I've never cut an external NPT thread but have tapped them. As you'd expect the tap quickly gets more difficult, followed by impossible, to turn. The tapping drill tends to be slightly larger than one might expect. I expect a die would be similar. I'm not sure if a taper on an external item would work. The die will go on further before it cuts, but I suspect it'll come to a halt more quickly. So possibly not much gain.
This is how I cut external tapered threads:

I was screwcutting BSPT threads but I think they're the same taper as NPT. I thought NPT threads were specified by a nominal imperial dimension representing the pipe size rather than tpi?
Andrew