The same effect as when any antenna are too close to a metal object. It changes the impedance and screw up the directional pattern. The more gain, and thus narrower directional pattern, the more negative it becomes. A standard 1/4 wave element antenna probably aren't gonna be that much affected that you'll notice it. But NGP antennas are of a different design, probably using an element with a high impedance at the bottom connected to a matching coil and will be extremly sensitive to any nearby objects like ground plane rods.
/Ubbe