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@DinoInDisguise Interestingly, the Ancient Green Dragon (2024/25) has DEX save proficiency +8, and it's Initiative happens to be +8. I do understand the counterarguments from @Charlaquin and @Steampunkette in that having just one number is zooming out on the lens, so there's less tight...

Gotcha. I'm curious, is the "Proficiency Bonus" entry something you use when running monsters?

Thanks Shardstone! I'll have to check it out :geek: Mike Mearls has been on a tear with monsters recently.

:ROFLMAO: I appreciate the sentiment of what you're saying. It's difficult to parse where the line here is between opinion and actual improvement, as there are definitely things that are improvements (CR/XP in the top line), and definitely things that are opinions, but there's a great deal of...

I'm kind of tempted to leave out the melee/ranged language entirely. I know there are corner case stat blocks where it does matter, but it's basically putting rules language on what seems self-evident. "Shortsword" and "Melee Attack" are redundant, because all shortsword uses by a monster are...

4e also was when D&D implemented an icon language to communicate certain things – typically areas of effect like bursts/blasts and recharge dice. I've wondered about "order of information" in the 5e / modern D&D stat blocks. For example, one of the first questions a GM asks when there's a...

Do you use printed monster stats and physically take notes on them?

Gotcha. Yeah it's extraordinary to me how common it is to talk with GMs online (so yeah we're a subset) who rewrite monster stat blocks. There are a lot of us doing this.

Your skeleton layout is interesting... You've prioritized Darkvision in the upper right, and omitted CR/XP entirely. You've broken the "melee attack" from the weapons line listing shortswords and shortbows...not sure why. And you seem to list saving throws as a "slash" after the modifier.

You'd enjoy more white space in a monster stat block, even if that meant the stat block itself became a half-page or three-quarters page, is that right? Or is it that you're trying to describe a balance between two dials – succinctness & white space?

Those are an interesting sort of half-way blend between a stat block & annotated in-line text stats. Seems like that works well for an experienced GM comfortable with the abbreviations. What I find interesting is what you've chosen to include – "mindless medium undead" and "role: compelled...

Ah, I see, so this could be a GM style difference. For the cambion – IME Strength checks are very rare for me to roll for monsters. The most common will be resisting a grapple, and then... maybe there's one or two spells that involve Strength checks as opposed to Strength saves. Maybe you're...

I wanted to focus on what you're saying about differentiating proficient saves from ability scores (in regards to monsters). I'm trying to think of actual examples where using saves-as-ability-mods would lead to glaring discrepancy between the monster's mechanics and our story expectations of...

EDIT: For a meatier example, I started tackling the Ancient Green Dragon on page 5 of this thread. On the left is the 2024 5e skeleton, marked up with my notes, and on the right is the stat block as I've rewritten it, reducing the size by at least one-third...and hopefully making it easier to...