To create an NPC, simply choose the create NPC option on the CS menu. Set it's stamina to 0 for friendly, or positive for hostile. Assign other stats as you see fit. For a player character, you can emulate different character choices by modifying classes so that they represent the different characters, and not allowing the player to choose a name, race, or statistics.
For turn based combat, the very first topic on this page when you posted was about that exact subject. I'd suggest looking there.
Animation. (url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/cgi-bin/vftp/dl-redirect.pl/Shooting.pdf.sit?path=coldstone/guides&file;=Shooting.pdf.sit")This(/url) is a guide to creating bow animations and such, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong, toast. Off the top of my head, I don't know of any other animation guides.
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"Are you a story-teller, Thomas Covenant?"
"I was, once."
"And you gave it up? That is as sad a tale in three words as any you might have told me. But a life without a tale is like a sea without salt. How do you live?"
-Stephen Donaldson