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8 months ago ::
Sep 30, 2012 - 4:22PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Mar 23, 2008
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I have a group of players that would like me to play a character aswell so the charactergroup isn't to small.
Now I'm sure I'm not the first DM to ever do tis so I was wondering if there where any tips to what class to pick and perhaps the do's and don't for a DM player.
Right now I'm thinking towards a character that practicly only does things in his own turn so I can focus on DMing outside of the chars turn and preferably something straightforward with simple actions without a lot of choices so I can keep the speed in the game.
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8 months ago ::
Sep 30, 2012 - 4:36PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Aug 19, 2007
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The DMG 2 contains rules for Companion characters - simplified characters that are specifically meant to pad out parties that are short of bodies.
If you do put a full character into the party, you should probably let the other party members run it rather than you. If the party doesn't already have someone playing a Leader class, play one of those. A warlord whose only attacks are giving the other players free attacks is always a good choice.
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8 months ago ::
Sep 30, 2012 - 4:40PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Dec 13, 2010
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It depends what the group needs. I have played a "follower" before, an NPC from the local town that has tagged along on an adventure when the group was low on players.
I played him as a Fighter, as fighters typically just need to make up the numbers in combat. You should have your players take up the fun/useful classes and not use your character to make any major decissions. Don't play a Rouge who can open all the locked doors for the characters. You should be a background character. Focus on DMing.
You could also have players hire your character to help them and so it is their adventure and their calls because you are just the hired help doing what they tell you.
Just in case I failed to mention; I am playing D&D 3.5e.
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8 months ago ::
Sep 30, 2012 - 4:49PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Mar 22, 2011
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My group has consistently included a character like this for the past few campaigns, just for numbers in combat, and it's worked out okay, although we've got more players now and are hoping to get away from it again. The main issue we've run into is that it's really hard for the DM to play the character effectively because of having so many other things to keep track of. You don't want a class with a lot of complicated options.
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8 months ago ::
Sep 30, 2012 - 6:11PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Sep 17, 2012
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I've been setting up a campaign with a single player, and felt I needed to add a DM character in to make it a little easier to build encounters and to add skills to the party that the other player didn't have. In my case, since I didn't want to really keep track of a character, I asked the player if he would like an oppurtunity to have a pet that would accompany him. He liked the idea, so we roleplayed a shopping trip to the local market to pick out a pet. In combat the player controls his pet, and outside of combat I do. So far that's been working nicely. (The player picked a moneky, btw, and so I built a monkey NPC with a little help from these forums, that had a higher than normal intelligence and an affinity for theiving skills).
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8 months ago ::
Sep 30, 2012 - 6:15PM
#6
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A lazy lord spamming his striker would probably be the easiest way to go about things.
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8 months ago ::
Sep 30, 2012 - 11:39PM
#7
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The DMG 2 contains rules for Companion characters - simplified characters that are specifically meant to pad out parties that are short of bodies.
If you do put a full character into the party, you should probably let the other party members run it rather than you. If the party doesn't already have someone playing a Leader class, play one of those. A warlord whose only attacks are giving the other players free attacks is always a good choice.
Seconded
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8 months ago ::
Oct 01, 2012 - 2:09AM
#8
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Date Joined:
Mar 23, 2008
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hmm they do have a warlord already, but it's more of a charge build and not the typical lazylord build. I'll go look at the DMG2 and see if there are any good options there. Seeing I'll be counting it as an extra party member it can't be to simple (aka weak)  Thanks for the feedback so far 
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8 months ago ::
Oct 01, 2012 - 10:13AM
#9
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Date Joined:
Jun 15, 2004
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I was wondering if there where any tips to what class to pick and perhaps the do's and don't for a DM player.
The consensus (from many previous threads on the subject) is Don't.
That said: having an NPC (especially one with healing abilities) join the party is perfectly fine. Just not a DMPC.
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8 months ago ::
Oct 01, 2012 - 1:36PM
#10
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Never run a full PC as DM - use companion characters as recommended above. I tend to run the role-playing side of these and let a player run the combat/dice-rolling side. Never let the NPC outshine the PCs. Keep their abilities simple. As per evil DM's suggestion - an animal/pet can work well as the role-playing overhead is typically pretty low.
For roles, I would go leader>defender>striker in order of priority, based on what the party needs.
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