D&D 4E 4e Monster Manual excerpt

[HeinorNY]

I meant combat NPCs, obviously. For example, a 7th level enemy cleric, like in Henry's 2e example. Non-combat NPC "statblocks" are trivial in every edition.

There are plenty stat-blocks for combat NPC's:

Human Guard Level 1 Soldier
Medium natural humanoid XP 100
Initiative + 4 Senses Perception +5
HP 31; Bloodied 15
AC 16; Fortitude 14, Reflex 13, Will 12
Speed 5
Halberd (standard; at-will) • Weapon Reach 2; +8 vs. AC; 1d10+2 damage, and the target is marked until the end of the human guard’s next turn.
Powerful Strike (standard, recharge 5,6) • Weapon Requires Halberd; Reach 2; +8 vs. AC; 1d10+6 damage, and the target is knocked prone.
Crossbow (standard; at-will) • Weapon Range 15/30; +7 vs. AC 1d8+1 damage
Alignment Any Languages Common
Skills: Streetwise +5
Str 15 (+2) Dex 14 (+2) Wis 11 (+0)
Con 15 (+2) Int 10 (+0) Cha 12 (+1)
Equipment chainmail, crossbow, halberd, 20 bolts

 

[Primal]

Why? That NPC is not going to be used in combat. Why waste time generating numbers I'm not gonna use? I have a whole campagin to run, lots of work.

You can't know that. You've never had PCs take on a "non-combatant" NPC before? I have. And not just innkeepers, mind you, but street urchins picking their pockets and mad prophets/doomsayers preaching on the street (and the situation has escalated as both sides have started insulting each other). In 3E it was pretty easy to improvise the stats, but I wonder which kind of "combat stats" an Innkeeper, Street Urchin or Doomsayer would have. Or, for that matter, an NPC priest of a hostile faith (assuming you're not statting him as a cleric).

 

[hong]

You can't know that.

But you can guess.

Trust me, I'm a statistician.

 

[Belphanior]

Who cares what the combat stats are for a street urchin? It's a kid. When a PC catches a 12 year old pick-pocket in your game, do you honesly roll initiative and break out the battlemat?

 

[Danzauker]

My only requirement on names is that I need to be able to pronounce them. If the name requires a pronounciation guide, then "war devil" is infinitely superior. Hell, I'll take Golden Adept Devil over a name I need a guide for.

Then, good luck with drow.

Beside, if the name literally means "evil claws", doesn't that make it a compound name? I always get a chuckle when D&D uses foreign names for creatures and when you translate them back, you realize the English version is something mundane (most of the dinosaurs are prime examples of this)

For that matter, "succubus" comes from latin, precisely from "sub" = under and "cubo" = (I) lie, so it more or less means "someone that lies under another", a clear referral to the seductor role of those demons.

So, it's a sort of compound name, too.

And, besides, we all know that compound names are all what's 4e is made of.

Feywild, Gloomdeep...

 

[hong]

Who cares what the combat stats are for a street urchin? It's a kid. When a PC catches a 12 year old pick-pocket in your game, do you honesly roll initiative and break out the battlemat?

When the knight PC in my Britannia 3E game confessed his love to the assassin chick he'd been flirting with, I broke out the battlemat. It was glorious.

 

[Belphanior]

When the knight PC in my Britannia 3E game confessed his love to the assassin chick he'd been flirting with, I broke out the battlemat. It was glorious.

Oh but that's completely different. It's a love condession after all. Now, if your knight had confessed his love to the Oliver Twist he just caught rummaging around with his "pouch" then yeah, the battlemat would definitely be appropriate.

 

[Primal]

But you can guess.

Trust me, I'm a statistician.

But the players are cunning bast**** who always try to catch you off-guard. Can't always rely on statictics with them (you can guess or estimate how they will behave in a certain encounter and still they often manage to surprise you! )

 

[Primal]

Who cares what the combat stats are for a street urchin? It's a kid. When a PC catches a 12 year old pick-pocket in your game, do you honesly roll initiative and break out the battlemat?

Oh, most certainly, because if the PC tries to catch or grapple the kid, initiative determines which of them acts first (in fact, one of my own 1st level characters has done this in an encounter which the DM clearly improvised -- I caught the kid). I wouldn't "break out the battlemap", unless tracking movement and terrain modifiers would be crucial to the outcome.

 

[hong]

But the players are cunning bast**** who always try to catch you off-guard.

If they are in the habit of treating the people with blue circles around their feet as though they were red circles, it's time to find a better group.