Building Characters

[JoeGKushner]

When looking at character creation, I go about it a few ways, depending on what I'm doing at the time.

When I'm a player, I try to use as few books as possible and try to stick with the core materials. Now this doesn't mean I haven't played a half-giant psychic warrior, but I tend to enjoy simple stuff more.

When I GM, if the NPC is a bit player, I rarely worry about stats.

My main problem comes up when dealing with characters that may fight alongside or against the players. I tend to use various PrCs of regions that the players are in and then have to figure out the requirements for them. Very time consuming. Makes me wish that E-Tools actually worked well (it may now, I gave up on it somewhere during the 3.0 era).

Now I never have a problem with things like background, mannerisms, clothing and insuring that their general power level is where I want it to be, but getting requirements down for some of these things and making sure that skill points add up right, especially for multi-classed characters is so annoying!
Others?

 

[Ferret]

If your looking for something to do NPC on, Look for RedBlade, sooooo simple to use it's crazy. I haven't a link though.

Me though? I usually wing it or make out all of the stats for important characters.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

For PCs, I generally use a lot of classes because a) I generally go for oddball character types and b) I enjoy playing around with different classes.

For NPCs, it varies. Major characters (like a main villain) usually have the same cornucopia of classes as my PCs. Secondary characters needed on the fly may be as simple as using a monster's stats but calling it an NPC.

 

[Crothian]

Why does it matter if the skill points add up? Having a few extra or to few really doesn't matter that much. Same for saves, BAB, HP...as lonmg as your in the right ball park it works. I think people think NPCs have to perfect as if the PCs get to check your work on them or something.

 

[Voadam]

PCs sometimes I go srd only for ease of looking stuff up for e-mail or pbp games, sometimes I like to pick one thing from a 3rd party or WotC splat book to make a character different or interesting, and sometimes I scour every sourcebook I have for the right options to make in a huge eclectic mix. It varies.

For NPCs, if they are going to be in combat I want stats. If not I usually wing it and just say on the fly what happens without even rolling skill checks.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I think people think NPCs have to perfect as if the PCs get to check your work on them or something.

Wait, they don't? What type of sick campaign are you running man! (I want in!)

 

[francisca]

I used to be in the same boat. Ranted on and on and on about the book keeping aspect of skills in 3E. Almost gave up on 3E because of the time it took to constract accurate NPCs.

Then I came to the realiziation that I could do the same thing I had been doing with previous editions: Wing it. "Good enough", is in fact, good enough. My players trust me to not screw them over by confronting them with overwhelming opponents or overshadow them with uber NPCs.

Hence, if I'm in the ballpark with skills, it's good enough. Of course, this comes from experience, so I think all DMs should fully stat out *some* NPCs every once in a while, just to keep everything in perspective.

 

[maddman75]

Heh - in 3e you *need* to be able to bluff your way through a stat block. If the characters have any kind of autonomy, they're going to go places you hadn't planned. And remember the first law of DMing

- If you stat it up, they will ignore it. If you don't stat it up, they will attack it.

 

[Crothian]

Wait, they don't? What type of sick campaign are you running man! (I want in!)

The one where I tell the players they can pick their stats (although one guy didn't feel comforitble with that so he rolled), the one where the players don't loot and give away magical items, and the one where they don't check my NPCs. I know, its a wierd game I have......

 

[Voadam]

My main problem comes up when dealing with characters that may fight alongside or against the players. I tend to use various PrCs of regions that the players are in and then have to figure out the requirements for them. Very time consuming. Makes me wish that E-Tools actually worked well (it may now, I gave up on it somewhere during the 3.0 era).

I generally stick to one prestige class per individual and back tracking to qualify is not that bad. It's when you want the four class combo for your PC to get the right numbers efficiently that it takes a significant amount of figuring.

One option is to rule that NPCs don't have the same entry requirements as PCs. This makes it very quick to apply prcs to a charachter and then use the entry requirements as "typically chosen feats and skills focused on"