If you’re like me, you have way more character ideas than opportunities to play them, especially since I’m the forever DM. I’ve now begun to take some of my favorites and turn them into monster stat blocks.
There are a couple reasons this is good – firstly, these characters you made can be used more reasonably in your campaigns. That angry monk (Barbarian/Monk multiclass) starts to be a cool NPC your players can meet or a new type of monster for them to kill. Secondly, you can make the stat block how you want, without any of the jank that comes with being a PC. For example, a cowboy rogue build with a whip would require a few feats to really start to be useful (whip proficiency being the main one), but as a monster, you don’t need those feats – just bake it into the stat block. Thirdly, it buffs up your skills when making monsters. You start to understand what goes into making one and what features make sense for a monster to have vs a PC to have. Fourthly, you likely already have an idea of your character’s personality and goals, so it’ll be a little easier to roleplay them at the table.
This is also a fun way to recontextualize your character concepts – what happens when your zealot barbarian no longer fights for righteousness? Or the cowboy rogue isn’t the outlaw, but rather the sheriff?
Regardless, this has been a fun way for me to play my character concepts as antagonists to the players while keeping the fights varied and with (hopefully) memorable antagonists.
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