How do you make a good hermit NPC?
>>46276837
Well hermits come in all shapes and sizes. Hermits might be antisocial or insane. Or, hermits might actually like other people but be seeking solitude for spiritual reasons. A hermit might not even be a hermit out of choice, but have had it imposed or be doing it as some kind of self-sacrifice.
Hermits often resent the company of other people, especially unexpected company. Because of this hermits are often sullen and pissy when encountered, but there's no reason you couldn't do a polite, urbane hermit.
In the end I guess the answer to your question is "make a good NPC, and then make them a hermit".
>>46276837
If he was a good hermit the PCs would never meet him.
>>46276837
I've based a couple hermit characters off Thomas Covenant.
>>46277013
What if he's a professional garden hermit, hired to live on a noble's estate?
Hermit crab that made it's shell in a Great Helm of Wisdom.
I have to agree with >>46276987, one has a ton of leeway with hermits. I'd suggest figuring out what you intend for this character more fully and building from there
>>46277603
that would be a poet, which kinda sounds similar, but usually doesn't intersect with actual hermitry
make him a solipsist who lives with his cat (which is named Lord)
>>46278347
>>46283289
Ben Turkaman, drummer for Gloryhammer; an Heroic Fantasy Power Metal band.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTW30Q4B3Go
I don't get it.
>>46276837
Hermits cover the "Mysterious Stranger" archetype pretty well, but instead of being travelers who meet you on your journey or in town, you go to them because of their reputation, or you happen upon them by serendipity, providence, or bad luck. There are always rumors, and the players won't know for sure which ones are true.
Take my well-loved creation, Beppa the Healer.
>Yeah, I've heard of her. She lives off the path just as the trees become too dense for the sun to shine clear through. Whatever business you're involved with, if you're looking for her, I want nothing do do with you.
>Good Beppa, Kind Beppa, nobody would ever speak ill of Beppa the Healer. No one would ever dare... I've said too much!
>Now listen. You're not from here so I'll throw you a bone. Don't say anything that could offend... that person, even this far from the wood. (They say she can hear her name through the ears of any animal.) *Ah-hem* She provides healing salves for the sick and injured. Sometimes she will appear at auspicious births and bless the newborn in her way, usually marking it with some mud or powder. No mother would deny Beppa that. Those who've shunned her tend to encounter... misfortune.
>Ah Beppa! Blue Woad Beppa we called her in my day, haha! And she was old even when I was young. While out planting in the spring right after the thaw, I saw her once covered head-to-toe in the feathers of songbirds if you can believe it, dancing at the edge of my field. Best harvest I ever had that year. I asked her to do it again the following year and she refused. So, I brought her gift after gift until she finally agreed to dance if I gave her a tenth of the yield. She did, but there was nothing special about that year, and after thinking about all I'd given away I'm pretty sure I made a loss on those two years, all-in-all. Just goes to show ya, eh?
>>46285415
Oh ya. She also has lots of knickknacks hanging around and nobody;s sure if they do anything, but they seem to, sometimes, maybe if you BELIEVE, but also maybe not. : /
She wears a simple brown cloak with a hood, and she reaches out to people with her bony hands and widens her eyes when she has something important (and cryptic) to tell someone. She does not like when her company overstays their welcome, or when she's treated like a shop-keeper. If you anger Beppa, unfortunate things seem to happen to you or those around you. If you attack Beppa she's not a fighter, and doesn't sling spells, but damn if those nightmares of her ghost devouring you don't make you want to never sleep again.
>>46285415
Sounds like someone who has a pet goat.
*BAA-A-A-A-AA!!* to break the tense lingering silence after an ominous reading.
>>46276837
I don't know, anon. But you can ask my log. My log does not judge.
