Creating an NPC

Introduction

Making an NPC comes easy to some, because the information is laid out for you, but sometimes it can be a pain when there are essential things that need to be done. This tutorial should teach you how to make a regular basic NPC that will be able to talk about rumors and react when spoken to (Example: "Good Talking To You", "Just Go", "Hi", etc...). It will go over how to add Clothing, Armor, Weapons, and Rings and also discuss the Advantages of making custom NPCs.

Creating A Test NPC

There is an order you should follow when you are first learning how to create an NPC, however in this tutorial we will skip some things and come back to them later. To start, go to File-> Data... double click Oblivion.esm and hit Ok. After it loads, go to your Objects Window and on the left side expand Actors, and then NPC. Right click anywhere on the table to the right and select New. A menu will pop up with a lot of different information on it. Go to the right where the gray box is and check the Full box beneath it. A man in his underwear should appear. Right now this ugly guy is your NPC. Start by giving him a name on the TES Construction Set. For all intents and purposes I’ll call mine TestNPC. It will be one word, and this is not his name in the game, but this is what he will be listed under in the construction set. Under that is his in game name. I’ll call him Man Personsins. Now that that’s done go look at the Class box, and leave it at Chargen. Then go to Race, and make him what ever you want, Ork, Redgaurd, w/e, and toggle gender to the right. Now in the Box with your NPC it should show him as a standard character. Under the Stats box, pick the hair and eyes you want with the drop down menus. If you want to go into further details with the face go to the face tab to the right of the Stats box. Chose hair color, length, complexion, and age. If you want to make a character like at the beginning of the game with extreme detail, go to the next tab that’s called Face Advanced. Note that your NPC may look slightly different in game than in the preview. Once you're finished move on to the next step, Armor.

Adding Armor/Clothing

Adding armor and clothing is essential to making an NPC fit in with the world. Since Bethesda was nice they organized armor and clothing into categories- Orkish, Ebony, etc. Go to the left side of the Objects Window and expand Items, Armor, and double click so you see the categories. Then drag and drop the pieces of armor or clothing you want (Clothing such as robes are under Items/Clothing, not armor) into the Inventory tab of you NPC. Once added, the picture with your NPC in his underwear should have him in the armor/clothing you added. If you add multiple sets of armor or clothing the NPC wears the strongest items he has. In some cases when you replace armor in the NPCs inventory, you may have to hit OK to close the NPC window and reopen it to refresh the preview.

Speech & Personality

Since Bethesda is so nice, they included pre-made speech scripting for each race so you don’t have to do anything. Your NPC already has a set voice determined by race, and different things they can say. Also by default they will be able to tell you about rumors, so you're good to go. However Personality is still the user's choice. Click the AI button at the bottom. Another menu will appear with a bunch of different things. For this basic tutorial you need to know about Aggression, Confidence, and Responsibility. Aggression in Oblivion defines how an NPC will react to certain things. If an NPC has a high aggression level and you steal something, they will attack you. Screw the guards! They are getting you themselves. Don’t quote me on this but I believe anything under 90 will be fine unless you do something like steal from them. 90 or above I believe they attack you if you talk to them. They don’t answer, they just take out their sword and cut you down. Aggression for most characters is about 10-20, but it automatically raises if you steal from them or anger them in persuasion. Confidence determines if an NPC will run when their health is low, and determines if they are confident of survival in a situation. It may determine other things as well. Last but not least is Responsibility. Responsibility means nothing right now, but will in my next tutorial about advanced NPC creation.

Finish Up

There are a few more things you can do to your NPC, such as make him essential. This is at the bottom under the Name, and Race stuff. Making an NPC essential will make it so he is only Knocked Out. I suggest not using respawn. What this does is makes it so when your NPC dies another version of him is created after a certain period of time. This is only useful, and realistic for guards. You may have noticed no matter how many guards you kill after time there will be more. This is because of respawn. And the rest is usually useless unless you find a reason for it. The final thing is Level. Make your NPC any level you want and check Auto calc stats above the stats box. Check that, and it makes your NPC's stats equivalent to the level. Or you could set them yourself.

Advantages

There are several advantages to making your own NPCs. When you make an NPC you can give them any item in the game. Any Armor, Weapon, Robe, Etc. So if you want to get really good armor, or weapons simply equip it to the NPC, place them in the game, and kill them. That’s one way they can come in handy. Additionally certain mods exist that allow you to have companion NPCs that will assist you in battle and help carry your items.

Protection

Companion NPCs can help a low level character overcome difficult obstacles. There is another tutorial that has been made on how to make an NPC that will fight with you. I use an NPC that has 2 Custom made spells- one that heals me, and one that shields himself. This comes in handy for a lot of quests. An example is the first quest for the Dark Brotherhood when you have to kill the captain. I was very weak, and couldn't defeat the various pirates, so I created my healing NPC.

Assistance

Making you NPC able to trade items comes in handy. You could have them carry a torch for you, be able to sell you potions at any time, or even repair your items, and armor. They can also recharge staves for you, and if you make them Essential they cant die. Create custom weapons, and indestructible armor, and you can make them super powerful. I hope this gave you some idea, and you learned how to make a basic NPC. Check for the next tutorial about Advanced NPC making.