MeepoTheMighty said:
Exactly, which rather blows away Monte's "every NPC will be the same" argument.
I think most of the posters are misreading or did not read what Monte said. He specifically did not argue that "every NPC will be the same". He argued that if you are going to use the NPC table in the first place, it means you need a quick NPC and don't want to have to customize them by spending their gold on equipment and picking their feats.
I agree. If I have to pick the feats and buy a bunch of equipment, what's the point in having the table? You can build an NPC almost as fast on your own. And if you need the table, then you probably haven't made an NPC in advance so you want something that is ready out of the box.