Let's Look At Some Monster Stat Blocks For Pathfinder 2

The Monday update to the Pathfinder 2 development blog took a look at building monsters under the new rules. Today, with the Friday update we're getting a look at a couple of stat blocks. They look at an ogre and a redcap (pictured below).

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You can see the details of the two monsters at the Paizo website. The stat blocks do look to be more streamlined than the equivalent in Pathfinder first edition, but what is interesting is the differences between a Pathfinder 2 and Starfinder stat block.

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Obviously there is a good chance that there will be changes between this sample, the playtest edition of Pathfinder 2 and the final version of the game. What do people think...too much detail, or not enough?

 

[dave2008]

The detail seems fine to me, but I really dislike the organization / layout. The information is not where my eyes expect it to be.

 

[mellored]

The detail seems fine to me, but I really dislike the organization / layout. The information is not where my eyes expect it to be.

I agree.

I would put the combat stuff on top.
Actions in the middle.
Skills on the bottom.

 

[Sunseeker]

Things I like:
Stats written with only their bonuses.
Things I don't like:
The formatting.
The phrasing of the trigger "Deadly Cleave". Is the scythe required for the Deadly Cleave to work? It's unclear. If it is it would make more sense to say: "Tigger: The redcap drops a creature to 0 HP with a Strike while wielding a scythe." Otherwise it looks like a "scythe Strike" is a thing all on its own. This should apply to all uses of "scythe Strike" and frankly, any use of weapon attack. Because it's either a proper noun "Scythe Strike" or it's a Strike while using a scythe. Or a Strike with a boot.

 

[dvvega]

The stat block looks bloated as all stat blocks tend to be.

Why have all these similar abilities printed and reprinted even with different names taking up space!

Irreligious should be in some kind of glossary, and simply listed as Irreligious (DC 17 Will) or something similar. One could argue that the results will vary for different monsters and might require a (DC 17 Will, Frightened 4 and Flee 1 round, Frightened 2).

The rest of the text is cookie cutter.

Of course it can go further and Irreligious could be a standard concept of a fear condition so it could be listed in a glossary as Fear Trigger, but listed in the stat block as Irreligious: Fear Trigger - brandished Holy Symbol (DC 17 ... etc)

This would reduce the bloat overall on stat blocks in general.

I know this would require a lot of work on the designer(s) parts to sort all those abilities out and generalise them a bit more, however it would shrink stat blocks, especially in their verbose wording.

Most likely there will be heavy disagreements here citing the sheer number of monster abilities that exist in the Pathfinder system, however if you look really closely at most of your stat-blocks, a lot of them use retitled abilities for flavour with adjusted crunch.

D

 

[cmad1977]

Yikes.

 

[Eltab]

At the top I want to see the combat abilities (because this is what I use most at-table):
- Armor Class
- Speed and movement modes (fly, tunnel, &c)
- Hit Points
- Resistances and/or Vulnerabilities
- "race" (humanoid, beast, elemental, fiend, whatever - ties into spells like Hold Person vs. Hold Monster, and Magic Circle)
thought of in no particular order

 

[Erdric Dragin]

Great, looks identical to D&D 5e...and Paizo lied saying they didn't really look at 5e when designing this. You work on RPGs, no possible way they didn't study the biggest TTRPG of all time.

 

[Xavian Starsider]

Redcap pictured? I sincerely hope that's a mistake of else the art director needs to be fired since that gremlin on steroids has no cap, no boots, and no scythe. Probably the ogre?

 

[Xavian Starsider]

Never mind. I see from the website that that is the bugbear.