D&D 5E The use of Monster Stat Blocks in Adventures

[MerricB]

One of the odd things that I didn't realise until I started writing about it (new article: A Short History of Monster Stat Blocks) was that 5E doesn't actually use a monster stat block!

The official adventures use monster references... similar to how Gygax did it in the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief. Although he had hit points; these don't even have those!

I'm intending to write a follow-up article for my blog on the use of stat-blocks and how they affect the flow of adventure text. In the last few years, we've gone from one extreme to the other. Early 4E was "everything for the encounter must be on the page" and that gave use the occasionally much-misused "Delve" format, while 5E is all about the readability of the adventure text without being interrupted by pesky stat-blocks, which means you'll be flipping to an appendix or pulling out your Monster Manual...

Just wondering what your preferred method is - full monster stats? shortened stats? references? And how much do including the stats affect your comprehension of the adventure material? Do you prefer Paizo's way of doing it? Wizards? Someone else's? I know that Quests of Doom 2 uses a format that relates back to the 2E/early 3E format...

Cheers!

 

[JohnTitusRenzi]

You mean a shorthand summary of the monster in the encounter block? Yaas. And spell blocks, and item blocks too. It would cut down on a lot of time DMs spend on each encounter.

 

[redrick]

This is a tough one for me. On the one hand, I love the utility of the B/X and AD&D inline stat-summary. All you need for each creature, on one or two lines. I'm looking at an adventure now that puts these in boldface at the end of each room.

Full statblocks in adventure text work well for some of the simpler 4e "string of encounters" adventures that I read, but I think it would quickly overwhelm larger location based adventures. If you have goblins in room 3 and room 10, do you reprint the statblock for room 10 because it's on a different page?

On the other hand, with almost every 5e monster having a few traits and abilities beyond simple weapon attacks, it can be easy to forget the finer points of a monster when running it from a condensed summary. I ran into this problem when running monsters on Roll20 — I'd put the AC, HP and attack bonus on the token, but I'd forget about the various flourishes that made that monster unique, so I ended up running a monster with the full statblock in front of me anyway. Now, if I'm running a monster I haven't run enough times to know more or less by heart, I flip to that page during play. The only problem being that this can mean flipping between several pages when running larger groups of unfamiliar monsters.

Fortunately, most monsters have only a few numbers to worry about, so the more I play, the easier it is for me to just remember the key numbers for a given monster. (HP, AC, to-hit bonus/proficiency.) Until casters come out and I need to worry about saves.

What I'd really like is an easy way to print out my own monster stat cards to bring with me to the table. That way, I can just bring a stack of index cards with the monsters likely to show up that day, and lay them out as necessary. This was my favorite thing about 4e.

 

[Rod Staffwand]

I don't run published adventures but in my own adventure notes, I usually put mini-stat blocks for all the relevant beasties on a single page. When I run a combat I can switch to that page and have everything I need. It also allows me to improvise a lot--I'll reflavor the wolves from the misty glen encounter as demons summons from the mad diabolist, for example, without needing to flip through books or take extra notes.

Here's an example of a 5e "mini-block", variations of which I've used since 1e days. More complex monsters or spellcasters might get a few bullet-points describing their essentials.

OGRE. Large giant. AC 11. HP 59. Spd 40. S+4, D-1, C+3, I-3, W-2, Ch-2. Greatclub +6 (2d8+4).

I was a bit disappointed that a roster of cheat-sheet stats wasn't included in the MM. They're easy enough to make, but I'm a cut & paste kind of guy. Cut & paste...and reflavor. That's me.

Which is why you get stuff like:

ANGRY TRANSMOGRIFIED PIGLET: Large beast. AC 11. HP 59. Spd 40. S+4, D-1, C+3, I-3, W-2, Ch-2. Head butt +6 (2d8+4).

 

[Rabbitbait]

I'm running PoTA at the moment, and in practice it means that I am flipping between

1. The room location in the book
2. Later in the book for the monster stats
3. In the monster manual for another creature in the same room
4. In the players handbook for the spells.
5. Back to the room location - then back to the monsters.

6. Rinse and repeat for the next room

Seriously - it's a pain in the proverbial. I'd love it if there was one booklet with all the monsters in it for the adventure so that it minimises searching and flipping back and forth.

I can understand not having the stats in the body of the adventure- it means that it reduces the page count and the cost, and it means that the adventure become edition-proof (somewhat), but it's still jolly annoying.

 

[Li Shenron]

Just wondering what your preferred method is - full monster stats? shortened stats? references? And how much do including the stats affect your comprehension of the adventure material? Do you prefer Paizo's way of doing it? Wizards? Someone else's? I know that Quests of Doom 2 uses a format that relates back to the 2E/early 3E format...

Cheers!

For me it's simple: I hate using books at the gaming table. Books have always been too bulky to handle and too precious to spoil with snack-engreased fingers for me. I'd rather keep them safe from the table top

Instead of using the MM, in 3e I've always photocopied (or printed from the SRD) the stat blocks of monsters I was going to use, and now in 5e I do the same and print them from Basic, or read them from a tablet.

Adventure books and magazines are typically lighter and less valuable than books, so I have in fact used them at the table... but overall I still think it's better for me to have separate pages rather than a volume, so I still prefer my monsters stats to be paper sheets of their own.

With all this in mind, for my personal way of doing, monsters stats in the middle of an adventure are not a good thing: if they are monsters from the MM then a reprint in the adventure is wasted space; if they are brand new monsters, they are still more handy in a sheet separate from the adventure book itself.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

Monsters stats on the appendix works quite well for me.

During combat I hardly ever need to know anything that's written in the adventure text. I only need the map and the monster stats. So during combat I can really just work with the appendix, without having to check the adventure text. So for me, there's actually no need at all, to have the monster stats on the same page as the room description that contains said monsters.

What I find bothersome, however, is when I have to check through a large amount of monsters to find the correct entry. So the whole "check MM for monster stats" wouldn't work very well for me. Better have all the relevant monsters as appendix, so you only have like 50 to browse through.

Also monsters right now are sorted alphabetically, but I personally would prefer that they were grouped by encounters. So if there is an encounter with both goblins and hobgoblins, I'd prefer these two to be on the same page, even though they don't start with the same letter.

Edit: Note that I bought all the maps from Mike Mearls separately, so I don't need to flip through the adventure module to check the map.

 

[delericho]

I wouldn't be surprised if the lack of stat-blocks was at least in part for non-5e players to use the adventures: people can then go look up the appropriate version of the orc for their own game.

Personally, I'm torn - in principle, I'd prefer to have everything right there on the page, but that eats up a lot of space. I don't think I actually even have a single preferred option, except that I do know I'm not really a fan of the Paizo approach. (Which is to present the block once, when first used, and then provide a reference later - better, IMO, to hold the block to an appendix later and then have all uses provide a reference. If I'm going to have to cross-reference stat-blocks, I'd rather have all the references go to a single, easy-to-find place, rather than to some random page somewhere in the adventure.)

 

[Rya.Reisender]

I do know I'm not really a fan of the Paizo approach. (Which is to present the block once, when first used, and then provide a reference later - better, IMO, to hold the block to an appendix later and then have all uses provide a reference. If I'm going to have to cross-reference stat-blocks, I'd rather have all the references go to a single, easy-to-find place, rather than to some random page somewhere in the adventure.)

Yeah, that approach is horrible. If you put it right on the same page, then put it on every page the monster appears.

 

[abirdcall]

I much prefer not having the blocks in the adventure. It saves space. I would rather have more descriptive text or an extra chapter. I also like to see the picture of the monster so I would probably just be looking it up anyway.

What might be nice, would be a complete list of all the possible monsters in each chapter to make prep easier. I can just slot in bookmarks in the relevant parts of the Monster Manual. And to make it easier to distinguish which monsters are in the appendix and which are in the Monster Manual at a glance.