Need Help beringing those NPC's to life [Pathfinder]

[CrimsonRaven]

I am a relatively new DM, and I have this one ongoing campaign that has been going fairlly well up to now.
Still as my players move through the world I need them to meet some key people. Most of them are many sessions away but I want to be prepared sooner rather than later.

Still I am not sure how to create those NPC's, regarding their classes, skills, abilities, feats etc...

1. I need to create a female Half-Elf, Sailor, Captain or first Mate of a ship.( Depends on whether they will meet her sooner or later, becasue the world is dynamic and progresses)
I am still not sure what class would be good for her. I want her to be charming somewhat, but also able to hold her own in a fight respectively. I can imagine her either, bearing a rapier or a cutlass, or even a dagger (And for ranged a pistol maybe? or even a musket) I am torn between
A) making her a bard and then customizing ( either through correct feat choices etc, or multiclassing, maybe both to an extent, I am not sure if it's worht though) and
B) making her a swashbuckler. The rogue archetype pirate seems to suck, and she is not exactly a pirate to be honest. And I don't want to make her a rogue either, I already have made enough of them and quite honestly I want her to have her own unique falvor. I am trying to consult the [ Pirates ARRR Us! ] page from the d20PFsrd site, still I am not sure how to go about it.

2. I need to make a dwarven monk, whom I have imagiend to be different from my other monks. I want him to be a bit more brusque, less patient. More patient than my dwarf barbarian though :P .
I wanted to make this distinction appear on his fighting style. To make it more brutal and less refined. ( Again, I dont mean to the point that he becomes an enranged barbarian throwing punches all around) And yes I'd rather he was a monk and not a brawler.

3. I also was wondering how to level up a certain character. There is this rogue NPC, that comes by and helps the group once in a while. He levels up at their rate mostly. Even if he is not with them, I try to make the world dynamic, things happen all around not only where the party is. [I mainly intorduced him because I find their lack of skillmen in the group, disturbing. Their one ranger, ( and I don't consider rangers as full-fledged skillmen but rather half-skillmen) cant cover anything] In case the campaign goes beyond level 20, which most likely will, in what classes do you believe he should progress? Prestige?

4. More generally what do you think is the best prestige class for any of the core classes? (Or at least has a good synergy with)

5 Also tips on roleplaying those NPC's if you have any would be apprecaited, though I do believe I can manage my own in the department. Still you may have bright ideas to add falvor to those NPC's that I could quite possibly never think of. I mean waht's worse than experiencing and adventure and every person you meet being exactly the same bleek plain type as the last person you met :/ I want to make sure my players feel that the world they are experiencing is alive.

Thank in advance to anyone who takes their time to help me.

[Geddy2112]

For most garden variety NPC's, I just use the NPC list (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/npc-s/) from the SRD. You can reskin and rework the concepts of either(switch race gender etc) and that covers most of your bread and butter.

1. Swashbuckler would be good, but I would also look into ranger. Favored enemy(humanoids, aquatic stuff) and terrain(ocean). Being a good leader is only part of the job, the other relies on knowing where you are going and getting along at sea. There are some good archetypes to compliment both builds. You could multi class both as well.

2. Look into style feats-boar might be a good style, as it focuses on the monk ripping into people and causing bleed damage.

3. Past level 20 a rogue is worthless. So are skills. Your full casters are routinely creating gates to other worlds, summoning who knows what, and otherwise reshaping reality with world ending magic as they see fit. With 25k in the pocket, anyone capable of casting miracle can literally have a deity make miracles happen. Like prevent natural disaster, sway tides of battle. Who cares if the rogue can pick a lock and sneak attack a ton of damage? Casters are effectively deities or deific heralds at this level. Also, the game is generally not suited for going beyond level 20 but you can. A lot of the challenge is what is there left to do for the party?

For a rogue prestiege class, assassin and shadowdancer are never a bad choice, and arcane trickster work well if they qualify.

4. Assassin is easy for a lot of classes to prestige into, and fits rangers/rogues, even monks. Duelist is a good one for rogues if they don't TWF. Dragon disciple meshes well with sorcerer, arcane archer is achievable for any arcane caster. There are too many prestige classes outside core to really say for those.

5. Make all of your named NPC's unique. This does not mean write them a 10 page backstory. Beyond name/class/race/mechanics/basic description, I always add 3 unique things; these add a human element to the character, and could serve as possible plot/adventure hooks or a chance for other characters to role play off of. They should be explained in 1-2 sentences, and can be anything from a flaw, a bond to a person/place/thing, ideal, religion, unique mannerism, or any personalty trait that readily stands out. For example, here is a named NPC my party encountered last night, the captain of a pirate ship that they booked passage on.
Elise is a NE halfling Ranger, captain of The Horrible Corvidae and self proclaimed pirate queen.
-She is a "dog person" but she does not mind cats.
-She is a high functioning alcoholic-she never drinks in front of her crew, locking herself in her cabin at night and drinking herself to sleep. Because of this, she is never seen out on the ship after dark.
- Although she has pursued a life of piracy, her only real desire is a handsome elven pirate she met long ago. Her love is unrequited, but she is confident one day they will meet again and he will see her in a different light.

[Kallimakus]

As another fairly new GM, I'll throw my few cents here. A small warning is that I'm fairly set in 'my way' of doing things (typically fairly low-op, houserules and the notion that setting (or world) is king over rules. Hence houserules)

1 I'd go with Swashbuckler personally. You could take an archetype like Picaroon (trades away some deeds for free two-weapon fighting on top of Weapon Finesse) or multiclass to Gunslinger for a level or two to pick up what they want. I might go with taking a multiclassed Gunslinger (Mysterious Stranger to key Grit to Cha) and Swashbuckler (probably unarchetyped). Since you have not given a real level I can't comment further on a build (though regardless of level I wouldn't remain too long in Gunslinger)
1: Proficiencies, Grit, Deeds. Kind of the point.
2: +1 AC if you stick to Light, which considering you are a swashbuckler and a sailor, you probably will (replaced by Will save bonus for Mysterious Stranger)
3: Initiative bonus, more deeds
4: Bonus Feat (Half-elf favoured class gets you a bonus Grit point if you want)
5: Dex to firearm damage

All in all, I'd probably take 1 level in Mysterious Stranger, or between 1-5 in straight Gunslinger.
As for skills, I'd imagine Profession (Sailor), Climb, Swim, Acrobatics and a social skill of choice would be appropriate. Switch for taste.
You mentioned Bard, and I might propose Variant multiclass, or trading half of your Feat progression for some Bard abilities. You only pick up Bardic Performances after level 7 though, so it won't help below that. And you might want the Feats for something else. Half-elf makes me feel better about multiclassing.
Speaking of Feats, some that you might want: Combat Reflexes, Rapid Reload (stock alchemical cartridges), X Grace (probably Fencing). I'm not familiar with any 'sailing' feats that might add flavour.
As far as I can tell, Picaroon's two-weapon fighting doesn't bypass the requirement o a swashbuckler to fight with 1 hand empty for some class abilities (like Precise Strike). If I'm wrong, it could save you the dip. It also loses Opportune Parry & Riposte, which I love most about Swashbuckler.

2 You ask for something different from your other monks. Alas, I don't know what those are like.:smalltongue:
Also, I'm not very familiar with monks in the first place. I second the above notions of Style Feats.

3 For the rogue, I'm also not sure. Possibly a Slayer? Vigilante (stalker-y)? You could also go for some Prestige classes, but I'm not that well-versed in those either, unfortunately. Nor do I have experience past level 15, so I'm not sure what characters over level 20 look like as I think that's the intended maximum?

4. Typically, I think Pathfinder base/core classes are good enough without prestige (and I'm often loath to give up my base class abilities in exchange for whatever prestige class. Then again, past level 20 this isn't really an issue)

[CrimsonRaven]

Thank you both. You have been very helpful.

Geddy
1 I'll try something like that.
2 Boar style huh. I'll look into it.
3 True casters, are powerful. Andthat's exactly what I need my rogue to do. Shut them down. I dont look at my rogue as a skill "monkey". He has adequate skill points. But all his scores came out to be pretty high. I am trying ot build him as the " I shut down mages" guy. That's why I asked for prestiges, for beyond level 20, before that I aint multiclassing, not this character at least. Also my gods are hard to persuade for help :/
4 Well for some evil characters I will considers assassin. My rogue is TWF, so no duelist, but yeah seems good as a calss in general.
5 Genius. Really ads to the unique flavor, without having to go in lots of depth.

Kallimakus
1 As I said before, swashbuckler seems interesting, and that Picaroon archetype seems nice. One thing I didnt understood though is, whether she can be two weapon fighting, with 2 cutlasses/Scimitars, or does it(the off hand weapon) have to be a gun? Never played a swashnuckelr before so the class has me a little confused. And I gave up on the bard idea.

2 Well I said more more brusque and less patient. So I thought it was obvious I was asking for a more unrefined style, even primal. I just dont know them all XD Most of my monks, go jabbing style or dragon style. Flying kick. And one has the tiger style for the early levels, though I think I might retrain him for jabbing. :/

3 Just as you said Beyond lvl 20 multiclassing wont take a lot of things from you. My campaign will moste likeyl end somewhere around there. Just in case it drags a little longer I want to know how to proceed.

[Geddy2112]

Glad to help!

A level 20 rogue is going to be stealthy/socialable enough to get past the mundane defenses of a wizard, and at level 20 they have a death attack from sneak attacking so as long as they can get there they are golden. Hide in plain sight(hellcat stealth or prestige shadowdancer) and dampen presence can fool most senses and won't be beaten by true seeing.

With enough scrolls and a good use magic device check that can get pretty far-dispelling, teleporting, or otherwise negating magical defenses. The big one is some kind of nondetection or mind blank ability-a wizard can divine the future and see the rogue coming, or detect the presence of another level 20 monster. Between mind blank and stealth the wizard won't see the rogue coming, and with enough scrolls or caster aid then you can get to their demiplane or somewhere they are vulnerable.

Sleepless detective and master spy are good prestiege classes for rogue if you need to go over level 20 and don't want to go evil assassin.

[Ironsmith]

Again, I'm fairly new, too, and I'm not sure I can do much in terms of helping you give your NPCs defining personality traits, but in terms of making sure they remain consistent, I think I can give some pointers...

A trick I've found works fairly well is to draw up a list of priorities for important NPCs, to show how highly the value certain things. For example, I made a Tiefling a while back that was stringently anti-social (when not outright sociopathic). Her priorities were as follows:


Stay alive.
Hurt people you don't like.
Don't overstep your limits.
Acquire wealth.
Help people you like.
Don't get hurt.
Whatever you do, make it funny.


This helped keep the answers to basic questions of value fairly consistent, (i.e. given the mutually exclusive choice of fleeing with treasure and rescuing a friend, she'd take the treasure and haul herself out of there) while allowing her to keep the same general thought process as she developed (not so readily putting people into the "don't like" category, for example). It made winging it with her easier, as opposed to writing a railroaded script to prevent breaking character.