Good/Best NPC generator?

[ezkajii]

I'm wondering if the playground has a favorite/preferred 3.5 NPC generator? I did some looking around and found NPC Designer (http://www.rpgattitude.com/joomla/npcdesigner-npc-generator.html) and Birched's generator (http://www.hailscape.com/). Does anyone have any experience with either of these? Is there a better one out there I'm not seeing? Or any other simple way to just draw up an NPC or enemy character on the fly w/o dragging down the game session, should the need arise?

[Scorponok]

The 3.5 DMG has a bunch of stats on page 112 for various NPCs.

Speaking as a DM, what I've found works is creating a commoner NPC, level-1, level-2, level-4, and level-8 Fighter NPCs, ditto for Sorcerer and Cleric NPCs. You can then pretty much substitute these for anything on the fly. Need a Bard? Use the Cleric NPC stats and have him carry around a guitar. Need a Wizard? Use the NPC sorcerer stats. Need a Barbarian or Rogue? Use the Fighter stats and make them Rage or give them sneak attack. Low level mooks are level-1 and the leader of the group is either a level-2 or level-4. Same goes for casters. The local warlord of the region is the level-8 guy. Players won't really know the difference and you can make the real stats once the session is over and fill in more of the details.

Also, when I first started, I used this:

http://dnd3rd.sourceforge.net/

There are also NPC stats generators for Android and iPhone devices that are good at giving semi-complex backstories.

[ezkajii]

Shouldn't different individuals in a group have slightly different stats though? At least different rolled health, but also feats and skill rank distribution. Maybe equipment. Is there anything that will just generate that for you?
I wish I knew programming so I could just make this myself.

[Whysp80]

Shouldn't different individuals in a group have slightly different stats though? At least different rolled health, but also feats and skill rank distribution. Maybe equipment. Is there anything that will just generate that for you?
I wish I knew programming so I could just make this myself.

I've only just started DMing a few months ago (started as "interim" but it seems I'm beginning to be "permanent") and have used the DonJon site to generate dungeons and even quick NPC backstories using this one: http://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/random/#npc (which might help out with the "different equipment, look, etc" if you mesh it with stats from one of the other generators: mix and match so you have stats on hand and can just pull a quick NPC blurb that says, "Yeah and this guy has a trident!"

[ezkajii]

That's clever, combining different generators. Not 100% streamlined but let's be honest, I'm probably not gonna find exactly what I'm looking for unless I learn how to program it myself.

[Whysp80]

Yeah it's a bit pell-mell but if you have a few print outs from which you can just grab a brief bio and an npc stat list it does make it faster at least a bit :)