Pocket Full of NPCs for 5E D&D — The Identify Intern

Salutations, nerds! I’ve got another fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons NPC for your pocket today. Last time we went with a fence for shady types to give their ill begotten gains to for payment and now we’re going to be talking about the Identify Intern. This is the 5E D&D wizard the party can bring their magic items to if none of them knows how to cast identify themselves. Pocket Full of NPCs gives 5E D&D Dungeon Masters a variety of characters you can pull off the shelf whenever you happen to need them.

What’s this 5E D&D magic item do anyway?

Here’s the game: I’m going to give you a name, list what 5E D&D stat block you should be using plus an extra ability or two to make things feel more mechanically unique. Then we’ll touch base on what this person wants, how to make them a nuisance to the party, how to make them an ally and finally a concept for a side quest they can offer.

“Apprentice wizards are novice arcane spellcasters who serve more experienced wizards or attend school. They perform menial work, such as cooking and cleaning, in exchange for education in the ways of magic.” — from Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

Elian Valystus

A young half-elf still in the process of their studies under whatever wizard they have found to teach them. The specifics of it are not as important as the fact they get paid apprentice wages for apprentice work and sometimes find the need to make a little money on the side. Who better to make extra income from than adventurers?

Equipping magic items all willy-nilly is dangerous after all and not everyone has the divination magic know how to tell you what these magic items do without putting them on, using them or attuning to them and hoping for the best.

Elian spends most of their time in apprentice’s robes, their long hair pulled back in a low ponytail. Elian has a smile with just a hair of mischief in it and tries to play the scenario subtly because technically they didn’t ask their master whether or not it was okay to offer identify services. But it’s probably fine.

Mechanically

Use the Mage stat block from the free 5E D&D Basic Rules. Under Spellcasting replace mage armor with identify. Replace cone of cold with legend lore. Add the following trait:

Arcane Warning. Elian is a diviner savant and their magic warns them if something bad is about to happen so they can make themselves scarce. If someone comes to their place of residence or employment with intent to do harm, Elian simply will not be there and may or may not leave a note to explain this.

What Drives Them

Like most spellcasters Elian wants to be an amazing wizard someday — specifically one of the world’s most renowned diviners. The right hand of a monarch perhaps or savior to the world seems appropriate. Of course this means surviving their internship first.

Internship involves a lot of lame paperwork and fetching things and kissing their wizard’s butt, which is often a thankless job but they have to do it if they want to learn more spells, unless they take off adventuring. This is an option all right, albeit a really dangerous one people die pursuing. Fetching water isn’t really too bad compared to getting turned to stone by a basilisk, right?

Elian as an Enemy

Elian is not likely to be a direct danger to the party. They’re a half-elf more likely to hide for safety than get into an altercation. Of course, they are stronger than they realize and if they are cornered they’ll fight but they’ve never been in this situation before and they likely don’t realize their own potential.

If Elian does come at odds with the party, for instance if the party tries to stiff them or the wizard they work for decides to blacklist them, Elian is more likely to be like a sulky office worker. Leave the party waiting an extreme amount of time to get their identify spells in or try to overcharge them.

Of course, they can easily be intimidated out of this behavior.

Elian as an Ally

If Elian takes a shine to the party on the other hand they can be quite a useful person to know! There are all kinds of books in their study and they’re familiar with all sorts of lore and stuff. If the 5E D&D adventurers prepare to go off on a quest to fight a dangerous monster then odds are good if Elian doesn’t already have information about the scenario they can in two shakes of a bard’s tale.

As an ally Elian would cast legend lore for the party and might even bestow Portent dice upon them if the thing they are doing is particularly dangerous.

A Potential Side Quest

Elian wouldn’t be so crass as to ask the party to go somewhere specific but if the group happens to be in the area anyway…

Elian always has a list of spell components they need for their homework or for personal experiments like a specific blue moss growing on a dungeon wall or just a twig if it happens to snap off on one’s cloak on the way to the adventure. There are moments where an apprentice really just needs some basilisk teeth.

They are a bottomless source of extra objectives. If you really want your 5E D&D party to go out of their way for an optional fight then Elian can be a great excuse to have them do this. There’s extra pay or perhaps an identify discount involved as well!

I don’t know about you guys but I’m having a lot of fun with these Pocket NPCs for 5E D&D. Please, of course, let me know what you think in the comments below and as always, stay nerdy!

*Featured image — The upcoming Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos might be the perfect place for Elian Valystus to apprentice. As an institution for the study of magic the Magic: The Gathering crossover into 5E D&D heads our way on Nov. 16, 2021. Find out more about the magical university in our press briefing coverage here. We’ve got our own ideas on school for adventurers too! [Art by Caroline Gariba]

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