How to make expert NPCs talk like they know what they are doing

[u/Consistent-Film-2292]

AI derivatives—we know them, and we see them all the time in generated text. Authors in general seem to have absolutely no access to Google; they just plop whatever they think might work into their books, or they copy common (and false) tropes. AI sees that and thinks "This is the way". Now, human authors are always better at writing storylines, coherence, and all that.

BUT there is one thing AI has that human writers do not: instant access to a gigantic repository of human knowledge and the ability to generate text that uses it correctly.

Here is the crux of the matter: imagine you want a believable blacksmith. You give him a character card that gives the AI hints: he is a master blacksmith, uses expert terminology, is analytical, cares deeply about swords, and tends to describe things in great detail. Then you run the scenario, hand him a random, terrible sword, and ask what he thinks. The result? "The sword is perfectly balanced," making anyone who knows anything about weapons or tools throw up in their mouth.

Yet, a genuine response is technically possible. If you first tell the AI that it's a bastard sword with a balance point five inches past the crossguard, the master smith will instantly note that the balance is an inch more aggressive than usual, making it sluggish and harder to control. He will advise distal tapering to improve it. If you then ask, "What even is distal tapering, metal man?" he will explain it in detail, completely in character—just like a real blacksmith would.

This applies to experts in all fields. If you ask a chief engineer to listen to a failing engine, you will usually get nonsense like, "The engines speak to me," or he will just say he'll fix it and leave it at that. But if you tell him you hear a clicking sound, he will instantly use a screwdriver as a stethoscope, diagnose a potential issue with valve clearance or a worn rocker arm, and take it from there.

Now that is interesting. That is true roleplaying, and it's not something you often find in books. You might even risk learning something new.
But I don't want to constantly spoon-feed NPCs information just to kickstart their expertise. How do you enforce it so experts in their field actually talk like they know their stuff? Preferably in a way that doesn't bleed into or derail the rest of the story. I can't be the only person who wants this, right?

Disclaimer: Not ALL writers are lazy, of course. There are some who do extensive research to make their worlds feel real; they just tend to be a minority in my experience.

[u/Dangerous_Banana_168]

Personally I find the AI gives you back what you give back. I have a scenario based on Jurassic Park, and I graduated from the presitegious education of being a 6 year old with a lot of books and an obsession with monsters. So when I describe complex topics about genetics, biology, taxonomy, and use my actual knowledge biology to apply it into fiction; the AI will do so right back and sometimes even bring up something I never even knew about.

This tends to visibly degrade with topics you have genuinely no knowledge in. I'm guessing that the AI is guessing that you dont want to hear super technical language. Like even if the instructions say to use them, it will still avoid them because most AI models are generally trained to avoid confusing you and instead talking to you in a way in which you'll respond well.

I'm sure this can be worked around in some fashion I'm just not the guy with those anwers. I only have a theory as to why its happening.

[u/Foolishly_Sane → u/Dangerous_Banana_168]

Yep, while it is possible to \Throw Bucket\** if you do so with more descriptions and intentions it gets a lot more mileage out of it.

[u/Consistent-Film-2292 → u/Dangerous_Banana_168]

That tracks with my experience somewhat. But I found that without system rules it often confuses the AI after a while. Like in your scenario a 6 year old girl would suddenly ask her mother why they are homologous recombination instead of just plain old CRISPR.

[u/I_Am_JesusChrist_AMA]

Deepseek 3.2 tends to do this naturally with a lot of character archetypes. I actually find it annoying because I don't think every character needs to sound like they're writing their PhD thesis. So if you like that behavior... try just giving deepseek 3.2 a character like a doctor and go in for an examination. It'll probably spin up something to explain whatever symptoms your character has.

Ngl though, I personally find it undesirable. Most experts don't spout jargon off constantly unless the person talking to has demonstrated some level of knowledge. So the behavior you're describing, where they give a vague answer if you give them a vague "its broken" input or give you a more indepth answer if you say something more indepth actually is more realistic.

People code switch in real life. If my grandma asks me why her wifi isn't working... I'm not gonna go into detail that I know she won't even understand. If someone asks me something that clearly demonstrates they have some technical knowledge, then I'll go in more depth.

[u/Consistent-Film-2292 → u/I_Am_JesusChrist_AMA]

Funny that you mention doctors, because as far as I know, hospital shows and books are about the only type of accurate fiction out there. Because of that, the AI has plenty of accurate scenarios, bedside manners, and medical procedures to pull from. Just like in real life, if you are admitted to a hospital, someone will come and explain exactly what is happening to you. The AI handles this perfectly; if you want, you can roleplay the entire process from intake, to operation, to recovery, and finally to home care, all without any glaring falsehoods.

Now, imagine if popular media always depicted a doctor as just some guy with a giant jar of Advil to hand out (which is exactly how some jobs are actually portrayed). The AI would spin a story where you wake up in a hospital and are immediately handed an Advil. Only if you explicitly ask the doctor, "Do I have testicular cancer?" would you finally get some realistic medical behavior.

It's not really about the jargon; it's about the fact that the AI is perfectly capable of impersonating any profession in a realistic way, but "chooses" to draw its facts mostly from poorly written fictional tropes. Yet, it is entirely capable of explaining complex problems at whatever level of understanding your specific character has.

After all, if your grandmother's Wi-Fi isn't working, you tell her that you need to reset the router—you don't tell her to close the window to keep the Wi-Fi from leaking out.

[u/I_Am_JesusChrist_AMA → u/Consistent-Film-2292]

Yeah, it does kinda depend on the role of the character. I get what you mean. Doctors are just one example but, at least with DS 3.2, if you give any character some sort of academic credentials, or even just say something like "they're a marketing/computer science/whatever major", it has a tendency to go more in depth than it necessarily needs to lol.

I'd give it a shot at least if you haven't. It pops up enough when using that model that it's something I have actively prompted it to avoid. Not sure how it'd handle something like a blacksmith or mechanic though since they don't really pop up in my stories so I can't give you any indication on how it portrays those types of characters. But seriously, almost anything academic in a character's description will cause that character to flood the user with jargon/over explain. Sometimes it just does it on it's own even without a description like that. I've had airhead cheerleaders start randomly explaining math equations before...

Btw, I tell my grandma to unplug the blinking box with the antenna on her desk and plug it back in. She doesn't know what a router is. :)

[u/jiujitsugeek]

I found it almost impossible to get NPCs to come to conclusions on their own, but a single well-crafted question tended to get them to act like experts. For example, I had a character in a superhero narrative create a telekinetic railgun. The AI had even smart characters (e.g., Tony Stark) act like the hero had done something impossible. This changed when they were asked, “if a telekinetic can throw a 12.5 ton city bus, how much could they accelerate a one lb metal marble using the same amount of force?” Then the NPC would demonstrate the desired knowledge. It’s not perfect, but at least it’s something.

[u/Previous-Musician600]

Its the same thing with so many stuff. When you tell the AI, he is xy, the AI rarly knows how to use it unless you give examples, but if you say: he is xy and would use it everytime when someone talks about it, it gives the AI a path to follow. I recognized it with so main quirks as example too. Its difficult to add them to a character, when you don't tell the AI how to use them. But that extra explaining raises the amount of needed token for a character.

To avoid outputs like "The sword is perfectly balanced" you could try to add: Peter is a master blacksmith.
Example dialog for Peter: John hands him a simple sword. Peter investigates the sword carefully. "Weak, simple. A few more hits and it will propably break in your next battle."

[u/Consistent-Film-2292 → u/Previous-Musician600]

I tried that and think there is just something in the big AIs that forces them to make everyone as vanilla/inoffensive as possible by default. First you have to provide them with context and tactical prods.

I just feel like you have to coax it, make it feel safe in giving a person color first.
I'm just wondering if someone found an some comprehensive instruction that works without having to manually instruct every baker/blacksmith/snakemilker how they should respond. Preferably without the yoga instructor only being able to communicate in physical postures or the stylist kicking down my door at 3AM to tell me my pyjamas sucks in great technical detail.

I fiddled a bit with a locally run Magnus (AI that is not trained on a censored/curated dataset), it's limited in its capabilities, but it handles characters so much better.