A few more notes on the new stat blocks:
They are indeed the official new stat block format. But the changes aren't just idle ones; WotC (and we at Dungeon) put a lot of thought into how they should look. The old stat block, while a little more condensed, was too cluttered—it was difficult to use in game, since everything was crammed into large, dense paragraphs of text and numbers.
The new stat blocks open things up, and make it easier to find things (once you're used to the new format). The DMG II has a detailed breakdown of how and why WotC decided to do the stat blocks in this way, but the short version is this: Things you'll use more often in an encounter go higher, and things you won't use as much go lower. When the encounter starts, the first thing you want is to know what the monster is. Next, you'll need to know its initiative check and its senses, to find out if it notices the PCs. This section is followed by all the info you need when PCs attack the monster (AC, hit points, resistances, immunities, SR, saves, weaknesses, etc.) since you'll need that information many more times in a round than you'll need the monster's attack info. After the defense info, you get the monster's combat info. You'll only need this once per round, so it comes after all the defense info. If the monster has spells, they're listed in reverse order, since as a general rule, you'll want to use the monster's high-level spells before you want to use the monster's low level spells. Finally, at the end of the stat block you have all its feats, abilities, skills, and possessions, followed by descriptions of any unique powers or qualities the monster has.
As for space... when I first saw the stat block in the file WotC sent me, I admit I started to panic. It looked so open, so huge, that I was sure what was once a quarter page stat block would bloom into a page and a half of numbers. As it turns out... the new stat blocks aren't actually much larger than the old ones. In most cases, they're not much more than 25% longer, and often they're much closer to the old format. For example, take Durvan's stat block from page 74 of issue #124 and compare it to Moonlight's stat block on page 37 of issue #123. Both take up about the same amount of space on the page.
I agree that it takes some getting used to, but once you adjust I think you'll find that it's a lot easier to run encounters with the NPC stats arranged in this manner.
Thanks for that insight.
