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NPCs are excellent tools inDungeons & Dragons, providing plot hooks, emotional grounding, and a richer world for the Dungeon Master and player to play in. But the community’s love for NPCs goes beyond that. There’s something comforting about the presence of NPCs. They’re practically a guaranteed factor in every game, making the players feel less alone in their adventures.
They act as a supporting role in the player characters' stories, whether it be as a friend or foe, and are often the agents of some of the most memorable moments in a campaign. That’s why they should die. Today.
Should I Kill An NPC?
The short answer is yes. The longer answer is yes,within reason.Before you kill a character, ask yourself a couple of questions. First,ask what the death will serve.
Then, askif you are trying to motivate your partyorshow another character’s villainy.Can the campaign move on without this NPC? Is it a consequence? If you have a reason for eliminating this NPC, then do it, but always ask first, because cruelty for cruelty’s sake isn’t fun.
Do not kill NPCs as a revenge tactic against players. Even something as bleak as NPC murder works better if it’s done to improve a game rather than detract.
Killing NPCs Is Good For Plot
Not only does thewholesale murder of an NPC act as an agent for change in the campaign, but it doubles as amotivator. Aside from being a good way to turn the party against the Big Bad,consider all the mediayou’ve seen in which a character in a group has died, andfocus on the shift in the narrative afterward.
These deaths are the catalysts for change, both within the plot and the surrounding characters. Think Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring, and how his demiseled to the dramatic change in the group dynamic, their understanding of the evil they faced, andhow they approached their goal!
Some Dungeon Masters leave NPC death directly up to the dice. Sometimes, this is the best way to handle it. You know your table best.
A character’s death can promptsmall arcsin the players, which is fun for the Dungeon Master to work with, especially if said NPC was particularly impactful on a players' development.
It Destabilizes Your Party
For some DMs, destabilizing your party is the ideal, especially for those who have parties that often get in over their heads.
One incredibly effective way to remind your party that an encounter is not for the faint of heart is to kill the farmboy they dragged along with them. Or, for evenmoreof a blow,get rid of the seasoned veteran NPC.
Removing a character that the party expects to help them in an encounter creates an unstable dynamic and forces them to think on the fly, possibly resulting in a more creative plan than they originally conceived.It can also make them turn around and run.
Sometimes The NPC Just Has To Go
Almost every DM has pulled out their hair when their players got too attached to the goblin they met in a bar, butsome DMs make the mistake of providing too powerful of an ally.
If your players are getting out of encounters too easily, and you don’t like it, you can have the NPC attend to other things or… well… get rid of them permanently.
Another point is that you can always havepredetermined this character to die, like in the case of the Emperor fromThe Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. Sometimes there can’t be a story unless you remove that NPC from the picture,such as in the case of a succession crisis or a murder mystery.
Don’t make it seem as if your players can save the NPC if they can’t.Don’t give them the illusion of choice if there is none, or you can lead to issues withrailroading.
Killing an NPC is NOT railroading in and of itself, but having your players secure an NPC beyond all reasonable doubt and then murdering them with a meteor shower WOULD be.
What To Consider
The actual mechanics behind killing the NPC can sometimes get lost in the many, many rules of the game, especially if the death happened and there was nothing anyone could do.Firstly, you can just say ‘no,’ but you should probably have a reason for that ‘no’ for player sanity.
As the Dungeon Master, remember that sometimes there are instances in whichhealing spells won’t work, such asdecapitation, organ removal,orif the NPC gets pasted.
At most tables,Healing WordandCure WoundsCANNOT regrow organs. Again, this istable-dependent, but it would be a fair call if you were to say the1d4 points of healing won’t reconnect the torso to the pelvis.
you’re able to’t stop them from casting healing spells, but you can save them from wasting the spell slot.
Another thing to think about is thatNPCs don’t function with the same rules as player characters.They can’t roll death saves, for example, the way monsters don’t. Keeping this in the back of your mind makes your unsavory job easier, especially in accidental cases.
If youwantyour NPC to roll death saves, you could implement asingle death-save roll, especially for more beloved NPCs.
You may want to think aboutproviding an avenue to save the character in a later quest,especially if your party expresses an interest in resurrecting them!
Methods Of Disposal
So, you’re killing the NPC.Now it’s time to decide good ways to do it.
Send Them On Their Own
Separate them from the party and put them on an independent path. If you don’t want them to simply say goodbye and part ways to their untimely demise,you can easily break them up from the group by introducing a monster or a natural disaster.
The disaster may be a bit more on the nose, but themonster allows the NPC to run away.The problem with that is that the party may follow, so make sure that whatever you do, the NPC has a chance of being alone.
Once they’re alone, you can more or less decide their fatewithout worrying about negating player decisions.Another method may be to have them lead an ill-fated expedition (if they’re the adventuring type), for their body to be discovered later in another quest.
Have Them Take The Fall
While you can just toss them off a cliff, of course, the far more interesting option is tolet their death be a result of a decision made by the player.Maybe in sparing the bandit leader, a raid the bandit leader executes kills their beloved NPC.
For Dungeon Masters interested in the concept ofthe Butterfly Effect(a small action can lead to significant consequences) this may be a favored tactic.
If your party is politicking frequently, this is also a good way to get in an execution. It doesn’t do to orchestrate TPKs, because the story ends. Instead, it may pull on your player’s heartstrings to have an NPC be killed in their place, willingly or unwillingly.
Make It Into A Choice
Your party is down to the wire. The villain is holding the Fighter’s wife captive, but the Wizard’s son is hanging from a precipice by his fingers. You level a look at the party and ask, quietly,“Who do you save?”
This isn’t an option for every table, but for the players who have enough communication to make it work, this can be one of the best sessions in a campaign. Not only do you get to kill an NPC (yay!) you also get tosow discord between your party members(bigger yay!) to create dramatic situations.
Betrayal
Have the NPC turn against the party.Sell them out, steal their goods, or contact the villain. While this may make for a better BBEG origin, the fact remains that most parties will skip over taking a prisoner and jump straight to fighting.
Another upside is that even if the party decides to spare them,you’ll have set up something memorable.
Lycanthropyis also a good way to handle this, turning the NPC into a small boss.
Medical Issues
SURPRISE! Cardiac arrest.
In grittier campaigns,some Dungeon Mastersuse medical issues such as infections, disease,andloss of limb to plague their players.You may see this indark fantasy campaignsinspired by properties like The Witcher, and there are quite a few homebrew materials online to help with this.
Monster Attack
It’s old but tried and true. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better way to kill off an NPC thanvia the BBEG or monster.The issue with this one is that it will become evident you’re aiming for the NPC if you aren’t spreading the damage off.
You can navigate this somewhat better with the BBEG, but either way, it’s a great tie-in to your existing story. The point, after all,is to create an emotional impact.
Feel free todebrief after a sessionwhere you’ve killed a character. It can be cathartic for the players as well as the Dungeon Master to talk through some of the residual feelings. Regardless of the fictional nature of the game, you and your player’s feelings are very, very real, and character bleed can happen often.
