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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Does anyone know a good 5e NPC Maker?



DragonsHead
2020-08-12, 08:05 AM
Hello,
I am in the process of working on a D&D 5e city setting book, and was wondering if anyone knows a good NPC Stat Block Maker? I've been using The Genius Inc's 5e Monster Maker, which works fantastically for making creatures, but if you are making NPC's racial traits, modifiers, and class features all have to be manually entered or copy/pasted rather than simply selected like monster abilities. I have around 50 NPC's to build, and don't want to have to struggle with every individual character.

[Edit: I need something that allows me to build the entire character, multiclass, pick feats, equipment, etc. and generate a monster manual style stat block that I can save as an image file to add to a pdf document]

D&D_Fan
2020-08-12, 08:11 AM
If it is based off of player characters stats, the I could recommend fastcharacter (https://fastcharacter.com/), since it has a lot of options for players that could be used for NPCs as well.

DragonsHead
2020-08-12, 08:27 AM
I need something that allows me to build the entire character, multiclass, pick feats, etc. and generate a monster manual style stat block, sorry, I will edit my main post with this information.

Composer99
2020-08-12, 09:45 AM
5e NPCs don't really follow the PC-building rules, so I can't see how most NPC builders would work using PC chargen and then create monster statblocks?

Google found me an NPC generator that basically builds PC-style NPCs, but it lacks customisability, so probably isn't quite what you're looking for: https://www.rpgtinker.com/.

JNAProductions
2020-08-12, 10:42 AM
I'll echo those who say "Don't build NPCs like PCs."

It's not worth the time and effort-either for the person (you) making them, or the DM running them.

Feel free to take inspiration from PC abilities (Reckless Attack, for instance, is a good ability to slap on a brute of an NPC) but just build them as NPCs.

DragonsHead
2020-08-12, 12:55 PM
Word, makes sense. It's just a few of the NPCs are current or former adventurers, so I wanted to make them reflective of that and use a system that would allow me to do both the PC class NPC's and the regular folk NPC's without having to switch programs and possibly have stat blocks with different looking formats.

GreatWyrmGold
2020-08-16, 05:53 PM
5e NPC stats can work for former adventurers; IIRC, they have a (simplified) set of abilities from the classes they're supposed to have levels in. If that's good enough for you, then follow their lead; throw together someone with the hit dice and stats appropriate for an Xth-level adventurer of class Y, set up proficiencies, and throw in iconic class abilities to flavor.

If you want more detail, more precision, then yeah build them like PCs. I'm not a fan of how 5e removed 3.5's guidelines for making NPCs (based on the PC classes) and replaced them with basically squat (that I've heard of, beyond the custom monster rules), so you're not gonna hear me complain.