D&D 3.x Running 3e D&D for the first time in a while, any advice?

Unless you have a high system mastery player trying to break the game, 3.X runs very well from level one to about level 7 to 9 if you stick largely to core and very sparingly introduce any other CharGen options.

If you want to run it at higher levels successfully a very large variety of balancing changes are required, too many to list here. But expect the game to increasingly involve a degree of negotiation between you and the players as to what is fair and reasonable as you level up.
 

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Oh, and I am planning to run a modified version of Expedition to Undermountain.
This is one I don't have. Undermountain is a big megadungeon though and I think this is a later 3.5 so the combat encounter stats should be pretty much in a page by themself, just be sure to double check the monster feats, powers, and spells beforehand so you don't end up missing out on relevant stuff as I was constantly doing with d20 monsters. :)

What levels are you running at?

For higher levels I suggest the 3.5 Unearthed Arcana optional rule of fractional saves and BAB so that the already big save disparity of single classed characters does not get more extreme for multiclassed ones (so a multiclassed barbarian fighter has the same saves as a single classed fighter or barbarian instead of tougher fortitude but weaker reflexes and will).
 

Remember that 3.0, 3.5, and Pathfinder 1e are all very similar but each has tons of small different fiddly differences throughout their rule sets so what triggers an attack of opportunity or the specifics of spells will be slightly different between each one and it pays to look things up for the specifics as they are relevant even though you know the basics of everything.
 


It's been too long to really give strong advice. But after having played and GMed 4E a lot, some ideas:
Just use the monster and NPC building rules as guidelines. Do definitely not try to map out the entire spell list of an NPC spellcaster.

Pick maybe 2-4 spells - one he can use as his standard attack (no matter how many spell slots it would require, 1st level spells like Magic Missile or 2nd level spells like Scorcing Ray), one nasty or more aggressive spell (fireball, chain, lightning, meteor swarm, disintegrate, finger of death, as suited by level?) or one nice get-out-of-dodge spell (Dimension Door, Teleport, Mirror Image, maybe even something like Shield or Mage Armor etc.), and maybe another nasty spell that they use when they get into real trouble, or something they can use to buff allies (Heroism, Haste?). They might know more spells than that, but you should know which you want to use in combat beforehand and plan and also improvise around it. And writ them down with the stat block, or have some good bookmarking system.

If you have a prebuild NPCs, still mark the three important spells he will use and leave the rest for off-screen activities, or running a combat with them is too hard.
You might worry that this will mean the CR of the NPC or monster will be off and determing the correct encounter level will be hard, but don't worry: That's true anyway, especially when it comes to spellcasters. It gets worse for monsters like dragons that have special abilities in addition to casting like a spell caster. A Dragon that casts as a Sorceror suddenly gets +4 AC because he casts magic armor is a wild shift in power not accounted for anywhere. And it gets worse with every other buff they might cast! And Dragons are the least balanced monster HD type in the first place, they get good hit points, skill points, attack bonus, and saves and then most Dragons also cast like a sorceror, and their CR is usally lower than their number of HD!

Consider removing cross-class skill cost. Just have cross-class skills limited to half the class skill value. Of course, in the end, the really important skills like Search and Disable Device or Spot and Hide* and what not will still only work well for the people that use them as class skills. But at least it will not feel extra-punsished for trying to leave the straight jacket of their class. Probably also raise the skill points by level for all classes that don't get 8 per level and use INT as main stat by 2, but espeically for those that only get 2 per level by RAW.
*) consider consolidating some skills as well, of course. Climb, Jump Swim go into Athletics, Balance and Escape Artist into Acrobatics, Pick Pocket and Disable Device into Thiefery, Move Silently and Hide into Stealth.
 

It's been too long to really give strong advice. But after having played and GMed 4E a lot, some ideas:
Just use the monster and NPC building rules as guidelines. Do definitely not try to map out the entire spell list of an NPC spellcaster.

I think it is fair to say that 3e very much makes the assumption that the vast majority of opponents will not be leveled NPCs, because the game advice and guidelines begin to fall apart if you do try to tell a story where most of the foes are humans and not monsters. Making 3e work in a setting that is largely about urban intrigue and hidden foes and villains that like to monologue is possible but really outside of the expectations of the game and will require the GM to improvise a lot.

Most particularly as you point out, calculating the CR of NPCs is really hard and that CR has built in expectations regarding equipment which for the most part you will need as a DM to ignore and instead adjust down the amount of equipment and make a corresponding adjustment to NPC CR.

For my part, I found it was a good rule of thumb to make fights with NPCs be 2 NPCs that we two levels lower than the PCs for each PC in the party. So 4 8th level PCs would fight 8 6th level NPCs where the NPCs had equipment considerably below the wealth by level guidelines for NPCs because otherwise you'd soon flood the PCs with more equipment than they could use or which would necessarily be good for the campaign. I also tended to assume that NPCs just didn't have ability scores on par with PCs unless they were bosses of some sort, and boss fights with NPCs tended to be pretty rare to avoid again flooding the campaign with magical items beyond what would be expected for the PC's level.

As far as building NPCs go, my big advice is to not sweat anything +/- 1 (or maybe even +/- 2). If you don't exactly get all the skill points right or what have you, that's fine. Rarely is it going to matter if any number is off by one of its true value. You don't have to deliberately make mistakes but you also don't need to worry too much about exact rigor. Most of the time isn't going to come, and even then it only makes a difference like 1 time in 20 if you are off by one. It's not worth making building NPCs tedious to rigorously adhere to the guidelines when good enough will do. The guidelines are there to help, not to be a burden.

A lot of my NPCs after years of DMing were more or less stock and I could just copy the stat block over and more or less tweak it as needed. But 3e is really all about the expectation of diving into the underworld or the wilderness and facing unimaginable horrors. It expects Monsters to be a regular thing.
 



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