D&D 5E Spells in Stat Blocks are Terrible

[Dungeoneer]

I am bemused by the all the responses along the lines of "I have been playing for a billion years and do not need to look up spells" responses.

That's GREAT for you. But isn't this edition supposed to be especially friendly to new players?? Whether referencing or memorizing spell lists is not issue for veterans who post on D&D-specific forums isn't the point. The point is that we're apparently now asking new-to-moderately-experienced DMs to memorize spells just to be able to run combat smoothly.

Call me crazy, but that SEEMS like it might be problematic for them.

 

[Crothian]

If the player is not prepared then he suffers for it.

Hot irons to the bottom of their feet? That would teach those pesky players to be prepared.

 

[Evenglare]

So, the PCs can run into any monster in existence with no forewarning? Then who is making the choice of what they run into? Is it a random table that will include all the monsters? Will it allow for first level characters to run into monsters well above their ability as most would be?

Even with random table the DM should have an idea of what the monsters the group will run into. Most random table have a small set of appropriate monsters. One is not going to find an arctic based monster on a desert random monster chart. For people who run modules then the monsters are set and while the PCs have many choices there is foreknowledge the DM has on what they are going to encounter.

Your right, but I general have a rather large set of encounter tables. I used to have them smaller but we started getting into "Oh... goblins... again... yawn". SO for instance we have goblins, humans (with possibly wizards / sorcerers/ druids/ clerics and whatever else), perhaps a dragon? Maybe a demon? The lists go on and on, and spell blocks with no information are really awful. They KNEW this in 4e, it's why monster design was so great, and they seems to have just said **** it. How about detailing the useful spells at the beginning or end of the monster section?

So okay, I'll make a concession, let's say that you are alright with monster spells not being detailed anywhere but the handbook. That's cool, but what about when new books come out, just about every single splat is probably going to have SOME kind of spell. More monster manuals have more monsters which use those spells from those other splat books. Then it's just a big cluster(mess) of monsters from many monster books that rely on many spell books distributed everywhere. And then I guess at the end of the edition we will get a spell compendium which is basically a reference book for our monster reference books.

No thanks. I'll just take my spell in my monster block thanks!

 

[Dausuul]

It's a minor thing if you are talking about 1 monster, but many? Every page flip is a second and though that doesn't seem like much it adds up. Alot. As a DM I have no idea what monsters my party is going to face. I generally try not to railroad them, so I guess if you were doing a set story path in a campaign and can prep for every eventuality then yeah it probably isn't a problem for you. For me and many others it is though.

How many spellcasting monsters do you expect to use? This isn't like 3E where every demon foot soldier has fifteen spell-like abilities and a partridge in a pear tree. Out of the "proper monsters" (as opposed to named NPCs created specifically for this adventure) in "Lost Mine," only the flameskull is a caster.

So okay, I'll make a concession, let's say that you are alright with monster spells not being detailed anywhere but the handbook. That's cool, but what about when new books come out, just about every single splat is probably going to have SOME kind of spell. More monster manuals have more monsters which use those spells from those other splat books. Then it's just a big cluster(mess) of monsters from many monster books that rely on many spell books distributed everywhere. And then I guess at the end of the edition we will get a spell compendium which is basically a reference book for our monster reference books.

If we start to see monster statblocks making reference to spells in splatbooks, I will agree that that's a problem. A caster statblock should draw on at most two sources for its spells: The Player's Handbook, and the book the caster is printed in. And it should clearly indicate where each spell is coming from.

 

[Evenglare]

I don't deny that more spell casting monsters is not a big issue here, I know spell casters have been nerfed with the amount of spells given and are on the whole MUCH easier to deal with 3e, but it's just a huge step back from 4e in my opinion. I'll deal with it, because honestly they are forcing me to deal with it if I intend to play this edition. We get people saying "well, it's not that many spells" which is GREAT then if it's not that many why not just go ahead and put them (or a shorter version) in the stat block! That'd be GREAT thanks. But sadly no, gotta interrupt the flow of the game by snagging a book, flipping to the page and looking it up. Or even the simple act of referencing a page that has been printed is STILL going to take more than than it would if the were just contained in the statblock.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

That you like.

There clearly are excuses. I've read some of them here.

Thaumaturge.

The only one I've seen is "space", which is extremely poorly argued and doesn't make much sense. What others have I missed?

This is a real problem that really hurts at the actual table.

 

[Crothian]

I don't deny that more spell casting monsters is not a big issue here, I know spell casters have been nerfed with the amount of spells given and are on the whole MUCH easier to deal with 3e, but it's just a huge step back from 4e in my opinion. I'll deal with it, because honestly they are forcing me to deal with it if I intend to play this edition.

If it really is a problem for people then why not solve it? Now, since we haven't seen the MM yet we don't know if it is a problem but if it is then take some time and make a cheat sheet of all the spells. It would be a simple word document that has each spell by name and just the info needed like people want in the stat block. Or just rewrite the monsters and add the spell info into them. It could be a bit of work but if it is shared among all the people who feel they need it and then posted for everyone to use on line the problem gets solved.

 

[SkidAce]

If it really is a problem for people then why not solve it? Now, since we haven't seen the MM yet we don't know if it is a problem but if it is then take some time and make a cheat sheet of all the spells. It would be a simple word document that has each spell by name and just the info needed like people want in the stat block. Or just rewrite the monsters and add the spell info into them. It could be a bit of work but if it is shared among all the people who feel they need it and then posted for everyone to use on line the problem gets solved.

And with the Basic rules, I am screen capturing the spells (or paragraph) I need and inserting it into my Adventure doc.

So when the monsters casts Magic Missile, I just tap the screen (or refer to the printout I made) Done.

 

[Crothian]

And with the Basic rules, I am screen capturing the spells (or paragraph) I need and inserting it into my Adventure doc.

So when the monsters casts Magic Missile, I just tap the screen (or refer to the printout I made) Done.

Brilliant! Don't you just love technology?

 

[SkidAce]

Brilliant! Don't you just love technology?

Yes, yes I do.