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In the published adventures so far I'm seeing a lot of opponents with the Unique trait, with no class levels listed. In PF1, I made extensive use of Hero Lab and their tactical console. Lone Wolf says that someday they'll get the tactical console implemented in HeroLab Online, but I'm wondering how difficult it's going to be to create some of these encounters in the future.
In PF1, I could almost always back into the character from the stat block and recreate the NPC in Hero Lab. In PF2, I'm not certain where I'd even start with a creature that's listed as unique with no class or level. (This is sort of moot right now, as NPC creation in HLO also isn't working yet.)
Maybe there will be rules for this sort of NPC creation in the GM Guide. I hope we don't have to rely on Lone Wolf publishing all these adventures and building each of these Unique NPCs—I don't mind paying for that content and it's been very helpful in running APs in PF1, but I am concerned that Lone Wolf is way behind on implementing even basic Core Rulebook functions and may be very slow to create AP or module content.
Has anyone seen any rules for how these Unique NPCs get built?
I'm fairly certain that the rules used for building unique NPCs is the same as building pretty much any monster and the rules for those are coming in the GMG at the start of the year.
NPCs are not built the same as PCs (unless you want to do so) and the rules for building NPCs/Monsters will be coming in the GMG, yes.
I feel like the reason for the unique tag may be partly because of a humorous observation in the playtest that one of the NPCs wasn't tagged as unique, potentially implying that there could be more than one of him - this was of course how it worked in PF1, where very few things had the 'unique' flag in their statblock even if they were a specific individual, but Paizo may have chosen to apply it to any named character with their own statblock now.
PF is made to handle a diverse number of build options (as compared to PF1 & Starfinder.)
So there's the PC build, which can be lifted straight from Core. It's not the most common one for monsters, but for some. The PC build has to function alongside spell slots, Bardic buffs, and so forth so it's the most rigorous, possibly stable of the set.
The most common seems more of a brute. I don't know if this is a chassis or an adornment, but they have less AC and more h.p. For some it's -3 AC or so for +50% h.p. while other are more like a Barbarian, getting a bonus about equal to level for -1 AC or so (compared to an armored PC of the same level w/ standard proficiency progression.)
The lower AC opens them up to crits and second attacks which makes the game more interesting.
Giving them AC buffs has a disproportionate effect since that guards such a trove of h.p.
Another common trait to monsters is a higher attack bonus alongside a lower damage. This nets the same average damage vs. PCs, but keep minions worthwhile for longer as well makes battles a bit less fluky when monsters get an ambush. Giving them a damage boost would be lethal, so beware having a Bard alongside!
Few are built even tougher on the outside than a PC, while losing h.p. for it, but they exist, i.e. Will O' Wisps.
Having a Weakness gives monsters more h.p. while Fast Healing or Resistances lose them h.p. Read some of the templates to get an idea of this, i.e. vampire.
Blending too much might lead to hard shells that shatter if cracked, though animated statues come that way so it's not necessarily a bad thing.
And then there are the super-squishy, starting with Zombies and going down to Oozes. You might, arguably should, be using 3rd Strikes to just unload maximum damage. They may have triple the normal h.p. for their level, but -10 or so AC!
I really like how the variety alters party tactics, even at the individual level. Having a shield is great when fighting archers, but sometimes you want a d12 weapon to start nailing crits on Zombies.
And Magic Missiles are great vs. armored types & wasted against Oozes where you want a Reflex save they'll crit-fail. There's much more to consider than in PF1.
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Thanks for the insight, everyone. It sounds like the rules may give us a lot more flexibility in what NPCs end up like. I worry that, for those of us that use Hero Lab, it will be a long time before we seeing the monster/NPC building rules implemented. Character building isn't even fully implemented, yet.