168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons' fifth edition introduced numerous new ways to play and new elements not seen in previous editions. One such element was the addition of Sidekicks, DM-controlled characters that could level up beside player characters and have their own style of progression.
While Sidekicks can be a fun addition to parties and offer the DM a cha💦nce to build🍬 their own character, Sidekicks can also be sources of resentment for players. If done poorly, they can take away focus from the players and the adventure as a whole. Here are some tips for avoiding the pitfalls and doing Sidekicks well.
8 ෴ Sidekicks Should Make Up For Player Shortcomings
Side💮kicks are purely optional and not necessarily a good fit for every campaign. However, they can be a useful addition if you have small parties of players or just have a bad synergy among the character classes. You should always encourage your players to play what they want to play, however wha🎉t they want to play may not always make for a well-balanced party.
This is where Sidekicks can really shine, as a way to make up for the weaknesses in party composition. If everyone wants to be a martial class, a healing Spellcaster Sidekick would be a welcome addition. Likewise, if there is a huge need for certain skills in an 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:upcoming mystery campaign, and none of your players have those skills, a new Expert Sidekick would be a great service to them. Creating a Sidekick that helps the party is the first step in having players accept them as a⛦ useful addition.
7 🅘 ♈ Let Your Players Play Them In Combat
While you can play Sidekicks in combat as a sort of DMPC, that is not advised. There will always b꧒e bias when you control both sides and your players will pick up on it. Allowing your players to control the actions of your Sidekick in combat ensures that this element of bias is limited and will greatly improve the standing of the𝔍 Sidekick in the minds of your players, especially if they shore up party weaknesses.
It also allowsღ🍰 the players to still be in the spotlight of the campaign, while offering effective but ultimately unremarkable help.
6 Level Up Your Sidekick Alongꦓside The Players
Always start your Sidekick at the average level of the party and be sure to level them up alongside. Yoಞu never want your Sidekick to fall too far behind lest your players feel they have become more of a hindrance than a help.
Sidekicks are, first an🦩d foremost, helpers aimed to make combat in particular more well-rounded and fun. Taking care to level and gear them appropriately is the first step in ensuring they stay rele🧔vant enough to do their job.
5 🉐 Plan Encounters W🔯ith Sidekicks In Mind
While Sidekicks are never as powerful as player characters, they are still a body in combat with their own sets of actions and reactions, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:requiring you to adjust encounters. Even a walking bꦰoard with no real combat skills adds a lot of health that you, as the DM, will need to chew through. Not planning around this will greatly dimi🐠nish the difficulty of your combat encounters.
A good rule of thumb is to just count them as another player charac♓ter and factor that into adjusting the combat strength of your creatures.
4 Involve Your Players In The Sidekick's Progression
While you should make your Sidekick as an original character that you think fits the campaign, that doesn't mean you should be the only one in charge of their stats and build progression. Ultimately, Sidekicks are meant to enhance the gameplay and story of the world you created.
Let your players know how you are building them as the game progresses and involve them in the further development of them as a combatant or helper. This doesn't even have to be done in metagame. The Sidekick could more organically ask how they could be better or could even change depending on how the players treat them. Either way, the Sidekick should evolve alongside the players and involving your players in that evolution makes for a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:more compelling character.
3 🍒 ꩵ Never Overshadow Your Players
Sidekicks should be useful, but they should never be more important 💯or more powerful than your players. This includes narrative importance. Making your Sidekick the heir to a lost power or the disguised king of a foreign land will not endear them to your players and will only cause resentment.
Whenever possible, make the Sidekick humble. Just a lowly peon looking for their way i🎐n the world. They should have their own characteristics outside of combat with their own wants and needs, but that does not mean it is their story. Sidekicks are meant to be auxiliary to the players and should serve more as helpers ratrher🦂 than full-fledged characters.
2 Only Involve Yourself As Much As Yoꦏur Players Want 𝓰
While🅷 it can be tempting to make Sidekicks with intricate backstories, this can lead players feeling like the focus is being pulled away from them. This is not often a problem in games with a few players, but can be an issue in larger games, where there is already a lot of focus being split.
When in doubt, let the players come to the Sidekick and let them feel out how interested they are in the character. If your players really do want to know more about the Sidekick, feel free to develop them more and give them a bit more agency. If they don't, then be sparing in their character as appropriate.
1 Don't Be Afraid To Retire Sidekicks
Again, sometimes a Sidekick isn't always necessary, and sometimes trying one doesn't always pan out. Do not be afraid to retire a Sidekick that your players do not need. They don't even need to die or be written out, they can simply be converted into a more traditional NPC that now has a deeper connection to the party.
Sometimes players leave or enter campaigns sud🧔denly and Sidekicks that were useful one day may not be needed the next. You can always add Sidekicks as necessary, but knowing when to get rid of them is🌄 often the hardest part.