Living NPC
by ThirtyFangs
Living NPC lets server owners summon guard armies and other non-player characters that fight monsters and react to their surroundings.
What it does
The mod places customizable characters into a world, each with a purpose such as village guards or darknuts that fight hostile mobs. Armies are set up before play through a datapack: a server owner opens the data folder, edits the team function files, and assigns an army owner and banners that its soldiers wear. Summon commands can place up to 4 village guards or 10 darknuts per area, and units spawn at the same position without conflicting with others.
The datapack is aimed at mapmakers and server owners who want to build custom armies for multiplayer. It does not change survival gameplay on its own, and it references other datapacks. Living NPC runs on the server, so players join without installing it, although the client may add it. Files are published for Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt, and for the 1.21.10 – 26.3 range, under All rights reserved. The code is not open source.
Key features
Pre-game army setup
Armies are configured in the datapack before play, with team functions that set each army's owner and in-game name.
Summonable guards
Commands summon knight guards for each team, which then fight monsters and enemy units.
Distinct roles
Different kinds of character serve different purposes, including village guards and darknuts.
Environment-aware behavior
Characters react to the environment around them rather than standing in place.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Custom multiplayer armies
Mapmakers build factions that players can join, each with its own banners and troops.
Who it’s for: Mapmakers and server owners who build custom scenarios and want armed characters without changing vanilla survival mechanics.
How it compares
Vanilla NPC is a server-side mod with the same environment, but it is not open source and covers 1.21.9 – 26.3. Villager Guards is also server-required and open source under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0 or later, with files for 1.21 – 26.3. Easy NPC is open source under the MIT License but needs both client and server, with files for 1.18.2 – 26.3.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Living NPC | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.21.10 – 26.3 | Server required, client optional | 2026-01-07 |
| Vanilla NPC | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.21.9 – 26.3 | Server required, client optional | 2026-04-07 |
| Villager Guards | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.21 – 26.3 | Server required, client optional | 2026-10-07 |
| Easy NPC | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.18.2 – 26.3 | Client and server | 2026-10-13 |
Questions
Does Living NPC need to be installed on the client?
Which loaders does Living NPC support?
Does Living NPC change survival gameplay?
In the catalog
Living NPC is one of 11,058 Mobs mods on ModsFinder, and one of 5,189 Mobs mods for Fabric. 8,071 mods support Minecraft 26.3.
More from ThirtyFangs
Similar mods
What the author says
This datapack adds various NPC, useful for mapmaking, and allows the possibility to create custom armies for mutliplayer. NPC react to their environment The datapack doesn't change anything to the survival gameplay, but is useful for mapmaking and to be referenced in other datapacks.
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/living-npc
- Owner
- ThirtyFangs
- Published
- 2025-11-23
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-01-07
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15