Im trying to create a DMPC who used to be a 10th level fighter in his youth but hasn’t adventured in decades. I want to weaken him in a semi-realistic way, while keeping his skills.
I was thinking of lowering his base str, dex, and con scores by 2 and increasing int, wis and, cha scores by 1 or 2. On top of this, I thought on successful attack or physical ability checks id roll a d20 dc 10 check and on a fail he would gain a point of exhaustion. Possibly increasing that dc on fails. On failed attacks or physical ability checks he’d take 1d4 damage
Obviously this is going to be weird to balance but I have a sneaking suspicion my players are going to ask this former adventurer to come on one last adventure. Relive his glory days so to speak.
They are level 5, im willing to drop his level but I want him to have been a higher level adventurer when he was in his prime. I went with the battlemaster sub class and focused all my maneuvers on assisting. Specifically:
1 Commanders strike 2 Maneuvering attack 3 rally 4 tactical assessment 5 commanding presence 6 bait and switch 7 distracting strike
Any thoughts, suggestions, criticism, or anecdotes are welcome and appreciated.
Thank you for your time
People who had skills like that retain them pretty well. Doing the shift of attributes from physical to mental makes sense and would have the kind of effect you are going for. Plus you could drop his HP to something like what he would get if he rolled a 2 every level (20+attribute+feats at level 10) so he wouldn’t be significantly more durable.
Keep in mind that physically active people tend to stay physically active so unless you give him an injury, became sedentary for some reason, or is really getting on in years he would be expected to be as capable as he was when he stopped adventuring in the DnD setting.
That said, it would probabky be better to have him the same level or lower as he ‘rediscovers’ his fighting prowess, possibly leveling up quickly compared to the players so he doesn’t overshadow them right away. Even support actions can feel like they are overshadowing character abilities.
Or you could just use the Veteran NPC statblock and give them a few of the abilities from your list instead of using character creation rules.
This is a great idea, I had thought about him having lower health but didn’t think of how to do that mechanically.
I had the idea that after getting married, he definitely became more sedentary. Thematically, I planned on him burying his sword and armor in the back yard and eventually starting a garden to ‘stay close to his roots’ pun intended. Mildly active, but definitely not fighting shape.
Someone else suggested something similar and might be the right way to approach it. I definitely will look into this.
Thanks for your input