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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 4948879" data-attributes="member: 82106">Well, that's a good question...The DMG doesn't really ever come out and say whether or not NPCs should be treated as ordinary monsters of their level or as elites. One presumes that means they are classified like ordinary monsters, but they tend to present more of a threat (usually) than ordinary monsters.My feeling is the NPCs designed using the NPC rules are more suitable as allies for the PCs than as enemies. This is reinforced by noting that DMG2 has dropped the entire concept of build-to-class NPCs and provides only monster class templates. Instead they introduce the "Companion Character" rules, which honestly seem to be pretty darn close to the old NPC rules except a bit more generalized and explicitly intended to be allies for the players. The easiest way to resolve the whole conundrum is to use the monster class templates. These are just like functional templates and make the monster elite. If you lack a suitable base monster it should be pretty easy to generate one from something close to what you want. Class templated monsters have better balance as opponents too, so the fights are usually more interesting. NPCs are pretty limited on hit points and tend to die suddenly before you want them to.</blockquote>