How do you notate the average enemy NPC?

[Milodiah]

Hey all,

I know this is a thing that varies wildly between DMs, which is why I'm asking the forums...what exactly does your average NPC "stat block" look like in your DM notes? How much do you write down for them, what stats/information do you consider essential, how often do you just give yourself a page number in a sourcebook somewhere, etc?

I don't mean plot-essential BBEGs, the unique 'boss monsters', etc. I mean the average humanoid enemy, the bandit on the side of the road or the orc in the dungeon. Do you put details into their inventory, name them, give them attributes, skill ranks, feats, etc? Or is it just AC + attack bonus + HP + weapons?

[Vhaidara]

Generally, if I'm being lazy, they have HP, Attack, Damage, and AC.

Less Lazy gives them combat relevant skills (Acrobatics, Perception, Stealth, Sense Motive, etc.), feats, spells, ranged and melee attacks

Effort gives them actual ability scores and specific gear.

[BWR]

A fully stat'ed NPC is about an A4 page.
Someone who they aren't likely to do much interaction outside of a few specific skills or attacks is usually about 2 lines, tops. Just the bare essentials.

Worst comes to worst, I have the PF NPC Codex and Game Mastery Guide.

[sideswipe]

honestly? for encounters i have a few lines at most.

for random joe's they meet in a city and talk to for a little bit i usually have a number in my head of how powerful they are, say i think 3 (3rd level ish) anything they would be good at in skills i add 10, the rest of everything i add 3..... basicly level to a roll unless they are special or specialised.

i can be very lazy.....

[Zakerst]

For me it depends if I'm making a new MOB I give it a full stat block no exceptions if its something printed and I'm modding it out I mostly just use reference numbers, for "special" mobs I typically just add a few class levels or a template, for off the street "I'm gonna kill this hobo" types I just typically give them straight tens and 4 hp. Most of the time though I just use reference numbers.

[Thurbane]

I like that stat block at DM Tools (http://www.dmtools.org/details.php?id=1728), but I can rarely be bothered with that much detail...

[jedipotter]

For a Non-combat NPC I will start with a paragraph of seven sentences or so. This gets added too as the NPC gets used.

Non-combat secondary NPC get only one line.

Vague combat NPC get the paragraph, plus a mini stat block like: Ac 15, BaB+5 WP-Longsword(1d8+3) or spot/listen/search all at +5. Generally no details.

Combat NPCs get a full stat block.


The real trick is to make templates. Take an hour and make ten fighter characters. Make one a ''noble'' one a ''commoner'' one a ''thug'' one a ''guard'' and so forth. Then make copies. And when you need a stat block for Gaynor Hawkfist, just use the ''noble'' one. And the next step is taking the basic ''noble npc fighter template'' and making it unique to Gaynor. It's easy, you need only add or tweak a thing or too. And one you make the ''Gaynor'' NPC, make a copy and add it to the pile as ''noble II''.

You can build a library of 100 NPCs in a week, by making ten a day for an hour. Even better if you can spend three hours on Sunday. Then, once you have 100, it's very, very easy to make more. Once you have a ''4th level human guard'', you can level them up to a ''5th level human guard'' in about three minutes. Even a 10th to 11th level wizard is easy.

Another couple of minutes and you can mix and match anything for each NPC. You can make a ''bandit'' in to a ''river pirate'' or a ''thug'' into a ''street thug'' in just a couple minutes.

And another couple of minutes you can make each NPC unique. Once you have ''5th level fighter thug'', you can turn that into ''Rask, 5th level fighter thug, who likes to use daggers'' in just five minutes.

Though, not every NPC needs to be unique. You can use ''bandit 5'' for every bandit and be just fine.

[atemu1234]

I've got notebooks of fully statted characters, complete as PCs but usually with 25-36 point buy (my PCs are pb 36, with some bonuses for MAD characters).

[Almagesto]

Generally, if I'm being lazy, they have HP, Attack, Damage, and AC.

Less Lazy gives them combat relevant skills (Acrobatics, Perception, Stealth, Sense Motive, etc.), feats, spells, ranged and melee attacks

Effort gives them actual ability scores and specific gear.

Second that for most of the NPCs. I mean, the BBEG is a full fledged character, but other than him and some lieutentants... most of the NPCs get the lazy treatment Keledrath mentioned.

[Vhaidara]

Second that for most of the NPCs. I mean, the BBEG is a full fledged character, but other than him and some lieutentants... most of the NPCs get the lazy treatment Keledrath mentioned.

I think my best story from this is actually from another GM who I observed. Three party members went wandering for a random town encounter. They were level 3. Nameless Thug is given 20 HP, a 15 AC, +3 to hit with dual wielded daggers dealing 1d4 each. He proceeded to kill two of them by critting five times in four rounds without being touched. There was a duskblade and a fighter in this group.

[Feddlefew]

I use a regular sized white index card with the following for enemies I reuse a lot:

[Creature Name], alignment, size, types, CR
Size / Reach
Speed / Initiative
HP / Saves
AC (Flat, Touch) / Grapple
Attacks (Full and Base)- some enemies have a lot of these, so I give them a few lines.
Str, Con, Dex, Int, Wis, Cha

On the back I put special abilities skills, and equipment. For enemies with lots of attacks or special abilities they might have a second index card stapled to the first. Commonly used spells and magic items get their own cards in different colors. They all go in a little card filer.

During combat, each individual enemy gets a little note saying which card it uses, it's current HP, and any buffs/debuffs or other effects it's got. I usually notate damage as [Total HP]: [Tally of Damage Taken].

The Con of this method are that it takes a lot of time to get started, and it's a pain to do. I made like 20 different undead ones for my first campaign, and that was most of the prep time for three sessions right there.

The pros are that you accumulate a lot of cards very quickly, so you only really need to do this once per creature. It also works nicely with the index card initiative tracking method, especially if the PCs all have their own stat block cards.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the look of terror in the player's eyes when they hear the index card box open in the middle of combat is priceless. :smallamused:

[Urpriest]

I use the DMGII style statblocks, making "template" NPCs as others have described. They're pretty quick to reference and generally have all the info you need for combatants.

For noncombatants I usually stick with a few relevant skill bonuses, though I'll build them up more if they're supposed to be a noncombat encounter rather than just a noncombat fluff character.

[Max Caysey]

I do full writeups of important npcs. The works! Feats skulle items and all!