How do you design NPCs?

[Phototoxin]

I use the DDI adventure tools - I'm doing a Red hand of doom conversion for paragon so to make say a hobgoblin adept (a weak-ish sorcerer) I get a hobgoblin, switch to artillery, level him up, and add some sorcery / wizardy powers (magic missile etc) I tend to copy and modify extensively rather than start from scratch.

 

[the Jester]

I design npcs exactly like I design monsters. I ignore all the player-oriented stuff except for inspiration and/or ideas.

 

[haakon1]

I use a lot of modules . . . I do build my own (or rebuild), I use normal PC development rules, so it's tedious alright.

What makes it less tedious is that I stick to core 3.5e rules (PHB + a few other rules), I've been playing long enough to have a lot of rules memorized rather than needing to look them up, and my campaigns aren't high level (13 is max for us) and it's "traditional" in feel -- PC's and most NPC's are from the standard PHB races and classes, with rare exceptions and rare use of prestige classes.

It's probably considerably easier to stat up a boss monster who is a 5th level Rogue/2nd level Barbarian/2nd Level Assassin Half-Orc who is also a werewolf for my campaign, than your 18th level Deva Psion (no Psions in my campaign, and no stat'd out 18th level characters).

 

[pemerton]

I generally don't use NPCs as companinions for the PCs - 5 PCs is enough to manage on its own.

When I'm using NPCs in the context of free roleplaying, free narration does the job. When I'm using them as combat antagonists, I stat them as monsters (and generally can find the stats I want, or at least a basic outline of them, in one of my monster books). When I'm using them as non-combat antagonists, I use there actions and responses to colour the skill challenge resolution, and to inject some mechanical detail (eg if the NPC is Bluff-y, then that makes use of Insight in a skill challenge harder than it otherwise would be).

 

[Pour]

To be honest, I play their personalities, fudge some abilities and powers, and only when cornered in a combat or a situation where I should roll against a PC do I actually take the time to produce any kind of stats. For the most part, anyway.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I've made quite a range of minion NPCs for skill challenges and roleplaying when dice are needed.

Including, of course, counsellors with lots of Insight. (And, once, a ritualist who could use Discern Lies. But the PCs foiled that ritual.)

 

[Fox Lee]

If it's a combat NPC, then monster stats do the trick beautifully, with much less fiddle. If it's a non-combat NPC, I use a simple set of "cohort" rules I whipped up to deal with non-combat followers. If it's a PC, character builder tools are my best friend - with databases rather than books, I never found it all that complicated to make a high-level character from scratch (except possibly when keeping track of power swap levels - those are super-annoying, and one thing I really don't care for in 4e). Hero Lab for preference, because I hate the Silverlight character builder, though HL is not without its flaws (it has to interpret items from DDI itself, rather than ship with pre-coded rules info, so it doesn't violate WotC's copyright and such).

Sure, it gets more complicated if you want to do a powerful min/max build, but then, that's how min/maxing works; you build harder so you can play easier/stronger.