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NPCs: Stat Blocks or Backgrounds
- Thread starter Mark CMG
- Start date
Voadam
Legend
As a GM tool I want ready done stat blocks I can grab.
I come up with NPC concepts on the fly in my games all the time, stat blocks when combat happens are more useful.
For example from my dwarven veangance game:
Tiefling madam: polite to customers, domineering to her staff.
Tiefling "masseuse": chatty and bubbly, always gossips negatively about others, focuses greedily on bad details of any story.
Duergar psywarrior mercykiller investigator: abrasive jerk, makes threats as he checks things out.
Tielfling swashbuckler warrior: just rescued by party, worried about war, has some useful info about secret ways of city.
Tiefling city guide from hotel: shady character, very knowledgeable about markets and entertainment and gathering some undercity info, corrupt and out for a buck from rich outsiders.
Faust wererat swarm summoner: hired to cause a distraction, scared out of his wits when captured and threatened by duergar with torture
Tiefling bureaucrat: She is catty and out for a bribe, likes playing with male emotions
Fire Giant Smith: brutish dismissive, laughs at others misfortune, boastful
Duergar apprentice smithmage: arrogant, boastful, dismissive, condescending of others, proud
Efreeti merchant: works angles, likes tales, schmoozes, boastful about race's past glories, secretly worried about the mess he's in with bad arms deals and losing his cool over it, handling things not as well anymore.
I had a wererat shifter stats I modified for the faust that went well and got two tiefling stats of the npc wiki and used a bod standard MM efreeti stats, but would have been a bit of a problem if the party picked a fight with the psychic warrior or the madam.
NPC stat block resources like the NPC wiki are great for me.
I come up with NPC concepts on the fly in my games all the time, stat blocks when combat happens are more useful.
For example from my dwarven veangance game:
Tiefling madam: polite to customers, domineering to her staff.
Tiefling "masseuse": chatty and bubbly, always gossips negatively about others, focuses greedily on bad details of any story.
Duergar psywarrior mercykiller investigator: abrasive jerk, makes threats as he checks things out.
Tielfling swashbuckler warrior: just rescued by party, worried about war, has some useful info about secret ways of city.
Tiefling city guide from hotel: shady character, very knowledgeable about markets and entertainment and gathering some undercity info, corrupt and out for a buck from rich outsiders.
Faust wererat swarm summoner: hired to cause a distraction, scared out of his wits when captured and threatened by duergar with torture
Tiefling bureaucrat: She is catty and out for a bribe, likes playing with male emotions
Fire Giant Smith: brutish dismissive, laughs at others misfortune, boastful
Duergar apprentice smithmage: arrogant, boastful, dismissive, condescending of others, proud
Efreeti merchant: works angles, likes tales, schmoozes, boastful about race's past glories, secretly worried about the mess he's in with bad arms deals and losing his cool over it, handling things not as well anymore.
I had a wererat shifter stats I modified for the faust that went well and got two tiefling stats of the npc wiki and used a bod standard MM efreeti stats, but would have been a bit of a problem if the party picked a fight with the psychic warrior or the madam.
NPC stat block resources like the NPC wiki are great for me.
GoodKingJayIII
First Post
Stat blocks are the easiest, simply because all the information is available; you just have to put it together. However, just because it's easy doesn't mean it's not tedious. I find plotting a background and history a lot more engaging, although I've tried to keep my NPC's backgrounds relatively sparse, since I believe what they're doing now, with the PCs is more important than what anything I invent for them.
But statblocks are great because you can pick and choose the information you really need. For instance:
LE Human Fighter Mook
5d10+10 (40 hp)
BAB: +7 (+8 with greatsword), 2d6+5
AC: 17 (+6 +1 chainmail, +1 dex)
Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +1
Feats: Weapon Focus, Weapon Spec (greatsword), Power Attack
There you go. All the relevant fighter stats and feats in just a few minutes, with a few blanks for customization. If you want to vary it up, add a few guys with spiked chains and improved trip. If you think skills will be important, fill those in too. Shouldn't take much more time.
Obviously it's a lot harder at 15th level, but unless it's a major NPC I would never list every appropriate stat. And even then, I'd try not to create from scratch. I could grab the MM entry and copy all the important info I'd need. Or advance an NPC I created 7 sessions ago. There's a lot of repeat information out there that should make NPC statblocks pretty easy.
But statblocks are great because you can pick and choose the information you really need. For instance:
LE Human Fighter Mook
5d10+10 (40 hp)
BAB: +7 (+8 with greatsword), 2d6+5
AC: 17 (+6 +1 chainmail, +1 dex)
Fort +6, Ref +2, Will +1
Feats: Weapon Focus, Weapon Spec (greatsword), Power Attack
There you go. All the relevant fighter stats and feats in just a few minutes, with a few blanks for customization. If you want to vary it up, add a few guys with spiked chains and improved trip. If you think skills will be important, fill those in too. Shouldn't take much more time.
Obviously it's a lot harder at 15th level, but unless it's a major NPC I would never list every appropriate stat. And even then, I'd try not to create from scratch. I could grab the MM entry and copy all the important info I'd need. Or advance an NPC I created 7 sessions ago. There's a lot of repeat information out there that should make NPC statblocks pretty easy.
Theocrat
First Post
Hi all -
I really want to see Stat Blocks of classes from non-core books. I'd love to see a lvl 4 Swordsage from Tome of Battle, a Thug from Kingdoms of Kalamar, a Warlock / Hexblade, and other non-standard classes yet that are official D&D (remember, K&C pays big money for the D&D Logo and has to have their books previewed by WotC previous to publishing - as a side note, at GAMA 2006, I spoke with K&C about it and one of the reasons they're going away from the D&D Logo and making more d20/HackMaster products is the ease of creation).
Maybe it's that these aren't SRD'd that they aren't used. I'm unsure if it is difficult to list an NPC in either a d20 for sale product or a fan based rpg product to put a Samaruai or Shuenga and use its Oriental Adventures / Spell Compendium spellbook without breaking rules. Or maybe it's just that people don't like to make odd classes for their adventures. But I for one would love to have my PC's go against a Swordsage or some other different class, and do things they're not expecting, and decide to get some ideas from that for their own PC.
Thanks and Be Well.
Theocrat Issak
I really want to see Stat Blocks of classes from non-core books. I'd love to see a lvl 4 Swordsage from Tome of Battle, a Thug from Kingdoms of Kalamar, a Warlock / Hexblade, and other non-standard classes yet that are official D&D (remember, K&C pays big money for the D&D Logo and has to have their books previewed by WotC previous to publishing - as a side note, at GAMA 2006, I spoke with K&C about it and one of the reasons they're going away from the D&D Logo and making more d20/HackMaster products is the ease of creation).
Maybe it's that these aren't SRD'd that they aren't used. I'm unsure if it is difficult to list an NPC in either a d20 for sale product or a fan based rpg product to put a Samaruai or Shuenga and use its Oriental Adventures / Spell Compendium spellbook without breaking rules. Or maybe it's just that people don't like to make odd classes for their adventures. But I for one would love to have my PC's go against a Swordsage or some other different class, and do things they're not expecting, and decide to get some ideas from that for their own PC.
Thanks and Be Well.
Theocrat Issak
Shemeska
Adventurer
If they're not important enough to interact with the PCs (at which point some background is needed), they're not important enough to have a stat block. Run their stats on the fly, off the top of your head at that point.
More important NPCs should get both, but the background is more important.
Some NPCs shouldn't have a statblock included if they're not someone the PCs stand a chance in heck of fighting; at that point only give me background and don't waste space on a statblock that will never be used.
More important NPCs should get both, but the background is more important.
Some NPCs shouldn't have a statblock included if they're not someone the PCs stand a chance in heck of fighting; at that point only give me background and don't waste space on a statblock that will never be used.
ruleslawyer
Registered User
QFT.Shemeska said:
Ideally, what I'd like is a big, well-indexed book of statblocks for various archetypes, with lots of interesting feats and classes used (so "ascetic swordsman" could use some classes from the Book of Nine Swords and/or Complete Warrior, "lich death master" could use stuff from Complete Arcane, Libris Mortis, etc, and so on), and then have NPC descriptions in individual modules, etc. be largely limited to background and motivations. It'd then be a matter of seconds to dig up stats you think are appropriate for the overbearing, racist martinet of a guard captain detailed in a module by just finding the "man-at-arms archetype" stat block, and so on.
Of course, my wish depends largely on WotC publishing this sort of thing, or offering some 3rd-party publisher lots of use rights, so I doubt it'll ever happen.
Voadam
Legend
Theocrat said:
Both, these WotC classes not in the srd are not OGC that can be used by others under the OGL. Publishers therefore do not make them.
Also for adventures, the more standard things are the easier it is to write stats for them and you don't have to spend as much space and words explaining the abilities for those without the supplemental books. Also making sure the material is actually OGC can be a pain depending on other publisher's OGC declarations. This is why few use OGC monsters or classes in their books. Necromancer, Bastion, and a few others have done it but the usual policy is srd only and maybe some new stuff specific for the module.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a book full of 1-20 stats for Green Ronin shamans, witches, and unholy warriors, or the variant classes from Atlas-Games Nyambe or Occult Lore.
Theocrat
First Post
Hi all -
One of the things that I've done for years now is use a module - no matter the level - and if it is orcs, gnolls, or demons, just modify it as needed to fit the correct level of the PC's. As of late, I've begun to copy all the stat blocks from the Dungeon mag's, and then cut them out of the copied page and tape the lvl 4 thugs over the lvl 1 thugs (fits my PC's lvls), thus the module remains the same, with closer stats. Yes, they were supposed to be cultists and not thugs, but it worked very well none-the-less. When it was important that the NPC speak Abyssal, I quickly looked under the taped NPC for the original and saw that the original did speak the language. Yes, I realize that skill points would have been used differently to accomadate the language, but I figured it wasn't gonna matter too much, as the PC's would end up killing the bad guy thug cultists anyway.
The difficult part of my plan has now been dealing with my folder of Dungeon mag pages before and after they've been cut out. The cut out's (taped togeather when spread to more than 1 column) fit in an envelope, and if a picture is present I've copied that as well. I've tried to organize the folder by level, but that too is difficult, as sometimes an NPC is over several pages and may have 2 npc's. For that I've made a couple copies.
But alas, the same issue arises in that even Dungeon doesn't typically use non-standard classes and races. It would be nice, and as I've posted in a previous thread, to see different useages of classes and creatures. With MM I-IV, FF, Creature Collection I-III, Tome of Horrors I-III, Liberus Monsterous, Monsterous Liberus, Manual of Monsters, Monsters of Barbaria (Korgoth!), and so forth sometimes even these unquie yet basically generic monsters would be interesting to view in a different class.
One of the things that I've done for years now is use a module - no matter the level - and if it is orcs, gnolls, or demons, just modify it as needed to fit the correct level of the PC's. As of late, I've begun to copy all the stat blocks from the Dungeon mag's, and then cut them out of the copied page and tape the lvl 4 thugs over the lvl 1 thugs (fits my PC's lvls), thus the module remains the same, with closer stats. Yes, they were supposed to be cultists and not thugs, but it worked very well none-the-less. When it was important that the NPC speak Abyssal, I quickly looked under the taped NPC for the original and saw that the original did speak the language. Yes, I realize that skill points would have been used differently to accomadate the language, but I figured it wasn't gonna matter too much, as the PC's would end up killing the bad guy thug cultists anyway.
The difficult part of my plan has now been dealing with my folder of Dungeon mag pages before and after they've been cut out. The cut out's (taped togeather when spread to more than 1 column) fit in an envelope, and if a picture is present I've copied that as well. I've tried to organize the folder by level, but that too is difficult, as sometimes an NPC is over several pages and may have 2 npc's. For that I've made a couple copies.
But alas, the same issue arises in that even Dungeon doesn't typically use non-standard classes and races. It would be nice, and as I've posted in a previous thread, to see different useages of classes and creatures. With MM I-IV, FF, Creature Collection I-III, Tome of Horrors I-III, Liberus Monsterous, Monsterous Liberus, Manual of Monsters, Monsters of Barbaria (Korgoth!), and so forth sometimes even these unquie yet basically generic monsters would be interesting to view in a different class.
Odhanan
Adventurer
Statblocks over backgrounds for me.
Not that I would discard good, meaningful NPC backgrounds in the context of the published adventure or as tools to be inserted in my own. Of course, good, original backgrounds are great, but statblocks are great tools I can use here and there when need be. I can make up background way more easily than stat blocks.
Not that I would discard good, meaningful NPC backgrounds in the context of the published adventure or as tools to be inserted in my own. Of course, good, original backgrounds are great, but statblocks are great tools I can use here and there when need be. I can make up background way more easily than stat blocks.
