I started my first EotE session yesterday and I introduced the players to a new NPC. She is a Twi'lek grifter by the name of Trey'le. The problem is: the Advesaries chapter doesn't have a grifter type so, when the players get a chance to question her I need some reasonable stats to use.

That got me thinking: how are NPCs created?

What if I wanted a group of minions that are unique to my story and none of the ones in the examples seem to fit? What about a Rival or, more importantly, a Nemsis?

I can always try to wing it, but I prefer to have some sort of structure when it comes to making them (I don't want to make my minions too good or my Nemeses too weak).

One general thing to keep in mind when creating NPCs: EotE is actor centric, so the dice are not balanced. Setback dice are weaker than boost dice, difficulty dice are weaker than attribute dice, etc. Therefore equally statted NPCs will always be worse than your PCs in Social Interactions or other opposed checks.

Here's an easy way to make adequate Rivals that I use all the time: just create characters from scratch (i usually go with 5 obligation) and then give them an additional XP Bonus that is as big as the average amount of XP your PCs have received at the time of the NPC-creation. I find that Rivals created this way usually make for very interesting story characters and challenging - while fair - combatants.

For Nemesis I usually look up some "general" Nemesis from the CRB like the Black Sun Vigos and then go for equally strong stats. Also a good thing to remember is that there's a great way to make any foe more challenging in combat, should there be the need for some last-minute-adjustments: the Adversary-talent.

Hope this helps =)

There's a few threads on this, run a search and you'll find em. In reguard to the immediate issue, turn to page 408 and check out the stat block of the corrupt bureaucrat. Looks like about the same stats I'd give a grifter.

The adversaries chapter is pretty comprehensive if you look only at the stats and don't mind tweaking a skill score or equipment load out.