Quick Random NPCs For D&D-like Games

Found this by searching for "random fantasy
characters".
By dawnsio-ar-y-dibyn, licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License

Sometimes, you know what sort of NPC you want, what class they should be and so forth, but you don't want to either pick the stats or roll until you finally get a set of stats that is high enough to join the class. There's a method in the DMG, but it isn't really close in terms of normal spread of stat numbers. For those situations, I have come up with the following sets of tables. The assumption is that only characters with appropriate stats will join the class (obviously), and that you don't want to keep rolling sets of stats until you finally get an appropriate set. Most of the charts use d1000, which is rolling three distinctive 10-sided dice and using one for the hundreds place, one for the tens place, and one for the ones place, just like rolling a d%/d100. The higher charts could be replaced by a d20, a d10, or even a d4 roll, but I stuck with d% as the smallest die I'd use here. You could probably round the d1000 tables to d%, but I'm not interested in doing that.

Note that higher leveled characters should probably have slightly higher stats, due to the increased likelihood of survival. Delta discusses the matter here, which gives the following adjustments (do with the information as you will):

Level	STR	CON	DEX
2	+3	+2	+1
3-4	+4	+2	+1
5-7	+4	+3	+2
8+	+4	+4	+3

The charts were pretty easy to make, actually, just requiring some time with a calculator and some tables of the properties of 3d6 and 4d6s3 ("4d6, keep the best three") rolls. I just reduced the possibilities to those that were required, and divided the number of results that can result in each number by that value. The fraction, rounded off to the nearest thousandth, provided the width of each result. In a few cases, the rounding resulted in a variation of 1 or 2 points, which I worked into the table as the feeling took me.

The following charts are organized by the required stat (obviously, if the required stat is 3, you would just roll the stat as normal), and by the method used for the character, either 3d6 as normal, or 4d6 discarding the low die (so that the character can be either normally-distributed or on par with the PCs if you use that method). I'll put in a jump cut for your sanity.

Required: 6+	3d6 Method (d1000)	4d6s3 Method (d1000)
6	001-048	001-016
7	049-121	017-047
8	122-223	048-095
9	224-344	096-166
10	345-475	167-261
11	476-606	262-377
12	607-727	378-507
13	728-829	508-641
14	830-902	642-766
15	903-951	767-868
16	952-980	769-941
17	981-995	942-983
18	996-000	984-000

Required: 7+	3d6 Method (d1000)	4d6s3 Method (d1000)
7	001-076	001-030
8	077-183	031-079
9	184-311	080-151
10	312-449	152-248
11	450-587	249-365
12	588-715	366-498
13	716-822	499-634
14	823-898	635-761
15	899-949	762-865
16	950-980	866-940
17	981-995	941-983
18	996-000	984-000

Required: 9+	3d6 Method (d1000)	4d6s3 Method (d1000)
9	001-156	001-078
10	157-325	079-183
11	326-494	184-311
12	495-650	312-455
13	651-781	456-603
14	782-875	604-741
15	876-937	742-854
16	938-975	855-935
17	976-994	936-982
18	995-000	983-000

Required: 10+	3d6 Method (d1000)	4d6s3 Method (d1000)
10	001-200	001-114
11	201-400	115-252
12	401-585	253-408
13	586-741	409-569
14	742-852	570-719
15	853-926	720-842
16	927-971	843-930
17	972-993	931-980
18	994-000	981-000

Required: 11+	3d6 Method (d1000)	4d6s3 Method (d1000)
11	001-250	001-156
12	251-481	157-333
13	482-675	334-515
14	676-814	516-684
15	815-907	685-822
16	908-963	823-921
17	964-991	922-978
18	992-000	979-000

Required: 12+	3d6 Method (d1000)	4d6s3 Method (d1000)
12	001-309	001-209
13	310-568	210-424
14	569-753	425-624
15	754-877	625-788
16	878-951	789-906
17	952-988	907-974
18	989-000	975-000

Required: 13+	3d6 Method (d1000)	4d6s3 Method (d1000)
13	001-375	001-272
14	376-643	273-525
15	644-821	526-732
16	822-928	733-881
17	929-982	882-967
18	983-000	968-000

Required: 14+	3d6 Method (d1000)	4d6s3 Method (d1000)
14	001-428	001-348
15	429-714	349-633
16	715-885	634-837
17	886-971	838-954
18	972-000	955-000

Required: 15+	3d6 Method (d%)	4d6s3 Method (d1000)
15	01-50	001-437
16	51-80	438-750
17	81-95	751-930
18	96-00	931-000

Required: 16+	3d6 Method (d%)	4d6s3 Method (d1000)
16	01-60	001-556
17	61-90	557-876
18	91-00	877-000

Required: 17+	3d6 Method (d%)	4d6s3 Method (d%)
17	01-75	01-72
18	76-00	73-00

(edited on 6/15/14 to correct typos.)