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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 3027230" data-attributes="member: 8835">Saves can be looked up during NPC creation (or via program).  But having short lists of things like Feats, Skills, Spells, and Gear might be useful.For skills, consider, every NPC has 2-4 skills that are always at maximum.  If winging it, this means, don't calculate any skills.  If during the game you need a skill check the NPC would have specialized in, their skill is LEVEL+3+bonuses.For spell casters, they all have Concentration and SpellCraft at max.  Just write that down on the NPC description (or remember it when you need it).  There are few skills that normall apply to combat, so they're not worth writing down either.Feats are a whole 'nother can of worms.  They commonly affect combat (even the meta magic ones).  A 20th level Human Fighter could have 18 feats.I would suggest hiding any char info that isn't combat related on an NPC stat-block.  Item Creation Feats, Feats that add bonuses (show the final Fort score, not the math and the feat that gave a bonus).  The feats listed should be the ones that enable activities in the game (that the DM needs to know he can perform).  This will shorten the list, somewhat.For spells, only list the combat spells.  Assume he cast any buffs/defensive stuff ahead of time (deduct a few spell slots for that).  List off one or 2 escape spells (just in case).For inventory, there's 2 lists, the short list of weapons (AC should already be calculated).  The rest goes on the big list (including spellbook contents) for when the NPC is defeated.  In fact every NPC has 1 or 2 weapons, a ranged weapon, and a melee weapon.  That's it.  The rest, they never dig out or get around to using. Attack bonuses, should be shown beside each item (just the final totals).Now mostly, I've talked about what to show or not show on a NPC stat block.  But I think that would help.  Less info, makes for easier to use.  If an NPC management program allowed you to display 2 versions, short and long form, that would be handy.  I'd keep the long form in a binder (or on PC) for when I need a full lookup.  I'd keep the short form for pasting into the adventure text I'm writing (for using in the adventure).Consider this, back in the old days, I wrote small D&D utilities on my Apple IIE.  They would print out monsters, with HP figured out (and little circles for the HP to cross out even).  The monster stats took 7 lines maybe, with one line per individual monster's HP circles.  It was pretty sparce.  Nowadays, it takes one third of a page to contain a monster stat block.Here's an example:Goblin (3)AC: 7THAC0: 20Damage: 1d6 shortswordNotes: infravisionHP: 6 ooooo oHP: 5 oooooHP: 4 ooooLook how far we've come...</blockquote>

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