Heh, so, the fact that 3e never, ever used randomly generated NPC's is irrelevant, but a single throw away line, THAT IS CONTRADICTED IN THE SAME SENTENCE, is? Remember, they SPECIFICALLY STATE THE ARRAY OF ELITE NPC'S AND STATE THAT NON-ELITE NPC'S HAVE LOWER STATS.
So, no, 3e NPC's are not generated by 3d6 in order, since that would result in significant numbers of them becoming Elites. And, ALL elite NPC's
USE THE SAME STAT ARRAY.
Good grief @
Maxperson, don't you get tired of cherry picking your points? Or do you see that one sentence that supports you and just mentally block out everything else.
Just to reiterate. Elite NPC's all have the same stat block, arranged to the most advantageous set. Non-Elite NPC's have lower stats because, well, if they had higher, then they would be elite and use the elite array. So, it's somewhat contradictory right in the same paragraph to say that all NPC's are 3d6 rolled. They aren't. They can't be since any 3d6 result that would exceed the Elite array would automatically have to shift that NPC to elite and use an identical array.
But, hey, keep on keeping on. @
Maxperson has no problem ignoring the fact that 5e flat out stats that NPC's that aren't a threat don't need stats, why should he bother actually reading this either?