What NPCs have you made for your campaigns?


Gamer Life General Discussion


I've read some posts here and there on applying template-X to creature-Y.

So to give each other some inspiration for things to have our players run into; what NPCs have you made to have the players fight?

I for one combined a magus with the 3rd party class Dread, accompanied by 2 creatures that use touch attacks to give a small debuff that causes the next somatic spell to have a 20% fail chance.

Another was something akin to combining Nemesis with Pyramid head, to function as a boogieman.

What are your creations?


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Not mine but a member of my group designed a zombie behemoth that had a longspear with the upper half of a corpse impaled through it. When the zombie stabbed you with his spear, the corpse on the spear would make a grapple check which, if successful, would impale you on the spear. It was such a memorable encounter.


Creepy, neat.


My favorite NPC that I made was a hobgoblin alchemist who had an Elf son that worked at his shop. Obviously, he was adopted, and clearly he wasn't evil, but it was incredibly strange nonetheless. In my homebrew setting, hobgoblins are the primary enemy of the goodly races, not openly at war at the present time, but there's a mutually-shared hatred.

Seeing everyones reactions after walking into a normal looking shop asking this boy where his father is, and seeing this shrouded, wrapped up man (people in his town accepted him for his skills, but outsiders wouldn't likely) that was obviously not an elf put everyone on edge.

Scarab Sages

In my homebrew world, the CE God of Wanton Destruction's holy symbol is "Something Bloody, Preferably Bleeding." Most of its clerics carry slaves around for divine focuses. The Big Bad of a recent campaign has kobolds bound to his arms and legs for ritualistic mutilation during spellcasting.

In the same world, there is a halfling oracle running around who is blinded, but has Neo-vision (but not matrix, just like it), who also suffers from every disease he can, but cannot lose any ability score damage or drain.

There is also a faction of Titan (Greek) worshipers who devote themselves to the Elder Titan of Time and are time travelers who go back in time to prevent things, but *always* end up being what caused it in the first place.

Also, a faction of mages who are alien humans and worship a CN space monster that fly across the multiverse seeding humans onto planets without humans.


In my homebrew I have a family of lycanthropes favored by a goddess (of shape changers) The middle son is the leader of the family and owns a tavern that features go-go dancers. All his employees are required to wear cutsie animal costumes. It's a hit with guys in the party, not so much with female characters. The goddess has tempered their anger issues so the family doesn't shift in the city and becoming murder hobos. Animal companions don't like to be near the family due to their predatory nature, same with familiars, pets, and druds.

Silver Crusade Contributor

I'll try to split them up by Adventure Path. (This sort of thing is my biggest change to APs.) I might do a blog post for my homebrew, too. I hope nobody minds these long posts. sigh

I know, I know... get on with it. :)

Silver Crusade Contributor

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I've tried to downplay specific spoilers for the APs where possible, but some were inevitable. Still spoilered, for length if nothing else. Sorry.

If you're running these Paths, I hope these might help you. I'd like to think they're interesting. Feel free to ask questions. :)

Carrion Crown:

Isera Croon: As the granddaughter of a strange man in a strange town, Isera grew up very odd indeed. The party met her in Tamrivena while investigating a series of strange murders - living in a damp basement, which she had painted entirely blue, walls, furniture, herself, everything. Her claims that a strange Water Lizard spoke to her in her dreams were shrugged off as (understandably) crazy, and the party politely refused her offer of a fresh coat of "lucky" blue paint for all their equipment. They saw her again in her hometown, though...

The Prophet: Between the party's ill reception of the Pharasmins in Ravengro and an active Urgathoan in the group, I wanted to throw in a Pharasmin antagonist for them to clash with. Enter the Prophet. Once an elvish prophet a hundred years past, the death of Aroden and end of prophecy shattered her mind. (This was before a later AP did exactly this.)

After a cold reaction in Lepidstadt, the party learned that someone was spreading dire warnings about their coming. They finally faced off in Caliphas, after an alliance with certain undead there was too much for the Prophet to ignore. Armed with a pair of Pharasmin relics, the armored Gown of Tears and the potentially instantly-lethal dagger Threadcutter, the Prophet and her psychopomp allies faced off with the PCs in the town square, nosoi filling the skies above. It was epic.

They later sold the Pharasmin relics to a vampire lord. :D

Vampires: Even by my standards, this is too much to post here. I pretty much tripled the number of unique vampire personalities the PCs encountered. Some were calculated to be more sympathetic, while others were red herrings for the divination-laden party. (I may have posted them in the appropriate GM Reference thread, if anyone's curious. Otherwise, just ask.)

Paravicar Petronicus Leroung: I sent the PCs off on a pretty epic derail, all the way to the Chelish city of Ostenso and the Hellknights' Citadel Krane. They had to deal with a Hellknight Signifier who had acted against one of their own, and who turned out to be in league with their foes. After a pitched battle with the arcanist and his summoned minions, they slew him, activating his clone, which teleported away. However...

Ghaushelanthon of Old Bakrakhan: An ancient god of cannibalism remade into a great devil, the paravicar had bound this creature to himself through dark pacts. Moments after slaying the arcanist, the titanic nemesis devil emerged to challenge them. He chose... poorly. (In his defense, three scythe criticals in a row is pretty rare.) However...

The Ashen Angel: There's always a catch. The soul they were seeking had already been sacrificed to Hell, and they had to hurry before the innocent was forever damned. They bound a rival erinyes, and convinced her to lead them through Moloch's realm to the Forge of the Ashen Angel - a powerful erinyes bloodrager. The Angel only managed to break the magus's magic mirror, before learning why you don't do that. (She is now an adorable kitten.)

Talabretha, Gianya, and Ticaria: An all-changeling coven - a hexcrafter magus, a cartomancer witch, and an accursed sorceress - with an iron collar of the unbound coven, which allowed them to form a coven without a true hag. It might have ended poorly for the PCs, if not for the fact that one of them turned out to be the party cleric's daughter. There was diplomacy. (The PC is heir to the throne of Ustalav... and is aware that there are plenty more potential children out there. He's watching his back.)

Princess Misoyvel: Another long story. An exiled princess from the elven land of Sovyrian, who turned to lichdom to prepare for her revenge and conquest. One of the PCs (an elf witch with an amnesiac background) is a failed clone of hers, who awakened and was taken in by villagers.

Council of Thieves:

Avazhi Serafiele: Westcrown's new Archbanker of Abadar, this curt and haughty elf gave the PCs a place where they could keep their money safe from thieves, as well as providing handy loans. However, in secret, she was a priestess of Mammon, and the city's ailing Bank was the perfect place to start usuring the unsuspecting Wiscrani and collecting souls and influence for her master.

Endymion: One of the PCs went seeking out the cult of Belial, and found a secretive satyr who claimed to have that archdevil's ear. However, this was deception. A former human who made a pact with hags to become the epitome of manliness, the perverse satyr was actually a servant of Socothbenoth, and his all-male cult of bullies and thugs were secretly preparing to take action "when the time was right". I modeled him off of Xenagos, the satyr Planeswalker from a recent M:tG storyline.

I didn't actually create Ilnerik, so I'll save him for a different thread. :)

Wrath of the Righteous:

If I had a complaint about WotR (besides Mythic and all that), it'd be that there are so many NPCs baked in, it's hard for me to find room for all of my own ideas. I don't have a lot of NPCs for this, since I'm only posting the ones that I consider especially "inspired".

Maranse Delaskru: Seriously, spoilers.

My PCs fell for his ruse hook, line, and sinker. Check out my campaign journal for the full story.

His resurrected form is pretty cool, I think - a devout Caydenite with a special "family brew" (read: mutagen). Fighter 5 (Ustalavic duelist/mutation warrior)/Sentinel 4. If it were PFS-legal, I'd do it there.

Helkrix du'Courcel AKA Helacroix de Ashemour: Sometimes, a random tiefling looter stabs your (alleged) dwarf friend in the throat, then runs away. Then, you marry her.

... I skipped a bit, didn't I?

Anyway, she's beginning to realize that she's older than she thought. A wand of modify memory helped her recall more. Specifically, that she was the daughter of noble Galtan crusaders killed at Drezen. With her wife's help, she intends to seek out her parents' remains and pay her last respects.

The Iron Crusade: Not everyone wants the Worldwound closed. The Iron Crusade sees the century-spanning conflict as a glorious monument to their Lord in Iron, and their antipaladin master will do anything to ensure that the northern edge of Avistan remains locked in eternal demonic conflict. I'm still fleshing these guys out, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Serpent's Skull:

I haven't added a ton here, as the PCs have just started Book 2. I did make Sasha Nevah a swashbuckler, though, which I think works really well for her. She's not sure how she feels about the wereshark bite, though...

Tabaszi: They did need a cleric - the hunter is not a healer, and their Will saves were... poor. Enter Tabaszi, converted Mwangi priestess of Shelyn and martial artist. Flurrying with a glaive and using Wisdom to hit is no small feat (or series thereof), and Clarifying Channel is a godsend. After the fighter's death (and reincarnation as an ancient Azlanti heroine), she's also serving as a supportive presence.

I've also created some rival adventuring groups for other factions, including a close-knit batch of Zyphus cultists for the Aspis Consortium. I don't know if the others are all that interesting, though - they serve mostly to reinforce faction themes.

Anyway, I hope people found this interesting, or even helpful. Sorry about the length.


Had a campaign where the entire party ran when they heard "Ho, ho, ho!"

The NPC was ntroduced at low level knocking a knight off of his horse, lifting the horse up and breaking its back over his knee. Viewed as force of nature. Nasty. Somewhat crazy. Struck in laces like a tornado.

They were truly satisfied when in the end - many levels later - they took him down.


Awesome :).


Half red dragon troll and a half black dragon troll. Each had a ring of resistance of the element they're not immune to.

I used "a wizard did it" to justify their existence. They were lieutenant underbosses for an archmage BBEG, and when I say the party had no idea what was going on, belive it (because I'm not telling them what they're fighting, they rolled diddly squat on their knowledge rolls, and "a nine foot tall scaly bipedal with claws as big as your head and a wingspan of about fourteen feet" didn't conjure any ideas in the party's head.)

For $#!+s and giggles, I gave them each a level of barbarian and some minor magical equipment...+1 stuff, nothing special.

Merc'd the living crap out of the party so hard it ground the campaign to a screeching halt with a nasty TPK. I don't remember the party level, but with all the adjustments they were only together like CR level+2.

One or two will save spells would've probably ended it all, oddly enough. Oh well.


I've introduced four kobold adventurers to my Legacy of Fire campaign. I plan on having them play at least -some- role ... depending on player actions and reactions, of course.

They're made up BonkBonk, their shaman, and his wife, Szor the Almighty, a sorceress. As well as Znap and Whicket, two ranged rogues. So far they've managed to weird out the party by all, simultaneously smiling their widest, most toothy smiles at them with really odd timing, plus they, true to their race, acted in a downright opportunistic way during a fighting encounter. Not to mention having a marital row between BonkBonk and Szor that included gnoll-sized beer-mugs (needless to say, a kobold drinking that much alcohol is going to be unspeakably poo-faced).

None of them speak common and none of the players speak draconic. So far, facial expressions have to make up the conversation. Which leads to a lot of smiling kobolds.

For some reason my players are unnerved by that. Can you imagine why?

I'm quite looking forward to these creatures getting involved on the fringes of the storyline.

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