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<blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 6782247" data-attributes="member: 6677017">For monsters, I see no reason (other than maybe to speed it up a bit) not to just use the rules as written. The rules as written already tell you to give the monster any stats you want, with the sole exception of proficiency bonus. You determine that at the end. This is probably to avoid people screwing things up by doing a poor job setting it and throwing off the other math.The circularity of the proficiency bonus/CR determination stood out to me at first, but I realized that it should pretty much always add up. The one annoyance is having to pre-guess a CR ahead of time.With NPCs with class levels, they are build exactly like PCs and get their full proficiency bonus, etc. If they need a CR for XP, it is their level.For NPCs without classes, I just use the NPC stats in the MM (with racial adjustments). I like to give them an extra skills or tool proficiencies where appropriate. For someone who is supposed to be really good, give them expertise. And it's perfectly fine to alter ability scores. So let's say your baseline for a sage is a commoner. Give them an Intelligence of 16, give them proficiency in whichever knowledge skills you want, and then give them expertise in one of them. Without a combat presence their proficiency bonus is only +2, but they have a +7 mod with their favored knowledge--better than any low-level adventure.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Sword of Spirit, post: 6782247, member: 6677017"] For monsters, I see no reason (other than maybe to speed it up a bit) not to just use the rules as written. The rules as written already tell you to give the monster any stats you want, with the sole exception of proficiency bonus. You determine that at the end. This is probably to avoid people screwing things up by doing a poor job setting it and throwing off the other math. The circularity of the proficiency bonus/CR determination stood out to me at first, but I realized that it should pretty much always add up. The one annoyance is having to pre-guess a CR ahead of time. With NPCs with class levels, they are build exactly like PCs and get their full proficiency bonus, etc. If they need a CR for XP, it is their level. For NPCs without classes, I just use the NPC stats in the MM (with racial adjustments). I like to give them an extra skills or tool proficiencies where appropriate. For someone who is supposed to be really good, give them expertise. And it's perfectly fine to alter ability scores. So let's say your baseline for a sage is a commoner. Give them an Intelligence of 16, give them proficiency in whichever knowledge skills you want, and then give them expertise in one of them. Without a combat presence their proficiency bonus is only +2, but they have a +7 mod with their favored knowledge--better than any low-level adventure. [/QUOTE]

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