# Book of NPCs 2.0



## Paul Strack (Apr 29, 2009)

UPDATE: Version 2.0 now complete with all PH2 classes!

Now that the Player's Handbook 2 has been out for a while, I am working on NPCs again. I considered doing a sequel to my Book of NPCs, but decided that it was much better to have all the NPCs in one book. Therefore, I am doing an upgrade rather than a sequel, adding the PHB2 classes to the PHB1 classes for one big download.

As I did with the Book of NPCs 1.0, I will make several passes to add the NPCs. The current version (2.0) has all the Players Handbook 1 & 2 classes plus all the races from Players Handbook 1 & 2 and the Monster Manual, for levels 1-30.

Downloads - D&D 4th Edition - Book of NPCs - EN World D&D / RPG News

Because there are no official rules for PHB2 NPCs yet, I had to make some educated guesses for what roles and features to use for these NPCs. Here is what I am currently going with:


Avenger NPC: Skirmisher; Armor of Faith, oath of enmity
Barbarian NPC: Brute; Barbarian Agility, Feral Might
Bard NPC: Controller (Leader); Bardic Virtue, majestic word, Skill Versatility
Druid NPC: Controller; Balance of Nature (one beast at-will, one non-beast), Primal Aspect, wild shape
Invoker: Artillery; Divine Covenant
Shaman NPC: Controller (Leader); Companion Spirit (which determines the shaman’s at-will), healing spirit
Sorcerer NPC (Dragon Magic): Artillery; Draconic Power, Draconic Resilience
Sorcerer NPC (Wild Magic): Skirmisher; Chaos Power, Unfettered Power
Warden NPC: Brute; Font of Life, Nature’s Wrath (one of Warden’s Fury or Warden’s Grasp)
I made barbarians and wardens into brutes. For barbarians, it makes sense because they are high-damage, low defense. Surprisingly, wardens are not sure a good fight, but I did it anyway since wardens are supposed to have more hit points.

As usual, any feedback is appreciated.

EDIT: Version 2.0! All PHB2 classes included!


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## CapnZapp (Apr 29, 2009)

No other feedback than: [Mr. Burns]Excellent![/Mr. Burns]


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## Henrix (May 3, 2009)

Fantastic! You have my heartfelt thanks!


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## conanb (May 3, 2009)

My only comment would be to let us know which ones are At Will, Encounter, and Daily Powers. Other than that it's fantastic work! You've made my sandbox games so much easier to run.

EDIT: Nevermind I see where you indicate on the powers. My mistake they are excellent!


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## Terramotus (May 4, 2009)

That would make you my hero.  Your first book of NPCs is the single greatest supplement I've found as a DM for 4E, including the 4E DMG.  I eagerly await the results.

I do like the idea of Wardens as brutes as well, since there aren't any other "NPCs" that fill that role.  Do you have any plans to include the PHB2 races?


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## AbdulAlhazred (May 5, 2009)

I would almost be more tempted to call the Barbarian a brute than the Warden. Barbs can dish out large pulses of damage, much like a brute, and they are also generally rather more short on defenses, again like a brute. Admittedly they are also generally REALLY mobile, but nothing really says that brutes can't have mobility.

Great work Paul, thanks. Saved me quite a bit of perl scripting


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## MonkeyMage (May 6, 2009)

I love this and can't wait to see more!


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## cbbakke (May 6, 2009)

awesome resource. thanks for the work


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## Paul Strack (May 11, 2009)

*Book of NPCs 2.0-beta2 is done (bards and druids)*

Book of NPCs 2.0-beta2 is done and uploaded. This version adds bards and druids.

Some responses to earlier questions.



Terramotus said:


> Do you have any plans to include the PHB2 races?




All the PHB2 races are already included. There were only five, so that's the first thing I did.



AbdulAlhazred said:


> I would almost be more tempted to call the Barbarian a brute than the Warden. Barbs can dish out large pulses of damage, much like a brute, and they are also generally rather more short on defenses, again like a brute. Admittedly they are also generally REALLY mobile, but nothing really says that brutes can't have mobility.




I agree with you. I tried out some barbarian NPCs in my last game, and they were very much glass cannons (and tons of fun). When I am finalizing version 2.0, I will see if it makes sense to make Barbarians brutes as well as Wardens.


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## Paul Strack (May 25, 2009)

*Book of NPCs 2.0-beta-3 is done (invokers and shamans)*

I added invokers and shamans to beta-3. Life interfered, so it took longer than I expected. I am in the home stretch, though, with just sorcerers and wardens to go.


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## Is_907 (May 25, 2009)

Wonderful stuff! I was actually just thinking that I needed to put together some NPCs for my current campaign and here they are for me. 
Thanks!

Really looking forward to sorcerors!


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## AumShantih (May 27, 2009)

Thanks again and again for a fantastic sourcebook.
I'm also eagerly looking forward to Sorceror's and Wardens.


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## CapnZapp (May 28, 2009)

Let me assure you that I would have given you an experience point a second time if only I could! (Yes I know it's theoretically possible, but handing out xp to 49 other posters just for this reason simply isn't practical)

Let us know when the Book is complete - I for one is holding back on the download until such time.


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## SlyFlourish (May 29, 2009)

This is absolutely awesome and a great resource for one-shot games or one-on-one games. I can't thank you enough.

How long did it take to put this together?


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## Mathew_Freeman (May 29, 2009)

This looks absolutely fantastic, thank you.


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## WampusCat43 (May 29, 2009)

Jebus that's an impressive piece of work!


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## Sporemine (May 30, 2009)

I need an npc for my new thread if it's not too much trouble:

Meepo the kobold - Do you know of him?

Half-dragon/Were-fleshraker

A great npc from 3.5

It would be great if you could, here's the thread.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/256790-kobolds-lifes-little-failures.html

-Sporemine


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## Paul Strack (May 30, 2009)

Thanks everyone for the compliments.



mshea said:


> How long did it take to put this together?




It probably took a week to put together the initial code base. The first few classes were about 12 hours each, but now I have it down to about 6 hours per class. It helps that I am using the same code to create characters sheets for my regular game (I am a Mac user, so Character Builder is no good to me).

I am going to try to knuckle down and finish this up this weekend. It would be nice to get everything done in the month of May.


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## Paul Strack (May 31, 2009)

UPDATE: Version 2.0 now complete with all PH2 classes!

I made both barbarians and wardens into brutes. For barbarians, it makes sense because they are high-damage, low defense. Surprisingly, wardens are not sure a good fight, but I did it anyway since wardens are supposed to have more hit points.

Let me know if you find any mistakes in the NPCs, and I will correct them. I will leave this alone for now, until PH3 comes out (I might do a minor update with the MM2 races).


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## Sturm_Brightblade (Jun 29, 2009)

First of all, thank you very much for this great project! I do agree with others who have mentioned that's the single, most useful for 4E.

My only question/query is if you plan to include the different building for the classes that appear in the _Power_ series (martial, divine, arcane, primal, etc). I asked because I could really use some builds like the battlerager fighter, for example.

Thank you once again and best regards,

Sturm.


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## Paul Strack (Jul 4, 2009)

Sturm_Brightblade said:


> First of all, thank you very much for this great project! I do agree with others who have mentioned that's the single, most useful for 4E.
> 
> My only question/query is if you plan to include the different building for the classes that appear in the _Power_ series (martial, divine, arcane, primal, etc). I asked because I could really use some builds like the battlerager fighter, for example.
> 
> ...




It depends.

I was originally using the D&D PDFs as the data source for the project, and those PDFs are no longer available. I am in the process of figuring out other ways of getting the data. It means I am having to rework a lot of what I did before from scratch.

I hope to have things figured out by the time PH3 is released. Depending on how much progress I make, I may be able to squeeze in the other power books before then.


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## firesnakearies (Jul 17, 2009)

Awesome!  Thanks again for all your hard work Paul!

This is great.


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## Dodavehu (Aug 10, 2009)

These are all amazing.  

If you ever find another opputunity to update, I'd throw in the suggestion of adding the classes from the setting books, mostly Artificers and Swordmages.
--


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## senodam (Sep 2, 2009)

Excellent stuff.

It's much appreciated, and will see a lot of use round these here parts.


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## CapnZapp (Sep 3, 2009)

Paul Strack said:


> I was originally using the D&D PDFs as the data source for the project, and those PDFs are no longer available.



Huh?

How can a PDF become "no longer available"? Did you read them on your Kindle, and WotC deleted them from your system?


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## Emryys (Sep 3, 2009)

Paul Strack said:


> I was originally using the D&D PDFs as the data source for the project, and those PDFs are no longer available. I am in the process of figuring out other ways of getting the data. It means I am having to rework a lot of what I did before from scratch.




If you have access to the compendium, perhaps...

Very useful project regardless!


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## Hackmaster (Sep 3, 2009)

*Thanks*

This is a very useful, time saving tool. Thanks for putting it together.


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## Paul Strack (Sep 5, 2009)

CapnZapp said:


> How can a PDF become "no longer available"? Did you read them on your Kindle, and WotC deleted them from your system?




I meant that PDFs are not available for new books. The Book of NPCs 2.0 is based on the books that were available in PDF. When PH3 comes, I will need to take an entirely new approach. That means throwing out most of what I did before and starting from scratch (rather depressing).


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## ZzarkLinux (Sep 6, 2009)

I like this a lot. I just updated my version 1.0.3 to version 2.0 

Is there a legend available?
When I was looking at powers, IMO it was not intuitive to determine  at-will / encounter / daily / utility powers

It could be a lot easier for DMs to instantly look-up a power.
(example: a fight is going bad, so DM instantly looks for NPC daily-power).

Just my  cents.


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## Trainz (Sep 8, 2009)

You sir would put to shame the monks of old who would transcribe whole bibles by hand. The amount of work is just staggering.

Thank you very much, our campaigns will greatly benefit from this.


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## Trainz (Sep 8, 2009)

ZzarkLinux said:


> Is there a legend available?




index.html

It's at the root.


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## CapnZapp (Sep 8, 2009)

Paul Strack said:


> I meant that PDFs are not available for new books. The Book of NPCs 2.0 is based on the books that were available in PDF. When PH3 comes, I will need to take an entirely new approach. That means throwing out most of what I did before and starting from scratch (rather depressing).



Hopefully by that time WotC have overcome their stupid panic reaction and started to sell PDFs again.

Of course, if I were you, and I had purchased the PHB3, I wouldn't hesitate finding and using a digital copy and then simply claiming I had entered all the numbers by hand. *shrug*


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## CapnZapp (Oct 1, 2009)

Paul Strack said:


> Because there are no official rules for PHB2 NPCs yet, I had to make some educated guesses for what roles and features to use for these NPCs. Here is what I am currently going with:
> 
> 
> Avenger NPC: Skirmisher; Armor of Faith, oath of enmity
> ...



How does these guesses stack up to the DMG2 data, btw?


And do you have any plans to add the Swordmage and Artificer?


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## buddhafrog (Jan 16, 2010)

Thank you very much!


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## buddhafrog (Jan 17, 2010)

You have been immortalized in my game.  My PC's have just entered Medan, a river town critical in determining the direction the quest will take.  

The governor of Medan?

Paul Strack.  Charisma 20


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## buddhafrog (Jan 19, 2010)

There are several races (Tiefling, Orcs, etc) that are listed in the index but have no monster/character info.  Is there a plan to complete these?


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## SabreCat (Jan 20, 2010)

Great stuff as always. Hurrah for the Book of NPCs!

I see you no longer have house rules regarding how much XP these opponents are worth. I take it you decided they are about worth a normal monster's challenge after all, or that the difference in difficulty wasn't enough to merit the added houserule complexity?


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## Paul Strack (Jan 21, 2010)

SabreCat said:


> Great stuff as always. Hurrah for the Book of NPCs!
> 
> I see you no longer have house rules regarding how much XP these opponents are worth. I take it you decided they are about worth a normal monster's challenge after all, or that the difference in difficulty wasn't enough to merit the added houserule complexity?




Yes, I decided NPCs were not much more threatening than a normal monster, so I dropped the XP house rules. They do have more powers, but they often don't live long enough to use them. In particular, my players tent to kill the NPCs leaders as fast as they can (gank the healer!).


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## Paul Strack (Jan 21, 2010)

buddhafrog said:


> There are several races (Tiefling, Orcs, etc) that are listed in the index but have no monster/character info.  Is there a plan to complete these?




I replied to you in PM but didn't realize you also posted here. The Tieflings and the Orcs *are* in the Book of NPCs, so maybe your download got corrupted or something.


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## buddhafrog (Jan 24, 2010)

Paul Strack said:


> I replied to you in PM but didn't realize you also posted here. The Tieflings and the Orcs *are* in the Book of NPCs, so maybe your download got corrupted or something.




I downloaded it again -- apparently the first had a crit failure.  This download if complete!  

This was useful, now incredibly so.  I've been using this to pull important NPC's, but also many times to pull many monster stats for this new, time-stressed DM.  

Thanks again.


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## atminnie (Jun 12, 2010)

Hey Paul Strack, I'd be interested in helping fill in more build/ PHB3 races/classes.  Is there a concise place I can see your methods and houserules to quickly thrum up a bunch more NPCs for a potential Book of NPCs 3?  I'd love to help.  Did the DMG2 changes to monster creation change your methods?

Currently, I wouldn't know how to get the fancy formatting or icons that you use or how you formed them into an html book, but I could maybe do the dirty work of writing them up raw anyway. I'd love to see the tempest and brawling fighter, the ardent paladin, and maybe


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## Paul Strack (Jun 12, 2010)

atminnie said:


> Hey Paul Strack, I'd be interested in helping fill in more build/ PHB3 races/classes.  Is there a concise place I can see your methods and houserules to quickly thrum up a bunch more NPCs for a potential Book of NPCs 3?  I'd love to help.  Did the DMG2 changes to monster creation change your methods?
> 
> Currently, I wouldn't know how to get the fancy formatting or icons that you use or how you formed them into an html book, but I could maybe do the dirty work of writing them up raw anyway. I'd love to see the tempest and brawling fighter, the ardent paladin, and maybe




That's kind of you to offer.

Unfortunately, I produced the Book of NPCs 2.0 using the information in the PHB1 and PHB2 PDFs that WotC created. Since WotC isn't selling PDFs anymore, I can't use my old code to add information from PHB3.

In theory, I could pull data from the Compendium, but since that data is in a different format, it means rewriting all my code from scratch. That would be a many-months long project, and I don't have the time for it right now.


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## simen (Aug 9, 2010)

Would be great with PH3 classes to. No one is expecting you to do hybrid, so don't do them.

And update with the new rules fra DMG2  Thank you, you kick ass.


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