3 PCs (Party Level 6) "breeze" through EL 9 encounter

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Well, in regards to picking feats and skills, etc., I don't want to min-max my NPCs too much. I figured these rogues were the "stereotypical" pickpockets and thieves, hence their feats were Stealthy and Run.

Ok.

For the assassins casting true strike, after 3 rounds of observation, the following round they cast true stike, then the next round they entered melee and attacked. As far as my understanding of the rules, that is legal.

The stats for the Fire Knives seemed all right. According to the FRCS, the stats presented were those of the typical Fire Knive assassin.

What page are they on?

I realize the need to sometimes tailor encounters according to the PCs abilities, but I'm not really into customizing NPCs to specifically counteract the abilities of the PCs too much. For the most part, I like to think of a theme for the NPC and try and go with that, hence the "pickpocket" rogues, while crappy in combat, fit the theme of being thieves.

thanks for the input though. Food for thought.

You don't need to customize NPCs too much, just make them a challenge And, varied opponents means more fun for the players, too, IME, especially since you don't have a huge group.

But even if you made them carbon-copy clones of your party, the fact that they have NPC gear would still make them suck