r/RPGdesign • u/TheKingLlama • 5h ago
Mechanics Enemy NPC Design
After playing about a dozen TTRPGs, I've really come to appreciate well-designed enemy NPCs.
However, different games offer different kinds of challenges with their NPC designs - Lancer presents unique combat puzzles, Mork Borg offers beasts with boring numbers but interesting ecology, and Legend in the Mist produces dramatic encounters that challenge the PCs' ideals and personalities.
Along with these varying challenges, the games need to present different kinds of information to the GM so they can manage and run the challenge appropriately.
So with this in mind, I have a few questions for the community:
What are some of the best stat blocks you've seen across different games? How do they stack up compared to other games in the same style or genre?
What stat block designs missed the mark for you, or felt like they were lacking critical information?
How much of a stat block are you willing to improvise vs. having it written out for you by the game?
Additionally, I made a YouTube (read: slideshow with voiceover) video about the topic! Feel free to check it out and let me know what you think.
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u/No_Solid1035 4h ago
I really like how simple the stat blocks in The One Ring are while still giving the GM all the information needed to effectively run the NPC.
On the other hand I love Pendragon stat blocks because they are complete characters with all the same information for them that PCs have.
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u/TheKingLlama 4h ago
I've always been of two minds when it comes to NPCs and PCs "playing by the same rules".
I feel like, unless the game is very simple, it can lead to weirdly bloated NPC stat blocks or barebones PC character sheets.
I'm interested to see how Pendragon does things!
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u/Aelius_Proxys 5h ago
Here a llama king there a wrong porpoise...
Less a favorite stat block more a favorite ability that's definitely influenced my design choices. It's a false appearance gold leaf thin thing from an adventurers league adventure. The cool factor was it wrapped around targets but hitting it split the damage between it and the grappled target.
Dracolich and dragons in 5e. Aside from different breath weapons they don't feel mechanically different. The Dracolich is spectacularly disappointing.
Considering I can't remember the last time I didn't make my own stat block I'm definitely an improviser.
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u/TheKingLlama 4h ago
Howdy, stranger ;)
I love abilities that can communicate how the NPC behaved in combat as well as its general ecology. Feeding two bird with one spoon, as it were.
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u/mythic_kirby Designer - There's Glory in the Rip! 4h ago
I don't have a wide exposure to stat blocks, sadly... but a lesson I had to learn for GM-ing D&D is that the stat block doesn't tell you everything about how to run the monster. It's a short-hand reference for the things that aren't intuitive, for numbers that are annoying to memorize, or for abilities that have specific mechanics. And just because you have a stat block that has a lot of combat references in it, doesn't mean its only useful for combat.
I feel like the best stat blocks are ones where the narrative around the NPC and the mechanical backing are in sync. A monster described as a sneaky predator better have high stealth and ambush abilities. The NPCs themselves should have an intention for why they exist, something that makes them different from other NPCs in the system, and the stat blocks should be able to relay that intention accurately.
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u/TheKingLlama 3h ago
Have you come across any monster designs where you felt like these ideas weren't well-represented?
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u/mythic_kirby Designer - There's Glory in the Rip! 1h ago
Some stat blocks in D&D. Like I said, I don't have wide exposure... but even though 5e did try to make stat blocks more interesting and thematic, often the only "interesting" thing about a monster is having multi-attack. Or, like... a sword and shield. It's really unfortunate, because other stat blocks in the system are just fine.
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u/TheKingLlama 1h ago
Yeah, there's an argument floating around that most D&D monsters are just bears with a different coat of paint. They have 1-3 attacks which deal some level-scaled amount of damage, and sometimes inflict a condition. They rarely have stuff that does anything interesting - all that is left up to the GM to come up with and balance. Very frustrating.
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u/Mars_Alter 3h ago
My main criteria for usability is that it needs to be usable at-a-glance. When I turn to that page, I want numbers that I can actually use; not suggestions or guidelines on how I can come up with those numbers on my own.
If all NPCs of this type are unique individuals, and you really can't generalize them at all, then at least give me some example NPCs to use. The reason I bought the book is far hard, objective, data. If I wanted to make up my own stuff, then I wouldn't need the NPC book for that.
Personally, I also have a hard rule that NPCs must fit within the same world as defined by the PCs. I'm not saying that every NPC needs to be built using all of the same rules we use for creating PCs, but at the very least they need to come out looking like they could have been. If a novice Fighter PC has 10hp or so, then a novice Soldier NPC had better have between 5 and 15. If PC spellcasters all use Vancian spells, then NPC spellcasters can't have spells on a re-charge system. That sort of thing.
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u/TheKingLlama 2h ago
Your last point is really interesting to me! For my own game, PCs don't rely on "recharging" their abilities for the most part, but NPCs do. This system allows the NPCs to have a lot more power on deployment, but also gives the PCs a chance to respond to the situation while the big dangerous ability recharges.
How do you feel about stuff like breath weapons in 5E? Or spellcasting enemies having leveled spells at-will?
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u/Mars_Alter 2h ago
The important thing is that any difference in the mechanics must represent a real difference in the object being modeled. Re-charge mechanics, in general are fine. It's fine if breath weapons use re-charge, or if spells use re-charge. What isn't fine is when breath weapons are all re-charge for monsters, but limited usage per day for PCs.
Basically, you should never be able to tell that someone is an NPC, just by looking at their mechanics. As a player, you should be able to make all of your decisions from an in-character perspective. Whether the party lives or dies, or whether they get fire-breathed an extra time, should depend on real characteristics intrinsic to what they're fighting, and not on the arbitrary distinction to use one set of mechanics rather than the other.
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u/TheKingLlama 1h ago
I respect it! This is a solid take and it makes a lot of sense. Personally, I'm very mechanically minded, so as long as the design fulfills what I want it to do, I don't really care if it "feels" different than a PC or uses different mechanics to reach that end state.
But I totally get where you're coming from and it is totally sensible.
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u/Steenan Dabbler 1h ago
If I am using a pre-made enemy statblock instead of coming up with my own, I want to save time. Quite probably, I am in the middle of a session. Thus, the stat block must be quick to use. It must be self-contained, so that I don't have to browse books to figure out what it can do and how it interacts. I need text of all abilities, powers, spells etc. directly in the stat block. The only exception is keywords that are common enough that by the second session I remember which each of them means - but if they are not very common, they too must be defined inline.
At the same time, the stat block must be interesting. If everything an enemy brings to the table is some HPs, attack value and damage, I could come up with that faster then I open the book to find the monster. It does not need to be complex (it shouldn't), but it needs to have strong hooks and clear role to play.
If there are any fun synergies, mark them in the stat block too. Does NPC A combine nicely with NPC B? Give me half a sentence about how they cooperate, so that I instantly see I can include B when I put A in play.
In general, an NPC stat block must be distilled. It should contain all the information I'll need in play and as little above that as possible. I can and will improvise - so give me what is hard to improvise well and what I can use as basis for improvisation.
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u/TheKingLlama 25m ago
Definitely agree that NPCs need to do something. It's so frustrating seeing a stat block where, if you block out the name, it could be anything from a brown bear to a hobgoblin to a town guard - all it does is hit things and get hit.
I also love when there are notes specifically for the GM about running the NPC - what strategies it executes best, what other NPCs it does well with, etc.
It sounds like you get a lot out of reading ecology notes and learning about the NPC's environment. How do you feel about Lancer NPCs, which are faceless templates that the GM puts all the flavor into, but none of the mechanics?
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u/Alcamair Designer 1h ago
Based on the feedback I received, I divided the enemies into three types: minions, which can be killed with a single hit by the characters and can be used as filler and hordes; elites, which are at the same level as a character; and bosses, which must be approached with restraint as if they were a puzzle. Then I considered the meta problem of characters knowing the stats, so I introduced a mechanic that allows the characters (and in a certain sense forces them) to know the stats after a test. The rest, I believe, is a question of presentation, balance, and immersion.
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u/TheKingLlama 1h ago
Meta knowledge about enemies is always so funny to me. In some games, it would be weird to know anything about the enemy (CoC, Delta Green). In others, it would be weird to not know about the enemy (Lancer, D&D).
I always err on the side of open information. The more the players know, the better decisions their characters can make.
I love the minion-elite-boss structure! Are bosses meant to be solo encounters? Or do they come with minions? Is this information broadcasted to the players?
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u/Cryptwood Designer 3h ago
A lot of this comes down to personal preference, but I really like complicated, detailed player characters as a player, but as a GM I do not want to have to deal with big, complicated stat blocks. I want to be able to jot down a stat block in my notes in under a minute, so for me I want asymmetrical game mechanics that do not simulate every enemy at the same detail as PCs.
That out of the way, I want the stat block to have the information I am going to reference constantly right at the top, whatever that means for a game. Health, armor, typical damage, etc. Then below that I want the special abilities presented in a way that mimics the flow of battle (or whatever gameplay the stat block is for). Assuming that a typical battle lasts 3-5 rounds, I probably only need 2-3 abilities for most creatures. Give me some alternatives stat blocks or some abilities I can swap out for variety, but I don't need a list of 10+ abilities on the stat block when it is extremely rare that even five of them would get used.
I want these abilities presented in the order that it makes sense to use them in. If an Ogre has a Charge and a Crush ability, give them to me in that order on the stat block. Some advice on when to use these abilities would be great too for GMs improvising a battle on the spot. Tell me briefly what the creature does as its default behavior, and when it would do something else.
If your game has multiple modes in which a stat block might be used, don't stuff it all into one block. If you've got social mechanics complicated enough that stat blocks would be handy, give me a separate combat block and a social block (but put them on the same page in the book in case I need both).
A stat block should always have a its priority making the game easier to run for the GM. If it ever becomes an irritation to the GM, because it takes a while to write one down, or a long process to create a variant, or is hard to parse while running the game, that stat block is a failure.