Equipping NPCs

[kjones]

My weekly D&D group will soon be encountering (and hopefully battling) a party of evil adventurers, sort of an "evil duplicates" situation. I'm creating these characters around ECL 10, and while they're not super-duper optimized, I'd like them to be a reasonable challenge.

When it came to equipping them up to around their WBL, however, I balked. I looked at the sample NPC's in the DMG, but, as usual, their suggestions suck eggs. Having never run a game at this level before, and as someone who's used to running monsters straight out of the MM or with minor modifications and a class level or two, I'm really at a loss. What are reasonable suggestions for equipment within WBL for a party consisting of a monk, a sorcerer, a ninja/assassin, a warblade, and a cleric? I want to do something a little more interesting than "+1 SWORDS FOR EVERYONE" but I don't want to cripple/overpower these guys.

[Josh the Aspie]

Well, I'm not the most experienced DM ever, but I do have some tips.

First of all, each of them should have a general theme. Stick with it. Make them unique personalities, and have their gear reflect this... but don't over-do it. At least some of their items have been picked up on adventures, and may not what they would have picked if they just bought the items.

Give each of them that can use it both a ranged, and a melee weapon, 2 melee weapons for anyone with TWF. Then add a backup weapon that defeats different types of DR. For example, if the primary weapon is an adamantine longsword, maybe the backup weapon is a cold iron mace, or warhammer. For the rogue, I recommend a sap as the backup weapon.

Remember, these people have been around for a while as well, and it's unlikely they've had a chance to pour all of their resources into single items. Giving them backups will show that they traded up items over time, but kept useful backups around. This will have the side benefit of somewhat reducing their power in most circumstances, but make it harder for the PCs to screw them over. It may also have the side benefit of making it easier to equitably distribute wealth afterwards.

Only give them a single suit of armor, however, unless it's to heavy for them to sleep in without becoming fatigued, in which case a suit of light armor, potentially enchanted, specifically wrapped in their bedrolls makes perfect sense.

Give the mage and cleric of the party various wands. Don't just give the cleric cure x wounds, but also a vigor wand. They come in useful in different circumstances, and 10th level characters could afford both in order to save money in the long term.

Give them some utility items that fit their themes as well. A flying carpet for an Arabian warrior, or boots of the winter land for a nordic ranger/druid, for example, makes a cool thematic item that soaks up some of the gold, and will make winning the treasure, and who you got it from, that much more memorable.

Also, if you intend for them to escape a few times, devote a fair amount of their resources to being able to do so. That way when the heros do defeat the opponents, they realize they actually had the resources, and it may not seem as horribly lame as if they escape just because you 'need' them too.

[BardicDuelist]

The PHBII has great information on equipting NPCs in the quick character creation section. I believe there is a less specific "how-to" in the DMG in the NPC section.