Building Memorable Rivals¶

Want to make your D&D world feel more alive? Rival adventuring parties are the secret sauce. In this post, I’ll walk you through creating a fully fleshed-out rival NPC group using the Foe Foundry generator - complete with backstory, hooks, and statblocks.

Foe Foundry's Rival NPCs Toolkit¶

Foe Foundry lets you summon unforgettable NPC statblocks instantly. But an epic statblock is only half the equation. One of the most interesting ways to use Foe Foundry's unique NPC statblocks (like a Thug Overboss or a Knight of the Realm) is to have the NPC team up with others to create a Rival Adventuring Party.

I built The Ultimate Guide to Rival Adventuring Parties to give you the tools to easily create fun, interesting, and memorable rivals that your players will love to hate, or maybe even hate to love.

• Pre-made Rival Parties with easy-to-use Rival Introductions
• Rival Adventure Hooks ranging from wagers to team-ups to integrate rivals directly into your campaign
• Ways to Link Rivals to your campaign's Villains
• Rival Party Statblocks that you can fully customize with the Foe Foundry Generator

Whether you're running a sandbox, prepping for a one-shot, or building a campaign arc around a single enemy, these tables make it easy and fun to summon your own rival adventurers.

Summon your own Rival NPC Adventurers

Let's Try It Out¶

Let's create a Rival NPC group that we can instantly drop into our campaigns:

Rolling Up the Rivals¶

Let's start by rolling on the tables and create a rival adventuring party that we can introduce relatively early in the campaign, when the party is level 3 or so.

Interpreting the Rolls¶

I'm immediately inspired by these rolls to create a "race to kill the monster" adventure arc. Given that the Demon Hammers specialize in taking down fiends, it makes sense for the monster in question to be a fiend. Let's pick something interesting like a Vrock as our monster for this arc.

I also love the setup where the rivals are meeting an important NPC right before the PCs. I think this is a great way to frame their introduction. The PCs can arrive in town and meet with the contact who will tell them about the Vrock they've been hired to hunt down and slay, only to find out that the Demon Hammers, their competition, are already there.

The drinking challenge is also a fun and easy way to create an instant connection to the new NPCs. In this case, let's say that one of the Demon Hunters once drank one of the PCs under the table. I would pick the PC who is the most outgoing and engaging as the target of this connection to maximize the hook.

The double agent angle is interesting as well. Let's say that the Demon Hammers have been hired, unknowingly, by one of the campaign's Villains to slay the Vrock. Eventually, they can discover that they've been working for the villain the whole time and are in too deep, and may even seek out the PCs for advice on what to do.

Final Product: The Race to Slay the Vrock¶

The PCs arrive in the frontier town of Lurtra, a wealthy wine-growing region that has been troubled of late. A foul Vrock has been defiling the local vineyards, causing untold havoc. The PCs have been hired by a wealthy absentee vintner to slay the fiend, for the promised reward of 1000g.

Arrving in the town, the PCs meet up with their contact, Sister Elia, at the local temple. To the PC's surprise, they're not alone. The Demon Hammers are already here, getting a briefing. Sir Jordan, their grizzled leader, turns to the party and says "You're interrupting our briefing". A tall, muscled orc claps her arm on the knight's shoulder and turns to the party - "Boldrak, is that you? I'm surprised you can show your face around these parts after I drank you under the table last year! So you're our competition to take down this foul Vrock, eh?"

Demon Hammers Example Statblocks¶

Here are example statblocks for the Demon Hammers, pulled from the Foe Foundry Monster Generator, ready to drop in to your campaign.

We'll use the level 5 rival party composition. Since this is a group of demon slayers, we'll tweak the leader statblock from the table and change it from a Thug Overboss to a Knight.

Leader¶

The Demon Hammers are led by Sir Jordan, a grizzled middle-aged Knight who swore an oath of retribution to hunt down every fiend on the continent after his family was slain by demons years ago.

Brute¶

Big Mamsy, a nomadic Orc Reaver, worked a couple jobs with Sir Jordan and ended up falling in love with her demon-slaying hammer. It just smashes things so well!

Pet¶

Gristle is Big Mamsy's faithful Dire Wolf that she raised from a pup.

Ambusher¶

Crimsona the Spy mostly keeps to herself until you really get to know her. She likes to keep her hood up at all times, even when it's a hot day. She's obsessed with keeping tabs on the politics of the nobility and is a bit of a conspiracy theorist, convinced that all the local nobles are under the influence of powerful fiends.

Support¶

Brother Heith is a native Lurtran Priest and Sister Elia is his cousin. He's happy that his party is helping his hometown deal with this fiendish threat.

I hope this inspires you to create many fun and memorable Rival Adventuring Parties for your campaign! If you found this content helpful or inspiring, consider subscribing to get more free content just like this.

– Cordialgerm