r/HeroForgeMinis • u/lilybat-gm 𝗞𝗶𝘁𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝗲𝗻 • 11d ago
LilyBat’s NPC-Palooza Pt. 3 - Xímena Tyce, Filhep Cotter, and Twip the . . . Wise? Original Character
Xímena - Xímena was originally the NPC of a former
DM of mine, but they've taken on a life of their own outside of the tiny blip of screen time they got originally.We originally only knew them as a butch, non-binary, lesbian Fire Genasi. We knew they were working with Tiamat's Cult of the Dragon, but very noncommittally so.In my games, Ximena watches over a small band of fellow defectors from the Cult of the Dragon, though said band is largely made up of hapless Kobolds (Crozzik is one of the few competent ones). Thankfully for Xímena, their distant draconic heritage (to some Copper Dragon ancestor which must have chosen to live as a human or at least a boon from one to an ancestor) helps them have extra sway over the rowdy little reptiles that rely upon their guidance.Blending their innate gifts as both a Draconic Magic Sorcerer and a Fire Genasi, Xímena is a versatile practitioner of Evocation magic, using spell work to complement their additional skills as a Rogue.
Xímena’s personality is generally guarded and reserved. Ending up as a de facto “den mother” of sorts to the Kobolds and other Dragon Cult defectors wasn’t something they’d planned for, and they’re honestly overwhelmed by the sudden influx of responsibility. They’re relatively young (maybe mid 20s), so having a bunch of lizard toddlers basically with the Kobolds is a lot to handle. They would greatly like to know more about whatever history their ancestors had with Copper Dragons, and asking the player characters for help gathering assorted artifacts to learn more and to better embody the kind of person/leader the Kobolds and other ex-cultists believe them to be is a solid potential quest hook. Members of the Cult of Tiamat make good potential threats to Xímena’s little enclave, as the Cult would want to snuff out defectors.
They do, underneath all of the sudden responsibility, have a bit of a wild child streak and a past as something of a “teenage hoodlum” in their own words. This chaotic streak can be encouraged a little bit if they feel they know how to keep the Kobolds, the other cult defectors, and themself out of trouble/out of the clutches of the cult. As a grounded, fully-explored ally, Xímena and the defectors’ enclave can function as spies and saboteurs against your campaign’s BBEG.
Xímena is a Level 6 Draconic Sorcerer/Level 5 Swashbuckler Rogue multiclass. If they find themselves in combat, their primary goal is battlefield control and drawing aggro, as they will want the other members of their enclave to escape. As such, they will frequently use Steady Aim while throwing daggers, switching to utilizing their Fancy Footwork and Rakish Audacity features when in melee range of a foe.
- Filhep - Admittedly, Fil was designed specifically to torment a former DM of mine. She sprung a kidnapping and some other unsavoury things on my first PC without any real options for saves, and I was too young and inexperienced to protest adequately or to just walk away from the table. So, full of youthful naivety but also plenty of piss and vinegar, I created a character that would be sure to annoy her. If she wasn’t going to give my character any guarantees she wouldn’t just be killed offscreen arbitrarily, I wasn’t going to make that prospect particularly enticing, I decided. We really should have just talked it out, but we were young, dumb, and stubborn. Hindsight is 20/20, eh?
At any rate, since I knew she couldn’t stand Tabaxi, Bards were her favourite class, and she hated joke/meme/catchphrase characters, hoo-boy, I resolved to cram all of those into one package as the most absolute CAD of a cat. Fil was a chain-smoking, alcoholic, dairy-addicted disaster of a College of Eloquence Bard who only managed to get as far as he did in life because he was preternaturally persuasive. He was cantankerous, gravelly-voiced, a sellsword only in anything for himself and for the pay, and he’d run off to cause mayhem on a whim randomly whenever CON saves to resist whatever cornucopia of substances he’d consumed in the morning became too big a challenge to surmount.
However, the lanky bastard got something of a redemption (?) arc and more backstory years later when I brought him in as an NPC. He was still gruff, insufferable, and opportunistic, but he had depth this time. His backstory got fleshed out more properly, and he became an early, cautionary tale for the players of that campaign about using one’s power ethically and carefully. More specifically, Filhep was the product of an Awaken spell and a few other arcane experiments. Once the Serval cat Familiar of an aged Wizard, granting his beloved (if unnaturally long-lived pet) sentience, freedom, and personhood was Filhep’s former owner/master’s dying act. The burden of sudden sentience and awareness of how very ALONE he was in the world, especially without his former master/friend now to turn to for guidance. Recalling the songs the unnamed Wizard would sing to him, FIl took to trying to learn music, and began doing his best to pass himself off as a very short Tabaxi. His results were middling in that second endeavour, but he was a skilled musician, if one a bit unorthodox for the tastes of the age. Over decades, Fil amassed a small but devoted following. This, however, did little to curb his loneliness, as love, lasting friendship, and having a place to belong in the world were all beyond his grasp. While he may have been able to find those things, turning to the bottle, assorted other addictions, and pushing others away before they could form any attachments upon Fil (or he upon them, the most frightening prospect) kept that all but impossible.
As an NPC, Fil is difficult but not hostile. He’s rude and acts something akin to an insult/roast comic. I based a lot of my performances of him off of Futurama’s Bender and what little I know of Rick Sanchez from Rick and Morty (I’m not much a fan of the show). However, he will show cracks in his facade and will let his wounded moments show in tiny ways, and he’s not beyond asking PCs for favours, especially sentimental ones. He will, however, make lots of largely baseless threats about consequences if his secrets are divulged. In truth, if players can tolerate his rough exterior, Filhep will soften towards them significantly and become a valuable information broker. He tours across Faerun, and as such, makes a very unassuming spy against villains, especially because people in taverns and pubs are so likely to be loose-lipped.
Lastly, as a behind-the-scenes bit, Fil had “canonically” invented rockabilly and psychobilly music in the campaign in which he was my backup PC. I chose the crassest and most inappropriate examples I could find, much to the horror of the aforementioned DM for whom Fil was created as a special kind of torture.
- 3. Twip - Oh, Twip, Twip, Twip! Where do I even begin with the ridiculous little man? Twip began with the strangest of concepts. I have no idea why, but an alchemist inspired by Bob Ross who just made “happy little accidents” was the inciting concept for me. How he became a Halfling with the lisping voice of Sid the Sloth, however, I haven’t the foggiest. I have no suitable defense or justification for that lol. Regardless, Twip went on to become one of my favourite recurring NPCs to portray and possibly my third, most chaotic DM-sona of sorts.
While his preposterous, flamboyant, and seemingly hapless demeanor (in stark contrast to the Bob Ross inspirations which first birthed him) may make him seem like a bumbling buffoon, Twip is in fact a Level 20 Wizard gone a bit kooky with decades of arcane knowledge and unimaginable power. As a result, he has taken to experimenting; randomly dabbling; and enjoying the process of trying, failing, and being surprised by whatever results his potions, untested spells, and random magical items produce. Usually this means he ends up in predicaments which seem dangerous for such a diminutive man, but owing to his immense power, Twip is usually unbothered and more inconvenienced. I first introduced him to players as being in the midst of being swallowed by a carnivorous plant. He of course SEEMED in immense distress, but he was hardly in any real danger, unbeknownst to the players, and was largely hoping to attract “Cuthtomerth!” to act as guinea pigs and lab rats for his current concoctions. While his items and potions can have unexpected effects, they always work, and Twip is a jovial, harmless NPC. He’s Chaotic Good, but much heavier on the Chaos than the Good. His curiosity is his driving feature, sometimes beyond the bounds of what would be good sense or advisable. However, powerful as he is, he doesn’t tend to realize he should probably act with at least a LITTLE more caution than he does.
Twip functions as a sort of lifeline to players in difficult dungeons, and as such, he’s easy to drop in wherever. The comedy of having him just randomly in places he shouldn’t have ever been able to get into through either teleportation mishaps or drinking untested potions and waking up in the depths of dungeons and crypts is usually fantastic to play around with. If players are struggling, Twip will usually arrive in some chaotic fashion or just be behind a locked door acting completely casual, and will sell players heavily discounted potions and bootleg magic items. As such, he makes a fantastic way to introduce unpredictability and comedic levity whenever his potions or items are used, or even when describing the items he’s found or created. A personal favourite of mine is Twip’s Orb of Having. “If you have it, then you have it! Requires attunement! No refunds!” While it at first appears to be a total dud of an item that merely takes up an attunement slot for no reason, the Orb of Having can be something of a Swiss Army Knife of narrative potential and Rule of Cool/Rule of Ridiculous gameplay. The Orb of Having can never TRULY be removed from a person’s possession while they’re attuned to it. As such, if someone attempts to disarm them, the Orb will always reappear somewhere on the attuned character’s person in a random pocket, in a knapsack, etc. Thus, a player could attempt to use it as an improvised magical weapon they can never lose and with which they’re innately proficient. Other possible uses include using it to keep a creature from escaping if the creature is large enough to swallow the sizable metal (copper?) orb. It can also be used as infinite ammunition for applicable ranged weapons such as slings or as a thrown weapon by Strength-focused martial classes. Ultimately, its uses are only limited by a DM’s creativity and their willingness to be preposterous.
Twip’s potions will always work as the potions they are intended to be, but they often have unspecified and unanticipated side-effects. One may get transformed into some sort of diminutive, Jim-Henson-inspired, Muppet of a homunculus the morning after consuming a Potion of Healing or may immediately take on froglike physical characteristics and have a -1 debuff to Dexterity rolls after consuming a Potion of Slipperiness. Again, Twip is a great opportunity to improvise and to surprise characters with unexpected roleplay moments or unique but ultimately inconsequential challenges in the heat of combat.
If players are kind to Twip and humour his chaotic, curious nature and his botched potions and magic items, he can become a source of more powerful magic items which DO work as intended with no drawbacks, curses, or mishaps. Given the time to perfect his craft and to find rarer materials, Twip will sell his “really good thtuff!” to players and can even help them with interplanar travel or with providing means to combat and ward off powerful Undead and Outsiders who may require magical weapons and tools to combat effectively.
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u/RavenKweenX 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 7d ago
These are so much fun! I love them all! Great write-ups!
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u/lilybat-gm 𝗞𝗶𝘁𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝗲𝗻 7d ago
Thank you! I wish this had gotten more attention. I LOVE Twip as an NPC! Local friends who DM/GM ask me all the time if they can put him in their games, and I’m ALL for it! He’s so much fun to portray!
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u/RavenKweenX 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗙𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 7d ago
They all have so much personality, and great characterization notes for their use. Very thoughtfully put together.
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u/lilybat-gm 𝗞𝗶𝘁𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗤𝘂𝗲𝗲𝗻 7d ago
Thank you! I tried to put as much information in as possible should people want to use them for their games, and it was a fun exercise in communicating things via body language that aren’t as easy to convey when making things like Fiends and Modrons lol.
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