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More from Mearls' blog re: NPC Creation
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<blockquote data-quote="helium3" data-source="post: 4028018" data-attributes="member: 31301"><p>What takes up all that time in statting up NPC's for 3.5?</p><p></p><p><strong>Figuring out Equipment.</strong> I'm "this close" to writing my own database application that'll do it for me the way I want. Some of the 3rd party fan site stuff is nice but it doesn't quite let me do it how I want. Either that or I need to come up with some sort of standard progression for a specific class type. I hunch they're doing this in 4E so maybe I'll just let the dev's do the work for me . . .</p><p></p><p>I really don't know why everyone has such an issue with skills. I basically just figure out what skills I want the NPC to have and assume they have max ranks. Sometimes I even let them have skills that they shouldn't because it fits the NPC's theme, but I never give them more skill points than allowed. I can't imagine why this would be really time consuming unless someone's trying to optimize skills to a really pick level. Oh, and I guess I do ignore synergies unless it's a really common one I'm familiar enough with to remember off the top of my head.</p><p></p><p>That being said, where I've had more trouble with skills is when I'm trying to advance a monster and give it elite stats at the same time. I don't know if I'm missing some rule somewhere but it seems like a lot of the monsters have +/- two ranks in their skills, even when I take into account size modifiers for some skills and various feats. But really, we're talking about an error of +2 to -2 so it's not generally that big of a deal.</p><p></p><p>And feats? *shrug* I don't have much problem with this, but then I rarely use the feats from the splat books. In fact, I generally only use them if a player's getting good use out of one in the game. Then I'll start using it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="helium3, post: 4028018, member: 31301"] What takes up all that time in statting up NPC's for 3.5? [b]Figuring out Equipment.[/b] I'm "this close" to writing my own database application that'll do it for me the way I want. Some of the 3rd party fan site stuff is nice but it doesn't quite let me do it how I want. Either that or I need to come up with some sort of standard progression for a specific class type. I hunch they're doing this in 4E so maybe I'll just let the dev's do the work for me . . . I really don't know why everyone has such an issue with skills. I basically just figure out what skills I want the NPC to have and assume they have max ranks. Sometimes I even let them have skills that they shouldn't because it fits the NPC's theme, but I never give them more skill points than allowed. I can't imagine why this would be really time consuming unless someone's trying to optimize skills to a really pick level. Oh, and I guess I do ignore synergies unless it's a really common one I'm familiar enough with to remember off the top of my head. That being said, where I've had more trouble with skills is when I'm trying to advance a monster and give it elite stats at the same time. I don't know if I'm missing some rule somewhere but it seems like a lot of the monsters have +/- two ranks in their skills, even when I take into account size modifiers for some skills and various feats. But really, we're talking about an error of +2 to -2 so it's not generally that big of a deal. And feats? *shrug* I don't have much problem with this, but then I rarely use the feats from the splat books. In fact, I generally only use them if a player's getting good use out of one in the game. Then I'll start using it. [/QUOTE]
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