My apologies for being lame - but here's the excuse, hope one of you nice people would like to help. I've played D&D since 1978, but due to catrostophic life style change ( read: married with children ), I had to stop for almost a decade. My nephew ( a grown man now, my the time goes by ) is an avid player of D&D 3.5 Edition and has requested I DM a campaign for him, his wife ( yeah, I know, lucky guy ), my younger brother and my cousin. I simply do not have the time to roll up the NPC's. While adding "Skills" to the mix is genius ( just because I'm not a Thief, I can't hide? ), it takes a considerable time for which I need to devote to the campaign. It's not just the time to drum one up, it's the time to figure it all out as well - if someone could help me, then from the output I could understand the math/logic with characters as well. Anyone out there like to generate characters? I need a 3rd level Gargoyle ( Marble ) character ( True Neutral alignment ). Any help would be appreciated, thanks very much.
The DMG has loads of humanoid NPCs, one for each PHB class at each level 1-20. It can probably save some time, even if they are poorly built.
http://www.myth-weavers.com/generate_npc.php
This site will do it on the fly for you using the SRD (all free content) and gives an easier format.
What source is a marble gargoyle from?
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/gargoyle.htm
These are the lower powered gargoyle stats, but it starts play as an ECL 9 character and can combat a party of 4 ECL 4 PCs without modding it.
Ill add 3 fighter levels to it for you if you want I guess.
+3d10+ 16HP
+3 Fort, +1 Will, +1 Ref
All attacks made at +9
+3 ranks to climb (so he can grip onto walls or something)
+4 Initiative
Can make 2 Attack of opportunities a round.
Added Feats
F1 - Improved Initiative
F2 - combat reflexes
6 - Improved multiAttack
Change - Swap toughness for improved toughness.
I think "Marble" might be the name of the character, but the idea of different gargoyle types is kind of fun. Unfortunately, I've played enough Dwarf Fortress to start thinking of all different rock types you could potentially produce, (schist, gneiss, slate, obsidian, dolomite, quartz, microcline, etc.).
As far as characters and monsters go, a lot of the logic (for numbers) just depends on Hit Dice. The numbers for Base Attack Bonus, skills, saving throws, and hit points all depend on them whether you're a character or a monster, as do the ability score increases and feats (other than bonus feats).
For monstrous characters in particular, there's also Challenge Rating (CR, which measures how challenging something is to an adventuring party), versus Effective Character Level (ECL, which tells you what level of character a monster counts as in an adventuring party, before you add character levels, and combines the monster's Hit Dice with a special Level Adjustment).
Does any of this sound like what you're after?
Thank you both for the help! The "Marble" is the "skin" ( race ) of the Gargoyle as discussed here: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Gargoyle%2C_Specific_%283.5e_Template%29
Pasted below as well ( lost the chart formatting ). Thanks again, very good stuff.
~ Ability Adjustments HD Natural Armor Special Qualities CR LA
Amber +2 Dex, +6 Wis - +4 Damage Reduction 12/magic, Ancient Knowledge +2 +2
Diamond +2 Str, +4 Con - +8 Damage Reduction 18/diamond, Ancient Knowledge +3 +3
Emerald +4 Dex, −4 Wis - +6 Damage Reduction 10/magic, Silence +1 +1
Garnet −2 Con, +8 Cha - +5 Damage Reduction 10/magic, Spell Resistance 15 +2 +2
Granite −2 Dex, +4 Con +3 HD +5 Damage Reduction 14/magic +1 +1
Jade +6 Int, +6 Cha - +5 Damage Reduction 15/masterwork, Ancient Knowledge +2 +2
Limestone +2 Str, −4 Con +2 HD +3 Damage Reduction 15/adamantine, Ancient Knowledge +1 +1
Marble +4 Str, +2 Con +2 HD +5 Damage Reduction 16/magic, Ancient Body +2 +2
Obsidian +2 Str, −2 Cha - +4 Damage Reduction 10/good, Negative Aligned +3 +5
Onyx +2 Str, +4 Int +1 HD +6 Damage Reduction 12/adamantine, Ancient Body +2 +2
Opal −2 Str, +2 Cha - +4 Damage Reduction 10/evil, Positive Aligned +3 +5
Pumice +4 Dex, −2 Con - +3 Damage Reduction 10/magic +0 +0
Quartz +4 Str, +2 Int +1 HD +6 Damage Reduction 12/magic, Silence +1 +1
Ruby +2 Con, +4 Cha - +7 Damage Reduction 15/magic, Silence +1 +1
Slate +2 Str, +2 Con - +5 Damage Reduction 12/adamantine, Ancient Body +2 +2
Topaz −2 Con, +8 Int - +7 Damage Reduction 10/magic, Spell Resistance 13 +2 +2
Tuquoise +4 Dex, −2 Int +3 HD +4 Damage Reduction 10/magic, Ancient Knowledge +2 +2
gelaar wrote:
Welcome back!
gelaar wrote:
Wow, thanks! Gave me a lot to think about - nice call on the wiki thing, didn't know. This is a PC ( name: Norag ) that is being played by the DM ( i.e. me ) - a monster/character that was encountered and befriended the party ( I can bore you with the adventure details if you're interested ). The party was 3rd level when Norag hooked up with them, now they're 4th level ( the idea was he was 3rd as well, but I didn't understand the monster level logic ... until now 
). Anything that makes sense will work - out of the book, or creatively designed. Now that you've steered me away from the "racial" traits of this from wiki, it should be easier to figure it out. I was wondering as I was adding it all up ( Constitution in the 20's, etc ) if this was just too powerful.
Yeah, I've had to lean on my nephew some - spending a lot of time just reading the books ( different and much better than 2nd Edition, but takes time ). I brought up playing 4 or 5th edition with the rich complexity of 3rd slowing the game down, but he insists once I get the "hang of it" then it'll go faster.
gelaar wrote:
Good stuff, Tempest and SteveO, thank you! Think I've learned more on this thread then from the books 
The Earth Genasi is interesting, I'll explore that.
gelaar wrote: