WotC Rodney and Mearls: custom NPCs so easy

[TerraDave]

And seeing the pitfeind, I might actually believe them.

From Rodneys blog:

When it came to doing encounter design, specifically, for D&D 3.5 I was usually inclined to pull existing monsters and NPCs out of the "toolbox" of books I had at my disposal....I tended to create new monsters sparingly, and NPCs only when necessary.

For my Dawn of Defiance adventures, and any other encounter I've designed so far, my tendency is the exact opposite. I actually prefer to design my antagonists from scratch with a few exceptions (I don't bother redesigning stormtroopers or Imperial officers, but I have been known to create alternate versions)....

I've been working on a D&D 4th Edition adventure lately as well, and I've once again found myself designing the antagonists in each encounter from the ground up. Sure, I've got a whole Monster Manual to pilfer from, but I haven't been. Granted, I think it's much easier to design a monster in 4E than designing an NPC in Saga Edition, but that's not really the point. Saga Edition still uses most of the basic design philosophies embraced by 3E for opponent design, while 4E, of course, does its own thing. I wonder if I've gone to a "build from the ground up" philosophy because Saga Edition/4E make it easier to do, or if it's because of some other reason (constant exposure to the inner workings of game design, for example, or just having been put in a position to get faster at stat block design).

He has more stuff on SW encounters.

And from Mearls blog

Total time it took to create a level 8 gnoll warlock and level 11 human wizard NPCs, both with templates applied: 40 minutes.

If I had access to physical books and wasn't writing these guys for an adventure (necessitating a lot of extra writing; for a home game I might just note the what page I could find a spell or whatever), I think it would've taken me 20, 25 minutes tops.

 

[Wormwood]

40 minutes to create two NPCs? Okay, that sounds a little too long.

Hopefully this complexity is just an artifact of using PC classes----and straight monster design will be far more streamlined.

 

[Gundark]

40 minutes without the books. 20-25 with books.

Not too shabby, when compared to 3.x.

I was hoping for a faster system, but who knows he did say 20-25 tops. Maybe the average is around 10-15?

What I want to know is how long epic tiered NPCs take?

 

[EricNoah]

It might be more like his NPCs had to have some publication-quality polish, and also maybe there were some design decisions that had to be made to make sure the NPCs worked in the specific encounter or in the adventure as a whole.

 

[JohnSnow]

It might be more like his NPCs had to have some publication-quality polish, and also maybe there were some design decisions that had to be made to make sure the NPCs worked in the specific encounter or in the adventure as a whole.

Then of course, there's the notion that publication quality NPCs have to include all their powers fully described. Which means Mike had to write out descriptions of all their powers. Similar to having to write up a description of every spell description for a 3E wizard.

I can easily believe that would double the time it takes.

 

[Eridanis]

My favorite part of this tidbit? Templates are still in 4E. They're one of my favorite parts of 3E, and I'm glad they're staying in some form.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This sounds really good to me, as it reminds me very much of the "glory days" of 2E

I mean, quite literally from the first adventure I ran in D&D, at the tender age of 10, I've been statting up my own monsters/NPCs, and much preferred doing so in 2E. I mean, I could've ignored 3E's systems, and I kind of learnt to eventually, but just being able to slap stuff together with some guidelines sounds much better.

I hope this is as well-implemented as they say, because this is one of things I am really looking forward to in 4E.

The Pit Fiend does certainly increase my belief that this may be true.

Now if only they had a 4E equivalent of "treasure classes"...

 

[Badkarmaboy]

40 minutes to create two NPCs? Okay, that sounds a little too long.

Hopefully this complexity is just an artifact of using PC classes----and straight monster design will be far more streamlined.

40 minutes without good references for TWO NPCs with class levels? That's pretty fast IMHO. I've created my fair share of NPCs for Living Greyhawk and it's NOT a fast process. This sounds GREAT! If I could get myself down to 20-30 min per NPC (for published adventures) I'd make joyful noises!

 

[Wormwood]

40 minutes without good references for TWO NPCs with class levels? That's pretty fast IMHO.

I guess I should have mentioned that my baseline for 'fast NPC creation' has shifted considerably since I stopped running 3.5 in favor of lighter systems.

So yes, I agree that Mike's time was pretty fast---compared to 3.5

I only hope that I won't need to keep qualifying my expectations come June.

 

[mattcolville]

40 minutes for 19 levels of bad guy. That's pretty damned good.

I once spent SIX HOURS making one 9th level bad guy. He lasted about 9 rounds.