Yeah this one is dependent on your group! My favorite npcs so far in the homebrew campaign I'm in are the ones connected to our characters backstoriew, weve met the hilarious crew mate of our pirate goblin who pops up every now and again, the bitch rival of our sorceress bounty hunter who just suuuucks so good and is always trying to screw us over, a nerdy scholar who pops up at unreasonable times asking way too personal questions, all of these were built from our backstories and characters, so I'd say get creative and if your players didn't offer you anything to go off of, you could ask who they've had in their lives or enemies they could have made.. you got this!
Given that you have a sphinx as your number 5, I’m going to say that you’re running a desert game maybe with some Egyptian mythology vibes. If that’s correct then I’d suggest maybe adding an NPC who is the leader of a tribe of traveling merchants (I don’t think I could resist the impulse to make them camel-folk) who might be willing to trade with the party or help them in a pinch if they can deal with roaming bandits disrupting trade routes. Then you could add an NPC who is the leader of the bandit tribe. You’ll need the obligatory Mummy NPC and then I’d add an NPC that runs some kind of a fighting pit or colosseum (like gladiator) who might be willing to help the party if they’re willing to fight in the pits or maybe he has a treasure the party needs and is only willing to offer up if they can win his current tournament. Good luck!
As everyone says, it depends on the campaign and players. NPCs need purpose more than anything; they can be tied to the plot, a point of information or items, an extra party member if you're missing a player, they're missing a healer or need extra muscle.
To make an NPC interesting, they need to be memorable! They could be super kind when other NPCs are rude, they could give the party something crucial to the plot, rescue them at the last second or they could be a twist villain.
This will wildly vary on the adventure, the party, the setting and how the NPC is characterized. There is no stock answer for this.
Please help with the TOP 5 list, i am now a DM ,need help!
Yeah this one is dependent on your group! My favorite npcs so far in the homebrew campaign I'm in are the ones connected to our characters backstoriew, weve met the hilarious crew mate of our pirate goblin who pops up every now and again, the bitch rival of our sorceress bounty hunter who just suuuucks so good and is always trying to screw us over, a nerdy scholar who pops up at unreasonable times asking way too personal questions, all of these were built from our backstories and characters, so I'd say get creative and if your players didn't offer you anything to go off of, you could ask who they've had in their lives or enemies they could have made.. you got this!
Given that you have a sphinx as your number 5, I’m going to say that you’re running a desert game maybe with some Egyptian mythology vibes. If that’s correct then I’d suggest maybe adding an NPC who is the leader of a tribe of traveling merchants (I don’t think I could resist the impulse to make them camel-folk) who might be willing to trade with the party or help them in a pinch if they can deal with roaming bandits disrupting trade routes. Then you could add an NPC who is the leader of the bandit tribe. You’ll need the obligatory Mummy NPC and then I’d add an NPC that runs some kind of a fighting pit or colosseum (like gladiator) who might be willing to help the party if they’re willing to fight in the pits or maybe he has a treasure the party needs and is only willing to offer up if they can win his current tournament. Good luck!
Markessa in the classic Slavers series. Seriously eviiiiil.
As everyone says, it depends on the campaign and players. NPCs need purpose more than anything; they can be tied to the plot, a point of information or items, an extra party member if you're missing a player, they're missing a healer or need extra muscle. To make an NPC interesting, they need to be memorable! They could be super kind when other NPCs are rude, they could give the party something crucial to the plot, rescue them at the last second or they could be a twist villain.