nemmerle said:
For those who suggested even glossing over feats. . . I think that is even more dangerous than doing that for skills, because it is too east to forget stuff like Power Attack even when you have it written down (I have taken to bold/italics feats that come into play in combat on the NPC stat block so they stick out among all the other feats listed - since I have forgotten stuff like Power Attack and Dodge, etc. . so many times).
Anyway, figuring out feats is easy. . .
Actually, I would prefer NOT to state them on non-major NPC's, because as I noted and S'mon quoted, "Feats hide a multitude of sins." Let's say that a player character is inches from death through no fault of his own (he fights valiantly, he's getting into tonight's game, etc.) and you just rolled a 19 with your NPC thug and the hit would put him into the red. Instead, the thug just used his POWER ATTACK for more than he could handle, and missed the hero with a blow that
shatters some mearby scenery with its force!
Two games later, your bad guy of the night is rolling so poorly that the climax of the evening is a joke. The players are expecting Kurgan from Highlander, and you're giving them
Mr. Magoo! What he needs is a little extra boost - in the form of a weapon focus, or a spring attack, or something else flashy. What if he needs more skill than what you've assumed? Skill Focus, and BAM! He's 3 points better!
What's the difference between this and outright fudging? Not a darned thing. But the fact is that d20 is blessed with so many feats, skills, prestige classes, magic items, and templates that whatever number you need in an NPC within reason is THERE to assign! Plus, if you need an explanation for an out-of-game player, just tell them that he had the feats needed for that extra 1 or 2 point "oomph" you just gave him.
On a more stringent note, if an NPC needs an ability that you forgot to give him, quickly assigning those nebulous skill points or feats or levels to whatever he needed to have is as easy as writing down the name of his dog, or what his wife's birthday is. Unless you are either blatant about it, or assign values totally out of the pale (for instance, your blacksmith has a +15 to hit and does 1d100 damage per hit), then you can always figure out what stats to assign after the fact.
In other words, my blacksmith doesn't need a craft score or skill focus until the first time he swings the anvil, and my troll doesn't need a spot score and an alertness feat until the rogue is hiding.
