Creating NPC and enemies. How do you do it quickly?

[Vexxaar]

So I've been DMing a campaign for a while now, and one of the biggest hurdles I've found in terms of session prep is creating NPCs. It takes me at least a few hours to come up with a good, properly stated NPC, and I'm feeling like there must be a quicker method. I do sometimes use modified stats of other NPCs that are left over, but I want to know how other DMs out there go about creating their NPCs.
All your tips and help is greatly appreciated! :smallbiggrin:

[jedipotter]

It can be hard to do on the fly. You don't get much of an option then other to plan ahead.

There are tons of Books, Magazines, and even websites with tons and tons of NPC and enemies. The old Wizard site, for example, is full of them.


The best way, is to of course, make tons of NPC's and enemies. Try to make at least two a day. One simple one, like ''just a 5th level wizard'' and one much more complex one. After a couple weeks you will have a large file.

[troqdor1316]

Honestly, if I'm not using stats that are predefined in a book, I'm gonna take the time to just about fully stat out every important NPC (or unimportant ones that the party will eventually encounter and loot) beforehand. Really, I think it's what anyone who really wants to DM should do.

Dungeonmastering (at least, dungeonmastering properly) is a pretty big commitment, and jedipotter's idea is definitely not a bad one. The more prep time you put into it, the better your game will be and the smoother your game will run. Honestly, I've noticed a pretty much 1:1 ratio of prep time to fun.

Nothing in life comes cheap, and the same rule applies to DnD.

[HammeredWharf]

You can also use your old PCs. I've got a lot of semi-finished characters that have builds planned for early levels into teens, so I often use modified versions of them. For example, you can make a caster quite different by swapping some of his spells.

[Crake]

If you really need to make an NPC quickly on the fly, use an interactive character sheet like mythweavers. That'll help quicken some of the tedious number crunching. Don't bother spreading skillpoints out, just pick a number equal to x+int mod (where x is the number of skills the class gets) and just slap them into that. It also helps if you know how to quickly calculate saves based on level (good save is 2+1/2 level, bad is 1/3 level) and to make things quicker, make single classed NPCs. You might not get the worlds most optimised characters, but with some practise, you can put together for example, a quick ToB single classed melee enemy together in a few minutes.

[Arc_knight25]

I hear that Hero Labs is a great way to make NPC's quickly. The Demo won't let you print, but that's what the save screen button is for.

I'm picking up the DM mantle soon, so I'll probably be using Hero Labs for NPC that I make up or that don't have a stat line in the campaign book that I'll be using.

[Segev]

Build him as you go. Quickly determine his stats (maybe assign priority to them, then apply the elite array from high to low priority) and race (with modifiers). Have a quick-reference cheat sheet for races (the PHB or MM should suffice) so you know racial abilities. Know his class and therefore what class features he has (again, you can just reference the book the class is in). Since he's "on the fly," assume single-class unless you ahve a reason to do otherwise. The reason NPC classes are so simple is to facilitate the ease of this.

Skills and feats, assign as you need them. If you're unsure whether he'd have a feat or skill that would be useful, roll a d20 and, if it comes up under his level, he has the feat or skill. Fill in the feat slot or deduct the skill points. The character will be as complete as you need. Note: only make the roll if you are unsure whether he'd have the feat, skill, spell, or what-have-you. If you're sure he would, just give it to him (as long as he has the feat or skill available).

[Red Fel]

So I've been DMing a campaign for a while now, and one of the biggest hurdles I've found in terms of session prep is creating NPCs. It takes me at least a few hours to come up with a good, properly stated NPC, and I'm feeling like there must be a quicker method. I do sometimes use modified stats of other NPCs that are left over, but I want to know how other DMs out there go about creating their NPCs.
All your tips and help is greatly appreciated! :smallbiggrin:

One option is using NPC generators. There are apps for that, of varying qualities and for various systems. If you find one you like, it should only take you a few taps to get an easy batch of NPCs.

Another option is cheat sheets. Have a bunch of basic NPC concepts - basic merchant, basic warrior, basic goblin, basic young dragon, etc. - written on paper or index cards. They don't need full character sheets, just basic stats. Add on a few variants or details if you want - stronger warrior, red dragon specializing in aerial combat, dwarf merchant, etc. Then just keep a box or notebook of these cheats as needed. Your party just ran into a dwarf merchant? Grab the merchant sheet, slap on a quick dwarf bit or two, bam, instant NPC.

Unless an NPC is expected to be a major character, it doesn't need a lot of work. And if your NPCs become major characters, you can always clean them up later.

[Shining Wrath]

DM guide has tables for "class X, level N". It lets you put together a generic, non-memorable NPC quickly.

For NPC's you want them to remember, that requires pretty much the same process you'd go through if you were creating a character of that class and level.

[Brookshw]

Kinda depends on what exactly you're looking for from an NPC. Personally my favorite generator is http://www.monsteradvancer.com/

Truth be told though, if you're in a time crunch I personally recommend investing your time more into prepping the adventures than the NPCs/enemies. Go ahead and cheat to make something reasonably powerful, just hand wave whatever and be done with it (to be used moderately based on power level of the party, not an excuse to roflstomp). Book diving is fun but time consuming and no one will have fond memories based on whether some guy had 16 skill ranks or 17, or an ac of 30 or 32. Do you have an idea of who the character is in your head? Then just assume it has abilities roughly inline with that expectation. This is mostly just eyeballing things to see if they're appropriate to both the concept and the party. Ask yourself also, is this NPC a worthwhile investment of time to create, or someone who will show up, give out a quest, and then disappear. Knowing which are flash in the pan and which have some staying power is useful though depending on the situation the party may simply ignore them (never doubt this!).

[Curbstomp]

I wrote myself a cheat sheet ages ago. It is simply a master list of every NPC stat block in the published 3.5 material that I have on hand. It is organized by role (divine caster, arcane caster, rogue, basher, archer, merchant, etcetera) and includes the CR, stat block name, book, and page number. Then I can access them and slap on racial adjustments if needed on the fly. Combining races with stat blocks in this way (and maybe switching out a feat or two) gives me tens of thousands of potential opponents and allies to use as NPC's.

[Scorponok]

There are typical NPC stats in the DMG, starting with Barbarian on page 112.

If you don't like those, generally, I create level-1, level-2, level-4, level-6, and level-8 fighters, and then do the same for sorcerers. (Stat them out completely with feats and skills)

Amongst those, I have three variants for those, an archer type, a two weapon type, and a meat shield type.

For sorcerers, I have a blaster type, a debuffer type, and a buffer type. Level-1 commoners fill out the rest of everyone else in the world. Big baddies get custom built.

I find these typically can be used for just about anyone in the world. Have a bandit squad that invades the town? If the party is level 5, throw in several level 1 fighters, a bunch of commoners, and maybe a level 4 leader type. The PCs don't need to know whether the casters are wizards or sorcerers. Turn it into an Orc raiding party using the same statistics. As long as monsters don't have any special ability and is just a melee attacker, you can use the same stats and most of the time, players won't catch on. You might need to know a few racial trait things like who has darkvision, but other than that, this suits my purposes just fine.

I'm running a campaign where there are 5 level-13 PCs and some days, they still have problems with two or three level-8 sorcerers and a bunch of level-4 fighters thrown in. It takes a bit of time to create these at the beginning (you are after all creating 30 NPCs) but these can be used from level 1 to at least level 10 if you build the encounters right.

[jiriku]

So I've been DMing a campaign for a while now, and one of the biggest hurdles I've found in terms of session prep is creating NPCs. It takes me at least a few hours to come up with a good, properly stated NPC, and I'm feeling like there must be a quicker method. I do sometimes use modified stats of other NPCs that are left over, but I want to know how other DMs out there go about creating their NPCs.
All your tips and help is greatly appreciated! :smallbiggrin:

I try to make frequent use of monsters with racial hit dice, rather than humanoid NPCs with class levels. Advancing monster HD, slapping a template or two onto it, or giving it 1-2 class levels can usually be done in 15 minutes. I reserve large numbers of class levels for monsters that will play important roles in the campaign and likely be used in multiple encounters, like the rank-and-file soldiers of an enemy army or a recurring villain. Thus, disposable monsters get done in 15 minutes, while monsters that take 2+ hours to create get used over and over again so I get a really good investment for my time.

[AlanBruce]

It depends on the npc, at least in my campaigns.

For 'boss' type npcs, I roll stats for the creature like a Pc would and add racial modifiers - class levels, if any. This usually gives you a very stromg npc, but if your group optimizes fairly well, it should provide a decent and fun challenge.

Since I use monsters for 90% of my encounters, and they are mostly intelligent, I just take the stta block presented and add X levels of fighter or rogue or whatever class would suit them best given their original stat block. Changing feats for the creatures ins't a bad idea, since most have Alertness, which isn't that great.

WBL is always based off the NPC table, except for really important npcs (which are scant in the campaign and rarely seen).

As mentioned above, the DMG has pre made npcs for levels 1-20, if i'm not mistaken. Granted, they aren't optimized at all, so you would have to do some tweaking if your group optimizes fairly well.

As for commoners, merchants and the like, I just hand waive it, unless they are an important part of the story.

[OldTrees1]

Again, my method might not be useful.


I have spent some of my free time creating characters. I do save these documents but I rarely reuse them. Rather the practice at making characters has hones 3 skills.
1) Faster character generation decisions (I remember similar decisions subconsciously which shows as my intuition)
2) More memorized content (Less time wasted looking through books)
3) Better improve evaluation (I get better at creating balanced BShomebrew when improving)

End result: Characters can be created faster and can be created even faster at the cost of inevitable deviations from RAW. Those deviations from RAW become less and less significant.

Ex: 4 mins (slow and I forgot a 0th level slot)

Human Conjurer 3
HD: 3d4+6 (13hp)
Initiative: +5
Special: Abrupt Jaunt 2/day
Abilities: Str 8, Con 14, Dex 12, Int 15, Wis 13, Cha 9
Skills: Concentration[8] +10, Knowledge(Arcana)/Spellcraft[8] +10, Spot[4] +5, Listen[4] +5
Saves: Fort +3, Ref +2, Will +4
Feats: Scribe Scroll, Improved Initiative, Cloudy Conjuration, Acidic Splatter
Spells: 3/3/2
0th Detect Magic x2, Light
1st Grease, Summon Monster 1 x2
2nd Glitterdust, Web


More important NPCs like bosses I will do in that free time (pretty much the only time I use the free time char sheets)

[Sir Garanok]

I strongly reccomend generators.There is awesome stuff on the internet.
(The application on my signature might help you,if you have an android device)

If you wanna go the old-fashioned way create abilities/items/feats.

Since you have these you calculate everything else.

Have some default spell lists and don't waste much time on skill points.

For npc's to remember and arch rivals/bosses the process is quite time consuming i am afraid,
but you wouldn't do that every session.