applies), I used this : www.traykon.com/pdf/The_N...andom_Magical_Effects.pdf

Of course, it should be possible to find a d100 table as well.


I also had a gnome inventor that was cursed after he fooled a demon into giving him a great skill/power (your choosing). He was very skilled at inventions, but everything he did was doomed to explode at one point.
A chair ? Explodes after a few sittings (1d4 or 1d6).
A glove ? Turn everything it touches explosive (who said Killer Queen ?). Or just make a lot of mini-explosion on the wearer's hand, hurting him/her in the process.
A cask for alcohol ? You guess what happens.

What about a rogue contact, met at a shady tavern, able to provide any information obtainable from the underground, albeit at a price.
The only problem being, he has a terrible memory for names.
Whenever he tells the party something, the names of the people/places will be only vaguely phonetically or functionally similar to what they actually are.

Example: directing a party to the Invulnerable Vagrant.
"Ah. If you want magic items, you'll have to go to the, uh...
Hang on a second...
It's on the tip of my tongue...
The, um, Impenetrable Nomad, I think it was? Yeah, that sounds right."

A constantly shifting environment within a giant tree? I'd definitely recommend some kind of researcher then. A non-combatant who wants to study the tree and understand it. They'd be the kind of person to never seem scared. A three-headed cockatrice could climb out of a root to eat him and he/she would just marvel how it seemed to phase through the wood. A lot of humor can come from the party's bafflement at this person's calm and chipper nature despite the very obvious threat of death and mutilation.

A few of my random silly NPC concepts:

-"Angel"; Tiefling, Alcoholic Alchemist. I've used him as a criminal underworld/black market contact. He goes by the nickname "Angel" because
a) Criminals and outlaws are not the most clever people.
b) His actual name is LORD CHARDESPAIR ASHBRINGER THE RUIN OF WAR.

-Erinea; Succubus Bard. Mostly I use her to provide info on other demons and outsiders. She hangs out in random taverns as a serving girl because she got kicked out of the Abyss. "Turns out Demon Lords are really touchy about their virgin sacrifices staying virgins throughout the entire sacrifice. Who knew?"

-Dante; The Peacock Drider. Who says Driders have to look like Black Widows? This guy cannot stay out of trouble, since on top of being a male Drow he is also <<www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPh_Gi7PCqs| a walking, dancing rainbow.>>

I'd love to, but I don't have any 5th edition books. Curse you poverty!!!

While I've no first-hand experience with tabletop, it's my understanding that one thing you can rely on is for the PCs to go off the beaten path and necessitate improv from the GM. They decide to hold a speech to the townsfolk when you just expected them to stay the night at the inn and be on their way, or figure that the important NPC's page seems like a fun guy to have a chat with.

Not really useful for creating concepts for characters, but I've a little system-thing brewed up that can, hopefully, give NPCs some semblance of personality on the fly. Put shortly, there's six basic groups, that I've dubbed the usual fantasy fair of earth, fire, wind, water, light and dark, but that's just 'cause I'm an uncreative hack, feel free to call them what you wish. Each represents a stereotype as follows:

Earth is the typical dwarf-like conservative type, not particularly creative or quick to embrace new ideas or viewpoints (meaning hard to persuade if you don't appeal to their values), but also highly principled and a reliable ally. They tend to be straightforward in their dealings, though not necessarily willing to tell you much about themselves. Dutiful and conscientious, albeit stubborn when confronted.

Fire resembles the determined and goal-oriented adventurer or revolutionary. These types tend to be quite unpretentious and passionate about whatever it is they seek, be it personal glory, making the world a better place, or anything in between. However, they're prone to emotional thinking and can be manipulated with the right words and sufficiently sound logic. Due to their tendency for strong beliefs, they can get quite confrontational when dealing with others.

Wind is personified in the devil-may-care roguish type, life's about fun and attachments are to be avoided. They do things for the sake of spontaneity and excitement, making them easy to persuade into things, but hard to keep on a given track. They're generally unconcerned about what the future may hold, and often what the past can teach. Naturally, someone like this is prone to more dubious actions than someone more principled, but what do they care? If things get too serious, it was probably high time to mosey on over to the next town anyway.

Water is about diplomacy and innovation, they're prone to seek compromises and entertain new ideas. However, they tend to be secretive about themselves and their thoughts, often telling people what they want to hear instead. That's not to say they're necessarily all master manipulators, but sometimes the truth is simply best left untold until the time is right. These types are likely to place a high value on logic and seek out the path of least resistance.

Light signifies a willingness to help others, and to see the good in people, sometimes to a fault. Convincing them of the nobility of your intentions or the quality of your character is a good way to guarantee their aid. They value friendliness and would hate the idea of offending others. Likely to tend towards optimism, but at times they get too trusting and naive for the world.

Dark is characterized by selfishness and distrust, but not necessarily to an unhealthy degree. While not likely to help others just for the sake of general goodness, it's possible they'll lend you a hand if they think it's worth their while. Not ones to engage in overt pleasantries, they often come off as aloof or outright rude. Lean towards a pessimistic worldview, which can lead them to make failsafes and to double- and triple-check their plans before going ahead with them. This doesn't necessarily make them bad people, but it's unlikely they'll be particularly well-liked.

Since there's six of these types, it should be simple to just roll a d6 to get what an NPC is like, so they're not all just 'merchant' or 'soldier'. It should also help determine how you'd best go about getting them to come around to the player's point of view. And if just one type isn't enough, you can always roll more dice to mix things up.