How do you stat up your NPCs/Villains

[sithramir]

I roll their stats the same way the PC's are allowed to and then give them normal starting gold for the level. You might want to use the suggested NPC gold instead but I like whomping on my PC's and I usually try to choose items that they already have and can't gain advantage from or aren't that advantageous to them. Like bracers of armor and rings of prot and amulets of nat ac, etc is easy to give because they most likely have that item or slot filled and can then only sell it for some gold. I just avoid giving them a lot of gold along with it or from another encounter that might have more so as to keep them on par for their level.

I roll up the big NPC's myself because things like PCGEN seem to make little mistakes if you don' t use it right. Althought using an excelt sheet with all the important things so you can just fill it in is a good idea if you do it alot.

 

[Arnwyn]

I use Jamis Buck's generator exclusively, even for major NPCs.

I use it to get the basic template and stats that I want, and then edit to suit the character. Feats, for example, are always changed, and I usually re-assign skills. Spells are also re-assigned for spellcasters.

I've discovered that once the template and stats are done, though, the rest takes much less time than doing everything by hand - it reduces my NPC creation time considerably (and I despise 3e for the creation of NPC stats).

Even making 3.5 upgrades are fairly easy once the template and stats are done.