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GameMastery Guide / Nonplayer Characters / Villains / The Villain's Escape Kit

Designing NPCs

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 80
NPCs are a pivotal element in many Pathfinder adventures, especially those in which the PCs must deal with crucial non-combat situations or act in a civilized area. Like the supporting cast in a movie, NPCs cover a variety of roles with different degrees of importance, from second leads to extras, and the way the GM designs them is open to a wide range of possibilities. Besides being potential opponents, NPCs can be an exciting source of support, information, and intrigue during an adventure. As dramatis personae in their own rights, important NPCs become the mouth and hands of the GM in the game world, allowing him to break from descriptive and rules-based talk in order to speak and act in first person. When acting out NPCs, the GM can roleplay fantasy characters as players do, sometimes putting on dozens of different personas in a single game session. Designing NPCs outside of gaming sessions is a task the GM should dedicate some time to as he creates his stories, although improvisation can be the source of unexpected and excellent ideas. In addition to time and imagination, the creation of NPCs requires good judgment, accuracy, and economy in generating a balanced set of abilities, writing a correct stat block, and giving the right amount of detail. Designing NPCs thus becomes an exercise of creativity, which the GM can cultivate by reading fantasy literature or watching fantasy on the screen.

While there is no right or wrong process for designing NPCs, creating interesting, useful, and memorable characters can be a daunting task. Chapter 14 of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebookaddresses the creation of NPCs from a rules standpoint—what one might consider the “science” of NPC creation. As this chapter delves into the “art” of creating NPCs, it’s up to the GM to decide for himself—often on a case-by-case basis—the best methods for designing new characters. For villains and other major characters, this often means coming up with a concept and then devising unique statistics to support it. When building more mundane characters, utility and ease of use often take priority, with the GM adding personality to preexisting stats. In either case, the path to creating a valuable NPC begins with determining the character’s role in a game.

Archives of Nethys

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Designing NPCs