Adding/Tracking NPCs to/in the party

[ddaley]

I tried searching for this in the forum without much luck, but maybe this has already been answered somewhere.

I am DMing Out of the Abyss right now. If you are familiar with that campaign at all, you know that there is the potential of a large number of NPCs joining the party. What I am trying to figure out, is what is the best way to track these NPCs? Can they be added from the NPC list to the party? I will need to be able to track inventory, HP, conditions, etc. But, given the number of NPCs, I don't want to have to create characters for them... especially since they already exist as NPCs.

How do others handle this?

[Blahness98]

I just toss them in the combat tracker and use them from there. From there, you can access the sheets as needed and have the tokens availible. And if they aren't needed in a specific scenario or encounter, just hide them and have FG skip past them.

[damned]

Create NPCs and drag them to the CT and to the portrait of the player who will manage them.

[ddaley]

Create NPCs and drag them to the CT and to the portrait of the player who will manage them.

CT (I am still a bit of a Fantasy Grounds noob)? They are provided as NPCs by the module... is that sufficient? I'll try dragging them to the PCs in our next session... hopefully tonight. Thanks.

[Blahness98]

CT (I am still a bit of a Fantasy Grounds noob)? They are provided as NPCs by the module... is that sufficient? I'll try dragging them to the PCs in our next session... hopefully tonight. Thanks.

CT is the combat tracker. You just drag the NPCs you want to use into there. If you then wanted a player to run that NPC, you can drag the box from the tracker to the portait of the player that is going to run said NPC. The NPC record holds everything that you need to run the NPC. It will have the attacks, skill ranks, feats, ect. all ready for you.

[ddaley]

Ah, got it. Thanks. I had dragged them into the CT then... I just didn't realize that I could then drag them onto a PC. That will be helpful.


CT is the combat tracker. You just drag the NPCs you want to use into there. If you then wanted a player to run that NPC, you can drag the box from the tracker to the portait of the player that is going to run said NPC. The NPC record holds everything that you need to run the NPC. It will have the attacks, skill ranks, feats, ect. all ready for you.

[Zacchaeus]

As has been said above just use them as is. I wouldn't swear the details of their inventories etc too much. The CT can track HP and conditions and that's all you really need. And also you and/or your players will get pretty fed up with them fairly early on and you can just dump them or kill them off :)