What takes you the longest in adventure preperation?

[Theocrat]

Stating Out - Use eTools or PC Gen

Hi all-
I find that designing the adventure idea is the most fun, but its stating out monsters and NPC's takes way too much time. In the old editions, you just threw 15 orc's instead of of 7 of them for higher level characters.
Now, with 3.5, you still have 7 orc's but now they have killer feats, spells and magical weapons. This takes time and thought. It's here that I find eTools invaluable. Even if you don't have all the add-on books for it, and are just using the PHB, DMG and MM, you'll have enough to help in creating the bad guys. If you do have the add-on books, then the NPC's will be able to compete.
What I like about eTools in this type of case, is that I can focus on the concept of what I'm attempting with the NPC and now worrying about if I have the feats or skill points, as it figures it all out for you. And if you feel you need to provide a feat or skill that the NPC doesn't meet for pre-req's, you can still use it.
Print it all out and there you go. Only 6 more to go!

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

For me it isn't stating NPCs, it is statting NPCs though.

 

[Orius]

I'll have to go with stating out the bad guys. Writing up game stats is the most time consuming part of prep work for me, probably because it's also the most tedious.

 

[dougmander]

Count me among the unhappy statters of NPCs. This is the big weakness of d20 for me, especially at high levels of play. I can spend an hour or more building a bad guy, only to see her defeated in short order by the PCs because my players have had months to figure out how to use their feats, spells, and class abilities to best advantage, while I've only had a few minutes.
Increasingly, I find myself using pregen NPCs from various sources, especially WOTC's official site, just to save time.

 

[The Shaman]

Count me among the unhappy statters of NPCs. This is the big weakness of d20 for me, especially at high levels of play....Increasingly, I find myself using pregen NPCs from various sources, especially WOTC's official site, just to save time.

Same here, on both counts.

Campaign Suite Extended was on my X-mas list, but I received a new suspension fork for my mountain bike instead, so I'll pick up CSX another time - hopefully that will take away some of the drudge-work that is NPC and monster creation and maintenance.

 

[Corsair]

Maybe I'm weird, or its just a residual effect of so many of my characters dying when I play, but creating a PC-classed NPC is no big deal for me. If I have a solid idea of what I want, I'll have one fully fleshed out in 10 minutes at most.

For me, its basic brainstorming which takes the most time. Once I get inspiration, I am a whirling dervish of creativity. But *getting* that inspiration takes time.

 

[Christopher Lambert]

I chose Dungeon Design, but for me I meant that to include the why something it there, DC's, traps, placing creatures, etc. And since not all of my campaigns are actually in a Dungeon I meant for it to include above ground adventure obstacles/challenges.

I see a large number of people are saying the NPC's are the longest time. My campaign is low-level at this time so it may be awhile before I come to realize how much of a time sink it may be in the future. For the most part now, I don't stat out NPC's fully *unless* he or she is central to the plot. And even in some of those cases the statting out is pretty loose. So much of the information goes unused I only stat out the basics. If the NPC is a spellcaster I do plot out his or her spells so as not to be tempted to let them have unfettered access to certain spells depending on what the party does (i.e. keep me honest).

How do you determine their ACs? This is a very big problem at higher levels.

 

[Emirikol]

Any d20 products for lists of stats?

So, are there any d20 products out there that have a bunch of pre-made characters?

Personlly, I just use the ones from the DMG. It's not that important to me that I have figured out all the skill points and stuff if they're just going to be fodder anyways.

jh

 

[Sammael]

DMG pre-generated NPCs don't do it for me. For tomorrow's session, I've had to stat out the following (if any of my players are reading this, stop right now):

Spoiler

Githyanki Leader (Fighter 6/Warrior of Darkness 6)
Githyanki Mercenaries (Fighter 6)
Babau Assassin (Assassin 5)
Red Wizard Conjurer (Tiefling Conjurer 5/Red Wizard 9)
Spectral Apprentices (Spectral Human Conjurer 5)
Red Wizard Evoker (Human Evoker 5/Red Wizard 6)
Apprentices (Human Evoker 6)
Bodyguards (Human Fighter 5/Thayan Knight 2)
Friendly NPC #1 (former PC, 4 levels lower) Fighter/Cleric (Avariel Fighter 4/Cleric 6)
Friendly NPC #2 (Shield dwarf Fighter 4/Rogue 6)

Took me... way too much time.

 

[Breakdaddy]

For me, its setting up the dungeon/wilderness with appropriate challenges for the PCs. Thanks to ETOOLS, badguy stat generation takes minutes and it the least time consuming thing on my list anymore.