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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rechan" data-source="post: 5183456" data-attributes="member: 54846">The statblock is the part of an NPC writeup relevant for combat.You don't have "Unrepentant Rapist" and "Loves Croissants" or "Talks in the Third Person" in the statblock; those are certainly parts of the NPC, they are personality quirks and important details. But they aren't relevant to the numbers, and they're not going to show up in the 5 round lifespan. An NPC's personality, plans, methods before the PCs roll initiative, and daily routine are meant for the paragraphs describing the NPC and his role in the story. To put it another way, let's go all the way back to The Sunless Citadel and Meepo. Meepo, everyone can agree, was a fun and interesting and memorable NPC that interacted with every group and resulted in some shared story. And you know what Meepo's stats were? A typical kobold, for when the d20 came out with regards to Meepo. Everything that made Meepo MEEPO was contained in either the module's DESCRIPTION of Meepo, or the DM's notes/decision how to use Meepo. To drive home my point, let's compare two modules. Paizo's Burnt Offerings and WotC's Keep on the Shadowfell. The first, most think is a good module, the second most think is a bad module. Let's look at the villains, and the amount of effort put into them. In Burnt Offerings, the background of the entire module revolves around the main villain. It's a revenge plot, it's a religious transformation plot, it's all about her plans, her motivations, and the interaction of her and the other villainous NPCs. It's her story. It's her plan in motion and her cohorts given orders. In KotS, Kalarel is tacked on. Sure, he's the guy behind it all doing some ritual, but he's a sidenote, and we have no idea, from reading this module, who he is or what he's like, his motivations or where he comes from, how to run him or what kind of individual he is beyond a cleric of Orcus.But in both modules, the PCs never meet the villain (much less see them) until they walk into the room at the end of the module and roll initiative. The PCs in Burnt Offerings don't get to appreciate how much everything hinges on the villain's background story. They don't get to experience her. They just kill her. Same with Kalarel - the Pcs don't know him, and only know his name mentioned here or there, and they just show up and shoot him in the face with their swords. The difference between the statblocks of the two villains? The villain of Burnt Offering mentions she can Turn/Rebuke undead, and she can cast Daylight 1/day. These things will not be relevant in the fight, and are there simply because the villain is a cleric and an aasimar, therefore it's there for posterity as opposed to utility. So not only do we have superfluous things in the statblock, but also we see two different approaches that ultimately end the same way. Burnt Offerings gives great affection to the villain. Details her background, her motivations, her personality. And none of those matter to the PCs, who don't really find them out and end up walking into her room and kicking her ass at the end of the dungeon without any meaningful interaction. Just like Kalarel. The only difference is that the DM gets to read about the former.</blockquote>

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