Anyone else find it annoying to figure out skills for NPCs?

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

my blacksmith doesn't need a craft score or skill focus until the first time he swings the anvil

Wow. He must have some kinda Strength score!

 

[Mallus]

What's the difference between this and outright fudging? Not a darned thing.

And the why DM's shouldn't be thought of as 'just another player' vis a vis The Rules.

DM's should endeavor to make the game fun. Toward that end, they should have every tool available to them, inclding the ones they just pull out of their butts.

 

[el-remmen]

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!

And see I would be annoyed if I knew the DM did this for a BBEG when he ostensibly had plenty of time to prepare and knew this conflict/meeting was evetually going to happen.

On the other hand, if an encounter is a result of the PCs going or doing something completely unexpected or at least very unlikely then I am actually really good at running what we call in my gaming circles the "glue" (i.e. it sticke together the prepped and planned parts of the campaign/adventure) - but if that is not the case then any encounter I bother running or writing up fits into a larger scheme and context. . .

 

[Ravellion]

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."

So I take it you roll in the open then? I have only started rolling in the open recently. Actually, I started rolling in the open since when I didn't stat out everything fully anymore (no fully statted creatures to hide behind the DM screen anymore, hence, no need for the screen).

Rav

 

[drnuncheon]

I know of that, and find it neither satisfying nor useful.

Not satisfying, maybe, but not useful?

I use the method a lot, or, if I want to put just a little more work in, I'll break one or two of those skills in half and pick twice as many skills he has at half the ranks.

J

 

[Zappo]

(for instance, your blacksmith has a +15 to hit and does 1d100 damage per hit)

According to my Diablo 2 culture, all blacksmiths are like this.

 

[John Morrow]

"Electronic tools are a good way to treat the symptoms, but the don't address the fundamental problem with the system.

A good electronic tool can make the symptoms quite bearable.

I use Jamis Buck's NPC generator:

http://www.aarg.net/~minam/npc.cgi
http://www.aarg.net/~minam/npc2.cgi

Fast enough and good enough to use at game time for improvised NPCs. Just have it create 10-20 NPCs of the sort you are looking for and pick what you want.

 

[WayneLigon]

I don't know what my point is - except that I have been sitting here doing skills for a bunch of NPCs all morning. . . and then realized I had forgotten to include armor check penalties. . . and got annoyed. . .

Never Design More Than You Need.

Just wing it for most NPC's. I never bother with actual skill point allocation unless it's someone that will actually be joining the party for a time.

If it's a merchant or someone like that, I have a series of predone npc sketches, like 'Good Merchant; HP 8, Int 13, Spot +5, Appaise +5, Craft +5' or 'Poor Merchant, HP 4, Int 10, Appraise +2' that I can use and re-use as I need. If I get an idea to change him up a bit, I just eyeball it.

I never bother with the synergies and armor check penalties unless it's someone who will be fighting with or against the party. In that case, I just use some generic bandit or rogue statblocks I did some time ago using PCGen or something like that.

 

[Ace]

Well, this thread was more of a gripe, than actually expecting a solution

Heh--

what you need is the PDF And Everyone Else --

Its stats up in loving detail every single NPC classed indivdual you could want

After that go and make some standard NPCs-- elite xyz soldier, typical cuththroat and so on for the PC classes in your campaign --

cut and paste as needed

 

[el-remmen]

I think you are all getting me wrong.

I am not talking about stating out blacksmiths or townguards. Usually they are such low level that it is relatively easy to do their skills if I feel the need at all.

Rather I am talking about things like "The Company of the Impervious Ward" - an elite mercenary band specializing in bringing down wizards, with a compliment of both mid to high level officers and various foot soliders. Right there I had a group of two score NPCs (soe of which admittedly were exactly the same by group) that might be encountered in a variety of environments depending on when they eventually met up with the party. Their spot, listen, hide, climb, ride and jump (and perhaps even swim) were all very important, along with the leaders' knowledge skills, or their ability to repair their own weapons and armor if the party met them several times.

I run a very verisimilitudinous game - and you never know what might happen - fighting retreats, hiding, ambush, re-grouping, religious debate, gathering information - any and all of these things might come into play and as soon as I start "faking it" in one situation I might over or under compensate in terms of skills/feats/abilities if I don' recall or happen to not what I decided on the spot for them and then we do get into the range of not fair for the players, because their characters do have to keep track of skills and armor check penalties (and even rations!) and the same things they should have to keep in midn when attempting something their opponents and allies should have to keep in mind as well.